Blogs from Lilongwe, Central, Malawi, Africa - page 4

Third week I taught the Standard 6 class for a couple of sessions, but by the end of the week decided that I'd be better off withdrawing groups. The class teacher kept disappearing off, so that my idea of teaching together with translation of English and Chichewan wasn't getting very far, and every time I talked to him he'd yawn loudly in my face. The Head came in a couple of times when rhe children were straining to be picked to give an answer, so he was pleased. Anyway I offered to take a group to the library on Friday and the class teacher said they had football and netball practice, but perhaps i could take any who wanted to go. He asked who would like to, out of a group who weren't going to practise ... read more

Monday began our official Global Village program. At his is not a traditional Habait build trip, but an exploration by habitat leaders to experience and learn more about how American dollars are being used to alleviate poverty in Malawi. We spent our first half day and the Habitat Malawi office in Lilongwe. We were briefed in turn by Ronald, the HFHI Africa, Middle East & Europe Coordinator, Amos, the president of Habitat Malawi and Kelvin the XXXXX. We learned about the need in this part of the world and how Habitat, alongside its partners, are tackling the challenge. Malawi is one of the poorest nations in Africa. Sustenance agriculture is the primary industry. 80% of the population lives in substandard housing, 69% of the population lives in slums. There are 1.4 million orphaned children in Malawi. ... read more

Why is it when I have an early morning flight I don't sleep well, or at all, the night before? The alarm chimed at 5 am after only 2 hours of sleep. (Bonus- while I was awake I did get to watch the final episode of Breaking Bad). We headed to the airport at 6 am. Kevin, Habitat Wake's CEO and my traveling companion for this trip, met at RDU. Despite the early hour, we were cheerful and excited. Our itinerary: Raleigh - New York- Johannesburg, South Africa - Lilongwe, Malawi. Estimated travel time - 25 hours. Long, but we were prepared. Minor delays on our flight to JFK continued to build. 'Luckily', we were able to get on a different flight so we could make our tight connection in NY. After a hold on the ... read more

Four days spent at Cool Runnings was a peaceful oasis in a busy and chaotic fishing village. Apart from snoozing on comfy loungers, or wallowing in the shallows of the lake to cool off, there wasn't a lot to do there. We went for a long walk down the beach, passing children playing, and mothers doing their washing, though I was heartened to see several young men washing their clothes too. There was a small hotel further down the beach and we went in there for lunch. It took an hour to come, and it was only cole slaw and chips. It took them 10 minutes to decide which of the soups used fresh ingredients, and 20 minutes to devide there was no soup available at all. And the chips were flabby, which is quite a ... read more

From Tuesday 16th It was a lovely weekend at Mabuya Chameleon was fun, lovely garden, pleasant jazz, cocktails and a glimpse of another side of Malawi life. I had two liquid cocaine cocktails - vodka, curacao and lime, and a blowjob - amarula and coffee. When we got back to the camp, we had another drink and Caroline and I took on Ritchie and Ian at pool. With skill and precision Caroline potted the white four times in the same hole. Back to the project site on Monday afternoon, after a stop off at a garage for lunch. The garage cooked chips, samosas and vavious other dishes. I tried a small carton of a milky caramel coloured liquid, labelled fruit juice. It was sEeet and slightly bitter, rsther grsnular and pretty disgusting. Kira, Heather's daughter said ... read more