Blogs from Blantyre, Southern, Malawi, Africa - page 2

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

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

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

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

For the past few weeks I have been staying at the Dee and Tee lodge. I enjoyed staying with the Kumdana’s and am very grateful they were able to put me up for 2 months, but with family arriving for Christmas, they needed the extra space. I was going to move out into different accommodation shortly anyways, I had been looking around at the options, but the move was just a little quicker than I had expected and so I was left feeling a little off balance by it, however in the end it worked out fine. So after a night of quickly packing everything (kind of funny at the moment my entire life fits into two bags), I moved into Dee and Tee on the 15th December. The lodge was K 1,500 per night which ... read more