We Made It!

Okay, hopefully you have some time because this is going to be a long one.
After leaving our house at 7:00am on Tuesday morning, we arrived safely in Malawi on Thursday at 10:30am Malawian time (4:30am Michigan time).
We were picked up at the airport by Justin Majawa, the SOM director who we have been in communication with over these past few months, and Matthew, another SOM employee. We must say that we don't know how world travelers make these long trips repeatedly because our bodies were rejecting us by the time we arrived in Malawi. We both felt like we could doze off at any second, and our stomaches were not doing so well.
However, we were so thankful to have made it safely and to be done with the plane rides (and smelly airports).
My hope through these communications is to give you a glimpse of the people and culture of Malawi, so I will begin with simply describing the scenery so far. When we arrived in Malawi, our first image of the terrain was that it was fairly treeless (though this isn't really accurate since they have a different type of wood that covers the
countryside) and not very green (which makes sense since it is winter and the dry season here). However, it was still in the 70s, and there were still flowers covering the ground (a little different than Michigan winters as Justin was quick to point out).
As you drive (European style), there are so many people walking or riding bikes. They walk right at the edge of the road, and one almost thinks that cars are going to hit them. The bike riders are very interesting to me because they often carry passengers on the bike. One man pedals and the other sits on the seat. I am used to seeing this amongst kids, but here the stamina of these people is just incredible as they carry these people for many kilometers. Oh, and the women carrying things on their heads...well I've seen pictures, but in real life it is much more incredible. You get the real picture of how immense the loads are that they carry - bundles of firewood, baskets of peanuts, etc.
Lilongwe is not like a city in the US. There are few tall buildings, no skyscrapers, but there are two million people living here. Justin took us immediately to his office, which was in what we would think of as a typical office building with multiple businesses inside. When we arrived, there was a line of roughly 50 - 75 young people (teenagers) standing outside of the building. Justin said that these teens were waiting for job interviews with a company that was hiring about 20 cleaners. He said that the line would be there all day - maybe 300 or more applicants for these 20 jobs. Puts the unemployment rate in Michigan into perspective a little.
Matthew took us on an expedition to exchange money and see what foods are offered in the grocery store. As we walked there, we began to realize that there were people every where. There were people waiting to get on one of the over-cramped buses, people cooking food as street vendors, people walking to work... We first went to the grocery store, which was not exactly a place where either Nate or I wanted to be as the overwhelming smells only made our stomachs feel more queasy. There were some familiar foods in the store like cereal ($6 a box), rice, canned vegetables, bread, and meats. I think I still have to get my courage up a little, though, to try some of the stuff. Next we went to exchange our money. This was fairly simple with the exchange rate being one US dollar for every 162 kwacha, but we did get our first experience of military police carrying machine guns. One was guarding the door of the exchange place. Justin says that they are just there to keep order - like our policemen.
On another note, we have been a little daring in our eating. Justin took us out to eat twice yesterday. The first place I tried ordering a cheese pita, but there was no cheese just chicken, lettuce, and tomato.
Seeing how our stomachs were not really feeling great, this didn't really strike me as something I wanted to try, but I ate a few bites and Nate (who was by this time feeling much worse than I) ate a bite. The second place we went to eat was Korean Gardens (a retreat oasis for foreigners within "Old Town"). I thought I was feeling better by this time (6:00pm), so I ordered sesame chicken. But after eating half of it, I was done. Nate had ordered a noodle dish, but he couldn't eat any of it as he was really feeling sick.
We are staying outside of "Old Town" Lilongwe in a Catholic Mission (St.
Johns). The room is small but adequate with a toilet and shower, so we feel fairly comfortable here. The mosquitoes aren't too bad, but we did sleep under a net. Connected with the mission is a private secondary school for boys. We have already met quite a few people in the complex (probably because we are fairly obvious), including Patrick who is the gardener (beautiful gardens!) and some young school children who were anxious for us to take their picture.
We are very thankful for Justin as he has been able to share with us a lot of the culture and history behind Lilongwe and Malawi culture.
Justin was quick to point out to us the ways that he feels the government is not standing up for the Malawian people. Amongst the poor education system and really a lack of a healthcare system are some economic issues that Justin feels very strongly about. We went shopping for a pillow and sheets, and the stores that line the streets are all Indian shops. As Justin explains, the Indian shop owners charge outrageous prices because they can. They have a monopoly on the supplies and goods, and the Malawian people cannot compete because they do not have the connections that the Indians do. He says that saying amongst the Indians is "this is /your/ country but /our /money." Justin also explained another problem that was happening in the countryside.
He said that the Chinese had exchanged the government locomotives (that don't work by the way) for access to a special type of wood that looks like mahogany. He said that they are clearing the countryside of this
valuable wood. We are enjoying hearing Justin's perspective on many
things.
We are, in case you were concerned, feeling better today. We fell asleep last night around 8:00pm and woke up first around 2:00am, then at 7:00am, and again at 9:00am. We are still feeling a little out of sorts and very much like the outsiders/foreigners, but we are not feeling like we are going to throw up any more. We will eat lunch here at the mission, meet up with Justin, find a way to send this email, and then we may head off to Songa. Once in Songa we will not have internet, but we will have the phone. For those of you who want to text message us or call, our phone number is 0112659424139.
We love you all and miss you already. Homesickness has hit me a little, but we are excited for the journeys ahead. Blessings and prayers for you all!
~ Nate and Bekah

Half Way There...

We have made it half way! As I write this it is 3:11pm Amsterdam time (9:11am MI time), and we are six hours into our twelve hour layover. Some of you may have known that we were supposed to have a fourteen hour layover and might be wondering where those two hours went. Well, we had good news when we arrived at Grand Rapids airport after getting up before 6:00am and making mom and dad Schipper take us to the airport at 7:00am. We were asked if we wanted to be bumped to the 3:20pm flight and be routed through Detroit instead of Minneapolis. They said if we took the bump they would give us travel vouchers as they were desperate to clear roughly TWENTY people off our original flight. We agreed after discussing the ride situation with mom and dad Schipper, and ended up spending the next six hours eating and shopping in Grand Rapids - not exactly what we had in mind when we said good-bye to our house earlier that morning.

When we did finally take off at 3:20pm, our first flight puddle jumped us to Detroit. Our next flight left Detroit at 7:10pm. Being the inexperienced international travelers that we are, we were surprised when the flight began boarding an hour ahead of time, and we were even more surprised to walk into the Airbus 330 and see the luxury accommodations that would be home for the next 9 hours. Okay, so maybe not luxury, but Nate was pretty excited to see that our headrest tv consoles let you play games vs. another person (he beat me by the way in every game we played). I'm not sure if I have ever experienced a longer 8 hours of my life, though, as sleep did not come easily for me. I think that Nate may have slept for 2 hours, and I may have gotten about an hour and a half of sleep - not good news for our layover at the airport.

So that leaves us here in Schiphol airport. I really did feel like a fish out of water as we stepped into this expansive airport. Here in this 2 mile strip is the crossroads of the world as you see people of every ethnicity and headed in every direction across the globe. Here are my impressions of airport (that we have walked the length of multiple times). Number one, there is a hotel here where you can rent an eight hour day room. You don't even have to go through the security checkpoint to get to it, but you do have to pay $130 for those eight hours! (As you might have guessed, Nate and I did not end up renting a room.) Number two, there are announcements over the loud speaker constantly ... the two most common are "this is a reminder that smoking is prohibited in Schiphol airport except in the bars and restaurants" and "Bob Jones, flying to Stockholm, you are delaying the flight, please report to the gate immediately, or we will proceed in 'offloading' your bags from the plane." The first statement is funny as there is a bar or restaurant about every twenty feet in this airport, and they are all open walls. Thus, the whole airport smells like smoke (Nate also thinks he saw his first joint of the trip at one of the bars). The second statement...well maybe I think it is funny because I haven't slept a lot, but they are threatening people over the loud speaker??

Anyway, Nate said that our flight to Nairobi appeared on the board for the first time which is exciting, and we are considering searching out the public showers in the airport - just sounds good right about now. We'll see how daring we are, though.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. We definitely continue to crave your prayers as we continue on with the second leg of our trip and begin our time in Malawi. We love you all!

~ Nate and Bekah

Here we go!

HERE WE GO! The reality of leaving for six weeks is settling in with both of us, and we are feeling a bit anxious but excited at the same time. We fly out on Tuesday morning from Grand Rapids at 10:00am. Our total inflight time will be 18 hours, and we will arrive in Lilongwe on Thursday afternoon. For those wondering, Lilongwe is 6 hours ahead of Michigan time, so when we arrive in Lilongwe at 2:00pm, it will be 8:00am Michigan time. One last detail...if you would like to email us while we are away please use Bekah's email address... rebekah.schipper@gmail.com . Please pray for us and for safe travel. We look forward to seeing you all when we get back in August. We love you all and are thankful for such amazing friends and family who have supported us through this whole experience.

Blessings!
Nate and Bekah