Bolero

When we arrived in Bolero, in Rumphi district, we
found trees almost as large as the ones in Karonga.

Speaking of beginnings, the young man in this picture,
Herbert Jenya, is going to begin school in January at
the Forestry College in Mzuzu.
It will be quite a new beginning for him.

The trees in Bolero had a much heavier crop of
seeds still on the tree than anywhere we have been.

We found bicycle transport in Bolero, and in all the villages,
but in Bolero there is an older form of transport more favored
than bicycles. Check next week to see it.

I'm back!

Hi everyone, sorry for the hiatus, I had a couple of very busy months.

First, an announcement for Kiva:

http://www.kiva.org/

Kiva matches specific lenders to specific business-people in developing
countries who need micro-loans to develop their businesses. I have
used them for several years and can recommend them highly.


Back to Karonga....some trees there were very old,
like the grandfather tree here which is
losing limbs and struggling to hang on.

The favorite use for large Faidherbia trunks in Karonga
was for canoes on the lake.

One day we finished early, and went to the Tanzanian
border. This is the Songani river. We walked over
the bridge, walked around town for a few minutes
and looked around, and crossed back. No one
asked to see documents, even from me,
and I obviously wasn't from there!

Karonga

We found the most mature Faidherbia/maize
parkland in Karonga district.

Here you can see all ages of trees.

Some of the trees we saw were so old they were
broken down and hollow.

They were a lot of work to measure, but the
temperatures were lower than in Mwanza.

We did some work with axes on the trunks of the larger
trees, but I really didn't spend much time at that. I was
waiting to get back another piece of equipment.

Mixed bag

The pictures are a mixed bag this week.

See the license plate? The white plates mean
that I have diplomatic privileges (ha! ha!). The police
can give me a fine if I do something wrong,
but mostly, they don't bother to check us.
Minibuses get stopped and checked constantly.
Less nuisance with these plates.

I am airing blankets because I have some visitors
arriving Tuesday.

My neighbors all have satellite TV. I have something
better, I have satellite internet!



It must be spring, the mango in our yard is blooming!

Bwanje Valley 3

Measuring every inch of these trees is quite
a job. It takes a day to do one.

The thorns on these trees were larger than those before.

Packing the samples to take back to be dried.

Bwanje Valley 2

Well, Bwanje Valley is beautiful,

and it was not as hot there as in Mwanza.

Some of the trees were still blooming,

and all were making pods. This tree used to be called
"apple-ring acacia" because the pods looked
like an apple peel.

Bwanje Valley

Next we moved to the Bwanje valley. Actually, we slept in
Balaka. Our hotel had a small bar in the yard, with covered
seating area around the trunk of a tree.

Look closely at the building to the right and
you can see the tree branches
growing out of the roof!


Some of the trees there were
really upright,

And some were big, beautiful globes.

Look under this one, and you can see people
standing...it was really big.