July 19th, 2013
On Tuesday we spent the day and night in Lilongwe, Malawi’s
capital. The city is quite small
and not much to look at, but we had to go there because our visas were only
good for 30 days. After our safari,
we took the bus to Lilongwe, which took around five hours and was very
uncomfortable. The woman next to
me had a bucket full of baby chicks, and someone two rows up had a duck in a
box with an open top. Every time
the bus picked up a new passenger—flap, flap QUACK!!! The duck would escape, so
the man had to grab it by the legs and plop it back into the box.
The first thing we did after arriving in Lilongwe was to
find accommodation. We stayed at
the Kiboko Town Hotel right downtown.
It was a nice place, and it was very close to the immigration
office. Here is a shot of the (un)impressive Lilongwe skyline.
After check-in, we walked
to the immigration office, and the fun really began. Outside the office there was a mob of people being held at
bay by one guard. This was the
line for Malawians to get their passports.
There was, however, a side entrance for visas, which
fortunately had no line. Once we
got inside, the immigration officer began to process our paperwork, then he
said that we had to go to the other office where the massive crowd was to pay
5000 kwacha (15 dollars) for our visa extension. Not to worry, though; since we were azungus (white people or foreigners), we could simply push
our way through the throng of Malawians and the guard would let us in the
immigration office.
Once we got inside, there was another disorganized mass of
100 Malawians in a queue. Once
again, we waded through the sea of Malawians (much to the chagrin of many of
them, who would tsk at us for cutting in
line). Then, we paid our 5000
kwacha, received a receipt in triplicate, then stood in another line to hand in
one of the three receipts for some reason that I am not quite sure of. Once the first receipt was dutifully
remitted, we moved back to the original immigration office and gave the officer
the second receipt. We kept the
third receipt, were given our passports with visa extensions, and were on our
merry way.
The whole process was simultaneously chaotic and
hyper-bureaucratic, which is always a winning combination. We felt really bad cutting in line, but
this was what we were told to do by the officer. I’m not quite sure why we could just pay in the first
office, but—this is Africa, after all.
Like always here in Malawi, things might not be done efficiently,
punctually, or logically, but they do get done in due time.
The rest of our stay was quite nice. We went to a nice meal at an Italian bistro,
then watched television back at the hotel. We watched Top Chef: South Africa, which was kind of amusing. The next day we went back to Lifuwu by
bus. All in all, it was a
memorable experience.
After seeing the woman with the baby chicks on the bus, we
were inspired to get some chicks of our own as pets here at the Friendly Gecko
residence. Today we bought two
from a local family—Brutus and Maximus—they are so cute, and now they even have
their own Facebook page! We bought
them for 1500 kwacha (5 dollars), and the woman from whom we purchased the
chicks was so happy. As it turns
out, that was 10 times what they were worth! We knew that this was too much, but we wanted to help the
family out anyway. Here’s a
picture of the chicks—they have been providing us with quite a bit of
entertainment. This weekend Zohair
and I will build a chicken coop, so stay tuned.
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