Transport

Let me preface this post by saying: Mom, you might not want to read this one. I am going to write about transport in Malawi. 

My first experience with Malawi transport was actually about a month ago when the group was assigned to travel to a market about an hour from our village by whatever means possible. Being the competitive person that I am, me and some friends decided to treat it like The Amazing Race, and see what pair would arrive first. Some took mini buses, one pair rode in the back of a semi, me and my friend Susan hitched a ride with a very nice woman and her husband. I was hesitant about hitch hiking since its so dangerous in America but, as I would later figure out, hitching is probably the safest and most comfortable way to travel in this country.  We made it to the market, but not as the winners. 

The next time I travelled away from my village was last week to Mulanje and it was not near as fun or comfortable. The first leg of our journey we took a minibus from Kasungu to Lilongwe. These buses are built for 12 but consistently manage to fit 15-18. I sat in the very back row. The trunk didn't fully close and I could see the road through a hole rusted in the floor. Thankfully we made it to Lilongwe bus deport and in about two hours. Unthankfully, Lilongwe bus depot is probably in the top 10 worst places on earth. I'll get to that more later. From Lilongwe we took another, larger, bus which was possibly less comfortable than the first. There we 3 people to a row that should have sat 2, people standing in the aisle, and huge bags of supplies everywhere on the floor so you couldn't put your feet down. The bus was slow and it took us about 8 hours to get to our next stop in Blantyre. It didn't help that every couple of miles the bus would stop and screaming people would come up to the window and try to sell you food and random items. Some of the things make sense like the snacks and sodas, but other things like belts, mirrors, and machetes I would never buy out of a bus window. Once we finally got to Blantyre we stayed the night there and continued our journey in the morning. Two more minibuses took me to the Luchenza boma where I hopped in the back of a pickup truck and rode another hour on bumpy dirt "roads" to my town of Nantombozi. While the big buses drive incredibly slow, the minibuses and personal cars drive alternativley fast. Also, nobody follows the road rules here, if there even are any. Cars dont stay on their side of the road and just drive down the center, speed limits dont seem to exist, and I haven't seen a stoplight since I got here. Anyways, from Nantombozi it's still two miles to my house so you can either walk or take a bike taxi. The bike taxis are everywhere and it involves sitting on a padded square cushion behind the regular bike seat while a man peddles you wherever you need to go. Usually they're not too bad but this particular trip we were traveling in the cold miserable rain through muddy roads. After two days of travel, I made it to my house. Finally! 

The trip back to Kasungu was much of the same. Crowded buses, long rides, and yelling people. On one of the buses there was a evangelical preacher standing in the aisle, shouting and reading scripture in Chichewa for about 40 minutes. Then we got back to Lilongwe.

 If you come visit me in Malawi don't ever go to the Lilongwe bus deport. When i say bus depot you may think of a big paved parking lot with a bunch of buses in parking spots and maybe a waiting building where you by bus tickets. It's nothing like that. It is a large dirt field with buses everywhere in no particular order and with no organization. Hundreds of people are also walking everywhere in front of buses and pushing people around to get where they're going As we pulled up in our large charter style bus we had to maneuver through the dirt lot on trying not to hit people. As soon as we stopped people were already trying to push their way on the bus before we even got off so they could get a seat. Many people threw their stuff in through the windows to save a seat. I saw one person throw their child in through the window. Since all these people are pushing to get on, it makes it near impossible to get off. Crowd surfing would have been the best option. Instead I had to push through a crowd of about 50 people trying to keep all my stuff with me. Once you make it through all that, people start yelling at you trying to sell you things and grabbing your bags to try to get you to ride on their bus. I had to fight through the maze of people and buses to try to find the one I needed to be on. Luckily I made it back to Kasungu alive and on time. So that is a summary of travel in Malawi and why I will rarely be leaving my site.