Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 19

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

This morning I woke up very early to the African songbirds. For breakfast we ate at the sunbird hotel, a fancy 4 star next door. The breakfast buffet offered all the North- American food we are used to plus delicious coffee and fresh Malawi fruit. After breakfast we set out to find cell phones, following a long walk and a few cab drives we found them at the same supermarket we visited during the previous day. For 2000k we got sim card phones and 300 units for 400k. We then headed to the pacific hotel to set up or phones and use the internet to send some emails. A short while after leaving the hotel I flagged down a poor cyclist with a huge stack of sugar cane on his bike. For 10 Kwacha he sold ... 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 will be living in Lilongwe for almost 3 months working for a research organization, Innovations for Poverty Action, on a project in partnership with the World Bank, University of Michigan and Opportunity International on micro-credit and savings. Housing in Lilongwe Arriving to the Lilongwe airport after 2 days of travel was a relief as everyone greeted you with a smile and welcomed you to Malawi. My first cab drive revealed that Lilongwe is not much of a city, but instead more like a sprawling suburb; trying to find housing for the summer confirmed this revelation. The lodges that exist are expensive (I calculated that renting a gross room at an Asian hotel would be more expensive in terms of square feet than NYC), and local transport is limited as all buses lead to Old Town ... read more

After two straight days of flying and travelling, I finally arrived at my destination In Lilongwe, Malawi. To get here, I flew to Toronto-London, London-Nairobi , Nairobi -Harare, and then Lilongwe. In Nairobi we were accompanied by the Zimbabwe national soccer team for our flight to Harare. While disembarking our Kenya Airways plane in Malawi, which offered a surprisingly quality and comfortable flight I was glad to finally have the African sun to shine on my face. In line at the airport customs we waited beside the Malawian national soccer team players. At the luggage pick-up, I was not impressed that some Asian food had leaked on my Arc’ Teryx backpack during the flight. We made our way out of the airport with a four vehicle caravan and headed to our accommodations at the Garden court ... read more

(M) From Ruarwe we took the Ilala ferry across to Likoma Island, which could only be described as a pleasant journey after our previous experiences. Nina did her own private dive course (Malawi has the cheapest dive courses in the world) and we did some good diving. We stayed in a lovely stone and bamboo chalet on the beach thirty feet from the water, the people were great and the view you simply could never grow tired of... So we thought we had found true paradise, until we discovered a resort called Kaya Mawa a few bays along... Insane. This is without a doubt the most beautiful and opulent, yet tasteful, resort either of us has ever seen. We went there for dinner one night just to really treat ourselves. There was only one other couple ... read more

Mulanje The 2nd tallest mountain in Africa (after Kilimanjaro), Malawi’s Mount Mulanje is a site to see. The tallest peaks (3,002 and 2,500 meters above sea level) sit surrounded by a wall of smaller peaks and most days is hidden by the clouds (well when I’ve been during rainy season anyways) and on some days the cloud descends so low that the entire mountain is obscured from view by its shroud. Mulanje town, sitting at base of the mountain and only 30 km from the Mozambique border is an administrative centre and though small (only really the main street) is also bustling with lots of people. It is a main centre for growing tea in Malawi and the estates cover miles in all directions, the tea pickers can be seen in the fields gathering the softer, ... read more

May 19th I woke up from my first night of sleep in Malawi awake and ready to start the day. Of course there was the obligatory tea and toast routine to ensure the day starts off as best as possible. Rumor in our camp was that there were some vendors outside the campsite in the market area looking for batteries for barter. Malawians are actually renowned for their bartering ways, they will trade just about anything for anything. So I headed out of the campsite and to the market area and met a couple of the local guys. I was able to buy some souvenirs in return for some AAA batteries I didn’t need any longer. I also scoped out a green mambo tree snake hanging around the top of the market structure, preying on a ... read more