MALAWI : SPIRITS OF THE MIST | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

At the end of November, the rains return with a vengeance in Malawi. It’s not a good sign for Gray. He’s a “bush taxi” driver in this extremely poor country where public transport is non-existent and he already knows that the rains will cut off the inhabitants of his remote province in the south. So he does his best. In the back of his little truck, women and children are tossed about in the rain. And this is only the start of a journey where obstacles follow one upon another, all as improbable as they are fantastic. Such as sleeping in the middle of a game reserve because of a puncture, surrounded by lions and elephants with only a campfire for protection.

Subjected to flooding and drought, the fields don’t produce much. So, to feed themselves, children go fishing… for swallows while others eat ants. When a child falls sick, families have a stark choice: walk forty kilometers with their child on their back to a dispensary that often lacks any supplies… or rely upon the spirit of the “Vimbuzu” dance.