The Last weeks in Malawi

It seems a long time since our last blog. We have been very busy finishing off the interviews and writing up the report. Jane Parker, a colleague of Jane's, came over from the UK to help with the last phase and to talk to groups of kids for the report. She was good company, had a great sense of humour and worked really hard. We had a fantastic week by the lake with the two Janes seeing families in a town nearby and Ken back at the lodge with a bad tummy bug. Unfortunately for him he couldn't eat the delicious food in the resort where we were staying but on the positive side, left him spending the week reading overlooking the lake. Not bad really. Anyway, a course of anti-biotics eventually sorted it out but with a thinner Ken than at the start of the week.

One afternoon we were sitting on the veranda of the lodge looking across the lake towards the shores and mountains of Mozambique when we noticed, what looked like, a large plume of black smoke on the other side of the lake, except it seemed to be still. We were told these were tiny lake flies. The cloud of these things must have been several hundred metres high and over 20 kilometres away, so there must have been billons of them. Extraodinary. Fortunately they stayed on the other side of the lake.

We were back in Kasungu for the last couple of weeks to finish the report. The two Jane's wrote most of it and Ken put it into Microsoft Publisher. Jane P then took a first draft back with her to the UK and to someone she knew who will polish it up. We were all pretty pleased with the results, and hope MLF are similarly pleased.

We had a week in Kasungu to potter about before our last trip to Lilongwe. We ended up our work on a bit of a high doing case studies on three MicroVentures projects. One with chicken rearing businesses, one with knitting and sewing, and one with an irrigation scheme way out in the country. Each one was a great success story, so very interesting and rewarding to see and talk to the groups of women.

For Jane's birthday we visited the lodge in Kasungu National Park for the day, about 35 kms out of the town. Very strange. It was like a very smart ghost town and completely empty except for a handful of staff. There were very few animals to see and to stay there was very expensive, hence being so empty we assumed. Anyway we had a very nice lunch served in beautiful weather overlooking a lake with hippos on the opposite bank about to mate, we were told. A successful day out, even if a bit peculiar.

One of our final bits of exctiment in Kasungu came when we climbed Kasungu mountain. Kasungu town is overlooked by a mountain shaped hill, (the sort of mountain shape you would see in a children's picture book) about 300-400 metres high which is the only high ground for many miles around. We have been promising ourselves this treat for months, and a treat it was. A local, a friend of our cook, led us up as there are few defined paths. It as very hot and a unrelentingly steep climb, but we were rewarded with absolutely amazing views. The surrounding countryside is completely flat for almost as far as we could see so everything was visible, the town, Banda's palace, lakes, the Kasungu National Park etc. Coming down was more of a problem as Ken's weight loss and subsequent reduced muscle tone caused his legs to turn to jelly, and he spent the last hundred metres hanging on the the guide. Well worth it though, if a little disconcerting. At the bottom we were met by three near naked men with stocking masks over their faces, completely covered in mud standing jogging and demanding money. Apparently they run long distances around the countyside and live near grave sites where no-one else is allowed to go near and the mud is from the graves. A traditional thing we were told, but rather sinister. They seemed very happy running off with the K100 (about 50p) we gave them.

There are so many small strange events each day here, and it would take forever to describe them all. Is there really still an England where things are quite normal?

The last week in Malawi we spent in Lilongwe staying with our friend Francesca. We celebrated Ken's birthday with a meal in a posh restaurant with a surprise birthday cake for both of us from Francesca, and half the restaurant joined in the Happy Birthday singing, to Ken's delight or embarrassment. The first weekend Francesca took us and two of her young women friends to the mission at Mua for the weekend and to the lake for lunch and a swim. The lunch was sort of typical of many of the places we have stayed at. Beautiful setting by the lake with very friendly staff, wonderful weather and totally empty of customers. An hour after we ordered lunch a waitress came and told us they didn't have one of the ingredients for one of the dishes, so lunch arrrived an hour and forty minutes after we ordered it. They substituted tea for the coffee ordered, forgot cups and salad dressing and bread for the salads they promised, and the chips were inedibly oily. Small things but so typical and a contrast to the setting and the friendliness. It was a fairly simple order and there were four staff in the kitchen and we were the only customers. Whilst the resorts and restaurants are seemingly set up for western tourists staff do not have much sense of customer service. When you are paying western prices, it is hard to continually say "oh well, this is Africa". We resort to being complaining white people, feeling a bit guilty, but also knowing that they will put off visitors unless they provide the service visitors pay for and expect. It is not surprising that these places are empty and it is such a shame. Apart from these little frustrations, it was a very good weekend with more spectacular things to see, lots of laughter and interesting discussions.

Now we have a few days left in Lilongwe to sort ourselves out for the big three week trip south to South Africa starting at Victoria Falls on 2nd June. The itinery talks of being in the wilds and on campsites quite a bit so we don't know if updating the blog will be possible over this period, but we will try. It will be very sad saying goodbye to Malawi and to Francesca.