Blantyre Arts Festival

We drive to Blantyre, the city that is named after Dr. Livingstone’s Birthplace (see 2nd blog entry). The students from Zipatso Academy are performing there on stage and creating art for the Blantyre Arts Festival. On the way to Blantyre I ask Henry about all the burnt fields that we see along the roads. He says that people sometimes light the ground on fire, to catch grasshoppers and other animals that come jumping out. In Blantyre we see some theaters and other performances of our students, some of them were really good.

The next day, we join a march for the Blantyre Arts festival, where we walk/dance our way to the location on the streets of Blantyre. Once there, we see kids from different schools performing on stage, some of them are really good dancers. We certainly can’t teach them anything there. One girl was performing the song “wiggle wiggle” and she was really shaking it, while the crowd went nuts… And I thought that this was a conservative country…

We go for a drink and talk a bit about the politics in Malawi, because one of the performances depicted the Malawian politicians. In the evening, we see a very political performance by an absolutely hilarious guy called Thoko Kapiri. He told a story for about 1.5 hours and it never got boring. Among other things he touched upon China’s influence in Malawi, the corruptive leaders of Malawi, and sex (in a quite elaborate manner, that for some of the younger kids might have been a bit too much, but absolutely hilarious. Again I am surprised, because I thought Malawi was very conservative). It was a piece called “Story of the Tiger”, originally by Dario Fo.

The day after we go to the market. It is really big and the small and narrow alleys are very impressive. I try Chibuku Shake Shake for the first time, an African beer which is mainly famous in Malawi and Zambia. You have to shake it before drinking (hence the name), and there are pieces of corn (I think) swimming in it. It is certainly the most interesting beer I have ever tried. Martin thinks that it smells a bit like vomit, but I manage to drink about half of the one liter pack, before I give it to someone who asks me for a sip. He downs it immediately… At the same time I challenge a guy for a game of pool. I make it a bet of 200 kwacha. The first one I win, second one I lose. Great fun.

Baobab - eaten like candy

They are selling trash...?

In the evening we watch some concerts of local legends at the arts festival. We are freezing, because we were surprised by the cold. In Blantyre it can be quite cold, and I didn’t even bring a sweater because I thought it wouldn’t be necessary…

Transport in Malawi: