4th july (morning)

Well, 3rd of July actually. 4 of us Americans from Nkhoma heard about and decided to go the embassy party celebrating Independence Day. From 3 to 6 at the ambassadors digs in Lilongwe. We had decided to take a car that had insurance that expired the day before…not a good plan with my track record of getting stopped at the police block so I went in early (with other transport) to buy the renewal and then I was going to either head back to Nkhoma and come back in or meet them at the road block to attach the new decal. Get to the insurance office (which was open on a Saturday as I called to check) and tell them what I want. Ok, lots of typing, wait, error message, again, hmm, “I think our network isn’t working. Can you go to our other office?”—by the way I’m in the business center of Lilongwe which I’m not familiar with at all and the second office is in Old Town (where I know pretty well)—I suppose if you tell me where it is. “oh you can’t miss it” lots of directions I couldn’t really follow, then I ask, is it possible to walk there? “what? No. you can’t walk it.” well that isn’t going to work as I don’t have a car. “you didn’t bring your car?” no. it had no insurance…“hmm” She then calls the other office and they print it out and bring it out to me…45 minutes is not a bad wait for that. Then I walked into town (yes it was walkable but I don’t know for sure that I would have made it before they closed)