The new LOL

(Part Two of Lake of Stars Festival: Saturday afternoon)

Just how difficult is it to get money out of your bank account in Malawi? Some days, it’s nearly impossible. Malawian Sis needs cash, so we stop at every NBS Bank along the way to the Lake (which actually isn’t that many) so she can try her ATM card at each one. No luck. The entire system is down. She calls her bank rep, who tells her just that: the entire system is down. How is it possible that a bank’s system is down for the entire morning? And, we later learn at the mobile NBS bank housed in a large van that is parked at the lakeshore right outside the Lake of Stars music festival entrance, the system is down that afternoon as well. How can a bank have a mobile unit but not a system that allows you to access your own money via your bankcard, for an entire day? Good question! Lack Of Logic is the new LOL.

The important part of the afternoon, however, is that we’re finally at Lake Malawi and at the Lake of Stars festival. Since I’m here for the poetry reading (that, unfortunately never happens because none of the three contest winners show up), I call my contact at (who is the founder of) the Book Bus, a mobile children’s library that has been traveling around Zambia and now Malawi, promoting literacy and reading to children in schools. He takes us over to the Book Bus, which is parked away from the festival entrance, next to a soccer field where other activities to promote community development are taking place.

The Book Bus

 

Quentin Blake illustrations

The Book Bus is outstanding. It is more than I had imagined when the founder and I met in Blantyre a couple weeks back and he described it. It is covered in painted illustrations by Quentin Blake, the illustrator of Roald Dahl books. Inside, the old safari bus has seats along the outer edges and bookshelves lining the area above the seats. There are books packed onto the shelves and then overflowing, piled wherever there is space. 

I start to step down off the Book Bus and stop to take a picture of the school children. They suddenly get super excited, jumping and pushing to be front and center in the picture, then clambering up toward me to see the picture after it is taken. They want more and more pictures to be taken, until finally the bus driver has them arrange somewhat orderly for a group photo. 

Since we haven’t eaten all day, after the Book Bus we head to the lodge where we’re staying, and plan to eat an early dinner. We drive north on the paved main road, away from the festival, then make a turn when we see a very, very small sign advertising the lodge. (Signage is not one of Malawi’s strong points.) We turn onto an incredibly bumpy dirt road that has several turn offs with no signs for the lodge telling us which direction to go. We stop and ask someone we see who insists we just keep going straight. There’s another fork in the road after that, with (of course) absolutely no sign letting us know which way to go to the lodge. (I mean, why have signs to direct your customers to your already out-of-the-way lodge? LOL.) We pass through a tiny “village” – basically ten small brick buildings that have no electricity and no people in sight. After what seems like an hour (actually just 15 minutes) going 5 mph on a dusty road in the middle of nowhere, the lodge appears. 

 lodge

We park, walk toward the blasting hip-hop music coming from the restaurant that has a few very drunk young men parked on the stools around the bar, and are interrupted by two men who insist on taking our bags and who point us toward the manager. She gives me a limp handshake, barely smiles, and then looks confused when I tell her my name. My Malawian sis speaks to her in Chichewa, reminding her that they spoke on the phone just yesterday about the reservation for this weekend. She still looks confused but has one of the men go get the key to our chalet.

She looks even more confused half an hour later when we sit down at the outdoor restaurant overlooking the lake and order dinner. Granted, it is only five p.m., but after taking our order (we all order Chambo, a tilapia-like fish that is found in Lake Malawi) and heading toward the kitchen, she turns around and, looking puzzled, asks us, “You want your food now?” (That is a question only explained by LOL.)  “YES!” we all say a bit too emphatically, but we are so hungry at this point we kind of can't help ourselves. We’ve sat down at the restaurant, ordered drinks and a meal, and are getting asked if we actually want it then? Perhaps it's our hunger that isn't allowing us to see her logic; I mean, do the three of us look a little too well-fed? I’m curious as to what she is thinking and want to ask her what our options are for when and where to get our meal, but hunger overrides any curiosity; I worry that any additional speaking and/or inquiries may result in us never getting fed. And we want our Chambo! Some days the new LOL can be pondered and questioned and attempted to be understood. Other days (particularly when you're hungry), you've just got to let it go.

Part Three, Saturday night: Coming soon…