Malawi – Land, Malawi – Inland Sea, Warm Heart of Africa

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’

until you can find a rock.

Will Rogers

Pumping water with Malawi girls

After about 15 gallons I was toast

Malawi, two-third land and one-third water thanks to Lake Malawi, the ninth largest lake in the world, clear proof of the immense size of the Great Rift Valley!  ‘Discovered’ in 1859 by the British missionary-explorer David Livingstone who called it ‘The Lake of Stars’ referring to the thousands of fishing boats adorned with small prow lanterns, drifting across this ‘Inland Sea’ at night. 

A dhow on Lake Malawi

Fed by fourteen rivers but feeding only one, it is a meromictic lake wherein the water layers do not mix (permanent stratification), creating distinct environments within the lake.  The lake holds a colorful array of between 700 and 1,000 types of showy cichlid fish, today found in many aquariums. According to UNESCO, it is home to more species of fish than any other lake on the planet.  With year-round average temperatures of 75-84°F (24-29°C), it is a delight to play in its water.  The lake goes down 2,300 feet (700 meters) meaning it’s bottom is more than 700 feet below sea level.  

Waves lapping at the shore of the lake

Malawi is not famous for its safari areas.  There is relatively little tourism here.  Interacting with the locals however, you quickly understand why it is promoted as the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ which is rather the point.  If you want a hidden side of Africa, Malawi is your place.

Shoreline from high viewpoint

Pig roast

We are staying on the shores of Lake Malawi and are served a pig roast dinner upon our arrival.  With loud uncaring tourists nearby, we cannot get a good sleep as they carry on all night.  

Office if locked enquire at bar

Now, I want that job!

At once, we notice monkeys around the camping area and know that any of our belongings are fair game, so we are careful.  At dawn, if you are up early enough, you can watch the guards expertly throwing rocks at the monkeys with their slingshots leaving them more skittish and cautious. 

Created by the Great Rift Valley, the lake measures 365 miles x 52 miles hence the moniker ‘Calendar Lake’ (365 days, 52 weeks). 

Weary with lack of sleep, we walk the beach at sun-up to find many young men using little or no soap to do their laundry in the lake or using the nearby dugouts as washtubs.  In Africa, it is rare to see boys do chores other than herding.  We are told they come from a nearby orphanage.  Further down, a few families wash blankets using the waves’ action to get them cleaner.  They then let them dry on the beach while they sleep or eat.  Among all these activities, a pig is walking around mindless of the human traffic surrounding it, not sure if it’s heading home or away from it.  

Banana shape dugouts – some used to do laundry

They are so narrow, my hips wouldn’t fit inside

Men sit on dugouts untangling or fixing nets, many look like they spent the night there, barely waking up.  I hadn’t expected seeing so many people working on the beach of this large lake. 

A couple of kids are playing in the mud and it is impossible to tell where the mud ends, and the kids begin.  They are one with the mud.  It must have rained recently as there are several muddy puddles at the junction between plants and beach. 

Things seem to have modernized a bit, I see fewer and fewer women carrying water home on their head along the road.  The smell of coal kilns is also disappearing.  The further south we go, the less coal is used, having been made illegal to produce since it decimates so many trees, which, they no longer have in abundance.

We see countless signs against FGM – Female Genital Mutilation.  Many are finally dropping this torturous part of the culture.  

Inspecting kid-made wire car

A little shy to show his car off to us

Going home

While everyone enjoys the lake, I find a walk to the nearest village more interesting.  It is hard to meet people when part of a large group so two of us sneak away from it.  It seems like all our best experiences in Africa happened when there were just a couple of us exploring.

It is Sunday, and along the way we meet people dressed in their finest walking the sandy road to church.  It is swelteringly hot yet an old man we meet is wearing the only good suit he owns, made of wool with matching wool hat embellished with feather.  We try communicating but he doesn’t speak English.  He is with a younger woman who understood that I was pointing out the beautiful feather on his hat, but it was quickly the end of that exchange other than many smiles since words could not be understood.

Power was off for much of the night making it impossible to use the fan above our beds to cool off or to connect to Wi-Fi.  It is still off this morning, so the village is eerily quiet of music, TV or video sounds yet still full of laughter and welcomes.  We walk around taking it all in, wandering. 

We end up chatting with Isaac for about 90 minutes.  At 64, he is the elder (agogo) of the village.  He knows everyone in the community and they go to him for advice although he is not an elected official.  The best of both world, able to give advice without the pressure of being a leader.  

Chambo fish fry by the lake

One of Malawi’s favorite delicacies but endangered

He tells us a bit about the area, that the fish caught here are sold in Cape Town, not Uganda or Congo which are nearer.  He makes a statement that doesn’t make sense to people from the US:  land around the lake is not considered valuable but land in the mountain is, being the exact opposite of what we see at home.  All the bicycles come from South Africa, none are local.  We talk weather, we talk families, we talk food.  He points to someone carrying an ax with a strange handle.  The locals do not like the shape of the British ax handles they buy so they make their own to suit their taste. 

When we get back to the subject of family I ask about his wife since up to this point he has only spoken of his two kids.  He replied that she died quickly, a long time ago, of cerebral malaria.  He feels that October is the best season to visit because it only rains during the night.  He is proud of his daughter who is opening a resort and restaurant nearby.  We are invited to visit but time will not allow us to make it there.  We asked him about crocodiles around the lake.  Tour guides tell us to be careful because they are everywhere, but we didn’t see any.  The answer seems to be that the locals ate or scared away most of them if not all, and that guides just like to taunt tourists.  Not sure where the truth lies but it makes for a delightful story either way.

A new meaning to ‘gossip at the water fountain’

We see boys playing soccer after church, and girls getting water.  Life right back to normal as soon as mass is over.  A van passes us by.  It is loaded with people inside and fish hung under the windshield outside.  They are probably there to stay cool on such a sweltering day. 

We are taken to the village for dinner.  It is served outdoors in a courtyard.  Many stars shine above.  Few headlights or flashlights illuminate the scene.  The community doesn’t seem to have electricity.  It is a miniature village, yet 34 kids sing for us after dinner.  The average African family is made up of 6 kids!  Dinner was simple and good, but the singing afterward felt like a contrived show.  Many of the older kids didn’t seem to want to take part, it did not feel genuine.  We thanked them profusely regardless, but it is not an experience I would prefer to have again.  After the songs and a bit of dancing, we couldn’t escape fast enough. 

Driving on the edge of a park we see sign after sign showing the costs associated with hitting any of the wild animals in the area.  Not sure who would enforce this, but it is interesting to note the value linked to each: $110 if you hit a vervet monkey, $250 for a mongoose, $325 for a kisa deer, $450 for a warthog, $4,900 for a lion, and $15,000 for an elephant. I’m sure I missed a few of the signs as there are also zebras and giraffes around among other interesting African animals.  Then there was the sign that listed a fine of $2,000 is you stopped for any reason (taking picture, bathroom break, etc.).  What a strange park we were happy to leave.  

Slow drip of sap from rubber tree

After miles of eucalyptus and pine trees, we drive through a rubber tree plantation.  Vizara is large and employs 1,300 people to care for its 600,000 rubber trees.  These trees came from 70,000 seeds brought over from Brazil in the 1870s.  They also care for a nursery of over 35,000 new trees.  Rubber trees produce their famous white sap from age six to 32.  Under best conditions, they make 11 pounds (5 kilos) of sap per year or 287 pounds (130 kilos) in their lifetime.  They are made into timber once their usefulness as a rubber tree is over.  It seems like a huge investment for so little in return, something only third world countries can afford to grow.

We stop for lunch and groceries (our usual stop about every 2-3 days) and while we are sitting in Pluto (the bus) waiting for others to come back from their shopping, we watch three young girls sitting under the shade of a tree on the curb pointing at the entrance of the bus and laughing hysterically while looking a bit shy.  We focus our eyes where they are looking and see why they are reacting this way.  One of the younger woman on our tour is wearing a black bikini under a longish man’s shirt.  She is bending over, her head down in the fridge to put something in it.  As she does so, her bottom is exposed for anyone to view.  Women here all wear long skirts so for these local girls this is quite a spectacle they probably don’t fully understand.  We finally alert the bikini clad girl of her predicament and, with reddening cheeks, she goes back to her seat waiting for the rest of the travelers.  The viewers stop giggling but I can imagine the story they will share with their families that evening.  

Road block ahead –hoping to clear it with this

Our guide running ahead to clear traffic

These trucks have been waiting for nine hours

We go through in 30 minutes

Still running along many fuel trucks

We pass truck after truck filled with humongous copper ingots.  Zambia is nearby, and they are a huge producer of this metal making them one of the fastest growing economy in the past ten years.  Malawi is mostly agricultural and is the poorest of the ten countries we visit in Africa.  It is the 6^th poorest country in the world (2016 figures) followed by Rwanda (20^th), Zimbabwe (22^nd), Uganda (25^th), Tanzania (35^th), Kenya (40^th), Zambia (48^th), Namibia (91^st), South Africa (97^th), and Botswana (114^th).  

Tobacco field

Rice and corn are grown everywhere but the corn here is the tallest I have ever seen, easily reaching 8+ feet.  People are carrying small baskets of rice seedlings, heading to the fields to plant them.  It is a very tedious but necessary task.  Along people working the rice fields, cattle meander nonchalantly.  Cotton has been a major part of the Malawi economy for centuries and we see cotton ginneries in many places.  Tobacco seems to be what we see most.  Malawi’s tobacco is sold to China and is not of decent quality.  Malawi’s gold however (marijuana) is some of the best in the world. That, we never got to see.   

'Please don’t buy from children on the beach,

they supposed to go to school.'

Kids wear no shoes, torn and discolored t-shirts and ripped pants.  Most of their clothes are not fitted to their size but that doesn’t stop them from smiling all the time.  Beyond this visible sign of poverty, I finally become aware of one of the main side effects the AIDS epidemic has had in Africa.  Many young kids are raised by older generations, parents’ dead from AIDS.  Nearly everywhere you look you see great aunts and uncles or grandparents with kids too young to be theirs.  Some are raised by older siblings who delay getting married to take care of them.  Rather than being in school, a few of them are standing under the relentless sun by the side of the road brandishing baskets full of onions or sweet potatoes to sell on these seldom frequented roads.

Happy kids – again and again

In general, there is so little traffic that goats sleep on the road, unphased by the few vehicles that may come by. 

Had to wait for pedestrians to get off narrow bridge before crossing

This man installing handrails

Zebras in our campsite

We finally make it to our last campsite before Zimbabwe.  The site is home to giraffes, zebras, cats, and dogs.  The zebras and dogs co-mingle peacefully.  It is like being in a mini safari.  

Filling truck with bananas

Drying bricks

For those who like factoids, the first Carlsberg brewery to be built outside of Denmark was in Malawi in 1968.

We did not see many animals in Malawi but we truly enjoyed meeting its wonderful and lovely people.