Back at it again!

Heya guys! Long time no see. First of all, apologies for the radio silence, life back in reality, has flown by.

Time to bring this blog back, and spread the great joys of being a Peri- Ambassador, and talk about everything we learned, our reflections and introduce you more to the farmers from Malawi.

To start this blog off I wanted to show you the highlights of our tour!Below is a fantastic video made by Paige, showing our adventures and everything that was great about Malawi and all the wonderful we met on our journey!

I’m excited to get back to being Peri-Ambassdor, and speaking about my experience and what I’ve learned!

Going forward with this blog, there are going to be a few changes.

Every week or so, there is going to be and introduction to the many wonderful farmers we met! (some have been feature, and more details will be told about them!) I will be talking about their lives, their farms and working with Nando’s.

I will also post what I (Kayleigh) have been planning and what i working on in terms of talking about the wonderful things Nando’s does to improve the lives of their workers in Malawi.

There will also be small updates here and there about how I have been engaging with the public and sharing the information of the farmers and where our PerI-PerI comes from!

Keep your eyes peeled, and keep enjoying the blog!

THINGS ARE ONLY GETTING STARTED!

Us looking like the next big Pop Band!

The Final Day!

Heya guys! So, if you haven’t have guessed this is the last blog post before Paige,Kate, Emma and I head back to the U.K.

We had an incredible experience! One that we would remember and one we cant wait to go home.and talk about.

So for last day, we were treated to a lovely day out. We got to head up to the incredible Lake Malawi for two days and got to see some amazing sights.

We also go to go horse riding. 8 people without any knowledge of it, going horse riding was an experience. No one died or got injured ( but no one I mean me).

We can all say we have been on a horse in the water. It was really cool!

We also got to experience swimming in the famous Lake Malawi and wow! The fresh water lake was spectacular, and I would love to go back just for the water.

Malawi was a country full of good poins and bad points, but it’s people were so full of warmth and welcoming, it made the country the most beautiful place on earth!

This week is something none.od us would forget in a hurry. We are incredibly lucky we got to go along and cannot wait to go back home and sread the news of Peri farms to all of Nandos!

So this is the end of this blog post but itis also the beginning, as this blog wouled finish here.

I plan on continuing the blog post introducing you to more of the farmers we met on our journey. Talkingit what I learned from Malawi

There will even be a video depicting the entire experience.

So keep your eyes peeled and in the mean time, enjoy a Malawi sunrise! Its beautiful!

Day 5: Our Amazing Translators!

Heya guys! So this blog post is gonna be a little different! We want to introduce you to our wonderful translators! All of us have been working side by side for the last couple of days while conducting the interviews.

Our translators have been helping communicate and contact with the local farmers. Without them, our job would be extremely difficult!

So without further ado, meet our fantastic translators!

This is Tamala! Tamala and I have been working with each other of the few days, and she is spectacular! She is 20 years old, and is still studying. Her dream is to become a nurse when shes done studying.

This is Godblef. He and paige have been working together. He is 25 years old and loves a photo! He is the second oldest of five children and livesst home with his siblings and his mum. He is in his second year of college studying Engineering.

Meet Harrison he is 19 years old. He hasbeen translating for Kate. He lives with his grandmother who is 82 and helps her with her farm. Harrison is currently waiting for his exam results and would love the opportunity to go to university and study agriculture and engineering. His dream is to travel around and meet advise and train farmers.

This is Lusungu and she is 19 years old. She has two brothers and one sister and loves to play netball! She is waiting on her exam results and would love to go to university and study journalism

These are just some of our lovely translators. They have been working so hard helping us. They all learned EnEnglish in school as they are mostly taught through English.

They have been a huge help and it’s been amazing getting to know new people on the other side of the world.

Day 4: The Crayon Riot Of 2019

Heya guys! Things are in full swing for all of us here in Malawi. We continue another busy day of working with our translators and conducting interviews.

I interviewed Miriam and Alec. Miriam cares for her 6 children and 1 grandson. She has bee farming for 30 years. She is a lovely woman who grows tobacco, maize and soya beans. She pays for her grandson to study at school, and also continues to support her children.

Alec is 52 years old. 9 people live in his household. These include his wife and 7 children. He farms tobacco and maize. He is a lovely man, and we had a great conversation about Ireland!

Kate interviewed Giliubeti and Love. Giliubeti is 32 years old, he started farming when he was 15 years old. Hes got 3 children. He is currently farming maize, tobacco and sweet potato.

Love is 38 years old. 8 people live in her house,including her five children. Due to the amount of children Love has, a family member helps her with affording to send them to school.

Paige interviewed Timale. She is 58 years old. She has 8 children. She has been farming for 40 years. Four of her children no longer live with her as they got married. Her dream is to farm Paprika.

Emma interviewed Mary and Rafisha.

Rafisha is 54 and has 9 children and 9 grandchildren, she has farmed for 36 years and once a month her and her family walk about 5k to collect lots of fire wood to use for the month.

Mary is 47 and has 6 children, she has been farming for 29 years.

It was amazing to listen to these peoples stories and how hard they work to ensure a better future for the families!

The community we visited houses many families and there was loads of children, curious about these strangers.

CUE THE BUBBLES!

We also were able to give the guys paper and crayons and were absolutely swarmed with children at the prospect of colouring. they were told to draw a dog or a lion and boy these kids delivered!

Being welcomed into a community aside. We also got to visit the Farming Association Tropha. Tropha will be working with these farmers to plant and grow African Eye Bird Chillis for Nandos. We saw everything from the drying racks to the processi g plant and everything in between!

That’s Paprika drying in the African sun! Did you know Paprika is a chilli? Because I didnt!

We also got to see baby Africa birds eye chillis, which are destined to end up in sauce bottles and baste bottles.


These baby chillies will be sent out to farmers to cultivate and the chillis will be harvested in December, dried and processed to be made into our sauces. The harvest of chillies is expected to be the batch of sauces that arrive in shops and restaurant in February!

That’s it for the day! Keep an eye out for a bonus post introducing you to our lovely translators. Our translators have been helping us out speaking to villages and we’ve gotten to know them very well!

Day 3, Its the Circle of life

*disclaimer* There’s references to The Lion King in the blog post…cos Africa.Okay! So we left off the last time settling into Malawi, well today all of us got down to the business we were invited to do here! The interviews and meeting the Chilli Farmers.Started bright and early we travelled to meet our translators and introduced ourselves to the farmers!It was amazing to see how these people live, and more about their livelihood.Paige and I met Esther and Rhoda.Emma met Willard Kalera and Towera Mikandawire.Kate and Elizabeth met Thompson and Mayness.We spent the day with these wonderful people, learning their history, about the families and their communities.We conducted the interviews to collect data in order to gather information which can be used in a years time once the African Birds Eye Chillis have been harvest. After a year of working with the third party Farming Association Tropha, the farmers will conduct surveys again and see if Nandos has made an impact on the Farmer’s lives but working with them for a year.Once the interviews were finished, we got to see more of the community that these wonderful people live in. Paige and I got invited into Rhoda’s home to try Malawi’s national dish: Nsima.(Please enjoy this video of me enjoying so Nsima…its not pretty)

Once we left the families for the day, after many thanks and the most warm welcome, we were treated to a trip to a reserve to see some animals.*This is where all of us embodied ‘The Lion King’, and blasted ‘The Circle of Life’ as we travelled around this Safari. IT WAS AMAZING.We were lucky enough to see some amazing animals. From hippos, impala and monkeys. We got to go so close to animals and got so amazing photos ,so we would remember this experience.And that wraps up this edition of Four girls, One passion! Please enjoy these photos we took through out the day of the families, our translators and just us having a laugh really!

Day 2: The Gorgeous Views

Heya guys! This blog post is just gonna be a little shorter! Think of it as a little update in to our lives at the moment!

So today we finally touched down in Malawi. We landed in Lilongwe, buzzing with the excitement to start what we came here four.

We saw Malawi in the best way: travelling four hours to our hotel in Mzuzu, where we would be living for the week.

The views travelling up Malawi were absolutely spectacular! Constantly changing and theres always something new along the way!

Tomorrow it’s down to business, as we begin our interviews with the chilli farmers to gather data to ensure their needs are fulfilled!

Make sure you check back tomorrow, and the next day, and the FOLLOWING day for more insights into our adventures!!

Bye for now!

Day 1: First Stop; Johannesburg

So we landed safe and soundly in Johannesburg, and we hit the ground running.

Emma, Kate, Paige and I had a busy day playing tourists as we were guided around Johannesburg famous sites.

We visited the Apartheid Museum, learned about the rise and fall of Apartheid.

Nelson Mandela was the highlight of our touring, as we visited his Johannesburg home, getting to know more about arguably South Africa’s most famous activist.

We rounded off the day with all things Nando’s! We got to visit Central Kitchen and get to see the heart of Nando’.

To make things better, we got to eat Nando’s! We visited a Nando’s drive-thru and got to taste everything we can’t get back in the U.K. (P.S. they have milkshakes and Churros!)

After an amazing, busy day all of us couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and chill.

Tomorrow we fly out to Malawi and that’s when the videos start!

The trip of a lifetime has started with a bang and us four believe it is going to get even better!

Join us for the next installment!

So who are we?

Well we are four young women, currently living all around the U.K. about to embark on the trip of a life time! Me (Kayleigh), Emma, Kate and Paige are travelling to Malawi as Peri-Farm Ambassadors!

There, we will speak with farmers to learn how Farm to Flame, and growing chillies has made an impact on their livelihood, families and their communities!

Our job is to identify any problems the farmers may have to help them in their journey with Nando’s.

We are also there to help spread to good news of Farm to Flame and get everyone as excited as us!

So what now?

That’s where this blog comes in! Over the course of our trip we will be posting our thoughts right here – each of us talking about our experience together! We may even post a cheeky video! Keep your eyes peeled!

To make sure you’re up to date on our fantastic antics subscribe below!