The journey begins again. A bit of a disappointment at the San Francisco airport ticket counter in finding out that I did not have an aisle seat that I usually request for long flights, but a sweet surprise was getting an upgrade to premium class on the SFO to London leg of the flight. “It’s not aisle, but the seats are only 2 across, and you’re gonna love your seat” the woman at the ticket counter told me. Man, was she ever right. The first thing I noticed when I walked on the plane was a bar, complete with bar stools, purple neon lights, and mirrors. The seats were huge with tons of leg room, adjustable footrests, and super reclining. On the seats were bottles of water, blankets, and overnight packs with socks, toothpaste, toothbrush, earplugs, etc. We were offered orange juice and champagne in real glasses before we even took off. Sweet. I was stoked.
Not for long. Our plane taxied to the runway as normal. Once we were at the runway and the plane started accelerating, I started feeling nervous because it didn’t seem like we were going fast enough for take-off. Next thing I know, the pilot hits the brakes and we’re still on the ground. Aborted take-off. We rolled off to a spot near the runway and sat there for what seemed like forever. Finally the pilot came over the intercom to tell us that there had been a malfunction with the throttle, but they were fixing it and we should be ready to go in about 10 minutes. !?! What !?! At this point, all of my fear-of-flying panic has fully kicked in. I was totally not cool with being on a 10 hour flight when the planes’ throttle has just screwed up! We returned to the runway and took off normally, and despite being completely terrified for half of the trip, arrived in London safe and sound.
After sitting around London Heathrow airport for seven hours, I had an 11 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I stayed at a hostel near the airport, Shoestrings, for the night, where I had also stayed en route to Botswana 6 months previously.
On to Malawi the next day, a 2 ½ hour flight from Jo’burg. I had a warm greeting at the airport from 3 people from the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, including my old friend Richard, who I have not seen for almost 6 years! We tossed my luggage into the back of the pickup to do a few errands and for me to get a quick tour of the wildlife centre.
My immediate impression of Malawi is that it is *beautiful* here! Although it is relatively close geographically to Botswana, the landscape is very different. It is somewhat hilly, and looks and feels much more tropical. It reminds me of Costa Rica. I am also shocked at how clean it is compared to Botswana. For being a densely populated capital city, everything is green, tidy, and manicured. There is not trash everywhere like there was in Botswana. It is a much larger city than where I was in Botswana (where ‘town’ was about a mile long), and it’s going to take a while before I get comfortable knowing how to get around and knowing where everything is.
On we went to the centre. It is much bigger than I had imagined, almost the size of a small zoo. We did a quick tour of the current collection, which includes many types of primates, a leopard, hyena, a few birds and snakes, and a lioness, Bella, who was recently rescued from horrible conditions in a Romanian zoo. Many of the animals at the center are on schedule to be released back into the wild, with the exception of a few non-releaseables due to permanent injuries. There is a huge number of staff and volunteers here at the centre, many of whom I have not met yet. From what I was told during the tour, I have a BIG job here, and I am going to be kept very busy managing several aspects of the animals’ care, as well as managing the keeper and volunteer staff. Days will be long. There are no office facilities at the centre, so all day is spent caring for the animals, and all work related email and research has to be done at home in the evening. In addition, I will be assisting with the Lilongwe SPCA programs. At the moment I am feeling pretty overwhelmed – there is a lot to do and a lot of huge responsibilities to take on. I hope that I can live up to their expectations!!
Not sure if I will be able to post pictures this time - I share the internet with several other people in my house, as well as it being slooooow as hell, like slower than dial up! Will try to post a few at a time, though!
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