Day 12 - Walk to market

Sun rise over Mount Mulanje

By today, Mary and I were definitely in Malawi time. We would go to bed at 8:30 -9:00 pm and were up by about 5 am.  The night before we had decided we would walk to the market, about 4km away.  Initially Charles had wanted to order a bicycle taxi for us or send us with Mr. Segula, the depute.  We insisted that we go alone however we were armed with a shopping list with the correct prices that a Malawian would pay.

The walk to the market was amazing. We saw a stunning sun rise over Mount Mulanje which will forever stay with me. I am going to print out some photos of it and when I need to go to my 'good place' I will look at them. 

The road to the market, even at that time, was super busy with folk walking and riding their bikes up to the trading centre.  We had loads of folk shouting hello and good morning and were pretty pleased when we replied back to them. 

On the way there we also passed over a bridge that had collapsed over 8 months ago but was still not fixed.  The bridge had broken when a truck, delivering phala to the school, passed over it.  There is now a slight diversion down into the ditch but the larger trucks are required to go a couple of miles longer. 

Now that's a pot hole!!

We were really pleased that we got what we needed (onions, eggs and tomatoes) at the right prices.  We ventured into one part of the market that was slightly dodgy and some men were leering and jeering at us.  A quick about turn and we were back on the main road and feeling safe. We bought some bananas with the rest of our cash and the vendor got the last laugh. Everyone in the village (especially Hannah) got the a real giggle knowing we paid 3xs the price we should have!

The Pied Piper of Nakoma

On the way back, we became the pied piper, collecting school kids along the way.  By the time we got to school, there were about 50 kids with us. Brilliant!!