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.

Luggage Update

No choice but to bite the bullet.  The guys who are in Blantyre at the moment have told me what they took out with them, and I'll use this to focus my next effort.  As they point out, clothes can be washed, ironed and/or bought!

The Luggage Question

One of those issues that suddenly jumps up and bites you has come to light.

Having been advised by Alastair (who was out in Malawi earlier in the year, and who will be returning later) that he found that he had packed too much, I was preparing to cut back my luggage "ruthlessly".  However, given that my allowance with Kenya Airways is 2 x 23kg bags in the hold, and then a shoulder bag and a laptop as hand luggage, I was feeling fine.  However, now that the final leg of my journey (from Lilongwe to Blantyre) has been booked for 9 June, I see from the Air Malawi website that my allowance is just 20kg.  Even with judicious pruning, there's no way I'm going to be under 20kg (I'm carrying books, for example), so there is now an investigation of the implications going on in Malawi as I write this.  Much thanks to Kondwani in Blantyre and Cecilia in Lilongwe for their efforts on this.

It just goes to show that it's really hard to foresee all eventualities, and reinforces the benefits of building a database of every issue that arises together with the eventual solution (if any) so that the organisation continues to learn over time.

Update On Outbound Journey

I'm flying with Kenya Airways from Heathrow to Lilongwe via Nairobi.  Due to the availability of flights, it seems that I'll be taking an extra day to get out to Blantyre.  As there are no flights from Lilongwe to Blantyre on the Monday, I'm having a stop-over in Lilongwe (B&B I'm told) and will fly on to Blantyre on Tuesday 8th.

Spent Saturday morning at The Galleria in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, visiting the outlet stores for final items including a large holdall to carry 3 months-worth of gear.  Just got to get everything ironed and packed now.