My past "A Day in the Life" journal entries can be found...
here
here
&
here
11/2013
This journal entry was one of our very first "adventures" or "cultural experiences" when moving to Malawi. We had been living here for about a month and decided to go try out the lake with our missionary team (3 families). At that time, we were serving with a sweet, young, newly wed couple and they made the brave decision to ride in our car (with our FOUR children) to the lake (about a 2 hour drive). We made the trip TO the lake and enjoyed a wonderful day swimming, snorkelling, cliff jumping and eating the local chambo (fish) and rice. We left at just the right time to head home before it got dark. The roads to the lake are pretty rough with deep potholes on the edges. Between the potholes, goats, bicycles, and walkers, you don't want to be driving on this road at dark.
We drove down the loooong washboard dirt road and noticed that our car was starting to over heat. We pulled over to let the radiator cool down and give the other family a heads up that we were having car troubles. At this time, one of our very new-to-us daughters decided to perform one of her epic melt downs, that she used to have back then. In her defence she had only been in our family for 2.5 short months and had experienced 2 MAJOR moves. We had grown used to these and knew how to ride them out, but all the locals were very concerned about the "malawian looking child" with a bunch of Americans who clearly didn't know how to make the child stop crying. We attracted quite the crowd.
Once the fit/radiator had cooled down, we decided to get back in the car and try to make it home. A few feet down the black top road, the radiator blew. Our car was done. Next, began our long 7 hour journey back home. Yes, 7 hours to drive what should be a 2 hour trip. We found a small truck who was willing to pull us with a rope home (for a price). The only problem was that he didn't have brake lights...nor fuel. So, as we putted home in the dark, David (husband/driver) was at high alert trying to strain his eyes in case the truck pulling us was slowing down or stopping. Our brakes and power steering were pretty non-existent at this point, so it made for a stressful driving experience. Every few miles, the driver would pull over and he and his buddies would disappear into the bush looking for black market fuel. No gas stations were on this road and the ones we finally would pass were closed because......yeah, it's dark. We spent many a hour on the side of the road waiting for fuel. So thankful that the other missionary friend brought her laptop with Ducky Dynasty episodes on it to keep our kids semi-entertained. We attracted a lot of attention with every stop and adults and kids alike were all gathered around the back of our car watching Duck Dynasty with our kids.
We arrived home late that night and everyone was asleep, except tired driver. This was definitely one of our biggest life lessons of what to expect when traveling in Malawi:
Expect things not to go as expected.
Be chill about the unexpected or you will go crazy.
Pack extra things for your kids like food, water and entertainment in case you trip doesn't go as planned (because it never will!).
It's your choice how to deal with difficulties. You can chose joy or chose frustration. (still learning
this one)
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