The Gills in Malawi

Joel is a real animal lover and the abundance of wildlife here has been such a blessing to him and helped him to really see this place as home. 

He has had the chance to look after a baby monkey, an injured bird, tortoises of various sizes, a chameleon, dogs and many cats.

He has held snakes and seen many different and deadly poisonous ones, held a kingfisher bird in his hands, seen many monitor lizards including the one that ventured into our kitchen, watched owls and eagles fly around Hope Village, stroked a baby crocodile, chased pigs, seen newly born baby goats, helped to get bats out of the house, been chased by an elephant, stood next to a wild giraffe.

He has been offerered roasted mice and birds on a stick by the locals, eaten hippo, seen a tarantula and many other hideous types of spiders, had to step over frogs and dodge a billion insects while trying to get to an outside toilet, had a room full of flying ants that people then collected and fried with oil for a tasty snack, cleaned up various remains of mice that the cats have left around, been bitten, stung, wee'd on and the list goes on......

This week though it is something new and Joel now has a pet pygmy hedgehog and it is adorable. He has yet to name it so if you have any ideas, let us know. As I type he is off hunting for various insects to feed the hedgehog having just boiled it an egg for it to eat - it's amazing what you can find out on google!