Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 64

After a grueling 36 hours or so en-route across the continent, I finally made it to Lilongwe. Thanks to a lot of effort on Mommy’s part, I had an apartment to move into the very afternoon I landed and didn't have to hole up in some grimy backpackers! I found the place through an acquaintance I’d made last summer, who it turns out is now my next-door neighbor. My apartment is HUGE—after living in Manhattan for eight years, even Ann Arbor, this place is a palace. It has very high ceilings and lots of windows, which I love. It was pretty sparsely furnished but I managed to spruce it up with some second-hand purchases. I was supposed to have a couch, but thanks to some clever language manipulations on my landlord's part I ended up with ... read more

It has been a long time since we have last written. A very long time. Since our last blog entry, we postponed our return home (again!) by another month, in order to extend our stay here in Malawi. I could blame the reason we haven’t written in so long on the fact that the internet here in Malawi is very slow, or that the power goes out several times a week. Or that because we have actually been working we are often quite busy. But truthfully, I think the real reason that we haven’t written blog entry in such a long time is that we have settled into a routine, a real life of sorts… and for some reason it seems much easier, much more exciting to write about our travels and adventures, rather than real ... read more

Up at 5.30am in the dark for breakfast and tents down. Sunburn is much better but Kierans is really bad - he has blisters the size of golf balls on his back! Started the long drive to Malawi, part of which is through a National Park. We saw giraffe, zebra and baby elephants. The roads are really bad on this stretch and we saw several articulated lorries overturned, one had the dead driver lying next to it. Eventually reached the baobab valley, the landscape is hilly and covered in trees, mainly acacia and baobab, and a river runs down the valley which looks like chocolate! Arrived at the baobab valley campsite at 6pm - nice position but the swimming pool was swamplike. It rained quite a bit in the night and there were some amazing lightening ... read more

Mulanje, Malawi. 10.03.08 halloisen alle sammen! da har vi jobba oss ned fra nord-Tanzania til Mulanje, som ligger på foten av Mnt.Mulanje som er Malawis høyeste fjell sør i Malawi (nær grensen til Mosambik). Det har vært litt av en tur!! niiiiiiiislitne og gamle busser/minibusser/lastebiler/sykler osv...., og det går ikke akkurat fort for å si det sånn.... Siden sist har vi reist fra Mbeya(Tanzania) videre mot grensa til Malawi, hvor vi faktisk gikk over grensa. Endelig i Malawi,så dro vi rett til Nkhata bay som var en perfekt slapp-off plass etter all reisinga. Måtte ta ut mer penger plutselig,så da bar det i 10 mil bakpå lastbilplanet sammen med høner,matvarer,grinete unger & stappfullt av folk, til Mzuzu (3 største byen i Malawi,dvs by & by fru blom..,mer landsby av slum)..verste var at banken ga kun ut ... read more

On Monday February 18th, I was beginning my last week of work at Monkey Bay Community Hospital and preparing to leave Malawi. That same day, I found out that a few days earlier, another Joanna arrived. Deborah, who I worked with in the Pharmacy department, had given birth to a baby girl and named her after me. I feel pretty honoured! I now have a great excuse to go back to Malawi - i'll have to see how my Malawian counterpart is getting on! For now, she is happy and healthy. I arrived back in bonnie Scotland today. I am absolutely freezing! I have just been looking at some of my videos, and texting friends back there to say that I arrived ok, and it already feels like Malawi is a million miles away. I apologize ... read more