32 HOURS IN THE CAR

 We decided to take a trip to Malawi to attend a District Conference and meet the members and missionaries there. It was a 12 hour drive to get from Lusaka, Zambia to Lilongwe, Malawi. Crossing the border was a little stressful.  We had to have just the right paper work and money from 3 different countries.  That was a little tricky.  The mission has a nice flat there which is used by the mission president when he visits there.  It was not being used so we stayed there. The next morning drove another 4 hours to get to Blantyre, Malawi just in time for the District Conference.  No extra flat in Blantyre so we stayed in a nice hotel. The roads were so narrow and there were people and chickens and goats and cows and dogs and bicycles and great big trucks that made the driving very scary at times.  I had one incident where, I promise you, Jesus took the wheel.  I had to pull over and compose myself and then I let Craig drive.

  

Sometimes it felt like we had traveled back in time about 100 years.  And then we would see a big cell tower and come back to the future.  There were fields and fields of maize that were all plowed and planted by hand.  The only tool I saw was a hoe.  There was not a single stretch in Malawi where there weren't people walking or riding a bike along the road.  Non stop pedestrians for hundreds of kilometers.

The guys on the bikes carry huge loads which are very heavy as you can imagine.  These guys are packing charcoal which is how everyone does their cooking.

I really don't know how they do it.  One wrong move or bad bump and it's all over.

This one is even higher.  This guy put his hand out when he saw Craig taking his picture.  He wanted some money.

This is Chloe.  I met her at the District Conference in Blantyre and she would not smile for me- not even close to a smile.  After this meeting we headed back to Lilongwe, a 4 hour drive where we stayed for another couple of nights.  The whole 3 nights that we were in Lilongwe, there was no power.  That gets really old.  The poor missionary couple that lives there are very frustrated.  How do you keep food in the fridge or freezer?  They have a generator but it is so loud and the fumes are terrible.  I feel so bad for them.  In Lusaka the power is off where we live every night from about midnight to 8 am.  Sometimes it will just go off randomly or if it rains hard.  Anyway, after we left Lilongwe, we had another 12 hour drive home.  That's the 32 hours in the car.  Craig spent most of that 32 hours in his own head.  I've decided to call it Craigville.  He doesn't need to talk or listen to music or anything.  He calls it Never Ever Land.  I've never been there myself but he spends a lot of time there so it was very quiet in the car.

I counted 35 people get into this van.  I'm not kidding and it was probably 90 degrees outside so I'm pretty sure it was about 150 degrees inside the van.

Craig is about to eat a caterpillar.  No worries- its cooked.  He saw some at a market on the street so he just had to try it.  He had some return missionaries bring him some.  I tasted one and I didn't care for it.  I don't think I'll be preparing any for him.

Here's a good look at them.  He said they taste like bacon but he was not chowing down on them like he does bacon,  I hear they taste really good with Nshima.  We were tempted to try some roasted mice but decided to pass.  They were selling them all along the road side in Malawi.  They refuse to eat  rats though.

This is one of our Self Reliance groups.  They were very impressed with our selfie stick.  They had never seen one before- Imagine that!  It only took us 3 tries to get it right.