Our long-awaited journey finally began on June 3. We arrived at the Houston airport with 11 large suitcases, ready to take on the 3-day journey. Our first flight took us from Houston to London, where we had an 11-hour layover. After sitting in the same seat for 10 hours, we were all eager to step out and explore the city. It was really exciting to take the underground to all the iconic sites I had previously only heard of from playing Monopoly. We saw Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, the Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben (under renovation 🙁 ), and the London eye!

After stopping at a local pub for some fish and chips, we excitedly hurried over to see Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station before heading back to the airport.

The next two flights (London to Johannesburg and Johannesburg to Lilongwe) went by pretty quickly. Despite some delays with our aircraft to Lilongwe, we landed smoothly in Lilongwe on the evening of June 5 and were immediately greeted by the lovely and friendly Mr. Richard. He helped us load all our luggage onto a bus and we drove into town to pick up the 4 interns from Tanzania who arrived earlier in the morning. Because of the delays, we decided to spend the night in a hotel in Lilongwe – I finally got to take a warm shower and sleep in an actual bed, so I wasn’t complaining. It was also really nice to get to know the Tanzania interns a little bit over dinner!

We woke up bright and early the next morning to buy new phones and then continue our journey from Lilongwe to the Kabula Lodge in Blantyre. We drove past beautiful mountains, busy markets, and people cooking delicious street food (I saw a lot of donuts that looked really good. Also rats. Didn’t look as good as the donuts…). I couldn’t help but smile because the scenery reminded me so much of my home in India. Exciting fun fact courtesy Mr. Richard: as we were driving, Malawi was directly on our right and Mozambique was on our left!

We checked in to the Kabula Lodge, where we, along with the Tanzania interns, will be staying for the next 2 months, and then headed to town to grab dinner. I was so exhausted, so I went straight to bed when we got back. Here’s a picture of me feeling very proud of myself after struggling for about 20 minutes to get inside my mosquito net.

On Friday, we decided to take the Kabula Lodge shuttle to Queen Elizabeth to introduce ourselves to everyone in the Rice 360 office. It took us a while to find the office, but once we did everyone was so welcoming! I’m sure Kyla, Liseth, and Sally are going to have a great time working here. We also visited the Poly, which is about a 10 minute walk from Queens, and introduced ourselves to everyone in the design studio. The studio had pretty much everything that the OEDK at Rice has, and I’m so excited to start work there on Monday! We got to meet all of the Malawi interns (from Poly and MUST) and they were nice enough to give us a walking tour of the Poly and take us to the nearest grocery store so we could get ingredients for our *drumroll* VERY FIRST HOME COOKED MEAL in Malawi!! They were all so friendly and gave us so many tips and tricks about how to get around in Malawi. I can’t wait to continue getting to know them over the next 2 months.

Fast-forward to the end of the weekend and we are all slowly starting to adjust to our surroundings and this new pace of life. I know where the nearest restaurants are, where to get groceries, and where to go to withdraw money. Every morning we have tea and toast on the patio and the view behind us is literally picture perfect. I honestly think Windows should use it as their next screen saver.

We have attempted home cooked meals, mostly just pasta and rice (my mom would be so proud). We explored the town around us: we went to the nearest mall and to a really cute art café called Kwa Haraba. They have poetry readings every Wednesday evening so we will definitely be going back. My favorite part was getting to visit the Museum of Malawi. I learned so much more about the history of this beautiful country. We have spent time at the lodge getting to know the Tanzania interns and it’s so fun talking about the similarities and differences between our cultures! We taught them some card games and they introduced us to popular African music. We’re going to have so much fun living together and learning from each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday we are going to be starting our first official day of work! I’m both nervous and excited to start visiting hospitals and start working on our projects. The next 7 weeks are going to be fun and challenging all at once and I can’t wait to get started. Adventure awaits!!!!

— Nimisha 🙂