Mzuzu, Malawi

We left Lilongwe on a Sunday morning at 11:30 am.  We caught  a deluxe coach bus which cost 3,500 Malawi Kwacha.  Currently the conversion from Malawi Kwacha to the Canadian Dollar is about 260:1. The bus was about $14.  It was quite comfortable, and the windows opened which gave us a nice breeze.

It's actually winter here, and you would think it's still super hot, but we have actually had quite the breeze during the day and at night it gets quite cold.  Pants and sweater weather.  One of our interns had her laptop bag stolen, but we managed to get it back.  Apparently word of mouth is quite something here in Malawi.

We are staying on the Mzuzu University Campus, which is where we are going to be volunteering as University Lecturers.  Some of the interns have started working.  For example, Kelly who is the Education intern is working at St. John of God which is a primary school for disabled and developmentally challenged children.  She is the only one who isn't working directly on the Mzuzu University Campus.  To get to work, she takes a shared taxi that comes just outside the main entrance to the University and drives her up a few kilometres toward the centre of the town.  One way costs about 100 or 150 MK (Malawi Kwacha), depending on how the fuel shortage is.

Here in Mzuzu, we are quite north and away from the large hubs, so there are fuel crises every once in a while, although it seems like it is more of an issue than not.  Coming from Canada, we don't have issues like that.  People here are very patient, waiting hours and hours to be able to fill up at the pump stations.  Gas here is sometimes sold on the black market for up to double the price, however there are protocols in place to try and minimize this issue.

To do daily shopping there are many stores that you have to go to.  Household items are sold at a store called PEP or RK plastics, depending on what you need.  A lot of the food that isn't fresh is bought at Chipiku Plus which has the cheapest rates.  For all your fresh veggies and fruits, it is good to just go to the market and bargain with the people selling there.  Some examples are a bundle of tomatoes are 100MK, a scoop of peas 50MK, a small bundle of garlic is 100MK, bananas are 10 - 20 MK each depending on the size.  They also have very large papayas, apples, mangoes (not in season yet). Onions, cabbage, yams, carrots, etc.  We have been told for a week's worth of fresh veggies and fruits you will spend about 800 - 1000 MK which is about 4 Canadian dollars.

I was lucky enough to bring my bug net from home.  Although it costs a bundle more than the ones you get here, it wasn't as easy as we thought to find one.  At the Chipiku (not Chipiku plus), we managed to find some good ones that are treated with the mosquito repellent for 5 years.  The one I bought in Canada is a lifetime, but it's a little less "Malawi" of me.

I share a room with Tracey, who is the Surveying intern here at Mzuzu University.  She is from Calgary.  Nicole is an AUCC intern, she will be leaving at the end of August and she is doing Water Resource Management, as well as working to get the online distance learning done.  Kat is working with Eco-Tourism and Forestry, while Michael is the Urban Planning intern.  We have an extra person here, Michael's girlfriend Rachel and she is also going to be working with the online distance learning sector of the University.

So far everything is great, and we are starting to settle in.  I think it will really sink in when I meet with my supervisor next week and start developing my classes to teach!!