Whilst I was working in Tanzania I spent a week down in Blantyre looking after some volunteers and supervising the projects.

I landed at Blantyre airport which is one of the most basic airports that I had been to with very basic facilities and equipment. I was picked up by my colleges friend who took me to my accommodation Kubula Lodge. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa and the journey from the airport to the lodge demonstrated that.

Once I arrived into Blantyre I explored the town. Blantyre is a smallish town that has a nice charming feel to it. The area I was staying in was a old colonial area which was very nice but a little bit run down. Blantyre had everything you needed in terms of banks, bars, and restaurants.

The European Championship was on whilst I was in Malawi and I was staying with a load of Dutch guys so we went to watch Holland vs Russia at the Blue Elephant which was a good night out, unfortunately they ended up losing. As I mentioned earlier Malawi is a very poor country.

Out of the 16 countries in Africa I had been to I felt that Malawi was the poorest or one of them. We had a few volunteers who were working in an orphanage in the middle of a township and my thoughts about the poverty were confirmed by visiting the orphanage. The orphanage where the volunteers was working was very run down, it was not such an orphanage in a way as more of a day care centre which comprised of one small room and lots of children. The children all lived in the local township and could not afford the school fees so would come to the orphanage in the day to get education from the teachers at the orphanage.

People had told me about the warmth of the Malawian people and this was definitely the case. It was a nice change from Arusha where the people there are always trying to get something from you. The Malawians are definitely some of the most friendly people in Africa which is amazing considering most of them survive on less than $US 1 a day. I was always meet with friendly greetings or 'boss' by the men and Zungu by the children which means white man.