Africa Journal - March 2010

Getting Started

BEFORE THE TRIP
“I’ve been so emotional the last couple of days. I have tried to think so little about the trip, just to avoid the emotions.” That is the first sentence in my journal, and was the way of it as the trip neared. I felt little about the trip, no excitement, and had a breakdown the night before, certain that I was not prepared enough and that God would not be able to use me because I had not properly done my part.

TRAVEL
On my first flight, I penned the following: “I think wrestling with myself is going to be the hardest part…it’s my mind and emotions exhausting me right now.” A few hours later I was no better…”I’m feeling pretty unsettled and down. I feel a bit isolated…” After several hours into the flight to London my outlook was a bit better after some sleep, some OJ with ice, and an in-flight movie. Still, the cry of my heart was as follows…”When I stop to consider it, I still wonder what I’m doing here. I hope so bad that by the return trip, I feel I had purpose, made a difference.”

Then we hit Heathrow. After sightseeing during the day in London, we went to get our boarding passes to Addis Ababa, only to find that one of the airlines (your choice, United blamed Ethiopian Air and Ethiopian Air blamed United) booked all 12 of us under one name…Mr. Malawi Group…and gave us 1 seat to share. Long story short, nobody admitted blame and we stayed at a hotel on London that night. I chose to believe there was a reason God was protecting us by keeping us in London another day. Perhaps it was simply Satan trying to unnerve us. (The up-side is that we got to shower that night.) After more uncertainty the following morning, we finally got new tickets and boarding passes for that night. After we got to Addis, we had another issue getting onto the last flight to Lilongwe. Our Addis/Lilongwe flights had both been printed on the same ticket. That ticket was collected at Heathrow, although we were given a boarding pass for Addis to Lilongwe. Well Addis demanded not just our boarding pass, but our ticket as well, or we couldn’t go on to Lilongwe. (As a side note, neither could we stay at Addis, because we didn’t have a Visa to leave the terminal!) I don’t know what changed their mind, but at the last minute, the people at the counter relented, and let us board. There were several of us who just wanted to go home at that point, we were so rattled. Were we not supposed to be in Africa???

MALAWI
Finally, touchdown in Malawi. We boarded a bus meant for about 12, and crammed it with 19 people (7 of them Malawi-ans) and tons of luggage. The sensory overload was incredible, if you catch my drift. There were amazing sights on the drive (captured in pictures and video) but we were so exhausted by the time the 3-plus hour journey was over. We were soon busy with moving into our house and figuring out the logistics of living there for a week. The water went out before I got around to getting my shower that night, so I made do with a pan of boiling water (with no cold to mix with it). My final thoughts after that first night: I’m nervous, I’m apprehensive. I’m homesick, like I always am when I’m away. We are told the time will fly past. I’m glad I’m here, but I hope it does.”