Make Shift Truck

Adam and I were in Chisenga, we needed to get down to the boma because we were heading out the next day to go to Camp Kwacha in Senga Bay (Adam) and Camp Sky in Lilongwe (Me.) We started out fairly early,around 8 am. We get a ride right away, directly from Adam's house in the back of a flat bed about 15 k down the mountain to Chambo. T was quite comfortable sitting on some huge spare semi-truck tires.

We waited at the Chambo turn off for five hours. No cars went by.

We slung shot kids and chased them through the brush. We ate my supply of scones and bananas. Finally a moving truck comes by.

We flag it and get on quick. The guy gets out and lets down the hydrolic lift. Cool. As we ascend and get into view of the back of the truck my first pangs of misgivings began. There was a cloud of road dust that just wouldn’t seem to disperse in the back of the truck, along with two fairly miserable looking Malawians. We get in anyway because, hell, we have been waiting on the side of the road for 5 hours.
Just as the lift goes back into place a regular over loaded, matola cruises past. No big deal right. Were in a ride at least. As we ducked under some ropes and made our way to the front I leaned on the wall....and it gave. I looked down and as we started to move and go over bumps I noticed a good 6 inch gap opening and closing as we drove. Then I turned and noticed that there was a garage door at the back that I assume its purpose was to fully close in the truck. We went over a large bump it flopped dangerously. That’s about when I realized the ropes we had ducked under were actually HOLDING THE WALLS TOGETHER. Awesome.

The worst part however, was the dust cloud. Dust on everything and a thick cloud in the air. All four of us were trying to hold on to our sketchy grips ad cover our noses with our shirts. Not five minutes into the ride ANOTHER normal matola shows up behind us. As we bump along I start to overheat and have to take off my hoodie, not an easy feat standing in the back of a truck that's falling apart and driving down a rutty mountainous dirt road.
Adam struggles to retie the ropes holding the truck together. Im getting nauseous from all the dust, bumps, and the huge keg of gasoline im standing next to. I started to get a headache from the fumes. Not only that but on large curves the barrel would careen towards me so I had to ride the whole way with my foot wedged against the bottom of the container to keep it from squashing me into a corner. Needless to say when we stopped at my village I was ecstatic.
I needed to feed the dogs and get some things. Adam continued on the the boma in that ride. He later told me that the wobbly garage door fell off.
It fell OFF.
As they hit a big bump.

Needless to say I was happy I chose to bike to the boma. Oh and for the next two hours I blew my nose and it looked like blood from all the clay dust. Super