September 5, 2007

We left Johannesburg the next morning on a flight to Malawi....it was a short flight compared to the last leg of the journey and our excitement was growing!!

We arrived at our final destination, Cape Maclear, around 7:00 p.m. Another long day of travel. A note from my jounal:

"We discovered that our electric charge adapter fits in the outlet here. We exchanged 2 hundred dollars, went grocery shopping, got some food for the ride, stopped at market for produce andmade our way here. It took us between 4 and 5 hours from the time we lwft the airport, till we got here - it was another very long day! The roads weere bumpy, paved a lot of the way, but 2 lanes, people walking or bike riding on both sides of the road, so it was a pretty tight fit with 2 cars going by!"

This is where we slept and some of what our room looked like. This pole was 'the closet'...as it turned out, there were worms or bugs of some sort in them, and before the end of our stay, Shannon's clothes, mostly, had little tine holes in them from the bugs! We discovered this before we left and we were able to get another pole for the closet.

As I recall, that first night's sleep was good...it felt surreal to be falling asleep here and thinking that this would be where I would be sleeping for the next 3 months. We slept under mosquito nets every night which took some getting used to...a lot, actually, for me. I sort of felt clautrophobic, and I am not really prone to that feeling, but somehow I had a slight fear that I wouldn't be able to breathe. There were even a couple times I woke up in the night and a mosquito was inside the net; that is an unsettling feeling! Plus, there was no way I could go back to sleep unless I knew for sure it was gone or dead...I would get bitten for sure if it stayed inside the net. The other thing I found that happened for me was that my feet became very dry there. We were barefoot (with flip flops) most of the time; and it was hot and sandy, and my heals cracked and were very scratchy. Well, they 'caught' on the netting and I had to wear socks at night so my feet wouldn't stick to the net! It all worked out in the end...

Another quote from my journal: "We fell asleep listening to singing from the bar down the beach. Oh! I probably should describe the quarters. Shannon and I share a room-2 double beds, some wooden shelving alon 1 wall, and some bamboo poles that hang from the ceiling that Shannon used to hang her clothes over. I woke up a couple times and looked at my watch - it seemed to go back and forth in time - it seemed to be 1:00 and then 12:00 later. there were some different sounds - singing. It sounded like someone laughing at about 12:00. We took showers in the morning - they were cold. The water here is heated by a solar panel, so the water isn't warm until the afternoon. It was a quick shower but we were hot so though it was cold it felt good. We had yougurt for breakfast and an orange."

That first 24 hours was long and filled with so much anxiety for me. I could hardly speak without breaking into tears. The tears were a combination of fear, insecurity and excitement. I was overwhelmed at what we were doing and could hardly grasp the enormity of the experience. For me, this was not just an activity; it was truly life changing...and I felt that as soon as we landed in Africa.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

"We did take a nap before lunch and another one just now (4:30 p.m.)! Lunch was communal and Joab cooked for everyone. He made chicken, potatoes, coleslaw and quiche. It was very good - and looked very nice on the plate. We ended up back at our room again after lunch; Shannon was feeling very sad and homesick - she said she wished she hand't come. No, I'm not sure those were her words. But she said she didn't want to stay for 3 months. I, then, started feeling very bad and sad. I felt builty because I "made" her come even though that is not true."

That was how our first 24 hours went...trying to settle down and understand our feelings and deal with the enormous task we had taken on.

"The water here (Lake Malawi) is absolutely beautiful - and there are waves, that we can hear at night! I'm beginning to "get" how long 3 months will really be for us - but also, it will change when we're busy doing a 'job' and stuff. We are just getting the hang of the money. Also, we are talking about some R&R things we can do - I'm just still hoping it all works out with the money and stuff!"

Malawi Information

A quick posting...I wanted to just jot some basic information and statistics about Malawi, then I will continue with my personal blog.

This information came from a variety of sources; one of which is the CIA website. Also, it may be slightly outdated at this point...but it was accurate at the time we first traveled there.

* Malawi is landlocked below Tanzania, next to Zambia and Mozambique.

* It is slightly smaller than Pennsylvania with a population of approximately 14 million people; Pennsylvania has approximately 13)* On July 6, 1964 Malawi gained independence from British rule and was named Nyasaland (Nyasa means lake) its name was later changed to Malawi.* Lake Malawi is approximately the size of Vermont, takes up 1/3 of the country and is th 9th larges lake in the world.

* 1 in 5 children in Malawi dies before their 5th birthday
* 49% of children are malnourished

* 40% of deaths of 2 year olds are malaria related

* Malawi is the 7th poorest country in the world. For human development it is ranked by the United Nations at 151 out of 162 countries.

* Over 14% of the Malawi population is living with HIV/AIDS

* 55% of the population lives below the poverty line. Life expectancy is 52 years old, which is an increase from the previous life ecpenctancy of 36 years.

* Over 1 million children in Malawi are without a parent, home or education and most are orphans due to an AIDS related death of their parents.

* The literacy rate is 58% total: 72.8% male and 43.4% female.

This is just some of the information that we learned about the country after our first visit. This last one, in addition to our experience visiting the schools, was what set our mission in motion.

Malawi 2007 Cont'd.

This was the morning and afternoon of September 3, 2007. Shannon was saying good-bye to one of our dogs at the house. The picture of me is at JFK airport; we bought some Toberlone for the flight...we made them last for quite a while and even gave some to a security guard at the South Africa airport!

Reading back through my entries from my journal made me smile. I wrote at 9:54 p.m. that we had been flying for about 4 hours and had 13 hours to go! We had had dinner by this time which I thought was very delicious. Between 1:12 a.m. and 5:12 a.m. I wrote:

"Well we have lost our first 4 hours during travel. We are landing in Dakar, Senegal before going to Johannesburg. I slept for a very little bit -very hard for me to get comfortable in these seats - my back hurt a lot!! I'm thinking in would be niceto have breakfast now. Some people had a second dinner only half an hour ago!...."

As it turned out, I did not sleep except for about those 20 minutes in 20 hours of flying. In re-reading my journal entries, it was rather limited in detail, really. Shannon was sick for a lot of that first leg of our journey. The first time I was almost asleep she woke up crying and saying she was going to be sick. She said she had been dreaming about her boyfriend and woke up feeling very sick...so I think from then on it was hard for me to completely relax and sleep. Plus, sleeping in a sitting position on a plane is very difficult (for me). There were people who were snoring...maybe they were the people who drank all the wine that was being offered...I should have paid attention!

We stayed overnight in Johannesburg at a hostle that Shannon had stayed at in 2005, Shoestrings, and I slept so great!!

We were very excited and feeling pretty good so far about accomplishing this first leg of our journey! I have traveled to Malawi 4 times as I sit and write this, and I feel that the flying there is as much a challenge as any part of the trip! I wrote the morning before we departed Johannesburg:

"I keep thinking about all the people at home who put so much faith and encouragement in us - I'm feeling like it's pressure...I need to keep my faith in order to combat that! Fear and anxiety will not serve me at all while I'm here. Shannon seems to be feeling better than yesterday".

We boarded the plane in Johannesburg on our way to Blantyre, Malawi on September 5...excited and nervous to land and be in the country of our destination, we excitedly boarded.

I will close this post with a small note for the continuation of these entries. It may sound 'funny' or unusual, but the remainder of the posts will be strictly about our experiences and feelings of being on this journey. We were doing volunteer work but the organization we were working with have asked us not to talk about them in any of our Educate Malawi work (which is what this blog is associated with, technically). Unfortunately, I can say no more than that. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and without it would not be doing this work that I am loving for a country I came to care about.

Peace for now!!

Karen