The road to Blantyre

Departed London Heathrow at 2045 on Wednesday night 45 minutes later than scheduled on south African Airways flight 237 destined for Johannesburgs Tamba international airport.  Eleven and a half hours, two DVD's, several chapters of my book and 5631 miles later, we touched down and I made my way through the airport to get my connecting flight to Malawi scheduled to leave in just over an hour. On this occasion we took off on schedule and two hours later were landing at kamuzu airport, lilongwe in Malawi.  i was met by our driver and three of the trainee consultants I would be working with over the coming months and we set off for the 300 km, 4 hour drive to Blantyre nin the South of the country.  i was fascinated from the moment we started the journey by the sights surrounding me.  having passed through the bussle of the suburbs of Lilongwe (Malawi's capitol) we headed out into the African country and down the main north - south highway.  i could have been forgiven for believing that the whole nation lived along the sides of the road.  For the whole journey there were constantly people travelling back and forth, a few motor vehicles, a lot of bycicles but mainly people just on foot.  women carried an assortment of wares on their heads; baskets full of produce, large tin cans and bundles of wood. men also were carrying their wares either by hand or loaded often precariously on their bikes. Every now and then scattered in the bush were villages of mud brick and thatch, each group representing a different village and by the roadside each village had its stall selling to the passing multitudes goods ranging from clothes, food, baskets, wood and numerous other goods including Mice!  yes, mice on a stick, a mouse kebab which the kids waved at us as we passed hoping we would stop and buy their tasty snack.  The picture above I negotiated taking with two boys and cost me about 20 pence although I wasn't tempted to try their little offerings.

we arrived at Blantyre to find half the town in darkness due to a power cut but I was pleased to see that we had electric at the house when we arrived although my delight soon changed when after 26 hours of travelling I headed for a refreshing shower only to find we had no water! good job I had brought a large bottle of after shave with me. Being tired i thought I would have an early night as I was due in the office next morning so having found a handful of water still in one of the taps i had a wash and cleaned my teeth before getting into my new cotton PJ's which i then splashed eucalyptus oil over (mosquito proofing!) before jumping into bed and pulling the mossi net around me and dropping off to sleep.

friday morning we headed down to the office where I was introduced to the team and then sat in with the trainees who were undertaking a module of study for their diplomas in management consulting, a course accredited through the Chartered Management Institute and which I will be taking over delivery of.  friday is an early finish so the two of us staying at the house headed off and did some food shopping before going back to the house.  later I was taken to the famous (or is that infamous?!) Mustang Sally's where we had a huge T Bone steak cooked to perfection infront of us and served with two choices of salad and all for.....£3 !!  unfortunately we then followed that with three bottles of South African red wine, the effects of which lingered on throughout today (saturday).

today (Saturday) I had to be in the office for 8 to co-facilitate a workshop for 15 church officials training them to develop a business plan to be used for securing funding and ensuring sustainability for a resource centre they are looking to build.   The day has gone well and the delegates have gone away with more questions than answers but having an understanding that they need to put in a lot more work and gather a lot more information to make this a succesful venture.

It is now 1900 and I am going to sit downstairs in the House (the house is known locally as the Big Brother House !) with my colleague and have a nice gin and tonic and relax.  Not sure what Im up to tomorrow it depends whether we can get fuel for the vehicle (shortages at the moment) but will be back on here soon with more news.
good night all