All of our traveling companions have left Malawi now.   Mom and I, Zeb the Duck, have one more day here.   We have been to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, a few times, but never for very long.   Today I want to show you some of what we saw here, in Lilongwe.   When we first arrived in Malawi, we walked to this shopping center.

You can see it is very nice, but not like our shopping malls.   There is a Game Store.   That is where we purchased sleeping bags for our safari.   We did leave the sleeping bags at our hotel so others can use them or they can be sold to help other people.   Remember our first trip was to Lilongwe Nature Sanctuary where we hiked and saw some animals.

This was our taxi.

I, Zeb the Duck, like these kinds of taxis.   A couple times we had dinner here, at the Bombay Palace.

The food was good and the people were nice.   This was a nice dessert stop.

We stayed at the Kiboko Town Hotel in Lilongwe.

Again, the people were all so nice and helpful.   Everyone we met in Malawi was wonderful.   We also had dinner here at the Ad Lib Restaurant.

This restaurant is in the hotel building, but they are separate businesses.   I admired the huge wood carvings.

There are many talented artists in Malawi.

The craft market was next to our hotel.

We all spent a lot of time there.   This craft market goes to the end of the street,  turns to the right and goes about another block.  Many purchases were made, but we felt the prices were very reasonable.   And the vendors were very friendly and helpful.   If you did not purchase anything from them, they were still nice.   Mom and I wandered along different streets, but she did not take many photos.   This is one street photo including a mosque.

People from many countries and of many religions seem to get along well with each other.   We did not see any arguments.   Back to the craft market by our hotel, these friendly vendors were our friends.

Of course we did purchase some souvenirs.   Mom said we have more countries to visit, so we can only purchase a few small things at each market.   The suitcase will not hold too much.   We want you know that all the people we met in Malawi were so nice and so willing to share with each other.   Everyone had smiles.   But, life here is difficult.   This is one of the poorest countries in Africa.   The malaria rate is high.   Many people get cholera.   The HIV rate is also very high.   Even finishing elementary school is not common.   You may have heard that southern Africa is enduring another drought and many organizations predict millions will die of starvation.   These are the faces of youth we met.

All eager and wanting to learn so much.

If you have a favorite charity, perhaps you can give a donation for Malawi and other southern African countries.   Some of our favorite charities are Women for Women.   This charity often gives small loans to help women start businesses.   Perhaps $25 to sew items to sell.   They have a very high success rate and the loan repayment rate is also very high.   Heifer International gives a few goats or other animals, perhaps chickens and teaches how to use milk, eggs  etc for themselves, sell the extra and let the animals reproduce.   Then the new animals are given to another family or village to continue the process.   Of course, Ripple Africa is the organization where we volunteered for a couple weeks.   You have seen some of the good that they do.   And, World Food Program, connected with the United Nations, does get food to many  that need it.   We usually do not get this serious in our blogs, but we hope you can help these people.   If you donate through a church or a favorite charity, the people of southern Africa and the Colorado Traveling Ducks thank you.

Next time we will show you our first day in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.