Today we have the true “African Experience”.
It begins with a little surprise first thing in the morning…
Yes – this would be a frog hiding in Eric’s toiletry bag.
Then we have an unexpected visitor during breakfast…
For a few seconds it looks like this guy might actually join us… the elephants around here have been known to walk right into Flatdogs’ restaurant. This isn’t so bad, but they always forget to make a reservation, which is ironic really.
And finally, we experience “African Time” firsthand…
“African Time” basically refers to the laid-back approach to schedules around here. For instance, a bus scheduled to leave at 8:00am, probably won’t leave until 8:45am so there’s no point in getting upset. Therefore, when someone tells us a time, we always add “ish” to it and we’re never disappointed – 8:00am becomes 8:00am-ish, 1 hour becomes 1 hour-ish, etc.
Our taxi driver, who’s supposed to pick us up at 12:00pm calls us at 11:55am to say he’s running late and won’t be able to get us until 2:00pm.
Ah, African Time… no big deal – we’ll just enjoy nice, lazy afternoon here.
Now we never actually expected the driver to show up at 2:00pm sharp – we figured on a 30-minute cushion. But at 3:00pm, with no taxi in sight, the hotel staff track him down and find out he’ll be by to get us within the next half hour.
At 3:30pm, he finally shows up.
And Eric and I are not impressed.
Three-and-a-half hours late goes way beyond “African Time” and the hotel staff agree with us. They also provide us with some additional information about our driver – we won’t bore you with all the details – so Eric and he do some financial re-negotiations and we’re able to come to a suitable compromise to get us back to Chipata.
Of course, in some ways he has the last laugh…
What should have been a 2 ½ - 3 hour drive turns into a 4 ½ drive as the driver takes us on a spiteful scenic route – we take the long way back to Chipata and make numerous stops along the way to buy a new spare tire, top up the gas tank, visit a few business associates, etc.
Eventually we arrive back at Dean’s Hill View Lodge, where Dean’s staff has a room and dinner waiting for us – Flatdogs called ahead for us and let them know what was going on.
And of course, our taxi driver does offer to drive us to the Malawi border “for a good price”.
Yeah… we’ll see about that.
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