After four long flights totaling about 20 hours in the air and a 10 hours layover in London (a chance to get some excellent fish and chips at a pub by Covent Garden, a few photo ops by Big Ben, The London Eye and The House of Parliament) we arrived in Malawi around 10:00 am this Wednesday. All our 10 checked pieces of luggage made it and only one was searched by US employees (they left their standard form informing us). Ironically, the only bottle that leaked was in that bag…not sure if it was a coincidence or a result of the search!
Lilongwe airport is on the small side. We went down the stairs to the tarmac where a bus took us to the terminal. After a check for the yellow fever vaccine on our international health carnet, we were let in the country. We then went through Malawi Custom, where we presented our passports and our temporary work permit – and received another stamp in our passport. After a quick stop at the Duty Free (I recommend you get some alcohol, as it is much cheaper than in the stores) we collected our bags and went through the last check. I was asked to open one bag for a quick check and we were let through.
Robertson, a driver from the school, was there to welcome us and to drive us to the house in the big school bus… which quickly became full of our bags and bags for a returning family.
The drive from the airport to the house took us about 40 minutes and gave us the opportunity to enjoy our first look at Malawi’s countryside and at the city of Lilongwe.
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