Malawi

Austin's Country Report

Currency

The currency used in Malawi is named Kwacha and known as MWK in conversion and rates. One CAD (Canadian Dollar) is equal to 441.61 or 441 kwacha and 61 tambalas

Tourism

Population Comparison

Malawi's population in 2013 was 16 million but Saskatchewan's population was 1 million. Sask's population is 6% of Malawi's population.

But Malawi is a country so of course it's going to have more.

Language

Chichewa and Chinyanja are all the same language but I will call it as Chichewa.

Chichewa and English are the official languages of Malawi. Chichewa is a language in the Bantu Language family, meaning it is one in a group of languages.

There are other languages for the other tribes but I will talk mostly about Chichewa

Lilongwe

Lilongwe is the capital of Malawi. It's population was around 1 million in 2015. To get there it would take about 22 hours and 50 minutes. (Excluding delays and give or take a few) Regina is 8 hours behind Lilongwe.

Things to do

• Go to Mount Mulanje or a wildlife reserve like the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve
• Survive in the bush (Surviving in the wild)
• Eat out in Blantyre, Mzuzu or Lilongwe

Malawians celebrate Independence Day like Canada and the United States do. July the sixth is my birthday, but also Independence Day. But the other holidays are here.

Nsima is ground and cooked maize flour. It is the staple food (food that is eaten regularly) and is accustomed to be made by Malawians, even ones who leave Malawi, so my mom makes it sometimes and we eat it with beans.

Culture

Clothing

Women mainly wear a Chitenje (pronounched Chi-ten-jay) mainly used for carrying things like babies or used as oven mitts. Men usually don't wear anything specific but mostly just a t-shirt and jeans.

Holidays and Food

Poverty

My Poverty Perspective

Some people don’t have stuff like a Wii U or an Xbox One. And some of those people have to live in villages with clay huts and eat off of fruit from trees and have to grow crops. The kids who live that life either have to walk really far for school or may not even get to go to school. These people are the less fortunate. I have been to one of these villages before and played with the kids there and they loved it! There was a language barrier but either way, it was fun!

Education

Malawi has schooling but some of the kids don't benefit from it well. The government agrees that pre-school is the basic foundation but doesn't want to fund it. Primary schooling is the first 8 years of schooling and is funded by the government. The organisation "Kids in need of desks" provides desks for the students. Secondary education (4 years) is partially funded by the government so not many kids go. Post-secondary education is extremely hard to get into and very few get to go to the University of Malawi but there are more opportunities for university education. At least it has gotten much better.

Geography

Malawi is a landlocked country, meaning it is surrounded by other countries. But the country's lake makes up for the lack of ocean. Mount Mulanje is also near the bottom right. Malawi is situated between 9°, 32° and 18°E, 36°S

Malawi's climate is mainly tropical and has a rain season which lasts from November to April.

Malawi is about one fifth of the size of Saskatchewan

Tobacco

The production of tobacco in Malawi has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2005, Malawi was the 12th largest tobacco leaf producer. In 2010, it became the world's leading burley leaf tobacco producer. When the west started losing their tobacco farms, they looked at Malawi's low quality, high-in-nicotine tobacco, and interest in that increased. Since Malawi's economy mostly depended on tobacco, many people were involved in growth and production. And they have the highest occurrence of child labor in southern Africa.

References:

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
• http://www.experiencemalawi.com/culture.html
• http://www.rippleafrica.org/education-in-malawi-africa/general-education-in-malawi-africa