The lovely, lovely Lake

I’ve now spent a whole week in Senga Bay and have fallen in love with it, or parts of it.  The Lake is stunning.  Vast, as I knew it would be, but seeing it for the first time is breath taking.  The wind can whip in in a matter of minutes, creating waves worthy of body boarding, if not surfing.  Not always gently lapping the beach as I’d imagined.

Senga Bay is spread over probably about a 15 to 20km long thin stretch, with a small market, the ubiquitous newly painted red Airtel kiosks everywhere, a few shops (with the usual service hatches, none you can physically walk into), makeshift bicycle repair stalls here and there and several fishing villages, including one right by the guest house we stayed in last weekend.   A guest house I loved so much I went back and spent most of the week there too.  The owner is an absolute inspiration and couldn’t have been more helpful.  I would not have seen or understood half of what I learned, had it not been for her.  Watch out anyone who comes to stay, Cool Runnings is on my ‘can’t be missed’ list.

The Lake is a vital part of the lives of the communities who live by it – apart from the fishing (unsustainably over fished and that’s just one of the myriad of more obvious issues the country faces), many of the locals wash and do their laundry at the Lake.  On Saturday morning we walked by entire weekly wardrobes having been washed and laid flat on the sand to dry.  Meanwhile, their owners sat chatting in their undies, waiting for the sun to do what it does best.  There’s a spot for men and another a little further down the beach for women and children.  Driving around Malawi I’ve seen a few advertising hoardings proclaiming the extra lather attributes of certain soaps.  They aren’t kidding!  I saw lots of locals turn themselves completely white with suds on the shoreline, before diving in and coming out squeaky clean.

Children everywhere have learned a little English, so whenever they see a white face they are keen to say “hello, how are you?”  or “I am fine, how are you?”  One little boy of about 4 I passed in the street with his Mum said hello, so I asked him how he was.  “I am fish”, he replied with a huge smile! 

Not all of it is lovely.  There are way too many bars having obtained liquor licences where they shouldn’t in residential areas, with all the loud music, litter, drunkenness and sanitation problems that come with them.   Deforestation is currently unchecked. There is no clinic, the 2 primary schools are desperately over-subscribed (at worst up to 150 kids in a class with one teacher), corruption is rife, bureaucracy depressing and poverty very apparent.  The worst are the rich lodge owners who feel it is their right to ride roughshod over the local communities, cut off their access to the lake, try to remove signs of their daily life from the sight of rich tourists and ignore their needs – but that’s just part of Sega Bay’s story.  There are those too who fight hard alongside the community to make life that little bit brighter – the ones I’d like to help.

Sorry a bit worthy this week.  Spending a week in the heart of it all has left a deep impression.  Just a snapshot or 2 worthy of the tourist brochures!