Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 76

A late departure today saw us setting off at 8am. We only had a 4ish hour drive up the shore of Lake Malawi. Along the way we stopped off in a small town and visited the market with an objective: we'd each drawn someone else's name out of a hat and were buying them an outfit for our 'superheroes' fancy dress party. Gemma bought a leopard skin ensemble for a Junglewoman outfit, and Ed went for an English superhero called 'Super 118' once he had found a stall selling shellsuits and a man flogging a pink headband. The final part of the drive was down a steep hill back to the lakeside, overtaking a lorry going down headfirst but with his reverse gear engaged, probably because he had no brakes left. The campsite was better than ... read more

World Tour of Malawi We arrived in Malawi on 10th January after a 39 hour journey from Belgium (see details later). Known as the Warm Heart Of Africa, Malawi is a hidden jewel nestled between larger and better known neighbours Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. It is landlocked, but includes one of the largest African lakes, Lake Malawi, which makes up a large part of the Mozambique border. The lake contains more species of fish than North America and Europe combined and they continue to discover more! In the rainy season when we visited, Malawi is lush, with vivid greens of vegetation vying with bright reds of earth and houses. Maize grows everywhere, surrounding steep green hills with deforested slopes. Outside of the big towns (Blantyre and Lilongwe), small villages dot the countryside. Houses are generally made ... read more

Hi all! Back again for another instalment, again in diary format for ease of viewing. 06/12/06 - Livingstone - Zambia Quad biking was first on the list for this morning and it was really really good fun. Vik was a bit wary at first, but soon got the hang of burning round on our 250cc quads. The guy that took us was a real giggle and kept doing stunts on 2 wheels and doing doughnuts in the sand. Of course Rik took this as a personal challenge and soon disappeared into a cloud of dust and sand as he perfected his spinning technique hehe. Vik decided doughnutting wasn't her thing and just rode up and down looking good for a while. Of all the ironies, guess who broke their quad though... Rik pushing it through its ... read more

Day Six Today I fired Mr Banda the electrician. I've never fired anyone in my life. I once threatened a sub-contractor when I was 6 months out of university and he laughed in my face. This time, with over 14 years of project experience under my belt, I was a little more assertive. On Saturday morning, at 11am, I had asked one of the KALIYA group to check that Mr Banda had managed to get the keys and that he was happily working. He was nowhere to be seen. With no way of contacting him, the runners were sent out again. He was found at home, blind drunk, having been out on a bender with the money I had given him on Thursday. This all sounds really tragic and sad - it is. It's depressing to ... read more

Day Four The distant rumbles continued all night until finally, at about 7 this morning, the storms abandoned Mozambique, swung west across the lake and twisted and crashed into Njaya, scattering table cloths and pepper pots and flooding the restaurant floor. Given that the my path up the mountain is actually a stream bed and the lakeshore was already starting to turn brown as floodwater tumbled from the hills, I decided to postpone the hike up to the village. I have an image of Mr Banda, Gilbert's translation of my direct warning ringing in his ears, trudging through the storm with his trusty green-handled screwdriver while I am sat making notes in the house, serranaded by the soft rhythmic sound of water dripping into buckets, pans and vases as the roof of the house finally gives ... read more