Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 78

Day 4 - 9th September - Stranded in Kasungu I’m woken at 6.30 by Manasseh who has already been up for an hour, rented a bike taxi to go and wake the mechanic up and is now standing at my door grinning and thrusting car keys into my hand. “The mechanic has come” he beams. I followed him outside to see our car ready to tow with no power steering and no servo brakes. “He thinks the alternator is buggered”, chirped Manasseh clutching the crucifix almost as if demanding forgiveness for his language. “I need 2 hours to see if I can repair your alternator” came the voice from under the bonnet, “there are many many things wrong with your car”, he added. I knew this would be another long day. Four hours later after a ... read more

Day 2 - 7th September - A wasted journey ? Another very early start without breakfast and we were camped outside the office of the Technical Director of the Malawi Revenue Authority by 7am. He rocked up at 8am and, after a ceremonial washing of hands on his male secretary's desk, we were ushered into his office by the “Smithers” type character. We were pointed towards two very low and very threadbare chairs 5 metres from his presidential desk and Mr Chiumia started the talking. After much nodding and grunting, our man shakes his head. “I am really very sorry for your trouble in driving here from Nkhata Bay, but the office in Mzuzu should have told you that we are no longer able to waive duty on donations for NGOs as they have been abusing ... read more

Sadly had to leave paradise island a.k.a. Zanzibar. Could have got used to a life of luxury there - it was just so beautiful and to have cocktails at the click of a finger, well, my idea of heaven! Didn't help the fact that the journey back to Tanzania was literally the boat trip from hell. An 8 hour overnight trip with choppy seas, no air con so it was incredibly hot and humid, people vomiting everywhere and the smell...an experience I NEVER want to repeat! And to top it all off, we then had a seven hour truck drive straight away. That 24 hours was the longest of my life! Ok moving on...so spent the next couple of days in Tanzania recovering. If you imagine a typical African image, often found in pictures books, I'm ... read more

It all seemed too easy ! Go to to the DHL office in London, explain that you want a box full of plastic boxes to arrive in Mzuzu in a week's time, give them a notional value for insurance (the goods are a free donation to the Kaliya youth group and an essential part of the solar power system) and hand over the box and 140 quid. So just how, HOW, somewhere along the way, this turned into an 8 hour drive from Nkhata Bay all the way down to Blantyre with Mr Chiumia to appeal directly to the Technical Director of the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) I don't know ! It started at the DHL office in Mzuzu where, we had been told by phone, the box was waiting for collection on payment of a ... read more

After my first encounter with the half completed Kaliya Vocational Training Centre, I was a little nervous about meeting the group - did they actually exist? I’d seen the video prepared by Christian Aid for the launch of their report highlighting the impact of climate change on developing countries (see www.solar-aid.co.uk) so I hoped that I would recognise a few faces. I had already met Emmanuel who picked me up from Njaya and took me to meet Mr Chiumia for the long trek up the hill and had also seen Chimemwe (meaning “happy”) in the video, hacking down trees with alarming ease. The first meeting was wonderful. Everyone was enthusiastic (although some expressed it much more reservedly than others) and all were eager to know more about solarthan John Keane had been able to cover in ... read more