A whole new world

Malawi is another world. I arrived safely last night here in Lilongwe after a missed flight, overbooked flight and then a transfer onto another flight through Blantyre to Lilongwe. I slept for 15 hours last night and into today. It was pouring rain when I awoke and that then kept me in bed for another hour or so. Once I was up and about I interacted with some of the staff here at my buddy Eric's place that I'm staying. Eric is a fraternity brother of mine from college, (didn't know I was a frat guy huh?) who is now a pediatrician here in Malawi working for the Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative, or BIPAI for short. It was Eric who I introduced to Ethan at Grassroot Soccer over a year or so ago in hopes that they would be able to work together on a program here in Malawi. The program is now over a year old and recently received funding for a second year. I'll get into specifics later for the program but please feel free to check out the GRS website for info on the program...

My day today after my slumber, was just about shopping for food and a phone. I now have a cell phone and local number. It's amazing how truly connected the world is. Never having traveled to this part of the world I assumed I wouldn't use my phone so I left it at home. I was wrong, I should have brought an old phone and replaced it with a local sim card. In so many ways I am so naive about the way the world works and what's outside of my little bubble in New York and definitely the United States. Malawi is a different world and I feel right now instead of becoming specific about what I saw and how I feel about what I saw, I'm just going to do the best I can to make every day real for myself and real for those of you reading this. So as boring as that is, today I woke up late, went food shopping, and got a cell phone. Huh...that sounds like a pretty average day for anyone, anywhere in the world. So, yes, Malawi is a different world and already in 1 day here I've seen and experienced things I never have in my life but I think it's also important for me to realize that I did exactly the same things here that I would have done in NY. From a results standpoint things got done in the same way. I took money out from a cash machine, asked about prices, haggled a bit for the funcionality of the phone and then paid for it and asked for a receipt...It's nice to be able to see that for myself, especially since when I landed last night I was a little freaked out from all the traveling, being in a new place, etc. Finding something familiar, whether it's a routine, a story, a person, or a phone, can truly put a mind at ease where it belongs...