Our driver never turns up on the agreed time... It’s almost 11am and the car is not here yet. We try all the numbers we have, no one picks up. At 3pm we eventually manage to talk to Mwawe. She has been waiting for us to call… “It is a misunderstanding”… It makes me want to scream!In Malawi, a lot of time is spent waiting. Nothing seems particularly urgent here. Things move differently... Africans are certainly not as bound to time as we are. We build freeways to get “there” fast; we know what’s going to be where and when… In Africa, the sun comes up – and the sun goes down…that’s time - above is the Malawi's Flag. And trains arrive when they arrive; animal herds arrive when they want… It drives westerners crazy, although it is pointless to lose your temper. In reaction, people tend to move even more slowly...
To survive in such a place as Africa, you need to develop patience. I’ve looked for the meaning of it in my dictionary. Patience is “The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset”. Well Patience is not only a virtue in Malawi, it’s a necessity.
