Day 1

After 30+ hours of travel, I arrived in Malawi on Thursday afternoon. I flew from Greensboro to Newark, NJ, and spent the night in the freezing terminal before a very early flight to Dulles/Washington DC. Had a couple of hours, then boarded the plane that would be a 13 hr flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is so long, crowded, and hard to sleep. I watched a movie, read an entire book, dozed off and on, got up to walk the aisle and keep the circulation going in my legs, and finally arrived in Ethiopia. Two more hours in the airport before boarding my last flight, 3 hours, to Lilongwe, capitol of Malawi.
Malawi is a small, landlocked country in southeast Africa, with a population of about 20 million people. It is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. I made two trips to Malawi in 2009 and 2010, on church missions trips and have longed to return. Finally I am here again!
My friend Roberta picked me up at the airport and we drove to her home. After all that travel and lack of sleep, I was not feeling too great but was determined to stay awake until 7 pm as a way to get used to the new time zone. ( Malawi is 6 hours ahead of the US east coast.)
We sat and caught up on her lovely front porch, and I made it to 7:30. I fell asleep as soon as I laid down and slept for 12 hrs straight!Read more