We've arrived!

We finally arrived in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi at 2pm on Sunday afternoon after a long, tiring journey. Nairobi airport was an experience; a bustly, dark and warm long corridor. We didn't stay there for long and were soon on the Kenyan Airways flight to Malawi. An unexpected stop was a 90 minute wait in Lusaka, Zambia where we sat in the aeroplane on the tarmac in the baking heat. During the wait we had the joy of having the cleaners hoover and clean the plane under our feet. Many people got off here and after about an hour another group of people got on and joined up, including an international youth football team called 'The Lepoards'. We were soon on our way and an hour later arrived at our final destination. After a longish nervous wait to see if our baggage had followed us and having to open everything up and repack in customs , we walked out into reception to a wonderful welcome by Mzondi, Andrews and Mary. Our South African friends had arrived an hour earlier so we also greeted Cosmo, Craig, Nila a Mousa. Our convoy of 4 wheel drives made the 26 km drive into the city to our lodge for the night. The sights and smells were all new; ladies carrying big baskets on their heads, men on bikes carrying big bales of straw, fruit being sold under every tree, lambs hanging and being skinned from a branch and the meat being sold to passers by. The land is dry and dusty, but with areas of trees and bushes with brightly coloured birds and new to all of us - sunbirds, rollers and storks.
We arrived at our lodge which is nice and comfortable. It has lovely showers and very few mosquitos! We even watched Wolves vs Wigan on Sky Sports! After refreshing ourselves we set off to down town Lilongwe for a meal, via 'SPAR'(we're keeping an eye out for Asda!) to buy water. We enjoyed a meal of Chicken piri piri and chips. Everyone is so relaxed and calm here, always smiling. By using a bit of Chichewa language and saying 'Zikomo' which means thank you brings our smiles all round. An early night due to our long journey had us all in bed by 9pm! Nos da.