African Adventures [part.one]

It's here. It's has finally come time to put my experience into words. I honestly have been putting it off because I don't even know where to start. How do I put words to this amazing experience and do it any justice? Who knows. But I'm going to try. Partly because I want to share with you my adventures and partly because I have to for a grade :) Lets get started, shall we?


.January.1.

I arrived at the airport at 4:15am where Whitney & I flew to DC and met up with the rest of the group. We hopped on a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 13 hours.

 No big deal. Long flights are ridiculous. There never is enough room to actually get comfortable, especially if you're like me and have the middle seat curse. However, the screens on the back of each seat did help to pass the time. Movies, TV shows, games, music -- they have it all! Side note: If anyone is looking for a beautiful ethnic woman, go to Ethiopia. These women are gorgeous. :End side note. We arrived in Addis Ababa then had to get another plane to take us to Lilongwe. Another 6 hours of flying time. Sweet. We stopped halfway in the Congo to refuel. Crazyness. Needless to say, we were glad to get back in the air and not stay there. 

.January.2.

We finally arrived in Lilongwe in the early afternoon and were all pretty exhausted. First impression: it reminded me a lot of Nicaragua. It was hot, humid, luscious and obviously so different than North Carolina. Not like what I pictured. Previously when I thought of Africa, I thought hot, dry, dirt, cheetahs and elephants. Not the same. 

It was about an hour drive from the airport to the house, so it was a great opportunity to see some of the landscape leading into the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe. Even just from the drive into town, you can tell how significantly different of a country Malawi is. 

There were two things that stood out to me while driving into town. One: How within the first twenty minutes of being in the car, you could tell how drastic the gap was between the rich and the poor. There really is not a middle class in Malawi. We drove past several gated subdivisions with huge houses inside and then right up the road are mud houses with a thatch roof. Two: The fuel shortage. We drove past a gas station that had cars parked, lined up for miles waiting to get gas. We complain here in the United States when gas prices are rising, which is indeed a problem, but at least we are still able to get fuel when we need it. Very interesting. I found this video online that can give you an idea of what it was like:

After a tree literally falling directly in front of our van, we finally made it to the World Camp  volunteer house. World Camp is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing simple, sustainable solutions to the complex problems of poverty and HIV in Malawi. Our group stayed in their volunteer house in Lilongwe along with their current interns. We divided up into rooms and began to rest and unpack. It was so nice to finally be there and be done with traveling for a bit. In the capital they have electricity, but it is pretty unreliable. So the first night we didn't have power until later that evening, which was fun and an interesting problem that is often run into. Candlesticks stuck in wine bottles? Genius. A lot of us played the beloved card game, Mofia, had a debriefing meeting and finally went to bed!