petrol shortages

I don't know in your countries, but here in Malawi we are having
problems to find petrol, and sometimes this looks like Mad Max the film!

Last week end we were about to go for a trip to some natural medicine
gardens and we had to visit 3 petrol stations before we could fill the
tank! we had very little petrol in the car and we were driving with
our fingers crossed (hopping to don't get stuck without any fuel!)
from one station to the next... we thought it was weird, specially
being in Blantyre, the 'big' city.. how is it going to be in the rest
of the country?

Well, we had the answer soon, a couple of days later we were in
Salima, at the lake, and there was no petrol at all! The only option
was to get it in the market from vendors at double, probably triple
the price because we are muzungus. Fortunately were camping at Cool
Runnings lodge and The owner Sam phoned to one of the petrol stations
and they told her that they were going to get some petrol that night.
So there we went when the petrol had just arrived and we queued for
ages until we could buy some petrol! it was really tense, with loads
of people trying to fill their cars, motorbikes, containers, anything!
Some people was trying to jump the queue and I really thought that
people would start to fight..

I don't know what is going to happen next, but there are rumors that
the government will increase (again!) the price of petrol. Is now at
251 kwacha or 1.1 euros / 1.7 dollars a liter, which is mad if you think that
most of the people lives with one dollar a day..