No Fuel - No Go

Or the best laid plans of mice and men. That is where we are living at the present. The fuel situation has not eased, although there is hope and promise. The Zambian government has promised fuel to help ease the Malawian shortage and assist with transportation for the late President’s funeral, but so far it has not arrived. There are rumors that fuel should be coming soon from South Africa, but these are only rumors at this point. In the meantime, there is little or no fuel. It comes in an isolated tanker or two at random intervals.



One of the smaller lines for fuel



Last week, I had guests from Zambia. They were able to drive because they brought their own diesel in jerry cans. There was none to be found in Blantyre. Maxwell and Sam Ncozana hunted all over Blantyre for petro or for diesel. Late Thursday afternoon Sam called to tell me to get Maxwell to drive the car to a certain station because a tanker had just arrived. I was skeptical. I had heard this before, only to have the fuel end well before the line did. We were low on fuel and I didn’t want to spend the little we had on hope only. But Sam was optimistic, so I sent Maxwell. Three hours later he returned with a full tank of petrol – more fuel than we had had in months. I was elated and hopeful again. (It doesn’t take much to get my hopes up.) It was only later that I learned that money had changed hands to make this possible. But we had fuel.

That was wonderful for here in town, but the real issue was diesel. I had planned a trip to remote Chiuta Presbytery for a training class on Monday. The terrain was too rough for my car, so Sam was going to drive me in a Land Rover. That required diesel. He also had a group coming in on Saturday for whom he was providing transportation and he needed diesel for them. He was optimistic, so I joined him and made the final arrangements for my Monday trip. Saturday he bought what he needed for his group from the black market, but we lacked diesel for our trip. He was going in search of it in town, saying the black market was just too costly, up from $30 a gallon to $40 a gallon. There is a limit to what is tolerable. On Sunday when I talked to him, he was no longer optimistic. Blantyre was devoid of diesel. He had spent most of the day searching. He went outside of town to a station about an hour away that was expecting a tanker load and got in the line to wait. The problem was that there were a number of large trucks from the sugar plantation in front of him and he was concerned that the fuel would be gone before he got to the pump. Then he called to say that they were not going to off load the fuel until Monday morning and there was no way he was going to get fuel in time for us to get to Chiuta for the training. We would need to cancel. Reluctantly, I did so. I knew there was no choice, but I was deeply disappointed. I had really been looking forward to this training. I knew that I couldn’t reschedule it for at least a month because of other commitments, if there were fuel then. It was hard to tell the participants, who had re-arranged their schedules for this time that the event was not going to happen. Fortunately, they are gracious Malawians and understood and accepted this without complaint. I was crest-fallen.

Monday morning Sam called to say that we had made the right choice. Even though he had spent the night in the lineup, he was turned away because the large trucks were to get the diesel. The smaller vehicles were sent away empty. He came home to get some sleep and then search again later for the elusive diesel. Hopefully this situation will change with a change in government, but that will take time. In the meantime, when there is fuel, we go but – no fuel, no go.