Here

Well I made it to Malawi yesterday after almost 40 hours of traveling. My luggage was not quite so lucky. I think it got left in Johannesburg due to the extremely short connection time. I had to sprint to make the plane and if they had left on time I wouldn't have made it. The next SAA flight into Blantyre is on Saturday so hopefully I will be getting my luggage then. I'm very glad I packed a change of clothes in my carry-on. The weather is quite nice here at the moment but soon it will be getting much much warmer.

After getting out of customs I met up with people from the hospital and we spent a few hours running errands around town before heading to Malamulo. While Anthony and I were waiting in the van for the other two, security guards cleared the street and a few minutes later the president came by in a big cavalcade. I can't say I was expecting to see the president of the country within two hours of getting there so that was interesting. I wish I had had the foresight to have my camera ready.

On the way to Malawi I had an almost 9 hour layover in the Frankfurt airport so I put my bags in storage and took the train to explore Mainz, at least that was the plan. I accidentally got off the train too early and after wondering the streets for a few minutes and not finding any of the street names from my google maps print out of Mainz I realized I was in fact in Ruesselheim. I decided that the first order of business before I even thought about getting back on the train was to find myself a nice doener kebab, that amazing morsel of food to which my thoughts have so often strayed over the last 3 years. I almost got away without using any English but I forgot the German word for “onion” so ended up saying “kein..... er.. onions.” Getting money changed into euros was a quite unexpectedly difficult task. When I was at Bogenhofen I could just go to any bank and change money but for some reason almost no one would change money in Ruesselheim but finally at the Deutsche Bank, after trying 4 or 5 other banks, I was able to get the euros I needed. By that time I decided that I would just explore Russelheim and save Mainz for my layover in April. Shortly after getting money changed I wandered into a fair that was going on in the streets and had rides set up in a park by the river. It looked like the fair that just happened in Berrien but with more German. After wandering through the fair I took a walk by the river and then went back into town. Earlier I had seen a museum marked on a map so I went to take a look. It turned out that it was a historic park with walking paths that went by old towers and ruins now surrounded by nice gardens. I was temped to climb up into one of the towers since the door at the bottom was locked but I decided against it much to my sense of fun's dismay. By this time it was getting to the hour when I needed to head back to the airport. I laid down on the grass for a little while to rest then made my way to the train station. I got back through customs and security with about 2 hours to spare. When I went to sit down I discovered much to my delight that there was a power plug right beside my chair, an occurrence rather unheard of in European airports. Fortunately I had packed a plug adapter in my carry-on just in case lady luck decided to smile upon me in just such a fashion. I spent the remaining time until boarding watching The Da Vinci Code, an interesting movie based quite a lot on myth and legend. It reminded me very much of National Treasure.

Once we got to the house where I'm staying we put my bags inside then went down to the hospital with Anthony, Chrislyn and her two children (a 2 year old boy and a 3 year old girl). On the walk there we saw a very distinct double rainbow. At the hospital I got on her laptop for a few minutes to check email and Facebook after which Anthony and I played with the kids – who seemed to have limitless energy –while Chrislyn did a few things online. By the time we started to head back to the houses the sun had set. Chrislyn had invited us over to dinner which we thankfully partook in while waiting for Wes to return from a 3 week stay in Zambia. After he got back and introductions were made we stayed and talked for a few minutes then Anthony and I headed back to our house to hit the sack. I unpacked the very limited amount of items in my carry-on, spread the mosquito netting and went to sleep.

Malawi

So I decided I should post something about where I am going for those of you that might not be up to date on your African geography. Malawi is landlocked and about the size of Ohio with a population of about 14 million. Makwasa (the city Malamulo hospital is in) is near Blantyre which is the country's largest city and the center of commerce (also interstingly named after David Livingstone's birthplace). When I get there "winter" will be ending and from what I hear it will be hot and dry for awhile then hot and wet for awhile. Lake Malawi borders most of Malawi's eastern side and is the eighth largest lake in the world. It also has more fish species than any other lake.

Click here for some pictures of Malamulo hospital.

Flight Itinerary

So it's beginning to sink in that I will be in Africa in under two weeks...

I'll be flying out of Chicago on Monday August 23 at 10:20pm
(EDT -1)

Flight time: 8:25

Arrive: Frankfurt, Germany at 1:45pm (EDT +6)

Layover: 8:50 (time to explore the city!)

Depart: 10:35pm (EDT +6)

Flight time: 10:15

Arrive: Johannesburg, South Africa at 8:50am (EDT +6)

Layover: 1:10

Depart: 10:00am (EDT +6)

Flight Time: 2:05

Arrive: Blantyre, Malawi at 12:05pm (EDT +6)

And at this point I'm dead tired.