This is my friend Chicken Legs. His given name is Peter, but he’s known for his poultry eating prowess, so his friends dubbed him Chicken Legs. We ran into CL while walking one of the Lilongwe souvenir markets; he was one of the many hopeful sellers aggressively vying for our attention & Kwacha (Malawi currency). … Read More
Early in our May 2018 trip to Malawi, we were invited to visit a small farming & mining village in the Ntenje region, roughly an hour south of Lilongwe. The villagers had discovered rhodolite garnets in their fields and were actively mining in between farming seasons. From the highway, the village was no different from … Read More
It’s my last day in the US before I slog through long layovers and lengthy flights on my way to Malawi. Malawi is a sliver of a country in Eastern Africa, just below Tanzania and above Mozambique. As part of the “Mozambique belt”, Malawi shares a similar geology to Kenya, Tanzania. Gem traders have long … Read More
Tanzania Buying Trip, Day 4 – 5 July 2009 The first few days of our trip we spent in our broker’s (Jamal’s) office reviewing and buying stones — aside from the fact that every lot had to be priced by bartering, we could have been sitting in any other gem trading area doing the same … Read More