(More from Lizzie — who is Owen’s “godsister” — on her travels in Africa)
Hi all,
Yesterday we took the eight hour bus ride back to Lilongewe. They fill the buses to the limit. Many passengers stand in the aisle the full eight hours.
The ride is bumpy and wanders through village after village along with the larger bomas and official bus depots. The radio plays local Malawian music, which is like Caribbean reggae and we all wave to the villages who run to the road to see us.
At the large stops young men and children run up to the windows with baskets of oranges, papayas and bananas. They hold boxes of fried dough (a treat for Malawians), bags of peanuts, and hard boiled eggs with tiny cones of salt. Some offer cold bottles of water, coke, fanta, maize or corn milk and small bags containing frozen juice (kind of like flavor ice.)
Each one of them bangs on the bus windows shouting out prices. The passengers either stand and reach out the windows bartering for a quick snack or bang back shouting “yayi, yayi!” Which means NO.
When we stop at the small villages Men and Women swarm the buss with bags of tomatoes, large cabbages, sugar cane, and even bundles of raw fish. If you continue to buy through out the trip you could accomplish an entire grocery list.
Arriving back in Lilongewe we have decided to stay at a local lodge. It has wonderfully warm running water and we finally have enough clean water to laundry. Until now we have been washing it in the lake.
I am now learning common chichewa. Instead of reciting phrases like, “I am Lizzie,” I can be “cool” as Jimmy puts it and say: zinalane ine Lizzie or I’m Lizzie. Of course there is, as you already know, “bobo?” (whats up?) Which I simply reply: “bo.” (whats up right back.) In exchange I have signed him up for facebook. I guess we are even.
Today we will explore Lilongwe and take some time to refresh. Lori and I are going to the center of the boma to buy a chitenji, (not sure if I told you all this so bare with me) this is a brightly colored cloth women use for everything. They wrap packages with them to carry, strap babies to their backs, where them as skirts, shawls, head wraps and if long enough wrap them as dresses. Then hopefully we can have some tea. Tea is very big here because it was once a British colony.
Possibly tomorrow we will go to another wildlife reserve. We shall see.
love to you all and talk to you soon,
Lizzie
PS- Dad I neglected to mention that on the lake shore a staple in the Malawian diet is fish. Most common are chambo and butterfish, but many more are available.
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