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13/6

Flying to Malawi the scenery on the way looked like vast areas of Cape York where I work, in the dry season. But as we approached Malawi the landscape got greener and you could see that nearly every hut had a bit of garden. Some mountains appeared too and the scenery was beautiful.

The airport was pretty basic and we got through okay even if we did have to unexplainedly change visa lines a couple of times.

The car hire guys was waiting for us and that all went smoothly too and they were super friendly.

I’d used my credit card to book so had to be the primary driver. I’d put John down as the additional driver and paid for that. My plan was to get John to drive. I’m a confident driver at home but when it comes to overseas driving it’s always been Ron who’s done it for me and is so much better. I also knew John had much more experience with crazy traffic.

I did know though that most of the car hire companies now don’t like you driving if you’re over 75 & John is just a tad over. I noticed the look on their face when I said John might drive as if they weren’t going to hand over the keys – I quickly said I’d drive. So there I was driving out into Malawi as my first ever foreign driving experience.. and I have to say I did alright if I must say so myself. Managing to stop in the middle of the road being waved down by the car hire guys cos they’d left their keys in the car, and doing a ten point turn to get myself out of a dusty shanty ‘lane’ ( aka slum) that google maps had taken us down looking for the hotel. Poor Elsie was most worried that this back lane with chickens and pit latrines was where we might be staying- not helped by John’s comments to that effect.

We finally made it to our lovely guesthouse up on a hill, sans chickens and with real toilets.

John and I went out to look at the sunset whilst Elsie rested and wandered into what looked like a deserted mansion to get a better view. A groundsman came out but I don’t think he understood us so soon a little girl of about nine came out to chat with us in impeccable English. Her name was Zora and she was delightful. She proceeded to educate us on language, local foods, customs etc which seemed appropriate as she wants to be a teacher.

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14/6

Started the day with a beautiful breakfast then headed off to meet Memory who is a lovely nurse doing her PhD through John’s University. She had arranged the visit for us and we got a grand tour of the hospital and John got all the information and connections he was looking for. The hospital was basic but very well run and clean- it was very impressive. But it was still sad to see the limitations. It is the main referral hospital but has no intubation of children. If a child needs more than CPAP then they have to be let go.

Infants born at under 28 weeks are not able to be cared for. And still way too many kids dying of malaria but they are doing some amazing research there and we got to meet the head research paediatrician from Glasgow.

Memory had organised a lovely tea and snacks for us which was very nice.

We then had the afternoon free so we headed off to Mulanje which is the highest mountain in Central Africa- it is part of a beautiful mountain range and is a giant granite massif – beautiful and impressive. We drove through villages and bright green tea fields so it was a beautiful drive.

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15/6

Today we headed off on our drive to Mangochi where our friends are staying. We drove through villages and between two mountain ranges and the Jomba reserve. Past villages where gorgeous African children played and pumped water and women wrapped in brightly coloured cloth carried big loads on their heads and babies on their backs. Men rode past on bicycles loaded with 2-3 m lengths of purple sugar cane that seem to be sold everywhere on the side of the road as a snack.

Everywhere we stopped people were friendly kind and honest. We hear that corruption is deep and endemic in Malawi yet not once in this limited experience have we felt anyone trying to ‘rip us off’.

There were fields everywhere of corn, pigeon peas, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and pawpaws.

We saw more of those beautiful granite mountains.

To our right we went along Lake Malombe with swampy shores dotted with villages.

We arrived in Mangochi and just as we got the down my internet (in my esim)died and I no longer had a map and couldn’t call our friends. Not sure what to do it came back briefly long enough to find our way to the gate and then promptly died again. No one could hear me calling at the gate. So back into town and found a SIM card booth that spoke English and got set up with a local sim that was both cheap and easy & we found our way to our friends.

They are a young couple who have moved to Malawi to help some long term missionaries who are working with the Yawo people. They are an oppressed Muslim minority here with the history being that when the Arab space traders came here they sided with them and helped kidnap slaves- so when slavery was abolished the oppressors became the oppressed. It is very hard for them to get jobs, education etc. These guys have lots of projects with them here but our friends are here to help them setup a social enterprise cafe that the Yawo will eventually run as their own community enterprise that helps fund other projects. Ironically they expect most of their clientele and income will come from the wealthy NGO’s and Aid workers here. It was great to be able to bring a bunch of equipment they needed in our luggage.

Meg and Will have a lovely sprawling old house under the shade of a massive banyan tree which is lovely. They settled us in and then we went for a drive up the mountain to watch the sun set over Lake Malawi and also saw a troupe of baboons walking past our car. A couple had babies on them and one looked like it was going to jump in the window so I had my finger on the button!

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