Blogs from Mzuzu, Northern, Malawi, Africa

phew! its good to be back online again! i feel like i havn't written in so long and i don't like it!!! We were very busy bee's whilst in Iringa - we shall miss it very much. after a ropey start getting robbed, and the stark realisation that the company that we were volunteering with lied extensively on their website (seriously, we were living in SUCH a sh*t hole!!), we genuinely grew to love that place. Neither of us had been overly impressed with Tanzania as a whole, (don't get me wrong - there are some incredible places and we have seen and done some once in a lifetime things, but as a country i guess it was slightly lacking in the homey, modest beauty that perhaps Uganda had) however, Iringa really did feel like a ... read more

Our first experience on an African bus: 4am wake up, breakfast and a short walk to the bus depot in Lilongwe before enduring a 9 hour bus ride to our project site, Engcongolweni School. Many of us found the journey to be tiresome and somewhat tedious; those who could (the minority) attempted a comfortable sleep whilst the others enjoyed absorbing the wonderful Malawian scenery ...certainly an experience none of us will forget (yet also one many of us would not like repeated). Upon arrival at Engcongolweni School we were warmly welcomed by the headteacher, Baxtor, who showed us our toilet and shower facilities. The girls had a good few nights of luxury camping in the classroom whilst Miss Bennett, Mr Linsted, David (our leader) James and I had no choice but to camp it outside (which ... read more

This week I ended up meeting a French professor while drinking a beer in the teacher’s lounge during a world cup game. It was a while since I spoke French to anyone, and a little surprising to do it in Malawi were French is not spoken in any communities around the country. He was so impressed by my French that he kept buying me drinks in the Malawian custom. He then invited me to attend one of his lectures the following day. The next day during class his students where presenting papers in a very entertaining way: ‘student A’ would read his paper in English one line at a time, and ‘student B’ would translate the lines in French until the presentation was completed. Next some questions where asked from the audience in French and ‘student ... read more

Our first two weeks in Mzuzu allowed us time to get settled in, familiarize ourselves with the surrounding areas and start our work at the university. On the third night, our supervisor and head of the Land Management department, ‘Lucky’ had invited us all to his house for a big feast. The table held a buffet of delicious traditional Malawian food. The following days, we got our work figured out for the remainder of the school semester, I am teaching an introductory course in hydrography (aka ocean mapping) and geodesy. The first weekend we spent in here in Mzuzu to organize our lectures and lesson plans. I also went for my first trail run, were I escaped outside the campus gates to explore the surrounding areas. I made my way down a secondary school campus and ... read more

This morning I woke up to the heavy rainfall, I was a little disappointed because I had hoped to take my first swim in the lake. After breakfast we headed towards the pottery shop down the road. Here we got to witness the local artist and potters at work. We latter embarked in our passenger van to continue our drive to Mzuzu.On our way to Mzuzu the scenery just got better and better as our van made its way up the mountain passes. Near the top we drove beside a “rubber tree” forest, where the rubber is made. The people on the side of the road where selling soccer- sized rubber balls. Before arriving to Mzuzu we took a detour and lunch into Nakhata bay, a beautiful beach town along Lake Malawi. Our final drive to ... read more