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I find myself in Songwe at the Ulemu Guest House, the power had gone before I arrived and it still has not come back, I had dinner in a disco-penny arcade-restaurant, where there is a television, but I could not hear a thing because the noise of the generator rose above everything, even the music. The small room costs 1000 Malawian Kwacha, about 4$, dinner of rice, some kind of stew, beans and cabbage 500 Kwacha 2$, a conventional South African fruit juice bought this afternoon in a small supermarket about the same price of the room. The room is clean and there is no need to sleep in the sleeping bag.
In the initial schedule Malawi was not there and we decided to pass through Malawi after the departure was set at the palace of the Chieftness in Chongwe. Malawi has three things I like: the mountains, with valleys and rivers, the lake which in certain points it resembles a sea, and the people who are really willing to help. I have always been escorted to all the guest houses where I slept by someone, who did not leave until he was sure that there was place and it was of my liking.
I saw many projects of the European Union along the way, all about agriculture and reforestation, but apart from the orderly red bricked houses which convey to the landscape a certain elegance, the situation did not seem to me much better than in Zambia. If I remember well 7/8 years ago a big Italian bank started a big project in Malawi, with a motto that sounded something like this ‘if we fail with Malawi, we will not have success anywhere else’, I do not know if they have failed but I doubt that they have succeeded. The right cure for underdevelopment and social change, if it is found will fit everywhere. It is not a matter of money or dimensions of the country.
This morning I met the third muzungu on a bicycle since I started, Mr. Barrett, English who is riding going and back through Tanzania, he was the one to tell me there was a guest house here at the border, he also reminded me that Italy and England are challenging one another tonight, but unfortunately I will not be able to see the match. Even today I started late, it will not happen tomorrow, since the place where I am and the crossing over to Tanzania will encourage me to get up very early.
Lake Malawi has a deep blue sparkling color which is an invitation to dive in, but like our sea it is a place of tragedies of illegal immigrations, three days ago 20 Ethiopians travelling illegally to South Africa died in the attempt to cross the lake on a makeshift boat.
Today the heat made itself felt, on a uphill where my speed was limited I heard the crash barrier make the same noise of our roofing iron sheets in Chikupi. On the road, in the morning many people with their party dresses, many girls dressed like dolls and much singing coming from the different churches, towards the evening getting closer to Tanzania, I met some bicycles carrying everything, a mattress, a two-seat couch!, and some disco speakers with a small generator.
Do not go with the sunshade and the deck-chair to the beach of Ngara, you will not find any space, because the houses and many mats to dry fish are all built on the sand in front of the lake.
From tomorrow Tanzania!
Chitimba Nimiasii Lodge S 10° 55.745’ E 34° 21.732’– Songwe Border Control Malawi-Tanzania S 9° 59149’ E 33°77585’
137 km