Malawi

   While my road trip to Zanzibar technically started when I left Chitima and crashed two nights up at the Tete cabin that is Alejandra's house in Angonia. Complete with her friendly dogs to pet and a climate that makes me forget I live in Mozambique's hottest province. I feel like the real journey began when I got that exit stamp from Mozambique and crossed the quarter mile no-man's land that separates Moz and Malawi.

                           

(Clothes and gear for the boat)

    I was not expecting much difference from one side to the other, and is sort of what I got.  The customs and immigration building looked a similar brick and mortar with cement spackled walls and a tin metal roof. The road leading to and from was a compact dirt that the falling rain had created washed in grooves.  But when I walked up to the immigrations desk to apply for a visa the pleasant reminder that Malawi's official language is English presented itself.  Being able to breeze through the application and answer all of the officers' questions was quite comforting and added a small buy of confidence to my already anxious conscious about making this trip.  After a few short inquiries to my travel plans and some small banter with the officials in the office, I had my 7 day travel visa for Malawi and was legally in a new country.

                               

    With rain coming down pretty steadily I began the South to North journey through Malawi.  Taking a taxi from the border to the nearest town of Dedza I caught a ride in an all but too familiar chappa to make my way to the capital city, Lilongwe.  After about two hours I landed in the capital amongst a wall to wall packed parking area for public transport chappas and buses.  Wrestling my bag out of the chappa I was bombarded with guys trying to usher me into their taxi or rickshaw. Fending off the best of them I got enough breathing room to wander away and start looking for my next transportation, the Taqwa bus, to take me across the border to Tanzania.  After a few simple directions from some locals I sort of stumbled on the Taqwa hub while buying some street meat for lunch. The office, filled with a couple of good fellas drinking soda and watching a futbol match assured me that I was in the right place and that I could buy my ticket for the next day, Sunday.  I asked when was the earliest bus leaving and they said 7, without looking away from the TV.  I counted em out the cash and they wrote me a ticket for the next day, transport for the next step secured.

                               

   I spent the rest of the day locking down my lodging, a hostel referred to me by another PCV, and exploring the local market and all the nooks and alleys we PCVs love finding ourselves lost in.  Around dinner time I found myself down yet another one of these side streets looking for some place to grub but unable to see an established eatery close by.  I settled on a bar with two guys grilling beef and serving fries outside. With a Carlsberg beer in hand I sat and ate what was probably the best $2 steak I'd ever had with a side of fries.

                           

    Back at the hostel I turned in early after a quick bucket bath in a tub and hoping to get some decent sleep before trying to show up early for my bus.  A few hours later to the sound of a 5am alarm I was out the door by 5:30 and at the bus office by 6:15.  Feeling pretty satisfied with myself I sat there eating some bolo as two other buses from the same busline rolled in from Tanz and started unloading.  Waiting patiently I struck up a conversation with one of the drivers, I asked when the bus to leave would start loading as we were approaching 7.  He have me a goofy look and said it's not leaving until 7, to which I said yes and checked my watch. He than said no 7pm.... Turns out Malawi used 12hr clocks unlike Moz on military time which I've been running on for a year now.  -_-

   So with 12 hours to kill I headed back onto the streets on Lilongwe. I spent next 5 hours at a little cafe I found, surprising the workers opening up shop to order a coke to try and wake me up. Only to fall asleep on the patio table for two hours waking up to order another coke and wait for lunch to start turning out. Luckily they had some pretty delicious chicken curry with some heat that brought me right back to life.  With 7 more hours to spare I tried wandering around more of Lilongwe, but unlike some other capitals I've been in it is very spread out. So I just meandered back to the area of the Taqwa to find a place that has my favorite time passing hobie in Africa, billiards.

   Playing a couple games breaking even on the W/L I retired to a table to just wait out my remaining 4 hours watching soccer highlights.  A carlsberg down and a bit later a friendly fellow came up and joined me. Striking up a simple conversation, we started to really hit it off. His name was Lastone, he was a smaller fellow with a big grin and a pleasant personality and much more mannered than some of the other men who were quite tipsy already for a Sunday afternoon.  Shortly we were joined by two other fellows looking to have a better conversation than what the rest of the bar crowd was carrying on.  So the four of us sat for the next few hours and really shot the breeze.  Their company was very enjoyable and even though we were each heading in different directions, me to Tanz and them to South Africa, we swapped numbers and parted ways feeling better we had met the other.  And with another $2 street steak dinner and up beat attitude I finally hopped on that 7 o'clock Taqwa bus to head to Mbeya Tanzania.