Hello World – my name is James Chipoka and I was born on the 18th of December 1972 in Malawi, Africa. I am one of nine children (on my fathers side as he has remarried). It has been very hard for my father to raise all the children and has been hard for me as well. To go to school in Malawi is not free. But because of my friend’s sister (she was a teacher at a secondary school) brought me up as a brother, she did all she could to help me finish my schooling ( I have a family of three children and I am proud to say that they all go to school).
I finished my secondary level and started working at a certain company as a messenger for two years. But because of financial problems, the company soon closed. That is when I decided to start my own business.
In the year 2000 is when I started to carve wood and sell it in Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi) I have been in this business for nine years now. It has been a good business, and life has been good. But, like any business there are problems. Right now the main problem is a shortage of tourists – since we depend on tourists for much of our income. Rainy days we have no costumers cause we have no shelter to cover our things let alone the people who come and visit our market (it is an out door market) as you can see on the pictures, we are selling under the trees. One of the nice things about my job is that I meet people from all
over the world that come to Africa. Many come from Europe, United States and Canada as well. It is always a good day when people come and visit us in the market.
Since Malawi is not a wealthy country in resources, we make most of what we have or have to Import things. The picture on the left is a small workshop that we have when we make our wood pieces. We have no electricity so we make it all using simple tools. We can do amazing things with what we have though it does take a lot of time and physical energy to do it. I guess it would be like stepping back 100 years for most people in how we make and do things. Oh and that is me in the tan shirt with the 
saw.
I am now starting an Export business and I would love to hear from anyone that would like to purchase our goods for resale in other markets. They are not just my goods but others in the market as well. So if you would like please contact me at either – james@voicesformalawi.com or jchipoka@yahoo.com as this would help the whole community here at the market.
We make the wood carvings ourselves and take pride in our work. Our prices are inexpensive and I would very much like to find someone to Export directly to.
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