After 36 hours of flight, touching down in 3 continents, I arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi in one piece. My luggage, however was missing, lost in flight either somewhere between Toronto and London, London and Johannesburg, or Johannesburg and Lilongwe! I didn’t know and certainly didn’t pack an extra set of clothes or any more clean underwear. As soon as we arrived in Malawi, we were greeted, “Moni!” by Erin, the wife of a current long term overseas volunteer, living in Lilongwe. Stepping off the plane, we immediately felt this warmth, emanating from the tarmac at the Lilongwe International Airport. The sun is hot..very hot, but with a cool breeze, it’s actually quite nice here. That night, after given some time to clean ourselves up (remember, I had 3 continents worth of dirt everywhere), we dove head first into more EWB training, learning a little bit of Chichewa, a little bit of culture, a little bit of health and safety (it’s very safe here, I’ve drank quite a bit of tap water and ate food from the markets and I’m healthy). We arrived at our surprise for the night at Erin and Jason (EWB OV’s) home, where we were greeted by the local church choir. The experience was nothing less than overwhelming but pretty awesome. Dinner consisted of nsima (a maize (corn) flour paste with a consistency of mashed potatoes) with some relishes and meat. It was all prepared with love and tastes amazing! I’ll have no problems keeping food down. Despite lacking electricity and a wall which collapsed during rainy season, this family was nothing less than happy. We danced the night away in the candlelight to Agogo’s (the grandfathers) recorded music as he was a musician.
