Day 6 in Malawi

Cant believe that we have been here 6 days! In some ways it seems much longer, in other ways I feel as though I arrived yesterday. 1 week...whew. It's been a whirlwind and continues to be.

Where to begin?!  Well first of all...the Saturday before we left on Tuesday, my dear friend Susannah got married! I literally stalled leaving for Malawi b/c i was not going to miss this wedding and hanging out for the last time with my sweet RTS friends.  Two great pics from the wedding: (a personal favorite)

Then came the packing and quick departure...The trip over went fairly smoothly with a bit of panic in Atlanta...way too short of a layover.  Dont even know that it qualified as a layover--but we had to take that flight as South African destinations are not necessarily all that frequent.  Delta definitely provided some great movies though once we had time to literally catch our breaths from running to the gate (I'm not kidding).

The first night in Malawi proved quite eventful as we encountered the effects of not pre-heating a WATERBED!  Yes...I am sleeping on a waterbed in Africa.  Who knew?!  I swear I have never been so cold in all my life.  Shivering all night long.  However, despite all of this we were very warmly greeted at the airport by Paul and Laura Chinchen (ABC directors, boss and friends) and then they invited us over to their house for dinner.  Wow...I didnt know there were such beautiful homes in Africa.  Here is a picture of the pretty "welcoming" gift the gardener left for us on our front door.  

Since then Rach and I have hit the ground running...literally...the next morning THE container arrived from the States.  When I say container, I mean something symbolic of being transported on a barge and then transported via 18-wheeler. 

I think the jet-lag has gone for the most part for which I am very thankful.  I literally dreaded going to bed for a few nights as I woke up every 2 hours all night long.  Oh and the waterbed is now officially heated.  no worries.

School begins next week and I have been slightly overwhelmed!  I am officially the Computer Teacher-Information Technology instructor.  Ha.  Funny b/c I cant seem to get the internet to work in our apt.  I ll also teach counseling at the College.  Yay!  We have been at Orientation all week with afternoons at the Academy trying to get our rooms ready.  Ah...life as a teacher!

So...besides the usual surf-like feelings of sleeping on a waterbed, the occasional bleaching of every food item in order not to get ill, driving on the opposite side of the road, and frequently awaking in the early morning and even late night to hear the call to prayer at the local mosque in town...life in Africa is well...pretty eventful.   

More to come!