Blogs from Central, Malawi, Africa - page 24

url='/Videos/3445.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3445.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Dzaleka kidsurl='/Videos/3449.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3449.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Walking through Dzaleka camp market On Wednesday I was picked up near my house to head out to Dzaleka refugee camp, which is a little over an hour from Lilongwe. The proximity to a major urban center is something that makes Dzaleka unlike most refugee camps, which are usually very isolated. It is also a very established camp, which many of the refugees (most of which fled the Rwandan genocide and conflict in the Dem. Rep. of Congo) have lived in for many years—some over a decade. Mike later asked me whether it looked like what I had imagined a refugee camp to look like—yes and no. We are used to seeing images in the media of new, makeshift camps, for example... read more

I won’t bore you with the details of my flights to Malawi, other than to mention S. African Airways serves a mean breakfast! I’ll just start with how it went when I got off the plane in Lilongwe. It was a gorgeous day, and the weather was really pleasant—warm and breezy. I was in a really good mood until we got to customs, which was extremely chaotic and very slow. I’d say I was in line for about 30 minutes—and I was one of the first to be off the plane. I finally got my bags and headed out to the greeting area, where my supervisor (who had just arrived in Malawi himself—he’s the NGO’s regional director and based in S. Africa), the country director, and my new housemate (Matt) were all waiting for me. ... read more

This trip has been planned for some time and now, departure day is next week! I am so excited. At this moment I have not yet packed everything into one rucksack, so I may yet be the only back-and-front-packer in Africa! Tomorrow I am going out for dinner with walking friends in Leicester, a curry to see me on my way! Then I have two days to do all the things I have forgotten to do before I go. This is my first independent journey of this length of time so I am excited but also apprehensive. I shall try to write this blog everytime I find an internet cafe and in between I shall keep a diary. So, let's travel! http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_2rl.html... read more

Day 3 - 8th September - Patience Wearing Very Thin Up and away before the Kiboko overlanders awoke and a breakfast stop with Manasseh’s (Mr Chiumia and me were getting to know each other much better by now) daughter in a ragged suburb of Lilongwe. We rocked up to the Air Cargo depot at 8.30 and were immediately surrounded by clearing agents trying to get our business. A bit of negotiation and the promise of a big fat bonus of they could get the stuff in duty free later and we had secured the services of a guy called “Newstyle”. MRA wanted to inspect the goods to be sure that the batteries shown on the shipping papers weren’t actually there (we bought them locally in Blantyre). I pointed out that 12 batteries alone would weigh 240kg ... read more

Well we decided to say goodbye to Zimbabwe, I'd love to go back one day if things change a bit. I might have neglected to mention how beautiful Zimbabwe is in my last blog, its Victorian buildings are really awesome coming in second place only to Cape Town so far and I regret not taking more pictures. We left Harare and ventured north yesterday on another terrible, terrible bus ride. We had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up at the mansion of a hostel just outside of town and drive us through city center over to the other side where the market and buses are. The taxi driver was asleep in his ride when we went out to the gates just before 5am. Off we go across town! Finbar and Patrick came along ... read more