May 21- Arriving in Malawi.

First day in Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa, World, Universe.

I was absolutely elated driving into the town of Lilongwe from the airport.  At certain points, I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my chest and go running for the Malawian hills. Seeing the landscape and the women carrying baskets on their head while listening to dandy krazy in a mini-bus was so damn real. I've dreamt about this and seen it in countless images, but I'm actually in it. Indescribable.

Flying to South Africa was the incredible. I put on some African choir music (Ladysmith Black Mambaza- Greatest  Hits) and watched the sun rise over the horizon for two hours this morning. As the clouds across Africa diminished, I began seeing landmasses, lakes and mountains become illuminated and it was Africa! Holy shit- this is it!!!!

I sat beside a super nice Malawian woman on the plane from South Africa to Lilongwe.  She asked for extra water from the stewardess, gave it to me and told me that there will be bottled water in a larger town near Mkanda, Mchinge district and that I should stock up. I said thank you, but I'll be living with a family and doing what they do to for drinking water. She was awesome and told me all about her family which I really appreciated. I was just a nervous Mzungo (white person) and she made me feel right at home.

I stepped off the plane and ran to the washroom in the Lilongwe airport.  Found a washroom with no toilet paper and realized that I'm not in Kansas anymore.  Thankfully, my co-worker gave me a roll of pink toilet paper (it comes in colours here!!!) to carry with me at all times. Thanks Jolly Ann!

Six of us went for dinner tonight with a sweet family in area 25, Lilongwe. We're staying in area 3 so we drove west (towards Zambia) for quite awhile on a red bumpy dirt road. The drivers of the mini bus gifted us five long stalks of sugar cane (nzimbe). We peeled the bark and chewed off big chunks and sucked back the sugar juice and watched as the houses and people on foot and bicycle passed by. What a sweet moment in time.

The family we ate with fed us nsima and five relishes. Nsima is the staple food of Malawi and a derivative of it is found in many African countries under many different names. It is made by boiling water, adding maize flour slowly and stirring until it reaches a thick enough consistency to make into balls. You take an nsima ball and dip it in a relish to eat it. The relishes we tried tonight were beef, mustard, pumpkin and pumpkin leaf, bean and "Chinese". Not so sure what the last one had in it, but I assumed it was cabbage and kept on chewing.  Beef was my favourite which is a huge surprise because eating meat was one of my biggest fears about moving to Africa (I've been a vegetarian for 4 years).

Silvia was a girl about my age and she loves to cook so we had a grade A meal.  The long term volunteers told us that that kind of selection and flavour will be hard to come across in village life. One vegetable and meat relish is typical. There was also a kitten running around the house named Sasha and I couldn't keep my hands off her, even though my contract tells me not to play with animals. Who can resist a kitten?!  We all had an awesome conversation about agriculture, electricity and water in Malawi, jobs, music and Chuck Norris (apparently he is a big star here).

I'm currently tucked under my mosquito bed net, thinking about the half moon that is sitting high in the sky, and eager to start another day tomorrow.

I feel so alive!

Love kate