I still had a soft spot for Lilongwe since my last visit, so I decided to spend an extra day here. It gave me an opportunity to look up some people I had gotten to know previously.
Lilongwe as a city is about as far from the centre of the universe as you could imagine but there is something about the way it soldiers on through it’s own multiple adversities that I admire and indeed respect.
I have only fleetingly touched on Chinese influence and investment in these parts but it would take a tome of it’s own to analyse it.
The national football stadium built by the Chinese…
Parliament Building built by the Chinese..
The strangest products packing the shelves of Chinese built and Chinese run supermarkets..
New roads are being built by Chinese, the hotel I am staying in was built and is owned by Chinese, communications systems are being created by the Chinese etc. etc. And that’s before even setting foot into Zambia.
On Sunday morning I browsed around the city and, apart from some infrastructural improvements, little seemed to have changed. I chose not to revisit The Rose Project facility attached to the main hospital as I didn’t feel that it would have been appropriate to rock in unannounced while the staff there carry out their excellent and life enhancing/saving work.
William and Lauretta who had put me up in Salima on my last visit called to collect me in the afternoon and took me for lunch at a really nice city wildlife reserve, a bit like what we would describe as a zoo I guess. We spent the day chatting and driving to markets etc. and William, who rides a motorbike, still harbours an ambition to own a bike like Simba one day. He works in building construction and project management on projects around Malawi and it was really interesting to hear how he sees the potential for national growth. Sadly, as throughout Africa, one of the biggest impediments is corruption of governance.
On Monday I had accepted and invitation to have an early dinner with Jeranjie and Sonu, a truly delightful couple.
Jeranjie and Lauretta are cousins and I had stayed as a guest of her family and community in a remote village in northern Malawi the last time I was there. It was lovely to have a home cooked meal and Sonu was very helpful when chatting about whether or not I should travel on through Zimbabwe. He has an egg and poultry business which deals with most surrounding countries and there is not much that he doesn’t know about traveling in Africa.
One last photo overlooking Lilongwe. Although it has a population of over one million people, it is very spread out and has few areas of real density…..
ZIGZAGGING AFRICA BY MOTORBIKE 