Noises

One of the things that I didn't realise before coming out this time is just how big Blantyre is – it has a population of nearly three quarters of million people. Yet at night time it is totally silent because a great number of these people don't have electricity, so will just go to bed when it gets dark.

Today is a Saturday so it is exceptionally noisy this afternoon there seems to be a lot of clubbing going on – it is rather like being at the cusp of several stages at a festival, music and djs blaring in all direction. Mixed with that is the noise of the noisy English people at the pool, there is never many people staying here but it seems a place to come to eat and swim in at the weekend. Quietly in the background to all this cacophony are the weekday usual quiet sounds; the huge dried seed pods falling from the trees, the bleating of the next door goats, the call to prayer from the mosque and the beautiful singing of the the shy birds at the side of the pool that I've yet to identify. I've downloaded a book of southern African birds with sounds so I will have a trawl and see if I can find out what they are.

Vignettes

I realise that I am never going to manage to write a diary style blog so I will instead write small bits and pieces as they occur.

Arrived

We safely arrived in Malawi last night. The journey was uneventful apart from being stuck on the runway at Jo'burg for 40 mins on the runway on the way to Malawi, fortunately we were both so tired that we slept through it as it was very hot. Thankfully that was our only flight on Air Malawi as their planes (plane?) always looks so tired.

Dawn from the plane flying into Africa was stunning. The sky was so red and the little clouds on the horizon looked like silhouettes of trees and houses so it looked like land. It was magical. There were also little 'hills' of black cloud below with local intense electrical storms.

It was lovely to be back in the hotel again and to see all the staff again, it is definitely like a home for us here. I love the sounds and smells of this place - I wish I could bottle it all up and take it home so I could instantly be brought back here. The smells are of warm earth and wood smoke. The sounds are of a beautiful bird song (I will have to find out what the birds are at the hotel, I never see them but their song is wonderful), distant people laughing, music, sometimes drums and the call to prayer.

Julie and Chris who've been here since Tuesday met us last night for a working dinner to discuss the progress we made and what we want to do this week.

I slept like a log! The bed is so comfortable and I am really grateful for air conditioning.

The 3rd and final trip

Here I go again. The final trip in our three year project. I am SO excited, but also already feeling sad as I think it will be the last time I will be there.

I've been looking back at the last few entries and seeing how this blog has never really got off the ground. It sounds like an excellent idea, but the combination of long and tiring days, power cuts and poor bandwidth means that it never really stands a chance. I also find it difficult to blog about the work I am doing. I find it intrusive to comment on meetings I've had or people I've met; I tend not to do it at St Andrews either.

Still, I am full of good intentions that I will keep the blog up to date this year. Who knows?

Monday

First day of work went well. I met up with Diston (the College of Medicine Librarian) in the morning and we set out our priorities for the week. These are:

• getting the A-Z list up and running
• sharing experiences of information literacy teaching, especially now that they have much more self-directed and problem-based learning
• reviewing the Reference Section and discussing what is useful and what not
• looking at the Library's input into the new VLE, including useful links and RSS feeds
• looking at the new Library and the needs that they have for that

I met Diana, the Deputy Librarian for the first time as she was on maternity leave the last time we were out. The three of us went for a hard-hat tour of the new Library. It is quite extraordinarily huge and beautifully designed. Diston has an office to die for with windows running down two sides and views of the mountain from one. The functions of all the rooms aren't totally decided yet, but it looks like it will be finished in the Spring. Photos are still on my camera, will post later.

Sunday

Sunday saw us going to a wildlife park, somewhere south east of Blantyre ( I think) - I will have to get the name and place and add it in.

Long journey down and a bit bumpy. We didn’t see a whole lot of animals, or maybe I am just getting blasé as we certainly saw a lot of antelopes. We did see a lot of different birds and I was delighted to find out that Susie is a bird expert so could name them all. Here’s some pics:


In the evening we met up with the A Team and went out for a surprisingly good meal at a little hotel near here.

First Day

Had a few hours kicking around Jo’burg airport. All their signage was out of order which made it a bit of an adventure trying to find out the departure gate. We met up with a couple more of our party at the gate and then got on the flight for Blantyre. As usual, the mood on the Malawi-bound plane was completely different to the other ones we got on. Much jollity and good humour with people catching up with old friends. They aren’t like any other flight I’ve been on. Flight was good and then there was the usual hanging around the airport with everyone trying to find a place to fill in their paperwork. Then mysterious stamping and handing over bits of paper to various officials. Good news was that all our luggage arrived. A first, I think! A College car took us to the hotel where we checked in and then spent the afternoon recovering from lack of sleep.

At five we had a couple of hours worth of meeting discussing what we want to do this week, who we need to talk to etc.

Briefly met up with the Edinburgh University Team who have been working with the A Team last week and are just finishing off. The A Team stay at a posher hotel, we but the Edinburgh lot were in ours.

The dinner menu has expanded to include an Indian menu, which was very good. They’d baked a cake for David as it was his birthday and one of the waitresses too. It was very sweet!

Was just doing a bit of interneting before bed when the power went, so I am writing this by candle light and will have to post this tomorrow.

Picture is of my afternoon Fanta by the pool. :)

(I do seem to be a day behind at the moment, apologies.)

Flight to South Africa

(Written this morning. Have just safely arrived at the hotel and am off for a swim. Very hot and sunny! :))

After the spectacular flight in last night to Heathrow over central London with ‘God clouds’ lighting up the Thames we got another treat with spectacular electrical storms over Central Africa. I think the guy in the seat in front of me and I were the only two people who saw it as most people were asleep and with the blinds down. The whole sky was lit up at its peak, stunning and a little bit scary. There was also a fantastic blood red sunrise as well. I didn’t get more than a couple of hours sleep though. Too uncomfortable. They just tried to scam me in the chemists by charging me $28 for some mouthwash and insect repellent. Maybe my maths has let me down, but I don’t think it sounds right.

The weather is beautifully warm and sunny and it is lovely to see the swallows again. We’ve now got a 2-hour wait until the next flight up to Blantyre.

A-Z

Jason Thompson, our Electronic Systems Manager, has been a real star and has finally got the A-Z listing up and running. Now all we have to do is populate it with the complete 6279 articles that they have access to. OK, so that might not be possible before Friday! We are using the Cufts Open Source Serials Management System. There is supposed to be a knowledge base of journals to download, but so far we haven't been able to. I think I may have to go to the forums for help.

Now all we have to do is to try and replicate it in Malawi.

Falkland Estate

Falkland Estate - was up walking around Falkland yesterday and saw this sign saying that they are now selling Malawian Coffee. David had said last year that he had arranged it but cool to see.

Malawi windmill boy

This story is so moving, I loved the bit when he said he discovered the internet and was able to Google Windmills.

Going to have to read that book!

2009 Visit

Just three weeks to go, it has crept up so quickly and I am not ready yet, work-wise. :( There is so much more I wanted to get done before going out in preparation of installing the new A-Z.

Water

We got a half day before spending the afternoon finalising our reports for the concluding meetings tomorrow.

We ended up going down to the Rift Valley, I don't like to try and guess what the temperature was. Got back to discover there was no wifi, but much, much worse, no water. We are going out to dinner tonight with our Principal and the College Principal. Sigh! You really realise how much you take for granted at home.

Safari

On our first full day here, before we got laid into work on the Monday, we set off at 7.00am to visit the best park in Malawi. It was a long journey 2½ hours each way in the back of a van with sideways on seats reminiscent of travelling in a LandRover. We had been warned that the last half hour was going to be rough as it was off the road and we had to go up and down over dried up river beds. In the event, for me, it turned out to be the best part of the journey as we went through lots of little villages giving a real view of Malawian rural life and it was wonderful to be able to smile and make eye contact with the people and wave back to the children as we went through. Travelling through was a real eye-opener in terms of the basic living conditions that people face.

At the gates to the park there were some wee boys sitting in front of a house so I went up and asked to take their pics. They were an absolute delight, mucking around and giggling and wanting to see their pics in the viewfinder.

When we were told we were going on a river trip we thought we might see some crocodiles, as we had been told about them but none of us had any huge expectations of what it would be like. We were blown away.

Liwonde National Park is smallish at 211 square miles. Our day consisted of a morning sailing down the Shire River and an afternoon driving around the special fenced area of the reserve. We had lunch at the Mvuu Camp.

We chose the best time of year to visit with nearly all the water holes dried up, forcing the animals down to the river side. We saw, literally, hundreds of elephants in many different groups, some with all male, some with babies. The park has the highest concentration of hippos anywhere in the world and we got more and more blasé about sailing past yet another group. (In fact the group visiting the week before actually managed to sail over one rather disgruntled one!) There were zebra crocodiles, warthogs, buffalo and baboons and more types of antelope than I knew existed. Lots of stunning birds as well, eagles, kingfishers and amazing coloured things that I have no idea what they were in electric greens and blues and bright yellow. We got within a couple of metres from the elephants (even chasing one along the road!), crocodiles and elephants lots of times. It was just amazing. I've got some great photos, although I did end up taking over 1800 shots!

A fantastic day and well worth the discomfort of the long journey.

(Oh, and we have been working really hard promise! More of that soon.)

Sounds

The sounds are an amazing mixture. In the evening you can sit outside and hear the call to prayer, crickets and grasshoppers, distant party-goers all at the same time.

The smells are of wood smoke which permeates everywhere after dark,eucalyptus and warm earth.

People

The people have exceeded any expectation of the friendliness I was told about. You can see why Malawi is known as the warm heart of Africa. Everywhere people are so genuinely kind and welcoming and a smile is always met back warmly.

Even the lady on the plane next to me offered to invite me to her house! She was really interesting to talk to and it turned out her daughter, who lives in the UK, is considering studying medicine at St Andrews.

Arrival

Flying into the airport at Blantyre was a bit like arriving at a cricket pavilion. The viewing platforms were fully packed with families presumably not all waiting for people to come in but rather enjoying the spectacle.

The heat was the first thing that hit us coming out the plane. We had been warned about the bureaucracy at the airport so were prepared to queue to have our passports stamped.

The road to the hotel was like nothing I had ever seen before. So many people, either just hanging about or sitting outside small business run from huts watching the world go by. People selling ears of corn. I hope to go back there to take pictures, but I just absorbed it all the first time.

I wasn't expecting so many trees, and certainly not so many in colour. Vivid pinks and oranges (some sort of jacaranda I think) bougainvillea.

Internet woes

Apologies for not blogging. One of the first things that I have discovered since getting here is that the internet is very dodgy everywhere. I really understand now about the problems that people have here with internet bandwidth. Sadly, it means that the pictures I have taken to illustrate this are going to have to wait until I get home to upload.

As well as poor connectivity there are frequent power cuts, both planned as part of a nationwide energy saving programme and more haphazard. I thought in my innocence that the candle in the room was a nice decorative touch. At the hotel, the wifi seems to go down for a day or too after each power cut too, which is a real pain.

So here are bits and pieces that I have written during the week so far.

We arrived!

We arrived safely with most of our baggage, unfortunately so did the rainy season. Stepping off the plane we were hit by an oppressive heat but within a couple of hours we've been having some spectacular thunder and lightning and thankfully much cooler temperatures.

Poor Esther's luggage didn't turn up - it all seemed very mysterious as Jon and mine were checked through ok from Edinburgh to Malawi but Heidi and Esther's had to be checked in and out at Johannesburg. Still she is hopeful of getting it back tomorrow.

The hotel is wonderful, big rooms, aircon (yay!), fridge, lovely big shower and exotic wildlife -though thankfully only one of the latter in my room.

Malawi itself is amazing, I will try and get together some coherent thoughts of my first impressions and post them later.

Now I am going to have a couple of hours sleep before dinner - we've been travelling for 24 hours and even though I got more sleep on the plane thant others I am still shattered.

Packed and ready to go

I am packed, although I will have to pay excess baggage. :( I am a nervous wreck, but I will be fine when I get to the airport.