Heading
Today the members of our team, travelled from various locations across Canada, to meet in Toronto airport. After some brief introductions and a quick breakfast, we boarded our flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
After 13 hours, some snoring, sightseeing from the sky and stiff legs, we safely arrived on African soil.
We were all pretty thankful to be able to walk around, use a normal bathroom, stretch our legs and get our first look at Africa. Addis Ababa is the main hub, and home to approximately 5.7 million people.
We soon were called for boarding, where we took a bus to our outdoor terminal.
After another 4 hour flight we finally made it to our final destination, Blantyre, Malawi.
The highlight for a lot of us was we stepping off the plane, and being greeted with a warm, humid rush of air and light breeze.
Once through customs & security, we loaded our supplies and luggage onto the bus and made our way to the compound for the weekend.
We quickly got our rooms and bags sorted and loaded back into the van to do some errands in Blantyre.
First order of business was to get our USD currency changed to local currency, Kwacha.
This was an experience I think none of us will soon forget. We did a side deal with a local fella where Jason bartered to get us a better exchange rate.
After exchanging currencies, everyone in the van was put to work and we counted the massive stacks of Kwacha.
When the deal was done, we made our way to the Timotheos Foundation Headquarters where we had the opportunity to meet various staff members, while enjoying a time of fellowship and toured the facility.
At this point all of us had been up for around the 36hour mark. Energy levels and eyelids were dropping rapidly at this point.
It was time to refuel our bodies, so we made our way to a nice local Italian restaurant for pizza. It was a blessing to come around a table and share our first Malawi meal together.
As the day winds down to a close, we reflected on our travels and our first few hours in Country. Safe to say, we were all pretty in awe of the beauty surrounding us; the landscape, the culture, and the people. Everywhere we looked, we were able to see and appreciate God’s creation, and how vastly different it is from where we came from. We look forward to the work ahead of us and to sleeping on an actual bed tonight!
