August 20-21: arriving!

I figured the best way to share my adventure is from the beginning. But what can one really say about a 15 hour flight followed almost immediately by a 2 hour flight, followed by many hours of trying to stay awake till a reasonable time in the evening to stave off some of the inevitable jet lag?

The flights themselves... I'm usually decent at sleeping while in transit, but you can only sleep so much of 17 hours away, especially when you're excited beyond belief. Maybe I slept for 5 or 6 of those hours, but that still leaves more than 11 to... contemplate the deeper meaning of my excitement? Think about sleeping? Stare out the window and try to guess which major city we were flying past in the middle of the night along the western coastline of the African continent (true story, I did that, and was actually pretty good-- I was wrong about Nouakchott, shame on me)? I generally pass the time on long flights by watching movies that I'd be embarrassed to watch with anyone at home-- stupid chick flicks that don't require much brain function to watch and that I won't regret falling asleep in the middle of. However, two that I will admit to: The Princess and the Frog, which was awesome, and Marley and Me, which was a terrible choice given my own somewhat recent loss. I also killed time dozing on and off to two great albums: Kind of Blue and Time Out. That was a good choice.

So, I passed the time. It was chilly when we exited on the tarmac at O.R. Tambo International Airport and hurried off to our next flight to Blantyre, Malawi. The landing in Blantyre was extremely memorable-- it's a shorter than average runway, so the flight descends at a steeper angle, resulting in two landings with a large bounce in between. But, we arrived safely around lunchtime, and were soon met by our leader, Liz, and our hostess for our time in the city, Serah Machinjili.

We didn't do much for the rest of the day besides fight to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime. We had tea (which would happen many times each day, a small sign of the British heritage) and snacks upon our arrival at the Machinjili family's home in Blantyre-- various fruits and nuts that were grown fairly locally.



Dinner was a mix of traditional foods (nsima) as well as some that any of you would recognize (salad, green beans, steak, which I clearly skipped). The power went out about as soon as dinner ended, which happens every second or third night for a few hours. I didn't make it much longer before absolutely crashing with some encouragement from the cool weather and the lack of light pollution...