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I write like
Neil Gaiman

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Birds of a feather

I've never been much of a bird watcher, but since I've been in Malawi I've felt obligated to photograph every exotic bird I see. Which is tricky, since they don't generally hold still long enough for me to go get my camera.

But occasionally I get lucky. The bird at right is a yellow-bellied sunbird that I saw in Kasungu, which is in the central area of Malawi, near the capital (Lilongwe).

Sunbirds are like hummingbirds in that they drink from flowers, but their wings don't move fast enough to hover like hummingbirds do, and their beaks are curved.

This one is a purple-crested turaco that lives in the woods behind our house. It spent a lot of time in our guava tree while it still had fruit, but it was very shy. I had to keep my camera by the window for a couple of weeks to get this not-very-good shot.

If this sort of thing interests you, you should really search online for a better picture than this. Purple-crested turacos have a purple-black iridescent crest, red eyes, a green breast, and, when they're flying, bright red wings.

 

It's a funny bird. When it came to eat at our tree, it would pick up a guava in its very small beak and violently shake its head, spraying seeds and mushed fruit everywhere, until the piece left in its mouth was small enough to swallow. 

 

As you can see, before this treatment, the guavas are about as big as the bird's head.

 

This gray-faced go-away bird was also at Kasungu. Technically, it's also a turaco. I was very glad that it was sufficiently disturbed at my presence to say 'go away!' The bare-faced go-away bird I saw on safari wouldn't say anything at all, even when I waved my arms and pointed a scary telephoto lens at it. 

 

It actually sounded a bit more like 'gway!' but I'm probably being too particular.

 

All turacos eat fruit. They also have other unique characteristics that are too boring to mention. I had hoped to see a Livingston's turaco before I left, but I'm beginning to lose hope on that one, since they don't live in this area and I only have four weeks left.

Livingston's turacos are a bright green, sort of kiwi colored. They mostly live south of here, in the hot lowland areas. They also mostly live in forests. Since Malawi hardly has any forest areas left, seeing one before I leave could be challenging.

I'm fairly sure this (at left) is a silver-cheeked hornbill. It's certainly some kind of hornbill. I went on a guided tour of a coffee/tea plantation one weekend, and we saw three of them eating berries in a palm tree. Yes, I know that's not a palm tree. That's the tree they flew to after they finished eating.

I've seen a few different kinds of hornbills, but this is one of the more dramatic species. They looked a little like dinosaurs.

The beginning of the end

Recently I've been reading about 'reverse culture shock,' which, frankly, sounds entirely unfair. Why should it be a shock to return to my own culture? It's MINE.

I'm not entirely sure I believe in the whole thing, but everyone says it happens so I suppose I will have to take their word for it. The other day, I visited Mr. Price, a South African clothing chain store. It was weird. It looked and felt exactly like an American store, something along the lines of Express or PacSun, complete with the really annoying canned music. It even smelled like new clothes. (What is that smell, anyway? The shipping boxes they came in? Dry cleaning?)

And it just didn't feel right. Didn't feel normal. It was quiet and the sales people weren't unnecessarily pushy, but I just kept feeling I had to get out of there.

So, yeah, I guess maybe there's something to this re-entry thing. But it's still not fair.