There’s a saying that some genius invented to descrie the
“African experience,” to make sense of the extended effort it takes to
accomplish what we once thought were “the simple things” in life, to replace
the frustration and disappointment we may normally feel during our time here
with laughter and understanding…"This is Africa."
I’ve never been a big fan of the saying – in fact, I
remember chastising some fellow travelers who used the phrase to explain our almost
life-threatening vehicle accident in Kenya last year – but this past weekend is best
described by those three words.
The weekend started on Thursday when Leah, a friend of mine,
flew in from Burundi. We had a wonderful dinner with a handful of friends,
enjoying the best bacon cheese burgers that Malawi has to offer. Everything
went according to plan, and so we thought it was only smooth sailing
ahead…
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| Dinner at my favorite burger joint |
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| Vegas? Nope, it's Lilongwe! |
But Friday was the beginning of our real adventure: the
first day of
Lake of Stars. In true “diva” fashion, our group of six joined
nine others on what was advertised as the “Booze Bus” (and later the “Star
Bus”) to journey to the annual Malawi-based international music festival of
more than 75 acts from around the
world. For 4000 Malawian kwacha (a whopping US$25, three times the cost of
public transportation), we had a private transportation direct to the lake with
- “all you can drink booze” (translation: two
boiling hot beers and two crates of tonic water that we weren't allowed to
drink that took up the space of at least one person)
- “music to listen to” (translation: you better
like the six songs we play on repeat for the duration of the four hours)
- “snacks to eat” (translation: a bag of potato
chips and a, for the lucky few, a bag of yummy Malawi nuts)
- “seats to sit on” (translation: we did not say
“all the seats you can sit on” and so expect quality bonding with your
neighbors as you sit on top of one another with your legs at awkward angles)
After an unauthorized fuel stop and a few trips to the
bathroom on the side of the road, we eventually made it to our lodge on the
lakeside and enjoyed an evening of great company and amazing music, especially
the beats of the killer group “The Very Best.”
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The "Star Bus" sign (which they taped to the
outside of the vehicle for the four hour journey) |
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| Me and Leah |
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| Booze for the "Booze Bus" |
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| Me, Leah, and Jenn |
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| Fuel stop |
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Best picture ever! (i.e., traffic police hard at work next to a sign
for Malawi's beer) |
Early Saturday morning we went swimming in the beautiful
Lake Malawi, enjoying the most picturesque views of the country I’ve seen. We
watched a few friends perform at the festival before returning to the lodge to
lounge around and swim some more.
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| Our lodge for the weekend |
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| Lake Malawi |
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| Happiness! |
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God Bless America...
|
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| From the Boadzulu Beach |
The nine of us sang danced along to tunes like J Boog’s “Let's Do It Again” (a new favorite) and enjoyed two yummy cartons of the local Chibuku. We spent most of the night at the music festival loving the tunes of Namibian artist Shishani, Malwaian ladies’ man Maskal, South Africa’s Freshly Ground, and the controversial tunes of musician-turned-politician Lucious Banda.
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| You know it! |
Sounds like you had a great time! :) It's what I like to hear! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat did you love about the spoken word artist. Do you remember? Even in Nigeria now, Spoken word is catching on. And it is quite lovely to see it outside of America? Or the african american community. How was freshly ground? Did you enjoy them? Were there any other SA groups? And then, what about malawian artists? Do you like Malawian artists' music? KB
ReplyDeleteAngela, I had a wonderful time! Hope there will be more moments like this.
ReplyDeleteKB, the spoken word artist was phenomenal. His name is Q Malawezi and he's actually a "creative consultant," whatever that means. I met him through two friends and he's a really thoughtful and talented individual, which is a really powerful combination in a country like Malawi. (He's also the son of a former politician, which probably contributed to his work). He did two pieces which described and criticized politics and cultural life here in Malawi; he even mentioned many of the same observations I've had (but has much more credibility as an 'insider.').
As for music, Freshly Ground was great! The only Malawian artists I really liked were the ones I mentioned. But click the link and check out the Lake of Stars webpage. There's tons of information on the website about the different artists.
Thanks for all the comments!