Senga Bay to Lilongwe

Monday November 16, 2009

I was up at 4:45 AM; Suzi quickly followed me nearly 3 hours later! Yes, that is pretty early, but when I went outside I was faced with a matchless sunrise. For nearly an hour I watched the fishing boats come in from night fishing. Since the fishing villages are next to Cool Runnings we get a close up view of the boats coming in. I never tire of watching them. They work so very hard, especially when the surf is high, yet they continue on and on until they succeed. Sort of a commentary view of the state of the nation as a whole.

Around 7 AM Tom, Suzi and I had breakfast, great meal as always. This is one of our favorite places in all of Malawi to eat. After the meal, a pot of tea, and morning planning with Samantha, Tom started the training session on the newest V-Tractor that arrived in the country one week earlier. By around noon the sun had become unmerciful, and the heat was so oppressive even most Malawians headed for shelter. We were the only ones outside. Finally exhaustion drove us inside for an hour to deal with the headaches that accompanied the high temperature.

Around 2, still far too hot to be outside, but by necessity of schedule, we head to the farm of Chief Mdalakwanda who is the tribal authority over the villages that surround Cool Runnings. He has 13,000 people for whom he watches over and this is not our first meeting. He is gracious and very excited with the tractor that will help him provide for his people. The location is close enough to Cool Runnings that one of the men trained during the morning session drives the V-Tractor through the villages, while we go on ahead to be ready when he arrives. As he rounds the last curve we can see a large number of children excitedly running on both sides of the tractor. Sort of like a Presidential caravan and admiring fans and admirers running along to get a closer look at, and be seen, near the President.

Around 3 in the afternoon we quickly pack up and leave for Lilongwe where we have evening dinner plans. Tom will remain behind and we’ll make the trip back to Senga Bay the next morning to pick him up, and go down to Dedza to conduct a refresher course for the men who were trained on an earlier V-Tractor last year. But first, it is necessary to stop in Salima to get a new tire to replace the one that is tread bare naked.

The men at the tire store are efficient and quick and after relieving me of about $150.00 for the tire we are on the way across the 117-kilometer trek to the capital. Tarmac all the way so the travel is easy, although the heat gage is still struggling with trying to complete with the temperature outside and we find it necessary to leave the air-conditioning off.

By 5 we check in to a very nice bed and breakfast and start making preparations for the evening with the Vice President of Malawi. But suddenly, the electricity goes off. That seems to follow us everywhere we go this year, and seems a bit worse than in years past. Now the term “a bit” has a hard time defining trying to find everything you need in 6 pieces of luggage that have been packed and repacked numerous times since arriving in the country. By the time I find my toothbrush I am so exhausted I am thinking about taking a nap. Now where did I put my tie? And Suzi is having the same problem in the dark. “No, Suzi, I haven’t seen it. Are you sure we packed it?” But finally, with a little candle light from the folks who own the B & B, we’re on the way to see the Vice President promptly at 7:30.

The evening could not have been more pleasant. We were acquainted with the Rt Honorable Joyce Banda well before she reached this high level in government, and her and Suzi had worked together on other projects in the past. Tonight she is very gracious and immediately puts us at ease and on a first name basis. This allows us to relax and enjoy the evening without trying to remember all of the proper protocol that goes with the position. We discuss the present programs of the Malawi Project, including the new international school that will be coming to Malawi, as well as various other needs of the country. Then around 9 we move to the main dinning room for the evening meal. There is so much good food you do not want me to try to list it all. It is just too good! Two of her daughters join us for the meal and they are just delightful and very pleasant.

All too soon time passes and the evening is late. But our time together is far from being complete. Earlier in the evening we discussed the new V-Tractors. The Vice President is quite impressed and upon learning that one of the units is in Senga Bay she decides to change her plans for the following morning and meet us there to meet Tom and see the unit.

We head back to the B & B quite excited (now the word “excited” does not quite describe how we were feeling but for lack of finding words that are hard to find, we’ll just say “excited”. The owner is still up and we advise her that we will have to settle up tonight since we will have to leave no later than 5:30 in the morning. She surprises us by saying that she will be up by 5 and will have breakfast ready in time for us to eat before we leave. Neat. We turn in about 11:00, or maybe it’s 12:00. Actually not sure what time it is!