“Okay, here’s one!” I exclaimed, “If you could only have one vehicle for the rest of your life and money wasn’t an issue, what you choose?”
I was excited about this one…the other questions that were asked weren’t catching my interest; what one place would I like to live the rest of my life? Seriously, why would I want to stay in one place…..
I of course had my answer to my question; it was an easy one, “The H1 Humvee, full military edition of course!”
On June 14th we crossed over the border here into the beautiful country of Malawi. It was a tiresome journey to get through Zambia as the roads were very poor and often times the maximum speed was 40 kms an hour or so. Potholes littered the highway not to mention no divider line between lanes. So with our small Toyota Tazz we pressed on in daylight hours and enjoyed the trip as much as we could till we got to the border. We had heard from multiple people on our trip that the “grass was greener on the other side” so to speak and we trusted it. And so after 3 days of driving, 2 flat tires, extremely shady motels, 5 people squished in a small car designed for 4, we made it through the country of Zambia…….in one piece!
The atmosphere at the border was as per usual. Our fearless team leader Kim had us go in shifts into the border post to get our exit stamps and figure out our car papers. The borders here in Africa are always busy. It’s as if the people had never seen white men before, or maybe they’ve had so much luck ripping them off, they were overjoyed by the “fresh meat”. It was hard to tell. I had man after man come to me asking if I was willing to give them one of my wives. Lucky me I thought, then I shoved my pride down and said that my sisters weren’t interested in living in Zambia (then it occurred to me that they actually wanted to get out of Zambia and what a better way than marry an American and move over there). None the less, we did our business and proceeded through no-man’s land until we got to the Malawi Border Post.
As we parked our car in an actual parking space (which was new to us see at a border), and not the side of a narrow road, we stepped out and organized ourselves once again for our tasks at the border. I don’t know what it was, but the atmosphere here was something new to me. There wasn’t any urgency what so ever…..in anyone. It seemed like time itself was at half speed. It was a wonderful feeling. I cannot describe the peace that I felt as I waited outside the car and made small talk with those around me. People were friendly and no matter what always seemed to have a smile on. We asked for basic directions to make sure our map lined up then we were on our way. It wasn’t long before we noticed that we could trust the highway and actually drive the speed limit and not have to worry about a pothole that would swallow up our car in one go. It was quite the peaceful, scenic drive for the next 2 days as we made our way to Blantyre and then the next day to Mulanje.
Now after navigating through 85 kms of uncharted territory for World Racers, we made it in roughly one and a half hours to Mulanje. We asked lot of people a lot of questions in regards to making sure we were in fact on the right highway. People were always eager to help, so why not keep asking them, right? Well all they had to say was keep driving toward the big mountain, for that’s what we did for that hour and a half. The road seemed like it was heading straight for it. It turns out that this big mountain that we saw stick up out of the flat rural land had a range extending out behind it. This was Mount Mulanje; the third highest peak in all of Africa (where was this in my geography class?). It was a beautiful site. The ever daunting cliff edge stood straight up and seemed to literally shoot straight up from the ground. There were no rolling hills to start off the mountain range as we’re used to back home in the Rockies.
At the small town of Mulanje, we met our contact; Pastor Duncan. He met us with a huge grin and welcomed us to Malawi. He looked at our car and chucked to himself and I would soon find out why. He mentioned that there was a little bit more to drive and so I hoped in with him into his little Off Road Vehicle and the Tazz followed close behind. As we continued to move along, the nice dusty road mad a turn and then I realized what Duncan was grinning about. Every 3 feet was a new pothole and even though many of them were pretty shallow, the car had maybe 8 inches of clearance. Now I was grinning from cheek to cheek, wishing that we had spent 5 more times our budget and invested in my H1 Humvee.
After 2 more hours of driving we made it the Australian Secondary Private School. This would be our home for the next 17 days. Duncan welcomed us into his home and shared with us the ministries that he is involved with. We listened patiently as he spoke in a crazy new dialect of English that took some work to understand. But more than the ministry opportunity, I think we were more excited for a place to call our home; it had been over 2 and a half weeks since we stayed in one place for more then 3 days (which happened only once). And when that realization set in, we began preparing for our tasks the next morning……
End of Part – 1.
