Africa is connected

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Addis Ababa's international airport is generically contemporary - a "this could be Rotterdam or anywhere" experience compared to, say, Johannesburg's African art and wildlife references. Efficient. Everything worked. And why not? Africa is developed and developing. Ancient and modern.

 Ethiopian will fly you direct to Beijing, Brussels; Chicago, Copenhagen... a real continental hub. 

Queuing to board the flight to Lilongwe, Phil and I got talking to the man in front of us. "Oh yes, I know Reverend Chipeta very well! I've been to Home of Hope many times." Harrington Banda worked with World Vision in the noughties, helping to fund the Home's early building projects. He now works for a water aid charity in Rwanda. "Please greet Rev. Chipeta for me. My father in law was a minister with him. They called each other brothers." 

Things like this often happened as we travel. Home of Hope is famous amongst Malawians, and at 96, Rev Chipeta has had time to make "friends and friends." 

The flight down to Lilongwe in daytime is beautiful, offering those with the foresight to have booked a window seat a long, slow gaze over deserts (they come in many colours and textures), low mountains, and dusty track snaked scrub land. Then Lake Malawi.

I had not booked a window seat, but craned over my neighbour just in time to catch the shoreline. 

My neighbour on this occasion, was a man working for USAID, out of Lilongwe. "What do you see for Malawi over the next five year?" I asked of him. "Challenges? Opportunities?" He didn't need time to answer: "Agriculture at scale - mechanized. We have to have something to export. We have no control over the value of our currency right now." Read the World Bank's synopsis of Malawi and you'll find it's described as a predominantly agricultural society. It's no Democratic Republic of Congo, or South Africa, to mention a couple of other Southern African countries with the advantage of abundant mineral resources. We discussed the tension between healthy scale and healthy soil, and the place of the small-holder in vision for "mega farms". Malawi is figuring this out through Cooperatives, bringing together small farms so their aggregated crop can find its way to export markets. 

Lilongwe's International Airport keeps developing year-on-year. A minor difference this time - reference to Malawi's growing tourism offer, in the form of "big five" animal statues prowling through baggage reclaim. 

All 10 of our cases appeared, and Lucy Chipeta, Rev and Mrs Chipeta's only surviving child of seven, was there to meet us with other members of the Home of Hope team. 

[Photos to follow - check back!]

We arrived safely at Home of Hope a couple of hours ago after some food shopping and other admin in Lilongwe, grateful for the skillful driving of Lucy and Thompson. Imagine sharing the motorway with cyclists carrying wide loads across handlebars, at dusk, not a bike light in sight. Oh, and a large pig wandering across the way. 

Ah, the quiet joy and expansiveness of a large plate of nsima with beans and vegetables, after much elbows-in fiddling with crinkly in-flight food packaging!

Tomorrow, we'll show you Home of Hope 

Alex, Gillian, Jo, Phil & Ruth

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