Labour Day

Our first day on the job turned out to be a holiday. May 1st is a public holiday in Malawi - Labour Day. We did visit the job site and took a tour of the village and got oriented on what to expect.

After lunch we went to the Lilongwe City Centre and the Old Town market. There are throngs of people at the Old Town market and you can buy anything from fabric to dried fish. There are no price tags, all prices are negotiated. It was quite interesting, some people are good (JR) at negotiation, and some people aren't (Bob). Unfortunately, cameras aren't welcome in this area and for safety reasons we left them at home.

The biggest eye opener was on the way into City Centre we passed by a row of coffin manufactures. There were about 7 or eight roadside shops that produced coffins 24 hours a day. This was a harsh reminder of why we are here. Some stats say that AIDS is responsible for 10 deaths per hour in Malawi, the average life expectancy is now 28 years old and dropping and that 1 in every 5 people are HIV positive. That is 240 people dying of AIDS per day. Numbers like that make coffin builders very busy people.