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!
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!
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