Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Another Travel Day...

Sorry for the boring posts....I'm having internet issues and cannot post any pictures which makes it kind of hard to tell a story...and we still haven't started our work yet, so far we have just been travelling to get here!

Today we travelled from Lilongwe to Muzuzu, which is in the Northern Region of Malawi. 
The scenery was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the roads were amazing, not at all what I was expecting!  Considering we were going to the far North I thought the roads would be more like Ghana (4X4 country!) but they weren't at all, they were just like the highways back home so we were able to travel up to 130 kms/hr with our driver Venge, who is an Accountant with MUSCCO and his wife and 2 year old daughter, Rose who was a delight to sit beside...I was bribing her with some of my gummy bears from home! :)

We met with Ezekiel tonight, he is the Regional Manager for the Northern SACCO's.  When we first met I gave him a firm handshake...so he went into an extra shake and then clasped my hand and I automatically went into a Ghanaian handshake from last year...hahahaha......we all laughed, then Venge had to shake my hand again so he could give me a Ghanaian handshake too.....hahaha...it was great, although I have to admit I was a little rusty...but I think I took them by surprise!

We have more travel in store for us tomorrow as we drive to Karonga, we are hoping to finally visit with the SACCO there and get to work! They asked what time we wanted to leave in the morning and we said 8:30, and they said how about 9:00....so I asked is that REALLY 9:00 or do you mean 9:30....and they laughed and said Malawian Time! A-HA.....so there is a "Malawian Time" and a "Ghanaian Time"...I think I shall just refer to this as "African Time" from now on......

Our first year coaches learnt all about African Time this morning...although they tried to hide it I know they were a little ancie this morning waiting for our rides as our drivers arrived over an hour late...hahahaha.......their first lesson from Africa...to just relax and live in the moment...I hope they can do that so they have an incredible experience here, it is such an amazing place with so many life lessons to learn if we sit back and take a moment and really appreciate them....

P.S. my hotel in Muzuzu (http://www.sunbirdmalawi.com/) is right beside a very nice golf course, but unfortunately my partner Garth doesn't golf...but I'm going to take one for the team and see if I can play a round...how cool would that be to go golfing in Malawi! YES!

P.P.S. I'm starting to recover a little from the Malarone pills and don't feel like I've had a half dozen kuche kuche's today! HAHAHA....

Tionana Mawa (see you tomorrow!)
Heidi in Muzuzu