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Bus trips Malawian style

Catching a bus is always an interesting experience in Malawi… You arrive to the bus station and in few seconds you are surrounded with “bus boys” who are all trying to get you to their buses. They will tell you everything to get you to go with their bus..” Take this one! This is the fastest! This is the best! This is the fastest of the fastest!” When you ask for the time they are leaving you get all kind of answers.. “It´s leaving just now now. It´s leaving 7.30. It´s leaving 9.00. It´s leaving when it´s full.” The last answer is always the correct answer, the bus will leave when it´s full, that´s for sure. So basically you just need to look for the bus which has the most people in it already. It might also be that they put some random guys to sit in the bus to look like it´s full though there is not nearly enough people for it to departure yet. They will also step on the gas to make it sound like they are leaving though they are not. It´s a tricky thing. It´s better to leave hurry to home and just set kind of a relaxed state of mind because no matter how much you stress the journey will take time, a lot of time.

For the bus to get filled and left Mzuzu it took us around 1,5 hours. Leaving from Lilongwe back to Mzuzu it was around 3 hours. And then the journey itself is about 7 hours. I guess I won´t be traveling to Lilongwe too often. The bus itself is not the most comfortable either, it´s good to find a seat which is not broken and then there´s the standing passengers also. So it´s a packed bus with a very closeness atmosphere. But the music is good and the landscape is beautiful! And it´s totally possible to sleep also though you might wake up with some neck pain.

I am happy to be back home to Mzuzu. Yes, it feels like home already. The work starts to make more and more sense especially after the workshop we attended on Friday and got the latest update from MMPA (Malawi Milk Producers Association). Hopefully we are able to look at some plans this week.

Rona cooked some chicken Asian style, smells so good I will say good night for now and enjoy the dinner while we still have electricity.

Comments

Sanna said…
Hah hah! :D I'm just thinking if they would wait the busses to get full back in Finland also.. It would take weeks! :D
2/29/2012 3:52 am
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