Lake Malawi was very calm that day

 

The beaches of Lake Malawi at Nkopola

The beaches of Lake Malawi at Nkopola

Karonga

Lonely Planet’s Africa describes Karonga as a “relaxed little town” – well they clearly didn’t come in via the bus stand which is complete mayhem. It’s a border town to Mbeya, Tanzania enroute to Dar Es.

Some 90kms and two hours north from Chitimba, Karonga is the last stop for the Ilala ferry on Lake Malawi and seems an appropriate departure point for anyone from Malawi to Tanzani. It is nice round the lakeshore, some ambling cattle on the streets and a bustling if somewhat crowded and claustrophobic market. It is also the home to the National History museum which has dinosaur skeletons.

 

 

 

Mchinji

Mchinji is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. As of 2008 estimates, it had a population of 458,556. The area's economy is sustained by rain-fed agriculture. Mchinji Boma, located at 12 km from the Zambian Border and 109 km from Lilongwe the Capital City of Malawi, is the major hub of government and general business. It has a major railroad junction, being the rail head nearest to Zambia.

Below are some of the photographs, collected depicting the people of Mchinji district.

                  

Typical Malawian Village setup

A young mother carrying her child

                                 

Children playing 

Tobacco shed

Playing Bawo Game

A child washing hands

Playing Bawo game in front of a shop

Small scale business 

Small scale business of selling fried goat meat

Small scale business of selling fried goat meat

A grocery shop attendant inside his shop

Children selling some groceries 

A farmer inside his maize field 

Maize field

Inside maize milling 

Selling goat meat

A mother with her children

Grandfather & Grandmother with their grandchildren

Selling sugarcanes

Peeling maize

Small scale business of selling fried Irish potatoes

Pictures Around Malawi

 "At our school we have been encouraged to plant more trees due to 
 climate change. This tree was planted by me and its been named 
 after my name which means am responsible for it until the day I 
 will leave my village and I don't know when will that be."

 "In life you must be humble and don't show off. I am old and I know  what am saying "

 "I make $8 per day and make savings to buy fertilizer for my maize  garden"

 "We are not sure what we can call them but we just made them  ourselves so that we can look more beautiful and you can see"

 "We are playing here while waiting to be called for breakfast"

   "Life becomes easier in our village when you have a bicycle 
  because I can easily do my errands and also help my parents
  quickly. But not everyone can afford a bicycle so sometimes some 
  people come and hire my bicycle and that becomes my source of
  income"

   "We don't know how old we are but we are old enough. We were born
  in this villages grow up together as friends up to now. We got 
  married in this same village and have enjoyed living here without 
  any regret. Our children live in town and they visit us often and
  we don't have any desire to live in town because we are used to
  our village life style here. We believe that it's God who has kept
  us this far."

 "People say am old I don't have to do much but how am I going to
  survive? For how long will I be asking people to help me. At
  least I can walk and I have some strength. So I come here
  everyday to draw some water. Water is scares here and during
  summer this well will go dry. You may say the water looks bad but
  we can't do otherwise it's the only well we have in this village.
   
  At this age I have nothing to fear from this water. Some people
  add chemical to clean this water in their homes but it's not
  every time. God takes care of our lives"

 "One thing I regret in my life is that I didn't go school. I only
 went to school for a week then stopped. As a little girl I had to
 walk a long distance and the path went through a certain village
 and that was the only route. But in this village, there was a mad
 person who used to chase me and my friends everyday as we passed
 by. My parents were not happy with what this mad person was doing
 hence they stopped me from going to school. Later on I just got
 used staying home and that was the end of my school life. But today
 I can't stand it seeing my grand children not attending school, I
 make sure I help because I know what it means to stay out of
 school."

 "We are just warming ourselves here first, before we think of our
  next move on what to do today"

 "We are good friends, we go to the same school and we are also in
  the same class. During break time we share our food and play
  together."

 "For the past years I was working hard in my garden but harvested  little due to lack of resources. This year I have done my homework 
 and taken all the necessary measures to take care of tomatoes as  you can see. I have already started harvesting for sale. The profit  will be used to buy a generator so that next season I can easily  pump water for irrigation."

  "As a teacher you have to use whatever local material you can find
  in order to teach the children. These days you can't have every
  resource you want for your lesson and yet the children have to
  school to learn. This is one of the tool I use to teach pupils
  mathematics."

 "This chicken is given to any Nyasa Big Bullets player who scores
  the first goal of the game. And there is always a chicken for
  every game we play. And it must be a white chicken not other
  colors because our team colors are red and white."

    "My name is Chacharito and am supporter number one of
  Nyasa Big Bullets"

 2/2"One day I helped a certain gentleman to buy seeds for him in
 Mchinji and he gave me $30 as a tip. I was happy to receive that
 amount and I invested into business. I bought 4 bags of maize, 50kg
 each and sold them in small containers. I kept on doing that and
 later I ended up renting this building behind me and started buying
 seeds.

 Because of what I went through I had learnt helpful lessons and 
 also how to handle money wisely. As of now my capital has increased
 to $2900. I keep on investing all the profit into my business and I
 know I will make it big and help other people who want to start 
 their own business."

"For me, I take a teaching job as a calling from God. You know what, hard working spirit pays because to teach someone from unknown to known its something that gives me joy. At the same time in our community, I try to be a role model and many people have trust in me. And glad and proud of myself that am a teacher."

 “From my findings, children along the lakeshore are abused by their

 parents by accepting early marriages at the age of twelve to

 fifteen despite Government and stake holders putting measures on

 that let alone that parents turning children into street vending 

 from selling usipa, eggs, prostitution to mention a few I and I. I

 am as a true Rasta and I condemn this malpractice by parents as

 much as I ...and i see this I and I plan I still think there is

 time all stakeholders can join hands with the Government to at

 least curb the situation openness to our children and constructive

 criticisms to leaders holding positions that concern children and

 under privileged should work on these important issues. I share my

 views right from the village where i live now after living for

 close to thirty years not only in beloved country but countries in

 southern Africa.”

   "I joined a women group of village banking. After 6 months I got
 my share and bought the solar
 and sound system. I hire out this equipment every weekend and get
 paid some money which is used
 to feed my family."

 Since I was born, I have never been photographed and see my face on
 a photograph. And this was my first photograph to have with my
 husband and our two daughters. This photo means a lot to me and I
 take care of it because I can see my whole family every time I look
 at it. It gives me great memories and a joy of the family I have."

 "Am not a lazy person but I work hard to bring food on the table
 for my family".

 “When I was told that I was pregnant we agreed with my husband

 that, this was going to be our last born child. I believed for a

 baby girl child and as I gave birth I was shocked to see that I had

 twins. This meant a double responsibility hence I had to adapt

 quickly with my husband. It was a big challenge for us, as we were

 not expecting two babies and we had to make sure we support the

 babies.... You know in the villages when they see a man carrying a

 baby on his back some people with bad manners they laugh will laugh

 at that man. But my husband was there, helping me when going to

 scale. The babies have grown up as you can see and some people say

 they don’t look alike but thus non of my business all I know is

 that they are my children and they are twins.”

 "I have had my own experience of giving birth to twins. The first 

 time my wife was pregnant, we didn't know that we were going have

 twins until they were born. We become so happy but it wasn't easy

 to take care of them. I had to work hard in order to buy food for

 them and their mother so that they stay healthy. I agreed with my

 wife to use one of the birth control method and after some years

 she was pregnant again. Guess what she gave birth to twins again.

 They are our children hence we had to take care of them and love

 them. By the grace of God they have all grown up as you see here is

 one set of the twins.

 After some years my wife who is the mother of two sets of twin left
 me and went to stay in her village leaving the children with me. I
 had to take care of them alone and later on I married again to a
 lady who is my current wife. Am thankful of her because she takes
 care of these children without any problem and she loves them.

 By the way we were blessed with a baby boy and I have five children
 now."

 “Here is our mother and some people say we look like her while
 others disagree. Some people say that we took some features from
 our dad but we don't think so because we are ladies. You should
 have seen him only that he is temporally away and he will be back
 soon.”



“I lost both my parents while very young and that was long time ago. At 15 I got married and came to stay with my home husband at his village here. I have lived here ever since that day; all my relatives from my parent’s side are dead and am the only one left. Even here my husband dead sometime back but God is still keeping and I thank God daily for my life. Am still strong I go to work at my garden and even play with the grandchildren here. And my advice to people is simple be humble and live in peace with everyone.”

“I was born nineteen thirty something I cant remember the date, month or year what matters is that am still alive by the grace of God.”

 "I remember when I was young we were always looking forward to a

 Christmas Day. I made sure we do some piece work so that I have

 money to spend on that day. In those days I used to wear a white

 short and that short was called Holland. Not many people had such

 type of short. With a white shirt, it looked very smart plus white

 socks and white canvas.

 It was one of the day you could win a heart of a... lady by buying 

 a bottle of Fanta for her and you walk with her around the village.

 She will be walking while drinking Fanta. No man would come close

 to that lady because he knows she is with me. Our walk would end up

 at a trading centre where you will find a gathering of villagers

 chatting, playing and dancing. It was full of fun and I can still

 remember my Holland short."

  "If I don't feed my animals then no one will do it. Everyday i

  have to make a trip and collect food for my animals which will

  help them grow healthy."

 "What do you want to do after you finish school?" "Mmmmhhh I don't 

  know."

              "I always help my parents with some of the work at home. My 

              classes at school starts later in the day and now am on my way to                 a maize mill."

 "This is my breakfast before the main meal at lunch even though 

 sometimes I eat as a snack"

 "We are all on holiday but we miss school, our teachers and  friends"

 "My first husband divorced me while I was pregnant with this  child. After I gave birth the doctor told me that my child will  never walk. I communicated to his father but he completely refused  that he wasn’t his child. He said he couldn’t have a child with  physical disability. But for me I thanked God and accepted him as  my child.

 Years later I got married to a very loving husband. He cares abut  this child like his own. My uncle advised me to make sure that my  son goes to school because every child has the right to education.  The headmaster at his school was happy to see him and informed all  pupils at school that if anyone will say anything bad about my son,  then that pupil will be disciplined.

 Before we had no wheelchair and my husband would carry him on his  back every day to school. And when he knocks off at school, he has  many friends who bring him home. His fellow pupils at school love  him and they play with him.

 After starting school I noticed that he become clever and he talks  freely to me or his own relatives at home. Previously, he couldn’t  do that he was a quiet boy and reserved. Am encouraged with the  support from my husband and the headmaster for bringing a big  change to my son and am very happy him."