22 February

22 February

Lilongwe

0 Miles

Erik:

After a wonderful night's rest, we ventured to the market. It's HUGE!!! Steph found some fabric she liked. My favorite part was the food. We got chips (fries) with veggies on top and a peri peri sauce. So good! Especially for 50 cents.

After about 4 hours of walking around and exploring we headed back to base. I then found out that Tanzania takes only USD for their visas. We don't have nearly enough cash. Commence me riding around town looking to buy US dollars. It took two trips and a few hours but I did it!

Riding around, the Malawi people really seem to like my bike. I raced one dude up the hill and he kicked my butt! On his clunky, wobbly, single speed bike with chickens on the back. It was funny.

Spent the rest of the day hanging out, meeting new people and listening to music.

The market was super awesome.

Steph:

I wanted to find some fabric that's used all over africa. The women use it for everything; Skirts, dresses, shirts, wraps, to tie their babies to themselves. They're extremely colorful and fun and come in all sorts of cool designs.

We asked where the nearest market was and headed off on foot. Lilongwe is cool. Lusaka was this modern marvel, or at least it seemed that way. The theatres, the malls, the cars, the sidewalks, even the fancy landscaping were really nice. Lilongwe is a little more third world. In a good way though :) The streets are occupied equally by cars, bicycles and pedestrians. There are no traffic laws and everyone does what they want. It's a little more dirty and everything is a little more beat up. The same goes for the market. There were so many people. Just rows and rows of stalls that go on for ever. The vendors stand in front of their stands showcasing their wares. From dress pants, jackets, shirts, socks, underwear, etc. Boys walk around with trays filled with small bags of ice cold water. I thought that was interesting. Others would buy them for a few cents, poke a hole with their teeth and just suck it right out. We walked deeper and deeper into the maze; through clothing, headphones, phones, speakers, dvds, soaps, shampoos, anything you can think of. The pathway got smaller and more narrow until we finally reached the end. I really liked that no one pushed us to buy anything or shoved us into their mini stores. I honestly think they were slightly surprised to see mizungu so far in there. People greeted me with "hello my sister" and "mizungu how are you?". When we turned around, a gentlemen asked what we were looking for. I told him and he said, "yes, follow me", and there they were! Beautiful fabrics of all kinds. They were a little more expensive than I thought but that's ok. After that, we wandered back towards the main street and found the food.

The very cool gangster looking fellow who served us the chips was really nice. We grabbed our plate, sat down on the bench, pulled up a plastic crate and ate our lunch with our fingers. It was really nice to sit and watch people walk by. They would see us and stop and stare for a while. We'd just wave and smile and the'd smile back.

Good stuff :)

Really pretty mosque

Busy street

The market. Shoes galore!

walking down the street

Erik :)