international flavour

After meeting at the airport, Gord and I took a taxi into Lilongwe and checked into our hotel, a nice little place with much-appreciated mosquito nets over the beds and an en-suite bathroom. As we left the hotel to do some chores (book our bus for the next day, get some local currency) we were immediately inundated with requests to check out the local merchants’ wares. As uncomfortable as this can be, the people here are extremely nice ... “not now, thanks” usually shoos them away, which is more than you can expect as a westerner in most poorer countries.

We then gave a call to friends of a friend of Gord’s (Melissa, Shawn, and their son Wiley) who are Canadians working here in Malawi; she as an environmentalist helping farming associations to organize, he as an Emergency Aid worker who’s seen action in Afghanistan and Pakistan and spends his spare time making furniture out of metal and wood ... great people leading interesting and inspirational lives! And our first African experience together: pizza and mini-golf! Very ironic, but a lot of fun. Afterward they took us to a neat little local bar where we had a coupla beers before heading to their house for conversation and a few more.

Yesterday we went for a swim at Melissa and Shawn’s social club (the Portuguese Society of Malawi) before hopping on a bus south to Blantyre. We were met by Gord’s friends Alma and Leo and driven to Malamulo, the missionary hospital where I will be volunteering at the end of the month. We settled into our guest house (complete with an African bee nest in one room and no running water) were we sweat the night away trying to sleep before waking at the crack of dawn to get a drive back into town. Today we grabbed breakfast at a café with a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains and did a little shopping. I picked up a cheap GSM cell phone for my international travels this year and had a nice surprise when I saw my new phone number: +265 8738 485 ... 8738 were my digits back in Toronto and spell the word TREV! What an amazing coincidence, eh?! Anyway, feel free to call and/or text ... receiving either is free for me. :) ... oh, and for those who don't know how to dial overseas, in Canada it's 011 265 8738 485

This afternoon we met up with Alma and her friend Rohit and were treated to a full homemade Indian lunch at his family’s house ... wonderful food, and equally wonderful people. So in short, everything is fabulous and could not have come together any smoother.