Am I Really in Africa?

Dates: June 21- June 23

June 21 finally came, and our trip began at 5:30 PM in Washington, D.C. I couldn't believe it!

Day 1:

Checking in at Dulles seemed very chaotic with 18 people and 36 bags to check, but we did it and got through security with no problems. It was so hard to say goodbye in the airport (Dad, I love you!), but it was reassuring when I looked around to a lot of tear-filled faces. It's not that any of us were having trouble leaving, but it was just hard not knowing when we'll talk again. We were all so excited though! Our Malawi 2008 shirts made a great impression on those that surrounded us, as many onlookers asked where we were traveling and for what reason.

We've learned from the beginning how savvy our director, Dr. Pat Kelly, is with finagling and talking her way through stuff to what we need (aka getting us to walk through Customs in Malawi in about 2 minutes)! We started to board at 7:45, but we didn't take off until almost 10:00! It was frustrating, but they were good at distracting us with "goodies" from Ethiopian Airlines. We switched our seats around a little bit so we could sit with people we knew, so Sarah, Lauren, and I ended up with the seats that are right at the split between sections where we had about triple the leg space! It made the 8 hour flight to Rome, layover on the plane, and 6 hours to Addis Ababa so much easier! I really enjoyed chatting with this Ethiopian woman and her daughter who were traveling from their home in Maryland to Addis to visit family. They were my translators when I couldn't understand the language from the crew on board over the loudspeaker. I've never felt like such a foreigner!



As soon as we reached cruising altitude, we had our first meal. It was surprisingly good, and it was the best meal we had from Dulles until now in Malawi. Oh, and alcohol was included- what a difference from the high prices of U.S. in flight costs. So, I enjoyed an individual bottle of red wine from France with my beef, vegetables, salad, crackers, bread, cheese, and delicious cheesecake! They took great care of us on the plane. We all tried to relax and sleep some following dinner, but it was hard.


I was surprised by the route we took to Rome. It seemed to me that we would take a direct route across the Atlantic, but we actually traveled all the way past Maine, up to Canada, over to Greenland, and then made a descent down. While I loved looking down over Europe, it was upsetting that I was finally so close but I couldn't visit there! One of the cool features on the plane included overhead and personal television screens to track our flight altitude, temperature, time, and route as we crossed across the map. We all chatted on the plane and started to get to know the people from Radford and North Carolina A&T. A few laps around the plane every couple hours also helped with the length of time. We also received a nice breakfast onboard and lunch later ( a similar beef meal but not as good as before).

Rome was beautiful! I must admit we were unable to see any major landmarks or even leave the plane, but it was breathtaking flying into the area. With villas, fields, hills and red roof homes, it was picturesque. More than ever I wish I could have spent a day or two there! Maybe someday... We had a layover on the plane for close to two hours, and we even got to see some Italian airline workers on board.

The Ethiopian children were so beautiful and well behaved on the plane. Their parents let them roam all around, but it provided some adorable entertainment. Of 6 lavatories, 2 worked by the end of the flight, so the lines were long!

We flew over the Sahara for hours. I had no comprehension of how large it actually is! We also flew over the Nile River and other landmarks, and the flight tracker on the plane television showed us our exact flight path.

Aunt Diana, you'd be so proud of me and my newly acquired traveling skills! You know those big bottles of water they use to pour into cups for individual passengers? Well instead of paying for water in the airport/ hotel at a hefty price, I waltzed right back to the airline attendants and basically persuaded this man to give me a whole 1.5 liter water bottle. Everyone was envious of this idea, but it was too late to haggle for some more! Lexi and I shared it at the hotel as toothbrushing and face washing water.

We had a six hour flight to Addis Ababa (which they pronounced as Ahh-dehs Ah-beh-bah). We continued to chat with everyone around us, but I know we were all ready to just land! Flying into Ethiopia was so pretty at sunset, but we got into Addis at dark just in time to go through Customs in about two hours time. We were all EXHAUSTED, and we didn't get to leave the airport til after 10:00 PM. One of the funniest moments was watching the Ethiopians entering the country move right in the middle of our group to cut and then pointing and laughing at us. Dr. Kelly was not going to take this so she figured a way to get us in a separate line to then go through customs muck quicker. I got my first stamp on my passport! After we went through customs, we had to wait around for about 45 more minutes for our bus to the hotel. Little did we know how... interesting.... Addis Ababa would be after dark.

Have you ever felt like you were a spectacle? That's what it seemed as we walked through the airport to our bus. We traveled for about 30 minutes all over Addis until we reached Semen Hotel for the evening. We met a couple from Minnesota visiting family in Djabouti and a man from Chad traveling to Egypt. We were all overnight transit passengers staying at hotel waiting for our next flight out of Addis the following morning. With few street lights, tons of people on the sidewalks and rundown buildings everywhere, the best way to describe the capital city is to compare it to the worst part of NYC times about 3. While I understand it's a third world country, it was truly shocking and somewhat nerve-racking to travel through this area. Safe and sound, we arrived at our hotel for the night at about 11:00 PM. It was quaint and definitely a high class place for Westerners, but it was also very different an older than we're used to. The lights went off twice when we checked in, and of course Lexi and I were prepared with flashlights in hand right away! Thanks for the Girl Scout preparedness, Mom- it helped! Dad, your LED Christmas flashlight came to good use...



We were all assigned to the fifth floor, but with the power going out, the elevator was a big "no." We were exhausted walking up those stairs! Not a good sign... haha



We had a very late dinner. Well, make that a very late snack due to the nature of the food. We had orange soda ( I saved the really neat bottle) and we were able to get various meats and rice. To be honest, the smell of curry and interesting meats was not appealing, but that's were granola bars came in handy! Lexi and I headed up to our shared double bed, and we chatted for a few hours. Funny part of the night- I apparently was having a crazy dream, woke up yelled to Lexi, "Oh my God, oh my God", and dived off the bed and down onto the floor. All I remember was thinking/dreaming that a plane was going to land on us. WEIRD.... Guess I should warn people of the random occurrences that may occur while sleeping with me.

There was music and noise outside into all hours of the night. It was really different. You could see city lights for miles, and the windows were so thin that I felt we were actually outside. We had a solid four hours of sleep, and it was glorious! We woke up freezing though, as temperatures fell into the low 50's.

Day 2:

Morning in Addis was breathtaking. The fog rolling out in front of the mountains, the crisp air and the beautiful colors gave us a great start to the morning. As we stared to get ready, our wake up "call" came with a pounding on the door. When we packed our maid came in, and we talked to her for a little bit. She said she was also 20 years old and a lifelong resident of Addis Ababa. She was very sweet and helpful in getting us out the door. I told her if we forgot anything to just keep it! I also took some video off the balcony of the morning and the call to prayer from the nearby Mosque.

We had light eggs and toast with jam for breakfast. Orange juice was different, but it was satisfying. We left Semen Hotel at 6:30 and went through security at the airport by 7. You can take whatever liquids and shoes you want straight through. I guess their concern is weapons. We went through departure customs, and that took a few minutes. We've gotten accustomed to filling out the entrance/exit slips for each country.



We waited for about an hour for the plane to arrive. We took two airport busses out to the plane. Heidi, Amber and I were the last ones of the first bus to board the plane, so we struck up conversation with an ground attendant. Believe me, if we had all day, we'd still be there talking to him. He individually introduced himself to each of us, and told us all about how we should return to his country with great hospitality. He even did somewhat of a bow for us. Then he took a picture of us before we boarded. We wished him well and said maybe we'd see him soon.



The plane was pretty full. I sat in a center seat in the middle of Brian and Vandy. Brian is the grad student from NC A&T and Vandy is an education major from Radford. Vandy and Lauren had not been feeling well all morning, and we think it was due to the high altitude. A large group of students and teachers from the Lusako Italian School in Zambia boarded shortly after us. The final destination of our flight was Lusako, Zambia. The other group from New York on mission trip was also on the plane. We chatted with them and they also showed us pictures of freshwater wells their fellow Presbyterian Church members had created. The children in the pictures looked so joyful!



The flight was only three hours long, but it felt like forever! As we left Addis, the surrounding mountains were BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't believe they were real. About an hour into the flight, I started to feel nauseated, but I think it was due to the frequently changing altitude and lack of food. Then came "breakfast". Brian and I decided that the questionable look, texture and taste of the quiche-like substance was not worth the trip to the bathroom that might incur from consumption nor was the lime green watery pudding. So we stuck to the roll, muffin and ginger ale.



I moved up to sit with Lexi for a while, and I showed her some tips on changing the settings of her mom's camera for taking better pictures in Malawi.



Flying into Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi) was so exhilarating! As we descended, we could see a lot of the surrounding areas, and we finally felt like we were in Africa. We were welcomed with warm faces and smiles as we entered the airport. Luckily all of our baggage arrived on time! I don't know what I would have done if something didn't get there. Especially after all that work packing the essentials... We finally made it!



Customs in Lilongwe was a breeze thanks to Dr. Kelly. She is such a whiz at all of this- it's great! We all just walked straight through customs with no problem. We do have three other fabulous professors with us, and it's been great getting to know them so far and learning from their previous experiences. We waited outside for our bus to the Korea Garden Lodge, and it arrived shortly. During that time, Dr. Kelly and Dr. Barber (from NC A&T) were reunited with a couple of their friends from Malawi. One was our bus driver, Charles, whom they greeted with hugs and kisses remembering how helpful and spirited he had been on previous trips. He arrived in the Malawi Institute of Education bus we'll be traveling on throughout our trip. The other man present was another friend who actually received a PhD from Tech.



Let me just remind you of how much luggage we have: 18 people, 36 checked bags, 36 or more carry on items= more than 72 articles total!!!! So, imagine a 22 passenger bus arriving with limited space and all of that luggage and all of us having to fit on it. Needless to say it took a while to fit it all in, but we made it.



We traveled about 30 minutes from the airport to the Korea Garden Lodge. Charles got us there safely! Along the way, we saw so many different people sitting, walking and sleeping along the road. Some had things for sale right off road and others were burning some of the brush. I asked Patty, one of our professors, why they did that, and Dr. Jones nearby said it's to kill off some of the bugs that ruin the plants. The landscape is beautiful. The roads are filled with trash and so are the outskirts, but the surrounding areas with trees, fields, some housing and distant mountains were pretty. We passed groups of children, and they waved with excitement. We traveled into the outskirts of Lilongwe seeing some of the newer government buildings and lots of people.



We arrived at the Korea Garden Lodge which is surrounded by concrete barrier walls and barbed wire. The front metal gate is guarded and only opened for guests. After we got settled in our rooms, we grabbed cameras and tightened money belts before walking about a mile into town. I had to get accustomed to the cars driving on the opposite side of the road. We were surprised to see so many different cars.



As we walked, we took in the sites of different lodges, lots of trash surrounding the roads and people out and about. As we entered town, we were immediately greeted by venders of the Lilongwe market. We needed to exchange money first! I exchanged $100 at an exchange rate of 148 Kwacha to 1 USD. So, I ended up with 14,800 Kwacha. I felt so rich with all those bills!!! The Kwacha are significantly larger than American dollars, but they fit great in our money belts.



After we all exchanged money, we were of course greeted by venders and young children asking for money, but as Dr. Kelly advised us, you just act friendly and explain that "you're looking" or " will think about it." It was a lot of fun. One man introduced himself as "James Bond" and another as "Chicken Legs." We played along, and they were good at striking up conversation.



On our way out of town, we looked through this huge craft market at the corner of the street. Mom, the book you gave me had such great tips for this area- it explained (and Dr. Kelly expanded) that the prices of this craft market is about 8-10 times the true price of the products. They have so many different types of carvings- it's incredible. The good thing is that we should be able to find almost all of the items in Zomba (where we're staying for 3 weeks of our time), and if we do not find what we want, we can buy it on our way out of Lilongwe when we leave in July. Some of the items included carved masks, Nativity scenes, Noah's arks, frames, spoons, bowls, figurines, animals... basically the possibilities were endless. They were so good at trying to suck you in by introducing themselves, getting your name, then saying, "Krista, I'll see you tomorrow, ok? What's my name again, Krista? You come see me tomorrow, Krista- we'll talk." While they were somewhat pushy, they were all friendly and we had fun looking through their items.



We made our way back right at dark. The sun sets at 5:30. It got cooler outside, but it's so pleasant.



Dinner was delicious! We hadn't eaten for about six hours, so anything sounded good. We had traditional Korean food, and most of us ordered spring rolls, fried rice, and chicken dishes. I had a bottled Coke to drink. Some people ordered bottles of beer at just one dollar a piece. Beer is cheaper than soda! My total cost was 1,648.66 Kwacha (not dollars!) which amounted to about eleven US dollars. All our meals here are covered, but we have to pay for dinner. Dr. Kelly said that these would be our more expensive dinners. We had to wait a while for food, but the dining area is outside under a huge canopy by the pool with really neat lamps and decorations, so we really enjoyed it. During dinner, Brian our lone male from North Carolina A&T (who happens to be African American) went to his room for a bit, and when he came back he said that a woman who worked there asked him in Chichewa to take a guest's bag to their room right away thinking he was a Malawian who worked at the lodge. We all thought it was hysterical.



After dinner, Lexi and I used our free 5 minute wireless internet to check email and send a quick update out. Then I figure out that if you chose the other wireless option, you could get another 5 minutes on the internet. After that, you have to pay per hour. It's 600 Kwacha per hour aka about 4 USD. Lexi and I are sharing our first card.



So that's all for my first update! I know it was long, I just have so much I want to share and remember. It's been incredible so far, and we've just been traveling! I'll update soon...

Miss and Love You All,

Krista