Malawi energy September 8, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Community, Energy, Sustainability , 1 comment so far
“Development” is the predominant industry in Lilongwe. A veritable alphabet soup of NGO and aid agency acronyms adorn the doors of the many Japanese 4×4’s that congest the streets of the city - USAID, FAO, UNDP, TLC, SARRNET, ASNAPP, ICRISAT, IITA, FANRPAN, CIAT, NASFAM, etc. The hotels and guest houses mainly service the mobile populations of development professionals, conference-goers and workshop attendees. For a fascinating week I was privileged to be one of the latter, a member of a South African university IT team involved in a project in support of the development of tropical agriculture.
Deforested slopes under cultivation
Malawian island idyll September 5, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Safari, Tourism, ecotourism , 1 comment so far
Mumbo Island is one of the great places in Africa. Imagine a tropical
island surrounded by warm, clear water and freshwater, tropical fish. The island is but a jumble of granite crowned by dry woodland including baobabs, pod mahogany and rock figs, and barely a kilometre in diameter.
I preceded a week’s work in Lilongwe with a weekend on Mumbo, a place I have always wanted to visit since meeting Kayak Africa’s owners some twelve years ago. Kayak Africa runs island getaways and kayaking and diving activities on Mumbo and Domwe Islands in the Lake Malawi National Park.
