Getting around....

I really do live in the middle of nowhere.  Kalino, my village, is fairly isolated in a beautiful area but the catch is getting in and out of this place. Transportation has to be done on a bicycle taxi, not a motorcycle, and not a bike that pulls a cart contraption of any kind. Bicycle taxi’s are simply a bike that you sit on the back of and hold on.

This was something I had planned on putting off for as long as possible. I have enough food to manage for two weeks at which point I planned on walking out of here and taking a care hire back. Day one in Kalino my supervisor Sammy said he wanted to show me around Zomba Town (the nearest place with a store). Off I went holding on for dear life going down the mountain on the back of a guy’s bike. With the language barrier, fear is quickly forced to morph into laughter at how ridiculous the whole thing is. You are barrelling down the rocky dirt road trying desperately not to throw the bike off balance as you tear through the short cuts in the field. Some I have taken are equipped with radios and a cushion as a plus. You do this for about a half hour to get the trading post, Thondwe. This is where there is a market twice a week and where you can catch the infamous minibuses either to Blantyre or Zomba. Bike taxi rides are actually really fun, and the views are worth it. It costs MK150 for this leg.

Minibuses, the second leg to get to town, are not exactly fun. The cars are 16 seaters, but I have not been in a public one with less the 20. You can flag them down at any point on the road or find them parked at the edges of towns and markets at make shift stops. They don’t leave until they are full. The buses are in serious disrepair (missing parts of the floor) but they are how you have to go. You can only get the good transit buses from town centres....I’m nowhere near there.  Anyway, when you get near mini buses you will get harassed and shuttled around to the buses, you have to be pretty assertive to make sure you are getting on one that will go in the right direction. These guys tend to have these really large plastic containers. They are much like the ones you get ketchup or vinegar in at a fast food place but bigger. I finally figured out what it was when I saw them at the store...rum. But they’re not the driver’s! It’s a 3 man job. 1^st the drunk man who recruits passengers, than the guy who mans the door collecting money during the ride, and then there is the driver.

Another way of getting around is by ‘matola’. We have been severely cautioned about this. It is hitchhiking, for a fee, in the back of a crammed pickup truck. During the summer, 2 volunteers were riding in one, as the tire blew they were thrown out and badly injured, while there were many other fatalities in that incident. These are considered the least safe way to travel.

The other experience of transit I have had is car hire. It’s a typical taxi except you will find yourself a customer to only a few. It’s all independent.  Every time you get into a new town, you try and find other travelers and get there trusted taxi drivers’ number.

I’ll tell you all about the good buses when I finally take one.

Gas...diesel/petrol, it all matters as Malawi faces another shortage. In Lilongwe, line ups would run a hundred deep at the pumps.