How to get donations into Malawi - Part 1

---

It all seemed too easy !

Go to to the DHL office in London, explain that you want a box full of plastic boxes to arrive in Mzuzu in a week's time, give them a notional value for insurance (the goods are a free donation to the Kaliya youth group and an essential part of the solar power system) and hand over the box and 140 quid. So just how, HOW, somewhere along the way, this turned into an 8 hour drive from Nkhata Bay all the way down to Blantyre with Mr Chiumia to appeal directly to the Technical Director of the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) I don't know !

It started at the DHL office in Mzuzu where, we had been told by phone, the box was waiting for collection on payment of a small duty fee. We jumped into a dodgy Nissan 4WD with a wooden number plate, one windscreen wiper, a leaky radiator and one headlight and headed for Mzuzu (I've now made it my mission to ride in an Isuzu to Mzuzu - I have to get a picture of that !).

Of course, after an hour's drive, the package wasn't there but was still in Blantyre Airport, waiting for a payment of . . . .40,000 Kwacha (about 140 quid !! As much as I paid to send the box from the UK). A "little bit" pissed off, we headed for the local MRA branch to find out what was happening with the crazy duty and to find out why the main goods were still stuck at Lilongwe Airport (where I had actually TOUCHED them on the 31st August and where, the following day, Gilbert was turned away having driven all the way there from Nkhata Bay to pick them up in the same dodgy 4WD).

We were shuffled from grubby room to grubby room down dimly lit corridors (welcome to the heart of Malawian government office) and were eventually met by a bristling man in a shirt 2 sizes too small for him (neck AND waist) who told us that he did not have the "mandate" to waive the duty on a charitable donation of goods. We were assured that if we went to the office in Blatyre, we could apply directly to the MRA Head Office. "Errrr - that's a long way - would be able to phone and fax them for us", I asked somewhat naively (Seemed reasonable to me at the time - he had a phone and a fax sat on the desk in front of him after all)

His eyes bulged to match the proportions of his neck and waist - "Let me explain to you. . . . " he started. . .and went on to tell me what we "should have" done rather than how we could get the goods through customs. He refused to phone Blantyre (see "Part 2" later !)but assured us that he was helping us (HOW ??????!!!) and that we would have no problems if we put our case forward in person. I thanked him respectfully muttering something about this being a valuable learning exercise. . . Zikomo.

We got back in the Nissan (which I now pretend is an Isuzu as it makes me smile) and headed back from Mzuzu in the deepening darkness, our one headlight barely lighting the eyeballs of the goats and dogs wandering across the road.

To be continued. . . .

SORRY NO PHOTOS SO FAR - upload far too slow !!

---

Comments

[Steve]

What does it look like.
Can you tell us a bit about what the area looks like. Is it a jungle, a desert, a big modern town, a row of mid huts, etc. I went to Africa once you know - a small island just off the coast of Morocco called "Tenerife". Is it anything like that?