Getting Back on Schedule
The morning of day 10 we hear things are getting back to normal, and everything seems quiet in the capital. We decide it is time to get on the road. Our first stop will be well north of the city in order to meet with one of the preachers we have worked with for years. Perhaps we can also stop on the way up or the way back, and have lunch with a long time church friend in Lumbadzi. We need some advise from these two men, and want to have their thinking before meetings scheduled for the weekend. It does not take long for the observer from the west to learn there are hundreds, if not thousands, of years of different thinking between Africa and us. To charge forward into something without getting their input and advise is mistake number one. The second is to move rapidly into a program without their involvement. It seems to me these could be the double blows that kill a lot of good intentions in Africa. We are really determined not to let this happen.
Back to Remaining Inside
Late in the morning we receive news that someone broke into three stores in the Lumbadzi Trading Center the previous day. There was apparently considerable damage, a lot of broken glass, looting, and so on. That is alarming as we knew yesterday would hold demonstrations in the capital city, as well as Mzuzu in the north, and Blantyre in the south, but we didn’t expect problems in the countryside. We take stock of the situation, and decide it will be better if we stay inside one more day. If things remain quiet all day today we can get back on an abbreviated schedule early tomorrow.
The rest of the day is filled with sending and receiving emails, preparing stories for the various Malawi Project web sites, and drinking tea. I love Malawi’s tea, and when I leave the states I shift from coffee to tea all during my time in Africa.
Around 3 PM one of our friends from previous years stops past Ufulu Gardens to visit us. (He found out where we were staying here from some of the guys in Thondwe where we were last week). We prepared a book about the Lujeri Tea Estate for him, since he made a trip there with us in 2007. It is such a beautiful place and the scenes in the book are magnificent. We give him the gift and sit around sharing tea. After he leaves around 4 we focus on trying to get news about the situation around the country. A church friend in the north reports his sister’s daughter was shot, and is in critical condition in the hospital. Another church member, a taxi driver in Mzuzu was shot and killed by stray gunfire. Our friend reported that as many as eight people were killed in Mzuzu alone. This is stunning, as we have never seen anything like this in nearly 20 years in Malawi. There have been problems, all nations have problems, but this one certainly has gotten out of hand.
We remained inside the rest of the day and evening. Late in the day we locate a newspaper. It confirms the validity of staying inside. The situation is very, very serious.