June 25, 2023:
Hey everyone, it’s Pranav again! I’m writing to you from Blantyre, Malawi: the Warm Heart of Africa! Our first week in Malawi has been amazing, and I’m finally feeling like I’ve gotten my bearings in Blantyre.
Our Plane at O.R. Tambo Int’l Airport, Johannesburg
Earlier this week, we departed from Houston on the long, 40+ hour journey to Malawi. After a short stop at Atlanta and a restful overnight layover at Johannesburg, Alex and I finally touched down at Chileka International Airport. There, we met Hillary, Sally, and Waliko, who enthusiastically greeted us and helped us with our luggage. The first thing I noticed about Malawi was the striking mountains surrounding us in all directions. That, and the fact that you drive on the opposite side of the road. We decided to drop all our belongings off at Kabula Lodge before heading to the Design Studio at MUBAS. The rest of the day involved a whirlwind of introductions, a short tour around the city (Hillary showed us a nice place to grab some coffee), and shopping for our stay at Blantyre.
Meeting Sally, Waliko, and Hillary at the Airport.
The next day, we woke up to a beautiful view of the sunrise while having some breakfast (the pancakes were delicious) at Kabula Lodge. When we arrived at the design studio, we met four other interns—Getrude, Arnold, Joyce, and Nassan—who were doing the MUBAS engineering internship. We then went right into our project work: I was paired with Sally while Alex was paired with Waliko. As a previous team at MUBAS had worked on the IV drip project before, we reviewed their documentation and research in order to understand the scope of the project. Our goal was to build off of the previous team’s work by integrating a drip monitoring system and a flow rate control mechanism with a touch-screen display and the cloud.
View from Kabula Lodge during Breakfast
Front Entrance of MUBAS
On Friday, we took part in a workshop led by one of the design studio technicians about building and printing custom circuit boards. It was my first time ever using circuit boards, so it was intriguing to learn the basics behind circuits and create our own circuit system. The workshop made me excited for all the new techniques and concepts that I would be learning over the next couple of weeks in Malawi.
Printable Circuit Board Workshop
Before we knew it, our first weekend in Malawi was upon us. We spent Saturday exploring nearby sites around town, such as the Blantyre market and the Bean There Coffee Roastery. We also grabbed some lunch at KwaHaraba Café, which had been highly recommended by previous travelers to Malawi. The café was decorated with local artwork and crafts that depicted the beauty of Malawi. On Sunday, we did our first of many road trips—this time to the Zomba Plateau. We went with Sally and Waliko, and met up with one of their classmates, Tom, at Zomba. Tom showed us around town, giving us a tour through the University of Malawi and highlighting the various administrative buildings (Zomba once used to be the capital city). He then took us up to the top of the plateau, passing by many scenic viewpoints with breathtaking views on the way. Driving through Zomba while blasting some African music was an amazing way to get to know Sally, Waliko, and Tom better.
KwaHaraba Cafe
A Dam at Zomba Plateau
Williams Falls at Zomba Plateau
As the weekend comes to a wrap, I’m looking forward to learning more designing basics for my projects, from learning how to use Arduino IDE to wiring together sensors and motors.
Until next time!
Pranav