Safe and Sound 🇲🇼

 I landed at Lilongwe Airport in Malawi, Africa at 1:45pm today. Smooth sailing the whole way, every flight on time, and no one gave me grief about how large my carry-on bag was. I was walking the line of too big/too heavy, and I am sure you can appreciate my gratitude that I did not encounter any self-aggrandizing, power-hungry, muscle-clenching gate agents. You know the type? Ready to show you who's boss and force you to gate check that bag. Phew!

The weather was perfect: a light breeze, about 80, lots of clouds. It kind of felt like landing in Hawaii. My AGE Africa team was there to greet me and welcome me to the Warm Heart of Africa. (This is how people talk and think about Malwai-- as a country filled with the warmest, most welcoming people you could ever hope to meet.) 

We were stalled at the airport, though, because a few of the bags that we brought with us were filled with "questionable items." We have a donor who is gifting some of our scholars with water bottles, pencil bags, little notebooks, and other small things of use. But these items looked suspicious to the inquiring eye of an airport baggage bureaucrat, and they put a hard stop on our being able to leave the airport. So, after four hours of sitting and waiting for this guy to walk over there and hand the form to that other guy, we finally got a form that allowed us permission to leave with the bags in hand. However, we do have to go back again in the morning for another form to ensure that the next person who arrives tomorrow afternoon is able to bring the items that she has with her without trouble. I could not make heads or tails of this-- there's a $100 bribe in there somewhere, too. Money we have to give to someone to give us permission to bring in the items that have been donated to poor girls in their own country. Mad making, that's for sure.

It's 9:00 PM here now, and I am pooped. I think my little anti-jet lag system is working-- I have not felt sleepy until just now, and it's an appropriate time to go to bed. 

There are mosquito nets around every bed in every hotel in Malawi, and so too are the mosquitos present to warrant them. I feel three things about this-- one is that I finally have the princess bed that every little girl dreams about at some point in her life. Two is that I am just like Willie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom. Three is that, this mosquito thing is real and I'm glad I am taking those malaria pill.