Feb 27th

BIG STORM LAST NIGHT! The wind started picking up about 3:30 AM and the rain and wind were really wild for about an hour. It was raining in my hut, or so I thought at first. I could feel this really fine mist coming down on me, but I could not tell where it was coming from, as I could not see that it would be coming through the thatch roof, and at the front there was a large porch, which covered most of the front of the hut. I finally realized that the wind was blowing so hard off the lake, and right at the front of my hut, that it was pushing the rain through a small screen (vent) at the top peak of the hut. It was kinda refreshing with the mist falling, but I moved my suitcase into the bathroom area to keep from getting everything wet. Well today, is a travel/sightseeing day. Brad and I have decided that the trip to Salema will be too long, so we are going to stop in Mzuzu, and visit Dennis & Nicky, and maybe have a look around the market. Davison was too pick us up at 8 am, and we were ready, but he did not arrive until after 10 am. (OK, that is getting a little ridiculous), but he had a good excuse. He had driven out towards Salema to check the roads….what a great guy! He said there were a couple of bad spots where we might have to get pulled through, and I had visions of pushing in the mud, so Brad and I stuck with the plan to go to Mzuzu. We headed out just after 10 am and I asked if we could stop at the Makuzi Beach Lodge, because I had met the owners on the flight back to Jo’burg last year. Davison, said and I quote “No problem, it is only a short distance off the road”, however that short distance (about a half mile) was a very narrow trail and quite rough. It totally amazes me that they have these great lodges next to the lake, but none of them have good access roads, in fact you would not want to take a car down any of them. Vans will get there, but a 4 wheel drive would be best.

The Lodge is very nice, and we had refreshments in the bar while waiting for the owners to come over from their house. Brett, the owner arrived after a few minutes and we had a good visit. Lara was actually the one that I sat beside on the plane, but unfortunately she was still resting from a big trip she had just returned from. Back on the road after about a half hour, and then we made another stop at the little market set up where we had to turn to go to Mzuzu. This is where Brad and I got some great souvenirs last year, at the best prices around. I purchased 2 hand carved wooden bowls, a fisherman in his canoe, some wooden salad forks, and a small globe this time around. They did not have any of the Jewellery that Penny liked so will have to wait until we get to Lilongwe. We arrived in Lilongwe around 3:00 pm, and we had late lunch at the hotel. Brad and I then decided to go for a walk to the market, which is about a half mile away, as we knew the way from last year. Good thing we took umbrellas, as it rained shortly after we left and did quit until after we returned. It was a very light rain though. We did not make any purchases, as this market is mostly, food, clothes, hardware, etc. for the locals. We returned to the hotel around 5 pm, and Dennis phones my room to tell us to come for a “Green”. We met them in the bar, got caught up on what they had been doing, and then headed to the restaurant in the hotel for supper. After supper Dennis showed us a video of some kids singing out at the school they visited, they were amazing. I have asked him for a copy of the video clip. Tomorrow we head to Lilongwe, and Wyatt will be arriving from Australia on Tuesday for a short visit.

DWASCO SACCO cont'd

Feb 26th

Awoke on Friday morning after a good night’s sleep….the bed’s here at Ngala are great. They are King size and have really good mattresses and thick comforters. You might think that why would you need a comforter when it is so hot? There is a large fan over the bed to get the air moving and it blows through a huge mosquito net that covers the bed, and I like to leave that running all night. In the middle of the night if you are not under the comforter it does get quite cool (I said cool…not cold!!!). Will try to post some photos again when we get back to Lilongwe. After breakfast we were ready to head out by 8:30, but Davison did not make it to pick us up until after 9 (not a problem). We spent most of the morning preparing our report for the Board meeting at 5:30 today. We will meet the Board, exchange some gifts, give our report back, and have some refreshments and snacks. We invited Davison to join us at the Ksasa club for lunch, and I had the Chambo fillets again (can’t get enough of that fish – go figure!). We headed back to the SACCO for a few hours, and then Davison drove us back to the lodge to get ready for the meeting. Brad went for a short Kayak ride on the lake, but I just relaxed around the lodge. I heard too many stories about the crocodiles to feel comfortable out on a small Kayak in Lake Malawi.

Davison was to pick us up at 5:15 pm, but did not arrive until about 7:00 (not a problem!), as he had taken his Toyota Van in for repairs and it was not ready, so he then had to borrow a director’s car to pick us up (it has A/C whohoo!). The board meeting went very well, they were very appreciative of the gifts that we brought. I had some Canada key tags, and some small flashlights to give them and Brad had a few hats and some Wainwright pins. The Board presented us with a nice hand drawn sketch of the Building in a glass frame and a golf shirt with the SACCO name. We then had some snacks, which were chicken wings, meatballs, pigs in blanket, and some other snacks that were prepared by the Ksasa club. Everything was very good, but due to the meeting be late the food was not even warm anymore, which was a shame cause that kind of food is best served hot. They even had some beer, wine or brandy for refreshments. We got back to the Lodge at about 10:00 that night, and hopefully will get a good nights sleep for the big trip to Salema tomorrow.

Feb 24th

Woke up this morning and after getting ready for the day, packed up my suitcase to get ready for the big move to the Ksasa club. Davison had talked to the manager yesterday, and was able to book us in there for Thursday and Friday nights accommodation. As Brad and I are having breakfast, the cell phone rings, and it is the manager from the Kasasa club informing us that he can only get us in for Thursday (which is what the desk clerk and told Brad and I when we asked about it at Noon yesterday), but not on Friday. We said to forget it, as we will stay where we are, although it is not real convenient for Davison to pick us up and drop us off each day. It is quite a bit further than the Ksasa club where we have been going for lunch each day. We are quite happy where we are, the view is great, the meals are excellent, and staff at the Ngala lodge treat us really well. The benefits at Ksasa are 1) a lot closer to the SACCO office, 2) Air conditioning, and 3) Television in the rooms. On the 3rd point, we do have a big screen TV here, but when I asked at the bar about going to the TV room, the bartender looked at me as if I was crazy, and the owners were away for the night…$%&(&^*%. Excuse the language, but I wanted to catch some of the Olympics. I did read via TSN sports on the Internet that Canada Men’s curling team won all their round robin games, and that the Women were 8-1. Today we mainly spent going over some operations with Davison, and working on the report back to the Board tomorrow at 5 PM. We will be giving the report at the SACCO and then going to the Ksasa club for supper. In the afternoon we got a tour of the Ethanol Plant by Felix Mulenga, Quality Controller (and some of his staff) for the Ethanol Company Ltd, which is only a short distance from the SACCO. We were told how the process works from start to finish and got some great pictures from the top platform where the distilling process takes place. Sorry about not being able to post any pictures as yet, but maybe I will have better luck when we get to Lilongwe.

Forgot to mention that there was storm near Dwangwa last night that poured down on the area (but missed us at the Lodge), and it made it too muddy to take a tour of the sugar cane factory. The storm has washed out the Highway South to Salema (A resort and trading centre on the Lake), where we are heading on Saturday for one night and then back to Lilongwe for the duration of our stay. The road being out, means we will have to go around by Lilongwe which is 6 hrs instead of 3...bedtime!

Working with Dwasco

Feb 23rd:
Have not been able to keep up the blog for the past couple of days due to the poor Internet connection. I am having to write this up in Word and then wait for a connection to publish it to the Blog. My update of the events for the last couple of days will start with an apology to Penny for waking you up at midnight yesterday to try out my Skype connection…..Sorry Dear! About all I heard was that you could hear me, and then the rest was very intermittent and I could not catch a whole sentence. Anyway, we started the morning of the 23rd with a great omelette at the Ngala Lodge, then Davison came to pick us up at about 8:45. We were introduced to most of the staff members, then met with Davison in the Boardroom to discuss some of the areas of operations that we will be helping them with. I won’t get into any detail on that, as the operational stuff is not that exciting to hear about. We went for lunch at the Ksasa club, then Davison took us for a walking tour of the Dwangwa estate, where all the sugar cane factory employees live. It is actually several small villages, with a small trading centre, every church know to mankind, and very busy! We visited the building where the SACCO first started, and met three of his Board members, that now work in the building, as it is now the Human Resources centre for the factory. Davison then took us to a tailor to get measured up for a couple of handmade Malawian shirts we (and Paul) had requested, and then we headed back to the SACCO. Brad and I have been taking turns driving Davison’s Toyota van to and from the Ksasa club, which is about 5-6 Km away, but you can only go about 60-70 Km max. as the roads are very washboardy from all the rains. They are not great at the best of times, but this week they are especially bad. Sitting on the right side of the vehicle and driving on the left side of the road takes quite a bit of getting used to……..not only that, but you are dodging pedestrians and bicycles on both sides of the road constantly. It is not bad on the road we are using, but when you get on the paved road to where we are staying it is a real challenge. Davison let me drive to the trading centre today (24th) and I was not comfortable going over the speed limit of 80 Km, but Davison does it at 110-120. I have visions of a kid running out into the road, and I would have a hard time living with the hitting a child or anyone else for that matter, so being very careful. Back to the days events.....we finished at the SACCO around 4 :30 PM and headed back to the lodge. For supper this evening I had a steak, which although quite small by our standards, would rival any North american steak. Sandy said that it was sirloin and it tasted like as good or better than any other I have ever had....plus it was cooked just the way I like it.
During supper we started chatting with a Maria, a visitor from Ecuador, and she told us about some of the work she is doing while in Africa. It is just amazing who you meet up with in our travels. Oh yeah, we also met a South African gent that is working with some marketing co-op, and he is the most annoying person ever.....all he does is bitch and complain about what is happening in Malawi, and runs down just about everyone. Needless to say we try to avoid sitting close to the guy, but the dining room is quite small and he has a loud voice. Anyway, great meal and we visited in the lounge for awhile and then called it a night.

Feb 22nd:

Finally caught up on some sleep last night and ready for the task of working with the SACCO’s in Malawi again this year. After breakfast we had a short meeting at the MUSSCO office just down the street from the hotel, then Brad, Dennis, Kati, Dixon, and I headed out on the road to Dwanga. The trip to Dwangwa took about 3 hours of traveling on a narrow highway with lots of Malawia people walking, biking, etc. on both sides of the road. Dixon, our driver did an excellent job of weaving his way through the pedestrians and the on coming traffic. We met with Davison, the GM of the Dwasco Employee's SACCO and met some of the support staff, then headed over to the Kasasa club for some much needed food. We were all starving as we had not had anything to eat since breakfast in Lilongwe, and it was now after 3:00 PM. I had the local fish (Chambo) and it was fantastic. They served breaded fillets rather than frying up the whole fish with head and all like I experienced last year. After lunch, Brad and I said goodbye to Kati, Dennis and Dixon as they were heading over to Mzuzu for the night. Davison then drove us over to the Ngala Beach resort where we will be staying for the next few days. He introduced us to Sandy and Chris, the owners of the resort, and they are a very friendly couple that like to visit and find out all about their visitors to the resort. We have a beautiful view of Lake Malawi just outside the door of our Hut, and the scenery here is like what you might see at a tropical resort. We checked into our rooms, and they were quite hot and humid, so we headed to the bar for a couple of beers and sat around and chatted with the ownersand some of the patrons for a few hours. The humidity is going to take a little getting used to, as they have had lots of rain here, and even without sun, the humidity is 100%. Oh, we have monkeys! They are seen scampering about in front of the bar area which overlooks the lake…..they are cute, but according to the owners can be quite the pests. We have no internet here so will be doing some blogging on word and can hopefully put it on the site tomorrow at the SACCO.

Touring & Long Flight

Saturday (Feb 20) morning we headed out again on the Big Bus to see a few more sights of London before heading to the airport right after lunch. We Boarded the flight to Jo'burg at around 6 PM London time and then spent the night in the plane, finally arriving in Lilongwe at about Noon today. On the landing approach at Lilongwe we got a bit of a scare as the plane was just getting ready to land, and all of a sudden we were headed back into the air. The pilot informed us that due to a strong tail wind we were coming in to fast, so he had to circle around and do it again. We landed safely. We were all severely jet lagged when we arrived as none of us slept very well on the plane...so we did not do much today. We arrived at the Sunbird Hotel, and made a quick change into shorts and sandals, and then headed to the lounge for a drink, then off to bed for a short nap before supper. We went to Mama Mia's Italian restaurant, and most of us had their pizza, which is quite good (for Malawi), but not near as thick as a Canadian pizza. The whole bill for supper was $77 US, with drinks for 6 people. So it is very cheap to eat here compared to London or back home. Actually London is quite expensive for both hotel rooms and food, but we were only in the Tourist area.

Heading down to the MUSCCO (Malawi's Credit Union Central) in the morning for a short meeting and then we will be travelling by truck to Dwanga, where Brad and I will be working with the CU staff over the next 4 days. Hitting the hay......can hardly keep my eyes open.

We made it to London for a short sight seeing tour of the city for the next couple of days.

Day 1: Arrived in London at Noon on Feb 18th (Thurs) and after an adventure of riding the Express train, the underground train (tube), and finally a taxi, we finally made it to our hotel (Holiday Inn). Brad and I then waited for Bobby C. to arrive. His plane was late, so we had a nap to recoup from the jet lag. After Bobby arrived we went for a walk around the area to check out the shops and to locate a good place to eat. Stopped at a small Pub (naturally) to grab a bite, and had our first taste of the English ale. The one I ordered was horrible (real bitter) and not cold at all....next time will be better. We headed out to do some more sight seeing a got some pics of Buckingham palace, and other historical landmarks. The city is so very old, with tons of history, it is hard to decide what to see during our short 2 day visit. It was raining off and on as we walked around, so it was not really a great day for photos. We did manage to check out another pub (naturally) and beer was better, but still looking for one that I like.

During our self guided walking tour we spotted a little Italian restaurant just up the street from our hotel, that we later went for supper. The food there was fantastic! I had a seafood fetuccini dish that really made the day! The other boys had pizza which they said was very good also.

Day 2: Went for breakfast across the street, as the hotel rest. had a lineup, and they headed to the bus station to get some tickets for the bus tour, river cruise and the London eye.

The Big Bus (as they call it) has an upper deck to get some great pics, but as the weather was quite chilly, we were glad to get off and go for our tickets to the Eye. The eye ride was great, and it was clear enough that we got a great view of the city, the river and central London. We then hopped on the River cruise for a quiet ride down the River Thames. It was another great way to get around with out wearing out our feet. We then hopped back on the bus for some more sightseeing with lots of commentary from the tour guide up top. Next stop was to check out Picadilly Circus to see if there were any entertainment on the street, check out the shops, etc. Due to the weather, we did not get to see much for entertainers, except for a short juggling act that was quite lame. Later in the afternoon we stopped for an ale at a small pub, and finally got a brew that I liked. It was a "blonde" beer as the waitress called it, and it was quite similar to our lite beer back home......and it was cold!

The bridge shown below had us all fooled as we thought it was the famous London bridge but is acutally the Tower Bridge (no really). It could be the huge towers that give it the name....just a guess (LOL).

Well better sign off for now...the internet was not working here yesterday, and it costs over $20 per day to be on, so will let Brad and Bobby update their blogs using my connection.....always looking to save a dime us bankers!

Team Malawi in Toronto

2009 was the 1st year of a 2 year committment to provide coaching to CU manager's in Malawi around such things as policies, procedures, best practices, etc. This picture is from Feb 2009 when we all met in Toronto to prepare for our work in Malawi. We were organized in teams of 2, with Brad Hopfauf and myself travelling up to the extreme Northern part of Malawi at Karonga, and to Mzuzu, which is more in the Central part of Malawi. That's me on the far right (As you couldn't tell!)

Malawi Coaching Program

This blog is to document the work that we will be doing with the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) to consult with Credit Union (SACCO) managers in Malawi. This is the 2nd year of a 2 year assignment, and I am part of a team of 6 Credit Union manager's from across Canada that leave for Africa on Feb 17, 2010.