All the way from Cape Mac Lear to Nkhata Bay

A truck came to pick us up 6am sharp. We run some errands in town and left 7.30am. We stopped many times on the road to pick up people or drop them off. We were so packed by half of the way that when a mama got into the truck, sat down on the floor and left me with no space to put my feet. I was literally holding my body weight on my hands and hanging almost all of my body outside of the truck. A man came to notice this and made some space for me.

We finally got to Monkey Bay around 9am. By that time, the bus to Lilongwe was packed to the door with people and as we stopped, it left. Rather disappointed, we figured it would be best to get out of there by any means.

There was a truck leaving for Salima. We jumped on as men were preparing the back part of the loading platform for additional bagagge. They were doing terrible knots with rope a very poor state, so I went to help with one of mine. They tried to take it from my hands but I resisted. Around 7 guys stared as if a woman tying knots was something far-fetched. Others laughed. I only cared about one thing: that whole structure would hold. Meanwhile, Miguel paid for both our tickets, I was rather disappointed he didn't even bargain. Just in front of us, two Japanese girls were about to pay. The man collecting for money asked for 1500 MWK (what he had paid) and they said they knew the price was 1300 MWK. Not only did they manage to pay that, but they also got the man to give us (reluctantly, of course) our money back. Incroyable! (The two girls were working for an HIV/ AIDS government program and had taken some days off.)

[That's the first time I thought of Malawian people + money from a different perspective. So far, my belief had been that Malawian economy was one of the weakest and that local people tried to scratch out a living from wherever they could. But that approach didn't seem quite right: Why would they be nice in the first place? (I mean, I had encountered a lot of people that had been really heloful and were expecting nthing from me - they really seemed to be glad to help).

So, what was I missing?

It is a fact that a major part of the population live anter the poverty line and maybe tourist are the only individuals that could even out their misery. As in: they charge whatever locals can pay, produce a big loss, and tourists are the ones that pay a bit more so as to reduce the debt (at least in public transport services).

But this didn't seem likely to be true. What was the real connection between Malawians and money?

My guess is that they don't really care. I mean, they care as far as basic accommodation and meals are concerned, but not in a greedy way. They might ask for a price that is slightly elevated, but if they don't get it they are strangely OK with it.

Usually it's quite hard to bargain a price because they're peaceful and quiet -they don't enjoy the acting, heated-argument part that negotiating is all about.

In conclusion, if you don't have enough money, they'll take you anyway. But it can take some time to learn how to address to them and be effective.]

When we got to Salima we heard the wonderful news that a bus going to Mzuzu via Nkhata Bay was bound to come in an hour or so. We ate some chips (in its traditional blue plastic bag) with 3 small pieces of goat gut. Took some pictures of the children hanging around, stretching their hands out like crazy to get our plastic bottles. When the bus finally got there, we fought our way through the bus. Everybody wanted to get in. A lot of people were keeping the seats for friends, so we had to stand up. We travelled about 6 hours standing. Some guys that were sitting decided to stand up and make us even more uncomfortable.

I started saying: 'There's no space, there's no space.'

It was pitch dark when we got to Nkhata Bay and took yet another bus to get to town. After that, we got a free pick-up to Mayoka Village.

When we got there, I knew all days travelling had been worth it. The atmosphere was amazing!

I had spaghetti bolognaise, salad+bread with a banana+honey smoothie and a brownie. Yum!

Let's see what tomorrow brings!