More of the usual

I spent this past weekend at Lake of Stars, a music festival on a gorgeous beach near the south of Lake Malawi. Camping on the beach, swimming (in the lake, and in a pool with a bar), extended frisbee games, and late nights of varied excellent music and dancing made for a very different experience from a typical weekend in Malawi – for me, and especially compared to most Malawians. It was a nice break though – like Canadian summer weekend fun.

The trip back home was entirely different – if my weekend was un-Malawian, the transportation fit nearly every stereotype.

- 10 of us hitched a ride to the bus station in the back of a police pick-up truck, which stopped halfway to buy a dozen tomatoes from a roadside stand.

- At the bus station,

I want to go to Ntcheu, through Balaka.
“Oh, come here, this bus.”
This bus says Zomba, are you going to Zomba?
“Yes, Zomba.”
Are you going to Balaka?
“Yes, we will drop you at Balaka”
But Zomba is in the other direction, the road is different.
“Yes.”
So you’re not going to Balaka.
“No.”
So I should go on another bus.
“Yes.”

- On the right bus, I sat for 2 hours waiting for it to leave.

- When we did start driving, and I predictably fell asleep, I was woken up at a roadblock by a police officer tapping on my arm through the open window.

“Wake up. Madam, wake up. Azungu, wake up.”
Nnnn… hello.
“Hello. You are sleeping.”
Yes, I am sleeping.
“Why are you sleeping?”
Because I am tired.
“Oh.” (general laughter from him, and the rest of the bus echoing the conversation as we started driving again)

- Later, we drove through a town where instead of the usual produce, snack food, phone credits, and random-object (comb! nail clippers! plastic hat! meat thermometer!) -sellers, there were none of these. Instead, there were 3 people selling water, and 15 competing to sell rubber tire bungee cords. No one on my bus bought bungee cords.

- The boy on his mother’s lap beside me was kind-of sick, and kept spitting up into a washcloth – poor kid. And a man behind us suddenly became sick, and vomited all over himself, also all over that already sick kid, and slightly on me. The rest of the bus then scolded him, and lent clothes to mop up the mess.

- I climbed through the laps of 5 people to get off the bus, reminded the conductor that he still owed me change for my ticket, and met a bike with 4 people riding it (only one was a baby) while I was walking home.

- And back at the Water Office, the water isn’t working, again.

Oh Malawi – More of the usual

(And I hear the group heading to Lilongwe had an even more adventurous trip, that lasted twice as long as it should have… waiting for details!)

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