David Leventhal

Well, I made it to Malawi yesterday morning with no problems…other than a really early start. We had to leave the hotel in Uganda at 3:15 a.m. to catch the 5:25 a.m. flight out of Entebbe. There were about 10 folks from various Opportunity implementing partners on the flight from Entebbe to Nairobi.  It was a short flight of about an hour.  Our layover in Nairobi wasn’t too long (though it was long enough to sit down for a good cup of coffee at Java House (the only redeeming thing about the airport) before we took off for Lilongwe, Malawi. There were about 5 of us from Opportunity on this two hour flight & we landed around 9:30 a.m.  You lose an hour going from Kampala, Uganda to Lilongwe, Malawi.  I find this extremely puzzling since Lilongwe is directly due south of Kampala (which I realize probably reveals my ignorance about whatever subject covers that type of information).  Anyway, I landed, got my luggage, bought a new SIM card with a Malawian phone number, found the driver who was picking me up and headed off to the hotel.   I arrived at the hotel around 11:00 a.m.

I’m staying at a place called Wendel’s Guest Lodge.  It’s a quaint little place that I would describe as large bed & breakfast.  There are nine rooms all situated facing a pool (not to dissimilar from Alexander’s Hotel in Tanzania where Missy & I stayed a couple months back).  I got settled into my room, had lunch, sent some email, took a shower & a much needed 2 ½ hour nap (which after only getting one hour of sleep the night before did not leave me feeling refreshed).  And in a somewhat concerning discovery – the hot & cold knobs along with the shower head had a small, but extremely annoying electrical current running through them.  I couldn’t feel it when I was standing outside of the shower but when I got in I must have become a path for the electricity (again, I realize I’m probably revealing my ignorance of physics – however…ask me about 80′s hard rock and I’m good!).  Fortunately this did not happen again this morning & I took note that I had all the lights off in the room..so perhaps that’s the trick.

Back to yesterday…about 6:15 p.m. I met John Fromm who is the COO of Opportunity’s Malawi operation.  John is an American but has spent much of his career living overseas with various organizations (mostly Bank of America).  We had a great dinner at the hotel.  We laid out my tentative itinerary for the week which should allow me to spend time within most areas of the bank.  I’ll also get to go out to some of the various branches.  Exhausted, I managed to crawl into bed about 8 p.m. & slept solidly until 5 a.m.  Now I would not normally classify getting up at 5 a.m. a good thing…however, I was able to catch up with Missy via IM for about 45 minutes before she went to bed.  So…today, getting up at 5 a.m. was a good thing. 

Here are a few pictures of Wendel’s.  I’ll post more when I get a chance.