Stay Awake!

It seems the time change of travel has hit me, and I am awake at 4am in Malawi. Wide awake! So I have quietly slipped out of bed and into the living room of our guest house to sit in the dark and read by flashlight. I also figured it was a good time to update the blog.

The trip was arduous this year. Our Colorado team members left home early Saturday morning and the Washington team members in the afternoon. We arrived in Malawi Monday morning, US time. It was afternoon in Malawi. We had been traveling for two days.

After discovering that not one of our suitcase had made it onto our flight from Nairobi, filing all the appropriate claims and paperwork, we made our way outside to find our COTN family waiting for us. We were a bit bewildered. Out of 12 bags, you’d think at least a couple would have arrived; nope, not even one.

We spent the afternoon and evening traveling to COTN, eating some snacks, and then heading to the children’s home for some welcome activities. COTN knows well that they had better keep us moving or we will crash too soon and have trouble resetting our body clocks. The goal is to stay awake until 8. We were on our way to the children’s home at about 5pm. 3 hours to go!

It was wonderful to see the children again. They welcomed us, shared some memorized scripture and cultural dance, and introduced our new team members to a little bit of what COTN does. As we sat on the couches taking it all in, I think we truthfully were just trying to keep our eyes open! I looked around at my team and wondered if some might collapse, or just fall asleep sitting up. But I could also see the joy and wonder at finally being in Africa, hearing the singing and seeing the dancing and realizing all the planning and preparation had led us here, to this place and this moment.

We went back to COTN for some dinner, more welcome and orientation instructions, and then finally to bed. We all desperately wanted showers and clean clothes. A toothbrush might have sufficed for some. I mean, we were a stinky bunch! But, all our belongings were sitting in a baggage holding area in Nairobi for who knows how long. And there was also no hot water at the moment. Most of us had no clean clothes and no toiletries. The reason for that is a frustrating one. When we checked in at the airport in Seattle there was some confusion about the allowed weight of our carry-on bags. We were all overweight and were required to off load some of our weight (actually a significant portion) into our checked bags. In the chaos of trying to open suitcases and then decide what to cast aside of the things we had already determined necessary to have in our immediate possession, things like extra clothes, toiletries, books, extra shoes, etc. were put into those checked bags. Now we were in Malawi, tired, dirty, and wondering when we would have our bags. We fell into beds, exhausted and hopeful for tomorrow.