The Real Africa

Our first view of Malawi outisde of the airport.
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Matt's friends told us that we hadn't seen "real" Africa yet, because so far we'd only been in South Africa and Namibia, and those are 2 of the most developed countries in Africa (espcailly South Africa).  Malawi was supposed to change all that.  It did.

Malawi is a real third world country with real third world problems.  It is, thankfully, a lot more stable now than it was in recent history.  A new president is there and is focussed on rebuilding infrastructure, which is part of the reason that Malawi has such good roads.  The roads there were even better than in Namibia.  Of course, there are still lots of problems.  We were in the capital city of Lilongwe, and we only saw three trafic lights, none of which worked.  There were some large, nicer looking office buildings, but they were more emblematic of the previous, corrupt regime than of real progress.  Matt and I took the easy route and took an expensive flight in (we were taking the bus back.  More on that later).  Money does buy comfort quite nicely.  We were met at the airport by Matt's friends in a rental car, and were suddenly whisked out of the sterile airport into another world.  We stayed the entire time with Matt's friends Kwacha and Khandi in area 36, one of the neighborhoods in Lilongwe.  The pictures tell the stories better than I can.  While it's not up to western standards, and I'm sure it's insane when it rains, the houses are very well organized and seem to be well built.  It's amazing what you can do with cinder blocks and metal roofs.  Kwacha and Khandi are two missionaries from Malawi who are back here after going to college. We spent a week with them in the city and outside of it.  It's really different.  We had to sleep with a mosquito net, and both Matt and I were taking malaria pills.  English is the official language of Malawi, but few people speak it well.  Fewer people have cars, and even rides in the "taxis," Malawi's form of public transportation, are expensive for them.  Oh, and the taxis are 9 seat mini-busses that they cram 25 people into.  Seriously.  We rode in them a couple times.  Everywhere we went we were oddities.  Nobody saw white people very often, and the kids always pointed at us and yelled "azungoo!"  Which means "white" in the local language of Chichewa.  Twice we went out to a village where Kwacha and Khandi do social work.  The kids there were amazing--they mobbed us as we drove up in our rental car, and went nuts every time I took a picture with a flash. Oh, and when we played soccer they decimated Matt and I.  It seems like they can run for hours.

I think Africa could use less aid and more self esteem.

From inside the car. That's Kwacha on the left.
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Throughout, though, it didn't seem like unhapiness was rife throughout the population.  They seemed to have a pretty good time.  Our one luxury outing was driving to lake Malawi, a massive body of water that makes up a large part of Malawi's eastern border.  It was beautiful, and the water was warm and clean.  On the way back we stopped at this amazing streetside craft market--I couldn't believe the prices.  Transportation in Africa is REALLY expensive, and so is food sometimes, but the indigenous art is very cheap.  It almost makes me want to start an importing business.  So that's it for Malawi.  There is the 32 hour bus ride back to South Africa, but that deserves its own crazy post.  This was by far the craziest experience of my trip.  I will tell one last story.  Other than people in the village, the Malawians hate it when you take their picture.  Khandi said that it's because people think that you're going to go sell the picture and make a lot of money off it.  They never get to see the pictures, and I guess people take a lot, so they really appreciate it when you can show them the picture.  I asked a girl on a bus (who spoke very good English) why people didn't like it when outsiders took pictures.  She said "well it's because we think that the only reason you take pictures is to show people how poor we are and how we need your help, and we don't like it.  That's why you take pictures isn't it?"  And I had to say yes.  It was fascinating to me, though, that it all came back to a matter of respect.  I think Africa could use less aid and more self esteem.

Just another street.
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That's it for Malawi.  Enjoy the pictures.