Tuesday, 3rd April 2007

To: Mzuzu

Yeeeaaahhhhh! A dream come true! I got to drive a chibuku truck today! Oh, I'm beside myself. Only problem is that it made for a very short cycling day. Gotta get serious on that end. But we'll worry about that later.

Chibuku is the local Malawian beer. Not a beer that most of us would want to drink, including myself. But very popular with locals, and with Elizabeth (whom I once did Peace Corps with and who, many years later, convinced me not to buy a huge vase by telling me I'd lost my mind, so what does she know?) O.k., settle down your excitement, Leigh Anne, and just tell the story calmly (yeeahhh!).

I was riding along, with every intention of not only riding to Mzuzu, but even all the way to Mzimba (past Mzuzu). It was part of my "get serious" plan because Mzimba is about 160 km from Rhumpi. I'd ridden about 30 km (o.k., 27 to be exact) when I came to a small town, whose name I don't remember. Although only 10:00 a.m., it was already hot so I stopped for a cold drink. Across the road from my cold drink spot, there was some super-great Malawian music playing and people seemed to be "having fun". I sat there on my little bench and thought to myself, "If I go over there now, then I won't make it to Mzimba today." So, I went over.

They were playing pool, so I put up my coin to challenge. They were drinking chibuku. I was making jokes that popped into my mind from long ago, such as, "Wow, with that chibuku stuff, you kill two birds with one stone. A beer and lunch." (haha, moving right along.) The winner who I got to play happened to be one of the more serious of the chibuku drinkers and looked already intoxicated, even though it was by now about 10:30 a.m. I won. Played somebody else. Beat that one too. In the meanwhile, Mr. Chibuku-man and I were making lots of jokes with each other. He wanted to give me a chibuku, but I said I can't drink that stuff. In the end, he gave me 2 greens (Carlsburg). We played and talked and played and talked. Eventually, I lost because I wasn't playing that well anyway and my luck ran out. By now it was approaching 12:00. I made to go. "At least, I'll ride to Mzuzu," I thought.

But somebody put a coin up for me and said, "Play again!" (Like maybe I was a little monkey on a music box.) I said I had to go because I had to ride all the way to Mzuzu (didn't even mention the original plan of Mzimba). Mr. Chibuku-man said, "I'm the chibuku distributor. I'm going to Mzuzu. If I give you a ride, can you stay a little longer?" Other than his drunkenness, it was an inticing offer, on the theory of: as long as I'm not making it to Mzimba, what's the point of making it to Mzuzu? But there was that drunkenness problem. I came up with a plan. I said, "I'll ride with you if I can drive." Guess what??!? HE said, "O.k." As simple as that!

So, we played another hour or so and then took off. On route, we had to make some deliveries. Here he is (turns out his name is Vincent), distributing some chibuku to one of his vendors.

Most importantly, here I am, driving! Of course, this is a contrived shot. Vincent's partner, who was sober but who doesn't drive, is out there, taking the shot. You just have to trust me, that I didn't just sit there. I drove! Never driven anything so big before! Everything was hard. It was hard to press the gas peddle, for example, but I think I picked it up o.k. I kept saying, "How am I doing?" He'd say, "Fine." When we got about 5 km from Mzuzu, he had to take over again, but that was o.k. By then, he'd sobered up a bit because it took us 2 hours to make all our deliveries.

O.k., that was all fine and dandy, and even super-super great, but I've got to get with the program and try to do some more cycling than this. New motto: GET SERIOUS!!

------------------ TODAY -------------- TOTAL
Cycled ----------- 27 km (16 mi) -------- 4,276 km (2,679 mi)
Lift --------------- 33 km (21 mi) ------- 2,450 km (1,638 mi)
Total ------------- 60 km (37 mi) -------- 6,726 km (4,317 mi)
In Saddle --------- 1 hour 52 min -------- 279 hours 29 min
Ascended --------- 615 feet --------------- 74,510 feet