Some advertising on the street near hotel (click on the photo to enlarge)

This is a photo from the top of hill above the

hotel, and the sign at left is on the wall shown

in the centre of the photo.

March 9th

Bobby and I arrived in Toronto safe and sound with a fairly uneventful flight other than Bobby had a less than desirable seating companion....I will leave it at that! I was lucky enough to be seated with a lovely older lady from Oxford, England who was traveling over to meet her daughter and new grandchild, who live in Toronto. She has 12 grandchilren in all, and we had a great little visits on and off during the flight. Bobby and I shared a cab over to the Ramada hotel, checked in, then headed for the showers. We had met Brad while checking in, and they were going over to a little Irish pub for a couple of "Greens", as Dennis and I liked term the consumption of a few beers in Malawi. Some of the Uganda crew joined us at the pub, and we all had a bite to eat. We shared some great stories about our experiences in Malawi with Joan, Ruth, Tammy, and Gary. Charlie was not able to join us at the pub, and Jeannette, had arranged to fly back home early from Uganda, as she had become quite sick, but had recovered enough to travel........they suspected food poisoning. We all agreed that the rest of us had been very fortunate during our 2 assignments in Africa, to not have gotten any ailments other than a touch of the good ole travellers diarhea.

After a couple of hours the jet lag had definitely kicked in, and everyone was exhausted. I awoke in the middle of the night after having what I thought was quite a good sleep, and it was only 1:30 AM. Not able to get back to sleep, I finished a book, and worked on the computer for about an hour, then managed to get back to sleep for a few hours.

Arriving at Mama Mia's restraunt

Going for lunch with Brad, Paul and Bobby

March 7

Today we say our goodbyes and make the long flight back to Canada. We left the hotel at 10:30 am, and flew from Lilongwe to Jo'burg, arriving at about 4 pm. We then had a 5 hour layover in Jo'burg, which really dragged out. Left Jo'burg around 9 pm, and arrived in London at 6:30 AM London time. Actually got some sleep on the plane this time. After arriving in London, we had to clear security again, and the one small suitcase that I was now using as a carry-on had a small jackknife in one of the pockets that I had forgotten about. Well, you would think they discovered an International Terrorist plot. They gave me the gears about how it is illegal to have anything like that in your possession in England, and I had to wait for an hour for the police to come and make a report about the incident. The "Bobby's" were really good about the whole thing, and after a few questions, they gave me back my passport and boarding pass. They said they get quite a few incidents each week and lot of them are to do with pepper spray, which is illegal in Great Britain as well. Lesson learned......make sure anything sharp or liquid over 100 ml is in the checked baggage.

For some reason, Brad, Paul, Nicky, and Dennis were booked onto an earlier flight than Bobby and I, so we had another 5 hour layover in London......lucky us! We arranged to get into an airport lounge however, which gave us access to the Internet, snacks, and coffee and Baileys, so they time went fairly quick. We worked on our blogs, checked our e-mails, and before we knew it we were heading down to board the plane for Toronto. We will spend a day and a half there to share stories with the Uganda team about our experiences in Africa.......looking forward to it, but jet lag could be an issue.

Gifts from the FINCOOP

Presenting Certificate to the President and GM

Thoko and I at the MUSSCO office

Mar 5-6

Friday, March 5th was our meeting with the FINCOOP executive committee and management. We went to the office for a few hours in the morning to finalize our report and print off copies for everyone. Brad and I went to Mama Mia's for lunch that day, and as we were walking over Booby called to say that they had just arrived in Lilongwe, but would check in at the hotel before going for lunch. After lunch we headed back down to the FINCOOP as Thoko was supposed to be coming up to visit with me for awhile and attend the meeting. Thoko was waiting for us at the office, and she looked great, especially since she had been sick for the past 4 days. We had a good chat, and then held our meeting with the Board and Management. They were quite happy with our report and recommendations, and presented us with a couple of Malawi paintings at the end of the session. The President then inivited us out for supper to Don Brioni's, which is right across the street from their office, and where we had eaten the previous night. The food was quite good on Thurs. night, but I had a sirloin steak this time and it was very tough to chew. We had a great time with visiting with Thoko, Anthony, Blessings and the board members. We left the restaurant at about 10 pm and met up with the rest of the team at the hotel for a drink to end the night. Dennis and I were the last to leave and were sitting at the bar on the same corner that Brad and I usually played crib. All of a sudden there was a brown furry thing climbing over the edge of the counter, and it ran right past my arm under the cappiccino machine.....we looked at each other and said in unison "what the f*&%$ was that! Then it ran under our bar stools and headed for the corner. We were shocked, but could not help having a good laugh at our reactions and expressions. The bartender explained that it was a Malawi rat, and that it had probably eaten some of the poison they had out, because they normally don't show themselves when people are around. They can sure move though.....

March 6th we had the day off to do some more shopping at the market and just hang out until our farewell supper that evening with the MUSSCO staff. Attending the supper was our 6 Malawi Team members, Ingrid and Dereck from the CCA, Sylvester, Kingsley and Dickson from the MUSSCO office. We all met at the Lilongwe Golf club, where Brad and I had golfed on Wedndesday. We had a few drinks and appetizers (chicken livers, which most of us thought were little chunks of beef!!!) and I had one last Chambo supper before leaving the country.

It is sad to be leaving this beautiful country, and we will cherish our time spent in Malawi, and the friendships and acquaintances we have made during our 2 visits. The credit union movement in Malawi is growing quickly, and I sincerely hope that they can manage this growth and continue to prosper. Hopefully we have been able to provide them with some helpful suggestions and recommendations for their SACCOs. Even if they only implement 1 or 2 things our time here will have been successful.

Lilongwe Wildlife Park

Bella the Lioness playing around...

Lilongwe wildlife park...the lion's name is Bella. The Verhelst's will get a kick outta that!

At the FINCOOP Branch and the Market

Brad standing at the doorway to the Branch
Mavis, Branch Manager at the Market Branch

Selling Chickens at the Market in downtown Lilongwe

More photos from the tour of Lilongwe...

Banda Memorial in Lilongwe

March 4th

Back to the FINCOOP today to finish our meetings with their management staff and work on our report back to the Executive committee tomorrow. We requested a tour of Lilongwe when we got there in the morning and they were happy to oblige. Blessings, the Finance Manager took us for a driving tour of the city just before lunch. We visited their branch office in a market across town (see pics), and then did a tour of “Capital Hill” where all the government buildings are located. We then went to see the memorial for the 1st President (Banda), who led the country until the age of 96, and passed away at the grand ole age of 99. We then visited a nice Lodge located on the river in the middle of the city, and took a walking tour of the Lilongwe Wildlife Park, which is similar to a Zoo in Canada. We saw crocs, baboons, python, small deer and a lioness. Will try to post a couple of photos. After the tour of the city we took Blessings out for lunch to Summer Park, as it is close to their office. Big mistake! I think we got the same waiter that screwed up our orders and caused a 2 hour lunch as last year. I was going to order pizza, but they said that it would be about 20 mins., so we all ordered the chicken instead to speed things up. Well, I got my order fairly quickly, but Brad’s was about 20 mins later, and blessings waited close to 45 mins for his. We all ordered the same thing! Last chance for SUMMER PARK!

It is 6 pm and raining quite hard here at the moment. Brad and I were going to walk to a restaurant a few blocks away, but may have to change plans.

Setting up for a drive at Lilongwe Golf Club


Jewellery, carvings, etc. purchased at market

Eat your heart out Lynn, Tim & Glenn (curling team)

Today was a public holiday in Malawi called Martyr's day, so we decided to get in a round of golf. above are some pics at the golf club, and some of the souvenirs I have purchased. The golf course is not in great shape for all the rain we have had. The fairways are full of weeds, teebox's are bare and weedy and greens are quite rough and slow. Thomson lake course is much nicer in the summer...but I will take this one any day in March, specially with the temp today being about 28 celcius (eat your heart out - TO MY curling team). It was actually drizzling quite a bit while we were playing, otherwise it would have been too hot and humid. We finished just before a good shower hit the course. It is raining quite hard here after supper. Much more rain than we experienced last year. but it is the "rainy season" in Malawi.

GM's vehicle and reserved parking....hmmmm!

March 2nd

This is day 2 of working with the FINCOOP. We met with Andrew (Internal Auditor) and Moses (IT) to go over some of their duties and areas of operations, and fielded questions they had about how things are done in Canadian CU’s. We went for lunch at the Summer Park restaurant which is close to the FINCOOP. This is the place that we went to last year on the 1st day for lunch and it took over 2 hours to get our meals. Against our better judgement we decided to try them out again, and this time the experience was much better. In the afternoon we were supposed to meet with the Branch Manager, but he got called out to another branch on some type of emergency. Brad started on our report to the Board, and I, well, lets just say I didn’t get much done this afternoon. Wyatt is supposed to be arriving in Lilongwe at 2 pm, and we are getting together for supper tonight. We knocked off at about 3:30 and headed back to the hotel. We decided to avoid the gauntlet of people selling peanuts, newspapers, clothes, shoes, etc., along with a number of beggars, and took an alternate route back to the hotel. Wyatt had left a message that he had arrived at his hotel, and I went about trying to call him. After several attempts I finally got through to his cell phone, and he caught a cab over to our hotel. We visited for a bit then headed out for supper to a Thai food place called “The Hut”, which is only short walk away. After supper we went back to the Sunbird and visited for awhile and then Wyatt had to leave as he was heading out to the mine at Karonga (7 hr drive) in the Northern region, where Brad and I had worked last year. The vehicle pictured above is the GM's and the writing on the wall is "Reserved for GM". Hmmmm food for thought...

Working With FINCOOP

Sunbird Hotel....home for the next week!

With the Guard and one of the Staff members Davison & I at the Makuzi Beach Lodge bar

March 1st

Started working with the FINCOOP today. It is $770 million Kwacha in Assets ($5.2 million US), which is very small by our standards, but it is the largest SACCO in the country. They have 4 branches and employee 33 people (one being Thoko as noted earlier). They have only been in existence for a little over 5 years, so they have had pretty phenomenal growth in members over that period. A lot of that is due to their open bond, and the fact that they offer Mobile banking (different from our Mobile banking via cell phone). They actually drive out to the rural districts and set up a temporary office in church, school, etc. to provide banking services to the Malawi people in remote areas. They have what looks like a small camperette on the back of a small truck that is welded into the box and then they have a safe inside of that for the cash. Each day they are at a location they have an arrangement with the Malawi police (at a cost) for them to provide security.

Went for supper today at a Chinese restaurant close to the hotel. We decided to order 4 dishes to share, and I warned Brad not to order any pork dishes because we had eaten there last year and the spareribs were horrible (all fatty and very little meat). I selected my 2, and Brad said “We gotta try the Spareribs”, to which I said “you”ll be sorry”. The waiter started bringing the food, and we started eating, but we were still waiting for the ribs. I said, “It takes a long time to cook all that fatty grisle”. Sure enough, when they came the ribs were about as bad as last year, if not worse. My only comment was “they are all your’es” enjoy!

After supper we stopped off at the little pub attached to the hotel to have a green, and play a game of crib. We started the game and we noticed a fellow come in behind us. He was giving the waiter a hard time about not having any small glasses, and was being quite a jerk about it, but we just ignored him and kept playing. After one game, Brad was feeling quite tired, so he headed back to the room. I stuck around to finish my cigar, and the fellow at the other end of the bar asked what game we had been playing. I explained what crib was, as he had never heard of it. Skaulke (best guess about the spelling) is his name, and it turns out that he is a South African from Pretoria in the country to fix satellite dishes, and he is a helluva nice guy. He bought another green for each of us and he told me some amazing stories about some of the trips he has made to different countries in Africa with his work. He has witnessed cannabalism firsthand, has been chased out countries by police with AK47’s, had one guard put one to his head because they thought he was American, etc. I bought him and I another green and we talked for about 3 hours, and after several greens I had no problem sleeping this night.

For those of you following my blog, please post any comments and our news that you may have from Canada!

Feb 28th

Today we are “on the road again” as Willie would sing. We headed out for Lilongwe about 10:00 am, and the first part of the trip has some amazing scenery. It almost looks like Northern Sask, with all the tall pine trees in the forest South of Mzuzu. We actually pass through a game reserve while on the highway, and there is a possibility of seeing lions and elephants, although quite remote. We did not have the luck to see any wild animals except for a few deer. We arrived in Lilongwe about 1:30 or so, and took Davison to our favourite Italian restaurant -Mama Mia’s for pizza. It was another good meal, and then we headed back to the hotel to say goodbye to Davison. He was a great host, and we really enjoyed our stay in the Dwangwa area. After he left we decided to go for a walk to the golf course, which is about 10 minutes away by foot pony. We got about half way and it started raining, so we stopped under an awning to wait for it to pass. That was about 4 pm, and it is now 10 pm and still raining. It did let up a bit in order for us to get back to the hotel, so we figured we would give SKYPE (phoning via computer to Canada), which worked good, but only for short periods of time. Hope you had fun at the Poker Derby dear! Due to the rain we decided to stay at the hotel for a late supper, and then it was back to the room to review our material, as we start at the FINCOOP tomorrow morning. This is the SACCO that Thoko works for, although her branch is in Blantyre about 4 hours South of Lilongwe. I talked to her on the phone while at Dwangwa, and she is hoping to make it up to Lilongwe for one day while we are here.

Hope you had fun at the Poker Derby today Dear!