Day 48: Mulanje->Blantyre

23rd August:

I automatically woke up at 5am cause my body clock had gotten used to the early morning starts up on Mulanje. Luckily I could get back to sleep for a few hours before we got up and packed our bags. 

The girls and I left Mulanje View Motel without breakfast because they were only offering bread and tea for 1000kw! Rip off.. Instead we each bought a few mandasi (the donut things) which were the best ones I've tasted so far. Much better than the greasy horrible ones we had on the way down Zomba Plateau a few days ago.

We jumped into a minibus and headed off to Blantyre. My last minibus while in Malawi- that's a sad thought!

On the side of the road I saw a girl about my age just minding her own business selling her fruit and veg, and she was being picked on and physically abused by two older guys. No one was doing anything about it!

At another of the stops we made during the journey there was a man who came up to the minibus with his hand out begging. He was the oldest Malawian I had seen so far, and he was probably around 70. I realised that the high incidence of diseases and bad healthcare wasn't the only reason why life expectancy in third world countries is so low. On the whole, elderly people do not have the strength to do manual labour, (and that is really the only work available out here unless you are well educated) and so they cannot afford the basic necessities to keep them living.

  A street stall

When we got to Limbe and changed to another minibus to Blantyre a guy came up to me at the window and started the usual "what's your name, where are you from?" and when I replied England he started saying how he voted Leave in the referendum. I asked him his reasons and he started saying how they were taking our money... Then went on a rant about how he has a Mercedes and then showed me his car keys and said how he didn't go to Oxford he went to another college. And I kept bringing it back to the point of how that was relevant to the EU and he kept on rambling on how Malawi was one of the poorest countries in Africa and how it's so much cheaper here than England. How is that relevant!?

Thank god the minibus drove away because I was giving up on trying to make conversation with this guy. As we drove off he ran after the minibus shouting "give me your phone number!"  I've given my Malawian number to a fair few locals I've befriended on minibuses, but this guy was just too much...!

Nadia and Rosa got off before me so I got out and hugged them goodbye and the minibus man shouted at me to get back in cause we were taking too long. I didn't get his logic cause we waited over 20 mins for the minibus to get going in the first place! I got out and as usual was surrounded by locals asking where I wanted to go and if I wanted an escort or taxi. I said no to all, because when I get to a new town or city I like to walk around with my backpack and get a sense of the place, and challenge my map reading skills. Admittedly I had to stop a couple times to ask directions but that's because I was told the wrong starting point on the map. 

I arrived at the backpackers 'Doogles' and they have a pool!! First one I've seen here! I settled everything into my room and chilled for the rest of the day, meeting the locals and other backpackers there.