Saturday, November 7th - Blantyre, Malawi

Today we had a down day so that was nice, although we did have some errands to run.    Lynn was up early and went for her morning run through the nearby city streets.  I got up and tried to do some e-mails, but to no avail.  We had a long leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then shortly after 9 a.m. we headed off in a walk to the cetnre of town.

Our main goal was to get some money.  As explained yesterday, the ATMs only spit out 40,000 kwacha at a time and for this trip we need hundreds of kwacha and we have to get it in the big cities (Blantyre and Lilongwe) as the smaller towns won't necessarily be able to accommodate our request for large mounts of money.  So our first stop was to be the National Bank downtown to see the first teller on the right - instructions from Aaron.  Along the way we passed several banks and we tried one or two but both said no, they couldn't give us large mounts of kwacha as we were not members.  

After about 45 minutes of walking we made it to the bank, stood in line at the first teller on the right and got our money.  We couldn't do it with our bank cards though so we had to use credit cards - never a good idea for cash advances but the plan is to pay it back immediately, assuming we can get on the internet to do so.  We had to take our backpacks with us to carry all the money, which is just incomprehensible but between the two of us we had over 1 million kwacha on us - all in 1000 unit bills so ten wads of 100 bills.  I stuck my last bundle in my zipped pants pocket just in case we got mugged on the way home and someone stole our backpacks.  Of course, when you look at it realistically, 1 million kwacha is really only about $2,000 so not really that much to worry about, although certainly more than I normally carry around.  But everyone else in this country, especially the business people, have to carry around big wads of money every day just to transact their normal business activities.  There were a number of briefcases exiting the bank and I had to assume they had money in them.

From there our next goal was to get some printing done.  Lynn has a 27 page workbook on entrepreneurship and an 8 page booklet on team building.  We needed to print each of them and get them copied for each of the nine high schools we are going to visit.  And again we had to do it in the big centres because there are no copiers in the smaller centres, not even at the schools apparently.  We checked out several different places.  The price seemed right on all of them but some of their facilities seemed quite archaic and limited.  We wanted the workbook double sided so that aspect also ruled out a few businesses although at least one said they could do it manually.

As it turns out we found a business centre that actually had new machines and was quite busy working on various things.  First we printed the documents from a USB stick and that was with one person.  Then the originals had to go to another person who did the copying.  Stapling was done manually.  Then there was a third person who ended up with all the little pieces of paper saying what was being done and she calculated the final price.  I think it totalled 15,000 and some odd kwacha, maybe 16,000 so less than $30 in total.  So now our packpacks were full of printing and money.

We headed back to the hotel but knew we had passed an office selling sim cards and air time.  It took us a while to find the place - down the stairs, through the deserted hallway, up through the parking lot, around the corner and finally up the stairs to the right spot.  It was busy with about a dozen people waiting in line so we joined the line.  As each person went up, the whole group shuffled one seat over - very systematic - so the order was never in dispute.  It cost us 500 kwacha for the sim card (less than a dollar) and 4,600 kwacha (less than $10) for 2 gigs of airtime.  We don't know if it will work or not but it was so cheap it really doesn't matter.  We're hoping we can use it as a wifi hotspot when we are out in the country but we'll have to wait and see if that works.

From there we headed for the hotel.  We almost made it but got sidetracked at a mission built in the 19th century and the old St. Michael's Church.  The church is a beautiful stone building with many decorations around the top - all out of brick.  There was a wedding ceremony going on so we didn't go in but we did look in the door and at least get a picture.  The decorated wedding cars were outside waiting and they weren't the first we had seen that day.  They drive around town honking and waving at everyone.  Some were in closed-in cars, some were standing up in the sun roof, some were sitting on the window ledges.  Some of it didn't look very safe but it was neat to see.

There are many buildings around the mission.  Some are obviously old and made of brick.  Others are new and modern.  All of them seem to have music coming out of them.  The one was being set up for a wedding reception and they were testing the sound system at the time.  The music sounded great.  Another building had younger people around and the music was louder for them.  The whole mission is a big complex and there are trails leading to/from it in various directions.  I have a feeling it is a very popular religious destination and a lot of people of all ages consider it home.  Malawi is a very Christian community so the mission may have been the start of all of that Christianity - although I think Dr. Livingstone was probably here long before the mission.

We made it back to our hotel about 2 p.m., had some lunch outside on the patio with a beautiful cool breeze blowing, and then had a relaxing afternoon doing e-mails, blogging, reading and relaxing.  It was a hot day and a hot walk so the cool shade was wonderful.  And yes, my feet and legs were sore after all that walking.  Aside from waiting at the telecom place, we were standing or walking from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. so that's a lot for me.  Of course it didn't bother Lynn.  She runs marathons from time to time (Berlin just in September before Ethiopia) and generally runs for an hour each morning.  She's determined to get me into shape over the next three weeks but I really can't see it happening.  I'll try and keep up with the walking aspects but I don't think running is in my future.

About 4:30 Aaron called and said he was on his way over.  That's all we got of the message before the line went dead.  When he arrived he had his two youngest children with him, Precious (5) and Prince (9).  He decided we should drive to Mt Mulanje, the third highest mountain in Africa so we grabbed our stuff and off we went.

The mountain is only 65km out and on a good road so the drive should have gotten us there before sunset.  However, it turned out to be a much longer driver because the roads were so busy.  Aaron was not with us most of the day because the President was in Blantyre and there was a cultural event happening.  As the Deputy Minister for Culture and Museums (or something like that) Aaron had to attend the event.  The event wasn't really in Blantyre but actually in a small town between Blantyre and the mountain we were going to.  

As we drove along there were hundreds of people all along the road at any point and literally thousands over the miles we covered.  They were walking, waiting for buses or trucks - and there were a lot of vehicles everywhere.  The were vendors at the side of the roads selling all kinds of wares (fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc.) and some just taking down their booths as we passed.  It was like a continual traffic jam of people, bikes, cars, vans, trucks and people for about an hour as we crawled along.  We went by the actual centre were the festivities were held and it looked like it was still full of people so the party went on long after the President left and people were going to be on the road for a long time - now at dusk and then after dark.  Some of the people we passed on the road were in their traditional dance costumes but most were just dressed very nice as if going to a big celebration.  

Beyond the immediate roadside there were tea plantationos.  The British owned and still on most of this area.  They produce great tea but none of it stays in Malawi.  These crops are headed to Dubai and other cities in the middle east.  The countryside is covered with beautiful rolling hills.  The soil is red which makes a great contrast to the lush green vegetation, and there are what appear to be mountain ranges in the background.  However, they are just individual mountains that just seem to rise out of the ground with nothing but flat land or rolling hills around them.  They are very impressive and large in width.  The height of the tallest is just just over 3,000 metres, which makes it the third highest in Africa after Kilimanjaro and Kenya.

The road is excellent.  There are small villages and towns all along it and the scenery is beautiful so it is a popular area to live in, if you like working on tea plantations.  We got to village at the base of the mountain and it was basically dark so we just turned down another road and took a different route back to Blantyre.  Even then there was still traffic everywhere and it seemed to us that people were driving very fast in the dark with so many people and vehicles along the side of the road.  Trucks were jam packed with people getting a ride so it was a bit unnerving at times.  By the time we got to the mountain both kids were asleep int he back.  Before that point of exhaustion my camera had virtually been worn out and my hair had been braided not too expertly, but they did think I had very soft hair so I guess that's nice.

There was definitely some nice scenery along the route but it really was not worth the trip.  The kids certainly didn't get much out of it and I could have done without it.  I was being very productive on the computer when Aaron came along, and I was looking forward to a relaxing evening of doing the same.  However, I guess it's the thought that counts - although Lynn and I both said after, we are not going to drive anywhere at night in Malawi again unless we absolutely have to.  We're just not used to so many people around a road when it is dark and dangerous.

We got back to our hotel about 7:30 and went for dinner.  The power was out at that point but it was back on by the time we were finished.  Then we did some packing and called it a night.  I would have done more internet but every time I shut my computer off, my internet card runs out so I wasted another 600 kwacha card - about a dollar when I had to shut down and head out on our drive.  So that was the end of our not-so-free day in Blantyre.