Well, it is a little late, maybe, but I wanted to write one last entry about this most recent trip.
The last entry was while we were still in Cape Maclear, which was several days ago, now...the last 3 days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) were spent travelling. I will share:
We had a wonderful day last Sunday, our full day in Cape Maclear; we enjoyed the beach, the water, visited with some people I had met before while there, and met some new friends and enjoyed their company very much! We had a nice dinner before we left (Hawiaan pizza), and slept until about 4:30 a.m. We were to catch a minibus at 5:30 to head towards the capitol city of Lilongwe to prepare to catch our flight the following day to go home.
The bus came at about 5:40 and we were on our way. We spent about an hour driving around the village picking up passengers...it's somewhat of a frustrating process in comparison with our bus system (not that I ride the bus at home, but...) At home there is a schedule, the bus comes to this stop and this time and if you are there you get on and if not, the bus leaves, period. Easy. In Malawi, the buses do come somewhat regularly, but they stop a million times between point A and B, and it is random; wherever people are standing is where the bus stop is. And the driving around the village for an hour is about trying to find people to fill the bus to make as much money per trip as possible (understandable) but a tremendous usage of fuel! And when gas is about $7 per gallon and unavailable in some places, it is crazy!!
We finally we were full enough to continue on and made our way to Monkey Bay, about 20-30 minutes away. We were to catch the "big bus" from there at 8:00 to head to Lilongwe. There were some guys there who wanted us to get on their matola or truck or minibus, but we refused and said we were waiting for the Big bus. We were very excited about the Big bus; it tends to be more comfortable, makes fewer stops and you reach your destination quicker. We met a man who is from Italy who had been at the same lodge as us and was also waiting for the Big bus...we all waited together and declined the requests to ride on the other buses. The drivers were a bit relentless and it gets old. We tried declining many different ways to make the point: mine was, when they asked where I was going, I told them to the United States and asked them if they had a big boat, because that's where I wanted to go and that's what they would need to get me there. I did this smiling and kind of in a joking way, but I was still a bit frustrated with the 'hard sell' they continued with. 'The bus broke down, come with us, you will be stuck here, I'll give you a good price....' As time went on (it was now 8:30) and still no Big bus, we started to cave a little...I suggested that maybe there was a break down of the Big bus, it's entirely possible!! We ended up negotiating a ride on a Matola (a flat bed truck, with short sides on the back and a flat nosed cab). Stephen and I rode up front and our new Italian partner had to ride in back; we felt bad because were were going to all sit in front (out of the sun) but they told us we couldn't...the irony! They are always squeezing people in where there truly isn't room, and now they say there's not enough room! We headed on our way....drove up and down the street for another period of time picking up passengers and filling up the vehicle, and then stopped for gas; the gass station was about 3 miles from where we had started out, 3 HOURS BEFORE!!!
We were on our way...Stephen is always encouraging me to tell 'the short version' of stories, because I like the longer ones, but not everyone does...it is 5:25 a.m. on Friday morning right now and I am going to work in about an hour and a half, so I might have to try the short version for the remainder of this story. It's not easy for me, though!!
The very short story: 8 hours after getting gas, we arrived in the Capitol city....we had had a biscuit all day and a coke, and had not used any bathroom facility. We argued with the bus driver who had lied to us about where we were going and how we were getting there, we waited 2 hours for a connecting bus after being dropped somewhere we had never beenm, we hit a goat with the matola, the sound of which is still in my head, and our new sidekick from Italy, though we all stuck together, we feel pretty confident that he wanted to get far away from us, but couldn't. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we arrived and just wanted a shower a meal and a bed...which we got and were in bed at 8:00!!
Our plane was scheduled to leave at 1:00 the next day, but we happened to check our emails in the morning and our flight was changed to 3:00...we were changing 1 connecting flight but still arriving home at the same time, which was pretty good. the next 2 days were really quite a blur; 30 hours of traveling (including a 4 hour layover in Washington D.C., so close but yet so far!) and arrived at Bradley at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. There, short version!!
I returned to work on Thursday, which continued the whirlwind of the week...and got back in the swing of things quickly.
We look forward to sharing more pictures and have many opportunities in the coming months of events and fundraising opportunities which we are excited about!!
Thank you to all who have been following us and sharing your encouragement and support; it is greatly appreciated!
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