Skip to main content

Exploring Lilongwe

Greetings from the sunny side of the earth!

Where should I start from.. Well, my flight finally arrived to Lilongwe and this is where I have been ever since. We started with the real intense and busy In-Country training week. We had sessions about quite a range of subjects, including for example security and culture in Malawi, not forgetting the corruption, HIV/AIDS and health issues and general understanding about the sustainable development in Malawi. Most of all I enjoyed our chitumbuka lessons which is the local language we are going to use in the North of Malawi. It was so much fun and we pretty much covered the basics during the first week, greetings and how to get lower prices at the market, very essential. The training week ended on Saturday with a meeting with our employer, Edward the manager himself seemed such a nice person, I am sure we are going to get along well.

So about the situation now. Since we are in Africa, delays and miscommunication is normal and not really surprising me. Edward, our employer, was ready to travel with us to Mzuzu on Saturday. Mzuzu is where we, me and Rona from Philippines, are going to work for the next two years. We were also prepared to go on Saturday or Sunday but then we found out that our house there is completely empty with no furniture in it. We could have travelled with our mattresses but it didn´t really feel comfortable since no one seemed to know when we are getting the rest of the furniture there. So we decided to stay at the VSO guesthouse in Lilongwe as long as our furniture would be sorted out. There´s been some progress now and it could be that we are able to travel there this week. We would love to go already and get settled in our house but we´re not too stressed about it, anyway it´s been a nice week getting to know Lilongwe and we have definitely took the best out of our free time :)

The VSO country office is just a walking distance from the guesthouse, there´s internet but it´s really slow and sometimes working, sometimes not. I got this usb dungle (mokkula finns.) thing today but we need to get it activated tomorrow so let´s see if I will get connected more soon. It´s quite cheap but not sure about the reliability yet. We´ve been taking the minibus to town centre. Malawian minibuses.. cheap and the best way to get around in town, not sure always how they keep working, actually the one from today dropped a door on the way but it was quickly fixed back to its place. The town itself is quite a mess, we´ve been going around everywhere to find the cheapest things with volunteer prices, apart from the Chinese stuff which even here has the reputation of lasting only 24 hours. We are packing up some things to take with us to Mzuzu, things like pasta and some special foods which are harder to find in the North and more expensive there. I am so happy that I have found real coffee and they actually produce it in Mzuzu so no worries about that! And it´s good! Me and Rona are both into gardening so we are busy planning our vegetable/herb/flower garden in Mzuzu. We were even planning to get some chickens so that we could have fresh eggs every day.

It´s the rain season now. Rains come and go in Lilongwe, Mzuzu has more rains. It´s really nice and green now here. After midday it gets really hot but not unbearable. Power cuts are really common and happen every day. Not sure if it´s like that also in Mzuzu but after one week I am already use to them though we had quite weak dinner yesterday when there was a 4 hours power cut in the evening.

I hope to get you some pictures soon!

Comments

Sanna said…
Sounds great Milla! Hope you get to your house soon and can settle down :)
Leif G said…
Here in Nauvo only two power cuts in month.

Popular posts from this blog

east side

My friend Kalle was reading my writings and he was very sad that I forgot to mention his name and that now I'm actually in Joensuu, so for all of you to know he is a good friend ( and for the ladies, single!! i get u a pic later..) so if you ever plan to visit Joensuu ( for some strange reason I don't understand because there is nothing here... except Ilosaarirock and lot of snow!!!) you can always depend on Kalle. Today I'm going to visit a very special place and some very special people. they were a great help when I really needed it some years ago. And for that I thank them because I am able to walk on my own feet again! Saatiin vaparit JokiPojat - Fops Mestis peliin, mutta kiinnostaako se jääkiekko niin paljon?? NO EI! Ihmiset on niin erilaisia taas täällä ja johtuneeko liian pitkään kaupungissa (tai turussa..) olosta et kesti taas hetken tottua että tuntemattomatkin voi hymyillä toisilleen! :)

Kun naapurin tyttö heräsi kuolleista

Elettiin vuotta 2015. Minulla oli jo muutama vuosi takana Malawissa ja asuimme mukavalla alueella melkein kaupungin keskustassa. Kaikki tunsivat minut, mutta itse harvemmin tiesin ihmisiä muuten kuin kasvoilta. Naapurustossa asui myös mukava nuori tyttö, ihan tavallista nuorisoa niin kuin muutkin alueella asuvat. Nyt kun ajattelen, niin siellä asui nuoria itse asiassa todella paljon. Malawissa 0-24 vuotiaat kattavatkin yli 65% koko maan väestöstä. Kaikki tapahtui pari taloa tästä meidän vanhasta talosta eteenpäin Eräänä päivänä tuli suru-uutinen, että tämä tyttö oli menehtynyt malariaan. Olin kuullut oudoista malariakuolemista, mutta se ei ollut koskaan tapahtunut näin lähellä meitä. Sanottiin, että hän oli ollut ihan hyvävointinen, mutta salakavala malaria olikin ehtinyt aivoihin asti ja hän menehtyi äkillisesti sairaalassa. Se, miksi tämä tapaus jäi erityisesti mieleeni, oli se, että käytin sitä usein esimerkkinä kertoessani ihmisille malarian vaarallisuudesta. Malaria on k...

Preparing for Malawi

Well, time is running and my "to do list" is still quite long. The good news is that my flights to Malawi have been confirmed and I will be flying out on the 4th of February. So there is less than 3 weeks to go which at times brings a slight "panic related feelings" but calms down fast after realizing that 3 weeks is plenty of time to get everything sorted out. Autumn time passed fast with all the training we had to do with VSO. It seemed a lot in the beginning and I was wondering how am I going to survive all those studies both in England and online. If you come with an academic background it must be not that bad at all. But if you come with less studying background like I did it really seems like a whole lot of work to do, with lots of paper work, lots of big issues packed with big words! But now when I look back at it all it's been amazing times, have learned so much, enjoyed the conversations with other volunteers and had so much fun too! And I am happy that...