Blogs from Northern, Malawi, Africa - page 3

Day 1 Rasta Kelvin's Restaurant After we had checked into Mayoka Village (the same place Don and I had stayed almost a month before), we decided to go for lunch at Rasta Kelvin's up the road. What I had forgotten however is that you need to pre-order food because it takes so unbelievably long to cook - 2-3 hours minimum. We must have arrived at about 12 and only got to eat at 4:30 - but it was a very chilled way to spend the afternoon. Later on Grant and Edward arrived, so our little family was back together again. Even though we had eaten we went with Grant and Edward to dinner in town. We went to a local restaurant called H&M (Harry and Maria - husband and wife). Matt, a South African guy ... read more

Hello from Mzimba. We left Nhakata Bay yesterday where we have been staying at Butterfly Lodge where they have chalets for the tourists but also support the local community through some good projects including an H.I.V support group, a single women's support group and a youth project. It is a very relaxed and creative place to stay. Weve met so many people including those who met Derek last time he was here. It's hard to remember everybodies names! Much of our time was taken up with meetings in connection with SUPOCHO. They are a charity organisation setting up a computer school for orphaned, vulnerable young people. We have been to the building which Derek has been sponsoring, to have a meeting with around 12 people from the community. There were many speeches.... all translated so everyone ... read more

The flight from Lusaka to Lilongwe in Malawi was only a short one and I was due to be met by someone from the volunteer project. The airport is small but people everywhere pushing and shoving to get their luggage and get out. After waiting for about 2 hours I realized that no one was going to show so jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to a backpackers (I think there is only a choice of two), it was OK the sheets were clean and there was hot water, but it was rundown and I did;'t really like the vibe, the staff were not particularly friendly or helpful (so unlike Malawi). I spent 3 days there emailing the project with no response (I eventually got a response 5 days later, but I had ... 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

This week I ended up meeting a French professor while drinking a beer in the teacher’s lounge during a world cup game. It was a while since I spoke French to anyone, and a little surprising to do it in Malawi were French is not spoken in any communities around the country. He was so impressed by my French that he kept buying me drinks in the Malawian custom. He then invited me to attend one of his lectures the following day. The next day during class his students where presenting papers in a very entertaining way: ‘student A’ would read his paper in English one line at a time, and ‘student B’ would translate the lines in French until the presentation was completed. Next some questions where asked from the audience in French and ‘student ... read more