Category Archives: Travelling Tales

Biwi village’s initial needs assessment reported that the rainy season mortality rate is circa 30 per month, mainly due to chronic diarrhoea. Toilet paper and hand washing do not happen although a number of useable pit latrines were in evidence. Armed with a crude photocopy of a ‘tippee’, an empty 5 litre nylon bottle, aContinue reading “Tippee time…”

Malaria in Malawi is a serious and serial killer, and is often accepted as ‘part of life’ whilst malarial education moves at an asthmatic rate. The numbers of subsidised or ‘free’ nets are woefully inadequate and are often redeployed as hut-window coverings or fishing nets. To the better heeled there is the local chemical option,Continue reading “Doomed…”

In the villages improvisation is the key. Catch an oversized Malawi grasshopper, pull it’s legs off and chuck it back in the air and you have a none-escape helicopter that provides a good five minutes of fun and hilarity without the need for batteries.   Under the right conditions and with a little care, pigsContinue reading “Pigs on the wing…”

In a community where illiteracy levels are around 90%, the demand for written materials is a bit on the limited side. Material possessions are generally shared and used well beyond their usual life expectancy. Holding it like it was the most precious thing he owned, Simeon Chiphale delicately turned the pages of his own bookContinue reading “Simeon’s word…”

Mervis has got it right. She is the first in the Candy MED cohort to pay back her micro loan. Buying only the best lake fish, gutting, sun drying and selling added value with her USP of “quality first”, she has gained an enviable reputation in the villages. Toiling with energy and ingenuity that wouldContinue reading “Mervis the fish seller…”

Power outages are common in the rural areas although this does not usually seriously affect the individual hut owner as they are not connected anyway. Communal facilities such as clinic fridges and the deeper electric pumped bore holes are a different matter but acceptance is a way of life as the elderly distribution transformer burstContinue reading “Powering down…”

The new president elect, Joyce Banda’s budget speech was by any standard impressive. Whilst quoting Luther King’s Dream speech, she promised to balance the books, revitalise the flat- lined economy, address the meagre health and education provision, whilst stimulating growth and imposing austerity. The offer to sell the former leader’s presidential jet and to shrinkContinue reading “Getting down with Joyce…”

Malawi’s former president is an easy target to blame for the country’s many shortcomings; Easy, because he died unexpectedly. The spin machinery omitted to announce this for three days partly in fear of unrest and revolt, and partly to give some time to make some very necessary adjustments in the nation’s fiscal records.  Power outages,Continue reading “Kwacha at bed time…”

Ethiopian Airways’ travel adviser log just does not make good reading. The elderly none liveried, Boeing 767-300, painted gloss white head to stern had no distinguishing marks apart from a compulsory call sign hastily stencilled slightly forward of its well-worn tail fin. Addis Ababa airport is undergoing a huge make-over and the old lady hadContinue reading “The bird with no name…”

The run up to this next African adventure feels more unplanned and unpredictable than ever. To those of you kind enough to follow these tales will know that is a quite a statement. Jules’ recent encounter en-captured by the Chichester local press sums it up succulently.  Good intentions, skilfully executed, are no match for an unkindly and unexpected elbowContinue reading “The unplanned, the unpredictable and the unexpected…”