Blogging from an island
I am relying on my iPhone and the local mobile network to upload my blog posts and so I am unsure about getting photos uploaded at the moment.
I thought I would like to spend some time here reading and writing and unless I find that uploading photos is not as difficult, expensive or time-consuming as I expect then it will be mainly text blog posts for the next nearly ten days.
However, that does not mean that the stunning photos will not make their way onto the blog. I certainly hope to be able to get a selection of good photos up soon.
In the meantime I am writing the posts on my macbook and then transferring to them to my iPhone. I can then copy and paste them into a WordPress application and the upload from there is quite easy.
The complication is charging my macbook, my iPhone, my camera and the other iPhone and the other mobile at the same time. Electricity is available on the island from 7am-8am and from 11am til noon and from 5pm to 9pm. Now that we have transferred out of our chalet and into a tent I am relying on charging these things at the beach bar.
iPhone update
At long last I have my iPhone unlocked by O2 back in the UK. So I now have an Airtel account on my iPhone here in Malawi.
Many people in Malawi have two mobile numbers. This is because it is expensive to call someone on a different network. Fortunately it is easy to tell what network someone else is on. People have numbers beginning 08 or 09 or both. I am glad that I am in the both category. I am even more happy that I can make full use of my iPhone again and do blog updates like this.
In Blantyre
Just around Blantyre today. Amelia, Ruth and David are at the Resource Centre.
Trying to work out how to unlock the iPhones..
Airtel
Today has been about visits to the immigration offices, changing FX, visits to a couple of Airtel Offices (and a very long wait in one with Ruth) and a long search for an apple retailer who has a technical guy who can unlock my iPhone “it’s not easy” he said and it will cost 8,000 Kwacha.
So…now looking on the internet for an alternative. I had asked 02 to unlock my iPhone before we left the UK and they said it would be done…so why this?
It should be worth it in the end as I understand that the iPhone and 3G in Blantyre with Airtel is very good.
I don’t think bureaucracy and frustration with ISPs etc is any worse in Malawi – despite what some people say. I think it is different and probably fine once the initial hurdles are completed. Also, you need to count the costs of these mobile phones in advance – and act accordingly.
I think in Malawi you get through all the procedures and then afterwards….no EU regulations gold plated in the UK. It is that thought anyway which keeps me going on days like this.
Destination Malawi 