Love troubles female blogger; floods, politics and petty jobs worry Malawians · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

Based in the UK and studying Information Systems, Mercy Gondwe might be the only female Malawian blogger noted so far. While she has not been active she woke up on a day before Valentine's day to reflect on the day of romance. Mercy says she had to be careful with what to say on Valentine's day so that she doesn't hurt those in love:
Personally, I don’t believe in valentine and before you ask, am currently unattached. I believe everyday should be a romantic day between a man and a woman. Where love is concerned, we all need to feel appreciated all the time and not just down to one day.
Petty jobs, Big Salaries
Malawians highly respect their fellow citizens who live and work in diaspora. It is often assumed that the Malawians in diaspora have good jobs and make lots of money. Two bloggers share the reality.  The UK-based Cryton Chikoko reflects on his own life in UK in a post titled Of UK petty jobs:
The fact is these petty jobs are well paying, if we compare with the perks we were getting back in Malawi. Of course being a student I work few hours to concentrate on my studies but these few hours give a pay more than that of some chief executives in Malawi. It all goes down to a powerful economy here hence there is no huge gap between high earner and low earners. We are able, through such jobs, to make ends meet and help relatives and charities in Malawi.
And writing in Chichewa (Malawi's national language), a blogger calling himself m'malawi ku theba (A Malawian in diaspora) makes most of his postings about life away from home. He bears it all in earlier posting saying,
I know very few of malawian lads who have decent jobs, the rest of us have petty jobs. If we remember our poverty, then no choice..  I dont know! This is life in diaspora.
Old fathers bashed
Does it suprise you when you hear that within the same family the age gap between the oldest and youngest child is over 24? That is a typical reality in many rural African families let alone in Malawi. The burden of fathering in old age is a concern to a Clement Nyirenda, a Malawian living in South Africa. In a posting titled Of Fathers and Fatherhood, he feels such fathers leave the responsibility of taking care of the younger siblings to the older ones:
Malawian blogger represents Africa at a Software Summit
This week, Soyapi Mumba attended the 2007 Nonprofit Software Development conference in Carlifornia. He was expected to give a presentation about  Software Development in an African context,
The Summit will be a first-of-its-kind convening to bring together the range of developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators, users and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of roles around “developing nonprofit software”. The event will provide an opportunity both to gather as a community and to take stock of the field, while building connections and capacity.
Soyapi will also attend ETel Conference 2007.
Political Leaders worry blogger
The year 2007 has began with declarations by presidential candidates for 2009 general elections in Malawi. Three veteran politicians claim to have the backing of the electorates to lead Malawi as president after the incumbent. The issue of politics is a major item in many discussions by Malawians now. Isaac Ziba worries about the future of Malawi given the history the country has about our political leaders. After chronicling the leadership wrangles in a multiparty Malawi, he concludes in his post,
We are a nation in need of leadership, we are a nation in dire straits, we are a nation in economic doldrums, we can not afford a political game that yields no results, we can not afford to keep on going and not improve the quality of life of our people – each one of us, particularly our political leaders – in government or in opposition have a role in forging a pure developmental agenda for the whole nation, if development fails, all of us fail, development fails, Malawians will continue to live on less than a dollar a day, development fails, we fail our people and terribly so…
Questionable blessings of rain
Yesterday evening we had a very heavy hailstorm which has caused a number of damages. Trees along the road collapsed, roofs of houses and schools blown off and bill boards being bent while others completely collapsing on the ground. Our two telephone lines were broken. Praise God they have been fixed this afternoon. Dennis and his assistant left yesterday for Chitipa to deliver food, and the unfortunate part is that they spent a night on the way because their car got stuck in the mud…. I went to Karonga to deliver food and found out more about the flood disasters in Karonga and how best to help the victims.