Week 6 Malawi - the friendly country.
It's Malawi this week. The country markets itself as the friendly country, and from the people I've met I'd say its very true - but when I consider how friendly Zambia and Zimbabwe also were is not really a point of discrimination. This highlights one of the things I struggle with as I write this blog, whilst I, for convenience, tend to describe things on a country by country basis, the reality is not so clear cut, the changes I see are progressive and don't normally occur abruptly at a border. Over the last six weeks as I move north what I've seen is societies transitioning from being relatively wealthy but with the businesses predominantly white managed or owned, to poorer, less mechanised but with more indigenous entrepreneurship. But as you see differences you also see similarities, the two most striking being the relative youth of all the populations and the struggle each is having with integrating the democratic process as we of the west understand it. The two issues interact and how they will play out over the coming years is an intriguing, if scarey, question - especially in a time of climate change and rapid globalisation.
Anyway enough of that, here are a few photos from my first few days in Malawi which covered the capital Lilongwe (which is nice and compact) and some of the countryside to the south of the country.
It's Malawi this week. The country markets itself as the friendly country, and from the people I've met I'd say its very true - but when I consider how friendly Zambia and Zimbabwe also were is not really a point of discrimination. This highlights one of the things I struggle with as I write this blog, whilst I, for convenience, tend to describe things on a country by country basis, the reality is not so clear cut, the changes I see are progressive and don't normally occur abruptly at a border. Over the last six weeks as I move north what I've seen is societies transitioning from being relatively wealthy but with the businesses predominantly white managed or owned, to poorer, less mechanised but with more indigenous entrepreneurship. But as you see differences you also see similarities, the two most striking being the relative youth of all the populations and the struggle each is having with integrating the democratic process as we of the west understand it. The two issues interact and how they will play out over the coming years is an intriguing, if scarey, question - especially in a time of climate change and rapid globalisation.
Anyway enough of that, here are a few photos from my first few days in Malawi which covered the capital Lilongwe (which is nice and compact) and some of the countryside to the south of the country.
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| Typical small town market day - this sprawls across the road as you had south making progress slow (but very interesting) |
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| Malawi's friendly police - I've got to talk to a lot of them as they love their check points (fifteen in one day is the best score so far) |
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| Typical on the road lunch - Nseema, which is maize porridge and meat sauce and typically costs around $1. It's yummy. |
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| Bicycles and people everywhere - compared with previous counties there are very few cars and trucks. |
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| Tea plantation near Mulanje in the south of Malawi |
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| And the reality of life for many - a slum in the capital Lilongwe. |
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