Back to Malawi...for the first time

Sitting in the Joburg airport Mugg & Bean café, I am jittery with excitement about being back in Africa. It’s either that or the jetlag-and-cappuccino combo I’m working with right now. I am, in the words of my mother, an "African-hearted girl", and I'm thrilled to be back!

This time, instead of returning home to Lusaka, I’m on my own, heading to Blantyre, Malawi for 9 weeks to work on child nutrition research studies – specifically on maternal social support and infant feeding, and a new ready-to-use-therapeutic food used to treat child malnutrition. I’ll be living and working with the folks at Project Peanut Butter.

Traveling to Malawi has a special place in my heart, and here’s hoping the rest of my travel to Blantyre is less eventful than the last time I tried to go to Malawi in ’09. Forever in the books as the greatest Craig family vacation adventure (followed closely by Zanzibar ’10 and Ascension Island ’13…), our trip to Malawi was something no seasoned traveler could have anticipated. Our extensive packing and preventive checkup on our Prado left us assured that it would be an uneventful drive, but a jack-knifed truck blocking the road, some guys’ homemade toll collection to let cars around it (which, as I recall, my dad avoided by acting like he only spoke Spanish), and then finally our car deciding not to start after a pit-stop in the bush suggested otherwise. 

The great part about being stranded in the bush with no cell service in 92 degree October sun is that it’s not raining. The downside is that there is no cell service and it’s 92 degrees out. Long story short, after a full day on the side of the road, we rode in the back of a flatbed truck to a little tiny town called Nyimba with our Prado in tow, stayed in one room of an equally tiny guesthouse without running water, and made our way back home the next day, taking the last 5 seats on a bus to Lusaka. 

I learned two things on that trip. First, I have the best family. How many families do you know that would have a total blast being lost in the bush in October and still love each other after a night in a boiling hot room all crammed into 2 small beds? Love them. Second, I learned that despite the most meticulous planning and preparation, things just don’t always go according to plan. Thank goodness we have a God who’s bigger than all that who's ultimately in control. I hope I can remember that this summer through all the challenges and adventures this trip will bring!

More to come soon!