Hello from Malawi

Hello from Malawi, or “moni, muli bwanji� if you prefer your greetings in the local dialect.

I finally arrived here 31 hours after leaving home in Newcastle after a number of delayed flights and one missed flight.

Due to “general engine problems� the plane sat for 3 hours on the runway in Amsterdam before finally taking off, which with only 90 minutes between the planes landing in and departing from Nairobi, this left things a little tight.

Fortunately “African time�, as locals refer to time keeping or the lack thereof, was very much in effect in Nairobi and the plane was still waiting when I landed. A quick sprint between gates followed however I need not have bothered as the plane wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry and another 90 minutes was spent on an airport runway.

By now there was little chance of making the connecting flight from Lilongwe to Blantyre and sure enough as I landed in the Malawian capital I was able to watch the flight to Blantyre take off as we taxied to the terminal.

What I didn’t know at this time was that despite the delay in Nairobi the good people at Kenya Airlines had failed to transfer my bag and it would consequently not be waiting when I arrived at baggage reclaim.

If a missed flight and lost luggage was not the best of starts to my African adventure there were still a number of twists and turns to come as the day progressed.

With nine hours until the next scheduled flight out of Lilongwe I decided the best way to kill time and evade the growing exhaustion I was feeling was to head out to find a bus into the capital city.

A number of taxi drivers attempted to head me off but finding their prices too steep I began to walk into town, sure that I would stumble upon a bus stop sooner or later despite the taxi drivers claims that there were no local buses running in Malawi on a Saturday (yeah right, I’ve travelled to enough places, and met enough taxi drivers, not to fall for that one…)

After 45 minutes of hiking out of the airport I came to the conclusion that there are no local buses running in Malawi on a Saturday. Fortunately there were still any number of local taxis offering a lift and after lengthy negotiation and a little bit of swallowing my pride I decided that a taxi into town wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Described by many as “the blandest of African cities� Lilongwe doesn’t have a whole lot to offer a visitor but I enjoyed a wander through the local markets, enjoyed a couple of games of pool in a backroom bar with the locals (where I received a marriage proposal from a local waitress although it turned out that she just wanted me to buy her a bottle of fanta) and I chanced upon a football match between two nearby villages.

With one of the teams dressed in black and white stripes I was more than happy to cheer them on however the local crowd was equally interested in “the very white man� who was watching their teams play.

With both of the teams and the supporters coming from local villages they are less visited by tourists and consequently I was required to keep moving around the pitch as each time I stopped a small crowd of people would join me, infringing on the pitch and interfering with the game.

I left at half time having with the score at 1-1, the undoubted highlights being the triple back somersault that two members of one of the teams performed to celebrate a goal and a series of meaty 50:50 challenges that will certainly help boost the hospital patient numbers.

A number of the players were wearing boots with studs whilst a number of the players were barefoot yet no-one pulled out of a tackle and there was no talk of broken metatarsals.

I finally left Lilongwe for Blantyre a few hours later (by now I don’t need to tell you that the flight was delayed) where I was met by Stuart, the Executive Director of the hospital where I will be working.

Stuart arrived with the interesting news that there is no running water in Blantyre at present and the electricity in the hostel accommodation where I was to stay had also failed!

Fortunately for me, Stuart has arranged alternative (very comfortable) accommodation and so whilst much of Blantyre still has no running water as I write this on Sunday evening, and my luggage still hasn’t turned up in Malawi, I’m very much enjoying my time here already.

Stuart and his family have been extremely hospitable and have made my transition thus far very easy. Much of today has been spent acclimatising, exploring the local area on foot, attending to a potential gas leak at the hospital (it turned out to be far less dramatic than that sounds and was quickly fixed by tightening the tanks valve) and discussing my role at the hospital.

I start tomorrow morning and will be working with the finance and administration team and I am very much looking forward to getting stuck into the various projects that Stuart has lined up for me.

Mind you, Stuart has informed me that the typical Malawi working day starts at 7.30am. I only hope is that he means 7.30 African time…!

Khalani Bwino!

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