Feb. 6 - Hit the ground running!
Hello from Malawi! Muli bwanji! We've gotten right into things here in Blantyre. Last Wednesday we arrived after a lengthy journey across the pond. South African Airways took good care of us and we enjoyed our overnight stopover in Johannesburg. As we approached the landing strip in Blantyre it was immediately evident that we were entering into a different world. The buildings and landscape were quite different from when we touched down in DC, Dakar and Johannesburg - mountains and greenery stretched into the distance and brick and earthen buildings were the norm. We were picked up in a banana yellow Land Cruiser by some of the other Project Peanut Butter (PPB) workers and taken back to our living area on Kabula Hill. We live on the property of a 2nd or 3rd generation Indian man, Tochi, and his son, Tinu. They own a paint company here in Blantyre and have a lovely property overlooking the surrounding area. There are 7 of us working for PPB split between 3 houses. There are 5 girls - Claire, Betel, and Patricia were all here when we arrived. Taylor and Julie were on our same flight into Blantyre. The girls spend their days going out to the surrounding villages and running feeding clinics with local nurses. Most of them are also working on research projects for the St. Louis Nutrition Project which is an extension of Washington University School of Medicine. (Quick side note: Last thursday two of the head doctors associated with PPB, Dr. Indi Trehan and Dr. Mark Manary, had their work featured/published in the New York Times, New England Journal of Medicine and NPR on the same day!)
Thursday morning (Jan. 31) started off with a bang. Mark was brave enough to drive us to the current PPB factory about 5km from our house (we've quickly adapted to Malawian driving which could be an entry all by itself!). We met some of the current staff and Linda, the production manager, gave us a tour of the facility. It was nice for us to finally see what we would be trying to replicate and improve upon. The factory staff greeted us warmly and we immediately felt welcomed into the PPB family. After the tour we met Alima, she is the factory manager and our main point person as of now. We went with her to the new factory site which is in Lunzu, about 20 km north of Blantyre. The land had just been cleared and upon our arrival we were surprised to see that construction was already underway on a small storage shed. As if all this wasn't enough for our first full day in Malawi, we then drove back to Blantyre for lunch and a quick grocery trip before meeting with our architect, Mr. Kumbo. Our meeting with him made us realize that there is still plenty of work to do on the layout of the factory.
Friday began with a trip to the PPB office/factory where we met Imraan. Imraan is a driver for PPB. He's driven us around plenty, but he also helps in many other ways which include: translating our American English into Malawian English/Chichewa, securing lower prices for supplies than us azungus (white people) could get, taking us to the best places for lunch, telling us which football team to cheer for (Mighty Wanderers!!!), taking us to said football team's match, and much more. We jumped right into managing the building of the shed and planning for the fence around our property which has included plenty of trips to various hardware stores, welders, timber sellers, etc.
We worked more on Saturday and Sunday but managed to take in a Wanderers match against Escom United on Sunday afternoon. Wanderers won 3-0. It made us excited for the many more matches to come!
So far, this week has been much the same as last Friday - asking our head contractor, Mr. Luphale (pronounced Loop-all-aye), and his foreman what supplies they need to keep going. That in and of itself would keep us busy, but in addition we've been trying to finalize the new building layout, find a concrete mixer (not an easy task here in Malawi), and just generally get settled into life here.
There is plenty more I could say but I'll leave it at this for now. Thanks for your interest and feel free to send us any questions you have. Enjoy the pictures!
Thursday morning (Jan. 31) started off with a bang. Mark was brave enough to drive us to the current PPB factory about 5km from our house (we've quickly adapted to Malawian driving which could be an entry all by itself!). We met some of the current staff and Linda, the production manager, gave us a tour of the facility. It was nice for us to finally see what we would be trying to replicate and improve upon. The factory staff greeted us warmly and we immediately felt welcomed into the PPB family. After the tour we met Alima, she is the factory manager and our main point person as of now. We went with her to the new factory site which is in Lunzu, about 20 km north of Blantyre. The land had just been cleared and upon our arrival we were surprised to see that construction was already underway on a small storage shed. As if all this wasn't enough for our first full day in Malawi, we then drove back to Blantyre for lunch and a quick grocery trip before meeting with our architect, Mr. Kumbo. Our meeting with him made us realize that there is still plenty of work to do on the layout of the factory.
Friday began with a trip to the PPB office/factory where we met Imraan. Imraan is a driver for PPB. He's driven us around plenty, but he also helps in many other ways which include: translating our American English into Malawian English/Chichewa, securing lower prices for supplies than us azungus (white people) could get, taking us to the best places for lunch, telling us which football team to cheer for (Mighty Wanderers!!!), taking us to said football team's match, and much more. We jumped right into managing the building of the shed and planning for the fence around our property which has included plenty of trips to various hardware stores, welders, timber sellers, etc.
We worked more on Saturday and Sunday but managed to take in a Wanderers match against Escom United on Sunday afternoon. Wanderers won 3-0. It made us excited for the many more matches to come!
So far, this week has been much the same as last Friday - asking our head contractor, Mr. Luphale (pronounced Loop-all-aye), and his foreman what supplies they need to keep going. That in and of itself would keep us busy, but in addition we've been trying to finalize the new building layout, find a concrete mixer (not an easy task here in Malawi), and just generally get settled into life here.
There is plenty more I could say but I'll leave it at this for now. Thanks for your interest and feel free to send us any questions you have. Enjoy the pictures!