We're in Malawi

It’s morning in Malawi. We arrived in Lilongwe at 1 am, after an 11 hour bus ride from Lusaka. I think Zambia may be one of the most beautiful, least touched places on earth. Roughly 13 million people populate both Zambia and Malawi. Malawi’s 13 million are densely packed into an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania, while Zambia has at least three times that land mass. Nearly 90% of Malawians live in rural areas, while many more Zambians stay in the cities. All of this said, Malawi is almost completely deforested, while most of Zambia remains untouched forest.

It rained throughout our journey, and rainbows abounded. The “luxury coach” leaved a bit to be desired. Some beetle/roach-like insects decided to make the bus their home (no wonder, the way our neighbor kept throwing chicken scraps at our feet), which made us somewhat uncomfortable. Our ride in Lilongwe was unable to meet us, so we had to wedge 10 pieces of luggage (as well as ourselves) into a tiny taxi before going to Margaret’s relatives’ house to sleep.

We are well rested now, and will be leaving tomorrow morning for Balaka – about a 4-5 hour journey by Shire bus (this is the slow one, but it will accommodate our many bags). We look forward to checking on the progress of our sponsored students as well as the youth centre. From here on out, our internet access gets a little sketchy. We’ll try to write as often as we can.