Field visit to Mangochi

The way to Mangochsi is just beautiful, going through what is the end of Rift Valley and the boarder to Mozambique and then down to the lake. On the way you see people walking on the road, bikes everywhere, dogs, goats, cows, etc. 

Road to Mangochi

Early next morning when waking up the door was knocking. Someone said; “Give me my bucket”, in a harsh tone. I thought, how could they knock on my door at this hour? I didn’t understand what she wanted but I opened anyway and she went in, took a bucket and left. Five minutes later it knocked again. Now I felt a bit irritated. “Why are they leaving things in the room that they need?”, I thought. Another girl was now going in again with the bucket and then she left. Then I realized they had brought me hot water so I could shower.

When ordering breakfast I asked what they had. Cornflakes (no milk), sausage, bread, egg, omelette, chips (pommes frites). I asked for omelette and chips, no cornflakes, no bread, no sausage. I got everything anyway. I obviously have a communication problem when not speaking the local language Chichewa or Yao as they speak in this part of the country.

The whole day I spent in our district offices with the finance and admin staff and also the rest of the staff. The issues raised were reporting, budgeting, activity planning, challenges with laptops not working properly, too low “airtime” (telefon card), petty cash, not functioning accounting system and many other issues.

For lunch we went to the best local food place in town. It was hidden behind a house so you had to know it existed to go there. We had chicken, beans, vegetables and nsima. Nisma is the staple food here and is made of ground maize flour and water. The food was just excellent and until now my stomach hasn’t complained.

Aunt Marys restaurant

After work we went to see the lake. It was a beautiful place and the sun was just setting.

Nkopola