A TRIP IN LILONGWE
Wednesday 20 December, I travelled from Lilongwe’s residential Area 49 to town and then to the newly developing Area 38 and back on the same route. I was amazed at how the area around Bwaila Hospital, famously called Bottom has been occupied. I decided not to think about it as I knew practically, there was nothing I could do, so mute I went. But I did not notice that just 10 metres from the hospital gate, Simso Oil has built a filling station. After walking for about 10 minutes or so, I got into a taxi to area 38 (6 miles or Kumtaya however anybody decides to call it). There were 5 of us in the taxi. As we made our way out of the filthy, unorganised and always dirty Lilongwe bus depot, the inner fight of whether to worry about Malawi or not started again. And as policy, I muted it again. I giggled shortly afterwards when it turned out the people in the taxi were not prepared to stay quiet as I was. A common sight in the bus depots in Malawi In front was a man, s