Malawi Blog 2

Day 2 of our trip had us traveling again from Dublin, Ireland to Zurich, Switzerland and then finally on to Johannesburg,  South Africa where we met up with four other team members who had traveled in from various locations the day before.

We all boarded our final flight to Lilonngwe, Malawi together and we were greeted by Hugo and Chifundo at the airport.  The infamous “Pink Bus” was there at the airport to greet us and take us several hours away to our hotel in Madisi.

On our journey from Lilongwe to Madisi we saw hundreds of local people walking along the highway in the dark on their way into Madisi on a Saturday night.  Food was being cooked outside on open pit fires and people of all ages were gathered along the main street in town in groups of ten and twenty.

There was a feeling of fellowship and community as many traveled into town to be a part of what ever was going on that evening.  Vendors were selling cooked meat and others were selling fruits and vegetables in this crowded open market along the highway.  We saw people everywhere along the road all the way to our hotel.

The evening was spent unloading all the medicines and medical supplies that we brought with us in suit cases and all the medicine and supplies that were shipped ahead of our arrival.  All of this had to be unpacked and sorted in preparation for our first clinic which would be held after church on Sunday in Madisi.

We ended the day with a late dinner at the hotel and then a final packing party packing an assortment of medicines in pre pack and labeled envelopes.

Finally, after 52 hours of transit time, and very little sleep, we all turned in to try to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Tomorrow was a other day and we were all ready to start what we had been preparing for over the last several months.