May 21, 2008
We are safely arrived in Lilongwe after our 6-hour bus ride today. We took the AXA Luxury coach which left Mzuzu for Lilongwe at 6:30 am and arrived here at 12:30, after paying $12 for the trip rather than the $200 or so that we have been paying for diesel fuel round trip in one of the University vehicles. We decided after the last trip that it was just too expensive and we would try this bus, which looked and sounded quite nice.
Now that we have taken it, I would say it is a huge step up from a mini-bus, but quite far from what I was thinking of as “luxury coach”. The seats were kind of like school bus seats with headrests rather than the big comfy seats I was picturing, and were made for small Malawian rear ends, not large American ones. There were 2 seats on one side and 3 on the other, and the side with 3 seats was just about right for the 2 of us, but we only had that much room for the first hour and a half until we made our first stop. From then on, the bus was packed, to the point that the aisles were standing room only for the final 2 hours after our last stop. So while my knees were hitting the seat in front of me, and I had one bun on the seat and the other in the gap between my seat and the seat on the aisle(I’m not sure what the poor guy on the aisle had left to sit on), I was happy to be sitting rather than standing.
The luggage compartment under the bus ran out of space before we even left Lilongwe, and since we were in the next to the front seat we watched the front seat get piled almost to the ceiling and spilling into the aisle, with suitcases, bundles of corn, or tobacco. In addition to that luggage I saw one chicken come on cradled firmly in the arms of a young girl that looked to be about 15 but was probably in her 20’s, heading for the back of the bus. There were plenty of the usual babies strapped onto the backs of mothers, mixed in with a few “business man” types” who you could recognize because of their suits, which are often second hand and a bit shabby, but suits nonetheless, and a mixture of other Malawians mostly, although there were a handful of mzungus. Compared to the other options this is the nicest form of transport available if you don’t have money for a car, which is completely out of reach for most people.
I was ready to be done with the trip about 2 hours before we arrived here, but even when we have taken a private vehicle or rented a car that was true. For those people who can’t afford the $12 for the “luxury coach” there is always a minibus, which probably costs $7 or $8 and since they stop everywhere, probably takes 8 to 10 hours rather than 6, if the mini-bus doesn’t break down – which happens regularly, like I said, these mini-buses would be in the junk yard rather than on the road in the U.S.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention no bathroom on the bus either, although we did stop long enough to run off and find someplace at a bus stop several times along the way, but of course one never knows how long the bus will be stopped, so John and I chose not to drink anything before getting on or during the ride. That worked fine, but I was getting a headache by the time we got here, which I assume was at least party from dehydration, and possibly hunger since we hadn’t brought much for food either and had left the hotel too early for breakfast. I had read in one of our guidebooks that there was a luxury bus that had stewards with food on board, and had facilities, but it turns out that was the Shire Bus Line, which is no longer in business and whose routes have been taken over by AXA.
May 22, 2008
We are staying at a new hotel in Lilongwe, and I really like it. It’s called the Kiboko, is right in the middle of the old part of town where we know our way around and do most of our shopping, and has a lovely little courtyard behind the hotel and a 2nd floor terrace bar that is nice and quiet and really cute. It’s pretty minimalist, but very cute décor and actually cheaper than the place we have stayed here at only $55 per night for their standard room, which is small but perfectly nice.
There is something going on with burning nearby though, and while we are coming on to the season where people burn off their fields, there seems to be even more smoke than that, which started last night around 5:30pm. The power went out shortly after the smoke started so I thought maybe it was a fire somewhere, and it seemed to be clearing off by the time we finished dinner, but it is still very thick this morning, so maybe we can find out more when we go out.
I woke up earlier than John so am sitting in the little courtyard having my coffee, and we’ll go do some shopping after we have breakfast, mostly for gifts for our workers and Malawian friends. There are a lot of shops in Mzuzu, but they mostly carry the same things, so we enjoy coming down here where there is more to chose from. We also took in a CD with loads of digital photos that we have taken so we can give them to people before we go, as there is no where in Mzuzu to get digital developed.
Later today we will have our mini-bus (very different than the public mini-buses, or so I hope) delivered, along with a driver to go pick up the team of 6 people from the school of Architecture at the U who are coming to do some work at the University in Livingstonia. We’re meeting them at the airport, bringing them back to this hotel for the night, then tomorrow morning meeting with the Malawian Architect who designed the Women’s dormitory the President of Malawi promised to pay for at last years graduation that we came to attend. The team will be here for about a month and are hoping to be able to help create a master plan for the layout of buildings at the College of Education mainly, but will probably get involved in a variety of things.
After the meeting, we will head off for a short stay at a new resort on Lake Malawi that we found on the internet. We wanted to take them to the Nkhotakota Safari Lodge, which we stayed at a month or so ago and loved, but they were booked, so we are trying this one instead. Hopefully it will be nice. They are here mainly to work, but we wanted them to have time for a little rest before they start, and for them to be able to see one of the beautiful tourist attractions of Malawi – the Lake. The other reason for taking them is that they arrive so close to the weekend, and for reasons of culture and “protocol” they need to be formally introduced to the Synod officials in Mzuzu and Ekwendeni before going up to Livingstonia. They would have had to wait until Monday for that anyway, so we figured they might as well enjoy ourselves at the lake while we wait.
Today's photo is just a really cute one that John took of a couple of kids in Lilongwe.
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