As the plane flew in towards the Lilongwe airport, and was dropping lower, I was able to get my first glimpse of Malawi. As I was looking out the window I saw a vast expansion of bush. There were not a lot of trees or mountains out my window, just lots of grassland, scrubs and a few scattered hills in the distance. Then as we dropped even lower, I was able to make out small thatched roofed huts here and there. And then we landed. But where was the capital ‘city’…I never saw any buildings… roads… any buildings?? Well, as it turns out there are plenty of buildings, roads and more buildings in Lilongwe, they were just on the other side of the plane :)
After we landed, I met up with the other volunteers and Rhodia, the VSO rep that was there to meet and greet us. Luckily and to my amazement both my bags made it through all the airport connections throughout the long trip.
The first week in Malawi was spent attending In-Country Training with VSO. My group consists of 8 volunteers - 4 from the UK, 2 from Holland, 1 from Germany, all working in either Health or Education...I am the only volunteer from the US. Even though I am working in IT, my placement is under the Health program since I am working with the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi.
For the duration of this training, we stayed at the Riverside Lodge in the capital of Malawi – Lilongwe. By the way, I never did find the river that you would expect to be beside the “Riverside’ Lodge??
Our training consisted of language lessons in Chichewa - the local language of Malawi, information on the HIV/AIDS situation in Malawi, working as a volunteer in development, and basic information on the country of Malawi. The last 2 days were spent in a workshop with our employers and this was our first introduction with our future colleagues. Mrs. Linyenga is the Dept head of the Registration and Monitoring Dept at the Nurses and Midwives Council. She is very warm and bright and brought many insightful ideas to the workshop. I had a good feeling about my placement for this first introduction.
With our training completed, most volunteers headed out of Lilongwe to all corners of Malawi. However, since my placement is here in the capital city, my journey took me just across town. My housing was not yet ready, so I moved into another hotel located in Area 11 and is aptly named the Villa 11 Hotel, just North of City Center in Lilongwe.
So what can I say about Lilongwe? As of yet, I have not had an opportunity to see much of the city. During the In-country training, we stayed all week at the Riverside Lodge and did not get out of the hotel, other then walking up the road to the other hotel that sells beer (the Riverside did not have a bar). The training schedule did include a day for the group to go into the Old Town area, where the main market area is located. However, during this particular week, the local street vendors were protesting over a government decision to close down their vendor stalls in the Old Town area and force them to move into a designated market area. Apparently the location of this market area does not offer the amount of business as the streets in Old Town. And on the other side of this issue are the local business owners, who are upset over the street vendors taking away their customers. That and the fact that these street vendors can be unrelenting at times to try to sell passersby their goods.
An additional note - the next week there were more protest by the local Muslims over the publishing of the cartoons in Western newspapers that caused so much controversy all over the world; interesting that this issue made it here to Malawi. So there was not a lot of opportunity to get into Old Town. However, I will have 9 months to explore this part of Lilongwe.
What I do know about Lilongwe: There are 2 main areas – City Center and Old Town. The capital of Malawi has just recently been moved to Lilongwe from the South. The decision to move the government offices was so that the capital would be more centrally located within the country. However, the city of Lilongwe is still in the midst of catching up to this added responsibility. I seriously think that the government must have hired the lowest bidders from the choices of civil engineers for designing this city. Everything is so spread out here and nothing is close by. The city is sectioned off by ‘Areas’, each one assigned a particular number. As I mentioned before, I am currently living in Area 11, and Area 12 is just next door, but the other surrounding Areas are 42, 31 and 34. The house that I am moving into in a couple of weeks is on the other side of City Center in Area 15 - and Area 14 is just across the road, but the other surrounding Areas are 47, 6 and 32. I am not sure where Areas 13 and 16 are… Hmmm? I have yet to figure out the logic of how or why these Areas are where they are and why the numbers have been assigned as they are, and no one seems to have an answer.
In the mean time I was getting to know the other main section of Lilongwe – City Center. The Area 11 Hotel is close by and my office at The Nurses and Midwives Council is located in City Center. The place is very busy with people during the week, but empties during the weekend as most businesses are closed. Getting around town can be a logistics puzzle. The minibus is the most popular mode of transportation about town. You can catch one from anywhere in town to Old Town for about .50 cents. But these minibuses just go in the direction of North and South. There are not any minibuses available going in the East-West directions. So in order to go West of where I was located in Area 11, you will need to take a minibus to Old Town (South) and then another one (going back North this time) to the area that is West of your original location. So you have to travel in a ‘V’ path…and cost you 2 minibus rides. I am very much looking forward to getting a bike from VSO and being able to ride to/from work as well as to the market. It will make life much easier!!
The people I have meet here and just casually pass by have been so welcoming and friendly. A simple “Mwadzuka Bwanji” (Good Morning) always brings a warm smile and sometimes a laugh. Perhaps I need to work on my pronunciation. But, what a way to start the day.
I am looking forward to learning more Chichewa and try to get more laughs from the locals.
VSO Volunteers and Employees:
Riverside Lodge:
1st Line of Defense against Malaria:
Street Scene:
