The 12 hour journey for a 20 minute meeting

My day trip to Mua, which was my biggest traveling adventure so far, started at the front gate of SOS at 5:50am, Even at that time of the morning I could tell the day was going to be a hot one, So I was loaded up with all the water & suncream I could carry. October & November are the hottest here in Malawi, and every day I can feel it getting hotter and more humid as the rains approach, but it has been weeks and weeks since I have heard an actual temperature. The walk to the minibus was beautiful, I love the morning light, it changes every 15 minutes or so, there’s a beautiful soft white haze which sits in the still air in the early hours, and it slowly becomes a more pinky haze as the wind picks up and mixes the dust with the smoke from everyones fires the night before. The breeze only stays cool for a while though. I’ve decided really hot weather is when you’re forced to have a cold shower in the morning, but it doesn’t even come close to taking your breath away.

The bus ride (one of 6 to reach our destination for the day) was a painful one, it was either a really low roof or I had grown a few inches in my sleep, but every bump, of which there are many between my house and town, resulted in my head connecting rather abruptly with the roof. Any cushioning remaining on the seats was little protection from the bounce back down into the seat, especially as I was sitting on a join…. So a bruised head and backside was certainly the order of the day.

Our reason for traveling was to visit Mua school for the deaf. My traveling companion Joyce works at the SOS primary school as a special education teacher for the hearing impaired class. I was excited about spending the day with Joyce. Travelling is a great time to get to know people, whether its walking somewhere, or in a bus, if you know the person or not, it really makes no difference. I have learnt so far that showing interest, enthusiasm and not being afraid to ask questions is a great way to chat, and build great friendships. I have decided that Malawians would be the kind of people who wouldn’t mind at all if you asked them questions all the way through a movie. Both friendship & communication are highly valued. So especially on bus rides I always learn new things… Today I heard that the day after a funeral, it is not uncommon for thieves to dig up the grave, remove the body and steal the coffin. Such is the need for coffins around here, and the poverty which limits their purchase!! Families who can afford it will have cement poured over the coffin after the funeral to try and reduce this unfortunate event. You will always be aware if a funeral is underway somewhere, the women will all be sitting together, as will the men. A row of leaves will mark the start and finish of the mourning area, it is polite to remain silent while walking between them.

So it was around 6:30 when we reached town to find a bus to Salima. My water was getting low already. We found ourselves a bus that was reasonably full and therefore not too far off leaving, this time our wait was only about 40 minutes before departure. You don’t ever get bored while waiting at a bus station though, you can nearly do all of your shopping right from your seat, the experience really does bring a whole new meaning to window shopping. Vendors walk up and down the bus windows holding all sorts of things up hoping you will buy. Depending on your location the items for sale will vary. From the main bus station you can purchase cold drinks, toothbrushes, watches, bubble gum, cakes, bread, apples, biscuits, hankies, face washers, newspapers, music, cds, jewelry, radio’s, socks, and clothes. While along the roads in the middle of nowhere, market food is available from the windows, all sorts of fruit and veggies (usually tomatoes, cabbage, onions and banana’s), if in a small town fast food will be available, this will include mandasi (deep fried donuty sort of things) very very yummy!!, roasted chimanga (corn), roasted ground nuts, or boiled eggs & salt. It’s like a bulk drive thru…. they certainly beat macdonalds, sometimes a large number of purchases can be made in a frighteningly quick time! Its so much fun!

We arrived in salima about 90 minutes after leaving Lilongwe. Our driver today was a lead foot. It’s a little unsetteling at times when theire is a group prayer for safe arrival at your destination before leaving the bus station… sadly minibus accidents are far too common. So your continued prayers for my safe travels would be greatly appreciated!
Salima is a town east of Lilongwe toward the lakeshore. Another 20 minute drive by matola (back of a truck) will bring you to senga bay for a swim in the beautiful lake. But today we were headed further south. The buses are few to Mua, so we didn’t have a choice of buses today, the one that was their was our only option. It was pretty empty so far, except for a giant basket of millions of miniature fish, hundreds of flies and a terrible smell. But aside from walking the 80km, we had no other option. We explored the streets a little for more cold drinks and then finally had to board the fishy fly filled bus to reserve ourselves a seat. I had to breath through my nose to reduce the open space available for adventurous flies, and any mouth open meant you could taste the intensity of the smell. The man sitting next to me really didn’t smell sensational either, I think largely due to the fact his arm pit was ridiculously close to my face as he had his arm raised to the roof both for increasing squashing space in our row and I think he was suffering the same head and roof issues I was on my first bus trip earlier that morning. So there was a plethora of strange odours! All the while I couldn’t help but smile. It was turning out to be my favourite day so far!! At one point I remember being so proud of myself thinking my positive thought about the situation had turned the terrible smell into a appetizing odour o fresholy cooked fish and chips on a hot summers day…. But it really was wishifulthinking as I turned to see the lady next to me had pulled out a packet of cold fish and chips so greezy and soggy it was surely from the day before. So once she had eaten that, the smell returned to its usual horrible stench. I could only but laugh at our next stop, I could hardly see how another person could fit, but the conducter managed to squeeze in one lady, her two children and the three live chickens they were carrying. One of the chickens surely knew its fate, as it was trying its very best to have a good last supper – my right knee - so the remainder of the bus trip certainly was a test of concentration, avoiding flies in the mouth, and dodging the psychotic & hungry chicken.

So another crazy bus ride later we arrived in Mua at 10:15am to commence our walk to the deaf school. Wow it was hot! We walked down a long dusty road, goats and chickens all around us, we passed a little village maize mill, two bore holes, many kids staring at the azungu walking by and we finally arrived. Joyce is very passionate about her job and advocates for her kids in a very big way…which was the main reason for our visit to mua. Evey year the school has an intake of only 10 children from the central region of Malawi. And the principal is often reluctant to give more than about 1 child from SOS a place, saying that it would be favourtism and not allow opportunities for others to have access to the schools, despite the fact that we are the major referral centre for the central region, but anyway… so we went armed with a list of 14 children from the school and 5 from the medical centre ( who are currently not even enrolled in school) and this was our prioritized list!!! Apparently in the past whenever they have sent the list, only a few have been offered an assessment interview. The aim for the day was to go in person and argue each of their cases in the hope that all of the children would be offered an interview. So in the end it was a 12 hour journey for a 20 minute meeting …BUT we had success, we left with letters for all 19 of our children. Unfortunately only about 4 or 5 will be accepted in next years intake (which is better than the previous years) but atleast they all have the opportunity to sit the assessment. So it was a worthwhile journey! After our short meeting, we were given a tour of the school, which was amazing. there are 148 children enrolled, it is a boarding school and they range from about 4years of age to18 or 19. They have a very small number of teachers!!! We were given a tour of the school, the boarding houses and each class. We were greated enthusiastically by the children who swarmed around us. It was the most amazing community of children, up until only about 2 years ago, teaching sign language in Malawi was taboo… there is a very long story associated with that… but basically those who did the original training of the special ed teachers didn’t believe in sign language, anyway that culture is slowly changing….THANK GOODNESS… but its obvious that despite any of the rules, the kids have been developing their own sign language to speak, which was certainly obvious at our visit, but the problem here is that each school now has a different form of sign language. Things are moving ahead, and a Malawian sign language book is being developed, which is fantastic!

It didn’t seem like long after we arrived that we were saying our farewells. I suggested we walk through the mua mission on our way back to the main road so I could see the infamous mua mission and hoped to run into Gary & Sue who were volunteers that arrived in Malawi the same time as I did. The Deaf school sits at the bottom of the hills, while the mission sits in the hills themselves. Mua mission was built in 1902, and which now houses a beautiful little community on the top of a beautiful hilly area. There is accommodation, a little hospital, schools, a museam and carving training school. It is home to a lot of culture and history of the chewa people, so will certainly be worth a return visit. The horrible hot walk up the hill was breathtakingy beautiful. An amazing view up into the distant dedza mountains, with mud brick straw roofed huts all set around a windy road leading up to the top of the hills with a dry riverbed below, I can just imagine after rainy season the waterfalls and swimming holes would be awesome!

We needed to get back to the main road so we could catch a bus home in time to arrive before dark, but we were totally exhausted, and extremely thirsty. I had no reception on my phone, and no idea how to find them, but there is often so few white people around, I figured we shouldn’t have to much trouble, and sure enough we had success. It was great to see them, and alough our visit was very short they gave us cold water to drink and some lunch which was fantastic. It was lovely to see them and their house, although most of their household items were outside while they attempted fumigating against some nasty bed bugs which had obviously been cuasing them some troubles as both were covered in bites.
It was a nasty walk back to the main road, the heat was intense, and it looked like miles before we would reach it. although I had skulled about 5 glasses of water, in no time I felt just as parched as before. Altouhg we passed a few little market huts along the way, none had electricity, therefore none had cold drinks. Just as I was walking down the big hill toward the road, my phone started ringing and I had the pleasure of a quick chat with mum, which was rather bizarre, I was in the middle of no where, so a little amazed that she could get through. I certainly was the centre of attention, after I got off the phone I noticed a large group of girls had gathered along the road with us, just silently walking along behind us, all fascinated by who and what they saw… not sure what fascinated them more, if it was the strange white girl or the muppets theme song my phone had played.

We attempted hitch hiking, with no success, but finally a minibus arrived. Each stop required someone sitting further back than us to move, so we got in and out of the bus many times, the final spot was awesome as I was right next to the window. There was a little girl with her mum who become rather confused each time we moved, as she spent most of the trip staring at me. After each time we moved she would ask her mum where I was. Everyone in the bus giggled each time this happened. She finally just came and sat with me.

Back in town I searched for more water, by this time of the day it wasn’t as easy, most people were sold out, or it was warm. But I persisted. Joyce was off at the market buying fish to take home so I took a stroll down the street, I found an icecream shop, a makeshift cinema (which was a little shack housing a TV) and a private toilet with no running water or toilet paper and had to pay 100kwacha for the priveledge, so I declined and went back to the icecream shop and begged for their toilet! I was nearly run over by a bicycle taxi and found a yummy mango at the market, so it was a great little adventure. I met Joyce back at the bus just after 2pm, as I approached I couldn’t believe how many people were carrying bundles of wet gooey fish, knowing I would be likely to spend the next 2 hour bus trip with them I was a little worried, but what I didn’t realize, they do have a storage facility…. each person tied the fish to the windscreen wipers of the minibus, having seen that I watched out for more buses, and sure enough, every bus heading back to Lilongwe had multiple bundles of fish hanging at the front of the bus from the windscreen wipers. Rather amusing.

It really was hot. The conversation on the way back in the bus made me realize it wasn’;t just me, everyone felt it, seemed that today was our hottest yet this season.
The first half of the bus trip was great fun, I discovered two of my new favourite feelings.You know like, walking on grass in bare feet, or smelling the air after it has just started raining on a hot day, or the smell of freshly cooked bread?

Well these are my new favourites - skulling cold water when your so thirsty you feel like someone has been holding a hairdryer into your mouth, and when the minibus starts moving again after sitting still for a few moments in the scorching heat, and the breeze feels like a freezer has been opened on you …its funny because all of them are after something bad has happened and the contrast is whats so awesome. you have to be so hot and parched you think you want to die, or sitting cramped between people with the sweat forming so quickly you think someone has been pouring a bottle of water on you…but then…. The relief from them both is just awesome. you are the happiest person in the world, and you think that life just couldn’t get any better than that.

But the second half of the trip was a real struggle. A mixture of heat exhaustion, dehydration and maybe some trouble with a leaking exhaust on the bus I found myself falling asleep and getting rather car sick. So the last bit was a daze. But I managed to get off that bus in town, board another oneto my home, and then walk all the way back to my little house via joyces house to help her carry all of her purchases from the days window shopping. I was in the biggest daze when I finally stepped inside the SOS gates just as the sun was setting, now 12 hours since I had left. The guard offered to walk me to my house, I can’t remember answering him. I went inside and sat on the shower floor for ages letting the water wash away the heat from the day. I had water and water and water and water for dinner. I was never more pleased than today that the water was on.

I then went straight to bed. What a great day! 12 hours from start to finish, 6 minibus rides, 20 minute meeting at our destination. And I later heard it reached 42 degrees in Mua that day.