Hidden gems

Chikala Pillars, hidden in woodland on the side of hills, a forty-minute walk and a 35 minute 4x4 drive from the road. Very rarely visited, which is a pity.

Manual labour

Unloading a lorry of delicate lab equipment? Don't bother with cranes, just get a lot of blokes to bunch together and then find some carriers to use their heads, so to speak.








I thought they should have done the same when replacing an incinerator through a gate that was too narrow, but lo and behold they made it with the fork lift (and a gang to unload it).

At the new Lilongwe airport boarding gate, an electric air conditioner was making an awful squealing noise that filled the room and was pretty intolerable. (I had 2h to wait.) Two guys came to fix it, armed with a couple of twigs. Turns out it was a camera-shy insect about the size of bumble bee.

Money laundering

Church offering mixed with water bottles in a cloth bag. Would have been better if I had checked that the bottle top was secured. Drying out on sofa.

Malawi rocket launcher

Not immediately obvious from a still picture but this item, cunningly disguised as a toaster, regularly launches missiles with a loud click and a flash of flame. Note the instruction manual propping up one side to angle the projectiles to a safe area.