The past twenty-four hours have been full of first impressions and first occurrences. My first glimpse of Blantyre airport was exactly how I imagined it, a small white building with palm trees, dry grass and shrubbery, people packed onto a porch awaiting the arrivals. As I stepped off the plane I looked up into the crowd of people on the porch and was greeted by excited waves from the Woods and Samantha, knowing that they were there to greet me was such a relief. Malawi is everything I thought it would be but in many ways different. I had heard so much about how civilized and westernized Blantyre is. When you actually step foot in it it reality hits, it’s still AFRICA. It may look civilized and busy, but when you get into the heart of it and start experiencing it, you quickly learn of the poverty and simple ways. There has not been one moment that I haven’t seen hundreds of people on the streets, or cars driving crazily down roads. Most people seem to walk where they are going, or ride mini buses, pedestrians seem to have no fear of cars and roam the roadsides and cross when they please. I have my first blisters on my feet from walking all over this morning. We have walked at least 5 miles through town and through the compound. After nine months we either going to be really skinny or really in shape, maybe both J.
My first few steps out of my driveway and road were met by whistles and hellos from teenage boys excited to talk to American girls. When you walk on the street you’re almost always approached by vendors or beggars and strange smells. Samantha and I made our first trip to the market this morning. It was incredible to see everything that was sold there, from DVDs to fruit and vegetables, almost everything you would need in life (maybe not super high quality things however). The food portion of the market was incredible, so many different smells, bright colored vegetables, all types of beans, rice and delicious looking fruit.
My first few steps into my new home for the next nine months where a little shocking, our apartment is quite humble, we have no hot water (which makes showering EXCITING), little storage, one working stove top, and no working oven and slight water leakage. However when you look at the homes of most locals we are extremely blessed. I have to say after twenty-four hours here it’s already growing on me and beginning to feel more like a home.
I have met so many new people in the last day. There are about four Marantha guys that are around mine and Samantha’s age. A couple of the guys are based out of Mozambique so we won’t have much contact with them, but its nice having people our age around. There is also a girl close to our age that lives nearby that works for ADRA. I have never been exposed to a lot of ethnic foods before but this year is going to be a little different. For lunch today Samantha took me to a vegetarian restaurant called Vege Delight and I tasted my first Indian meal. It was pretty tasty. We then visited a local family’s home for desert. I experienced my first encounter of foreign culture hospitality, I don’t know if I’ve ever been that full. Every time I slowed down eating they gave me something else to try. The family we visited is a brother and sister that live together and are Indian, so I was introduced to even more Indian dishes. I’ve never been a huge fan of curry before, but I have a feeling I am going to have to be soon.
Samantha and I are feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure about school. We only have about two more days to really work on getting things ready. I for one definitely don’t feel ready. School starts Monday at 8am and I know it’s going to be an interesting and trying first day. We have to copy all of our books for the children, unfortunately the copy shop we go to is a little slow so we are maybe half way through all of the books and school starts in about 4 days. We have so much to accomplish and not a lot of time.
Internet is a little bit a challenge. We don’t have internet at our apartment so we have to walk a couple hundred yards to the hospital and use it in the doctor lounge. I have been told that Skype video doesn’t work super well or at all sometimes, so IMing or emails may end up being the best way to communicate with everyone. I will try to regularly blog as well but it may be difficult since we don’t have direct acess to internet, but I’ll do my best.
I am sure I could write another 500 words on what I have experienced so far, but I guess this will have to do. Malawi is an amazing country! The people are so generous and friendly. I know I will make plenty of new friends soon. Now I just need to work hard on learning the language! Thank you everyone back home for all the support!!