Starting home.

I'm writing this having safely completed the first leg on my journey back to the UK.

However, that does not hint at the interesting journey it was. The coach arrived a few minutes late at the coach station, which is based at the side of a filling station. Normally that would not be an issue but, at present Malawi is suffering severe fuel shortages so whenever there is even a rumour of a tanker of fuel arriving cars and vans descend on that particular filling station. Over the last two days there have been trucks and vans just parked outside a filling station, waiting for a promised delivery of diesel!

Anyway, back to my coach. Having fought it's way through a queue at the coach station as the filling station actually had a tanker unloading fuel so the numbers of cars just seemed to explode, it arrived about 10 minutes late, which under the circumstances was pretty good.

It was not the normal luxury coach that is used for the journey, but a slightly down at heel looking beast, but it was there to start my journey home so it was fine by me. I loaded my bags on the luggage compartment and climbed aboard to be greeted by sagging seats, very limited leg room and a generally grubby and uncared for look. It seemed pretty cold and I soon realised that the sliding windows did not close properly letting in a rush of cool air. And to compound matters one of the windows was missing and had been replaced with 2 or 3 sheets of plastics taped in place, actually expertly. I guess they had done this before.  However, I had 2 seats to myself and all was well.

We set off on our 4 hour journey about 20 minutes late and slowly made our way out of the city of Blantyre en-route for Lilongwe. The initial part of the journey was slow, making our way past the various small trading centres that line the route close to Blantyre. Then on the far edge of the urban area of the city we stopped for the first of 4 police checks. After this the journey would mainly be on the M1, the main north-south artery in Malawi, so that would enable us to travel a little faster. Which normally would be fine but when this coach's speed got over about 45 kph, it started it vibrate very noisily. As most of the remainder of the journey was completed at speeds considerably over 45kph I think I now have something resembling the industrial mining injury 'white finger' affecting my nether regions. They have only just started to recover this morning as I write this, some 12 hours later.

After about an hour and a half darkness started to fall and it seemed for all the world as if the driver was trying to conserve the life of his headlight bulbs as even in the gloom it was difficult to spot any sign of headlights. One thing I have learnt in Malawi is that headlights are seen at times as an optional extra!

Eventually the lights appeared and we sped through the darkness towards our destination, with seemingly ever increasing speed mostly using the centre of the single carriageway road [I know I said it was the M1 but it's all relative] on the basis that, as the coach was larger than most oncoming vehicles they would smartly get out of the way. And I must say, it really worked well! One or two interesting moments when a truck far larger than us approached but we passed by unscathed, by I felt the proverbial fag paper.

Another unusual technique used for overtaking, involved speeding up behind whatever vehicle it was, flashing the headlights furiously, [maybe that's what he was saving them for!] and the pulling out at the last minute to sweep furiously past whilst at the same time honking the horn to warn the hapless driver we were there. As if they needed reminding after that approach!. Again this worked well except when passing a large lorry when we had to go slightly 'off-road' on to the broken edge of the tarmac, and beyond, to find the space to get by.

In fairness once I had accepted that these guys do this journey most days and I had yet to read of a coach from this company having a fatal accident, I decided that my odds of arriving in Lilongwe were probably better than even, relaxed and almost drifted off to sleep. Only to be woken by another flaming police road block. These are really a pointless exercise as they mainly involve stopping the coach, having a quick chat with the on board hostess [forgot to mention her, she certainly helped relax things!] and then after, on rare occasions, a perfunctory look in the luggage compartment for I know not what, we were waved cheerily on our way.

So on arrival in Lilongwe only about 10 minutes late, I was collected by the local project driver who kindly waited while I collected a much needed Indian takeaway and some coca cola and then delivered me safely to the project house in town.

Well after consuming the aforementioned Indian with gusto I retired to a very clean and comfortable room and slept the sleep of those who had briefly stared at their own mortality, very disturbed! But this morning, what a difference. The sun is shining and the room had the best shower I have had in a long while. That being said it does not take a lot to beat a shower that only works if you hold the shower attachment over your head and wait for a dribble of water that could be by turns, either freezing cold or scalding hot, with no warning of the impending approach of either. So after a long and seemingly luxurious shower I am sitting writing this looking out over the well cared for garden and drinking coffee and eating the toast prepared for me by the excellent staff here.

From here I will shortly be taken to the airport to check in for my flight to Addis Ababa and from there will embark at 00:40 Friday morning on my flight back to Heathrow. It's unlikely that I will be able to access the internet at Addis so I will post another update when I arrive back in the UK.

Day to day life

I think it's probably time I posted some thoughts on what life is like in Malawi as I will be departing in just under 2 weeks now.

From my observations I would suggest that there is, I guess obviously, a large divide between the standard of living in the towns and cities and the rural communities. I'm not sure I expected it to be so wide but the reality is that Blantyre feels and acts, in the main, like a western city. There is a definite daily commute although the majority commute on foot, but there are still enough cars to get traffic jams some mornings, although again it's all relevative, as the most we have ever been delayed in about 5 minutes!

Almost everyone appears smartly dressed as it's one way for the poorer in society to blend in by making sure they look smart. Talking to the locals it's common to see that. There is still a fairly large number of people who are dressed not too smartly but they tend to be working as street cleaners so don't need to be smart. The only evidence that is visible of different levels of society is a street market near the centre of Blantyre, but even this is fairly prosperous looking.

However, when you get just a short distance from the towns and get in to the rural areas and go through a trading centre, you start to see definite signs of poverty. There are normally street markets beside the main roads and these are very dusty and dirty affairs, selling everything from shoes and clothes to freshly butchered meat. The concept of food hygiene has not made it to rural Malawi yet!

I've always made sure that I ask for my steak well done, and I think this illustrates why!

So the trading centres are actually closer to what I had imagined 'real' Africa to be but are still quite prosperous in comparison to some of the small villages I've seen, but more of that later. The trading centres are basically larger settlements that have grown up around a particular part of the country, but with no discernible reason other than, perhaps they are at the centre of many smaller villages. The picture below illustrates just how busy they can be, especially as pictured, when a bus stops. 

All the vendors that can, rush to the vehicle that's stopped and tries their best to sell something to a captive audience.

Further down the chain are the smaller villages, a little off the beaten track, where most people seem to survive purely by subsistence farming on the poor land that they have available. They will grow crops, primarily of maize, normally trying to replant the land as soon as it's been harvested although I don't know how successful the second crop is. This maize is then cut, laid out on blankets to dry, and then ground at the local mill. This, however, could be several miles away and you often see bicycles laden with 3 or 4 large sacks of maize being taken either to the mill or possibly in a really good year, to market. The really affluent amongst these villagers will even have a grain store, constructed on blocks to keep it above the ground, of reed or rush walls and roof. This means they have sufficient to see them over the lean periods so they can spend money on other items, instead of food.

Unfortunately no shots of grain stores but this is of a fairly typical small settlement seen all over the areas of Malawi that I've seen. 

Something else that is a striking difference from the UK is the transport system. There is a railway system of sorts but has not run for many years so all you see are a couple of really rusty sections of overgrown track. The road network is very good in general, and far better than I had imagined before I came out here. The main roads between the major towns are generally tarmaced although to varying degrees of coverage. If drivers in the UK were to drive over here there would be a huge outcry as potholes are a fact of life, even on the main roads that seem to have the capability of breaking even the soundest of suspension. However, the side roads are mainly not tarmaced and most people have a 4 wheel drive to cope. The most noticeable difference is the side roads in Blantyre. They are tarmaced but very potholed, and repairs consist of cramming broken bricks in the holes without bothering to compact them. Why bother when the the traffic will break them down for you! However, it's not very efficient as the bricks only last about 3 weeks before the are completely disintegrated.

Road safety is another interesting concept in Malawi. Seat belts are compulsory and if you break down, which is fairly common, you must place a warning triangle in front and behind of your vehicle. However, that's probably as sophisticated as it gets because most days there is news of another road accident with multiple deaths. It's sobering for a westerner but seems to be tolerated over here. The other very different thing is the overloading of any vehicle if at all possible. This ranges from bicycles carrying 4 or 5 crates of beer, sacks of maize as mentioned before, huge bags of charcoal and even live animals. No photos but I've seen goats and chickens carried on bikes and have also seen a photo of a pig strapped to the back of a bike.  Not very comfortable for the pig but it's probably on the way to market anyway!

Because not everyone has transport you often see people sitting on the back of lorries, and clinging to the top of piles of whatever is on the lorry as a load. 

This was a lorry I followed back from one of my day trips and is typical of this mode of transport. Another common sight is for trucks to be overloaded and seemingly very dangerous. Here is another shot of a slightly overloaded timber lorry that I passed with extreme caution.

So  a view of many different aspects to life in Malawi but the thread that runs through everything is the friendliness of the people, and as the tourist brochures say, Malawi really is the 'Warm Heart of Africa'.