Blog Series on Time

1. Understanding - How Lifestyle Affects Time

This article will look mainly at the implications of the closeness of a community and the patters of interactions, as a way of understanding how people view time. The frequency of chance face to face encounters is significant.

How should someone new to or visiting Malawi cope with some of the differences between life in 'the west' and life in Malawi? Although relevant for visitors and tourists this is perhaps even more important for people who wish to work in Malawi. A lot of westerners who do work in Malawi come here for a short period of time to work on a project...

One difference that is often commented on is time.

My answer to the first question above, the first sentence in this blog post, is that the first thing to do when it comes to handling cultural or societal differences is to understand why there are differences. The reason for this is that if you understand why things are different your...

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We have decided to add car transfers to our list of services on this website and I hope that this post helps to explain why it may be useful for some.

This has come about after various conversations with lodge owners and also visitors. A number of people have expressed the view that it has been quite difficult to find out in advance about getting from a to b within Malawi. Of course many people have contacts or organisations who assist them but others wish to make their own plans.

I was visiting Senga Bay last week and where I was staying there a visitor was telling me that he was flying out of the country the next day. Therefore he had arranged transport by car from Senga Bay to Lilongwe airport. His alternative would be to get a minibus from Senga Bay to Salima and then change there for another minibus to Lilongwe. Once in Lilongwe he would again have to change for the airport.

The next morning I got up early as the owner of the establishment had asked me to...

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What kind of language is Chichewa?

Well, an introductory paragraph for a very early book written by one of the missionaries springs to mind. He describes it as something like an elegant and subtle language. Another aspect I discussed recently with one of our language students was how it is like a set of codes that you put together in a logical manner. The root verbs, prefixes, infixes and suffixes are like different parts of a computer programme that each carry out different commands (have different meanings) and then once you know them you can them together to bring about various meanings. In other words with regards to verbs you put together the different components to make one word in the way you put together words in a sentence in English. In other words a word can carry the meaning of a whole sentence or a significant part of a sentence.

The grammar surrounding nouns (noun classes), is difficult. As one expat who speaks the language pointed out – you don’t...

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Here is a post I wrote last week when it was 'cold'. It is in fact warm this week..

Now the purpose of my post, in a round about kind of way...was to show that the weather is generally excellent, and that the evidence for that is that there are few oppressively hot days in the hot season (and there are even cool days). The cool season is also pleasant.

So, now let's get onto last week's post (below).

Today and yesterday’s weather has reminded me of a conversation I had with a longtime Blantyre expat. We discussed various things in the past but both being British (he’s Welsh when the rugby’s on), we did once talk about the weather (or, to be precise, the climate in Blantyre).

Anyway, he put to me a suggestion previously mentioned to him by, I think, an expert in the field. The suggestion was that Blantyre has the best climate in the whole world. He was being serious. That is the kind of strong statement that can make someone, especially someone like me, think,...

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A little knowledge of Chichewa goes a long way!

English is the official language in Malawi and people are warm and friendly to visitors. For this reason many people fail to engage with Malawians in their own language or according to social norms in Malawi.

A little knowledge of the language and how society works goes a very long way in Malawi.

The culture in Malawi is 'relational' and the language is a great indicator of that. Understanding something about the language, is the right way to get your relationships off to a good start. Many Malawians are keen to learn about and engage with 'western cultural norms' and so for those reasons are usually reluctant to correct cultural mistakes that visitors may make. The problem with this is that a visitor can seem somewhat 'other' or even rude. While Malawians understand that no offence is intended, over time differences in approach can begin to stretch the patience and endurance of those Malawians you are engaging...

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