Lake Malawi

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Another day on the road to cross the border into Malawi. We stopped in town to spend our last Tanzanian Shillings. I went into the local produce market with Juliana which was so amazing! Animals hanging upside down with the blood still dripping, small fruit sellers, second hand clothes oil, baskets of grain, it was so manic and colourful and dirty but so cool. While Juliana was weaving her way in and out bargaining their socks off I was standing their like a stunned mullet. I spent the rest of my money in a little supermarket...I felt like I bought one of everything and I still had money left (Tanzania is very cheap) I left my change on the counter for an African boy with down syndrome. He couldn't stop thanking me, he was bowing up and down. He took the notes and folded them so carefully. He was so sweet.

That is one thing that has struck me so hard though. The value of money. I am a person that always has change at the bottom of my bag, change in my pockets, I have money in every drawer. The people value every cent, people just have no money. Even though they labor very hard, it's often for their own self consumption or bartered away. I've promised myself I am going to be more careful with my money and try and be more careful with food. Growing up in an immigrant family in Sydney I am accustomed to massive meals, days eating left overs and the eventual disposal of whatever is left. Here nothing ever goes to the bin. Juliana doesn't let us throw anything away. The leftovers always go to the security guards or cleaners regardless of how many days old they are, how long they have been out of the fridge for, even if its the ends of the loaf of bread. When you do give it to them you can't imagine how fast they get it down. I am so blessed and so grateful to never to have to have known hunger like these poor people.

The part of road we covered today was I think my favourite so far. The mountains were beautiful. We saw some sophisticated farming operations and some very large tea plantations. I can't remember if I said this already but as we travel South we are climbing in and out of the Great Rift Valley, the scenery is so beautiful. We crossed the border into Malawi relatively easily (Riann said back in the day..women would have to cover and guys would have their hair cut at the border...apparently Malawi has come a long way).

First stop was to get some local currency in Mzuzu, so they sent the truck accountant (me) to the bank to do one transaction for everybody. Everything is so slow it could literally take all day if we were to all change our own money. 1 USD is about 140 Malawi Kwacha. I exchanged about $1000 USD in various denominations. I couldn't fit the money in my backpack. The bank was so busy. I am talking the equivalent of being in the showbag line at the Easter show busy and I was trying to jam these piles of money into my backpack. All I could think of was I am definitely going to get robbed. Thank God I made it to the truck with my "riches."

I wish there was a way I could convey the sights and smells on the street. You can't always take photos and even then you couldn't capture it. You see crazy things all day...this guy came toward the truck bashing on the window with this giant stork of sugar cane as tall as the truck trying to get me to buy it. I saw a woman walking down the street with one boob out breastfeeding her baby who was strapped to her front, with another baby strapped to her back and a bag of stuff on her head!

After my sensory overloaded day we found the campsite on Lake Malawi. It's widely published that you have a good chance of getting schistosomiasis but I'll probably still swim in it!

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