We are here!

I tried to post yesterday but apparently it didn't work so have a couple of posts and photos if I can get them to upload.  Our internet is quite slow so I will wait and put up some photo's tomorrow or the next day.

Monday 8/19/13

I’m sitting in the airport transit lounge at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after our 14-hour flight from DC – waiting for our 4 hour flight to Lilongwe, Malawi.  So far this feels much easier than our previous trips that involved making a connection in Europe and then another connection in Africa – usually in Kenya or South Africa.  But there is no getting around it this is a grueling trip, and 14 hours is a long time to sit in an airplane seat.  Can’t say I’m looking forward to 4 more hours either but 20 hours of total travel time beats the other routes by a long shot.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Ethiopian Airlines.  The plane was new and had adequate room for coach seats on a flight that length, services and food were good.  I was no different than flying any American Airline for sure – at least we didn’t have to pay for food or baggage check.  And the airfare was significantly less than if we flew Delta and Kenya Air, or Delta and South African Air.

Addis looks very green – the rains must come much earlier here than in Malawi where it will be very brown.  There are beautiful mountains surrounding the city, 4 lane paved highways that I could see from the air.  Very prosperous looking in comparison with Malawi.

Hopefully we will board soon and I’ll time to make an entry in Malawi and then send this yet today before I collapse.

We have now arrived in Malawi and I do want to collapse but we are going out to dinner tonight with the former Principal (Dean in the US) of the nursing college who picked us up at the airport today. 

Can’t get one of our phone cards to work and can’t get the free internet at the hotel to work.  Welcome to Malawi where things only work some of the time.  We are so spoiled at home!!

Tuesday August 20, 2013

Our good friend Flemmings Nkhandwe, the former Principal of the Nursing College picked us up at 5:45 this morning to take us to the bus depot.  He was concerned since the bus company had one published schedule and another that he got when he called so we were not sure where the bus left from or the correct time. 

Turns out the new AXA bus leaves from the same terminal as the former one, and no you can’t reserve seats as we had been told we could – nor does the bus only fill the seats it has. The 7am bus left at 7:55 and had about 6 to 10 people standing in the aisles for the 6 hour trip.  Welcome back to Malawi – this is the way things work here. Fortunately we had gotten there early enough to get seats which was great as both John and I slept a good part of the way.

Traffic in the capital city of Lilongwe is horrible with many more cars than 5 years ago, but still only 2 lane badly damaged roads and no traffic lights.  We saw one very bad wreck on our way out of town with a car turned over in a roundabout plus traffic was backed up behind a huge truck breakdown blocking a lane.  Lilongwe has about 500K population now and I guess prosperity must be up since there are so many cars, but decent housing is scarce and traffic horrible.  Flemmings has a temporary rental home for his family and since it only has poor quality solar power there electricity is unpredictable and his wife has had to go back to cooking over a fire, which she hasn’t had to do for many years.

It is the dry season so is very brown, smoky and my eyes are very irritated, but otherwise health is good.  I’m not sure I have the stamina or temperament to make another trip like this though.  There was an 82 year old man who came to talk to us on the bus as he had gone to school in California and Colorado in the 1960’s and since John and I were the only white people on the bus, or at the bus depot for that matter, he came to ask us where we were from and how much he liked the US.  He was strong and energetic and had just come from Blantyre which was another 6 hour trip.  I am finding the uncertainties and difficulties exhausting – more so then when we were here in 2008, but then we have a lot more uncertainty this time too.

The bus was quite nice compared to the old bus we took in 2008 with this company and you pay extra to ride it since it only stops in 3 places on the way and has 2 x 2 seating with pretty comfortable seats.  They still run the old bus, but it stops many times and take more like 8 hours rather than 6. Mini=buses are the lowest rung on the transportation ladder and are broken down vans that wait in certain places with a sign in the window saying where they are going.  The have no schedule and leave when full.  Actually the lowest rung on the transportation ladder is a Matola which is a truck, from pick up to ½ ton sized which fill up with people sitting or standing in the back.  I was aware that this bus that felt so difficult to me was the height of luxury for the Malawian’s on it.

We have arrived at our Inn, will have dinner with Nelson Nkhoma the Malawian PhD Student who we helped apply to the Master’s and PhD programs at the U of M, and who stayed with John’s sister while working on his Masters.  He will be here for the next year or so staying with his family while doing the research for his Thesis.  It will be great to see him again.

Tomorrow we know what our transport is up to the Livingstonia Plateau and we I am grateful for that.  The stress of having so many unknowns for transportation here has worn on me.  I wonder how everyone here seems to know how things work, or they know who to ask since there is not a transportation system like we know it.