Africa # 1

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a VERY LONG day of travel!
I dealt with some stomach bug on the 17 hour plane ride (passed out in the first class section while rushing to the can - so embarrassing!)
So that made a long time even longer for both of us. We were delayed about 3 hours in Ethiopia, but that plane was not full, so we were able
to stretch out a bit and finally get some sleep.
We got to the house yesterday around 4pm local time. We unpacked, showered, made dinner, and started to work with the other coordinators
to get the house ready for the volunteers to start arriving on the 2nd. I am unfortunately feeling sick again like I caught a cold or something on the plane (likely since I was
so weaken with the stomach mess - ugggg...)
The house is great - tons of room to spread out - it is MADE for big groups.
The kitchen is huge! The two guys that run the house are super nice and helpful. John made us a yummy curry for dinner tonight.
We slept like logs of course and made our way into town today. This area of Lilongwe is a bit more modern I'm told (we'll check out old Lilongwe
tomorrow) but I was surprised to see some pretty nice and modern buildings and businesses. The grocery store has anything we would want - as long as we're willing to pay for the imported stuff. A 5th of Cuervo equals about $50 US dollars!! Brett bought Malawi gin to ring in the New Year instead! The exchange rate is crazy - we'll be doing big math to keep up with $1 = 160 kwacha. We felt rich walking around with 18,000 bills - too bad they're kwacha and not dollars! We walked through the local market - wow.
lots of tiny fish stacked in little piles (you can imagine the smells and flies!), good looking fruits and veggies, an fire pit roasting corn right across from a stand selling printer cartridges. Lots of shoe cobblers ( my favorite was called "Try Again Shoe Repair")
I slept the rest of the day, but Brett continues to explore. He tried his hand at driving - toured the town by car, got fuel, bought tons of groceries for camp, worked on the cars, worked on getting the internet going - busy and super helpful as always.
We enjoyed our yummy curry dinner with the other 2 coordinators that are here, Scott and Daisy. We all shared some chocolate and chatted after dinner. They're great people. I'm excited to work with them. It is 9:30pm now - we're all doubting we'll make it to midnight.
Hope you all have a wonderful new year's eve and day.
The number here at the house is: 265-175-3424
If you want to call - buy an international calling card - WAY cheaper than using your land line.

our love,
Catherine & Brett