We didn’t want to use the fuel for the church’s minibus, so we decided to walk into Blantyre and we planned to take a public minibus on our way home since it would be dark. Dorothy had given us directions to get to the Mibawa area in the city – she did not know exactly where the café was, but said we could ask someone when we were close by and we would find it. The show was scheduled to begin at 6:00pm. We had wanted to leave by 5:00, if not before, but Dorothy stayed longer to talk with us and we wanted to eat dinner before walking, so it was almost 5:30 by the time we actually started walking. Thank God for small blessings: it had been raining most of the day, but it stopped in the evening so we were able to enjoy our walk into town and not get completely soaked.
We made it into Blantyre by 6:30ish and found out where the Mibawa Café was, or at least where we thought it was… we were told it was across from a Hotel, but we went to the wrong hotel at first. Thankfully, there is only one other big Hotel in the city and we were near it and able to find the café pretty quickly. Kayla and I are both very much used to our American timetable and like to arrive early, not just on time, when we’re going somewhere, so we were both a little sad to be arriving so late and hoped that the performance wasn’t over yet (it was around 7pm by the time we found the café). Even though we’ve been here for four months, we still haven’t seemed to learn that what we plan and think will work out, is not how it happens.
The show hadn’t even started yet because the café didn’t have electricity (not a huge surprise). They were working on the problem and hoped to have some power soon. One of the workers directed us inside using his cell phone light – yeah, it’s not creepy at all to walk into a random café that is dark inside and hardly has anyone else in it… We decided we would wait around for at least 30 minutes to see if they would get started and then head home if not.
Long story short (well, at least not as long J), we waited until almost 8:15 for them to start and then decided to leave at 8:30 because we didn’t want to miss the minibuses to take us home. While we waited, I enjoyed a couple Carlberg’s (Probably the best beer in the world – that’s not me claiming that, that’s their slogan J) and Kayla was a love interest for our waiter – hehe. He wanted to get to know her better while she was still here in Malawi and gave her his number in hopes that they could get together. For quite some time, we were the only azungus (white people) in the café, but a little bit before 8pm, a large group of them came in. We’re figuring they must have gotten a memo about the concert being later or they just understood Malawi culture better than we did and knew not to show up on time or expect it to start on time.
We heard one song and part of a second before we started off for home. We had to walk to find the minibuses and by the time we found them, neither of us wanted to wait for the bus to fill up. That was not our smartest decision of the evening. It is only a little before 9:00pm at night, but it felt more like 2am with how quiet the streets were. There wasn’t near as many street lamps as we expected or thought there were – we mainly had to use the flashlight on our phone to guide our steps so we wouldn’t fall or trip over something.
Our next wrong decision came when we walked on the right side of the road (as opposed to the left, not wrong side) and we missed our chance to catch one of the minibuses as they drove past. Vehicles drive on the left side of the road, hence our need to be on that side to catch a minibus.
It wasn’t until we were about 20 minutes from home (after walking for about an hour) that we had some cars slow down and ask if we were okay and whether we needed a lift or not. Only once or twice did we get whistled at, which was a good thing. We turned the first car down because we were already at Shoprite and knew our way home from there very well. The second car that pulled up asked us how far we had to go because they had passed us once already. They had turned around to come and see if we were okay and if they could drop us where we needed to go. Again, we said we were fine, but then I noticed that the car pulled up to the curb just in front of where we were walking. A gentleman got out to talk with us and told us he was a police officer. He showed us his badge and said that he didn’t want us to get hurt or robbed by thieves and asked if he could please give us a ride home. We finally agreed and thanked him for the ride.
During our walk, Zuriel had called and wasn’t too happy when I told him that we were walking in Blantyre, at night, by ourselves. He was glad to know we arrived safely, and I promised we wouldn’t do it again. Chris was also none too pleased, even though we were home safe and sound by the time he heard any of the story.
I think the funniest reaction, though, was Dorothy. She had told us to be sure and not stay out late and to be careful as we walked. When we told her that we got a ride home with a police officer and that we were out walking at 9:30 at night, she wanted to beat us, literally; she raised her hand as if she was going to slap us. I know I probably shouldn’t laugh or think it was funny, but it all turned out okay in the end and I thank God for His protection over us throughout the evening. So now it is a fun story to share! J
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.