Jan 13, 2011 (Thur) – 2:30pm (+2 GMT)

We are on the bus on the way from Blantyre to Lake Malawi now. Jackie and Diane are sitting to my right and Megan is sitting to my left. We were sitting in the in bus for about an hour and fifteen minutes before it pulled out and during that time we had the vendors trying to sell us all manner of items. The girls purchased some chitenjes (a traditional colored fabric that can be used as pretty much any piece of clothing) during which process one of the men who was behind them asked me if they (the girls) were all mine and if I would give him one. The girls – especially Jacquie – did not appreciate that very much. If I had given in to her wishes to know his identity he would currently be suffering from as much physical damage as she could inflict.

One of the speakers for the bus – out of which they play quite awful music at ear splitting volumes – is sitting directly behind us so we have as much of our luggage piled on top of it as possible. They have an entire case of CDs up front so we are sure to be “enjoying” endless musical selections.

11:14

We finally arrived at the Gecko Lounge at about 10 pm after 8 hours of traveling, not counting the drive into Blantyre in the morning. The bus arrived, after a seemingly infinite number of stops, at Monkey Bay which was its final destination. Cape Maclear is somewhere between 20 and 30 km from there over washboard roads. The guy sitting in front of us on the bus offered to call his friend who had a taxi to take us since it was late enough that there were no more Matolas (pickup trucks overflowing with people) going. While we waited for his friend to show up a couple other guys said they would help us and call one of their friends and (after bargaining) said he would do it for 4500 Kwatcha ($30). His name was Duncan and he did actually seem to be quite helpful. He also spoke some of the best English I have heard from a Malawian. Unfortunately his friend ran out of gas (a common problem here) on the way so he never made it. The driver the first guy called showed up but he wanted 6000 Kwatcha ($40). Duncan tried to convince him to go lower but he refused. He said it was due to the lateness of the hour and the condition of the road that needed traversed. Duncan offered to show us to somewhere we could stay in town so we could find a cheaper ride the next day but we decided we just wanted to finish the trip and $40 split between the 4 of us was doable. On the way we made a detour to get fuel since apparently there is no fuel at Cape Maclear. The fuel stop consisted of a a little tiny village where they had a Jerry can with a hose attached to it.

Falls asleep...

7:30 am next morning:

As the driver got the fuel all the kids started looking in the windows and asking for money. Here they have an interesting thing they do where they often do not simply say “Give me money,” they say “Give me my money” as if it somehow already belongs to them. They gave me some very confused looks when I started demanding that they had to give me money. I told they they needed to give us money to pay for the taxi but they decided after a few moments of confusion that they did not agree with that idea. When the driver was done he got back into the car and to out utter delight brought an opened bottle of beer with him. Jacquie started into him like nobody-elses business. He promised he would not get drunk and would get us there without incident but we only felt slightly reassured. Fortunately we did eventually reach our destination after driving on oh-so-wonderful washboard for over an hour. It was to late to do check in but since we had a reservation they took us to our room and said we could do check in the next day.

The establishment itself has a wonderful resort feel to it. The staff are out cleaning up the beach early in the morning, there are hammocks hanging everywhere, the rooms are well sealed against mosquitoes, all the lawns are very well groomed and the whole place just seems to ooze with relaxation. We are staying in the “dorm” which is like a hostel area with many beds to one large room. However this is a much nicer dorm than most. It is split up into sections by reed walls, one room with four beds, one with two and one more bunk bed just kind of out in the “hallway.” There is a shared toilet room and a shower room but they are quite decent. It feels strange to take a warm shower after living without hot water for so long. The dorm has a bunch of lockers that can be used for your valuables. Every since traveling in Europe I have made it a habit to bring a small padlock with me when I travel so I was able to put things like my money and cameras and computer in a locker. If one didn't bring a lock they do offer them at the front desk for a deposit of 1500 MKW (Malawi Kwatcha). The one thing I could wish is that they had an honesty bar so that we could get drinks later at night. The bar was not open when we arrived and I was quite thirsty.

The lake does remind me of lake Michigan to a certain extent. Lake Malawi is clearer, you can see across it (just barely) and it smells a bit more like fish. The beach here is not as nice, it is more like fine gravel than sand and there is a lot of trash floating around from all the villagers. I'm looking forward to going out to one of the islands where everyone says the snorkeling/diving is amazing. I am also hoping we get some good clear nights since I brought my whole huge tripod to do some star photography.

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.