If you think Africa
is cheap think again! I should be more precise and talk about Malawi.
The
currency in Malawi is called the kwatcha and is written MWK. There are 100
tambala to a kwatcha. When I tell you there are currently MWK 500 to £1 you can
see that one tambala is not going to go very far!
The kwatcha was devalued in May and this has significantly impacted
on inflation. Here's the BBC news on it for the economists amongst you.
The money comes in notes and coins. The smallest note I’ve
seen is for MWK 20 and the largest I’ve
seen is MWK 1,000 which is equivalent to £2 so you need a big purse/wallet!
At first I was converting everything back into sterling and
was surprised how cheap some things were eg a small bunch of locally grown
bananas for MWK 200 = 50p when in Marks and Spencer it would cost me 50p for
one banana. Then at the other extreme, I was horrified to realise I had bought
a pack of seven plums for almost £7. As you can imagine I made sure I enjoyed
each and every one them. As time has
gone on I’ve come to know roughly how much things cost and try to compare prices
on that basis, after all I’m now in Lilongwe not London so I have to go with these
prices!
Lots of the food is imported, particularly from South Africa
which is why the costs are so high. I do my best to but local produce but it’s
not proving to be that easy. I’ve been
surprised at how many vegetables that come pre-packed and this is typically
because they are not from Malawi. The Chomba
tea is good as are the local macadamia nuts. Last week the potatoes were from …
you’ve guessed it … Ireland!
Lots of other goods are imported from China and India eg
household goods like crockery. There’s no escaping their influence.
The cost of eating out varies in price but is so far has
always been cheaper. A bottle of lemonade is MWK 200 not the £2 minimum in London.
Then again, eating out in London is exorbitant!
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