My journey to usisya started by boarding the local boat that came to pick me up at the lodge. I took my shoes off, jumped in the boa...

Usisya (Malawi)

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My journey to usisya started by boarding the local boat that came to pick me up at the lodge. I took my shoes off, jumped in the boat and up to the roof. I quickly found a place to settle for what was supposed to be a 2 hour journey from Ruarwe to Usisya.

Ten minutes after getting on we stopped at the main beach in Ruarwe where it seemed like the whole village had gathered to say goodbye to the 15 people getting on the boat. The number of people was no surprise to me since I know they tend to overpack any mean of transportation in this side of the word. What caught me off guard was the amount of stuff people carried with them; there were sacks full of stuff getting into the boat and I doubted they could fit everything that was waiting on the shore. 


For a moment I thought "maybe they bring everything to see if it fits and take it back home if it doesn't." Well... it turns out there is space for absolutely everything in that local boat. 
Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by a petrol generator, a stash of wood, and more bags and baskets full of dried fish that my nose could handle... I really miss breathing through my nose! All throughout Africa I've learned the hard way that in order to handle the streets I can only breathe through my mouth!




I sat on the roof admiring all the little villages we passed by, I mostly enjoyed looking at the people by the shore doing dishes, washing clothes, the children splashing all over; this boat trip for sure is worth the 1,000kwacha I paid for it! The more we moved at 3.5km/hr the more I grew suspicious about the fact that I would have to swim to shore once we sank down to the bottom of the lake. On village five I was almost sure the boat couldn't handle any more people or loads but in every village it proved me wrong. I didn't even want to imagine how sitting at the bottom of the boat would be like between the chickens, the people, and all the sacks of goods.














For a while I stopped admiring the view and I just simply prayed to make it to usisya. Then I just gave up on the praying and used pure logic; this local boat goes a couple of times every week and I think they must know how much weight it can take without killing us all. 

To my surprise there were endless of villages and we kept stopping, at times 5 or 6 guys carried heavy loads through the water, many times getting wet all the way up to their chest, women had to lift their skirts and try their best to stay dry. The hardest part of the boat ride was to see how hard it was for the boat to move, it was sooooo slow I could barely take it, I think a good swimmer would have won a race against the local boat!


 A village or two before usisya I was relieved to see that people were finally getting off... "we are not sinking" I thought.


Look at this strong woman: a huge thing on her head, a bucket, and a baby!
An hour or so before reaching usisya a girl who I had quickly said hello to started talking to me and told me she also was going to usisya as well. We talked for a bit and she gave me her WhatsApp number so she could show me around.

After 4 hours I finally arrived in usisya and the guys dropped me off in front of my lodge. I waved goodbye to my new friend, Maggie, and greeted the guys who had come to pick me up.


I was shown around the place and I thought "I've come to paradise!" The eco-lodge in usisya is by the water, it had hammocks and a lounge area to relax and enjoy the lake.

Sunsets were the most special! I loved swinging on the hammock while waiting for the sun to come out!






Soon after I arrived I asked the guys if they had a Bao board and they said no so I said "we can make our own" and quickly grabbed some rocks and made our own bao board on the sand.


The first day I played 3 games of bao winning 2 out of the 3 matches, the guys were impressed. On the second day I woke up, got ready and one of the staff said "bao?" And of course I said yes and guess what?!? I once again won 2 out of 3 matches! I love bao! I love to strategize, to think about the moves, and to win! Haha

While on the roof of the boat one guy told me that in usisya there was a festival called Malipenga going on and then Maggie told me again about it and made a plan to get together and she could show me around.

Of course there wasn't any cellphone reception at the lodge so I had to go on a walk to find a spot where I could get some network and WhatsApp Maggie. I texted her but message was never delivered and decided to walk to town and check it out anyway.

On my way I was greeted many times by the locals saying "matandala" (how are you?) to which I had to respond "datandala qualimue" (I’m good, and you?) and then they responded back "datandala" (I’m good)
I walked so much around town during the four days that once again the children remembered my name and they would scream it as I passed by.


My new friend!



The barber shop and grocery!

On my way to town on the first day I met a boy who decided to take me under his wing and show me around. We ended by the tree where the maripenga was happening and while being entertained with all the men dancing around, Maggie spotted the one mzungu in the crowd and came to say hi.

The maripenga is a traditional dance done only by man, they sing, play drums and dance slowly tapping their feet while women from the crowd come dancing, clean a dancer's sweat and put some money in his pocket. This year the location was usisya but every year they rotate villages around the lake.






After more than an hour watching maripenga Maggie and I went for a walk and ended up at her house where I met her close family. I started by being introduced to lovely grandma and grandpa who has some dementia and 3 times he sat up from the couch he was lying down and said "mzungu, there is a mzungu in the house", it was very cute.

 Maggie then showed me around the house.

Drying Cassava to make nsima  




We then decided to go back to the main street to get some eggs and oil for dinner. 
Usipa, the traditional fish from Lake Malawi.

The happiest oil selling guy!

Maggie cutting some green mangoes for me to eat!

Once back at home Maggie got to work and lit the fire to cook the dinner. Within 20 seconds of being in the room with all the smoke my eyes started to hurt and I asked Maggie how she could do it and responded "we are used to it, we grew up doing it."



Maggie showed me how to make the traditional "nsima", a mixture of casaba and maize flour over the wood fire. She made a huge pot of it for the whole family and said "at dinner we eat less" so I thought there would be a lot of left overs but what she meant was that she didn't make the even "huger" pot! I was impressed!

Our dinner consisted of nsima, usipia (small little fish from the lake), a bigger type of little fish, and fried eggs with tomatoes. In Malawi they don't use utensils so before we started to eat Maggie brought a bucket and a pitcher full of water and went around washing everybody's hands. With clean hands we all dug in and ate a delicious home made Malawian meal! 




It always amazes me how a shy hello on a boat can change the course of things or can bring you so many blessings. That morning I never imagined I would become friend with Maggie and would be so lucky to get to know her and her family. They all opened their door to me, welcomed me with open arms, and immersed me in the Malawian culture. 

After dinner Maggie, her sister, and cousin walked me back to the lodge (in all honesty if they didn't I would probably have gotten very lost since there is no power in usisya and it was pitch dark!) and I was thanking them for their hospitality and talking about how impressed I am with Malawian women strength. I went on saying that I could never carry a baby on my back while balancing a bucket on my head and carrying something else on my hands and then Maggie responded "We might be strong and carry things on our head but you are strong in the head, in the mind." Earlier on we had had two different conversations about women in the Malawian culture and how their role is in society; women are supposed to have children and take care of absolutely everything related to the house. In villages like Ruarwe and Usisya women are not encouraged to get higher education, but rather have children and become a housewife. Women are not allowed to go out to bars, they can't even go with their husbands! And if a local woman goes to a bar or goes out with a man she is quickly tagged as a prostitute!!!!! Maggie was also telling me that many of the women are single mothers as many Malawian men do not take responsibility for the children... and I thought Latino men were the kings of machismo, but it's all over the world!

The following day I woke up early and tried to go for a swim but I didn't like the sand on this part of the lake; it was finer and I knew I would feel dirty after swimming so after getting half way in I decided to go back out and sit on a rock to admire the view. 

As I was getting ready to go out to meet Maggie, Rachel and Jess walked into the lodge; they had walked 7hours from Ruarwe to get to Usisya! We made plans to go see malipenga later in the day and left.

I walked around town greeting everybody I saw until I reached Maggie's house. When I arrived she said that I had just gotten there in time for lunch so we sat down and ate some nsima and fish.


After lunch Maggie asked if I could wait for her to shower and get ready so I stayed in the courtyard with her family and took a couple of cute pictures of her family members:




From the photo shoot we left to go see some malipenga but it turned out to be canceled because somebody in the village had died so they were having a funeral instead. We walked to the lodge to get Rachael and Jess and went to buy ingredients to cook dinner. On our walk we heard "azungu, azungu" and we were all confused as to why they weren't saying muzungu but it turns out that azungu is the plural form of mzungu! Haha

We returned back to Maggie's house after our shopping and while we waited for dinner to be ready (because Maggie refused to let us help) we entertained the boys in the family by showing them videos on the phone; they went through my whole collection of videos in Europe and Africa!

 What I love the most about Africa is its simplicity! Children don't have fancy toys, they don't have an iPad or an iPhone to keep them entertained, they actually play with anything than they find and they make beautiful toys of what westerns would think was garbage. I was very impressed by the many toys I saw on the streets!




These girls were making their own mud mix and making a kitchen set! So cute!

On Sunday, it was Rachael and Jess' last day and the ferry was supposed to arrive at 8am but it didn’t. The ferry from Usisya and Ruarwe takes less than an hour but because life is more pole pole than in Tanzania they literally waited the whole day for it! 





Since they had time to kill Rachael and myself went for a stroll around town to get some lunch since the prices at the lodge are crazy expensive for what you get and for a backpacker budget. 

 We ended up at a local restaurant eating nsima and fried fish for 500 kwachas each ($0.70) and then walked back to the lodge but before we stopped to talk (and show videos) to some of the local kids.














The ferry arrived close to 9 IN THE EVENING! And they ended up leaving at 10pm! That's a 14 hour delay in the ferry... crazy! If that was in the US people would be going crazy, asking for refunds and vouchers for food and probably even a hotel room. Not here, people just adjust and wait. Thankfully the lodge has an amazing location and we could see the Ilala lights come but I felt so bad for those people who left their village at 4am to get to usisya to catch the ferry at 8am and had to spend all day at the beach just waiting for the boat!

People waiting for the Ilala at 4pm the day I left

Selfie while waiting!



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com