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.

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.

How Brilliant Is This?

So what's this Malawi thing all about?

It started for me at the end of April, when Jan (my wife) came back from a meeting in London with a copy of the Metro newspaper.  In it was an advert from Challenges Worldwide (CWW) asking for volunteers to join a project team based in Blantyre, Malawi.  

The project is funded by the Scottish Government, and aims to build an indigenous consultancy capacity in the country through UK consultants working on live projects for micro, small and medium-sized organisations, and also training and mentoring local apprentice consultants.

It struck me as a well-defined and sustainable approach and one that seemed extremely worthwhile, so I called CWW up and received a load of information.  There was a need for a new consultant to get out to Malawi urgently to work on a new client requirement, so on 17 May I had an interview, was offered the position, and my e-tickets to Lilongwe with Kenya Airways arrived in my inbox this afternoon (18 May).

It's now all a question of rushing about to get all my stuff together ready for the off.  I can't wait.