Category Archives: Malawi
Technology Leapfrogs
I like this quote from Hacktivate:
We need to stop underestimating people. Don’t expect Africans to be content with boring old SMS and voice for long. Smartphones, droids and even iphones are much higher up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs than we realize, especially if nobody around owns a computers, your schools suck, and the government controls [...]
Also posted in General, tech Tagged cell phones, Malawi, mobile technology, smartphones Leave a comment
Connecting to the Internet from Blantyre
Just got back from visiting family in beautiful Blantyre. It’s rainy season now and there are regular rain showers every other day. Everything is green and lush. The sun is hot. The air is moist. And the shopping centres and outdoor markets of Blantyre are busy with holiday shopping. And except for a couple of [...]
Malawi Twitterers
As Malawi celebrates independence day tomorrow, here is a list of Malawi twitterers you might like to follow:
Vincent Kumwenda – currently at Muloza border, Mulanje; topics include Malawi news, world news, interesting Malawi web pages, and soccer. He also writes a blog.
Fred Bvalani – in Blantyre; tweets about mobile applications and phones, Oracle training [...]
Also posted in General, blogger, blogging Tagged africa, Blantyre, lilongwe, Malawi, malawi tweeple, malawi tweets, malawi twitterati, malawi twitterers, microblogging, twitter 3 Comments
OpenStreetMap of Blantyre
Stumbled across this tweet about Malawi on OpenStreetMap.org.
See for example the streets of Blantyre:
Malawi Cell Phone Numbers Change on April 1
Malawi cell phone numbers have changed:
Zain:
Add 099 and the remaining 7 digits.
TNM:
Add 088 and the remaining 7 digits.
Calling Malawi from Switzerland
Online bookmark:
Check Teltarif.ch for the cheapest telephone rate to Malawi.
Yesterday I couldn’t remember the name of the cheapest Swiss “callthrough” provider… and googling for something like “Billiger telefonieren Malawi” just lists tonnes of German “call-by-call” sites.
BTW, Swisscom costs CHF 1.40 per minute.
Also posted in General Tagged africa, billiger telefonieren, Malawi, swiss, telephone rates, von der schweiz nach malawi 1 Comment
Malawi’s Languages
I stumbled across this very interesting post and comment on Chingoni, Chilhomwe, Chisena and many more.
Also posted in africa Leave a comment
How to Resize Photos
My family’s email account in Blantyre was blocked twice in the past week, due to well-meaning but over-sized Christmas and New Year email greetings. Attachments with over 2 MBs. The family is still on a phone line with a very slow connection rate. And downloading emails with a large attachment takes forever and a day. [...]
Also posted in General, Photos, africa, blogger, blogging, flickr Tagged change size, flickr, gimp, irfanview, jpeg, Malawi, ms paint, paint, picasa, resize photos, slow internet connection 3 Comments
BBC on Fish Farming in Zomba
Recommended reading:
BBC’s James Morgan on fish farming in rural areas of Zomba district, Malawi.
It’s a perfect circle. “Or what we call an integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) system,” says Joseph Nagoli, of WorldFish. “This isn’t high input fish farming. This is simple and sustainable.”
Appfrica Interview on MTN Uganda
Just a quick note to point to an interesting interview with an official of MTN Uganda at:
Appfrica: Interview With MTN’s Erik van Veen – Part 1
These points caught my eye:
(…) revenues per user, are very low in Africa by international standards, and require a low cost operating model if the Operator is to be profitable. [...]
Mulanje
I just surfed through lots of cool new photos in the Malawi group on Flickr.
Including these photos of Mulanje mountain by Lisa de Vreede:
Also posted in Photos, africa, blogger, flickr, wordpress Tagged flickr group, Malawi, photography, travel 2 Comments
My BlogCamp Switzerland Talk
As announced on Twitter, I presented a talk on mobile technology in Malawi at today’s BlogCamp in Zurich to share what I’m learning from the African blogs and tweets that I follow on a regular basis.
I started my talk with a short intro on Chiperoni (I am a bridge blogger somewhere between Basel and Blantyre) [...]
Also posted in General, africa, blogcampswitzerland, blogger, tech Tagged basel, Blantyre, bridge blogger, cell phone, chiperoni.ch, mobile technology, nchenga, powerpoint, ppt, presentation, tnm, zain 4 Comments
The queue at the Road Traffic office
Malawi blogger Victor Kaonga writes about the long queue at the Road Traffic office:
NDAGHA: What I saw at the Road Traffic Office in Lilongwe
I waited in a similar queue in Blantyre during my visit last year.
Mobile Technology and Malawian Farmers
Cy has uploaded a video discussing the benefits of mobile technology for farmers in Malawi:
Biking in Malawi
stumbled across this:
Malawi Travel Guide and Bicycle Touring Guide
Not very detailed though. The south is less hilly than the north. Ok.
Posted in Malawi Leave a comment
Hong Kong Restaurant in Blantyre, Malawi
Chinese restaurant in downtown Blantyre in Malawi.
(BTW, this is a Chiperoni.ch Internet Marketing experiment….
If you read this blog post and then end up going to eat at this BT restaurant, please tell the owners where you first heard about it…)
Wikipedia in Tumbuka
stumbled across this:
Wikipedia in Chitumbuka
Back from Blantyre
I spent a couple of sunny, winter days in Malawi’s biggest city, visiting family and meeting friends.
I’ve started uploading some of my snapshots to Flickr. More to come as I sift thru the GBs of data.
Travel was uneventful, except for the fact that my luggage took 6 days to arrive in Blantyre. It [...]
Also posted in General Tagged Blantyre, lost luggage, Malawi, south african airways, vacation Leave a comment
Radio Stations in Malawi
Bennett has listed an overview of Malawi radio stations:
MBC Radio 1 (state broadcaster)
MBC Radio 2 FM (state broadcaster)
Capital FM
Power 101 FM (Provides live internet streaming)
Radio Maria Malawi (Provides 24 hr live internet streaming from Malawi. Currently my fave, because it brings me closer home when I am outside Malawi.)
Star FM
Zodiak Radio Station
Trans-World Radio Malawi
CFC Radio [...]
Malawi Blog on Learning Tumbuka
Monire monire! Muli uli?
Tobias Kumwenda has started a blog to teach Tumbuka ( via Global Voices):
The mission of this weblog is to teach those people who are not ChiTumbuka speakers located across the world, but have developed passion to learn this language.
A great idea. Keep up the good work!
See also Wikipedia:
The Tumbuka language is [...]
HHI school hall