Blogs from Blantyre, Southern, Malawi, Africa

Hey! We made it to Africa, but we can't talk! We are having a hard time finding internet so we won't be able to access our blog until the beginning of June. We are having a blast though! Talk to everyone later!... read more

Heading down south to Blantyre we managed to hitch a lift with a couple of nice truck drivers. This was our only option since the three busses that were supposed to be passing by between 4-5pm arrived three hours later all completely packed with around 20 people standing in each. Well normally this would be fine for us but since it was going to be a 12 hour trip over night we thought better of this and gave up on our hope to go that night. We are not really sure if the busses are like this all the time but the fuel crisis (and every other crisis here in Malawi) has put too much pressure on car owners and they have no option but catch the public transport also. As well our impression of some ... read more

Na een zeer lange vlucht met alle vertragingen vandoen en dan nog oponthoud bij immigrations , ben ik in Blantyre (Malawi) beland. Gelukkig ; wel wat vroeger dan verwacht , maar beter zo . Komende dagen even tot rust komen na ongeveer 35 uren reizen en wachten , en dan ga ik zuidwaarts het team tegemoet , waarna we samen naar Mchinji (Malawi) reizen om daar het weeshuis te bezoeken. Ben bekaf nu , want ik kan echt niet slapen in n vliegtuig , dus nu spring ik gauw mn bedje in. Tot gauw ... read more

Hello from Group A in Doogle's Lodge Blantyre! The first 2 weeks here have flown by, first at Dzalanyama and then on Mt Mulanje. Our introduction to Malawi was brief as we only spent 1 night in Lilongwe before heading straight for the rural village of Dzalanyama. We started our community project in high spirits, white-washing and painting as if our lives depended on it - so much so we ran out of paint on the first day. The teachers and pupils made us feel completely at home and as if we were part of an extended family. We spent our afternoons surrounded by swarms of children all wanting to play or have a photo taken. On the third day of our visit we were priviledged enough to teach english to a few classes, which was ... read more

I realised that while I’ve written about the weather, the food, and the house I’m staying in I haven’t really talked about the wider area of Blantyre except in passing on other subjects. Seeing as this is where I’ve been based while I’m in Malawi, and where I’m spending the majority of my time I should give a better picture of the city of Blantyre. Settled in the shire highlands area of southern Malawi, 1,000 meters above sea level and surrounded by a number of mountains. It is the oldest established city in Malawi, first chartered in 1896 and named after David Livingstone’s birthplace in Scotland. What struck me when I first entered Blantyre was the distinct lack of city, few high rises, groups of built up areas, lots of parks, open spaces and fields right ... read more

I’ve haven’t so far touched upon the other projects that St John Malawi works on that I’m not part of. The two main projects running at the moment that I’ll talk about are the Primary Health Care (PHC) and Home Based Care (HBC) projects, though there have been others in the past. I’ll apologize now if I’m being brief or incomplete, I don’t work directly with the project so I can’t talk with as much confidence as I could for the Schools project for example. Started in 1986 when St John first came to Malawi, now run by Alekeni Banda and Mrs Wega (though she’s off at the minute), there are 55 ‘dedicated and highly skilled volunteers’ (taken from The Link, the St John newsletter) working in the Ndirande and Mbayani townships on the outskirts of ... read more

Well I’ve been out here 4 months now, so I’m roughly half way through my time in Malawi (well actually last week or the week before is probably closer to the half way mark but I’ve only just got round to doing this). I’m still here, still working for St John, and still doing these blogs (clearly) even if I’m fairly certain there’s no one reading them (not exactly something you can stumble upon without meaning to), so I’m basically only doing them for my own benefit. I thought I’d have a general ramble about what I’ve been up to and what I’m planning on doing. Pretty much since I walked through the security at Heathrow I’ve had this annoying, niggling worry of; am I doing the right thing or am I making a massive mistake ... read more

While at dinner in Cardiff I received a phone call from my mum calling, during that garbled, somewhat confusing and rushed conversation (as I was out with friends and we were grabbing a bite to eat before heading off to the cinema) she let me know about the letters I’d received, the parents of a friend that had called to offer help with my trip and something about my granddad getting uniforms from church for me. When I got home I got the full story as to what had happened; while at an event at his church, my granddad got talking to his Pastor Bill Bygroves, the conversation at some point turned to the year out I was planning. Bill, who has previously done charitable work in Africa (though not Malawi), was impressed by what I ... read more

If your one of the many people I’ve been complaining to, or sending annoyed texts you’ll know that for the past few weeks I’ve been having trouble with my computer. This is deeply annoying for me because it holds all my files, everything for work, all my photos, saved emails, things for uni next year, everything. Not to mention it’s where I watch DVD’s to keep myself entertained and write the blogs your reading now. One of St John’s computers went down and needed to be taken to the repair shop, (yes I now realize I should have thought deeper about the cause of this) because myself and Fred have to travel about to visit schools we can sometimes be out for most of the day, so because I wasn’t using it, I let (someone at ... read more