Life in Malawi

Just a quick update today I think, as I wanted to post another picture yesterday but the connection was quite slow.  John took this beautiful shot about a quarter of a mile from our house.  If you can see it in such a small shot, it looks over the valley, down the escarpment to Lake Malawi and you can see the point at out into the lake as well as some of the small farmsteads. 

A couple of updates on things I wrote about earlier:  Joyce, the woman in the hospital is doing well and they hope to be able to send her home soon;  it looks like our luggage may be a lost cause, but I suppose that could change. We have started to replace some of the things that were in the trunks which requires a tremendous amount of effort here - lots of tramping around and stopping in lots of little shops that stock a confusing variety of things.  We're going to file a luggage claim and see if we ever see any reimbursement - or who knows those trunks may still mysteriously show up.

Back in Mzuzu

1/15/08 

We arrived in Livingstonia, Malawi 3 days ago, but it will be some time before I am able to send this so I’ll keep a running story going by date until I am able to get to the Internet.  When we left Mzuzu, the northern regional capital of Malawi on the 12^th, we were rushing around to be ready to leave at 9am, which was the appointed hour we were given for our departure.  In the meantime, our next door neighbor in Livingstonia, Titus, found that he was not able to get other transportation so we suggested he ride with us, as transport to the Livingstonia is always a problem. Titus teaches Biology at the college and has some administrative duties there as well, and we later learned he was preaching at church Sunday, so a true jack-of-all-trades. 

There is no formal system of “public transportation” in Malawi although there are a couple of bus companies that run large, and in some cases quite nice, buses between the few major cities.  To get to most places you pile into a private mini-bus(no schedule, they just leave when they are full), but those don’t run to Livingstonia because the road up is too difficult for them.  Livingstonia University has 2 four-wheel drive vehicles(if both are running) with drivers that can be used for “official business”, and we were lucky enough to be able to be drive up to the Livingstonia plateau in one of those.  We decided to take bets on how long it would take for us all be ready to actually leave, as we needed to stop at the bank, the supermarket for frozen meat, and the vegetable market for those things we could not get in Livingstonia where the open air market has little to choose from; and Titus also had several places where he needed to stop before we left.  We must be getting used to “African time” so when we actually left around 10:30 (which was John’s and my earlier guess at when we would get underway) we were just smiling.  We were agreed later that this was a good sign that we were adjusting, as we would have been impatient and upset if it had happened in the U.S. 

The weather for the 3-hour drive was great with no rain and clear spectacular views.  Joseph, who was one of the drivers we remembered from our trip in September, did a great job dealing with all the people, bicycles, cows and goats on the main tarred road and we were relieved not to have to be driving ourselves anymore.  It takes about 2 hours on the tarred road which is in pretty good shape and follows a river valley and then over a low mountain pass for 140 kilometers or so to get to the base of the Livingstonia escarpment and nearly an hour to go the 15 kilometers( 9 miles) up the Gorodi Road, which climbs about 2,300 feet in a series of 20 tortuous switchbacks.  The road is mostly single lane dirt/rocks, with one very small and very steep part paved in deteriorating concrete, which was done a few years back because that part would always wash out during the rains.  The curves are all numbered, and I laughed when we got to about curve number 5, which isn’t even the steepest part, thinking that John and I had actually considered buying a 4 wheel drive car here and donating it to the University so we would not be at the mercy of the lack of transportation.  There is no way either of us could drive up that road.

Gorodi at one time was on the main road through the northern part of Malawi and on to Tanzania, which is hard to imagine.  It was laid out by Dr. Robert Laws, the Scottish missionary who founded Livingstonia, along with the water system, which is still in operation, and was one of the first in all of Africa.  Around 10 or more years ago engineers built a new road to the lake shore and north to Tanzania, and Gorodi now connects to it, but is really only used by the residents or tourists who want to visit Livingstonia, hence the lack of mini-bus transport.  Gorodi connects to the Rumphi, road that also goes to Mzuzu and the upgrade of that road to tarmac was one of the things promised by the President of Malawi at last year’s graduation ceremony, to improve the difficult access to the plateau.  That road is currently dirt, although some improvement has been made and gravel has been put down, but it is still not a viable option in the rainy season.  The view on the way up Gorodi is spectacular, and for those of you like me who don’t particularly like heights, there is no guard rail but many parts have quite a few trees growing right at the edge to give some illusion of safety, so I only had to close my eyes and lean as far away from the downhill window as I could to keep from whimpering a couple of times. 

 When we arrived at our house on the plateau Smelton, who was the housekeeper/cook when were here in September and will be our helper (they call them “house boys” here, but I just cannot do that), was at the door to greet us.  He has no phone and had been waiting for us since the 9th thinking we were coming then, and had made pancakes for us the morning of the12^th thinking we might be hungry, but it was around 2:30 when we finally arrived.  The cold pancakes still tasted great.  Saturday was not normally a day he even works, but he stayed until nearly 4pm helping us to unpack and get settled. 

 The next day was Sunday, and we knew we’d be expected to attend church in this Presbyterian Mission Station community.  Unfortunately, we didn’t remember the correct starting time of 8am and showed up at 9am only to find our neighbor Titus, in the pulpit.  After he finished his sermon we were asked to come forward to be introduced and John was asked to make a speech, where in addition to saying how happy we were to be back he apologized for our lateness.  Although they were very gracious and said nothing about our lateness, we said later that we both felt like being “late to class” when we were kids.

 We had a very “laid low” day on Sunday as we started to make the adjustment to life in Africa, and to try to catch our breath from all the activity up to that date.  There was a big thunderstorm on Saturday night so we didn’t have power when we woke up, and only had power for a few hours during the day then lost it again until nearly 7:30, at which time we were very hungry as our stove is electric and we didn’t want to open the refrigerator and lose the cold.  That meant we were subsisting on peanuts, and peanut butter on bread for the day waiting until the power came back.  We had been playing cribbage by candlelight when the power came on and both jumped up and ran to the kitchen to cook our dinner, as we were both really hungry.  Of course we then overate and were too stuffed to sleep.  We decided we need to have some foods on hand that don’t require opening the frig or using the stove, as we are told that power outages are very common during the rainy season.

 We were both exhausted and weren’t sure what the “protocol” would be, should we be going to visit people or would they come visit us?  Everyone keeps their side door open (which I think is a sign that you are “open for business”) but Smelton had the only key for that door, so ours was closed all day and we had no visitors so napped a bit, read a bit, I walked a bit as we tried to adjust ourselves to this pace and place.

Our other surprise was that the hot water heater wasn’t working, so we were trying to take cold showers without actually standing under the cold stream of water, as there is only a shower and no tub.  We knew there would be no one to come work on a Sunday and maybe not after that for some time either, but we were reminding ourselves how many people have no running water here at all and how lucky we were in comparison.  We have an outdoor faucet, and there is a steady stream of women and children coming to that faucet to get water to carry back to their houses.  John and I were speculating on how far they might have come from, and how far they needed to go for water before this house was built.

 Monday everything changed.  Smelton arrived at 8am and shortly after people started coming - 17 in all before noon, including our new “garden boy”, Smelton’s nephew.  I knew I wanted to do some planting and landscaping of this newly constructed home, and the Azungu(the plural form of Mzungu which means “whites/Europeans”) are hoped to be able to create jobs for people who really need them.  I was thinking I’d do the gardening since I love it, but it is sure nice to have someone to help break up this hard clay earth for planting.

 Our other visitors were:  our neighbor, 2 of the University people we’ll be working with, a local carver/batik artist looking to sell us some things, a carpenter wondering if we needed any work done (we did!), Robert and Richard (the housemen at 2 of the houses we visited on our last visit), an electrician(sent by Richard when we told him our hot water didn’t work), Smelton’s grandchildren, and a Technical College student(who I later learned is an orphan) desperately looking for helping in raising his $140 tuition for the next semester which was due that day.  It was to have been paid by an American but the school hadn’t received it, so I used my cell phone and helped him track it down.

 John wasn’t feeling well today, so was napping part of the day and helping receive visitors and field the various requests when he felt well enough to be up.  We had been planning on doing some visiting around, but since he didn’t feel good and everyone came to us that wasn’t necessary.  In addition, we had hot water by the end of the day (although the switch itself is broken and will need to be replaced, the electrician was able to jury rig a work around until he can get a switch from town – people get creative when they have nothing) and our carpenter had made a shelf for the bathroom and had our mosquito net frame underway.  Both of those were things that we didn’t think would be done for a long time, and that hot shower was an amazing treat to be savored – like a hot shower after a camping trip.

 We are more easily pleased here I think, and when we lost power again on Sunday night and got it back before noon on Monday, were quite happy with our good fortune.  We are told we need to lay in some charcoal for the burner our night watchman uses, since the power goes out quite frequently during the rainy season.  At least we would have a back up for heating water and cooking that way.

 1/15/08

Today is feeling very quiet in comparison to yesterday.  It’s nearly noon and only one visitor today so far, a local butcherman who is going to slaughter a cow this week and wondered if we would need any meat.  We stocked up pretty well before leaving Mzuzu(mostly chicken and some beef sausage that has turned out to be pretty good), unsure what we could get here so I told him to call on us again the next time. 

 We did have quite a bit of rain last night, but no thunder and lightning, and it started raining again this morning as soon as Smeton hung out our undried laundry from yesterday - a little extra rinsing.  I also had to ask him for advise about a spider this morning.  Thank goodness my phobia of spiders has abated from my younger years as I have seen several fairly large ones.  My friend Ann at home had told me about the “plate spiders” that are totally flat and live in little narrow spaces, as we have one that lives in the cross braces of our front door.  He came out once and was few inches across, but I knew was harmless and helps to eat the mosquitoes or other littler bugs, so I’m watching him but deciding to coexist peacefully so far.  There was another large one I saw this morning though, so I went to ask Smelton “is this a good spider or a bad one?” and he got a broom and dustpan saying “no, this one bites”, killed it and that was that.  All in all, so far anyway, bugs are not too big a problem, although we’ll be happy when we get our frame built for the mosquito net, as it is Malaria season and each night we seem to have at least one in the bedroom.  No signs of any snakes so far.  

 John is feeling better, and when I opened the curtains this morning at 7:45 our gardener was already here.  Smelton is operating more as the house manager now, assigning tasks to the gardener, like going to the market this morning for more tomatoes, eggs and a few miscellaneous things we needed.  We set off to visit some of the people we knew we needed to see, through the muddy roads after last nights rains – the stuff sticks like glue and we see now why people say you need “gum boots” so you don’t ruin your shoes.  Got to the Synod offices only to be told at the gift shop next door that today was a holiday – I had seen it on the calendar for Malawi in our guidebook but had forgotten, so we just went back home.

 Both of us are starting to work on our project for the University today and that feels good too. We had power all night and today, and it is surprising to see how pleased we were to learn that when we woke up.  We get to have hot tea and toast for breakfast this morning, how exciting!

 1/17/08

We are settling in and trying to slow ourselves down, while at the same time gearing up and starting work on the Strategic Plan for the University and some other projects that need attending.   One of our other neighbors, the Dean of Students/Professor has a wife (she also teaches at the University) in the hospital, and everyone has been very worried about her.  Even though we haven’t met her yet, we feel the concern as a new part of this community.  Apparently,, she had an ectopic pregnancy and had a first emergency surgery that wasn’t done quite properly, resulting in the need for a second surgery when she was in a weakened condition.  There was also an infection that they were fighting, and as a visitor from the “First World”, I found myself wondering if this would have happened at a U.S. hospital, and feeling some anger that she might die from something like this.  She appears to be doing better now though and her condition is now considered stable at least.  It has been hard to concentrate on work with this happening, and that feels appropriate – to put the people first and the work second.

 The view from our konde(porch/patio) is absolutely spectacular, and I’m going to try to attach a picture of it on the blog.  It overlooks a valley, then continues down the escarpment to Lake Malawi and we are so high up we can see across the lake to the mountains in Tanzania on the other side, while other times, we are literally in the clouds.  We work at our dining room table right next to the konde, and find ourselves stopping periodically to check it out what is happening – can we see the mountains on the other side right now?  Is the sun shining on them?  Are those rain clouds?  Are the clouds coming and will we be in the fog for a while? Is that a boat out there on the lake?

 Our garden helper has dug up lots of beds and has already started planting some things.  He has gotten cuttings from lots of people and just sticks them in the ground and they grow.  This clay soil really holds the water.  The carpenter who came has finished 2 shelves for the bathroom, so we have place to put things like the toothpaste now, and we have a frame for mosquito netting for our bed too.  I had brought some baskets and other things in the bags that are still lost, so it is great to have this fixed so quickly.  And we still have hot water, and have not lost the power for 3 days – life is good.

 We were working with one of the people at the University today and had him over for lunch as well.  He was sharing his story of life under Kamuzu Banda, Malawi’s first president after the fall of colonialism in 1964, who declared himself “President for Life” and ruled as a repressive dictator for nearly 40 years having just been peacefully removed from power in 1994.  John remembers those times well, as Banda was in power when he was here in the Peace Corps, and one of his Malawian friends was detained for nearly 7 months by Banda’s forces for nothing more than having a book in the library he ran that had the word Communist in the title.   Our guest was a newly graduated teacher, and was sent a letter by an acquaintance in Zambia and was picked up and kept in a cell in water up to his knees for nearly a day before his headmaster came and was able to convince them to let him go.  His crime apparently was having been sent a letter from Zambia.  Several years later, he received a phone call from someone wanting to help him to go to the U.K. for graduate study, only to find out that his phone had been tapped for all those years, and as a result of the phone call, his elderly mother had been picked up.  He sadly said that he knew his hopes for a Ph.D. were gone when that happened.  So many people have stories from those times that are similar, it is hard to even imagine.

 1/19/08

It’s Saturday, hard to believe only one week since we arrived.  We had a big rainstorm last night, and watched the light show from our dining room as we ate dinner, until the power went out again.  It was back by lunch today so that was nice.  So far, the rain has come at night, and sometimes with lightning and sometimes not.  Lots of wind with this one too and when I went for a walk after lunch I saw a big pine tree uprooted and a large eucalyptus tree branch off too.  The clay ground is usually dry by lunchtime so we can avoid the mud if we wait until then to go out.  

John and I have been the only msungu on the plateau, except for the occasional tourist, until our neighbor’s Bruce and Karin came back from their holiday yesterday.  They are here from Norway (but one or both of them is American, we’re still a little confused about that) teaching for 3 years and working on computers for the university as well. Lots of old donated equipment that they are keeping running.  We met them briefly when we were here in September and went over for tea yesterday afternoon, staying for nearly 3 hours chatting.  It’s interesting to see how fun it is to casually chat with other people who speak English well, and with whom you have common background and understanding - very fun and relaxing.  Tomorrow Glen Nutter comes, another American here for 6 months, so we will no longer be the only white faces on the plateau.  Agustine Msiska and Eleizer Kulumbi will also be here, and they are the two Malawian’s on the plateau who helped to start the University, so I think our work will begin more in earnest. 

1/21/08

We made the decision very quickly yesterday to come back to Mzuzu when we realized that the car bringing up Glen Nutter would be going back down to Mzuzu, and Eliezer Kalumbi would be coming back up to Livingstonia on Wednesday.  You have to catch a ride when you can around here.  So we came down the escarpment road in a dual cab pick up truck, which left an entire bed in the back of the truck which could be packed with people - and so it was.  There we were bouncing down Gorodi road enough that I was having to hold on to the grab bar inside the cab, with a whole load of people in the back open truck bed.  Some were back there for the entire 3 hours, and others got dropped off along the way.  

Our treat when we got here around 7pm was to walk down to one of the two new restaurants in town - this one an Indian restaurant where I had a wonderful Chicken Tikka Masala with garlic naan served in a tablecloth restaurant.  It was hard to believe we were in Malawi.  Since Malawi has a large Indian population, the proprietor said that the restaurant was doing well, especially now that the local Indians were discovering it.  It would be quite expensive for a lot of Malawians, (a little over $11 for dinner for both of us with a beer each - high by Malawian standards).

We'll be in Mzuzu for a few days, and I plan to call about our luggage soon - they had a theory that it might have gone to Customs in Johannesburg since we were there for such a long time and overnight even though it was a connecting flight and should have just been checked through.  A hopeful sign since they have been unable to trace it.  Even John's sister Barb who is trying to help from the U.S. with Northwest has no luck tracing it - but we remain hopeful. 

To Livingstonia Tomorrow

This will probably be my last update on the blog for a few weeks, although it’s hard to tell.

John and I were just saying a few days ago that it was almost impossible to believe that we had arrived in Malawi 3 days before. Amazing!! We are adapting mostly very well, but are very eager to get settled up in Livingstonia and as far as we know it will be tomorrow morning when we will go up. Up there we are thinking that the pace will slow down some as we will not have cars or internet or TV etc. I think that will be a welcome change.

We summarized our journey so far last night and since arrival in Malawi have 7 days ago, we have: driven ourselves 900 miles on the other side of the road through places that had little or no signage; visited 2 major cities one regional capital and a small village; relocated and slept in 5 different places; experienced 3 different types of climate/weather; searched for our bags with 3 different organizations and people; met with a potential job candidate for a position at the University of Livingstonia; both been sick for a time; operated in totally different culture(or 2 since the north and south of Malawi are different tribal groups) and with people who speak english as a second language(if they speak it at all.)

It’s no surprise that we are tired, which we both are at this point. It has also been an amazing experience.

Yesterday’s drive from the Nations Capital City, Lilongwe in the Southern Region to Mzuzu which is the northern region capital was just breathtaking in places. The country is so lush and green right now, and we went through plains, mountains, a plateau, a timber producing area and pine forest, terraced farms, and in the midst of all that beauty, crushing poverty and obviously backbreaking work. All that in 5 hours. I told John it reminds me of England in the sense that there is such a huge amount of variety of terrain and vegetation and weather in such a small area.

We are still crossing our fingers on the luggage thing, but got a few supplies here in Mzuzu that we know we will need until we find out if the luggage is ever going to make it. It was surprising how many things we could find at these odd little shops.

Leaving Lilongwe

We are getting ready to leave the capital city of Lilongwe and begin making our way up to the Livingstonia Plateau, via Mzuzu - without luggage, but with high hopes that we will still see it at some point.

Much of today's post is John's description of our trip to Blaytyre, Malawi's commercial center and Mulanje, where we spent two wonderful days with John's old friends and my new friends Justin and Esther Funsani. They put us up at their home, close by the Chileka Police Station, where Esther is chief of police. Justin is retired from the U.S. Embassy, where he served as chief librarian and assistant to the public affairs director for about 17 years.

On Sunday, we ventured out onto the highways in our little rented car and drove down to Blantyre (about a 4-1/2 hour trip) in heavy rainstorms nearly the whole way. At times we could barely see the road in front of us, but since the roads have no shoulders we had little choice but to continue on. In some spots the muddy water washing across the road was so heavy that we couldn't see if there were potholes ahead or not. Quite an adventure! We were lucky in comparison, though, as throughout these downpours people -- most without umbrellas or raingear -- continued to walk or bike alongside the road carrying their loads (water buckets, bags of maize meal, firewood, baggage) on their heads, farmers continued to weed their gardens, small boys continued to herd their half dozen cattle or dozen goats, and mothers continued to pump water or wash clothes with their babies on their backs.

After a happy reunion with Esther and Justin that night, we headed out the next morning to her village near Mt. Mulanje, the second or third highest peak in Africa. The landscape there is spectacular -- gardens occupying every square foot of tillable land, smaller peaks jutting out of the plain, muddy rivers overflowing their banks during the rainy season, and people everywhere. The Southern Region is the most densely populated in Malawi, which, in turn, is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. Our first stop was at Esther's sister's home, a three-bedroom, tin-roofed brick house surrounded by beautiful gardens and an amazing view of Mt. Mulanje. Her sister, Roseby, is such a strong woman -- despite losing her husband and four of her six children -- she continues to be optimistic, outgoing, and full of life. We had lunch there and then went to Esther and Justin's home in the village (where they will live when Esther retires in a couple of years).

Awaiting us were Esther's mother, four of her sisters, and one of the sister's mother-in-law, who, despite her age of nearly 90, had walked about a mile from her home to welcome the American visitors. We had a wonderful time exchanging greetings with all of them, talking with the sisters who spoke English, and sharing an unbelievably sweet, ripe pineapple from one of the sister's garden. Everyone was so gracious and welcoming, and when we expressed our thanks to them and to Esther, she said, "When you are in Malawi, this is your home." Wow! Justin's mother-in-law, also 90+ told him it was a great day for the village to have us there, and it never would have happened without him. We had no idea that a simple visit would have such profound impact on them. We were humbled and honored, and incredibly touched by their kindness. The 2 90+ year old women were so elegant and dignified in their headdresses and clearly put on their best clothes for the meeting.

Yesterday we had a wonderful conversation with Gome Mkandawire, whose grandfather worked at the Livingstonia Mission when it was first established by Scottish missionary Dr. Robert Laws. (Laws's dream, more than 100 years ago, was to establish a university there to serve all of east-central Africa. Last September's graduation of the first class was the realization of that dream.) Gome is interested in a possible position at the University of Livingstonia, so the vice chancellor asked us to have an exploratory conversation with him before we headed north. As it turns out, Gome will ride part way with us tomorrow back to his home in Kasungu, so we'll have an additional opportunity to visit with him further. He is very bright and well educated and would a huge asset to the institution, but unlike us, cannot afford to make his work at Livingstonia a volunteer position, but we will see what happens and continue to talk with him about possibilities.

Susan and I are amazed to think that we've been here less than a week. It's a rich experience, and we realize that we're slowly fitting into the local customs, figuring out ways of getting things done -- or discovering new sources of patience when things break down (often) or don't seem to have a rhyme or reason, slowing down, and coming to terms with the fact that soon we'll have very limited e-mail access, spotty telephone communication, no car, no movies, no TV, etc. All of that's balanced out, of course, by what we do have and what we have to look forward to. More later.

Today's photo's are of the Esther's family gathering in Mulanje and of John presenting some gifts to Justin Funsani.

Back in Lilongwe

We are back in Lilongwe, and still without luggage. Truly a lesson in letting go.

In typical American style, when we arrived back here today, we set off on a mission to "get results", starting first at the Wilderness Safari's office which is the group that met us at the airport and helped with the lost luggage report and our transportation to Heuglin's lodge. They confirmed that yes, at this point we should go to the South African Airways office to follow up and have them track the luggage. On arrival at the SAA office we were told that they couldn't track the luggage on their computer system as the Lilongwe Handling Company is their agent here in Lilongwe and has to track it. They would check and call us in one hour. 3 hours later, we went back to their office after having been told they would call us back when we phoned to follow up. They called "McPherson" at Lilongwe Handling Company, but he was out of his office and would call us back in 30 minutes, so we headed out the airport determined to "get some answers". On arrival at the airport(more than 30 minutes later), McPherson took out his hand written record book(6 or 7 pages of problems) and confirmed that he didn't have any tracking information on our luggage, but said that perhaps it was on today's flight to Blantyre as there was no flight to Lilongwe from Johannesburg today, or maybe tomorrow on the afternoon flight to Lilongwe.

We tried to establish a relationship with him and give him some reason why need the luggage urgently(we're leaving tomorrow at noon for the Northern Region, and the supplies are for our project at the University of Livingstonia) which we hoped would make some difference and make our problem more of a priority than the other hundred he has to deal with. We now have his cell phone number and are to call him tomorrow at 7am to check after he tries sending a message to Johannesburg(which has been done at least 2 other times that I know of).

OK, I admit it, now I'm just letting off steam and complaining here since no seems to care when we complain here in Malawi.

John and I were debating whether our trip to the airport was a waste of time and gas(at about $7.00 per gallon), and couldn't decide. What we did agree on is the need to let go of this and know that the luggage will get here when it gets here, and that is just the way everything is going to be in Malawi. The trip did make us feel like we had done everything we could do, although I looked on the web and found a contact number for customer service in Johannesburg and I think we will call them if McPherson has no answers for us tomorrow. Beyond that "it is what it is", and we will be well served to remember that during our time in Malawi.

I'll post some information on our wonderful trip to see John's old friends and the trip they took us on to meet their family in Mulanje. An amazing experience! Here is one photo of Mount Mulanje.

Things are looking up some

You can tell I'm really enjoying having internet access, and will probably experience withdrawl when we finally lose regular access . It's amazing what a good nights sleep can do, and I finally got some sleep by skipping breakfast and sleeping until nearly 11am. John woke up feeling, in his words about 90%, although I thought it seemed more like 100% from my view. Bottom line, I feel back to having decent coping skills again what with the rest, and that feels very nice. John seemed to be back to his old self too, and I think we are both ready to take on the challenges again. This is truly a lesson in letting go and going with the flow, which sounds like it should be so easy, but we all know it just is not easy at all. I want my illusion of control!

Still no bags, and I'm still concerned as we will leave tomorrow for visiting friends in the Southern Region without them coming, which means that I still have no charger for my cell phone, - call John's number if you want to reach us in the meantime, it is on my email signature. We'll buy a new phone if we have to on the 9th or 10th when we come through here again providing the bags haven't shown up by then.

I got some pictures of the surrounding area by the Inn we are staying at, just to show how green it is - I'll get some from Mulanje which I'm told is very beautiful, and post more on the 9th or 10th if this works. More to come in a week or so.

A Rocky Start

It's early Saturday morning in Malawi and I can't sleep so am up doing this, and I can hear a gentle rain falling on the roof, a very pleasant and relaxing sound that I think I'll grow to really love during the rainy season here. Since our house in Livingstonia will have a tin roof, it'll be a little louder than this in a gentle rain, and it'll be interesting to hear it in the kind of rain we had last night. Even the Malawians said that it was unusually heavy and this old house made into a lodge, sprung a few leaks, including one right over my side of the bed. I threw my robe up over the mosquito canopy and that was enough to absorb and stop it, but it does give one pause for thought about the locals who live with thatched roofs.

The start of this adventure has proved to be a bit rocky, what with my headaches which mercifully seem to be gone now, and then John came down with a nasty cold that had him in bed all day yesterday, and has caused a change in our plans as we were going to drive to the southern region to see his friends the Funsani's this morning. We decided yesterday that wasn't a good idea, and will stay here another day and decide what to do tomorrow.

No sign of the missing trunks yet either, so that is a bit distressing, but I'm still hopeful that they'll show up today, if they don't make it today, we'll be passing back through Lilongwe on the 9th so they could still show up, but if they don't we'll be moving on to a serious plan B of some sort. So in a way, it is a good thing that we are having to delay our departure to see Justin and Esther, but they are understandably disappointed that we will have less time to visit them, and to go to see her sister in Mulanje. We are a little concerned about the trip to Mulanje too as the rains have been unusually hard in the Central region and we will have to travel at least 2 miles on a dirt road with our little rental car that may or may not be able to make it on dirt/mud for that distance. We've heard that the rains in the southern region have not been as heavy so we will have to punt on that I think.

I'm feeling pretty much overwhelmed today, but know that I have gotten very little sleep for the past few weeks, with preparations, my headaches, and now John's cold + some jet lag, sleep is pretty hard to come by, and that never helps. There is so much up in the air and undecided, and so much to be done, and our lives will continue to be unsettled for at least another week when we finally get up to Livingstonia and can unpack and "land" somewhere. I'm eager to get a decent night's sleep, in somewhere that we can call home for the next few months, and to stop living out of an overstuffed suitcase.

Enough of my whining, and on to the lighter side of the past 2 days. Last night after Tammy served our starter before dinner, which was Chambo - a delightful whitefish from Lake Malawi just an hour or so away - I thanked her for the great Chombe. She had a little bit of a funny look on her face, but said nothing, and after she walked away John corrected me that the fish is Chombo. I said I'd have to ask Tammy what I just called the fish when I called it Chombe, and John's Chechewa vocabulary from Peace Corps days came back - I think it might be close to the name of marijuana, he said. So when Tammy walked by a few minutes later he pulled her over and said - Tammy, what is Chechewa for marijuana and she said Chomba and looked at me and laughed. She held up her hands as though they had hand cuffs and said Oh yes this is great Chomba officer, and we all laughed and laughed together about that one for awhile.

I guess I need to work on my Chechewa, which John is remembering quite well from his Peace Corp days - but then we both need to work on Chitumbuka for the northern region which is what is spoken where we will be.

Hope to be adding some pictures soon when we leave the Lilongwe, as there is nothing to photograph here really. I'll try to take some on the way to Funsani's and Mulane which is supposed to be quite beautiful, and then see if I can up load them when we come back here on the 9th/10th. After that we don't know if the internet is working in the Northern Region again or not as it has aparently been out of commission for the past month or so.

Yes, we are indeed in Africa.

We made it, but not all the luggage

We'll we survived the flights, but not without some difficulty.  Right now I am sitting on the konde(porch) of Heuglin's Lodge in Lilongwe, were we stayed on the last trip, relaxing and recharging(my own energy, not my computer - that will come later).  This place is a little more expensive than some, but Tammy the manager is so delightful, and the place is beautiful and very homelike in it's atmosphere.  In addition, since it is owned by Wilderness Safari's, one has the option of paying $30 per person for an airport transfer and being met and wisked through immigration and customs by one of their representatives. 

 

This came in particularly handy today when our 2 trunks(of the 5 bags that we checked) didn't show up.  Wilderness Safari's helped us file the baggage claim, and Zack their representative, talked to the airport manager and will go back tomorrow to pick up the bags(which he and Tammy assure us will be there then).  This will turn out to be well worth the money in retrospect, although we were feeling a bit guilty about spending so much, but the other place that was recommended to us was fully booked. 

The other difficulty was waking up New Year's morning with a really nasty headache(and I didn't even have a drop to drink on New Year's Eve) that lasted the better part of the first 2 days of travel.  Bad timing, but I suppose no real surprise what with the stress of the past few weeks.  It is the first time in about 8 months that I have had the kind that I can't control with Imitrex, so really bad timing.  But it's gone now, and hopefully will stay that way. 

The hotel where we had our overnight, The Birchwood Conference Center in Johannesburg SA was really lovely, and even cheaper than we thought it would be so a pleasant surprise there.  The Johannesburg airport is significantly nicer than Kenya, and of course with the troubles in Kenya right now, we were awfully happy not be be traveling through there.  The stopover was a real treat after that South African Airways 15+ hour flight from the US.  Both John and I commented that the flight was not as bad as we thought it would be, but we were still very ready to be off that plane.  A very uncomfortable seating arrangement with incredibly narrow seats, and armrests that wouldn't flip up.  2 x 2 seating on the outside so we had the row to our selves, but no room to get comfortable - the flip side was the individual video system so you could choose from movies, tv shows and games to keep you occupied when not sleeping, which was not too much of the time. 

It is so strange to be back here and have it look so totally different.  I'll try to post some photo's if the internet connection has the bandwidth.  It is completely green and lush looking so a complete contrast to the last visit and the pictures you saw here.  

We are so glad to have a couple of days here for our luggage to catch up with us, and to relax and get over the jet lag.  I'm holding positive thoughts that everything will make it OK and if it doesn't, at least it is mostly the household goods, and computer printer and not our suitcases with clothes(although we used clothes to pad some of the stuff in the trunks).  I'm believing the people at Wilderness Safari's and here at Heuglins that it will be on tomorrow's flight - and the airport on South Africa was a very well run operation.  I'll update you on my next post!