Masquerading biscuits
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
61
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Chitimba / Lwawa Forest / Lilongwe,
Malawi
Monday, September 4, 2006
Finally we were heading to Malawi, a part of the journey I'd been looking forward to since the start. Probably the poorest country we'd visit (ranked about the 4th poorest country in the world), but I'd heard such good things about it, especially the friendliness of the locals, that I was eager to check it out.
My first Malawian encounter was with a customs official, usually notoriously abrupt but not in Malawi. After questioning me on the origins, pronounciation and meaning of my middle name, he looked stricken when he saw the ripped page in my passport, courtesy of US Immigration, but I assured him it had been like that for years and it was ok.
The scenery in Malawi was stunning and completely varied - hills, flat plains and one of the biggest lakes in Africa which dominates most of the country. Sadly I also noticed a lot of graves - the average life expcectancy in Malawi is a mere 37 years. But it had an alluring peacefulness about it (possibly due to the death rate and the fact there was no one there).
Our first stop was Chitimba, at a supposedly party mad campsite. But after our spit roast pig and a few games of cards, everyone retired for an early night, still wrecked from the effects of Zanzibar.
Malawi is famous for its wooden carvings, particularly Malawi chairs. There was a market right outside the campsite and, as usual, Ribo came away with numerous products, including a pile of bracelets that he was asked to try and sell to us for one of the salesmen.
I hadn't intended on buying many souvenirs but the carvings were so beautiful that I succumbed and bought some as presents. While they were being packaged, the young boy wrapping them spoke and motioned to a pile of string. I instinctively passed him some and he looked at me, amazed:
"Do you understand our language??!"
"No, I just saw you'd run out of string so I assumed you needed some more."
I felt really happy travelling through Malawi. Maybe I was refreshed after Zanzibar, maybe I was cleansed after having removed my stomach lining on the return ferry, or maybe Malawi just had a positive effect on me. The sun was shining, everything was green, people were smiling and no one gave us the finger.
We took a detour to an inland campsite in Lwawa Forest, instead of going to the usually touristy Kande beach on the lakeshore. I was a little disappointed as it meant no freshwater scuba diving or horse riding through the lake but the place we ended up was beautiful, plus it just gives me an excuse to return to Malawi later on.
Some of the girls opted to go on a staggering 5hr walk, some of the boys went fishing and a few people hired mountain bikes (which, judging by the state of Ruth on her return, was quite hardcore).
Lazy old me sat around reading, ate some homemade lemon cheesecake, then went on a not so staggering walk with Damien so he could get mobile phone reception. It's astounding that you can get better mobile phone reception in most African countries than you can in rural parts of the UK.
That night we had a big roast lamb dinner (except for me cos I hate it), and Ruth, having never tasted lamb before, came out with one of her best lines yet:
"It don't taste woolly."
The Kiwis polished off whatever remained on the bones with great gusto; Morgan had lamb smeared all over his face, reminiscent of a child having licked their plate.
I thought we might've had nice fresh fish for dinner, but the boys were out of luck (or practice). When they asked the locals what fish they could catch in the lake they were told the only thing they'd catch in there was disease.
There was some traditional dancing performed for us in the evening which was nice, but I'm beginning to tire os being performed for. It's all a bit unspontaneous.
The son of the expat owner of the campsite had obviously just returned for a visit and had a friend and 2 girls in tow. The friend was put in charge of the bar for the night and was totally clueless, which was great for us. He undercharnged me for my food, and then served Romy an entire wine glass full of port, instead of the usual measure.
Unsurprisingly, as word got around, the port was emptied rather quickly.
Our Malawian adventure was a mere 3 days, not enough for me, but enough for most people who weren't overly impressed with it, but I suppose that's cos we didn't really do anything memorable.
Claire was appalled at the level of corruption in the government, depicted by Lonely Planet, and recounted what she'd just read to us about how the country's people were starving but the government still sold their reserve maize to other countries.
Michelle tried to look on the positive side as always:
"At least we're helping the economy by buying local produce."
Me: "Like cheesecake?"
We journeyed to the capital, Lilongwe, and after shopping for group dinner, where we embarrassingly went over budget and had to ask for a refund for the expensive butternut squash, I was bored of looking for souvenirs and being shown endless wooden giraffes, so I decided to spend my last Malawi kwatcha on essentials like blue cheese, granny smith apples and caramel chocolate biscuits masquerading as hobnobs. I was left with a bunch of tambala (the equivalent to cents or pennies), 100 of which is still only worth half an American cent. So worthless that apparently if you give it to beggars they'll give it back to you.
There was big news whilst we were in Malawi which devastated most of the Aussies - the death of Steve Irwin. Sad, yes, but what do you expect when you spend your life pissing off wildlife.
Still, you know it's big news if it makes the papers in Malawi.
