From my observations I would suggest that there is, I guess obviously, a large divide between the standard of living in the towns and cities and the rural communities. I'm not sure I expected it to be so wide but the reality is that Blantyre feels and acts, in the main, like a western city. There is a definite daily commute although the majority commute on foot, but there are still enough cars to get traffic jams some mornings, although again it's all relevative, as the most we have ever been delayed in about 5 minutes!
Almost everyone appears smartly dressed as it's one way for the poorer in society to blend in by making sure they look smart. Talking to the locals it's common to see that. There is still a fairly large number of people who are dressed not too smartly but they tend to be working as street cleaners so don't need to be smart. The only evidence that is visible of different levels of society is a street market near the centre of Blantyre, but even this is fairly prosperous looking.
However, when you get just a short distance from the towns and get in to the rural areas and go through a trading centre, you start to see definite signs of poverty. There are normally street markets beside the main roads and these are very dusty and dirty affairs, selling everything from shoes and clothes to freshly butchered meat. The concept of food hygiene has not made it to rural Malawi yet!
I've always made sure that I ask for my steak well done, and I think this illustrates why!
So the trading centres are actually closer to what I had imagined 'real' Africa to be but are still quite prosperous in comparison to some of the small villages I've seen, but more of that later. The trading centres are basically larger settlements that have grown up around a particular part of the country, but with no discernible reason other than, perhaps they are at the centre of many smaller villages. The picture below illustrates just how busy they can be, especially as pictured, when a bus stops.
All the vendors that can, rush to the vehicle that's stopped and tries their best to sell something to a captive audience.
Further down the chain are the smaller villages, a little off the beaten track, where most people seem to survive purely by subsistence farming on the poor land that they have available. They will grow crops, primarily of maize, normally trying to replant the land as soon as it's been harvested although I don't know how successful the second crop is. This maize is then cut, laid out on blankets to dry, and then ground at the local mill. This, however, could be several miles away and you often see bicycles laden with 3 or 4 large sacks of maize being taken either to the mill or possibly in a really good year, to market. The really affluent amongst these villagers will even have a grain store, constructed on blocks to keep it above the ground, of reed or rush walls and roof. This means they have sufficient to see them over the lean periods so they can spend money on other items, instead of food.
Unfortunately no shots of grain stores but this is of a fairly typical small settlement seen all over the areas of Malawi that I've seen.
Something else that is a striking difference from the UK is the transport system. There is a railway system of sorts but has not run for many years so all you see are a couple of really rusty sections of overgrown track. The road network is very good in general, and far better than I had imagined before I came out here. The main roads between the major towns are generally tarmaced although to varying degrees of coverage. If drivers in the UK were to drive over here there would be a huge outcry as potholes are a fact of life, even on the main roads that seem to have the capability of breaking even the soundest of suspension. However, the side roads are mainly not tarmaced and most people have a 4 wheel drive to cope. The most noticeable difference is the side roads in Blantyre. They are tarmaced but very potholed, and repairs consist of cramming broken bricks in the holes without bothering to compact them. Why bother when the the traffic will break them down for you! However, it's not very efficient as the bricks only last about 3 weeks before the are completely disintegrated.
Road safety is another interesting concept in Malawi. Seat belts are compulsory and if you break down, which is fairly common, you must place a warning triangle in front and behind of your vehicle. However, that's probably as sophisticated as it gets because most days there is news of another road accident with multiple deaths. It's sobering for a westerner but seems to be tolerated over here. The other very different thing is the overloading of any vehicle if at all possible. This ranges from bicycles carrying 4 or 5 crates of beer, sacks of maize as mentioned before, huge bags of charcoal and even live animals. No photos but I've seen goats and chickens carried on bikes and have also seen a photo of a pig strapped to the back of a bike. Not very comfortable for the pig but it's probably on the way to market anyway!
Because not everyone has transport you often see people sitting on the back of lorries, and clinging to the top of piles of whatever is on the lorry as a load.
This was a lorry I followed back from one of my day trips and is typical of this mode of transport. Another common sight is for trucks to be overloaded and seemingly very dangerous. Here is another shot of a slightly overloaded timber lorry that I passed with extreme caution.
So a view of many different aspects to life in Malawi but the thread that runs through everything is the friendliness of the people, and as the tourist brochures say, Malawi really is the 'Warm Heart of Africa'.
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