I'll put some video clips on here over the next few days...

(If you have already read my last post about Malawi, then you might like to scroll down a bit to the new stuff)

All the images below are thumbnails,
so please click on each one to view a
bigger version on the photo.

Tuesday, Jan 3rd
So, I set off and make the journey to Nairobi. It took a little while to convince the check-in staff to allow all 37kg's of my luggage, but did it eventually!

Wednesday, Jan 4th
Soon after writing my post on here complaining about how boring Nairobi airport was, I asked about getting an earlier flight to Blantyre, but I was told quickly that there was only one flight a day as it was!

Then, I found a bar. What a blessing! I sat at the bar and ordered a 'Tuskers' beer and paid in Kenyan shillings the equivalent of about £1.20 for this pint sized bottle! Then got talking to chap at the bar who also went to Southampton Institute at the same time that I did! He was partly Kenyan and sometimes comes over to see his family! Small world.

After my 6 hour wait I checked in we were told to walk down the runway to our Air Malawi plane. It looked ok from the outside, but the seats were tatty and a few of the tables were broken. Anyway, eventually we come into land in someone's back garden. I was convinced there was some kind of problem I wasn't aware of, and this was Tanzania!

Surely Blantyre airport would be bigger than this?! Turns out it's not. As we landed a few people ran out of houses and the main building over to the plane! We were the 4th plane to land that day, and it was about 3pm! Not quite as busy as Heathrow then! I wish I could have taken a photo of 'passport control'. It was very tatty and definitely seen better days.

This was enough to remind me I was in a rather poor country! The toilets in the airport were even worse than the ones found on railway platforms in the UK!

Caroline came to meet me and showed me our hire car! A Ford Ranger! It's very good fun to drive!

Caroline drove into Blantyre centre, where a police road block saw me filming out the window. They stopped us and told me to delete all the footage of them on the tape.

It was quite scary really, seeing as they had guns and stuff. They really were not at all friendly.

We spent the night at a hotel in Blantyre. I think it's the only proper hotel around, and wasn't too bad at all...

Thursday, Jan 5th
In the morning we went for a walk and got mobbed by market traders. The whole of the city becomes one big market during the day. We bought some material to take to a man in Likhubula where Caroline lives so he can make me a shirt or something.

Caroline is now an expert at bartering for a good deal. We were told a necklace was MK1500 (£7.50) but after telling the man we didn't want 'Muzungo' (a white person) price we ended up getting it for MK150! (less than £1!).











Other amusing things include an Ethiopian restaurant, and also 'phone booths' which were little tables in the street with dodgy looking landlines on, with the cable trailing off and dissappearing into a mass of wires.











We started the drive from Blantyre to Likhubula, via 'Shopright' a kind of supermarket they import stuff from South Africa, where we bought some beer and some meat (what else?!). Oh, and also about 10 litres of bottled water.

The road to Likhubula is long and mostly uphill. We passed through about 10 villages, mostly people looking rather hungry and tired, sometimes washing themselves and clothes in muddy streams and puddles. The road users here are mostly walkers and cyclists. Most of the time people seem to just use bikes to attach things onto to sell, and walk with the bike.



The road got more and more rocky and mountainous, and it was quickly apparent Caroline made a very good choice about upgrading us to a Ford Ranger! As we approached the village, dozens of children started shouting and waving at us, sometimes running alongside the car.



They seemed very pleased to see us, for some reason. When we got to the village we were greeted one of Caroline's teaching colleagues, Mr Safari who gave me a personal welcome message before we carried on driving up the hill to my chalet.

In the evening I found myself eating 'Chambo' a local fish from the lake. It was lightly grilled and really quite tasty.

Friday, Jan 6th
Today I woke up early. I had been invited to Nansato school for a special welcoming ceremony by Mr Safari. He had been planning this for some time. He got his class to come in on their holidays to do a song and dance routine for me! I was quite touched.












After that we played loads of games with the children at the school. Apparently 1 in every 5 or 6 of these kids is already HIV positive.

You wouldn't have thought that, the way they run about and stuff. Although it is very clear many of the kids are malnourished and are suffering from a disease of sorts.

I was sometimes surprised how nice some of their clothes were. Apparently they wear wearing their best clothes for my welcoming song and dance.

Mr Safari gave Caroline and I some beautifully carved cedar wood boxes.




Mr Safari had invited us both to his house for lunch. This was so kind of him. He didn't need to do that at all. Lunch was at 10.30 am! Very strange! Anyway, we went to his house that he made himself (see a video of his house at Caroline's website.)


I knew this real African feast would be an experience, but this was far beyond what I had expected! The main dish was Nsima, made from maize.



It was unlike anything else I had ever tasted; kind of similar to cold custard that's solidified. It's pure white, and is eaten using fingers.

Also on the menu, was a vegetable dish, eggs, and beans. It was all eaten using fingers and all incredibly interesting! Mr and Mrs Safari had really gone to town on entertaining us, which was so kind of them.

Due to sickness and sadly some family members passing away, Mr Safari has to financially support 10 people in his family all on the low salary he gets from being a teacher. Remarkable.

I was really touched by his generosity.

On the way home that day we found a community of children that didn't go to school, and were clearly twice as poorly and hungry as the kids that attended.

Many of them are very clearly unwell and hungry. I think I will save many of the clothes and the toys I brought over for these guys. It's funny, you only have to play frisbee with a couple of them, and all of a sudden about 50 of them show up out of nowhere.






Most of the kids here cannot understand a word we say, and vice versa, so you have to make do with chucking frisbee's around and waving your hands about, combined with smiling to them and stuff.











Later that day Caroline got a text from someone who works here that had gone home to Scotland for a few weeks. He has found out he contracted Cerebral Malaria.

This is quite nasty and can leave you paralysed. Apparently he took his Malaria tablets just like we are doing, so it made us quite sad and worried to hear the news.

Saturday, Jan 7th
Today was fun. We went to another village down the mountain to meet a chap called Mr Karpindi (I think). I gave him the material I bought in Blantyre and returned later that day to find he had made me a really nice shirt! It even has pockets. I was very impressed. Only charged me about £2! I planned to wear my new garment to the church on Sunday.











Caroline had told a few kids to go to her house at 2pm to play games, and dot on 2, about 30 kids show up! (I have no idea how they know what the time is!) I gave out some of Alison's (from work) toys she gave me to bring out, and some sweets, and then we watched Tom and Jerry on Caroline's laptop. I don't think they had a clue what was happening, they just seemed hypnotised by the moving colours!




That evening I noticed the tap water was a browny yellow colour. I realised exactly why we were using bottled water for everything!

Sunday, Jan 8th
We made it to the church! It's a stone building with a corrugated metal roof. It was very full and people and flies and was very very hot. The whole service was in Chichewa, so I didn't understand a thing, but I wasn't bored for second. We sat quite near the back. At one stage all the visitors to the church were called to the front.


There were 5 Malawians, and myself. I got up to walk to the front, and about 200 people started laughing and talking!




I think they may have been amused by my choice of shirt that morning, and also because I could have been the tallest person they have ever seen, and because I am white.

I made a small speech to them all which was translated to them all. I think it went down ok.

After the service and most people had left, we spoke to the band, who had hand made every single instrument! We asked them to play again for us so we could film them and dance with them.


After a minute of Caroline filming me dancing with them, loads of people started coming back into the church to dance with us!




Later that day, we let Samuel wash our car. Samuel had 5 children, and they are all very hungry. Normally he gets given MK100 to wash a car, which is about 50p.


Although he spent hours washing our car, and made several trips to the river to refill his bucket of water, so I gave him MK300 (£1.50). He was overjoyed!



Apparently this is more than a normal day's salary for most Malawians.

In the evening Caroline and I sat around the rock pools.

Monday, Jan 9th
Woke up to find a spiders nest INSIDE my mosquito net! We got some guy to remove it. How on Earth did a spider get in there?! Scary.

We paid a lady about 2 pounds to wash our clothes in the river. She did a good job! Amazing really.




Then we pumped up the footballs that Ruthann and Ken kindly gave me to take out and handed them out to various groups of kids.
















We drove half way up the mountain and sat by a waterfall! Very nice!




Tuesday, Jan 10th
Got up at 6am to make school assembly for 7am. I had to make a speech to 1500 kids! It was translated by Mr Safari. Then I had a special 'goodbye' meeting by the headmaster, and watched some classes under the trees.


We then said goodbye to Nansato school, the children, Mount Mulanje, Mr Safari and the spiders and set off for Zomba. Most of the traffic is people with loads of random objects on their heads.


We eventually got to Zomba plateau and stayed in a fantastic hotel 'Ku Chawe' above the clouds! The electricity kept being cut off in the bar and restaurant, and for about 10 seconds everyone has to sit there in the pitch black until the generator kicked in! Very amusing.

Wednesday, Jan 11th
We had breakfast above the clouds and started driving North to Mangochi, the South coast of Lake Malawi, the 3rd largest lake in Africa.










There are lots of police road blocks in Malawi where usually they check your tax and license, although at one of the blocks we were asked to give a lift to 3 police officers to the next village.

We didn't mind really as they were happy to all pile in the boot. They explained that President Dr Bingu was doing a speech in the village, which would explain all the police everywhere. When we let the police out the boot the said thanks and told us we could meet the President! We didn't bother as it all looked very intimidating and scary to be honest. As we drove past we heard him on the mic ranting about something in Chichewa.

We finally got to Club Makakola in Mangochi. Very nice place with a pool and a beach on the lake, although slightly let down by the Bilharzia in the lake water.




It's strongly advised not to swim in the lake, so we didn't risk it.














Thursday, Jan 12th
We got a boat ride to a small island and saw lots of fish and birds such as eagles. We were asked if we wanted to snorkel but that would be crazy as you could actually see the Bilharzia snails and worms in the water!











The chap driving the boat had polystyrene he shoved down the throats of these fish he had, so they would float, and then he threw the fish into the water so the eagles dive for them.

Fantastic stuff.











Friday, Jan 13th
We set off to drive to Mvuu safari camp. We had no idea what to expect. The turning off the main road led us into a mud track of about 10kilometres through a very poor area. I think the villagers did not usually see cars or white people, as almost everyone was smiling and waving at us! Very strange feeling. We also had to drive over some very dodgy looking bridges that looked like they needed some repair!

Eventually we got to a river where a man greeted us and put our bags into a boat to get to the camp.






Once there we were really surprised to find a nice looking bar, restaurant and toilets. We got one night in a chalet, 3 meals and 2 safaris for $65! That's amazing value.

The people at Mvuu were so friendly and very well organized.

They gave us a buffet lunch consisting of a spicy beef thing, and then gave us a ride in a land rover round the park where we saw all sorts of animals including monkeys and even elephants!

I got very sunburnt at this point!













The safari people also said that sometimes people go on safari for weeks and not see a single elephant, and that we were lucky enough to see no less than two in a single day!

(I should point out at this stage that Caroline took the photo of the elephant, and is very proud of the result)

Then the staff asked us what drinks from the bar we wanted to go into a coolbox they take on to the boat! I requested 2 bottles of Kuche Kuche beer at about 80p a bottle, and Caroline her usual Sprite. I was loving it so much! What a day this was!

We shared a small boat with a German couple, a lesbian English couple that live in South Africa, and a chap from Leeds with his Malawian wife/girlfriend/mistress.

A very bizarre mix! It was great, although I made a thoughtless remark to the lesbian couple when I asked them if they came to the safari because of their particular interest in birds. Luckily they didn't take offence.

We saw hippos and crocodiles which was great, even though Caroline was convinced one of them would eat her...








(I should also point out that the sunset photo was taken by Caroline, and she would kill me if she read on this website that I was taking the credit!)

We then went back to the safari base for another buffet meal which was this garlic chicken thing. It was brilliant, although I've never seen so many flying ants in my whole life!

Saturday, Jan 14th
We drove back to Blantyre and returned the car. I asked to use the toilet in the car hire place. They led me through four dirty offices to this absolutely disgusting toilet that didn't flush. Afterwards they told me 'we have not had water here for four days'.

That evening we went for an amazing steak dinner the best restaurant in Blantyre, '21 Grill'. With a lovely Canadian couple Rebecca and Joel.

Well, I say it's the best restaurant in Blantyre... there isn't really much competition...









Sunday, Jan 15th
I had a bit of a stress getting my Malawian guitars in the cases, and made our way to the airport (if you could call it an airport).

I checked my baggage in, and made the check in man promise I would see my bags again in Heathrow. I didn't trust him. He wasn't even wearing a proper uniform, and had some personal hygiene issues going on.

I said emotional goodbye's to Caroline, and went to customs where they charged me $30 fees for wanting to leave their country, then got me to fill in an exit form, then frisked me twice, then heavily questioned me about taking any Malawi Kwacha the country, and then finally let me board the plane!

All was going well on the flight, until they announced we'll be landing briefly in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania on our way to Kenya! I didn't mind really, but I think it's a bit unreasonable of Air Malawi not to offer 2 meals instead of one.

After Tanazania came Nairobi, and another long wait for my final flight Heathrow.

Monday, Jan 16th
I wedged myself in my seat, and 30 minutes before landing took my hand luggage bag to the toilet (I must have looked a bit like a terrorist).

I changed out of my combats and t-shirt, and into the full Malawi costume Mr Karipindi had made me, ready to greet my parents in true Africa style.

I bravely left the toilet wearing my blue flowery top and bright orange shorts, expecting all manner of laughter and ridicule on the plane from the other passengers, but didn't actually hear anything.


I think everyone must have been too tired, thank goodness.

I landed in Heathrow finally, after an awful 8.5 hour flight.

I made my way to the baggage reclaim, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

People all around me were merrily heaving their luggage off the conveyor. Still no sign of my bags. Then, the bags stopped appearing from the hatch. Then the conveyor belt stopped. My bags had been lost!!

I filled in the necessary forms and they have assured me I'll get my bags in due course... I've got a feeling they have ended up in Dubai, as that's where the first plane was ending up.

Ah well, the lost baggage hasn't remotely ruined the most amazing 2 week adventure of my life.

It was great seeing Caroline and the kids, meeting her friends, the other teachers, driving round Malawi and experiencing the sights and smells of such a beautiful and friendly country. I'll never forget it.