Going to Town

There are certain things we can't get or do in our site, which is somewhere between a village and small town on the amenities spectrum. Several tasks had been accumulating on our 'things to do in Blantyre' list, such as use the internet beyond emails (which is the limit to our cell phone-based service) and buy toilet paper. Most importantly, we wanted to try our luck at getting our airplane tickets home for Christmas break. To make the most of our day, we started early, leaving the border town on the 5:30am bus. Traveling on an actual bus has several advantages over mini-buses: it's safer, faster, cheaper, more punctual, and you actually get leg room. During the 2 ½ hour ride, we graded tests, a process that always seems to attract lots of attention and questions whenever we do it in public. Our few Chichewa phrases are usually enough to answer and get plenty of laughs. At this time of year in the southern hemisphere, jacarandas are in bloom, and Blantyre is full of these lavender beauties. Even with all the hecticness that comes with visiting the city, we still found some time to stroll a couple flower-lined lanes and sit leisurely at the Old Manager's House where a pleasant breeze dislodged blossoms that gently rained down on us. Our visit to the city was jam-packed with delicious food, chatting with a couple of PCVs we bumped into (we can spot our fellow volunteers), haggling with curio vendors over potential Christmas presents, and multiple stressful internet sessions focused on finding airfare within our budget. We were successful on all fronts, getting such specialty items as carrots, green beans, garbanzos, fresh ginger and honey. We even bought some frozen sausages and ground beef, packing them in an improvised cooler of newspaper and plastic bags. We spent every Kwacha we had, but luckily we had hidden the 860 Kw we needed to get back home. Janet found an authentic Indian food place right next to the Hindu temple, and we got a soft serve cone at our favorite ice cream dispenser. Luc even had time to go to part of a service at the only Mormon chapel in the entire region, even though he spent most of the time talking with the American and Zimbabwean missionaries there. Best of all, we got tickets home, flying through Dubai on Emirates Air. The Dubai to LAX leg is 17 hours, one of the longest flights in the world. The $2800 price (total) exceeds all of our living expenditures to date for a full year in Africa! So that was our action-packed trip – it might sound mundane to city folk, but each little activity is a special treat for those of us living in the bush.