Yet another different new face..

Julie Balch arrived this morning on the AXA coach from Lilongwe (welcome Julie), and Natasa and I went off in the van to pick  her up from the bus stop.  Julie lives in a part of the world I know well - Kelsall is a village in Cheshire where I lived in a property called Poplar Cottage, which was a real roses round the door type of country cottage.  This was quite some time ago (I've got a photo a home of me in my pram outside the house). Julie is the hospitality sector expert that the team has been setting up the seminar for, and it's looking very positive.

The internet in the office was playing up, just for a change, and I had some important emails to send and receive, so we drove back to the house, and showed Julie around.  Natasa drove Daisy back to the office and I stayed and worked.  Julie got herself settled in and then went for a walk into town (she got back safely!).

I had a Skype call with "Eoghan the boss" in Edinburgh about various things, and made some progress on setting up meetings in Lilongwe for my final couple of days in Malawi, looking to assess the possibilities of additional projects there for CBE.  Those days are starting to look increasingly busy.  In very many ways I'm sad that I'm not going to be able to take some time off to go exploring more of this wonderful country, but on the other hand I'm glad that I'm going to be fully-occupied until my flight leaves.

Headin' South....

Pacific Hotel, Lilongwe: 06:15hrs

Back to Blantyre today.  The coach was supposed to leave Lilongwe at 6.30 this morning from the Pacific Hotel quite near the house, before going on to the “coach station” in the old town for 7am, and then south.  So I set my alarm for 5am to make sure that I could pack up and have a coffee before leaving.  Lawrence got me to the right spot in plenty of time, and we sat in the car to wait.  6.10 came and went.  6.20 came and went.  Some other people arrived for the coach, but sadly the coach didn’t.  

Departure time: 06:30hrs; no people, no bus

6.30 came and went, and so it was decision time.  Do I wait there on the  assumption that the coach would turn up eventually, or should we head over the the old town in case they’d decided not to leave from the first stop for whatever reason.  I tried calling the phone numbers on the ticket wallet, but neither of them worked.  In the end we drove over to the old town, and caught sight of the bus going towards the first stop after all – it was just running quite late for some reason.  In any event, I got on it when it eventually arrived.

I’d thought there’d be a free for all, but it turned out the seats were pre-allocated.  My heart semi-stopped when I was told that my seat number was #13!  The coach was OK – they have a “bus hostess” who serves you a little tray containing a vegetable samosa and a small muffin, and a soft drink of your choice.  They also have a music player and a video machine, so once we were well underway she played The Matrix.  But I’ve never seen such a huge crack in a windscreen as there was right in front of the driver’s eyline.

The coach in Blantyre

Thankfully I’d got my IPOD and so was able to listen to my own stuff in peace with my eyes shut.  About an hour from Blantyre we had to stop at a police roadblock and everyone had to get out while the bus was checked over.  I’ve no idea what they were looking for, but it happens every time there, I’m told.  The local villagers even have barbeques set up roasting sweetcorn to sell to the coach travellers – I didn’t partake myself.  In the end I got to Blantyre at around 11:30.  I got off the bus having spoken to Peter who offered to pick me up in Daisy, but stupidly I'd got off at a different stop to the one I was supposed to, so Peter had to drive over to get me.

I'll get the hang of this one day.

This evening, Natasa, Peter and I went out for a curry at a place opposite Ryalls Hotel.  A nice chicken dish for me - medium-hot with jeera rice and a plain paratha, all washed down with a Carlsberg Green.  Very pleasant.

Spreading The Word

On Monday afternoon and evening I had to plan and prepare a 60 minute presentation on marketing for a small business Forum at the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe that had been organised by Henry, the MD of Business Consult Africa.

Crossroads Hotel, Lilongwe

Despite a few technical glitches (e.g. the quite new, modern,  business-oriented hotel decided that the screen for our projector should be a white, unironed sheet hung up on the wall, and that the p.a. system should have a mind of its own), the presentation went fine.  We aren't necessarily looking to do too much business in Lilongwe (unless there's another substantial opportunity) due to the significant incremental costs involved, but it was a useful chance to support our host organisation in Malawi (BCA), and to spread the marketing gospel.

The Big Project Is Starting...

After quite a few days of discussions with the client and with Eoghan Mackie, the Challenges Worldwide MD in Edinburgh, the big one is going ahead.  This is great news, because it's a significant and extremely worthwhile project with the potential to make a positive difference to the lives of a large number of Malawians in rural areas.

I've got to spend much of this weekend on some preparatory work, finalising the detailed project plan, before it kicks off for real in the coming week when the clients are visiting Blantyre, and I'll be meeting up with some of the project team in Lilongwe at the end of the week.  The current intention is that I'll relocate to Lilongwe from Monday 12 July, possibly for up to four weeks.

I'm going to be project managing the entire process, which involves multi-disciplinary and multinational teams including people from the client's operations, suppliers, my colleagues in Blantyre, and others, so I'll be relying heavily on my PRINCE2 project management skills.

I'm likely to be staying in the house that has been leased by Challenges Worldwide to accommodate volunteer lawyers who will be coming out to Malawi to work on a new justice programme, but there's space there at the moment, so it makes sense to use it.  I don't know at this stage whether I'll return to Blantyre each weekend - it's  4+ hours each way on the bus, and it will also depend on what I can do about having access to transport - I'm not particularly keen on being trapped in an albeit comfortable house for entire weekends.

We'll see what happens.

It must be the routine...

... as there hasn't been too much to report over the last few days.

I've met with a couple more potential clients, and today's prospect in particular looks promising.  I'm still waiting to find out if I'll be doing the sizeable project in Lilongwe during July - I really hope it comes off, but we're hanging on news from the bid team in Edinburgh.  I should know in the next couple of days.

I'm taking advantage of my time here to try and adjust my diet and weight, by eating breakfast (required for the malaria tablets), eating smaller meals, and ramping up my fruit intake.  So far all is well, with none of the negative side effects that one might expect from such a radical new regimen.  If I can return home a leaner Pryde, that will be a good thing.  Wish me luck.

I will be posting in due course about the food in Malawi, but my early impressions are that it can be very nice, but not overly healthy.  There's a tendency towards meat with rice or chips (quite often rice AND chips), and they don't go a bundle on veg.  But with a bit of careful dish selection, one can lean towards meals that at least nod in the direction of the healthier option.

I got a very nice Fathers' Day email from David, which perked me up enormously.  This week he's started his training programme at the new bar where he's going to be working over the summer, and I'm looking forward to hearing how he gets on.

The other good news is that the weather is looking good for the rest of the week, even though I took my umbrella in to work today, having been assured by Abraham that it would definitely rain.  I forgive him, though!

I'm Actually Blogging from Malawi!

Yep - it's Tuesday 8 June 2010 and here I am in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.  I arrived this afternoon after a journey that began when my beloved Jan dropped me at Terminal 4, Heathrow Airport in London yesterday.  After dropping off my check-in bag, I made my way to the lounge where I chilled out watching the world go by until I went to the boarding gate for the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, and then on to Lilongwe.

The flight was very good (although the ambient temperature was a bit on the warm side), and despite a slightly delayed departure, we reached Nairobi not too late.  A quick stroll round to Gate 9 let me check in to my next flight to Lilongwe in good time.

The flight to Lilongwe included a brief stop at Lusaka International Airport in Zambia.

Immigration in Lilongwe was excellent, and I was met by Lawrence, an extremely nice guy working with Cecilia, the Challenges Worldwide Programme Manager in Lilongwe.  Lawrence drove me to my overnight accommodation at the Heughlins lodge which is absolutely brilliant - a lovely room, delightful lounge, beautiful grounds and swimming pool - one suspects one is being spoiled!

After a couple of hours R&R, Lawrence picked me up to give me a quick tour of Lilongwe, the capital/ political/government centre of the country and a fine job he did. I've seen the new Parliament building, the major Ministries, embassies, areas of upper-class housing compounds, the old town, and the areas where the "average" Malawians live.  This is just a proto-typical insight into life in Africa - good, bad and indifferent, but my initial impressions are of a country of truly kind and open people.  For example, Lawrence has already started to teach me rudimentary Chichewa, so that in the morning I will be able to amaze the locals with my fluency in saying "Good morning".

I'm now in my room preparing to go to dinner, so watch this space for more news and pics.