Almost the entire time I have been here, Malawi has been going through a fuel shortage. The elections are coming up in September and so the Government doesn't want to raise fuel prices as that will cause many other prices, like food, to go up as well, leading to the President losing support in the upcoming elections. While to some it may sound like a good idea, fuel subsidies create an imbalance between supply and demand leading to hundreds of vehicles lined up at the gas station in hopes of getting fuel. This means people are basically camping out with their cars for several hours up to several days at a time while they wait in line for the fuel trucks to come in with the fuel from other countries as most stations are usually empty. Generally, we will have a week or two after the fuel trucks arrive where there is fuel and the lines shorten up, and then two or three weeks with no fuel again where the lines go back to being very long. Luckily as most people just walk or use bikes, this only affects them if they use a car, bus, or motor bike as their form of transportation.
