Antuan in Malawi

once again..

2011-01-15T08:37:00.001-08:00

I never thought I would write in this blog again. Now that I live in
the grey UK, having a conventional life, I re-read my posts from time
to time and I cannot believe that I once lived in Malawi and did all
those things. Well, in one week I will be in Africa again, just for
two weeks. I am going to visit Mali with Ivonne! This is a long lasted
dream that is finally becoming true.

Years ago I realised that half if not more of my african music comes
from Mali, and promised myself that I had to visit that place. I
cannot yet believe that I am going to be there! I will soon find out
if its true that "le dimanche a Bamako, c'est les jours de mariage.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVwSZ6dsFI

last days..

2009-04-21T23:18:00.001-07:00

this is my last week in Malawi! and despite the awful events I am really sad to go. Everyday I say bye to somebody, and I almost cracked today when I reminded Mary that friday is her last day at work. I could stay here as long as I wanted, but I think I have done my part, and is time to put some order in my life. I believe that now is time for the malawians to continue what I started and I know they can do it.

Is funny to think that I came here to lecture but in fact is me who has received many lessons that I don't understand yet and they will remain very long in my head. I am flying to the UK on monday, and then to Spain for the wedding of my sister and to catch up with family and friends. I am doing a presentation of photos in my town in a youth center. I hope you will come if you are around! It will at the 'Centro de Recursos Juveniles LA GOTA DE LECHE' the 4th of may in Logroño, but I know that plenty of you are far away fro there that day...

This time it was my turn

2009-03-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

Many times I wondered if one day it would happen to me. I'd heard many cases during my time here but I thought that my house was secure... Well, two weeks ago the managed to break into my compound. The thieves made a hole in the wall that separates our compound from the reality, and they broke first into my neibour's house, the closest to the wall. When I heard the scream of my neighbour I knew something was happening. I tried to phone the police but they didn't reply, and I was wondering what to do when they started to break my front door, and I had just enough time to escape to through the back door and raise the alarm. The security team took around 10 minutes to arrive, and this was enough time for them to take most of my things and rape my neighbour..

The hours after the burglary were horrible. I went to the hospital with my neighbor so that she could receive post exposure profilaxis (to avoid HIV infection), and then to the police to make statement and ask them why they didn't pick up the phone when I rang them at night.. Then I tried to get to work on foot, because they took m bike and didn't even have cash to get a minibus. I was so upset that I was trying to walk without looking to the people that I was crossing on my way. Trying to deny their smiles and greetings until finally I had to smile to somebody and I realised that I cannot stop loving this people and this country for a bunch of bastards.

This type of crime is common in South Africa and is increasingly frequent in other nearby countries like Malawi. I can understand robberies. Many times I thought that if I was a Malawian living in extreme poverty and I would see the houses of the rich people next door to my township I could contemplate assaulting them but... why the violence? I was lucky that I could run away and didn't confront those guys, but I cannot remove from my mind what they did to my neighbour and wonder why.

The final countdown..

2009-02-11T00:38:00.000-08:00

I am really sorry for the lack of entries in my blog. After Xmas, we
were starting the academic year, and since then, everything has been
frantic.

Many things have happened since our holiday in Likoma Island. At the
begining of the year, I organised a theater show to talk to the
students about their sexual relatioships and the risk of contracting
HIV during their time here at the college. It sounds weird, but it was
a total sucess, the plays that talked about a couple that went for VCT
(HIV test ) or a whole family that contracts HIV because the sons and
the father were sleeping with the cleaner.. I had funding to do the
show so it was free for students and members of staff, and we had a
great time. There are some pictures in my flickr site..

That was only the beginning. The day before starting the classes we
were told that the number of students in Premed (the course before
starting medicine) was going to be even larger because the lab
technician students would also join the course. 105 students while
last year they were 60. No extra labs or classrooms yet. We are doing
the labs in two turns without time to have lunch or a break. Madness!!

And then in the middle of all this my friends from Spain arrived! it
was great, I had to push my lectures to get a couple of long week ends
free, and we went to all the nice places of the south: The lake,
Mulanje y Liwonde. They ony just left, and I was dead by the end, but
totally worth it..

If all this madness was not enough, I have started a blog in Spanish,
in the local newspaper of my town in Spain. The address is http://blogs.larioja.com/antuan-en-malawi/posts
. Is a different blog, not really to tell the things that happen to
me, but to talk about Malawi, my work here, raise awareness.. I hope
that my friends and family there will read it and won't ask me too
many questions when I come back. I haven't been to Spain in almost 2
years and I'll come back straight for the wedding of my sister, so
i'll see all my family again at the same time.. A bit too much for me.
So the date is set, I should be in Spain the 2nd of May.. The final
countdown is almost starting. Don't ask me what is next, I am looking
for jobs but nothing has come out yet..

Xmas at Likoma island

2009-01-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

Lake Malawi extends from north to south, and one side belongs to Malawi, while the opposite is Mozambique. if you look on the map, you will see what I mean. If you seat on the beach along the Malawi lakeshore, you can usually see the mozambique mountains on the other side, so far away that if you don't swim to discover that the water is fresh you will think for sure that you are looking at the sea. Then, scattered along the lake there are several islands. Some of them are habited by people, some are just home for huge monitor lizards and fish eagles, and some are refuge of backpackers and travelers looking for the ultimate paradise location..

So, that is what we decided to do for Xmas, visit the (I think) largest island of the lake, Likoma island! Likoma lays on the northern part of the lake, close to the mozambique shore, but it belongs to Malawi. And the only way to get there if you don't have money to pay a charter flight is by the Ilala, a boat from the forties that moves north to south of the lake every week non-stop. Don't think this is a tourist boat, is a real way of transport for the Malawians and some Mozambicans living along the lakeshore and the islands. If you walk around the lower deck, you will find people transporting any kind of stuff, from goats to tomatoes or clothes, people sleeping on the floor and no room even to breath.. so we decided to go for the 'first class' which is just the top deck, but there is a bar.. We got our greens on hand (carlsberg bottles) and we were ready.

The boat is old, but well maintained. And we all hope it will last, because if not, many people will loose a very precious way of transport along the lake. The trip goes smooth and soon is fascinating to cross the line of fishermen in their dugouts. When you see them at night from the beach, you can only guess the lights of their paraffin lamps. When you pass close to them you see the solitude of their fragile boats, long hours ahead of them, trying to capture chambo, kampango, usipa... all those species of fish that only exist here. I promised to myself that I will not bargain again for the price of fish.

The boat goes fast, we left at 8 pm when the endless procession of boxes and people stopped coming into the Ilala. And by 2am we were in Chizumulu, the island next to Likoma.. Two hours later we were still there, more little boats coming close to the Ilala to unload crates of beer, baskets with food and people. there is no jetty in Chizumulu, so everything has to be unloaded using boats.. we set off again, and then it was daylight. without warning, one second the sky is pink, and the following second is day, the sun warming us without mercy.. and there it was Likoma!

The next 5 days we just basked on the sun, snorkeled around the beach, and visited the church, waiting for the Ilala to come back from on its way down to pick us up.. There are no beachboys

there (local youngsters that chase tourist to take them partying, sell marihuana, organise barbeques..) just lake, babobab trees, children, relaxed people and the church. a huge cathedral that the anglican missioners built there 100 years ago.. Probably they had nothing better to do?

Christmas dinner was lovely, the table set by the lake, paraffin lamps to guess what we were eating and south african wine.. My xmas present was a hammack, and my routine in the following two days was to hang it from my favorite trees and read on it til dark. Despite the little things to do, the time went fast and the day we were taking the Ilala back to the lakeshore we were sad to leave paradise!!

We had to get to Blantyre for new years eve! nothing special, party at my place, gin punch with pineapple and mango fruit, loads of people and laughs until dawn.. I wish you all the best for the new year!!

From malawi to Ethiopia

2008-12-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-15T01:08:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-09T22:24:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-06T03:01:00.001-08:00

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

2008-10-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

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??

2008-09-09T00:29:00.001-07:00

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

Nyika plateau

2008-08-24T23:49:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-07-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T05:12:00.001-07:00

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!!

2008-06-20T04:30:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-09T00:52:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-06-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

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..

2008-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

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

Money for food

2008-04-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-11T08:34:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-04-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

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..

2008-03-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

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..

2008-02-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2008-01-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

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!

Cape town in March!!

2007-12-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hi my friends, quick post before leaving for Zambia.. I’ve been accepted to a summer school in South Africa in March!!!!! Is about the molecular basis of infection..

http://www.advancedsummerschool.org.za/

I am so excited!!! After teaching so much in the last year, I think that things are gonna change a bit. We have recruited a new lecturer for the department to share the teaching load and I think I’ll be able to spend more time coordinating the course and doing research.. And this summer school just arrives in the best moment…

I don’t think I’ll read emails in the next days so I wish you all happy New Year!!!!!

Merry Xmas!

2007-12-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

I know I am not blogging much these days, but there is not much going on here apart from Xmas parties and dinners. The college is quiet without students and we only have to prepare supplementary exams for those that failed.. The problem is that the letters asking for the exam papers were sent too late and many people is on holiday already.. The secretary of the examinations office is going mad trying to catch the professors.

I think that by the way I could talk about communication problems at the college, which we have many. For example, last week I was supposed to interview new lecturers but nobody told me. Well, they told me but the same day at 8am, exactly when the interviews were supposed to start. I almost had a fit and I refused to do it.. and in half an hour I got in my desk the letters from the whole week!

Talking about other more interesting matters, the plan to visit Zambia is still on, but we haven’t really planned anything yet. We know what day we can leave, and what day we should be back, and the way to the border, but not much more. I am going with my friend Ivonne and her dog on her car and the objective is to spend New Year eve in Victoria Falls, or at least to get there!

Have you noticed? I have added a tiny map at the bottom of my page so I can see where you are… Have a nice holiday!!

I'm in holiday!!

2007-12-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

Today I handed all the final results and I’m in hols!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to the lake for the week end and I’m doing a party at home on Tuesday to celebrate the end of exams and that I have been in Africa for 6 months!!!!!

It’s been crazy, I must say, because we had end of term and end of year exams and we even did a practical exam! The students had to measure the acidity of vinegar and you had to see me cycling to the store in the middle of the exam because we run out..

Now is time to relax and think about the Xmas holidays. I told you we were planning to go to Mozambique, but is a bit complicated and it looks as if we may be going to Zambia in an alternative plan??? I’ll let you know.

Mulanje trip...

2007-11-20T03:18:00.000-08:00

The trip to Mulanje went well! we were lucky with the rains but we just
trekked to Chambe Hut and back the next day, with a good swim at the
waterfall. You can see some pictures of the week end and other things on
my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/acodina

This week end I am organising a peer support meeting at the lake,
strictly work, I don't think we'll have any chance to swim ;-)

more news!!

2007-11-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

More news, I have a housemaid now, and my house is cleaner than ever.
Her name is Mary and she's great. She has 5 children and her husband
passed away this year.. But she smiles like a sunshine.

She's teaching me Chichewa (the local language) and I also want her to
teach me to carry things on my head, but she refuses so far... we get on
really well and I hope she'll introduce me to her children soon!

rainning season

2007-11-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

The rains have arrived like a cup tea for the thirsty soil. It rains
almost every day in the afternoon, and they say this is just the
beginning. The smell after the storms is incredible and the lightning so
amazing. Everything starts to be green and there are more and more
flowers everywhere..

But the rains also bring more mosquitoes and is the worst season for
Malaria. The disease is specially virulent on children and the hospitals
will get more and more crowded in the next months.

The raining season is also the time to plant maize, the staple food in
Malawi, and the farmers rush to the fields. Every single patch of land
even in the city is being ploughed!

Everybody hopes that the rains will be abundant this year, which means
that the maize crop will be good. If rains are scarce the prices of
maize will be too high and there could be food shortages like in 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1985765.stm

I am a bit worried about transport, Not easy to cycle around with this
storms and a laptop on my backpack! but well, we will see what happens.

Apart from weather and transport issues life is great here, I went
yesterday to a jazz concert at the French cultural centre, and tomorrow
we are heading to Mulanje, the mountains one hour away from here. I have
joined the Malawi Mt Club and is so well organised, with loads of huts
where to stay, guides, porters... That mountain is not a joke, 3000 mt
high! people gets lost and they never find them again, so wish us good
luck :-))

Bikes for Africa

2007-11-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

I cycle everyday to work and is quite fun and exhausting (and dangerous!). The traffic is terrible, fumes, minibuses, people, etc. But still I am lucky, many Malawians cannot afford a bike or the minibus (is 20 cents of a euro for a ride in Blantyre) so they walk one hour or more to get to work.

So many people ask me what will I do with my bike when I go home, so I wondered what could I do to help people to get cheap bikes. Obviously, I was not the first one in having this idea, and I’ve found some organizations that collect second hand bicycles, fix them and send them to Africa.

Bikes can help people to get to work (or school!), are cheap to maintain, environmentally friendly and can generate small business that sells or repairs them. If you are interested you can have a look to the links below, and may be you can help giving an old bike!!

http://www.africycle.org/

http://re-cycle.org/index.html

http://www.vcd-bw.de/aktionen/bikes4africa/index_en.html

http://www.springwise.com/nonprofit_social_cause/i_want_to_ride_my_bicycle/

Driving to Mzuzu for the week end..

2007-10-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

Don’t think that all the volunteers have an easy life like me when they come to Malawi, things can be very difficult, and you can have a hard time. My friend Rachel for example was not so lucky, and she had a hell of a placement up to now.

She is an occupational therapist and she came to work at Zomba mental hospital, all the way from Hawaii! Mental illness in Africa is a big issue, there is only one mental hospital in the whole country, and the general opinion is that people with mental problems have suffered some kind of witchcraft or are chamba (marihuana) smokers..

Most of the people speak English here, but mental patients are different, so that was one of the first problems that Rachel had to face.. But well, we all receive quite a lot of training and eventually she would be able to work with patients. The main problem is that her colleagues at the hospital refused to talk in English when she was around or in the meetings, so she found herself totally stuck. She has tried to make it work but finally she gave up. Fortunately there is another place in Mzuzu where she could do some work and they wanted her to go there, so finally she managed to get a transfer and she moved there..

Mzuzu is far up the north of Malawi, near the border with Tanzania, so we rented a car and drove up there during the week end with all her stuff. Driving on the wrong side of the road with a manual car was too much for her, so I agreed to give her a hand. Is not that I enjoy driving 1200 km in a week end, but well, the road is quite good, and the landscapes fantastic!!

Talking about traveling, many of us are thinking of staying here over Christmas and cross the border to Mozambique!! The north of the country is easily accessible from Malawi (but not from South Africa) and its full of paradise like beaches.. We have two options: driving or public transport. Some volunteer have bought cars and are planning to drive there, but it will be raining season and the roads can get very doggy… the public transport option sounds more appealing to me, cos it involves taking loads of minibuses and a train in Mozambique.. it will take me two or three days to reach the coast but I’m sure is worth it!

Open til dawn...

2007-10-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Two week ends ago, my house was empty for the first time in many weeks.. Guys, that was very weird. But well, it only lasted one day, because soon I was invited to a party, next day I when for dinner, and since then the visits came back to normal again.

Last week end was fantastic, I thought it was going to be a quiet one, but out of the blue I was invited to a party in Mulanje, a town only 1 hour away at the feet of a 3000m mountain… sounds good, doesn’t it?? We danced until dawn, first in the house of these colleagues, and then in the local pub… Coming out of the bar the sun was lighting the mountain in the background... Amazing.

As someone said the next day, dancing here is like having sex fully dressed… Well, most of the girls that you find in the pubs are prostitutes, sex is really explicit and when you visit one of these places you understand how HIV and other STD spread around. This is one of the sad consequences of poverty.

It was nice to have such a hectic week end because work is very boring now marking and marking exams and lab reports. The Malawian English of my students doesn’t make things easier... but well, what can I say? I’m not Shakespeare either!

Gold Fish

2007-10-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just a little note about the music of last week end's festival, my favourite was 'Gold Fish' a South African Duo that played electric jazz. Something like the Belgian Domgue (Pedro you'd love'em!!) but more sophisticated.
http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=221
http://www.myvideo.co.za/video/goldfish-music-video

enjoy!

back to reality

2007-10-10T06:50:00.001-07:00

So hard to come back to work after the festival at the lake.. We had an incredible time, although we were a bit dissapointed with the music and the incredible amount of uzungus (white guys) attending and playing. I think that the government in trying to use this iniciatives to promote tourism, but probably, like in many other places, the touristic attractions of Malawi will not be affordable by Malawians..

Anyway, the lake up there is incredible and very little exploited, with beautiful beaches of white sand where you'll only find a few fishermen. The atmosphear is so relaxed and the people so cool... It was 4 days but it looked like a long holiday.

I met Saray and Nieves at the festival before their departure. They went traveling last week and they came to the festival to finish their holiday. I don't think that they wanted to go home, specially Saray that even met a 'best friend' at the lake :-)

I don't have much time to write (loads of reports to correct), but in the next post I'll tell you my adventures trying to get to the lake in a minibus..

flashing!!

2007-10-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

This is a funny article that I have found about the use of mobile phones in Africa...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070926/od_nm/africa_beeping1_dc

Lake of stars!!

2007-10-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of news, emails, facebook etc. Loads of work and fun in the last 2 weeks. We are getting close to the end of year exams here and I have to write loads of exam papers. Last week end we were in Liwonde national park, enjoying the hippos (and the elephant that came to the camp at night!) and I spent sometime in zomba mountain in a research meeting of the Malawi-liverpool-welcome trust. I am trying to inmerse myself into the secrets of the malaria research but so far I am just floating in the surface. I think is going to take me a few months until I manage to do some research in the lab..

Continuing with the subject of my last blog, I am still strugling to get used to the fact that I am a rich white guy (or uzungu, as they call us here). It's really hard for me to believe that I am not an ordinary person anymore and I can get people around me doing all my washing and cleaning... But I am afraid I will have to accept it and get a housemaid... Just as my friend Yasmine said to me the other day: 'get over it, you are in africa'. Giving 30 euros a month to someone is better than giving them nothing, So you will hear my stories soon about me living the great life with my clothes washed and ironed and my house sparkling clean.

More things, we are getting ready for the lake of stars, the music festival at the lake next week end. I am coordinating the logistics of some of the south region volunteers going to the venue, you had to see my mobile phone ringing all the time... This is quite remarkable, I am using more my mobile phone here than I ever did in Europe. I am very popular because of my nice house in the city. So I have a few regulars that stop by and spend a few nights here, enjoying the hot shower (and the owen!) I have learn how to bake pizzas and my popularity in increasing more and more.. Honestly, I am thinking in stopping my career of scientist in the developing world and run a hostel...

development dilemmas

2007-09-17T02:08:00.000-07:00

I get very disturbed sometimes, the disparities in malawi are huge, and I am probably too new here to understand or accepte it..

I had a lady knocking at my door at 6 in the morning a couple of days last week. She wants to work for me, doing the washing and the cleaning. Washing clothes by hand can be a bit tedious, but honestly, it doesn't take more than 2 hours a week. Similar with cleaning the house, so I don't really see the point of hiring someone to work for me. First because I quite don't like people washing my pants and touching my things and second because I have never done it I don't think I will do it now just because is cheap.

A lot of expats or wealthy malawians have staff that clean, cook, etc. Their usual salary is around 30 euros a month. When I tell them that I don't have a housemaid, they say I should, because I cannot do all my washing (well, I've done it all my life) and because I can give a job to someone.
But then every single one says that their housemaids steal food, and I don't wonder why, since its totally impossible that they can live in 30 euros a month, and even more, maintain a family! honestly, the cost of living is cheap in malawi, but is not that cheap...

So, by getting a housemaid, will I generate employment, or poverty? I am just not sure anymore. If some of you wants to give your opinion, please just add a comment below!

time flies!!!

2007-09-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine by the low rate of blogging, we are having a lot of fun here. Saray and her friend Nieves arrived on wednesday, and they made all the way from Lilongwe (4 hours of coach, + a couple of taxis) to my house. Very impressive for a couple of beginners in Africa!!

In her first day, Saray just went to ask to the rehabilitation hospital behind my college and they offer her a little (non-profit) job, and Nieves is looking around planing trips and arranging visits to orphanages and things like that.. I must say that Saray and Nieves were friends before coming here, but I don't know if they will continue their friendship after this trip... For some reason they are freaking out each other quite badly.

I heard somewhere that travelling you get to know very well a person, and you may discover his defects and so on.... or may be they are just stressed because of the cultural shock. So, for all of my friends planning to visit me, please do it, but chose well your travel partners :-))

Anyway, last weekend we went to a lodge in Zomba mountain, just 1 hour away from here. I am gonna try to put some pictures to show you the place. The food, the stars at night, the walks, the visit to the village.. it was great. We have booked a visit to mvuu camp (they cannot miss it!, I have writen about that place before..) and we'll go to a festival of music on the lake at the end of september. I don't really know how am I going to manage with my work and all these trips...

Just to finish I should say that everyday I enjoy more my lectures and my students are getting used to me, so its starting to be really fun. In fact I start to enjoy every single bit of my life here, I don't really know why, but I love it.. I cannot describe my feelings, but when I cycle back home after a hard day of work and I may wonder what am I doing here, I see the orange sunset and the palm trees, the jacarandas full of blue flowers, or somebody smiling to me, and all my problems vanish..

visits, lake, and lots of lectures to prepare......

2007-08-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm back to my blog after some days. Its quite crazy here, the preparation of lectures consumes all my time. Also, last week end we were (again) at the lake for a VSO conference. Really, I thought it was too much. I have been here for 3 months and I haven't really done any work, just basking in the sun and travelling up and down..

if this was not enough two friends are coming next wednesday. Saray and her friend Nieves that want to spend some time here and they will stay until the festival 'lake of stars' in october. So those that have followed my adventures know that my three wives left recently (although they come back every week end) and now two more girls will be living with me for a while, and neighbours, night guards and housemaids will start again to look at me with jealous eyes..

about normal and abnormal things...

2007-08-14T00:11:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing how can we get used to new things, new friends, work colleagues... as if they had always been part of us. My life has changed so much in the last two months, but I have melted in the new situation, and the things that used to surprise me or cause me horror seem to be normal now. Only when I have some time to stop and think about it I realise that a few weeks ago I was living and seeing very different things.
For example, it doesn't surprise me anymore when I see 25 guys squashed in a minibus that is falling apart, even more, sometimes I jump into the minibuses and I squash my bones with the locals. It has become normal also the general state of crappiness of streets, buildings, cars, clothes, etc.. And I don't gasp when I see someone carrying a sack of potatoes in his head! God knows, I may be able to carry things in my head like the Africans after these two years...

Malawian English

2007-08-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

Things are moving now, and after all this period of idleness I start to be fairly busy. I am going to be teaching in the premedical, lab technician and pharmacy courses. If this was not enough, I am getting used to communicate with the locals... I'll have to explain this in detail.
Malawians speak very special English. Nor that I speak better English than them, but their way of talk can be very amusing. One of the main features of their adopted English is the incorporation of vowels in the middle or end of the words. So 'health problems' become 'healthy problems', and the same applies to healthy centre, etc. another good one is blood sample, that is called 'bloody sample', dirt road, dirty road and so on.
But the difficulties don't finish here, is not only a matter of different accent or expressions. An ordinary European like me also has to deal with the fact that Malawians will always tell you what you want to hear. That means that when you ask someone to do something for you they will always say: 'yes, I'm going to do it' but obviously, they don't say when. And sometimes they cannot do it, but they will never tell you. The most negative sentence that I have heard so far is: 'I'll come back to you'.. This means, more or less, that there are serious problems.

MVUU camp

2007-08-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

The day after my birthday, not quite recovered from the party (it was great, in my house, loads of people came!) we went to Liwonde national park. That place is like a postcard from Africa. The river Shire crosses it giving shelter to thousands of hippos and crocodiles and hundreds of elephants. There are also any kind of african deer, boars, birds... (sorry, I still haven't learnt their names, they are all called different here!) We had reserved a couple of tents in the Mvuu camp, by the river, and we did a boat safari and a land safari.

Mvuu means hippo in the local language, probably they gave it that name because hippos visit the camp (I have seen the pictures) although they didn't come that night. In the first evening we did the boat safari. It was absolutely magic, we spotted 3 baby hippos, a group of elephants and a few crocodiles.. the sunset covered us in orange light.. I couldn't stop shooting with my camera.

The next day we went into the rhino sanctuary This is the only part of the park with rhinos, they were totally extinted in Malawi and now they try to breed them in a separated area. We couldn't see the rhinos.. Shame, we'll have to come back ;-)

In country training...

2007-08-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

I've been atending a 2 week long meeting in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, that's why I haven't post anything recently. The meeting was called in country training (ICT) and we had sessions about the 4 diferent programs of VSO in Malawi, Health, HIV/AIDS, Education and Food Security. Some of the presentations were very interesting and helped me to have a better picture of the problems in Malawi and understand some of the things that we have seen, but in general we all were a bit bored, we have been for 7 weeks in the country and we are all eager to go to the field and start work!!

We had a week end at the middle of the training and we spent one day at the lake, a couple of hours drive from Lilogwe. It was a beautiful day, some people bathed, some spent the time in the beach or in the bar... We went to a beach resort called Livinstonia, with bars, restaurants and tourists... but if you walked to the end of the beach you would arrive to the reality were the locals were washing their clothes and the kids were jumping in the rocks and trapping fish in plastic bottles.

The kids of Ilona (canadian volunteer that has come with her family) were exploring the rocks with the local children and some of us joined them in the afternoon. Those kids were fantastic, they were showing us the way to a cave with bats, jumping in the rocks like goats. They wanted us to take pictures of them posing in the rocks.. At the end of the rocks we were suspended over the lake and the views were fantastic. I am uploading some pictures in my site..

Liwonde N park..

2007-07-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

I am so excited because tomorrow I am going to Liwonde NP with Ali, Clare and Kim, the VSO nurses that stayed with me until last week. Ali and Clare went back to their place in Malamulo, somewhere in the south of Blantyre and came back home yesterday, so all the family was together again. You may not understand this, but we really felt like a family (me and my three wives) during the couple of weeks they stayed in my house.

The park we are going tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, with loads of elehants crocodiles and hippos. We are going to stay overnight in the camp, and is gonna be great with a boat safari and a walk. The trip is part of the events organised for my birthday... hey! I've never got older in Africa before, I had to do something special!!

We are all having a relaxing time in our placements during this first weeks, the nurses have done their orientations and I was just preparing lectures. Next week we come back to Lilongwe (capital of Malawi) for the second part of in country training... two more weeks of language, security and culture talks, and after this I think we'll start to work seriously :-)

Sorry, I won't post things for a while and you'll have to wait for the pics of the elephants.

Condoms, Faith and circumcision...

2007-07-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, that was the title of the conference about HIV/AIDS organised here at the college last Wednesday. I thought it was quite amusing, In the first seminar we had someone talking about the use of condoms to avoid HIV infection, and in the second we had a priest talking about how ONLY faith and abstinence were the solutions to the HIV pandemic. I was very surprised to see this two different opinions exposed in the same room. You can imagine that some people reacted against the speech of the parson.. But I think is great that this kind of meeting is organised and people speaks about sex, condoms and HIV without fear in Malawi!!

Life is cheap...

2007-07-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

Almost every week somebody from the office has gone to a funeral. And usually is not the funeral of a grandparent, but the funeral of a brother, wife, son, etc. Life expectancy in Malawi is less than 40 years, mainly due to HIV/AIDS related diseases or malaria. There are many cases of children with malnutrition problems too. Is difficult to understand since treatment at the hospital is free, even antiretrovirals (anti HIV drugs). Generally, education seems to be the main reason.

Many people, specially in the rural areas, is scared of going to hospital. They beleive in traditional medicine, where bad spirits are responsible of diseases. In some cases people will go to hospital but it will be too late to do anything, and in some cases their relatives would think they have actually died because they went to hospital. My colleagues working at the hospital are horrified of the lack of emotions of the local nurses or doctors. I suppose that one gets used to it, but it is sad to think that it can happen.

There are many places where they sell coffins around the city, sometimes in the same shop where they sell furniture, because death is part of life in Malawi.

Hugh Masekela

2007-07-09T02:31:00.000-07:00

I miss the summer concerts in Brussels. The couleur cafe festival, the free concerts in Flagey... But yesterday here in Blantyre I had the chance to listen to Hugh Masekela. http://www.headsup.com/bios/masekela.html

He's a living legend of the south-african jazz, so there were many references to the apartheid and Mandela in the concert. He made us wait for more than 3 hours !! but it was worth it. Try to listen some of his tracks, but I suppose that it won't be the same that listening to it live... and here!

Driving around..

2007-07-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Last week end we rented a car and planned to visit a couple of natural parks. We had a really posh 4wd, and we felt like the richest guys in the world. We drove past loads of people that squeeze in mini buses or travels in the back of pick-ups, or just walk milles to get to work or to a market.

On sunday, coming back from the park (click on the photos link!!!!) Ali couldn't take it any more and she decided to stop in the road and ask people that was walking if they wanted a lift, just like in 'Cry the beloved country' :-) . Some people couldn't believe it, or they even run away from us (!) . We got 3 kids and a couple with two smalls kids in the back of the pick-up and we received the most rewarding smiles ever.

Almost a month gone!!

2007-06-28T23:33:00.001-07:00

Still trying to upload pics to the blog without success.. the internet connection is too slow and it just doesn't go! I shouldn't complain, some of my colleagues work in the countryside and they don't even have a cyber-cafe nearby. I am slowing down the rate of blogs, I start to be quite busy preparing lectures and networking (lobbying as they say in Brussels :-) ) I am going to meet this afternoon some people at the welcome trust lab here at the hospital, they have a great group working in malaria and I would love to do some work with them..

I am so lucky, last week-end I was invited in the last minute to a meeting at the lake. The objective was to rearrange the program of the BMS course (Basic medical science) and reduce it from 2 to 1 year. Why do I think I was lucky?? well, we stayed at the nkopola lodge, a really posh place, with nice food and great rooms. My back door leaded to the lake, it was just like a dream. You can see some pictures of the lake in my flickr page, see the link on the right.

It is amazing how the time flies, I have been here for almost a month and it seems that I arrived yesterday. My expectations change everyday. I quite like a bit of uncertainty in life, but sometimes this is a bit too much!

College of medicine (COM)

2007-06-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

The famous (in Malawi) college of medicine (COM) is placed in Blantyre. Walking inside is like going into another dimension, nice buildings, well-dessed students, wireless internet conection (in the library)... All this to try to build an institution that will form health proffesionals for Malawi.

The facilities are quite good, but the lack of staff is enormous. I have talked about this before, not many people is happy to come and work in the warm heart of Africa...

For example, in the premed course we have 70 students in the class (only one swift), there is not an appropiated chemistry lab, and we have lots of glassware, but we haven't got a technician and nobody has found the time to do an inventory, I will try to do it myself.

For an ordinary European, getting used to the Malawian way of working can be a bit of a nighmare, we have the impression that nothing can be planned in advance. Many times we seem to be fighting against the system, or against the MMT (Malawy May be Time) but people is truely great and after a while you can forget it all.

Who is this one??

2007-06-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

I am hosting several volunteers in my house these days. Ali, Clare and Kim, they are all going to work as nurse trainers in different parts of the country, but first they have to do some training themselves in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here in Blantyre, 5 min from the COM. I won't speak here about their experiences in the hospital, they are also writing about it somewhere..

It is so much fun having them in the house, specially in the evenings without electricity... we pass the time with candles, beer and corn flakes, (we cannot cook) talking about our placements.

We profit of the transport service of the College of Medicine to get to work in the morning and we just laugh imagining what the neighbours may think of me living with 3 women in the house.. The other day, the housemaid of the neighbour asked pointing to Kim: Who is this one?? she's my friend! I said. Not very sure what she understood.. I already said that I'm a catholic (I can't be bother explaining that I'm not a religious person) so I cannot use the excuse of being muslim...

some stories about work...

2007-06-18T00:09:00.001-07:00

still trying to upload pictures in the blog without sucess. you can visit my flickr page, where you can see a few pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acodina
It's dead calm here at the college of medicine. Only two weeks left of this term and I am not going to start teaching until the next semester. I am supposed to teach chemistry in the premed(a crash course before 1st year of medicine) so I'm looking at the program and starting to prepare some of the lectures. The teaching lab is so bad organised, they have lots of glassware but it's just stuck in boxes in a room. There is a huge need of chemicals, in part because it takes ages to receive them, in part for lack of funding...

I may also help my Mike Berry (my neighbour) with some of the biochemistry or chemistry courses. He is the head of pharmacology and he's having problems to employ staff for his courses. The system is too strict and he can only employ malawians or people that has an Msc. Very few persons can fullfil the conditions and even less persons would come to work here since salaries are too low.. If he cannot employ any lecturers before the end of the year the course is going to colapse. So sad but the lack of staff is huge at the university or the hospitals of Malawi. I don't want to be too negative, its great to be here, but sometimes the situation is so overwhelming..

Home, city, life...

2007-06-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

I must say that my house is nice. Its a 3 bedroom house in a well secured area of the city. The university is paying for it, and it must cost a fortune. I'm still not sure if they will pay this place for me the 2 years of my placement, but I hope I'll still be here by my birthday and I can do a nice party!

The house is a bit far from the college, its only a 5 min drive, but it will take me almost an hour to get there by foot. There is a public transport system, its formed by minivans that stop at certain places and where people squeezes at high pressure. You may think that the van is full, but in the next stop more people will certainly jump in.. I am very lucky, my neighbour Mike is a professor also at the college of medicine and he gives me a lift in the morning.

Walking around the city is quite amusing, but it can also be exhausting. People stops to talk to you, shake hands, and want to know about you. A conversation here starts with: Muli Bwanji? Ndili bwino, kaya inu? which is something like, hello, how are you? I'm well and you? I am well thank you, thank you.

In general, people is so kind and polite, hey! it is not a lie when they say this is the warm hearth of Africa! The disadvantage is that if you want to ask something to someone you'll have to pass all this process before you can actually go to the point.

Another experience is buying something. You can bargain even at the shops. sometimes, they will try to charge you a bit more because since you are a white guy you are suppose to be rich!

I am supposed to be so rich that people stops me in the street and ask me for a job. You can hire someone to clean the house, do the washing / ironing or guard it during the night for about 5000 kawcha, more or less 28 Euros (a month!). This is pretty amazing, our allowance as volunteers is almost 10 times that and I don't really see how can I live on that.

Pangono pangono...

2007-06-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! this is the first entry of my blog! I type this things at home and then I upload them when I get conected, so you will get my news a bit late.

I have been in Malawi for almost 2 weeks now and I have not really settled down. We arrived the 3^rd of June. I say ‘we’ because we were 14 volunteers in total. We spent the first week in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi in what they call the ‘in country training’ or ICT.

The ICT includes formation about culture, language, work, security etc. We had quite a lot of fun, specially in the evenings when we used to have a gin&tonic in the hotel next door :-) . In the first days we were always shepherd everywhere by the VSO staff or by other volunteers. They don’t recommend to walk alone in some parts of the city, even during the day!

The end of the ICT was a workshop with our employers. They were supposed to come and participate, but mine did not come... umm this doesn’t start well.. Finally a driver came on Friday afternoon and he took me to my house in Blantyre. Pangono pangono, you hear that a lot. it means, of course, slowly