T minus 7

Officially one week until I leave for Malawi! I'm going to be updating this week with different installments about Malawi for you interested readers.

Geography


Location: Sub-Saharan Africa bordering Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia.

Here's a more detailed map of the region:

Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa) is the big body of water on the eastern border of Malawi. It is a huge lake ~365 miles long and 52 miles wide!

Running from North to South on the west side of the lake is the Rift Valley which is surrounded by a mountain range. The two tallest peaks are Zomba (7,000 ft) and Mlanje (10,000 ft) which are way taller than Mt. Marcy in the ADKs!

The capital city of Malawi is Lilongwe and the largest city and commercial center is called Blantyre and is located in the Southern part of the country.

On July 13th, I will fly from DC to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia (NE corner of Africa), where I will stay over 1 night. Then I will fly into the capital Lilongwe, and be taken in a car/truck to a small rural village called Chigamba (in the Machinga District) where the organization Littlefield Home is based. The Machinga District is the poorest district in Malawi, which is one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world. On the map below, it is colored red:


The official language of Malawi is English, however since I am in a rural area they will only speak the native language of Chichewa. Hopefully I can pick up some basic words!

More topics coming soon like: history! politics! religion! health! education! stay tuned