Over to Mustang Sally

Rob (left) - owner of Mustang Sally Club

This afternoon, with the others out for the day, I decided to take advantage of the warm sunshine and stroll over to Mustang Sally's to have one of Rob's excellent value Rib Eye steaks from the braai (served with potato salad and salad for just 600 Kwacha (£2.50-ish).

The usual crowd were in there, so we all sat out in the garden area, had a few beers, ate the food, and enjoyed a good chat.  A fun afternoon and early evening.

Back to the office

This morning I went in to the offfice, and what a pleasure it was to have the network up and running again.  It was great to see everyone after my few days working elsewhere.

We had our usual Consultants/Apprentices meeting, where we review the week, and discuss any and all issues that the group has had over the previous five days (from now on I'm going to refer to them as junior consultants [JCs], because they have made great strides since they first started, and I don't particularly like the term "apprentice" in this context).   It's a useful opportunity to pick up early any concerns that they have so that they can be readily dealt.  Overall, this week has been a good one for them, because they're working on a project to organise a seminar for the hospitality sector.  A new consultant, Julie Stuart, is coming out from the UK this week, and she's an expert in the hospitality sector, so the seminar is being arranged as a marketing device to raise interest from hotels, lodges, bars, tourist locations and others.  It will also allow the sector to get some European insights into how to boost revenues and profits going into the future.

The JCs seem to have really enjoyed themselves on this project, because they've had to work hard to produce good ideas for the seminar, as well as learning about how to develop and market an event of this sort.  Nataša is the "owner" of the project, and my contribution has focused on helping the JCs with understanding the marketing aspects, especially with things like brochure design.  It has also been a good exercise for them in working together as a team, and as such has been a very useful activity.

Alas, I'll be gone by the time the seminar actually takes place, but I'm sure it will prove to be a success.

Nataša and I went to renew our visas this morning - quite a moment for me because it's my last visa renewal in Malawi.  Time seems to be flying by so fast right now as my stay in Malawi comes towards its end.  Every day something happens that brings it home to me that I'll be leaving soon, and that just gives me a whole heap of mixed emotions.  I desperately want to see Jan and David again as soon as possible, but at the same time I know I'm going to miss all the friends I've met here.  I know in a couple of weeks time I'm going to be an emotional mess!

Mustang Sally Club

Still, when the office closed at lunchtime, Nataša, Nishi and I repaired to Mustang Sally's for a quick libation. Rob was desperately keen that we should come back in the evening as well, but we are planning to head off to Veg Delight for dinner, so probably won't.

Reminding me of ....

I know it's the middle of winter here, but this weekend has been more like winter in the North of England than in Sub-Saharan Africa - it's been cold and very wet.  I seem to be coming down with a cold, with sneezing, sniffles and general malaise, so I stayed in the house at the weekend to do a bit of work and watch the cricket and GP, whilst trying to stay warm.

Peter and Natasa went off for a trip down to Mulanje on Saturday, but when they got back they said that the cloud cover was too low to allow them to see the beautiful views out over the valley.

Exterior

On Sunday we went to view the new house that will be home to the UK consultants from the end of August.

Located in an area known as the Catholic Institute, it's a very large property on three floors, and lots of room.  The layout of the house is "different" - unlike anything I've seen before.  The house has floor tiles throughout, so with no furniture in it, it was like walking through an echo chamber.  But the landlord will be furnishing it over the next couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to seeing (and hearing) the difference.

Kitchen #1

There are two full-sized kitchens in totally different styles directly adjacent to each other.

There is one bedroom that looks as if someone thought it would be a good idea to put a circular bed onto the deck of the Starship Enterprise (see picture), and a host of other "unique" features.

Peter has designated this the Guest Room!

The location is OK.  It's not as nice as where we are in Sunnyside, but then again, it's not every house in Blantyre that overlooks the golf course and is a 5 min walk to the city centre, so it isn't fair to judge on that basis.  The consolation is that the new house is a mere stone's throw from Mustang Sally's!

Garden

The oldest standing building in Malawi....

First of all, I suppose well-done to England for progressing to the knock-out stages of the World Cup.  Overall I thought the performance was much better than in the first two games, although Rooney continues to look well below par, and it would have been nice for the best parts of the performance to have been carried on for a bit more of the game.

We watched the match at Club Mustang Sally, having worked through lunchtime so that we could nip off a bit early to see the game.

This morning, I went to Mandala House, home of the Society of Malawi.  I'd got in touch with them before I left home, and wanted to learn more about what they do, and decide if I should join.  I firstly met with Seth - an American who has been in Malawi since around 2000, when his parents moved here to do missionary work - they are located near Lake Malawi.  Seth moved to Blantyre a little time ago, and is doing various IT-related projects, including some for the Society (e.g. he has digitised the Society's photo library that includes thousands of images from the 1820s onwards).  We talked about various ways in which the catalogue could potentially be exploited at a relatively low cost, and it will be interesting to see if anything becomes of the suggestions I made.

I then went up to the first floor of Mandala House to meet Dora Wimbush, the Honorary Librarian.  Dora is clearly a  passionate supporter of everything Malawian, and eloquently talked me into joining up.  The Society occupies the entire first floor of the building, which is the oldest in Malawi.  On the ground floor there's a cafe and a arts & crafts gallery.  Upstairs is the Society's office, library, records archive, and meeting room.  It's a pretty and  atmospheric environment.  I've taken a few pics of the building, which you can see on this Flickr slideshow.  By the way, the French Tricouleur is flying because the building is now owned by a French organisation.

Finally I wanted to mention that this morning I was introduced to Abraham's wife.  I've mentioned Abraham before - he is the lovely man who cleans and cooks for us, and is being very patient whilst teaching me to speak a little Chichewa, and I asked him if he'd mind if I took his photo.  He was more than happy for this (I reckon that secretly he yearns for the spotlight), so here he is in all his glory.

New Arrival

This morning, Chris Farrance, the new consultant to join us here in Blantyre was due to arrive by coach from Lilongwe.  It was due to arrive at around 11.30 this morning, so before that Peter and I set off on a further orientation journey around Blantyre, so I could see where the key areas and places in the city are located.

The coach trip from Lilongwe should take around 4 hours (police road blocks  permitting).  Unfortunately, at around 11.15, we got a call from Chris to say that his coach had broken down just 3.5kms outside Blantyre, so we decided to go and pick him up.  We stopped for petrol, which was just as well because we then got another call to say that he was in fact about 30 minutes outside Blantyre (clearly had got some duff information from the coach driver).

So off we went (I was driving) to find the coach.  Along the way I saw a second "instant demise of goat" incident, this time meted out by the minibus in front of us on the road - I reckon the goats of Malawi are going to start watching out for me and running away.  Eventually we found the coach parked up with all the passengers standing around on the side of the road.  I turned Daisy around and pulled up behind the coach.  Chris was distributing sweets to the kids from the nearby village.  We extricated him and his luggage, and set off back towards Blantyre.

We got back into Blantyre, and decided to go to a vegetarian Indian restaurant (Veggie Delight) for a spot of lunch.  I had a masala Dhosa [see left] which was very acceptable indeed, and only a couple of quid.

We then took Chris on a quick tour of Blantyre including where the office is located, the supermarket, and the sports club.

We also popped into Club Mustang Sally for a beer.  I introduced myself to the owner, Rob - I mentioned him in Friday's blog.  It seems Rob used to own a couple of clubs in the Manchester area and came out to Malawi some time ago.  His story is that where the bar is used to be his house, and his mates used to come round and drink his beer, so he figured he might as well set up a bar and charge them for it!  I took a couple of pictures to give a feel for the place, including the entrance (above), and the upstairs bar & pool (below).

I've not actually seen anyone in the pool yet, but I'm told it does happen, although it may require several drinks to make it seem a sensible thing to do.  Rob was keen for us to stay for his regular weekend barbecue (I quote "big steaks at cost price") but as we'd already eaten, we politely declined, but I will try and do one at some point.  You can see the pool in the picture here.  The disco is to the left of this shot, and the upper bar is in the background.

After a quick beer, it was back to the house so that Chris could settle in.  This evening, we're planning to go to TJ's bar to watch the Brazil vs Ivory Coast game.

That's all for now.

It's still the weather.....

Last night it got cold.

And this Friday morning it still is.  Grey and damp, I gave up the battle and wore my fleece into work.  The internet is now sorted, but alas the water isn't.  So it's crossed legs until lunchtime.

We try to have no client meetings on Fridays so that the focus moves to training for the apprentices.  The consultants also have a review and team meeting with the apprentices to review the past week and flag up any issues going forward.  Of course, with Rick having left, and Sharife on the plane heading for Jo'burg, it was just me.  They'd asked for some help with getting to grips with what marketing is all about, so I decided to have an interactive session to start with so that I could answer any specific questions they had and then I'd be able to plan out what I could do over the next couple of months.  It seemed to go quite well, and so I'll try to do 30 mins each Friday to build up their knowledge and expertise.

One thing I did do was develop a spreadsheet to log useful online resources for each of the core and non-core CMI training modules (plus marketing) which can be developed over time to provide a helpful directory of websites and online reference materials.  The apprentices really liked the idea.

The office closes at lunchtime on Fridays (it's something that NGOs tend to do here, but drives Peter mad because it means we aren't formally working the hours we are contracted to do - despite the work we do back at the house in the evenings!).  So apparently there's a new policy whereby the UK consultants will be working Friday afternoons in the office, but it will be focusing on developing new training modules, etc.

We needed to get some shopping in for the house, so we went to the Chichiri shopping mall (well, the shopping mall in Blantyre) to buy stuff and have a bite to eat.  We ended up in a curry house - I had a very nice chicken aloo with a naan, Then to the Shoprite supermarket for the shopping - I indulged myself with a bar of Dairy Milk and some fruit for my room.

We we due to have a Skype call with Edinburgh at 4pm but the call never came, so we emailed to say we were going home and they could contact us there later if they wanted (this is to do with a large project that might be coming up).  So then back to the house, and get online.  The Skype call eventually took place at around 7.30pm.

The plan was to go to a local bar to watch the England game.  This bar (Mustang Sally's) is an amazing place.  It's owned by a guy from Manchester who's been out here for years.  He bears more than a passing resemblance to Roy Orbison - when we got there he was sitting at the side of the bar dressed completed in black, wearing sunglasses.  The place is designed like some sort of tropical island, with bamboo lining the path from the car park, and there's an upstairs area where they have discos, but there is also a large kidney-shaped swimming pool in the middle of the floor!  I'll get pictures later on.  In the meantime the match was rubbish, but we met up with some of the expats who'd come round to the house a few days ago, and so had a good chat with them, before hitting the road around midnight.