***  WARNING  –  Ridiculously long entry spanning a week – 8 pages in Word!  I tried to cut it but my rambling was simply insurmountable.  ***

 

We got word on Tuesday that the books had arrived in Blantyre.  FINALLY!  2.5 months late and not with the original trucking company, nor with the second company that after a week of enquiries claimed to be the contracted shipper, but in fact with a 3^rd company that somehow ended up with the contract.  Ai ai ai.  Anyways, we got news that morning so I scurried around all day.  Had to print all of the necessary paperwork not only for the books, but also for Banda’s visa because we were going to combine the trips.  The visa had to be filed in Lilongwe which is 12 hours away from Karonga and mid-way to Blantyre which is 20 hours away.  So it made sense to combine, given that they are both huge undertakings.  So we spent Tuesday night running around, getting the Deputy Headmaster and Brother Charles to sign letters legitimizing our marriage (the Embassy needs proof for a visa).  As luck would have it, Mwambira – my Malawian partner in all of this who is taking care of building the actual library – was already planning a trip to Mzuzu to register his new truck, which would be big enough to carry all of the books!  I was thrilled as this meant we wouldn’t have to spend 40 hours on a bus that makes pitstops once every 7 hours…. A feat which is impossible anyway due to my back and bladder problems… so basically it meant not having to pay for taxis the whole way.  Oh, and I woke up on the morning of travel with a wicked case of stomach problems.  Thanks, universe.  But anyways, Mwambira was fortunately up for taking us all the way to Blantyre. 

 

We were supposed to leave early in the morning on Wednesday but Mwambira was a few hours late, but we made it to Mzuzu without incident.  By “we” I mean Banda and I, Mwambira and his nephew who unfortunately had to ride in the back because the police will stop you if you have 4 people in the front cab… seems silly since that’s safer than having him hang on in the back.  But whatever they say.  So once in Mzuzu we split up – us to get Banda’s passport and them to get the truck registered.  Sounds easy enough, no?  Ha.  Banda and I spent hours (not even joking) waiting for his passport.  I don’t know how anything gets done here.  There was no organization at all.  And at a government office, no less!  People were packed like sardines waiting in an undistinguishable line/mob for officials who never showed up to work.  And then outside in the parking lot, hundreds more were hanging around waiting to process their paperwork.  It was just chaos.  I wonder if there have always been so many passport applicants or if people are getting antsy to leave Malawi with the changing political climate.  Hmmm.  Anyways, I eventually decided that we should split, with Banda still waiting and me going to order food, since that itself would also take a couple of hours waiting for the food preparation.  So I headed to Big Bite restaurant and excitedly waited for my pizza!  Banda showed up just as the food was coming out – great timing.  Apparently once I’d gone, some official had taken down names and started demanding bribes to get the passports.  Banda balked and called a contact that he had in the office.  And that man invited him into his office and gave him the passport straight away, no funny business.  So kind of a man who had never even met Banda and only talked to him on the phone once!  Goodness knows how many more hours he would have had to wait. 

 

We also went to visit Kenford, Banda’s older brother, who works at a golf club in Mzuzu.  Had a mineral and some chatting.  We also randomly ran into his sister’s husband.  Good times meeting the family!  :) 

 

Unfortunately this is where we hit a snag.  Registering the truck apparently involved going to 5 different offices, some of which were having computer problems.  So Mwambira got stuck in Mzuzu for 2 days while we continued on to Lilongwe and Blantyre.  Taxi time! 

 

Banda found an awesome taxi to Lilongwe.  It was only 25,000 kwacha ($166) – waaayyy less than anything I had ever been able to find with my mzungu skin.  The car had a reclining backseat so of course I almost instantly fell asleep :) 

 

Arrived in Lilongwe late on Wednesday night without incident.  Stayed at Mabuya Camp in a double tent, although it was admittedly a bit too cold for that. 

 

Woke up on Thursday and headed for the Embassy, which only accepts applications on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I’d never been out in LLW before and neither had Banda so I’m sure we were quite a sight, wandering around looking like lost puppy dogs, asking people for directions.   Enjoyed a bike taxi to the bus depot.  In the big cities the bike taxis have padding – so instead of perching precariously on a metal rack, you get a nice comfy cushion with handles to hold onto!  I loved it.  Used my one Chichewa phrase that I knew to greet the guy, who fortunately knew enough English that we were able to chatter away as he biked. 

 

 Now, to be completely honest, I do not like LLW.  Was not impressed at all.  It is too big, too chaotic, people are rushing around like madmen and are rude, it smells like dust, and is just dirty.  Bah.  I was overwhelmed.  The bus depot is a great example of this disorganization.  LLW is ‘organized’ into areas which are numbered.  So, our lodge was in Area 3.  The city center is area 12.  The bus depot is Area 2.  And so on.  This sounds like a great idea… except that the numbered areas aren’t next to each other – ie 1 next to 2 next to 3!  What’s the point of having numbers if they’re just scattered all over the place?  The bus depot is similarly a mess.  Because the city is so huge, it’s not located in one place but just sprawls everywhere.  And it would make sense that all the Area 12 buses are together and next to the area 11 and 13 buses, no?  Which makes me think… I don’t think I ever saw those numbers… do they even exist or did they just pick random numbers?!?  I don’t know.  Anyways, we wandered around for quite a while trying to find the Area 12 buses.  By this point, we’re late.  Of course. 

 

Finally find the bus and hop on.  One great thing about LLW is that the buses fill up in under a minute!  We were the first ones on the bus (normally a HUGE no-no) and literally within 60 seconds we were full and pulling out of the station.  I was shocked.  In Karonga, that same feat would have taken at least an hour.  Also, they only sit 3 people to a seat which was fantastic!  No being squeezed into a window or elbowed in the ribs or holding a random chicken on your lap or having some guy’s armpit leaning right into your face.  It was great. 

 

No one really knew where the Embassy was, so by the time someone finally spoke up uncertainly, we were already past it.  Got dropped randomly and started walking.  Walked for about an hour, asking for directions along the way.  By this point I was beyond anxious because the lady said we could come at 10 and hope that she could squeeze us in by 11.  And I was pretty certain that with security at the Embassy, there was a list of people allowed in at a certain time.  We made it to the Embassy at 10:30.  Sounds great, right?  No.  Because we still had to get passport photos.  We hadn’t thought this would be a problem because the norm in Malawi is that wherever an official building is, passport photo centers pop up.  We figured we could just duck next door and get it done fast.  Nope, luck would have it that the Embassy is in the middle of nowhere lol.  So we had to board another bus that took us BACK to town.  Walked around and found the suggested photo shop, which luckily was a legit business and finished within 10 minutes.  My hair looked like I stuck a fork in the electrical outlet because by that point I was so frantic and just wanted to get the heck out of there.  Got back on yet another bus to the city center and asked them to drive a different route past the Embassy.  “No problem,” he said.  Liar.  They kicked us out at the corner so we had to walk for another 20 minutes to get to the Embassy.  Arrived at the Embassy at 11:40.  Sigh.  I was a wreck.  In Malawi, I’d say no problem, everyone’s always late.  But this is the US Embassy we were dealing with. 

 

Went in and talked to the security guys.  He had to call up the Consular lady because we weren’t on the list (awesome) and she said we could still come in.  Thank the Lord.  I probably would have lost it if she was strict and refused us or was too busy by then. 

 

Stumbled our way through security screenings and just left our bags there since we had all of our traveling crap that would have set off the alarms.  Followed our armed escort (no wandering around the Embassy, kiddos!). 

 

Thankfully there was a man already yelling at the counter about his own visa application problems.  I felt bad for him and totally agreed with his frustration that things aren’t explained clearly and then we get screwed for it.  I think he hit it on the head when he said “Well if you had told me you needed that form, I could have gotten it for you.  But no one said anything!”  Agreed sir.  Anyways, I felt bad for him but was grateful as his distractions gave me a chance to frantically sort out all of our papers and money.  I’m sure the camera watchers just thought I was a mental case. 

 

Finally the man gave up and it was our chance.  She took all of our paper s and looked through them.  Got to the marriage certificate and turned to walk to her co-worker.   “No no no, don’t you do it.” I muttered under my breath.  But my pleas were unheard by the universe.  The wrong marriage certificate.  Well, not wrong, just not valid for the US government.  Turns out we needed to take that one down to the central office in Blantyre and have it validated.  Which, of course, had not been told to us beforehand.  Ai ai ai.  It’s a good thing we were already planning to go to BL otherwise I would have had a meltdown right in her office.  She said it happens all the time :)  But I handled it in stride.  And then she told us the other things we’d need for the next step.  A birth certificate, which of course Banda doesn’t have because things here in Malawi are not documented.  So now he has to go to his home village and get one and then take it back down to BL to get it certified.  So, yes angry sir, I agree with you – if they had told us in advance that it had to be centrally registered, we could have done it all in one trip.  But nope, now there’s going to be 40 additional hours of traveling for that little adventure.  Aaaand he has to get a medical exam with lots of vaccinations (which, again, he’s had but were not documented – ARGH Malawi) from an Embassy-approved doctor… which of course are only in LLW and BL….. one would think they could have found someone decent in Mzuzu so us northerners only had to travel 8 hours instead of 24-40.  But nope.  Oh and he needs a police certificate, again from LLW or BL.  So while I understand that standards are higher in the bigger cities and are thus more desirable, it’s just overwhelming in terms of travel for us, people who live in the north and do not have a vehicle.  So anyways, we walked away unsuccessful and I sat outside the office and had a complete meltdown – not because of the marriage certificate, but because of all of the future things and traveling we’d have to get through.  Thank god for sunglasses. 

 

While we were sitting there an American couple coming out of the office offered to give us a lift, but alas was going in the opposite direction.  Thought it was sweet of her to check though and I chuckled as her husband revealed that they were Tar Heels fan and since I had on my Kansas shirt, it never could have worked out anyway. 

 

I recovered over a chicken pita and milkshake and with the decision to take a taxi to BL instead of a bus.  This also meant that we had more free time, so we got to wander through the grocery stores, which are just like being in America!  I’m used to something like a farmer’s market and 1 dinky little grocery store in Karonga, so I was amazed.  We just wandered through the aisles, soaking it all in, rocking out to Taylor Swift and Beatles songs.  Made me miss the States though, plus it was more than a little depressing because I wanted to keep buying stuff but since I make a Malawian wage, I don’t earn enough to buy such Western goods.  However, we did splurge on regularly-purchased things that were significantly cheaper in LLW and BL than they are in Karonga.  Enter 20 cans of tuna.  That’s right.  It was less than half the cost in BL, so we kept buying a few cans at every store we went into.  And then in BL, we got 10 at one place.  Along with 6 Snickers bars.  The check-out lady must have thought we were insane!  We also got some candy, sauce powder packets (will be heavenly to have different tasting food!), and wait for it… syrup!!  Pancakes here we come.  Was a bit disappointed that there was no Spam.  We did find olives though so I’m thrilled that our tuna salad will now contain olives since that’s always my favorite part!  Oh and we got a Nutella substitute.  They had real Nutella but it was far too expensive, so hopefully this stuff is good. 

 

Hung out at a little milk stand at the bus depot with a guy who was kind enough to let me share his bench as Banda went to negotiate for a taxi.  Got one to Blantyre, waited a good while for fuel – the shortage is MUCH worse in LLW where people have to wait for hours, sometimes days, to fill their tanks.  At each station there were dozens of cars just parked along the main roads, their drives wandered off, just waiting for word that fuel has arrived.  I can now understand why the political climate is so volatile.  But this guy cut in line, pissing people off in the process.  And then of course I fell asleep.  This was definitely my pattern since we were always traveling late into the nights after exhausting days, so once sitting, I just passed out. 

 

Woke up to find us driving around Blantyre in the dark, trying to find a hotel.  Neither Banda nor I had stayed in BL before, so we were at a loss.  Finally stopped at some place outside of the city that was relatively cheap.  No mosquito net, light not working, and a crappy breakfast, but the door locked and there was hot water in the morning.  As I laid there I thought about how it was a good thing that I was raised on Motel 6 vacations.  Not to knock Motel 6 at all.  Just saying that it’s good I’m not used to Hilton standards, otherwise, I’d have run screaming in the opposite direction. 

 

Woke up the next morning – Friday – and caught a bus taxi to BL city.  Had no idea where we were going and didn’t pay the guy enough money.  This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as they dropped us before we wanted to, but which was actually the best spot.  Only had to walk 5 minutes to get to the Registrar General where we needed to do all of the marriage certificate stuff.  Headed over there, wheezing at the amount of stairs – there are no 2 story buildings in Karonga, much less 4-story ones! 

 

The lady was not very willing to help but I swallowed my irritations and was polite.  Paid back because between my calmness and Banda’s respectfulness, we got it done, despite realizing that the stupid officials in Karonga hadn’t filled out the original document properly.  Seriously, people how hard is it to do your job properly?!  So there was a frantic hour as we called Gumbo and the brothers trying to get the missing information about our witnesses.  Had to pay extra to have it done in a day rather than the usual 2 weeks, which just about sent me over the edge.  Because it wasn’t a government fee for a rush job – that would have been totally fine.  Nope, it was just dishonest people who wanted a bribe for doing the same job they would have been doing otherwise.  They would have been typing certificates anyway – just mine instead of someone else’s.  But I bit it back and we got the certificate later that afternoon.  The Embassy lady says it’s a true miracle. 

 

Our luck continued as one of the customs clearance guys that we hired happened to be in town and thus picked us up after we finished the marriage certificate stuff.  Thank goodness because we had no idea where we were going otherwise!  He took us to their office where we sorted everything out.  The government paperwork wasn’t cleared until Saturday morning and the trucking company unfortunately wasn’t open on Saturday.  Awesome.  So we had to hang out until Monday morning.  Expensive, but I’d rather stay in BL for some days rather than in LLW.  Mwambira arrived on Saturday morning. 

 

We had a grand time in BL just wandering around.  I love BL and was honestly a bit sad to leave.  It’s not nearly so big of a city, so transportation is manageable.  It’s clean.  The people are friendly.  And most importantly, there’s just an overall sense of order.  Not chaotic at all. 

 

We ate all of our meals at Ali Baba Restaurant, mainly because it was across the street from our hotel.  It was good though – great pizza and sausages and we also got to have our nsima and rice fixes.  It’s funny, I would’ve thought that I’d only eat pizza and cheeseburgers the whole time and yet I found myself missing our Malawian staples.  I think I ate rice and nsima more than anything else!  Although I did eat ice cream at every opportunity :)  We also spent lots of time in the grocery stores, seeking out new items in the different cities, and also some office supply stores.  I even found a book store, which I loved browsing through!  Books stores are virtually unheard of here.  I got some Malawian books for the library though things were so expensive that that kind of hampered me.  Banda’s childhood friend, Adron, lives in BL, so we spent a lot of time chatting with him.  Thoroughly enjoyed him – he reminds me of Raymond, who of course I miss dearly.  We tried to go to a movie at the theater (the only one in Malawi!!) but it was between Kung Fu Panda 2 and some movie in Hindi, so we passed.  Decided to go to a football game instead at Kamuzu Stadium.  Stood in line for 30 minutes and barely moved a meter.  Basically hundreds of people were in line trying to squeeze through a single door.  Sigh, oh Malawi.  We figured by the time we got in, it’d be half-time, and then it’d take at least 3 hours to make it back outside.  So we passed and just went back to the hotel and enjoyed having the opportunity to watch tv – something I haven’t had in 8 months!  I watched 2 “Bring It On” movies, although unfortunately not the first one, but the crappy sequels.  Still enjoyed the experience of it though.  Also watch a documentary about Julia Roberts – who knew she was so scandalous?!  Haha.   My favorite part about BL though (and LLW too) was that there are so many foreigners that hardly anyone gave me a second glance, and I think those that did, only did so because I was clearly “with” Banda.  It was so refreshing to just be invisible and not a freaking amusement show as we foreigners usually are in Karonga where we’re fewer in number and thus an anomaly to be observed.  It was a wonderful break.  There were so many white children I was amazed.  I guess it’s not so daunting to raise children in Malawi when you have immediate access to Western supplies and medical care and can send them to the international schools that are in the cities and actually offer good educations.  I did notice though that all of the white people were only together.  Out of the dozens I saw, there was only one group that was mixed with Malawians.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, I don’t know, but that was a little strange to me, since in Karonga seeing a huge group of only white people is virtually unheard of – at least now that us Marianist volunteers are gone lol. 

 

On Monday morning, bright and early, we went to finalize all the paperwork and picked up the books!  Oh it was such an exciting moment to see those pallets in the warehouse and touch them and know that they had finally made it!  Packed them into the truck, which groaned under their weight, but managed. 

 

Drove around town for an hour trying to find doors for Mwambira and then into Limbe (a nearby township) where after another hour, he finally found them.  2 hours.  Remember that number because it’s important. 

 

Took advantage of that whistle stop to go to the bank.  I’ll never complain about a Karonga bank again as it took exactly 1 hour to be served. 

 

Finally headed out, stopping on the roadside to get some chicken, chips, and sodas for lunch. 

 

While we were driving, I told Mwambira that Banda and I needed to stay in LLW for the night to go drop off the visa paperwork in the morning.  That it’d only take under an hour because it was just dropping them by, so we hoped that he’d wait for us.  He said he wanted to continue on and drive through the night.  I was frustrated, but understood that he had business to get to. 

 

Got a flat tire a few hours in.  The sun was setting by then so it was chilly.  Wrapped myself in a chitenje (cloth) and headed into a field to pee.  Apparently I picked the wrong field because I came out covered in blackthorns – little black thorn seeds – so the boys spent a good amount of time picking them off of me, while we waited for someone to bring a pump because of course the spare tire was flat too lol.  Finally fixed it all and restarted our journey to LLW. 

 

So we made it to LLW around 10 pm and found a lodge.  As we were saying goodbye, I asked Mwambira if he was still going to drive through the night.  He admitted that they’d probably only go to Kasungu, which is about 1.5 hours north of LLW.  My previous frustration quadrupled at this point.  If he were going to get back in Karonga before morning so that he could go to work, I get it.  But seriously, he’s going to leave us here and make us find our own way for a 12 hour journey, just so that he can get a 1.5 hour start on us and still arrive at night?!  I cannot even count the HUNDREDS of hours I spent on my HOLIDAY, driving around town collecting those books for him, doing presentations which terrify me to raise thousands of dollars to fund it all, not to mention the labeling and packaging of the books and my parents driving them to Houston, plus all of the work I did once in Malawi to track the books down.  And we had just spent the day before driving around for 2 hours trying to find his doors.  And yet he cannot wait 2 hours for us to do visa paperwork?!  Anger.  As Banda said, gratitude is shown through actions, not just words.  So it was frustrating to see that all of the kind things and gratitude he was trying to express on Monday morning had evaporated by that evening.  I’m beyond appreciative that he used his truck and fuel to go get the books (certainly no small task!) but it’s still irritating.  This is doubled by the ultimate discovery that he arrived in Karonga at 11 pm on Tuesday evening – the exact same time that we did.  And yet we had to pay for taxis so that we could essentially travel parallel to him because he couldn’t be bothered to wait 2 hours.  But to be positive about it, I’m holding on to the fact that multiple community will now have access of thousands of books.  That is worth it. 

 

So whatever, he left.  We moved on.  Banda and I stayed at a different lodge in LLW because Mabuya was full.  Highlight of the evening was waking up to a huge thud in the middle of the night as Banda randomly fell out of bed.  :)

 

On Tuesday morning we headed to the Embassy.  It was much easier this time as we knew where to get off the minibus so we only had a 20 minute walk rather than over an hour.  Got there a bit early and managed to finish everything by 11.  Nearly died when they told us we’d have to pay another $400 on top of the $420 we’ve already paid.  No wonder so few Malawians make it to the US.  So much for an immigrant nation.  But anyways, the initial paperwork is done and the process has begun! 

 

A kind man picked us up at the corner and drove us all the way to the Shopright parking lot.  He refused to accept any money for it, even when Banda reflagged him down and tried to hand it through the window.  Made my heart feel good about the state of humanity. 

 

After picking up some peanut butter and 2 more cans of tuna, we headed to the bus depot to find a taxi.  Our thinking was that maybe we could travel fast enough to catch Mwambira in Mzuzu and go with him to Karonga.  And we didn’t want to get caught in Mzuzu for the night because if we’d taken a bus, we’d get into Karonga at about 2 in the morning.  Got a phone call from Mwambira while we were at the depot, saying that he was still in Kasungu.  Awesome!  I was hoping he could just get lunch and we’d find him there, but he was already on the road by the time my call went through.  And when I asked him to at least wait in Mzuzu, he was incredibly hesitant.  Frustrating since a taxi is clearly going to make up most of the ahead start that his overloaded slow-moving truck had.  But instead we spent the next 3 hours getting a taxi and waiting in a fuel line so that the driver could get a full tank of gas (whereas if we were just going to Kasungu, he’d already have enough).  Great.  And then he pulled over outside of town and we got to sit for awhile while he removed his taxi license plates and replaced them with those of a personal vehicle.  Because he wasn’t registered to travel outside of LLW.  Grreeeeat.  Should have known then that this wasn’t going to be a good experience! 

 

But we continued on and were traveling super fast.  We were totally going to catch Mwambira in Mzuzu.  We were having a great ride – enjoying our strawberries (first time I’ve ever seen them in Malawi!) and chocolate covered donuts.  And then it all went to hell.  The guy was going too fast down a hill and hit a speed bump, breaking the bearing in his wheel.  So he fish-tailed down the hill.  It was a really crappy spot to have a breakdown.  In a valley of 2 very steep hills, complete with corners.  So I got out to pee of course and the guy got to work fixing.  He had no idea what he was doing and in trying to reassemble, left some parts out.  That’s never a good sign lol.  The original plan was to send a passerby to the nearest town to buy the part and bring back laborers to fix it.  No problem.  However, we were stuck in such a bad place that no one would stop to pick him up.  So we stood there for over an hour with everyone just whizzing by.  By this point it was getting dark.  And I was ready to go since our window of catching Mwambira had closed and we were doomed to another taxi.  So I wanted to get going since it was clear that the car wouldn’t be fixed anytime soon. 

 

So we offered to pay the guy 2/3 of the original fare, since he had gone 2/3 of the journey.  Seemed fair and rational to us according to the amount of time and amount of fuel he had used.  Right?  Well the taxi driver insisted that we either wait or pay the entire amount before leaving him.  HAHA.  Tried to reason with him for a while but he just kept insisting.  Devolved into loud speaking as he was being a jerk, with him ultimately yelling “tien!” which means “let’s go!” which apparently has the same violent connotation that it does in the States.  I was dazed, could not believe that this asshole was threatening to beat Banda because we were trying to pay him for the work he had actually done.  What it is about some people that they feel entitled to be paid for work they haven’t done?!  We’ve had this problem more times than I can count with virtually everyone working on the house construction, not to mention other professionals in Karonga and other taxi drivers we’ve encountered.  In the midst of this, a kind lady stopped to pick us up, so we tried to get our bags and give him the 2/3 money.  He refused and instead grabbed Banda’s bag.  So we’re trying to get his hands off and he then grabs my bag which is on my shoulder.  Yanks and spins me around.  This makes Banda angry of course.  And I’m scared.  But we stand our ground and just keep trying to pry his fingers loose.  By this point, I’m telling him that I’m going to call the police and they can sort it out and that they’re not going to be happy to see those license plates hidden in his trunk.  But of course I don’t know the number because there’s no 911 here (that I know of??).  Well the universe finally decided to smile on us because at the very moment that I was feeling like things were out of control, a police vehicle came cruising down the hill.  Hallelujah!  I flagged them down.  The jackass taxi driver started trembling.  The police officers listened to our story and within 5 minutes told me to pay the guy the 2/3 amount and feel free to be on my way.  The poor lady was still waiting anxiously, so we paid the jerk and hopped into the back of her truck.  Left my notepad in the taxi :(  I was so proud of myself for keeping such detailed records of all of our expenses.  And my awesome pen that Ms. Kim had given me.  But, as Banda said, at least I didn’t leave a phone or something really important!  So anyways, I was just so grateful to get out of there without something terrible happening.  I’ve never been so grateful to see the police!  I’m a bit worried about going back to LLW though and encountering the taxi drivers.  News travels fast and we’re pretty conspicuous as a mixed-race couple, so everyone will know.  Sigh.  And the guy was still getting questioned when we left so I’m pretty sure he got slapped with a huge fine for the license plates.  Even though I didn’t tell the officers about it (thought that would be too mean of me), the very fact that he had been hired a taxi and didn’t have the right colored plates will be enough for the fine! 

 

Slept in the back of the lady’s truck.  She dropped us at the bus depot in Mzuzu.  Yet another example of good humanity.  I had had enough sense to call Wangani, the nice taxi driver from the week before and ask him if he could take us to Karonga because Mwambira’s phone wasn’t reachable.  Wangani was kind enough to wait for us until 8 pm, a real blessing because there was only 1 other driver there, so we would have been up a creek.  Again, wonderful humanity.  He got us to Karonga in only 3 hours, so we arrived at 11 pm.  So happy to be home after the whole mess and a week of travel. 

 

Mwambira came over the next morning to unload the books at MIRACLE.  Found out that he arrived at 11 pm too.  Whoot whoot.  Anyways, got the books into the library and will work sometime during the holiday to get them on the shelves so that they’re ready for the students to use!  So excited that they finally made it to Karonga!! 

 

So in summary, I’m just glad that it’s over.  Well it’s kind of over.  Mwambira’s building hasn’t been built yet because no one believed the books were really coming.  So now he’s getting on that and will hopefully get it done before Banda and I leave.  He claims it will be fast, but I’m not holding my breath since this is Malawi and things just move slower here.  Despite all of the taxi mess, we still ended up under-budget thanks to our awesome customs clearance agent who got the government to waive any duties – so basically everything on this end was a lot less than I budgeted for.  So that’s good.  I should even have some money left over which I’ll probably either donate to a library project NGO or use to buy more technical books for MIRACLE.  Not sure yet.  Was blessed and uplifted by examples of good humanity and frustrated by not so shining examples.