First Days in Malawi

My first days in Africa have come and gone.  It began with a 3 hour drive to San Francisco and then a 33 hour flight to Lilongwe, Malawi via three layovers (LA; Dublin; and  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).  I thought that this flight would be utterly horrible because I have trouble sleeping sitting up and would be cooped up in one place for up to 9 hours at a time, but the flights went well.  Between some cat naps, movies, books, and podcasts, the flights went by not terribly slow.  I did meet a Chinese guy about my age in the Addis Ababa airport who was going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to buy one million square acres of forest so his Chinese owned company could log it.  I found this really disappointing but not surprising.  The more surprising thing to me was that he was going to drive through DRC and three other African countries during his 3 week trip there.  With the violence and poverty of the DRC (it is the second poorest country in the world...with #1 being the Central African Republic and #3 being Malawi), I would be super nervous to go there and let alone drive.

After going through immigration, getting my checked bag, and going through customs (they didn’t care about what I brought at all), I waited for my friends to pick me up.  All I was told before I left was that they would meet me at the airport, so while I waited for them, I thought about what I was doing to do if they didn’t show for some reason.  Thankfully, I only waited about 15 minutes but I did have a moment of panic because I had no idea of where they lived in Lilongwe or how to use the public transport to get there.  Thankfully, I didn’t need to figure that out yet and we headed to their home.

My friend and her husband (Christina and Greg) live within the compound that houses the clinic/hospital she is a doctor at and the university he teaches at.   Their house is large (think 3 bedrooms, a huge living room, large kitchen) and they are staying there until the normal tenants come back from their US sabbatical.  Except for having to filter the water and sleep under mosquito nets, most of the comforts of the US are here

The rest of this first week I went to the open air market (very overwhelming and I stand out a lot), toured what we thought was the botanical gardens but what turned out to be an upscale nursery, made homemade ice cream, and met lots of Christina and Greg’s friends.  The market was fun as usual and I learned that as an obvious foreigner that they will never charge you local prices.  Because they vendors at the market know I am from the developed world, they charge higher prices because they “know” I can afford them.

I’ll talk about the holiday weekend in Malawi and our trip to the the Zomba Plateau in my next post but here are some pictures of my trip so far.

View of the Market and river (taken by Steph Conklin) 

Another View of Market (taken by Steph Conklin)

Botanical Gardens...not its a really upscale nursery (taken by Steph Conklin)

Mouse on a Stick 

 

Waiting in the airport in Ethiopia 

More airport

Time is irrelevant in Africa (Time on monitor is 0630)

More supposed Botanical Gardens

Here I Go Again!

The last 18 months have been quite interesting times between moving up to Stockton, CA for nursing school, doing nursing school, spending almost all my breaks from school somewhere fun (think Southern Utah road trip, Baja California road trip, Channel Islands camping, and Lost Coast Trail hiking to name a few), and learning how to be a nurse.  But before I start my first nursing career, I have to get out of America, see the world, and have some fun.  This trip started as a three weeks to visit a friend and her husband (Christina and Greg) who are currently living in Africa and turned into three months in Africa and a week in England.

During the next three months, I will travel through Malawi and Zambia and go on a safari, see Victoria Falls, (hopefully) hike and backpack, SCUBA dive in Lake Malawi, and see what other fun things I find and that find me.  For a quick overview of where I will be going, I will spend the next two weeks mostly in Malawi touring it with another friend from the States (Stephanie) and Christina and Greg.  We will go out on safari to one of the best places for it in Zambia (South Luangwa National Park) for a few days and hopefully see all the animals you think of when you think of Africa.  Steph and I then head over to Victoria Falls in Zambia for a week.  After she leaves, I have two weeks on my own in Zambia before I need to be back to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.  That brings us to the end of May.

For June, I’m going to be in Malawi and July will be spent touring Malawi with my sister Karyn.  The capstone of the trip will be to England to see a dear friend I worked at a Sierra Nevada summer camp with during college.  This puts me back in California the first weekend of August and into the real world once again as I will have to study and take my nursing licensing exam and find a job (but we won’t worry about that too much until I’m back).

This might not mean much to most of you reading this, but putting it here for some context.  Yesterday, I was talking to one of my sisters about when I visited her and her family on the East Coast right before I started nursing school in the fall of 2015.  My return flight to California for my start of nursing school was the day before it started.  Now that I’m done with nursing school, I’m heading out to Africa the day after it finishes.  This fits in with my history of leaving immediately after each term is done to go somewhere fun on my breaks from school.

I’m planning on updating my blog at a minimum weekly with my goings on and pictures, so check back.  

I don’t have any pictures of my travels yet but here’s all the “stuff” I’m bringing and me from my ceremony yesterday.  Hopefully, I’m not bringing too much stuff, but as normal, I feel as if I have more food, books, and non-clothing items and clothes.