Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 28

It was another long day of driving yesterday to Chitimba, where we finally got our first glimpse of Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa. It's the eighth largest lake in the world, and home to countless species of fish. I'd love to see the biggest lake in the world, because this one was really impressive, to the point that at first I automatically thought that we were driving by the sea before I realised that, miles away, I could make out the faint outline of the far shore. Lake Malawi is a source of income for the locals, with many of them catching and selling fish from the lake or else catering to the tourism trade and offering snorkelling excursions to see the diverse underwater life that thrives there. The water is clean and warm, ... read more

Heading down south to Blantyre we managed to hitch a lift with a couple of nice truck drivers. This was our only option since the three busses that were supposed to be passing by between 4-5pm arrived three hours later all completely packed with around 20 people standing in each. Well normally this would be fine for us but since it was going to be a 12 hour trip over night we thought better of this and gave up on our hope to go that night. We are not really sure if the busses are like this all the time but the fuel crisis (and every other crisis here in Malawi) has put too much pressure on car owners and they have no option but catch the public transport also. As well our impression of some ... read more

The nice description ‘Africa for beginners’ in the Lonely Planet book sounds great and of course you are expecting quite relaxed, friendly and a beautiful country, we were really looking forward to hit the road by backpack in an easy way this time. But when we finally arrived to this country and faced to extreme poverty, hassle which remained us a ‘light’ Kenya and remote capital city so we understood that our trip through Malawi won’t be so easy and it is nothing for beginners in our opinion. The situation is getting worse for every day and we are rushing though this country because you never know what it can happen in the short time of period. However we booked a bus ticket from Lusaka to Lilongwe and the boarding time was 4.30am. It was absolute ... read more

I know you've all been waiting for this, so here it is - update number 3 on my amazing life in Africa! Life here has been incredibly busy, especially in the past month. There have been a lot of ups and downs but in general, I love life here so much that the downs have been manageable. There's a lot to say about the past couple of months, it's difficult to know where to start because I just want to explain about everything. There's been a whole new group of volunteers who have arrived since I last wrote, at one stage there were 10 of us here, which is the most we've ever had since I arrived. It was nice to have so many other people around but it did get pretty hectic taking turns with ... read more

Hello from Malawi! Muli bwanji? (This is where you answer “Ndili bwino, kaya inu?). This phrase was my first in Chichewa (the national language of Malawi) and definitely the most important phrase to know. It means “How are you?”, “I'm fine, and you?”. That's the standard greeting here so it's been very useful. After 3 weeks of living in Malawi, I have to say, I'm really happy here. It feels so right and so comfortable to be here and I'm so glad for that. I love everything about the place. I was expecting to be quite overwhelmed with Malawi for the first couple of weeks and experience some culture shock, but I haven't really been overwhelmed by much and definitely haven't had any culture shock. I feel like I've slotted into life here quite easily. Anyway, ... read more