Mall Fire

Lilongwe is separated into various smallish shopping areas. City Center is the financial district and Old Town houses the western-style mall as well as the open-air flea market. Across the bridge to the east of Old Town leads to a long road of what locals call "China Shops" which are hole-in-the-wall specialty shops run, primarily, by Indians selling cheap stuff from China. Near the end of that strip (approximately half a mile) there is a turn off leading to a long road of wooden stalls with specialty goods. Two blocks of furniture, one block of beds, three blocks of metal goods, two blocks of caskets, and so on. On a search for tin mixing bowls I arrived to find this:

It was a rushed and poorly-taken shot as I was trying to avoid looking like a gawking tourist, but what you see are the first furniture shacks on the left and background and, on the right, an entire block torched by an electrical fire. The grid here is extremely rudimentary and, in many cases, badly jerry-rigged. Sometimes there are consequences beyond our daily blackouts.