Today is the day! Derek and I are leaving for Malawi and we are so excited. As we pack, we have both been wondering what awaits us in the next few months. From our contact with everyone in Malawi so far, we are confident that whatever God has in store for us will be filled with kindness and friendship, learning, and a lot of mosquitoes.
Before we get started writing about our experiences, we thought it would be a good idea to give a history of Malawi.
Since its independence in 1964, Malawi has had 5 presidents. The current president is Peter Mutharika who has been in office since May 2014. Malawi's first female president, Dr. Joyce Banda, who was also only the second president of an African nation to be a woman, took office in April of 2011. However, Malawi has only been under presidential leadership since 1994. The first 30 years of its existence, Malawi was governed by a dictator, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda who began a one party state. Before that, since the 15th century, Malawi was part of the Maravi Empire, a group of Central African tribes that moved east to escape war and disease and settled around what is now Lake Malawi. Modern day Mozambique and Zambia also were part of the Maravi empire. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Maravi Empire declined as other tribes moved into the area. When the British arrived in the area about a century later, the crown set up the British Central African Protectorate and the Maravi Empire officially ended. Despite local revolts throughout the early 1900s, Malawi, as I already mentioned, did not become an independent state until July of 1964 when it became part of the British Commonwealth.
Economically, Malawi's GDP is 90% based on its agricultural exports, which I think Derek mentioned in our first post. It comes as no surprise then that Malawi has most recently been subject to many economic downturns and the economy has not been stable. Malawi was also critically affected by recent government corruption scandals which caused much of its foreign and international aid to be revoked. Nonetheless, the past two or three years have shown Malawi's resilience and the economy has grown.
That is all for now! More to come with each adventure :)
Before we get started writing about our experiences, we thought it would be a good idea to give a history of Malawi.
Since its independence in 1964, Malawi has had 5 presidents. The current president is Peter Mutharika who has been in office since May 2014. Malawi's first female president, Dr. Joyce Banda, who was also only the second president of an African nation to be a woman, took office in April of 2011. However, Malawi has only been under presidential leadership since 1994. The first 30 years of its existence, Malawi was governed by a dictator, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda who began a one party state. Before that, since the 15th century, Malawi was part of the Maravi Empire, a group of Central African tribes that moved east to escape war and disease and settled around what is now Lake Malawi. Modern day Mozambique and Zambia also were part of the Maravi empire. From the 16th to the 18th century, the Maravi Empire declined as other tribes moved into the area. When the British arrived in the area about a century later, the crown set up the British Central African Protectorate and the Maravi Empire officially ended. Despite local revolts throughout the early 1900s, Malawi, as I already mentioned, did not become an independent state until July of 1964 when it became part of the British Commonwealth.
Economically, Malawi's GDP is 90% based on its agricultural exports, which I think Derek mentioned in our first post. It comes as no surprise then that Malawi has most recently been subject to many economic downturns and the economy has not been stable. Malawi was also critically affected by recent government corruption scandals which caused much of its foreign and international aid to be revoked. Nonetheless, the past two or three years have shown Malawi's resilience and the economy has grown.
That is all for now! More to come with each adventure :)
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| Waiting for check-in at MBS Airport |
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| The luggage we packed included so many supplies! Luckily we managed to keep it under the weight restrictions :) |
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