airtime but no gas

Having clear objectives on our first day in Lilongwe gave us reason to enter stores and examine the merchandise, make conversation and persist on our quest. It gave us a chance to check out prices, get accustomed to Malawi Kwachas and practise the conversion math.

• 1000MK for a cup of coffee
• 2500MK for lunch /a main dish at Annie's Coffee Pot (only instant coffee)
• 4000MK for  fancy (South African?) YumYum peanut butter
• 700MK for strawberries from a street vendor
• and ...300MK for a SIM card. So it may have taken three queues and a couple of hours but we got ourselves a local phone number.
  
  The hardest to find turned out to be a small gas canister [click here to insert background music 🎶]. The Chipiku, Shoprite, Sana and the Game are just some of the stores we got to know along the way. In the bigger stores there was usually a 'bag check': a counter where you hand over your backpack while in the store (and most of you will know Stephen takes his backpack pretty much everywhere). There was also a special 'stamping desk' where the contents of your bag was checked in advance, items purchased elsewhere were marked and when leaving your receipt was stamped... by one, two, sometimes three people. On our part this led to all sorts of questions about employment, salaries, income etc. It often seemed that where somebody was working (stamping but also sweeping or mopping) there would be at least two other people doing the exact same thing.

By late afternoon our sandaled feet were dusty. Dirty like mine hadn't been in years and we had a date. Catching up with Farayi that evening was by far the highlight of the day. The picture included here comes alongside one taken more than 25 years ago at Chambe hut on the Mulanje Massif when Farayi was holidaying with our family. Good to see you again shamwari.