From malawi to Ethiopia

I always wondered how would Malawi be if it had never be colonised by the British. And just now, coming back from Ethiopia I come back to that question, because Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that never got colonised by Europeans. Yes, despite the efforts of the Italians to form the 'Africa italiana orientale' during the second world war, they only left behind expresso machines and spaghetti, that are found almost everywhere in Ethiopia.

Probably that is why everything is different in Ethiopia. Their calendar, time, christian orthodox church, food, music... Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, and is full of fascinating legends that explain the origin of their culture and country. To start with, they claim that their line of emperors started with Menelik, who was son of king Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and lasted until Haile Selassie, that governed until the revolution of 1974 and as you may know is the messiah of the rastafarians. 

one of the things that most strike any visitor in Ethiopia  is the amount of historical sites,  that are totally unusual in sub-Saharan africa. The archeological sites of Axum tell us of an empire that was controlling the trade of the red sea and the Nile, and yet, we know so little about it. Walking around the town of Axum, you have the impression that everywhere you dig, you will find another tomb, stele or palace. And they explain why Ethiopia looks like a crossroads between the middle east, the Mediterranean and sub-saharan africa.

We spent only two weeks, which is just enough to see the north of the country, or what is also called the 'historical circuit'. We started in Addis Ababa, from there to Axum by plane, and then we went by bus to the Simean mountains (where we trekked 4 days) Gonder and Lalibella, from where we took another internal flight to Addis.

In general is very easy to travel in Ethiopia, there is a very good network of regional airports that allow you to save time, dust and fleas in the buses, and the internal flights are fairly cheap for a tourist. Travelling by bus was a really nice experience, apart from the early departure time (6 in the morning!) and the fleas mentioned above that would jump from the shepherd's robes into our clothes and would accompany us for a few days. The buses broke down sometimes, but we never got stuck anywhere. Our most difficult journey was between Gonder and Lalibella, but the only problems were big trucks that got stuck on the mud and we had to wait an hour or so until they got through it.. 

I cannot really decide what part did I like more, I totally loved the simean mountains, with their stunning landscapes from 3000mt high into the lowlands, and the small villages that we crossed hiking. Gonder was also special, the palaces of european and indian influences that are now used only by pigeons and the church of Debre Birham Selassie, with the roof full of painted angels. In Lalibela you can walk around monolithic churches that were dug on the rock with (according to the legend) the help of angels. And after seeing the 11 churches, you will really believe there must have been angels around during the works. We cannot wait to come back!

Pictures of Ethiopia!

I arrived last nite from Addis Ababa and I could not wait to see my
pictures in the computer! I have put some already in Flickr, please
click on the link on the right. They are in order (from last to
beginning) so you can follow our itinerary in the north of Ethiopia. I
will write more about the trip soon, but for the pictures you will see
that it was amazing!!

wedding in Mwanza

Last week end I was invited to a wedding with my friends in Mwanza. I
had never been to a wedding in Malawi, not even to a mass! I had heard
all the stories about it, so I knew more or less what to expect, but
still, the experience is worth an entry of my blog.

You probably know that is not easy to find me in a church, but I must
say that going to church in Africa can be an unforgettable experience.
The singing and dancing is really beautiful and touching, including
the ululating cries of the women. And at the end everybody end up
dancing to the music. Just great fun!

One of the things everybody tell you if you are coming to a wedding
is: bring a lot of 20 kwatcha banknotes. 20 kwatchas are the smallest
banknotes that you can find, and the reason is that during the party
you are supposed to dance throwing banknotes into a basket (or to the
air!) for the just married. So, if you don't have small banknotes, you
will end up throwing lots of money!

But probably the funniest part is to see the faces of Malawians when
they see a muzungu dancing. They just cannot believe it! We had a
farewell party the day after the wedding and at the end we started to
dance. Yo had to see the smile on their faces, and at the end a lot of
women decided to join us and learn our steps, and teach us their
moves... soooo sweet!!!

As usual, I have put a few pictures on flickr, just to give you an
idea...

rains!

The rainy season has officially started! The rivers run on the streets
of Blantyre, and a thunder just made me jump on my desk, and forced me
to write these lines. There is not another conversation, the rains,
that everybody hope will be abundant. The farmers have started to
prepare the fields, and people queue to obtain fertiliser. The
luckiest will have coupons from the government and will buy it cheap,
the others... may not get much maize this year!

It is sad that a country like Malawi, with 1/3rd of its surface
covered by fresh water, relies on the rains for the production of
crops. There are still very few irrigation systems in the country, so
most of the people just wait for the rain to fall in november instead
of using water from their lake and rivers!

Apart from rain, I don't have much to tell you! we are now in exam
period, so I just have loads of papers to mark. I have started to look
at jobs (yes, because I have to come back next year!) but without
stress, I still have a few months to enjoy Africa.

The prize after the exam marking will be a trip to Ethiopia! the 29th
of this month I will fly to Addis Adaba to meet Ivonne, and then we'll
travel for 2 weeks in the north of the country.. You'll hear more
about it soon!

lake of stars

That is the name that Dr Livingston gave to lake Malawi, probably due
to its beauty. But nowadays, Lake of Stars is a music festival that
happens every year on the shores of the lake. thats where we were last
week end, this year it was in Salima, (the middle of the lake) to make
transport easier respect to the usual location in Chinteche at the far
north of the lake.

The same as last year, we were surprised of the amount of muzungus
that travelled all the way from the UK for the party, without having
much idea of where they were. One of them said: but this doesn't look
a very poor country! of course my friend, if you just saw the airport
and you got transfered through stunning landscapes to the lake, and
you are staying in a luxury hotel listening music and drinking beers...

Anyway, we had a lot of fun, which was the propose of going there.
meeting with people we had not seen in a long time, listening really
good music and dancing like mad for three days!

What can you miss if you don't take the minibus

I am waiting for my lecture at nine, so I have decided to tell you my
best minibus story so far.

It was in Lilongwe, a few weeks ago when my parents were flying home.
I had sent them in a taxi to the airport and I wanted to get to Salima
by minibus, at the lake, where I was meeting Ivonne the next day
before traveling to Nyika plateau (have you seen the entry below?). So
there I was in a minibus, trying to get to the main bus station of
Lilongwe, when we stopped for unknown reasons (may be we finished our
petrol) and our driver started to stop other minibuses passing by to
put us inside. So I jumped in a new minibus and I observed that the
lady sitting beside me was grasping the seat and asking the driver
"tiyeni, tiyeni" something like go, go, don't stop, please move! I
asked the people behind if she needed help and they told me that she
was giving birth. Well, the hospital was not far away but we were
quite stuck in the traffic, and I started to doubt that we'll arrive
on time.. The driver was overtaking cars and going as fast as
possible, but it was too late. The poor lady was laying in one of the
bench of the minibus when we arrived to the hospital, we asked for
help but nobody came for a while! we were all waiting outside as if it
was our baby that was going to be born. Then a guy came very calm with
a tray, got into the bus and cut the cord. He took the baby inside the
hospital and left the mum there, until she walked outside the bus with
the placenta running between her legs...

A few minutes before taking that minibus, they offered me a lift to
Salima, and I refused because I thought it was going to be more fun
using public transport... well, I cannot say it was fun, but it was a
hell of an experience!!

petrol shortages

I don't know in your countries, but here in Malawi we are having
problems to find petrol, and sometimes this looks like Mad Max the film!

Last week end we were about to go for a trip to some natural medicine
gardens and we had to visit 3 petrol stations before we could fill the
tank! we had very little petrol in the car and we were driving with
our fingers crossed (hopping to don't get stuck without any fuel!)
from one station to the next... we thought it was weird, specially
being in Blantyre, the 'big' city.. how is it going to be in the rest
of the country?

Well, we had the answer soon, a couple of days later we were in
Salima, at the lake, and there was no petrol at all! The only option
was to get it in the market from vendors at double, probably triple
the price because we are muzungus. Fortunately were camping at Cool
Runnings lodge and The owner Sam phoned to one of the petrol stations
and they told her that they were going to get some petrol that night.
So there we went when the petrol had just arrived and we queued for
ages until we could buy some petrol! it was really tense, with loads
of people trying to fill their cars, motorbikes, containers, anything!
Some people was trying to jump the queue and I really thought that
people would start to fight..

I don't know what is going to happen next, but there are rumors that
the government will increase (again!) the price of petrol. Is now at
251 kwacha or 1.1 euros / 1.7 dollars a liter, which is mad if you think that
most of the people lives with one dollar a day..

Sarays visit, Artemisia annua and other things

Yes, Saray is around again! If you have followed my blog, you'll know
that she was here last year with a friend, and this year she found an
excuse to come back. Saray is studying herbal medicine in Edinburgh,
and she has decided to do her dissertation about Artemisia Annua, a
plant known in china for more than 2000 years that so far is the best
malaria treatment known.

Artemisia annua produces artemisinin, which is the base for the famous
artemisinin combination therapies (ACT) used to treat malaria.
Unfortunately ACTs are too expensive or not available for most of the
people that suffers malaria. Trying to tackle this problem, there is
an organisation called ANAMED (Action for natural medicine) that has
developed a hybrid of Artemisia Annua that can be cultivated in
Africa. They run seminars and trainings where they teach how to use
herbal medicines, and also how to grow Artemisia Annua and prepare it
as a tea to treat malaria.

We have spent the week end visiting several places, clinics and
teaching centers where they have started to grow the plant and use it!
And we both came back very impressed about the possibilities of the
project. Probably there is a lot of work to do to ensure good practice
when using the plant, but I really thing that Artemisia annua and
natural medicine could be the solution of many of the health problems
found in Africa.

Many persons have no access to the expensive drugs, but they can grow
in their gardens their own!

shsss... have you seen those white kids??

shsss... have you seen those white kids??
Originally uploaded by antonio codina

Nyika plateau

Nyika plateau III
Originally uploaded by antoniocodina

Ivonne left yesterday and it was pretty sad.. We knew it was going to happen but you cannot really believe it until the day arrives. We also had to give Bwenzi (Ivonne's cute dog) in adoption to a German family. I'd have loved to keep her but I don't really have a garden and it would be difficult for Bwenzi..

Anyway, the week before Ivonne's departure we visited Nyika plateau, in the north of Malawi. Nyika is the biggest park in Malawi and is based in an impressive plateau at more than 2000 m high. Is quite difficult to get there (100km of dirt road) but totally worth it. We camped despite the freezing cold nights and we got lost driving around the park. There are no signs at all and is very difficult to find your way!
On the way down we broke the front shocks of the car and they had to be repaired in an emergency operation because Ivonne was selling the car a couple of days later! Drive slowly if you go to Nyika.

I already put some pictures in my flickr site (follow the link on the right!) As you will notice, I have a new dSLR camera that my parents brought me...

Disparities

I red an article in one of the last weekly Guardian (I think the
original article appeared at the washington post) describing the
opening of the second Sushi bar in Monrovia. The flow of aid workers
into Liberia since the end of the war has produced many locals or
supermarkets where expats and wealthy Liberians can spend in a few
hours the month salary of a Liberian..
While I was reading it, I couldn't avoid thinking how similar the
situation is in Malawi. We don't have sushi bars in Blantyre (yet) but
we do have restaurants where a meal can cost 3000 MK, which is
certainly a months salary for many people that is lucky enough to have
a job here. At shoprite you can find any variety of food imported from
South Africa at european prices. People can check their emails in
their flashy laptops using the wireless connexion. The car park is
full of beautiful 4x4 showing off the stickers of their NGOs while
outside the falling apart minibuses queue and street kids ask for
spare change.
A few week ends ago we spent a week end in a lodge in Zomba, spending
around 50$ for bed and breakfast. And when you go out of the lodge you
find people (many times children) carrying wood down the mountain to
make a living. Sometimes I freak out about the disparities, and I
wonder if we do any good coming here and trying to live like we do at
home, spending loads of money under the nose of poor people. but while
I write this I am thinking in when will I come back to shoprite to but
chocolate, or an ice cream, or ...

My parents are in Africa!

Yes, my parents and their three friends arrived almost two weeks ago
to Lilongwe, and we traveled together in the center and south of
Malawi. Now they are somewhere in Zambia, in a tour organised to
Victoria Falls. their phones don't work and I cannot contact them, but
I suppose they are doing well.. I will meet them in lilongwe before
they come back to Spain.
I was quite scared about their visit, as I mentioned before they don't
speak a word of english. Only spanish, (but very loud!). My fear
became true when they arrived without any luggage. They were supposed
to pick up their bags in Johannesburg before catching the plane to
Lilongwe but they didn't know it.. At the beginning they were quite
stressed. The poverty of Malawi hits your eyes and brain.. but in a
few days they got used to the landscape and the friendliness of the
people and everything went very well.

Next week I'll take a few days off to go to the north with Ivonne, and
after that she will be leaving, back to the UK. It's going to be a bit
weird for me, staying here without her, but I don't think I'm ready to
leave the job at the moment, or live in the rich part of the planet.
If everything goes as I plan, I won't be back in Europe until May next
year, for the wedding of my sister (family pressure!) and that could
be (may be) the end of my Malawian life..

Visits!!

My friend Karine came for a quick visit from Belgium! she traveled the
north of Malawi with an organised tour and then came to the south to
spend a few days with me. Unfortunately I couldn't take the whole time
free while she was around, so I was coming to work to sort out
lectures and labs and meeting her for lunch and show her the city in
my free time. She is a really good student and in one day she mastered
the transport system and was jumping on and off minibuses like an
ordinary Malawian!

For her last week end (and my birthday!) we went to Mulanje, the huge
mountain one hour away from Blantyre and we hiked for 3 days. Mulanje
is just beautiful, every time I go I come back with my head full of
images and willing to come back. I have put some pictures in flickr
but I doubt they can capture it.. I hope that looking at them you will
understand why Mulanje is called Malawi's island in the sky.

And now, just one week to recover and my parents will be here! If you
knew my parents, you would understand that this kind of trip is not a
joke for them, they hardly ever travel abroad and they don't speak a
word of english.. I will let you know how their visit goes but I think
is going to be fun.

Just a quick note, thanks to everybody that wished me happy birthday
from the distance in the last days and sorry to all of you who tried
but couldn't reach me since I was high (in the mountain!) without
internet or network..

Mwanje public school

My friend Muriel works for WFP (world food program) and she managed a
project where the kids of the primary school of Mwanje did a theater
play to talk about the school feeding program. The project was
coordinated by Nanzikambe ( http://www.nanzikambe.org/ ) a theater
company of Blantyre, and it was performed in the walk the world last
June. You can see some of the pictures of that day in my flickr site,
the kids played and danced songs that talk about how was life before
the school feeding program arrived to their village, and how is it
now. I am not going to tell you again about the school feeding
program, you can read about it in my entry of walk the world!.

The thing is that the play was a total success and the ministry of
education wanted to record it in a DVD! Muriel has done her own fund
raising and the recording has started. So last sunday we were at the
school and I was taking pictures because we also want to do a calendar
with photos of the project. It was fantastic, I don't have words to
describe the effort of all this children, teachers and nanzikambe
actors.. I am not releasing the pictures of the recording yet (top
secret!!) but I have uploaded some pictures of what was going out
around the school.. For those pictures and other things, just click on
my photos link on the right!

budget

The Malawian government still does not have a budget and that means
that from the 1st of July is spending money illegally from the
constitutional funds. The government affirms that they can spend money
during four months without agreement of the parliament. So hopefully
this is not going to affect the subside of fertisers, materials of
schools or hospitals, salaries of public service workers... but if the
parliament does not approve the budget, the consequences could be
dramatic for the country.

Everything goes back to 2004, when the president Mutharika decided to
leave the united democratic front (UDF) with which he had won the
elections, and fund the democratic progressive party (DPP). Several
MPs joined him in the adventure (violating the law) and the opposition
tries since then to move him from the office.

More than half of Malawi's budget come from international donors, and
the donor agencies are urging the government to approve the budget.
Malawi relies in this money but funding agencies cannot provide
support if there is no budget. Is really sad that some politicians can
play with the future of millions of poor people.

football!!

Everything goes about football in the last week or so, we are
following the eurocup, and the qualifiers for the world cup where
Malawi is playing. You will think that Malawi has no options to play a
world cup?? well, don't speak too fast, because last saturday we beat
Egypt here, the former champion of the africa cup!! amazing.

We went to the stadium ready to cheer and shout. we had expensive
tickets, because the cheap ones were finished in a few hours... so
there we were with the among Malawians. The stadium was full, and I
was surprised to see such a nice pitch, with beautiful (artificial)
grass and all. The match was great, vibrant, exciting. Malawi was
playing not so well in the first half, but the managed to control
Egypt. The second half things were different, with our team fighting
and fighting. we could not believe it, but Malawi was playing better
than Egypt! and then it happened, Malawi scored in the very last
minute, under the surprised look of the africa cup winners. We all
jumped at once and hugged each other, the party just started. Only a
black souvenir, the bag of one of our friends disappeared during the
goal celebration..

peer support meeting

Last week end I attended a peer support meeting of the "allied health
volunteers". That is all the vso volunteers of the health program that
are not doctors or nurses. We are a small group of lab technicians,
lecturers or business advisors. We shared experiences about our jobs
and we had a couple of teachers giving us some advise in teaching
techniques (many of us we are lecturing but we don't have much
training about it) so it was very useful.
The best part came on saturday. Joyce (lecturer at the college of
health sciences in Lilongwe) had an idea for a community project:
Blood type the minibus drivers!! You have seen the pictures of those
doggy minibuses, and I have told you about them. You will be not
surprised then to know that many of them get involved in road
accidents. We thought that it would be very useful to test drivers at
the station to find their blood group and give them a little card that
they could keep with them. Then in case of accident they could be
attended faster at the hospital.
Joyce organised everything, the cards, all the materials for the
testing.. we set up the "lab" and "office" in the minibus station,
explained people what we wanted to do and started to produce cards!!!
The most difficult part was explaining people what was it for, and
what is a blood group. But also, that if your group is lets say, B +,
the positive does not stand for your HIV status.. so many people came
and we had 100 people tested in 2 hours, great success!
as usual, you can find some pictures in my site.

last lecture (of this semester)

I finished the lectures for this semester!!! Great relief.. Now we
just have to mark the exam papers and see if the students are doing
well. Not many other things going on, apart for the PS meeting last
week end (wait for the next post:).
Is winter here, and Blantyre is cold in the mornings and evenings. Is
also dry, we have not seen rain in may be two months. The city is
getting dusty and you see people sweeping the walkways with their
short brooms. This is a funny activity, a bit like dusting in the
desert, but the soil looks very pretty with the round marks of the
sweeping.
Last week was my anniversary in Malawi! One year since I arrived, but
it looks much shorter. One year only to go, but I don't want to think
about the end of my placement. I feel really far living here, and I
miss my friends and family. but I know that the moment I come back
I'll miss the african life. I don't have plans to come back home. I
know it feels a bit too much another year here without visiting my
family, but my parents are coming next month, so it should be fine!

Walk the world

the 1st of June, WFP organises the walk the world. This is a relay
walk, 5 km on each city, all around the globe in 24 time zones. The
objective is to fundraise money for the feeding program. In Malawi for
example, nearly 70% of children go to school without eating breakfast,
for lack of food at home. WFP provides food to the schools so that the
children can have a portion of maize porridge. This is an amazing
logistic challenge, since some of the schools are in really isolated
places.

It costs only 25 US cents to feed a child a day, 50 dollars per year!
You can participate in a walk near your home and funraise money, or
make a donation! You can find the walk closest to you here http://www.movingtheworld.org/walktheworld

CONTRE JOUR

I told you recently that we saw a concert of 3MA, the group composed by three african musicians playing string instruments from Madagascar, Morocco and Mali. Well, I have found a website about them, inside this site of CONTRE JOUR

In the web site you can find information also about Habib Coite, the great Malian musician, and from Dobet Gnahore, who is playing tomorrow at the french cultural center here!!! we are all going, bien sure!

Pics on my site..

I finally managed to upload pictures in my flickr site, follow the
link on the right. Something from South Africa, Easter at the lake and
other things..

The cost of food: facts and figures

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | The cost of food: facts and figures

Money for food

Yesterday two more persons asked me for money to buy food. It did not
happen so often before, and I don't think I look richer than usual, so
there must be something wrong. According to what we heard on the radio
in the last weeks, the price of food has increased enormously and
millions of people won't have enough food in the next months.

I am not sure if this is the reason. If that is the case, is really
worrying. We are now in harvest time and there should be plenty of
food, and yet people don't have enough to eat. I don't want to think
what is it going like in a few months.

Probably you have notice that I don't reply emails very fast, you will
have to excuse me but I am really (really) busy at the moment..

too much

last week has been just too much, I just don't get to prepare enough
lectures. Most of the things I teach them for the first time, so it
takes ages to make the powerpoint presentations. I know, I can find
some examples in the internet, but still have to do a lot of work
before going to the classroom and pretend that i know what I am
talking about.

On top of the lecture preparation, I have to organise practical
experiments for the students, which involves chasing technicians,
finding all the chemicals and materials (that may be scattered all
over the college) and look for alternatives to the experiments that we
were planning when the things are not available!

I am upset because we interviewed chemistry lecturers in december but
finally nobody is been appointed (probably because I am here). The
idea should be that I could work with somebody that will remain here
after I leave, but sadly, future planning is not yet in the list of
things to do of the college...

At least this week I don't have to teach one of the subjects, and I
will have some time to catch up!!

3 MA

Yesterday we had a great concert at the french cultural center, here
in Blantyre. 3MA is composed by Ballak Sissoko, a great Malian Kora
musicians, Rajery, a Malagasy valiha virtuoso, and Moroccan Driss El
Maloumi, another virtuoso but from eastern lute players.
I don't know if you can imagine it. The mix is amazing, music from
three different corners of Africa!
They don't seem to have a website, I have only found links to
festivals where they have played, but they have produced a CD if you
want to listen to it..

when we come back...

Last friday I had a great evening with my friend Yasmin. She's also a
VSO and she just came back from a short visit to the UK. We went to a
concert of Malaika ( a south african band supposed to be quite good)
but the concert never started and we talked for ages about life here
and in Europe.
We were both scared thinking how weird is going to be when we come
back home and there will be again loads of things to buy, and we
will consume again loads of things that we don't need.. food will be
wrapped in hundreds of packages, and we will have a washing machine
(and hopefully a dishwasher) instead of a housekeeper..

Apart from some fun evenings I haven't done that much since Easter.
We went to the lake, to cape mc clear, which is a
beautiful spot near the 'lake malawi national park'. Cape mac is
famous because he lake is full of cichlids (colored tropical fish).
But is also a backpackers meca, with quite a lot of cheap places to
stay and party. Our holiday was great, with 'beach boys' (local kids)
that organised us bbq on the beach, a boat trip to one of the islands,
snorkeling, pancakes for breakfast and endless sales of curios. It was
great!
I am not going to tell you much about work. Everything is the same at
the college, many lectures and labs to prepare. I am also doing some
progress with the research, preparing a research grant and trying to
attend the meetings at the welcome trust (a research institution at
the back of the hospital).. I have been so busy that I still haven't
put any pictures in the internet! I'll try this week, promised :)

Witch children

I heard it in BBC africa this morning, and I could not believe it, so
I did a fast search in google, here you got the three first results.
In Congo and Angola many children are accused of being witches and are
beaten or abandoned...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/13/africa/witches.php

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=59665

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575178.stm

no comments.

Back to Africa..

I am back from South Africa! My meeting was very good, and I have
made a couple of good connexions. Hopefully i'll be able to start a
research project while I'm here, but I still have to set up a lab
so... pangono pangono. A lot of people came to see my poster, but I
don't know if it was scientific curiosity or they just wanted to know
how I end up working in Malawi..

Appart from work, I loved the country (or at least, the little part
that I saw). Very mediterranean feeling. I felt like back home, and
not in Africa! I suppose that many people would agree with me,
specially if you live in the untamed part of the continent. Only when
you pass the townships in the outskirts of the cities you realise of
where you are, but the motorways, the cars less than 10 years old, the
pavement... made me feel that I was in Europe and not in Africa. It
took me a while to get used to everything, specially the presence of
good roads and traffic lights, and the amount of stuff that you could
buy at the shops.

The course was held in Hermanus which is a village quite popular in
winter because whales visit their coast to have their babies. We were
not in the right time of the year, and we only had a group of dolphins
visiting us one day, but still it was great to enjoy the breaks from
lectures looking at the sea or walking along the cliffs. We were 50
participants from all over the world, and we had a lot of fun,
specially at the end of the week when we started to know each other.

Some of us spent the last two days touring in Cape Town. We visited
Robben island, Table Mountain, Chapman's peak and of course, Cape
Point, the end of the continent. We swam in the sea, and a seal came
to show us how to surf the waves.. it was amazing.
Cape Town itself has many different faces. One face is industrial and
an important harbor. Then down Town Cape Town is beautiful and
touristic, with many European style buildings and great atmosphere.
One of the poorest faces is the many townships around the city where
people survive. South africa receives loads of immigrants from other
african countries, trying to find a better life, but many of them will
end up living non legally and in horrible conditions. Like most
tourist, we spent some time at the waterfront in Cape Town, which is a
huge shopping mall where you can find all the same high street shops
of Europe.. may be after all, that is what development os about??

Now, back to real Africa, work work work, Malawian social life, and
plans to spend Easter on the lake!
I hope to spend some time this week end sorting out the pictures in my
new computer (yes, I bought one!!) and I'll share them soon in my site.

Trip to SA

Yes, I am getting ready for the trip to South Africa (SA), and is quite exciting!! You cannot imagine how many things I have to do there; many friends are passing me requests, from watches to repair to computers (!) because SA sounds like a muzungu paradise with shops and everything that you cannot find here. I am not even sure if I am ready for an overdose of “western civilization” after living in Malawi for the last 8 months now, but I am ready for the test.

 

It will be one week of hard work; we have loads of seminars and poster presentations. I hope my poster is going to be ok, because I have done an awful lot of work! The meeting is about infectious diseases, I mentioned it before, and is going to happen in Hermanus, a town by the sea that is supposed to be a paradise for whale-watching, but is not the right time of the year.. Just to make you jealous http://www.advancedsummerschool.org.za/

 

We are also planning to do some sightseeing, I have delayed my flight a couple of days and Eliya, a local participant, has kindly organized a complete tour of Cape Town.

But of course, there will be tension until the last moment, the college was going to provide me transport to Lilongwe airport but I just talked to the transport officer and he had not received any notifications yet… Malawian communications at its best.

 

revolution in the public transport of Malawi!

Yes, you are reading well. There are many changes in the public transport system. You may have read my entry about the minibuses http://antuaninmalawi.blogspot.com/2008/01/special-entry-about-travelling-by.html how there were 4 people sitting in a row and you were all squashed.. Well, the government has introduced new laws and it looks as if now is only possible to sit three people in a row. The result is amazing, is so nice to jump in the minibuses, even with all your shopping from the market! but the price has increased to compensate for the decrease in passengers and even less people can afford a minibus ride.

Computers for africa

I never realized of how difficult is to get (or repair) a computer in Africa until the laptop that I brought from home died suddenly. How did that happen I am not sure, probably a storm cooked my hard disk, but it doesn’t start anymore. It would not bother me that much if I was in Europe, since it was a quite old machine and needed a replacement, but here, even old crappy laptops are precious, luxurious items. I looked in the few stores that sell laptops in Blantyre and the prices were ridiculous, at least double that in Europe!! If you consider that our salaries are probably 10 times lower here, you can guess that laptops are not accessible at all. And yet laptops are really useful for teaching and research. Books are too expensive but you can find everything in the net!

 

I started to search in internet the different ways to obtain computers in Africa and I found several projects that talk about building cheap computers for developing countries. One of them is computer-aid, that refurbishes and sends cheap computers www.computer-aid.org their service is quite good I think, most of the computers at work come from them.

 

Other interesting projects try to provide cheap laptops. One of them is the one laptop per child (OLPC) http://laptop.org/ that with the help of the MIT has designed a USD100 laptop (although the price is still much higher than that) that could be distributed in the schools of developing countries

 

There are now several competitors of the original low cost laptop, and there are juicy gossips in the net about Intel splitting up from the OLPC project, and creating his own product http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cheap-notebook-battle/intel-classmate-reviewed-verdict-olpc-killer-334261.php

 

Another laptop that is getting much attention is the cute Asus eee pc http://eeepc.asus.com/ , a mini laptop equipped with a 7” screen for about 300-400$.. This kind of product would be very useful here, but God knows when it will be distributed in Africa, and at what price. I am lucky I am going to South Africa in a couple of weeks and I hope to find something affordable there, I don’t think I am going to wait for the OLPC to arrive…

 

 

 

a break from the rain..

It has not rained in the last 4 days and that is really nice because we were about to develop interdigital membranes. Now the sun is shinning and everything looks wonderful, but is starting to get so hot that soon we will miss the rainy days…

 

I have not stopped in the last weeks, many things going on at work with the start of the lectures and my summer school in South Africa. I have to prepare a poster, and may be also an oral presentation. I was not sure what to talk about so I had to do a lot of reading and research to find a topic. No I hope to meet some people in Cape Town and get a small research project going on, we’ll see if everything goes well.

 

With the stop of the rains we start again the outdoor activities too. Last week end we went to Zomba Mountain for a hike, and we are going to Mvuu camp to see the hippos next week end. Is low season now in the game parks, and there is a discount for residents in Malawi!! Probably the grass is very high and he animals are difficult to spot. Access to the park is not possible by car (not even 4wd) and we must take a boat along the Shire river, I’m looking forward!!

 

Have you seen the pictures from Zambia (and other things) in my flickr site?? Follow the link on the right!

 

 

Money matters

Mary, my housemaid, asked me for money the other day. It was the first time that that happened, and I was willing to help her, but she wanted 50.000 kwatcha (around 250 euros) to buy a fridge.. I almost fainted. She cannot believe that my volunteer allowance is less than that, and that I didn’t buy the fridge that I have at home, it was provided by the college of medicine. How can she believe it if I live in that house? The rent of my house must be 500 euros, which is a fortune here, but the college of medicine is paying for it..

She could never buy a fridge (her salary is 30 euros per month). The disparity between what I have and what she has is enormous, she lives in Ndirande, one of the poorest townships of Blantyre, and she supports her 5 children and two of her nephews. I live on my own in a house probably 3 times bigger than hers, and I earn 10 times her salary..

special entry about travelling by minibus

While I was writing about coming to work by minibus I thought that I had to explain how they work… Minibuses are the most common way of public transport in Africa, They are usually Toyota Hiace, second hand imported from Japan or some Asiatic country and they are in quite bad state.. you can see a picture here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acodina/2049180363/

 

They have no seats, only benches, and they seat 4 people in a bench, regardless their size or the luggage they carry. That means that, if there is a ‘traditionally built woman’ in the bus, her bench colleagues will be quite squashed.. Apart from the driver there is somebody in the back that collects the money. He is supposed to use one of the sits, but sometimes they will prefer to pick up an additional passenger and he’ll stand (but there is not really room for him, so sometimes he may sit on the lap of somebody)

 

The minibus does not set off until is full, this can take anytime between 5 min and an hour (or more). Then, it will stop along the way to drop/pick up people. If it is packed, when somebody wants to go out 3 or 4 persons will have to go out too. Sometimes the minibuses break down and you may have to wait for a while in the middle of nowhere.. This makes the trips really amusing, and you get to meet a lot of people.. but is not reliable at all.

 

You never know if you will get on time to your destination, but well, as they say here:’ the important is not at what time you arrive, but that you arrive!’

 

 

off we go!!!

The course has started, and we start to fight with the typical problems, too many lectures to give, not enough staff, not enough room! There are 3 new buildings at the college but they are not finished yet, (they were supposed to be finished one year ago, then they said that they would be ready last autumn, then it was postponed to January, and we are still waiting..)

 

The students arrived last Monday, but for some of the programs there was no timetable, lecture rooms or lecturers for some of the subjects. On Wednesday they asked me if I could teach an additional course of chemistry for the lab technicians program, so the list of courses that I have to teach keeps increasing.. and I have to prepare my summer school in South Africa!

 

Apart from work, we are having a quite hard raining season, I don’t know if you have read the news, but is raining loads in southern Africa due to some kind of meteorological phenomenon called ‘la niña’. Everything looks very pretty, green and lush, but when it rains it seems as if everything is going to be washed away, the internet stops working and there are power cuts that made work (even) more challenging.. all good fun. As you can imagine cycling is not a good option, so I come to work by minibus, which makes the beginning and the end of the day more interesting...

Update Zambia III - Victoria Falls

Voila! After recovering from New Year eve in Lusaka we drove to Victoria Falls, between Zimbabwe and Zambia. We stayed at a hotel in Livingston, A town 10 km away from the falls. Vic falls is a big attraction in southern Africa, and there are many tourist agencies organizing any kind of activity; rafting, canoeing, bungee jumping, boat cruises etc.. The Zimbabwean side used to be more developed but the political situation is making more and more people to visit the falls on the Zambian side. The visit of the falls is very impressive; the Zambezi sort of disappears in a crack 1.6km long and 100m deep and continues its course passing several gorges. In some parts you can get very close to the falls and the spray is so intense that you need a rain coat!

 

We wanted to do rafting but they didn’t do half a day activities in this time of the year, and we didn’t want to leave Bwenzi the whole day on the hotel (although the receptionist said rafting would be a great experience for her! ) So we went for canoeing. For the Belgians, you can imagine that canoeing in the Zambezi is not quite like the descent of the Lesse, but we still thought that it was going to be relaxed compared with white water rafting! Well, that was until our guide started to talk us about what to do in case of a hippo attack! We found out that hippos are very territorial and they don’t like people crossing their land in canoe.. So the guide would pass first hitting his canoe so that the hippos would pop out their heads and we could see them. Everything went ok until one big Bully (Male Hippo that has been kicked out of a family) scared us so much that we dragged the canoes outside the river until we passed his patch and we could continue.. I will never forget the moment when I heard it growling behind us, it was so close!!

 

 That was almost the end of our holiday, we drove back home in 2 days getting ready for the back to reality. Now, lecture preparation, the pharmacy students’ start next week!!!

Update Zanbia II- Lusaka

Hello! Continuing with the Xmas holiday update, our next stop after South Luangwa was Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. The road to Lusaka was beautiful, really green, with many trees and hills and about 100km where the road was just potholes linked together with tar… Our first impression was that Lusaka is much more developed than Blantyre or Lilongwe, the main cities of Malawi. Several shopping malls, much busier traffic and much more movement in general. We managed to do some shopping, get money and we found a guesthouse where to stay… Since it was New Year eve, we wanted to go out!! So we followed instructions and we took a taxi to Manda Hill, (one of the shopping malls) where we met some people in an Irish bar. One of them had been to Germany and he had such a good time that when he learnt that Ivonne is German he adopted us and invited us for beers, took us to a club for free and back home… It was a really nice experience, there was so many people on the streets and in the bars.. The next day we decided to chill out a bit and we stayed in Lusaka. We were tired of all the driving on the previous days and Bwenzi the dog was fed up of the car, she got car sick on the dirt roads and parts with potholes and she would panic just getting into the car!! We had pay a visit to the vet and we sedated her on the following days but I don’t think that she has a nice memory from this holiday… The second of January we hit the road again, destination: Victoria falls!!!!!!

Update zambia I - South Luangwa Nat park

We set off for Zambia on Boxing Day, quite late, because Ivonne was on call at the hospital the previous night and she finished at 1 in the morning. So we packed all our camping stuff, a 20L petrol can and a puppy with all her things in a Toyota Rav4 and we hit the road! Our first stop was south Luangwa, one of the best game reserves in Africa, ‘just’ across the border from Malawi. I say ‘Just’ because is only a bit more than a hundred km away from the border but the road is terrible and it took us 3 hours to get there! In some parts we almost got stuck in the mud, the water reaching the body of the car..  We stayed at croc camp in one of the chalets. Honestly, I love camping, but camping during the raining season was a bit too much!! We saw plenty of animals, lion, hippos, giraffes… it was great, and since its low season there were very few visitors. We also did a night safari trying to spot animals with a torch and we saw several hippos (they come out of the water at night to eat the grass!) and a couple of cats that we thought were leopards but our guide said that they were servals.. (!?)

 

The camp is outside the national park, but we had loads of elephants visiting us! The locals told us that they go to the villages to raid the mango trees. Our dog bwenzi had to stay in the chalet when we visited the park, but she enjoyed looking at the elephants and baboons (from the veranda). We spent two nights and we drove to Lusaka where we spent New Year Eve… but I’ll tell you about that in the next entry J. My laptop has died and I have problems to download the pictures from my camera but I’ll put them soon in my flickr site, promised!