At the border, Zambia side, I decide we have to change all the Zambian money we get, as I scare none would want it on the other side. So I speak with a policeman who indicates me a change man. The change is 1=78 Martine just look in internet yesterday. The changer first propose 1=20. After a while bargaining we obtain 1=70. But all along the money transfer, the changer regulary tries to cheat us, saying you have your count now, when it was yet missing a lot. In the end we count again and it was OK. Then we pass the border without any dificulty and we get one month free visa for Malawi.
It takes us 2 days to join Lilongwe. The road goes through farm land, large mais and crops fields with a lot of halls to stock it. But local people looks the same than in Zambia. Poor people living in concrete or huts slums, dirty, humid, dark, bad mainteined, with rubbish everywhere. People wearing bad quality, old and dirty western style clothes, some women with more african dresses and a baby in the back in a blancket, a bucket on the head. And that squonks, and it is noisy with loud music from bad big speakers. Men stay seating outside drinking local beer, 20 cent a liter. Children shout at us, some byebye, some how are you, some give me money. Villages or groups of huts are everywhere all along the road. Some groves or solitary big trees, and mangoes trees in the fields. On the road there are very few cars, some minibus and trucks. Most of the traffic is made by bicycle. We see bicycle taxi, to bring one customer, and bicycle porter, to bring goods, any good in fact, bag of coal, wood, packs of bottle, paniers full of fruits or vegetables, goats, pieces of beef, pigs, chickens, bags of mais, etc… The cyclists must be vety strong, as they use commun bicycles, heavy and with only one guear, and the road is hilly. And mostly the bikes are old and in bad state. We see often a bicycle stopped along the road, in repair, or with a flat. The road goes with smooth hills, is rather easy, and boring. Most of the concrete buidings are made with bricks, mostly with hay roof. First night we sleep in a small primary school. When we arrive near, by a track passing over the ralway, we stop at the entrance of the village. The village is houses around a large square place, where all the children are playing. It is Christmas day. A lot of adults are here too. In one minute all are rounding us shouting. A man comes and speaks to us in english. As the headmaster of the school would come back home later he installs us in a classroom opened, well with no door and no window, just the holes, and a lonely school child table as furniture. I quickly decide to play some mandolin, using the table to seat. A lot of children round me at once. At the start they are fascinated amd quiet, but they become excited and noisy after a while, like always. I play loudly, but a few can really hear. Anyway they like to look. After an hour the headmaster arrives. I notice she puts a nice apron and manages a serious look. Well after a short talk she becomes friendly and invites us in her home. We visit the vegetable garden, with mais, gombos, a sponge vine, tomatoes, amd a babies acacias grove in little pots, to plant near the school. She proposes us to built the tent in the courtyard on concrete soil. But because of the rain coming, i insist to sleep in a classroom. In the end she propose us a room, as the children are away for holidays. While we are chating in the salon some teachers comes, and then we cook, and later the husband comes back home. We chat some more and then we go sleeping. Some chickens sleep too in the room, in a panier.
In the morning the husband tries to start the computer to copy the fotos of the yesterday mandolin, but as the electricity comes from a solar panel, the battery is too empty. So after taking the souvenir fotos with them and us, we go together in a training center 5 km away on our way by bicycle to find electricity. We stop in a slum in concrete and wood. Here a guy has electricity, maybe from a generator, and sells it, to charge phones or anything, and also making a movies hall with a tv inside a poor woodmade hall and some banches, where children are seating. The husband connect the computer, straight cables with cables without any protection, all under a big stone, and we make the copies, and also we copy other stuff each other. It takes one hour or so. Then we continue till Lilongwe. We just notice a big islamic secondary school. We arrive at the first roundabout. Here there is a first small mall. Then we go down hill till the street with all the big malls. We look for a lodge. We check Mufasa backpackers, and they have room, although in internet it was indicated full. Here we meet again the 2 cyclists we met in Chipata. Well we have some argument with the reception, as they pretend we would get wifi, and a fan but they don’t have, and more incredible we would have to pay one breackfast, abeit we rent a room for two, breackfast include.
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