Day 14: Congo Clouds - Malawi by way of Lubumbashi

Just after I finished yesterday’s blog entry and sent it I got a message that our flight had been changed yet again. We left Entebbe at 2:45 AM but we wouldn’t leave Addis Ababa until 1:30 PM. Phoebe had fallen asleep in the “ever so comfortable” airport chair…you know, the kind with the arm rests so you absolutely cannot lie down. I didn’t want to wake her, so I called Ethiopia Airways, again, and I guess because it was the middle of the night I wasn't put on hold but actually got someone. Some guy changed the flight again, and sent a confirmation. I knew, with minutes to spare, that we actually had a second leg to our trip.

The part I didn’t know was that there was another stop that took us to Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Neither of us had been there before so now that’s been taken care of and, as Zak enjoys, can be added to our list of places traveled to.

So, we played Five Crowns on our little tray table and looked out the window at the spectacular clouds. We would have missed them if we’d taken the 2 hour route instead of the 16 hour adventure we were on. We loved watching the long winding river below us too. It looked like an artist painted it there.

We finally made it to Malawi. The entry visa that I had worried about was the one thing that went very smoothly. People in Malawi are friendly and welcoming and it was a nice warm feeling to be back.

Olipa and two of her children, Desire and James, met us along with Mary whom I had worked with for a year and who is Olipa’s sister in law. What a treat. Warm hugs all around and a promise to have dinner together before we all left town.

We changed some US money into Malawian Kwacha. Our ten one-hundred dollar US bills became 200 Kwacha bills. It’s all held together by rubber bands, looks like a huge brick and is heavy.

We are in Lilongwe, in a little Guesthouse tonight. We had a nice dinner, hot showers and will both get to bed very soon. At least I will.