Thursday, 12th April 2007

To: Lilongwe

I left the house of Martha's kids and grandkids this morning. Before leaving, Honesta came back over and we had tea and bread. Rode down the escarpment back to the main rode. That escarpment really is pretty. I'd forgotten. Here is a picture of the road I was riding on.

Shortly after reaching the main road, I stopped in a place for a cold drink and a rest. I sat out on the veranda with my own thoughts. I was feeling a bit sad. Here I had been so excited when we reached Malawi with the TDA group. I remember the day that we crossed the border from Tanzania to Malawi. I had almost felt like I was "home". It was so, so exciting. I was even starting to imagine moving back to Malawi, maybe getting work at Chancellor college, in beautiful Zomba. Now, a week later, I was feeling like Malawi was a ghost country. All my friends were dead. O.k., not Nimia.

After I'd been sitting there for a little while, not feeling morose exactly, but just a bit sad, 3 professional looking men, a bit chubby with suits, drove up and went inside. I could hear them in there, chatting with each other, and 2 of them started a game of pool. I went inside to watch and asked if I could challenge. They said, "Sure." So, I ordered a beer (pool doesn't go with soda, some things are just like that and you can't fight it) and stood by the window, watching. The 3rd one started talking with me, asking about my journey, etc. (They could see my loaded down bike outside.) I told him I'd been up to Down to find an old, old friend of mine.

He asked, "Was she still there?"

I said, "Well, sadly, she passed away. Just one year ago."

Strangely enough, he was quite comforting, that man. He didn't just say, "Oh, I'm sorry." I could see in his eyes that he really did feel for me, and maybe for Malawi in general. Everybody is losing friends and family to AIDS. But we got philosophical about it and said things like, "Well, life goes on," and we really meant it, you could tell. Life DOES go on. Malawi is not a ghost country. There are lots of people, living, working, laughing, playing pool. He told me that he and his 2 friends were on their way to see another friend, who was in the hospital. I told him I hoped things would be o.k., and I meant it.

Then, somebody won, so I took my turn at a game of pool.

Then, all four of us went into another part of the bar and sat down and chatted about another 20 minutes. They bought me a beer. Finally, they said that they had to go see their friend. I said that, yes, I've got to go too, to get to Lilongwe before dark.

Funny enough, talking with those 3 people, whose names I never even got, made me feel like everything is o.k., just go on. When I got back out on the road, there was a nice breeze, perfect cycling weather. I rode the rest of the way to Lilongwe, humming most of the way.

(Went back to the plush Lilongwe Hotel - my god, I could *live* at that place! Haha.)

----------------------- TODAY -------------------- TOTAL

Cycled ----------------- 55 km (34 mi) ------------ 4,401 km (2,757 mi)

In Saddle -------------- 4 hours 6 min ------------- 289 hours 40 min

Ascended -------------- 920 feet ------------------ 77,010 feet