So we made it to Lilongwe, Malawi and was it a trip! The flight from Washington/Dulles to Johannesburg, South Africa was about 14 hours. Luckily, I checked out seatguru.com before I left and totally lucked out with my seat. I had a HUGE amount of legroom and I was in the back, so there wasn’t anyone else in my row. Therefore, I could completely spread out in any direction I wanted. Also, the people around me were super nice and I ended up getting the contact information of a friend of the woman sitting to the left of me who lived in Malawi. The food wasn’t too bad, either. The drunk guy behind me kept telling me the flight would go by fast, but he also mentioned he had drank a $50 tab at the bar (the trip did NOT go by fast!). I could hear him snoring the entire trip. I ended up watching Wall-E, Hancock, and Baby Mama on the way, and it was nice because we had our own TV’s and “movies on demand”. I also met one of the other World Camp girls, Jessica, before boarding the plane, so we looked for each other when we got to South Africa.

Going through the Johannesburg airport was pretty easy. Customs was quick and we made it to baggage claim fairly easily. Unfortunately, my baggage was missing when I got there, so I asked the attendant who said it had been sent directly to Malawi (but I had an overnight transfer in Johannesburg!). So, I didn’t have any overnight stuff for last night. On the way out of the airport, we were escorted by a security guy to the place where the shuttles came, and he stood around expecting a tip (which we were completely oblivious to). Then, some guy offered us a ride (which we did not take!), and finally our shuttle showed up. A guy walked over and started talking to us about Tupac Shakur (he lived in America!) and the airports he knew from the US (New York, Washington/Dulles, California, etc..) and we ended up giving him $5 each (later we found out that was a HUGE amount!). Jessica and I made it to the Airport Grand hotel (which was not as nice as the hotel we passed on the way!). At one point we ventured out of the hotel and walked across the street to the gas station to get a calling card (which doesn’t work internationally, apparently) and then to the Pick N’Pay gas station where I bought a t-shirt (which ended up being too short), a magazine in Zulu, and a lunch container for $5. We walked back to the hotel and used up our one hour of internet, then had dinner at the hotel bar. I got the hake fish and chips with the most bizarre tartar sauce, and a glass of St. Vincent. Jessica got the burger, and said the sauce was a sort of barbecue sauce but not at all close to American bbq.

After dinner, we watched some TV and I passed out in the room at about 9pm. Of course, I woke up around 4am when Jess and I couldn’t sleep (horrible jet lag) and we stayed up until about 5am before going to sleep until 9:30am, when we jumped up realizing we had to leave at 10am and neither of us had taken a shower or anything. So, we got ready and grabbed a shuttle to the airport (they told us to be there 2 hours ahead of our flight) and got through security uneasily quickly. The metal detector went off for Jess, and the security guard just ‘frisked’ her with no metal detector or anything, then let her through. The airport in Johannesburg has all sorts of neat shops which we both wanted to buy things but thought it might be too premature in the trip. They also do not operate on strict time like the U.S. The ticket counter lady gave us seats next to each other and told us our flight would board at 11:40, but we ended up sitting around until 12:30 to board. While waiting, I tried to use the pay phones to call home (to no success), then realized it was only 4am Eastern time!

Plane ride was short and easy (though the plane was nothing to write home about) and the landing was pretty scary considering the fact that we saw absolutely nothing out the window but grass and trees for about two miles before we landed. Customs was quick, and we noticed that they took down all our passport information by hand instead of computer. It must take them forever to find information when something comes up! So we get through customs and head towards the baggage claim, and yet again my bag is nowhere to be seen. So the guy takes my information (writes it down on a piece of paper) and tells me to check back tomorrow. Great. Scott and Bret meet us at the airport and drive us 20 minutes down a bumpy street to the house, which turns out to be almost like a ‘Real World’ house. We have a gate watch during the day and 2 guards at night, and the house has barbed wire and an alarm system, so it’s pretty safe here. We even have our own pool! Everyone so far has been super friendly and the house seems like a great bunch. There are two more coming today, and two tomorrow (so a total of 15 of us in the house). Hopefully my luggage will get here!