Blogs from Mzuzu, Northern, Malawi, Africa

Our first experience on an African bus: 4am wake up, breakfast and a short walk to the bus depot in Lilongwe before enduring a 9 hour bus ride to our project site, Engcongolweni School. Many of us found the journey to be tiresome and somewhat tedious; those who could (the minority) attempted a comfortable sleep whilst the others enjoyed absorbing the wonderful Malawian scenery ...certainly an experience none of us will forget (yet also one many of us would not like repeated). Upon arrival at Engcongolweni School we were warmly welcomed by the headteacher, Baxtor, who showed us our toilet and shower facilities. The girls had a good few nights of luxury camping in the classroom whilst Miss Bennett, Mr Linsted, David (our leader) James and I had no choice but to camp it outside (which ... read more

Three days ago it was the Malawian Independence Day and to celebrate, a little ceremony was organized on campus by the students. There I had tried local traditional drink called Thobwa; a fermented mix of millets, maize porridge, sugar and water. It had the smell of really old cheese, had a really chunky texture to it and it tasted like milk that had been in cereal for way too long. The week followed with tedious exam preparations for both the lecturers and the students. Thursday my local friend Wilson brought me on another tour of the Mzuzu surroundings. First we wandered around major tobacco trading area (most of Malawi’s economy is based on tobacco and Mzuzu is one of the major trading hubs). We entered a building where they received and graded the tobacco. A really ... read more

It was the third day of the students sit, and another day without classes. Before starting the work day, an intern, ‘Merrell’ and I decided to go to the teacher’s lounge to share a pot of coffee. On our way there we could hear the rally protest of the student’s sit in. After delicious Mzuzu coffee, I made my way to the bathroom and I heard a loud ‘bang’ coming from outside. Thinking to myself it was just part of the ruckus created by the rally I went on and continued to my office in the land management building. All of a sudden more loud ‘bangs’, I looked out the window and noticed troops of military police dressed in their camouflage and carrying large rifles. I soon realized the large ‘bang’ were gun shots. Just ... read more

Our first two weeks in Mzuzu allowed us time to get settled in, familiarize ourselves with the surrounding areas and start our work at the university. On the third night, our supervisor and head of the Land Management department, ‘Lucky’ had invited us all to his house for a big feast. The table held a buffet of delicious traditional Malawian food. The following days, we got our work figured out for the remainder of the school semester, I am teaching an introductory course in hydrography (aka ocean mapping) and geodesy. The first weekend we spent in here in Mzuzu to organize our lectures and lesson plans. I also went for my first trail run, were I escaped outside the campus gates to explore the surrounding areas. I made my way down a secondary school campus and ... read more

On our first day here, we visited the Mzuzu downtown and market. The downtown is a little less developed then the one in Lilongwe, however the market seemed a lot better. In Mzuzu I had to get used to having little water available and sometimes shut off completely, so far it’s been bucket showers and filling up buckets whenever the water was running again. Apparently it’s not usually like this here, the university staff says the main pump generator is broken, hopefully it gets fixed soon!!! As I was getting my new bug net set up in my room, I was called to the kitchen as ants where making their way under the kitchen door. I started spraying RAID under the door until the ants stopped coming in that way. As I was thinking it was ... read more

This morning I woke up to the heavy rainfall, I was a little disappointed because I had hoped to take my first swim in the lake. After breakfast we headed towards the pottery shop down the road. Here we got to witness the local artist and potters at work. We latter embarked in our passenger van to continue our drive to Mzuzu.On our way to Mzuzu the scenery just got better and better as our van made its way up the mountain passes. Near the top we drove beside a “rubber tree” forest, where the rubber is made. The people on the side of the road where selling soccer- sized rubber balls. Before arriving to Mzuzu we took a detour and lunch into Nakhata bay, a beautiful beach town along Lake Malawi. Our final drive to ... read more

Today was our time to depart from Lilongwe for a long drive up to Mzuzu. We first stopped to the airport to pick up the last two interns to arrive, Don and Mirrell. From the airport we headed out on the “highway”, basically a two lane road sometimes too narrow to fit cars going in both directions. I was amazed by all the rural villages settled along the road and the many cyclists and pedestrians roaming the roadside. on our way there, We decided to go through one of the national parks to get a better scenic drive. As the sun was setting the scenery became breath taking. As it turned pitch black, we got stopped at a highway checkpoint before entering a constructions zone. A man in a military uniform told us the road was ... read more

One of our interns met a local worker from Ireland who invited us to a full moon party at a nearby village where Madonna supposedly does some of her volunteer work. On our way there we passed by Malawi’s president’s house and soon after the pavement ended and we had to ‘off road ‘ our way through the rough terrain to arrive at our destination. The party took place in a ‘middle of nowhere’ area where a camp fire, a liquor bar and barbeque under straw huts we set up. At the barbeque hut, a Japanese family prepared some sushi for the occasion. I could tell after my first bite into my sushi roll, my night was off to a good start. A local Malawian band consisting or three acoustic guitars, an electric base, a couple ... read more

This morning I woke up early to walk up to Kauma village, a poor rural village on the outskirts of Lilongwe. Making our way up the hills and passing the many small brick houses, the local kids would run up to us and yell in excitement “Azungu! Azungu!” ( Meaning white people). A few moments later we were accompanied by a couple of young boys, one holding a small soccer ball made out of plastic bags. We started passing the ball with our feet while making our way up the road until we hit the school. Once we arrived we met with teachers of the school, James and Charles who showed us around the village. Within a 300m distance there was 6 churches, one beside the other, each belonging to a different Christian division. The rest ... read more