Malawi 1.0

I finally made it to Blantyre, Malawi yesterday and was met at the airport by Dr. Taylor. How nice it is to have a familiar face in a foreign land bring you to there home and welcome you with Steak dinner, Maize bread and Mango crumble for dessert. I don't think I will go hungry here.



I arrived just in time to get the last bottom bunk, few. And there is an old tub in the bathroom so bathing won't be an issue!



The house here at the Blantyre Malaria Project is full of people. And Dr. Taylor knows many people around town, and they know her.



After waking up in the middle of the night I finally got back to sleep for a bit and it wasn't until closer to six that a duck qwacked outside sounding exactly like my alarm on my phone. So I was up.

We went to hike mombezi which is a mountain just outside of Blantyre. The city is surrounded by three beautiful mountains. I did not make it to the summit but I made it about 1/3 of the way up. About a 2.5 hour fairly technical hike. There were even two river (small one) crossings that I didn't fall in to. I was pretty proud that I did that and did not fall, but any more would have been too much.

The rest of the group went with a guide to the summit so I followed the fork in the road down by myself, not following proper boy scout protocol I'm sure. But I made it back okay. At one point the signs (painted rocks) said "Hyenas Quiet Hide." And since I wasn't with the guide I took this to mean that if I saw any I should be quiet and hide. So I picked up the pace a little, getting out of there as quickly and quietly as possible. I was saying in my brain "Carl would be so mad at me if I got eaten by a Hyena." so I got down the mountain and when all was said and done Dr Taylor came to pick us up. She informed me that the sign was indicating a "hide" for viewing the hyenas, with a similar meaning of a hunting blind, a noun not a verb. I had to laugh at myself for how I read the sign and my thoughts about it.

Then after showers and some rehydration we took the walk over to the hospital for the tour. On our way it started to drizzle a bit and out came a double rainbow. Yes, it was all the way across the sky. But our tired selves had left all cameras at home. Still, it must be a good omen. God's promise of things to come.

All in all a pretty good start to this crazy thing I'm doing here. And here are some photos: the house, a few of the trail and view and one of me asking myself "what have I gotten myself into"