Malawi

So I can now check Malawi off the list. On Friday I left Maseru at 5am in the morning and travelled to Bloemfontein. From Bloem I flew to Jozie where I transferred from the domestic terminal to international and caught a flight to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
This sleepy little African country has made the news frequently this last week with the shenanigans around Madonna’s adoption of a Malawian child. In my view, Madonna does not deserve the flack she has taken over this adoption and should be commended for doing what most won’t, adopting, especially from developing countries.
The purpose of my travels was to meet a fellow JPC that I had met in Ottawa. We spent Friday night and Monday night in Lilongwe. This is a very relaxed capital city. Compared to Maseru it seemed well designed, calmer, cleaner and somehow more luxurious. We took in some good food as well as some decent Malawian tunes.
Saturday morning, bright and early, we left for Lake Malawi. This is certainly one of Africa’s hidden treasures. Four hours later we arrived at Kande Beach, a small resort that a British guy built and now runs. It seemed to cater to development workers, back-packers and Overlanders. The term Overlanders warrants explanation. Overlanders are back-packers who have signed up with various tour companies that drive huge trucks, outfitted with perhaps 20 seats, from Cairo to Cape Town or vice versa. It is a six month adventure and is apparently the cheapest way to see a lot of Africa. The Overlander crowd seemed to consist of mainly British students doing some travelling in their Gap year.
For two days we hung out on the beach, swam, snorkelled, rented a paddle boat and met some really cool people. The only detraction from being near the beach was the existence of Mosquitoes. I was taking anti-Malerials but I learned that they don’t really prevent Malaria, just diminish the effects if you are so unlucky as to be bitten by a Malaria Mosquito. I have been back in Maseru for two days now and no sign of a fever so I think I escaped unscathed however.
Outside Lilongwe the country is very undeveloped. No electricity and no running water. My guess is that most of the country is still engaged in subsistence farming. Still, I found the country picturesque, much more so than Lesotho which you could say is perhaps one step further along the development sequence than Malawi.
Despite the countryside being clearly poor, my observation was that the people seemed happier with their lot. Perhaps this is because the inequality is not so apparent or visible in the countryside as it is in Lesotho. What I mean is that you don’t have shanty-towns built next to city centres or people living in mud huts situated beside the rich accomodation of local politicians. All in all it was a great little holiday