I am now back in the UK. Due to limited reliable internet access I wrote the following blog entries but didn't post them so better late than never..........
Mzuzu is the third largest city in Malawi and the fastest growing. It has a population of 100,000. Now I didn’t really know what to expect but imagined there would be a few multi-storey buildings in a business district and maybe a few western style shops. It wasn’t quite accurate. ‘City’ is really over generous in terms of Mzuzu’s feel. The centre is really quite small and there are only a handful of buildings beyond 2 floors (even then there is an absolute maximum of four floors). This is in part due to there being restrictions in building height due to Mzuzu having a small airport from which planes have recently started flying again. The main road through town is very good but off it are dusty paths and there are many wooden frames of abandoned construction. There are a three branches of South African supermarket ‘Peoples’ and a couple of South African chain PEP (very downmarket there apparently but the height of luxury here) but apart from that it is really all independent general stores with a mix of Malawian, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese ownership. I spent a couple of days in Lilongwe and it felt like a world away from Mzuzu. There are smart restaurants and choices of different international cuisines. There are hotels with swimming pools! (there is not a single pool in Mzuzu) and there are lots of supermarkets and lots of roads.
Mzuzu is the third largest city in Malawi and the fastest growing. It has a population of 100,000. Now I didn’t really know what to expect but imagined there would be a few multi-storey buildings in a business district and maybe a few western style shops. It wasn’t quite accurate. ‘City’ is really over generous in terms of Mzuzu’s feel. The centre is really quite small and there are only a handful of buildings beyond 2 floors (even then there is an absolute maximum of four floors). This is in part due to there being restrictions in building height due to Mzuzu having a small airport from which planes have recently started flying again. The main road through town is very good but off it are dusty paths and there are many wooden frames of abandoned construction. There are a three branches of South African supermarket ‘Peoples’ and a couple of South African chain PEP (very downmarket there apparently but the height of luxury here) but apart from that it is really all independent general stores with a mix of Malawian, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese ownership. I spent a couple of days in Lilongwe and it felt like a world away from Mzuzu. There are smart restaurants and choices of different international cuisines. There are hotels with swimming pools! (there is not a single pool in Mzuzu) and there are lots of supermarkets and lots of roads.
In the last few days of my stay there was much excitement about town as a new supermarket opened ‘Chipiku’. This was a real advance for Mzuzu and brought a much wider range of products to the town including cheese sauce!
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