Dear friends, sometimes it feels like progress is being made at a much slower pace than I would like. One thing that I can say for sure though is that we are finally heading northbound towards Europe. After so many struggles and difficulties, this thought brings me some peace of mind.
Malawi is one of those great nations that have already recognized our independence, so my visit here will be one of gratitude. Remember, part of the promise of our mission is to visit nations that have already recognized so that we can show them our gratitude toward. We are very lucky to have friends like Malawi who have heard our voices and given us an opportunity to be a part of the same big family on nations on this planet.
While on approach to Malawi, I am being bounced around all over the place as the weather is definitely not cooperating. Here we are facing strong winds and I have to fly through several heavy rainstorms in a row. My friends, I do not recommend this for those with a weak bladder.
Unfortunately, weather does not mean much down here as it would in other places. Usually, flight regulations are very sensitive when it comes to weather and, in a normal world, you would be able to land anywhere and get AVGAS with no problems. Of course, you would also have access to things like great facilities, good service and safe and secure pilot areas, not to mention a place for in case you are forced to spend the night inside the facility.
Here in Africa though, it’s a whole different story. If you do find yourself in the unfortunate situation of needing to make an unscheduled landing, you could find yourself in a hellish situation, spending your days in the wrong place at the wrong time without being able to leave when you would like. Remember, we are dealing with nonsense permits and authorizations down here all of the time which are regulated by insane bureaucrats who have no clue about general safety and/or the aviation field in general.
It’s not always the individual staff members, but their supervisors and dysfunctional governments that make these outlandish decisions which end up causing a safety hazard to aviation. All of those permits that I speak of are only good for your exact planned route, exact airport landings, exact days, etc. This could make your life miserable if you have to land unplanned or change routes and/or days, because it means that you must then be prepared to endure hell and misery for doing so.
Down here, there is no such thing as saying ‘oh great, I see an airport, let me just stop to wait out the weather, or land for personal and/or physical needs. Forget it my friends, these are not even options down here on this continent and if you decide to choose this route, then you are forced to deal with uneducated people who have no clue what you may have been faced with up in those skies. That unscheduled stop usually results in more astronaumical fees, spending extra time and money on getting a new permit and a number of days of wait time until it is authorized.
No my friends, weather problems do not appear to be taken seriously down here, extreme situations or not. So, this left me with no choice but to get bounced around like a ping-pong ball on my way to Malawi and pray for the weather to improve so that I wouldn’t be blown back to someplace like the Congo.
It was late afternoon when I finally approached the international airport of Lilongwe. As usual, it was the first time in my life that I had visited this airport and that experience seems to be one that I have done all too often. Though I am in no way complaining about the work that I’ve chosen to do, it can sometimes be a very large and lonely world out there when you continue to move from place to place with no home. At every stop you must quickly learn the local customs, local regulations, etc. If you don’t catch on quickly, then you run the risk of wearing an even bigger dollar sign than the one that most people already see when you arrive. Of course, it doesn’t help that I stand out like a light bulb down here where the local people are darker skinned.
This stop is unusual for me in another way however as I am quickly approaching the expiration date of both my certified flight instructor license (‘CFI’) and my medical clearance certificate, which need to be kept on file back in the USA. These two documents are necessary for any pilot and need to be up to date at all times due to professional standards that are set and must be followed. If I were to let my license or medical certificate expire, then it would be the end of our mission folks and a lot of extra time and money to get them reinstated.
For those reasons, I simply had to get back to the states before they expired. Though I was not looking forward to the long journey back there, I had no other option but to plan a short visit. Please see my special post ‘A Necessary Trip to the States’ for the description of my time there.
Back to the mission my friends. I arrived in Lilongwe Malawi on Sunday afternoon and went straight to a hotel in the downtown area. Ladies and gentlemen, my head hit the pillow in to the early afternoon and I slept straight through until the next morning. For those of you that know me, this behavior is highly unusual.
After that refreshing nights sleep, I was up early Monday morning and ready to work hard for our mission. I wanted to get back on schedule and leave for Comoros on Tuesday, so I was focused on getting everything accomplished in one day. I need to thank the media people here in Malawi for making that possible. None of them seemed to give me the familiar run around that I have faced in some countries.
Here in Africa, I have noticed that many countries tend to have just one or two telelvision stations (often owned by the government), but tend to have much more of a selection when it comes to newspapers and radios. Usually, I am able to select the media outlets that cover our mission. I have to be careful about this decision as I don’t want to get into situations where the local paper is either too religious or scandelous. Since I don’t want our cause to be associated with anything negative or radical, I try to choose those outlets that are most reputable and honest. This way, our message can get out to the people as accurately as possible.
When making the media decision, I often rely on the help of local people. Nearly all of them are honest and sincere right away and direct me to the right places. I try to get the opinion of several people right and that information helps me to quickly decide which media houses to try. I find that keeping little notes about what they I have heard will usually help me when its time to request an interviews. It would be impossible to keep all of that information straight in my head otherwise.
Sometimes, however, the information that I am given sends me in the wrong direction. I have experienced a few times where certain people have overheard me talking about a specific media outlet and try to sway my opinion away from it. This seems to happen most when those people are working for the government and don’t want me to go to the outlets that tend to bring to light any criticism of how things are run. Those are the governments that really don’t want the public to hear that kind of information and don’t want to be confronted with their own bad behaviors.
Here in Malawi, I’d like to thanks to the great team at The Guardian newspaper, Ms. Lucy Kadzongwe, who authorized my interview with Mr. William Kumwembe and I owe a big thank you to Mr. Singayazi Kaminjolo at The Nation for his great article that was published the very next morning. Lastly, thanks to Mr. Suzgo Khunga at the Daily Times Malawi for his time and care toward our cause.
At the national television station MBL (or Malawi Broadcasting Corporation), Mr. Chawezi Banda did a wonderful job with our interview and was on his show Good Morning Malawi. He had a good list of questions prepared and was ready within minutes before the actual interview. Mr. Baxter Nkhoma from MBC Radio (also a national station) also did a great job.
The country of Malawi is quite beautiful. Everything is very green here and there is a positive energy in the air. I don’t know if it is just that I’m getting older or that I have changed a lot during this mission, but it seems that I have become more judgemental of each country over time. I have learned to gather input about a few basic elements upon landing and find myself quickly forming an opinion of the area based on that information. Within hours, I am aware of how well the country is functioning, how organized and accessible the systems are to use, some strengths and obstacles that the nation faces and, most of all, I learn right away what the charcteristics of the local people are and how they react to outsiders.
For instance, in some countries I have been faced with populations who view outsiders as a walking dollar sign. They offer no sympathy for any struggles that they might make you go through and are most definitely not concerned about your comfort to say the least. All that they care about is figuring out how to get some US dollars out of you, how that behavior might affect their future generations, or how you perceive their country and talk about it back home with your friends. The present moment is most important thing to them and they look at you as if you were wearing clothes made out of USD or Euros themselves, often offering their services to you just to make a buck (whether you asked for them or not) or regardless of whether they actually intend to provide that service.
But that has not been my experience here in Malawi folks. I only learned later this country has been nicknamed ‘the heart of Africa’, but I definitely knew that for myself after just a few short hours on the ground. The people here are very friendly and actually want to provide quality service to you. It is more important to them that you are comfortable than it is for them to get paid first and up front. Throughout my entire stay, I was consistently greeted by friendly people who wanted to make my stay here as comfortable as possible.
It’s amazing to me when I experience this human warmth, because I also start to see very quickly some of the difficulties that the local culture must face. When I see people who struggle everyday with daily life and they are being nice instead of taking it out on you, then I have the highest respect for them and it changes my whole perspective toward them. It seems that a simple smile or a thank you can change your whole outlook about a country and/or spending money there. It makes me glad to pay them for their hard work instead of biting my tongue and giving someone money for a needed service, even though they are being a moron and may not even provide it to you anyway. Experiencing friendly and welcoming local people helps to re-energize my battery at times as, even though I am often broke and struggling, having a nice atmosphere and positive energy around you makes a huge difference in your outlook towards life.
Later, I found out that part of the reason for Malawi’s friendliness is that there are many non-governmental organizations stationed here in Lilongwe and even a few foreign corporations. So as a rule, it is in the best interest of the people to be accomodating to outsiders as the country has relied heavily on that outside investment and assistance. Since Lilongwe has many foreign nationals living there, the city tries to make them feel comfortable through their hospitality and availability of services. But remember, locals here are still very poor by Western standards. Even though they may be working in the city to provide a high level of friendly service to you, many of the people here are unable to even imagine being able to afford those same services. They are often faced with tremendous challenges in their daily lives and obstacles such as electricity, lack of running water, diseases, etc.). On the other hand though, it does appear that the different classes of people here in Malawi manage to live in harmony, unlike some of the other countries that I’ve visited.
After a successful day of work and pleasant interactions, I was ready for a good nights rest before heading to Comoros. I want to again thank all of the media people here who were excellent and I don’t want to forget my taxi driver, Mr. Paul Lizimba, who is a great human being and drove me around during my time in Malawi.
The comfort and friendliness of Malawi will be missed very much.
