Well, I’m back, but having a very hard time with the jet lag this go around. There was only a 7 hour time difference between here and Malawi. That’s hard, but not so bad. It has to be the long flights taking their toll. Despite staying up later and later each night, I’m still waking up around 3:30 or 4:00am and having a very hard time getting any quality rest after that. I can’t wait for this to straighten out!
What is it about third world airlines and screaming babies? I had ANOTHER one on the flight into Frankfurt. At least all my luggage made it through.
As I said before, even though the week in Ethiopia was cut out of the trip, I still had to route through Addis Ababa (that’s AH-baba, not ah-BA-ba). Lufthansa didn’t have a flight from Addis to Frankfurt on Sunday, so I was on Ethiopian all the way. Ethiopian air was described to me as an airline that once was very nice and is back on the way uI can see that. They’re trying hard. There is a brand new terminal at the Addis airport and the airline has a pretty good fleet of planes, including a few long-haul flights. Of course they’re still in Africa and no matter how well you plan or how hard you try Africa will win. Africa Wins Again (AWA) is a popular phrase among expats.
Malawi has been having real power troubles – rolling blackouts throughout the country for weeks now and it will continue that way for months. Of course when it was time to check in, fly out and such we were in the middle of one of the blackouts. In fact it had started at about 10:00am and I was checking in at 4:00pm. Of course there were generators for the critical systems (radar, lights, etc), but nothing for the folks at the counter. There had to do everything by hand with no access to their computers or records. My bags got checked as far as Frankfurt, but once here I had to claim everything, clear customs, and then come back through departures and so on. Not a big deal since I’ve got plenty of time to kill. I also wasn’t able to get boarding passes for the rest of my trip and things were looking tight with only a 1 hour connection in Addis (that turned into 2.5 hours – AWA).
Anyway, I made it and I’m sitting here in Frankfurt Main airport enjoying a croissant and a strong cup of coffee while watching the planes come and go. How bizarre to see the prices here in Euro and not Marks. It is 8:00am and I’ve got 3 hours to kill, but I don’t think the croissant will last that long. I’ve already seen some military traffic come & go. These were transports – a C5A and a C17. I didn’t see any fighters on the tarmac as we taxied up, but there were plenty of transports. I think I remember hearing that the US relocated a lot of its fighter force to Aviano in Italy.
Despite being the armpit of Europe, this can be a neat place to just watch the planes and see all the nationalities represented. A big Quantas 747 just landed – those folks had a long trip!
When I checked in I found out I was selected for further screening at the gate. Yipee. My upgrade out of steerage better come through. I’m going to try to talk my way into the Business Class lounge, but I’m not optimistic. There is no lounge here available to AMEX holders, but if I had a Diners Club… Ah Ha! I was proven wrong! In the Delta concourse (that’s terminal 2, concourse D), the lounge is available to AMEX Platinum holders. I got in, had a nibble, a drink, freshened up a bit and feel like a new person. Amazing what a little time in a real bathroom can do.
So, I got the upgrade after all. I don’t care what anyone says, because the larger seat, better food, more frequent refills of water or whatever, is worth it. Just not having the press of people around is relaxing and almost makes the trip enjoyable.
The lunch on the plane was good. I chose salmon that was encrusted with a breading seasoned with horseradish. Of course there was also the fresh tomato and mozzarella with balsamic vinegar, and the cheese plate and port for desert. All served on real china, and not a rectangular plastic tray. not a meal to be missed at all.
So, final impressions of Malawi. This time of year it’s an okay place. Warm & humid, but not killer. The terrain is quite varied and colorful with lots of greens, reds & yellows. Plenty of critters around, too. All the people were quite nice. They’ve got some real hurdles to overcome, though, like a serious lack of infrastructure to transport commodities around the country and to other places for export. There is no port, so everything has to come & go by road, rail or air.
They could have tourism. Plenty of diverse terrain is available to explore, from mountains over to what turned out to be the southern end of the Great Rift Valley. The lake is beautiful, but you can’t swim in it because of disease, so the attraction is greatly diminished. There really isn’t much to do that isn’t rough tourism. No great shopping or museums, for instance. For folks in North America, the distance is also a killer. There are so many other equally nice places that are substantially less than 22 hours away. I don’t know how many people in the region (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc) have disposable income for tourism, so Europe and the Middle East would have to be the markets. Europe is no closer than the US, really.
3:05 and we’re done for the week. Just need to clean up the room a bit (leave it as I found it), pack up my material and head back to the hotel where I can unwind for a few minutes and then start on my trip report.
I don’t leave Malawi until Sunday. Despite trying, I was not able to rebook my flights to leave earlier than my previously set schedule. So, I have all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday to entertain myself.
Tomorrow, I’m arranging to go to Lake Malawi. Actually, it is more of an inland freshwater sea than a lake. Apparently it is the 11th largest body of fresh water in the world. It is the southernmost lake in the Rift Valley (the valley runs from Malawi north to the Red Sea) and it is only about an hour from here. My hotel has a sister establishment on the lake and I’ll be able to use the beach, etc.
Sunday will mostly be spent checking out of the hotel. With the power challenges the country is having I’m going to leave it plenty of time because something will go wrong. 
Here are some pictures of downtown Lilongwe:
And some shots of the classroom in action:
Finally, since this is the end of rainy season, the sky gets interesting once in a while:
Wrapped things up today with the folk from the USAID missions. The Mission director joined us for a brief closing ceremony and we passed out certificates for everyone. There are going to be some pictures on the USAID/Malawi website soon. As soon as I get the URL I’ll post it.
Though the trip is cut short, I still have to leave on Sunday as was already planned. I’ll fly back through Ethiopia (only a 1 hour layover instead of a week stay) and then on to Frankfurt (6 hour layover) and then home by Monday afternoon.
The regional security officer in Ethiopia has cancelled all pending official travel due to the Iraq situation. Tomorrow I rearrange my flights to head home this weekend.
Bummer. I was looking forward to Ethiopia. Thanks, George.
Day 2 of the TDY (and the first day of the regional training) is done. I’ve got 17 people in the room from 5 countries, representing training staff, computer staff, and the regional inspector general. It is quite a mixed bag.
Like any day, there were highs and lows. Things went pretty well, though. I’m having to modify my usual shtick to account for the fact that in this mixed group I have people who already know some of my material cold, and a few who have never seen it before. Quite a challenge to try to split the difference and engage as many people as possible.
The folks in Ethiopia (my next scheduled stop) are holding my country clearance based on the events in the US last night. With the withdrawl of the Iraq resolution from the UN Security Council, Colin Powell’s speech, and Bush’s ultimatum the Post in Ethiopia is being understandably cautious. They’ve said that they’ll let me know by Thursday or Friday if I can travel. If I can’t, then I scramble for reservations to get back to the States. Maybe I’ll get to see what the flight from Jo’burg to Atlanta is like in that case. I understand that you stop for a refuel in the Cape Verde islands (where???)
Tomorrow at lunch I hope to be able to take a few pictures of the “city” of Lilongwe. The Deputy Director of the Mission commented this morning that you wouldn’t know you were in the city centre if it weren’t for the sign, and he’s right. It really is something to see. Hopefully a picture or two will do it justice.
It is late summer here and the tail end of the rainy season. I’m told it will rain almost every evening. It sure did last night. Thunderstorms and the whole works. The temperature cooled right off, too.
Flowers are in bloom everywhere. Lots of familiar ones: roses, geraniums, vinca, cana, mint (and other herbs), and some tropical stuff that I recognize but can’t name.
It doesn’t feel like I’ve accomplished much today, but I think I’ve got everything ready for tomorrow and I got my long walk in. I’ll have to do some additional photocopying, but that’s no big deal (I think). My first meeting is at 8:00 tomorrow, then two briefings through the morning and the afternoon spent installing and testing TraiNet with some of the Mission staff in the training room. Since they start the day at 8:00, I assume they go until 5:00, but I will likely have to hang out a bit longer to overlap with the folks in DC.
On my walk I went around the section of Lilongwe called the City Centre. Well, what I saw isn’t very urban, to tell the truth. It is more like some moderate-sized clusters of buildings arranged around largish cul-de-sacs, with the clusters connected by decent roads. Being Sunday, nothing was open. I’ll have to try to get down to the Old City at some point and see what’s down there. This really isn’t what I expected at all. That’s not all bad, of course.
There was a rain today, at about noon, that lasted for a couple hours. It’s now about 5:00 and another storm is coming. I can hear the thunder starting. I’m also wondering if we’re at the extreme eastern part of the time zone. By 5:30 the sun will be down.
I made it into the hotel’s business center and fired off a couple emails earlier this afternoon. For about 20 minutes it cost about $5.00. There is supposed to be another internet café about a klick from here but according to my guidebook it is (of course) closed on Sundays. I’m hoping that the Mission will let me plug in the laptop and sync things up while I’m there.
Made it to Malawi safe and sound. I’m staying in (I’m told) the nicest hotel in Lilongwe. The interior of the rooms are quite nice, I admit. I have a room overlooking the hotel’s garden. Cannas and mimosa trees are in full bloom. The interior corridors of the hotel resemble the old dorms in the River Cluster – painted cinderblock
I got two of my three action items accomplished. The shower works, and the water goes down the drain counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise, they say here).
Tried a local beer with dinner. Kuche Kuche is brewed in cooperation with Carlsbad a hundred klicks or so from here. It’s your pretty run of the mill premium pilsner, but it still has a lot more flavor than your typical Bud/Coors/etc.
There are real power issues here. Twice so far we’ve lost power and the hotel generator has kicked in. The air conditioner circuit isn’t on the generator, so when the power goes out, so does the a/c.
Tomorrow is Sunday and a chance to prep and adjust to the time difference. I’ve got to label some CDs, make some photocopies, take a good long walk and get back before the rain in the afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be able to grab an internet connection somewhere to fire off an email or two.