Your Man in Malawi

A long overdue update...

It's been a while... I spent much of January and February in the UK for various reasons, but am now back in Malawi. As I alluded to in my previous post, I was recently offered a new posting in another glamorous overseas location - Eritrea this time. After a brief visit in February, I took the decision to turn down the offer and am anticipating a return to the UK in September, where I will continue my work with the Department for International Development, albeit from an office in Whitehall, while I summon up the energy for another great adventure! Eritrea is a beautiful and strange place - variously described as Africa's Piccolo Roma and its North Korea. In truth, it's a bit of both, and fascinating for it.

Szilvi has just flown back to the UK after a week's visit. We spent our time together on a whirlwind tour of the south of the country, visiting the Satemwa Tea Estate, hiking on the Mulanje Massif - a 650km² 'island in the sky' (where I turned the grand old age of twenty-eight) - and relaxing on Mumbo Island, at the southern tip of Lake Malawi. A big thanks to our guide, George, and aptly named-porter, Samson, for doing the hard work on Mulanje. A shout out also to three friends of mine - Rob, Andrew and George - who made the trip out at the beginning of March, only to find I was stuck in the UK, and ably navigated themselves around the watering holes - both natural and manmade - of Malawi and Zambia without me.

In other Farm news, Nep is enjoying his new job with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, where he is helping to supervise smallholder farmers growing improved varieties of soy beans - we see him about once a fortnight when he returns from 'the field'; Piliran has taken over the key Strawberry Farm duties, and is doing a fine job of keeping the animals fed and the house clean; Robert and Patience are enjoying watching Pixar movies and playing with Lego; Paddy is working hard at school and has his final exams in a few months time; and we have three pregnant pigs, so I will soon I have more piglets than I know what to do with! In a final piece of sad news, Harry (the dog) died suddenly in February, having contracted the rabies virus. So this post is dedicated to you Harry - you were strong, and brave, and smart, and grumpy with it. All my favourite qualities. You brought joy and laughter to all of us at Strawberry Farm. We shan't see another like you.

One of a number of working Art Deco cinemas in Asmara

Streetlife, Asmara

Streetlife, Asmara

Satemwa Tea Estate, Malawi

Tea tasting as Satemwa

Reaching the Mulanje Plateau on day one, with Chambe Peak looming in the background

Chambe Hut - our home for the first night on Mulanje

Our guide, George, on the trail to Luchenya Hut, our destination for our second night

Luchenya Hut

Breakfast in Luchenya Hut, before the trip back down to earth

Above the clouds on the descent

The view from the bed, Mumbo Island

Harry with Tiger

P.S. if you want to see more photo's, YourManInMalawi now has Instagram...

https://www.instagram.com/yourmaninmalawi/

The times they are a changin'

How did it get so late so soon? - Dr. Seuss

I'm writing this on my last weekend in Lilongwe, before I head back to England's cold shores for Christmas. The run-up to the festive period has been predictably busy: I travelled to Cape Town at the start of November for a weekend of wine drinking and penguin spotting; Nepear celebrated his 30th birthday by buying six quails (four of which have so far evaded the dogs); Paddy passed his end of term exams; as did Robert and Patience. Chicks hatched; piglets were sold; life sprang forth and life came to an end. Strawberry Farm finished the year on a high, with a feature in 'Country Smallholding' - the UK's biggest selling magazine for smallholders. On Thursday, to celebrate these achievements, we held a party for all those who have contributed to Strawberry Farm's successes in 2015; a pig was slaughtered, wrapped in banana leaves, and slow cooked in an underground pit - kālua style; an inflatable Santa was procured; much beer was consumed; much Fanta was spilt; fireworks were lit; and hangovers were nursed - thanks to Amanda, Megan, and Amber for helping with the organisation.

The end of the year has also brought much change. Nepear recently secured a new job working for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) - a world-leading research for development organisation, which focuses on finding solutions to hunger, malnutrition and poverty through improvements in agricultural practices. He'll be working with smallholder farmers to implement US-funded trials aimed at improving soya bean production. He'll be based out in Mchinji District - about an hour's drive west of Lilongwe - during the week, returning to Lilongwe at weekends. Melifa and the boys will stay living at Strawberry Farm for now. It's a great career step for Nep, and very much deserved, but his absence will leave a big hole here. Pilirani, who has been working at my house as a guard since I arrived in Malawi, will step in to keep things ticking over.

And Nep's not the only one with a new job; I have also been offered and accepted a position working in another overseas location (of which more in another post). I will be leaving Malawi next April/May. The new year will be a time for winding things down at Strawberry Farm and doing those things which remain undone: ensuring Nepear, his family, and Paddy have somewhere to live; finding the dogs, the pigs, and the chickens happy homes; selling cars and motorbikes; and climbing Mount Mulanje. While I'll be sad to leave, my connections with Malawi will remain and I will return for visits; I am looking forward to following Robert and Patience's progress through school; seeing Paddy get his Malawi School Certificate of Education; and watching Nepear as he builds his career.

Have a very merry Christmas, from everyone at Strawberry Farm.

Penguin spotting in Betty's Bay, Western Cape

Quails - the latest addition to the Strawberry Farm menagerie

Fame, at last

Nepear, making known his feelings about Santa

Farm news

It's been a busy couple of months at Strawberry Farm. The litter that Strawberry gave birth to at the beginning of September are now boisterous little pigs who are more than ready for a new home. We'll keep two, and sell the rest on to friends and neighbours. The Lilongwe Farmers' Market at the end of October was a great success - we were selling our usual selection of organic vegetables and advertising our new chicken coop building business, which garnered much interest. Nepear and I have just spent the weekend on a beekeeping course, so we'll be busy over the next few weeks preparing hives in the hope of harvesting some Strawberry Farm honey in due course (the hive we put up in the garden way-back-when remains stubbornly empty)! The rains are on the way, so Nepear will at least be relieved of watering duty for the next few months.

Bee skills

Nep looking dashing in a bee suit

October Farmers' Market

Strawberry post-litter

How to build a chicken coop pt. 1

How to build a chicken coop pt. 2

How to build a chicken coop pt. 3

Sunday morning dog walk

PS. Look out for Strawberry Farm in the next edition of Country Smallholding (January) - the UK's biggest selling magazine for smallholders!

Jambo jambo, jambo bwana

Just back from Zanzibar. We spent three days in the historic capital, Stone Town - which reminded me of a quieter, calmer Marrakech - and three days relaxing on the east coast at Jambiani, where my main achievement was not wearing shoes for two consecutive days. Some photos below, and for those of you that enjoy caustic and overly exacting hotel and restaurant reviews, there's some of those too.

Absolutely no filter necessary - Jambiani

Ballad of the hermit crab - Part I

Ballad of the hermit crab, Part II

Ballad of the hermit crab - Part III

Sailing in the Mena Bay

Jambiani

Obligatory sunburn, x

In Stone Town we stayed at...

Kisiwa House, ★★★★★
Stone Town's not short of classy hotels. Great towering piles, furnished with persian rugs and guarded by brass-studded doors, testament to the island's deep Arab influences. Kisiwa House, built in 1840 by a wealthy Omani merchant, is no exception. The staff were friendly, the breakfasts were generous, the rooms were spotless. A swimming pool would have been nice, but it was half the price of every other fancy hotel in town, so you can't really complain.

We ate at...

Emerson Spice, ★★★★★
Something of a Zanzibari right of passage. Sit on the rooftop of one of the old town's tallest buildings and eat things you've never heard of, deep fried in a medley of unpronounceable fruit, and served on a bed of something you thought was a make of Japanese car. Not cheap, but you can't miss it. Booking ahead essential.

House of Spices, ★★★★
Good pizzas. Pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven. A wood-fired oven that belches out smoke that chokes all those who eat here and renders their clothes unsuitable for long-haul flying. Loses a star for this shortsightedness.

La Taverna, ★★★
They overcooked the pasta, which is unforgivable for an Italian restaurant. But the wine was fine and the crema catalana sublime. Perhaps on another night it could have been great.

We toured with...

Safari Blue Tour, ★★★
Safari Blue offer a day long excursion on a traditional dhow around the Mena Bay - to the South of the island - stopping off at various points to snorkel, eat, and sunbathe. In truth, it would be difficult for any company to really balls this up: there are dolphins; fish that look like those ones from Finding Nemo; and sandbanks which emerge from the ocean as if on demand. The only downside is that you have to share these treasures with six boatloads of fellow Safari Bluers. Imagine landing on a deserted sandbank, only to turn round and find sixty gawping tourists bearing down on you like a viking raiding party, only with selfie sticks in place of axes. And that seafood barbecue you thought would be a cutesy affair for two over an open fire is actually an industrial conveyer belt of grilled lobster, capable of feeding the five thousand. Slick marketing. Disinterested staff. Probably a victim of its own success.

Also worth a mention...

Passable Gelato at Tamu; great coffee at the Zanzibar Coffee House; and drinks on the beach and live music at the Livingstone Beach Bar.

In Jambiani we stayed at...

Mango Beach House, ★★★
Run by an eccentric German woman called Lisa, who has collected too many sea shells and even more cats. You can't argue with the setting - deserted white sand beaches; palm trees swaying gently in the breeze; a turquoise ocean stretching to the horizon, dotted with the wooden sailboats of local fishermen. They screwed up our booking and were in the middle of some renovations while we were there which meant the restaurant was closed; the mattresses were too squishy; our bed sheet had a hole in it; and the shower was missing its holder. But we had an acre of sandy beachfront garden to ourselves and plenty of hammock-like contraptions to while away the days in.

We ate at...

Sea Horse Restaurant, ★★★★★
Probably the best food we had in Zanzibar. Which is all the more impressive when you consider that it was cooked over a charcoal stove, by a single woman, on the floor of what, in any other context, would be described as a shed. We ate there three times. Order the calamari for a happy belly experience.

Mamamapambo, ★★★
Mamamapambo is where I imagine boring people go to spend their honeymoon. Everything worked like clockwork. So much so that I started to wonder whether the waiters had had their brains removed and replaced with a bespoke honeymoon app. The service was too fast. I repeat, too fast. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the food. Nothing at all. The only tangible thing I can really think to criticise the place for was the terrible lounge music which reminded me of all the people I've ever spoken to who have absolutely nothing interesting to say and just want to tell me about that time they stayed at Mamamapambo with their insipid partners and had the best time of their lives.

Summertime

Four weeks later, and the piglets aren't quite as cute as they used to be, which is probably nature's way of signalling their transition from Instagram fodder to potential sandwich filler. The end of September in Lilongwe sees temperatures soar, and the heat won't start to ease until the start of the rains in late November. To make up for it, the Jacaranda trees flower, covering the city in lilac blossom. With just one year left in Malawi, this will be the last time I witness it - a sad thought.

Spending time in a nylon tent at this time of year is unconscionable, but that's just what I did for two nights at the annual Lake of Stars music festival last weekend. I made it work by retreating to the nearest swimming pool at regular intervals. The week prior, two friends from the UK visited, and we spent a lovely weekend at Kumbali Lake Retreat in Senga Bay, where one of them snapped a great shot of a fish eagle (below).

Things are going grand on the farm. Nepear has been busy planting and I'm expecting a bumper crop in time for the next farmers' market at the end of October. We let four of our pigs out for a wander around the garden this morning, which they very much enjoyed - earthing up a number of hitherto undiscovered root vegetables. We've launched a consultancy service for Nepear, called Homegrown Gardens, which provides bespoke garden design services and training to other gardeners on compost making, organic pest control, and animal husbandry, amongst other things. So far, so good.

The boys - Paddy included - have all gone back to school. For Robert, this is his first year at primary school. We found him a nice little school not far from my house, called Dreams Private School, where he seems to be settling in well. Patience is in his final year of pre-school and hasn't got into any trouble yet, and Paddy has just started what will hopefully be his final year of secondary school at a good private school, again not far from my house.

The leg is healing. I'm walking around on it, but it'll be a while before I'm allowed to get back to the rugby.

I'm off on holiday to Zanzibar first thing tomorrow morning, for a week of relaxation with the missus. So expect photo's of turquoise lagoons, piles of spices, and sunburn in the next edition.

Looking down my street at the Jacaranda trees

Maisie's pig day out

Robert (right) and Patience on their first day back at school

The leg - crack still visible running up the bottom of the bone on the right

Fish eagle at Senga Bay

The boys relaxing in the garden this morning

Cute pictures of piglets (suitable for vegetarians)

Today marks one year since I moved to Lilongwe. I could write about the deteriorating macroeconomic situation in the country; the challenge of creating inclusive growth and transitioning away from subsistence agriculture; the opportunities and risks posed by Malawi's 'demographic dividend'; the state of democracy in the country; or my predictions for the year ahead.

Maybe some other time. Instead, I give you pictures of five-day old piglets, which I took this morning in the garden. Enjoy - I'm off for a swim!