Malawi at last

Having experienced the friendliness of the people here, the next most noticeable thing was the weather. It is the rainy season between November and March. This means that it rains most days. It could be for a few minutes or several hours, from light drizzle to torrents of it. There is plenty of notice as rain is always preceeded by the local people carrying umbrellas. Otherwise the weather is warm and very pleasant, about between 25 and 30 degrees and therefore the rain does't seem a problem at all.Our hotel in Lilongwe, the capital, is fine. Although a 'budget' hotel, it is comfortable.

We met a really nice Italian woman who is working in Lilongwe on a health project and we went out to eat with her most evenings. She had a car so we were able to explore local restaurants.Lilongwe is an unusual city. It is split between the old town and the capital city which are separated by 5 kms. Capital city was set up by Hastings Banda when he decided that Lilongwe was to be the capital, so capital city only contains the government buildings, banks and insurance companies, smart restaurants and smart housing. These are spread out giving the impression of a leafy suburb and not a city at all. Old town, the original Lilongwe, is spreadout so is also rather uncity like. Our stay was extended a few days as Ken had another stomach bug, so we had more time to explore.

At the end of the week we pottered off to Malawi's second city, Blantyre, which is the commercial centre of the country, just to have a look. The coach/bus was very luxurious, and although cheap, we travelled in style. The guesthouse/hotel had splendid views across the city, with hills and mountains in the background, but we couldn't walk from the hotel due to potential robbery in that area so we felt a bit marooned. The city was fine, although one day looking around was enough. Then back to Lilongwe for another local bus journey to Kasungu where we will spend the next four/five weeks for the first part of our work with the microloan foundation
Our first impressions of Kasungu were positive as we arrived in time to amble along the main street (there is only one really) and for the first time in Africa, no-one asked us if we wanted a taxi, a guide, to buy something, or begged for money.It seems that Kasungu has no tourists.