Meet Malawi

On the outskirts of Dedza, conversation trumps trade, as it often does in Malawi. Vendors leave their stalls unattended for hours at a time to catch up with neighbours and friends.

This is Sorsten Ntodwa, my guide on Zomba Plateau. Only, he wasn’t actually a guide. He was a curio vendor with a liberal understanding of the term ‘official’ and a sliding scale of what things cost. He was also one of the most entertaining people I met.

I met these two workers while spending a morning waist deep in Satemwa’s tea plantations taking photographs of the pluckers. They were working to the sweet beats of Lucky Dube crackling out from an old taped-together Nokia 3100 when suddenly one looked up and said hi.

Just outside the Liwonde National Park is Nanthomba Primary, a school funded by Wilderness Safaris and run by H.E.L.P – a volunteer organisation dedicated to bringing education to children everywhere. Because of them, this little boffin knows how to count.

Tea plucking is not simply a walk in the plantation. Pluckers are meticulous, selecting only the top two leaves (and a bud) from each bush. They’re the sweetest and make for the best quality tea.

While tobacco is Malawi’s biggest export, many tourists will know the country for its more ‘naturally occurring’ diversions. I can’t tell you of which this puff of smoke is, but I can tell you that Jonas (pictured) and I had a really funny conversation after I took this picture.

Quick and easy: a street side vendor fries up a helping of potato wedges for around 600 MKW (R20).

This is Miles wa Dauda, an itinerant artist. I gave him a ride from Blantyre to Dedza. In return he gave me one of his paintings. I chose a similar one to that pictured because it reminded of someone I knew.

On the Zomba Plateau, a stand-alone igneous massif that rises to an altitude of 2, 085 metres, timber is a way of life. This woodcutter took some time out from splitting pine to pose for a photo.

Malawi’s markets are a mishmash of everything. Here, vendors sell oil, eggs … and clothing.

I bought a tomato from this man oiling a bicycle chain under an umbrella just because that’s a sentence I’d like to have said once in my life. Check.

After tobacco, tea and coffee are Malawi’s biggest exports. Here, two workers take a break from plucking on the slopes of Thyolo Mountain on the Satemwa Tea Estate.

Inside the Satemwa Tea Factory in Thyolo, a worker rakes over the dried, crushed and rolled leaves before they’re packaged to be shipped off with other varietals around the world before landing in your cup.

This is Macleoud, a Wilderness Safaris guide at Mvuu Camp in Liwonde National Park. His knowledge of the area, history, fauna and flora is encyclopaedic. He’s also just a straight-up legend.

Zomba’s old colonial architecture is now canvas to colourful shop fronts. This particular building is a pharmacy and I wasn’t sure if this man was the pharmacist or a customer but he said he’d been there all day.

Dedza Pottery, just outside the eponymous town of Dedza, produces colourful, hand-made ceramic figurines and statuettes. The bulk of their craft, however, is ceramic tableware. This lady whipped together a pot in same time it took me to find the right camera settings. Sidling up alongside her to re-enact that scene from Ghost crossed my mind.

Several large furnaces burn daily outside Dedza Pottery. Here, a stoker cleans out some of the storage containers after a day under fire.

Sawyers on the Satemwa Tea Estate in Thyolo process timber the traditional way with a long two-person pit saw.

A man pushes his bicycle past the mosque in Old Town Lilongwe. Religion in Malawi is divided, almost equally, and the country is occupied by both Muslims and Christians. There has never been conflict between the two.

This is James and Deirdre, an Irish couple working in Lilongwe. They took a few days off to visit Liwonde National Park and their favourite thing about the trip was watching the day fade away over the Shire River. I had to agree. The sunsets were spectacular.