{"id":2879,"date":"2014-09-29T10:26:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T09:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2014-09-29T10:26:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T09:26:26","slug":"10-reasons-to-visit-malawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/10-reasons-to-visit-malawi\/","title":{"rendered":"10 reasons to visit… Malawi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is by Alex from onebillion. As you may know, onebillion<\/a> are an organisation set up by Jamie and Andrew from EuroTalk to provide basic maths, reading and English teaching through apps to children in developing countries (and they were recently featured in a BBC Click report<\/a>).\u00a0A few weeks ago, the whole onebillion team travelled to the African country of Malawi\u00a0to expand their project to a new school.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Malawi might not seem like an obvious choice for a visit, but here are ten reasons why Alex thinks you should give it a try \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

1. \u2018Interesting\u2019 foods<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m not sure if this is a reason to visit Malawi or not, but it is quite interesting to see what some of the locals eat. Typical local cuisine mainly consists of a maize porridge called nsima<\/em>, which they eat 2-3 times a day, but you can buy great-looking fresh fruits for next to nothing. You can also get international cuisine from some restaurants in Lilongwe or Blantyre (the two major cities). But a particular highlight is seeing the \u2018mouse boys\u2019 who sell sun-dried mice on sticks (complete with fur) on the side of the road. For some reason none of us has been brave enough to try one yet. You also have to drink some fresh-ground Malawian coffee \u2013 and bring back some beans for the EuroTalk and onebillion offices, of course!<\/p>\n

2. Lake Malawi<\/h4>\n

This is one place you have to see before you die. The most beautiful place I\u2019ve ever been to. You can stay in a simple straw beach hut, see the stars and wake up to the sound of the waves and nothing else. The lake is home to many varieties of fish, alligators and hippos, and we saw dozens of monkeys and other critters all around the lake. Including some rather terrifying new species of bugs. Be careful to check whether it\u2019s safe to swim in the part of the lake you visit, but even if you can\u2019t it\u2019s an amazing place to see some stunning nature.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Get involved in a voluntary project<\/h4>\n

onebillion recently returned to Malawi\u00a0to check up on our progress with delivering tablet-based learning in Biwi school<\/a> and to expand to another, larger school. We were so excited to see how much progress the children have made with their maths skills. But there are many other organisations working there on things like building schools, digging wells and volunteering as a teacher or healthcare assistant. See Malawi Volunteer Organisation<\/a>\u00a0or VSO<\/a>,\u00a0for example.<\/p>\n

4. See a totally different way of life<\/h4>\n

Even in Lilongwe, the capital, Malawi is not very developed. You\u2019ll be bumping along mud roads and seeing people walk past with bicycles stacked up with insane quantities of firewood, huge towers of mud bricks being baked dry and barefooted children running around with chickens and goats. Just seeing how people go about their daily lives will give you a new perspective, and chatting to some of the locals and children who have never seen technology such as smartphones or tablets is really worthwhile. Seeing the faces of groups of Malawian children when they first play a maths game on a tablet or seeing our flying \u2018drone\u2019 camera was priceless.<\/p>\n

5. Experience life without modern conveniences<\/h4>\n

You know all those things you take for granted, like running water, drinking water on tap, electric lights, flushing loos, wifi? Maybe try a couple of days in a traditional Malawian-style hut and say goodbye to all of those things for a while! Whilst freezing \u2018showers\u2019 from a bucket, candlelight and a few days without Instagram might be hard to get used to \u2013 it\u2019s a really interesting experience which makes you appreciate all the home comforts you took for granted before. And you might find you see and experience something new when you\u2019re forced to go without Facebook for a couple of days. Kumbali Village in Lilongwe is the perfect way to experience a back-to-basics stay but with clean water available and clean rooms too.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

6. Wildlife!<\/h4>\n

One of the first things you\u2019ll notice as you take a walk or drive around when you arrive in Malawi is all the different plants and animals that you\u2019ll see everywhere. You can take a safari (the Swahili word for \u2018journey\u2019 by the way) or visit one of the country\u2019s incredible national parks, such as Liwonde and Lengwe to see hippos, lions, elephants and more. But you\u2019re likely to spot monkeys, baboons, colourful insects and birds just out and about. Just watch out for chickens, goats and dogs running in front of your car when you\u2019re in one of the villages!<\/p>\n

7. Climb Mount Mulanje<\/h4>\n

I didn\u2019t actually do this when I visited, but Zane and Alan from onebillion did on their visit and said it gave them a really great sense of achievement, as well as an awesome view. Mt Mulanje is 9,849 feet high \u2013 quite a climb, but not requiring special equipment or training.<\/p>\n

8. Friendly people<\/h4>\n

We often say this about a place, but in Malawi it really is true! Malawi is called the \u2018warm heart of Africa\u2019 and much of this is to do with how warm and friendly people are. They are really genuinely interested to talk to people from other places and happy to share their lives and interests with you in return. They\u2019re also really happy if you manage a couple of simple Chichewa<\/a> phrases: greet people with \u2018moni\u2019 (hello), say \u2018zikomo\u2019 (thanks) and \u2018chonde\u2019 (please) and you\u2019ll get along fine.<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a><\/p>\n

9. Unspoiled landscape and scenery<\/h4>\n

Depending on the time of year, Malawi is either lush and green or dry and very dusty.\u00a0 However it is always a very impressive country to see, with a variety of different terrains and landscapes, including mountains, lakes and rivers. There are a lot of open spaces and not many tourists, so it\u2019s a great place to see some real and unspoiled nature where commercialism hasn’t taken over yet.<\/p>\n

10. The climate!<\/h4>\n

Ok, since our trips to Malawi are mainly about working on our \u2018one billion children\u2019 project we don\u2019t have sooo much time for sunbathing. We\u2019re normally up with the sunrise at 5.30am, in school all day and up charging and configuring tablets, processing data or marking until about 11. But there\u2019s normally some time to relax as well, and sunbathing might also happen (only if our work is done first, honest). You might think of Malawi as extremely hot, but most of the year it is a really nice temperature around 30 degrees and not too humid. Remember your suncream (and insect repellent!) and it really is a great place to soak up some sun.<\/p>\n

Alex<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is by Alex from onebillion. As you may know, onebillion are an organisation set up by Jamie and Andrew from EuroTalk to provide basic maths, reading and English teaching through apps to children in developing countries (and they were recently featured in a BBC Click report).\u00a0A few weeks ago, the whole onebillion team … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[385,305],"tags":[185,247,126,822,113,78,823,824,167,825,620,826,827,391,828,28,829,189,830],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}