One day, while we were travelling from Tanzania to Zimbabwe through Malawi (October 1998), our vehicle got stopped at a road-block. When I say "road" I mean dust-consumed, dirt-track somewhat resembling a transportation corridor (Malawi is very third world). And when I say "block" I refer to the man and woman dressed in army fatigues and carrying very large machine guns (not to mention a few other menacing looking weapons strapped to their belts!). So the woman looks in our vehicle (kind of a land rover-like truck) and has a brief conversation with the driver in some native tongue, and then glances around the vehicle and stops at me.
"Why are you not wearing your seatbelt?" she asked me.
My first thought was, "This thing has seatbelts?!?" and then I thought, "Is it really the law to wear seatbelts in Malawi?"
I looked around and noticed that no one else was wearing seatbelts either, including the driver. The roadblock-guard did not seem impressed when I pointed this out to her.
Taking note at the size of her gun and imagining what a Malawi prison must be like, I decided to shut-up. She actually wrote me a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt! I think the fine was 40 kwacha or something (maybe $10 CAD), but I left Malawi a few days later and never paid the fine. So now I am probably WANTED in Malawi! |
