Zambia's neighbour, Malawi
on A Zambian Experience (Zambia), 27/Jul/2011 14:45, 34 days ago
Off to Malawi at the weekend to do a brief trip to Lilongwe (Chipata’s nearest city just 2 hours away across the border). Being from an island nation, I still find it amazing living in a border town. I can’t get over the fact that a 15 minute drive East from my house lives a totally different country with a different currency, a different language, a different mobile phone network and a different landscape. Yet, having been to Malawi so many times during my stay in Zambia, I’m still surprised at how ‘at home’ I feel whenever I visit the country.Malawi like Zambia has a tradition of being a very peaceful nation. The people of Malawi are extremely friendly and welcoming and there’s definitely a similar relaxed attitude to life, which people in Zambia also enjoy.However recent events in Malawi, have put a dent to the relaxed care-free attitude that I used to have when visiting this beautiful country. My last visit resulted in nearly being arrested during a day out to visit the Lake. The reason being was that I wasn’t carrying suitable I.D on me and the fact that my passport was sitting in a safe back at a Malawian lodge didn’t go down too well with the road block police officer. It later transcribed that the President of Malawi was passing through the road junction any minute and he didn’t want to faceany repercussions from the Head of State finding out that 2 British citizens had been day tripping within the country with their passports back at their hotel. Anyway, eventually the police officer flagged down some transport for us (a 20ft oil tanker) and sent me and my friend Gaby away with our tails between our legs. He couldn’t wait to get us out of sight!2 weeks later media reports revealed that 19 people were shot dead by police in the same town due to being caught up in illegal anti-government protests. We were lucky to have escaped when we did.During the same trip, some friends and I were on the receiving end of some angry scenes at a petrol station, as we waited 2 hours to queue for fuel to take us back to Zambia. We were lucky, the day before, some people had to queue for 2 days to buy petrol.With increasing inflation, foreign aid cuts and an ongoing fuel crisis, I’m not surprised that tempers have flared to boiling point. It seems that after the recent protests on the streets of Malawi, many ordinary Malawians are saying they’ve had enough.Despite the recent violence, I will still continue to visit the country. After all, tourism is one of Malawi’s biggest exports and if people stop visiting, then that won’t help the already fragile economy. I also think it’s a great country and although it’s going through some challenging times, I still believe it will always remain the ‘warm heart of Africa’.