The Social Scene

The Social Scene.

Malawian Rift Valley, nice and green from all the rain, from half way up Chongoni.

6th Feb 2013

So what do we get up to in a normal week in our social time.

Well lets rule one thing out straight away if we could afford a TV, which we can't there is not much to watch except Football.

Besides nothing to watch if there was the chance of having a power cut in the evening is great.

It seems that most volunteers came out with a pack of DVD's and TV serials on there external hard drives so there is a lot of swopping.

Plus there are some cleaver guys who know how to download latest movies. The latest James Bond movie must be the top of the charts for coping this week. There is no Cinemas in Lilongwe and only one in Blantyre so we rely on DVD's and downloads.

The Social scene has a big variance depending on where you live City, Town or Village.

For those in towns there may be other volunteers and those in villages the chances are small so they have to live a very different life to me in the City. Then the facilities in the towns and villages will be very basic with very limited food available. This is their volunteer experience.

For the people in Lilongwe in comparison there is loads to do.

However there are no pubs… There are a handful of Bars mostly used by volunteers/Expats and locals who earn enough to afford to buy a drink.

Restaurants during the day there are loads but most are closed by 19:00, but only a few stay open to 21:00.

Most people finish work by 17:00 and the buses stop around 18:30 when it's dark.

The volunteers , expats and some local do create their own social events with the help of some bars which are normally run by expats.

So to give you an idea this is what I did last week…

Monday…  HASH, this is a running group we cover about 9 kilometres, some run shorter and some walk. It's very sociable with drinks afterwards.. also on Mondays a Bar called the Living Room has a film night. Not been yet.

Tuesday…  We cooked dinner for 8 people, some other vso volunteers were in town for a meeting so had them around… The Living Room has an acoustics night but didn't go this night. Previous weeks been very good, they have lots of sofa's to relax in and can order mexican wraps as there speciality for Tuesdays.

Wednesday.. Beach Volleyball match day… Good social event 4 matches played on each of the two courts lots of mingling and drinking.

Thursday.. Had Zoe and Hil around for a meal before going to a Bar called Diplomats to join in a Salsa lesson taught by their Canadian house mate Ashley. Then went onto another bar called Cameleons… They were having a Karaoke evening, everybody who sang was very good, fished at 1.

Friday… 8 of us went to an Ethiopian meal, very strange. The restaurant is in a house, in a fashionable area next to the US Ambassador's residence.

Seemed like we were in the staff part of the house. But had a good interesting meal but only one other couple in there. £6 for a large shared meal and couple of beers.

Saturday.. Early mooring there was a Live goat tied up outside Regie and Dens ( VSO's living next door).

Went wine tasting, well it's wine made out of various fruits. Mostly tasted like a Sherry.

Early afternoon arriving back the Whole Goat was on a big bamboo skewer being BBQ'd. They were having all their Phillipino friends over for a party later. The Goat had had it's neck cut and taken off by Michael one of the vso volunteers.

Myself, Herman and David (over for the weekend) went around early evening and had some very nice goat.

We had been invited to a Pool party by Swiv ( Norwegian) and Irene ( Danish) volleyball players.  Hannah who works for another org in the vso office also joined us.

We had been expecting a large party ( fairly normal on Sat night) but there was just them and us in a massive house.

We had a good drink, nibbles and conversation very interesting getting a Nordic view on life and interests in Malawi.

The pool was nice but went didn't go in, a few mosses about.

Sunday… Went to Hannah's house to try and fix some bikes so we could go for a ride, but not fixable. However with Annabel (housemate) we drove to a Dam about 40minutes drive away to check out a Sailing club. No action there, but was a lodge to hire and several old dingies and a couple of Toppers so might plan a group visit there and stay the night as the lodge sleeps 8. Nothing else there except the lake formed by the dam.

Loads of birds and strange noises, but were told no croc's

Looking back this seems a lot  but most volunteers live in small sparsely funished houses so nice to be out.

Otherwise both Cameleons and the living room have speciality nights with live music. Cameleons has a large garden with live bands on outside and inside. They also have a large projector and show sports events live. So all the football and last weekend the start of the Rugby.

Otherwise since my last blog, work is still at a standstill but we have a returned VSO program manager who is now about to put pressure on the minister to get him to action what he is supposed to do.

In Mid Jan we picked up a free offer of a days walk/climb up Chongoni Mountain about an hours drive away,. this was about a 600m trek up with some wonderful views down the rift valley. The company normally charges $70 for this trip so was a good freebie.

Lunch break at the top of Chongoni with Annabel,Zoe and Hilary

Last weekend there was 12 of us went to the Lake for the night and stayed in a lodge by a pottery close to Nkhotakhota.

The lodge had it's own very clean beach about 500m and then adjoined other beaches, very remote nothing else about.

The rain stayed away and we spent most of the time swimming, but no fish to see except the one the fishermen had caught.

The Pottery had a nice terrace restaurant serving a good mix of menus, but most of us had the fish. You cannot go to the lake and not have very fresh fish.

It is still the rainy season so most days we do have torrent rain outbreaks. Yes I know in the pics the sun seems to be out.  My skills with adobe  paint brush of course..

Well that's my update for the month.

Robin