The Red Zebra

18 July 2010

I have been in Malawi since Friday, July 10 and prior to leaving Montreal it had
been a very intense few months of work and planning. The grand-nieces, Victoria
and Lorleyn had been asking to go to the lake again, because they had had so
much fun over Xmas of 2008 when we went to Nkhata Bay together. I decided I
would take a weekend off to gather my strength and my wits before the Bishop’s
University group arrived this coming Wednesday, but having left the booking too
late we couldn’t get in to the cheaper backpacker hotel, so we came to the Red
Zebra.

It is down the road, not far from where the old Fish Eagle Inn used to be. Nellie
and I spent a few days of honeymoon there in April 1971 after our wedding. That
Inn has become part of the Malawi military college and is off limits for civilian
tourists so just down the road facing north across Senga Bay we booked into the
Red Zebra.

When we arrived on Friday night, we were the only guests. The receptionist,
waiter, bar-tender, problem solver is Mike Msuku from Ruarwe and he hosted
us magnificently. It looked like we would have a very quiet weekend and even
Saturday morning started slowly. Overnight some German backpackers had
appeared, but this hotel doesn’t serve that sort of clientele so they drifted to the
neighbouring hotel with its tents and cheap rates.

On the Friday night we walked out the long pier that had been built out into the
lake. It is an unusual construction made of large round cement pipes like we use
under roads in North America. They have been set on end in the lake bottom and
built up with brick work to hold two metal railway ties each. There are over forty
of these pillars about 6 feet apart. Railway tracks extend out the full length and
then cement slabs have been laid across the tracks as the platform. With lighted
posts and a line of chain on either side it is quite a long walk out into the lake
and gives a really beautiful view of the bay. It was a big job to create and for the
moment seems to be very underused for all the investment it required.

On Saturday morning, we met Mrs. Grant, the owner. She is a Malawian whose
late husband had set up the fish exporting business. She invited us to visit the
tropical fish operation that she runs in addition to the hotel. We had arrived in the
evening and driven by what appeared to be several large barns, so we walked
back down the lane to take a look. What an operation she is running from here.
We quickly realised that the Lodge is only part of her enterprise and perhaps only
a small part.

A team of divers travel up and down the full coast of Lake Malawi collecting
a small lake fish unique to the Great African Rift Valley lakes. The cichlid is
highly prized by tropical fish enthusiasts all over the world. They can be brightly
coloured, striped vertically or horizontally and come in a dazzling array of hues.

In the first barn kept cool by a very high roof are rows and rows of large
aquariums with air bubbling through their filters and schools of these little fish
swimming about in all their diversity. They would swarm towards the children’s
fingers as they tapped the glass in anticipation of being fed. Across the lane were
more than a dozen huge cement tanks, about 4 metres square, covered by a
large roof to keep them cool. A little further down the lane was a structure like a
greenhouse covered with a black net mesh to cut the direct rays of the sun and
it had hundreds of cement tanks one metre square. All the tanks big or small had
fish in them. All of them categorised by their species and genus and where they
had been caught.

I had seen a man on the Ilala in February transporting a dozen foam crates each
containing several sealed plastic bags with a couple of cichlids each. He used a
tank of oxygen to bubble in some air to keep them alive and told me they were
to be exported. Now at the Red Zebra, we had stumbled into the heart of the
operation. Shipments leave here on weekly basis for markets around the world.
The Lodge really was only part of Mrs. Grant’s operation. She does get a lot
of visitors in September and October when the lake is calmer and the weather
hotter. They come on cichlid tours and are taken by guides to dive and snorkel
where ever these beautiful little fish are found in their natural habitat. That is how passionate cichlid lovers can be that they take cichlid vacations.

It didn’t take long to discover our common connection to Ivy Gondwe, Nellie’s
cousin sister who is a successful business woman herself. That led to a wide
ranging discussion which eventually came around to family and schools. Louise
and Justin, Mrs Grant’s last 2 children are currently studying in the US. Louise
was impressed by the mention of the name of McGill University. She will finish
her International Baccalaureate programme next year and was keen to hear
more about the place. I shared my card with them and who knows, we may have
a visitor in Montreal next year.