And So I'm Back

Is this real life? Did I really just get back from Malawi?
Today is Wednesday and I got back from Malawi on Saturday evening. Yesterday I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out so bear with me.

Over the next few posts I plan on sharing with you all the amazing things our group did and saw while in the Warm Heart of Africa, Malawi....and even an unplanned overnight in Ethiopia.

In fact, let's start there. As a disclaimer, the following recount of my traveling to Malawi will most likely contain a lot of whining...but being in Malawi was way worth it.

Samantha and I met at the Cincinnati airport to start our long journey to Malawi. We were beyond excited. As we sat at the gate, and sat and sat, we realized that we would probably be missing our connection to Addis Ababa at Dulles Airport. Our flight was 45 minutes late arriving in DC and after running through the airport looking like crazy people, we arrived at the Ethiopian Airlines gate to find it completely empty. The plane was gone, and so were our seats. Cue the tears. This is the exact text I sent my dad: "Missed our flight. Trying not to make a scene. I'll call you when I pull myself together." After wandering around the airport looking for someone to help us, we must have looked pretty miserable, a gentleman from an airline I had never heard of listened to our story and very nicely escorted us to Delta, for they had made us late in the first place. Once being sent from a Delta gate to the actual ticket agents at the front of the airport, Samantha and I buckled down to get as much as we could out of Delta. After arguing for almost three hours with the people at Delta (the guy thought is was good customer service to answer personal phone calls while "helping" us), we were booked on standby for the same flights the next day that we had missed, we also had food vouchers (only $6 per meal), and a hotel room at the Hilton. At that point we had no idea where our checked luggage were. We were really sad to not be on our way to Malawi, but were thankful for the meal vouchers and a plush hotel room.
We got ourselves some food and headed to the hotel by way of shuttle. After checking in, we both passed out in our beds and took a much needed nap. We were awoken from our naps by an unexpected phone call from Delta stating that they had found our baggage and we could pick them up. Since we had nothing better to do with ourselves we were happy to head back to the airport to retrieve our luggage. Clean clothes! Samantha and I ate dinner, repacked our bags, slept well in a nice warm bed, and then headed to the airport at 7AM. We were happy to have the previous day behind us and were pumped to be finally leaving for Malawi. With standby tickets in hand I was practically jumping for joy to go to our gate. We positioned ourselves near the ticket counter at the gate and we were the first standby tickets to get seats. We weren't going to go through this again. Next thing we knew we were flying high above the Atlantic towards Rome and then after refueling, headed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
And here's where it gets interesting: We failed to get our boarding pass for the next flight from Ethiopia to Malawi. We were told we would receive it upon arrival in Ethiopia, but we had been told wrong. Out of all the people making the connection from the flight from DC to the flight to Lilongwe, Malawi, we were the only two without tickets. The gate workers held us off the plane. All we could think was "Not again."
Once gain, we were fighting tooth and nail to get someone to help us. Samantha and I kept looking at each other because we couldn't believe what was happening to us. Here we are, two young women, in Ethiopia with no baggage, no phone, no internet, no way of contacting out parents and no idea when we were going to get to leave. After demanding access to the lounge so that we could at least e-mail Matt, who was picking us up in Malawi, to let him know that we would not be arriving today and there was a possibility we wouldn't arrive the next day either. We then headed back to the ticket office where they had booked us on the next flight to Lilongwe....that was the next day. That's right, we stayed a night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a sketchy hotel that we had no desire to even stand in. Luckily, we were able to meet up with some young people from the UK who also missed the flight from another connection, they stayed in our hotel so it was was nice to be able to talk to them and be with other people. After getting to the hotel, the only thing we did was sleep...except when we woke up to eat our meals. Once again we headed to the airport super early to get our tickets. After getting our tickets we went to our gate and waited....and waited....and waited. Once finally boarding the plane we couldn't hold back our smiles because we were FINALLY headed to Lilongwe, Malawi: our final destination.
We got off the plane in Malawi and boarded a bus to head to the airport from the runway. As we got off the bus we looked up to see Matt and Ken waving down at us. The poor guys had been in Lilongwe waiting for us to arrive. It was 48 hours after we were originally set to arrive.
Next we had to locate our baggage we hadn't seen since we dropped them at Dulles. It took us about to an hour or two to locate Samantha's bags but we never saw mine...because mine weren't on the plane. They had tagged my bags incorrectly in either DC or Ethiopia, I may never know.  Luckily Matt was able to take my back and went to the airline office to demand my bags be sent to our lodge instead of staying another night in Lilongwe, which was draining the funds. So we left the airport and started our seven hour drive to Maji Zuwa resort in the northern region of Malawi, located right Lake Malawi. It would end up that my bags wouldn't arrive for another four days, but I didn't really mind because I was in Malawi. I had no care in the world. We had finally arrived


Stay tuned for more stories! I need a nap from just thinking about those two awful days.

Long Time, No Post

Welcome back!

It's been a busy and fast-paced summer and I cannot believe the big day is finally here! My flight leaves at 7:55 AM this Thursday! Tomorrow!

Let me recap what I've been doing Africa-wise this summer:

• One Yellow Fever vaccine. Apparently there is a shortage. Who knew? It took me a couple of trips downtown to finally get this one.
• One updated Typhoid vaccine. It hurt. Surprise! 
• One prescription for anti-Malaria pills. No night terrors, yet!
• One prescription for an antibiotic. You see, on top of everything else I jammed into this summer, I'm also having my tonsils and adenoids (I'm even sure what those are) removed three days after I return. Bring on the Popsicles.
• Purchased a new camera. Look out for pictures when I get back!

And that pretty much covers what you've missed!

It's 1:15 AM so I should probably get to sleep but I can't end this post without a giant thank you to everyone.

Thank you for your support, well wishes, donations, and pep talks. I really appreciate what everyone has done to help me along the way.

I absolutely can't wait to be in Malawi but I am almost as equally excited to come back and share my experience! Stay tuned for more.

Countdown to Malawi: ONE day.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

I'm on summer vacation!
Just like everything on my to-do list these last few weeks, this post has taken me some time to get to but I've got some BIG news.
A couple of weeks ago I mailed my final payment for this trip. Whew! My flight has been officially booked, passport renewed, and trip fees paid. All that is left to do is one vaccine, get a malaria pill prescription, pack my suitcase, and show up to the airport.

Thanks to all who have donated and supported me! I would not be at this point without everyone's help!

Countdown until Malawi: 46 days

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

This morning started a little...let's say...rough for me.

I was tired and not ready for my impending trip back to school. Our Easter service at my church was wonderful, as always, and it was great to be able to see some people and give hugs before I headed back. After church, I checked my e-mails, perused facebook and twitter, and I finally decided it was time to book my flight: my costly, well researched, perfect flight plan to Lilongwe, Malawi. I had spent days, weeks even, researching and asking around and finally ended up with what I thought would be the best plan in the entire world. I was proud. I checked on it almost everyday. This morning, though, my love affair with my itinerary that was saved to Expedia.com took a deadly turn. It was unavailable! I was on the verge of a panic attack when I called customer service and it really sent me over the edge when the not-so-friendly guy with an attitude problem told me that I simply needed to book something else.
And that's when the tears started rolling. I had come to a breaking point and this flight being unavailable was the straw that broke this camel's back. Pretty much since the beginning of January I had been stressing about what flight to choose; whether it be the safest path, the shortest path, and/or the cheapest path.
After my dad had stopped laughing at me and I had stopped crying, my dad and I both hit the interwebs on different computers to try to find a solution to my problem. Luckily, I was able to find a VERY similar flight plan that just added one more layover and it was the same cost. *wipes sweat from brow* Crisis (somewhat) averted.

 I am now the proud owner of plane tickets to and from Lilongwe, Malawi. Along the way I will be making stops in Washington, D.C; Rome, Italy; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. I've chosen my seats (aisle, of course) and I've been looking at the itinerary every chance I get. I'm pretty sure I have it memorized already. This trip is a little over three months away and I can check purchasing my tickets, renewing my passport, and putting the down payment on the trip expenses off my list. All I need to do now is get one more vaccination, a malaria prescription, and to finish paying off the rest of the trip fees. That light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter and brighter every day.

Countdown to Malawi: 100 days!!!!!

Random Malawi fact: The languages spoken in Malawi are English and Chichewa according to the national Geographic Travel website.

PCV Dorothy

This past summer I worked as an Americorps volunteer at the Dayton YMCA and met some...well...interesting people. A couple of these people were actually pretty awesome and I still keep in touch with a few.

One of my coworkers however, I've been kind of lacking in keeping in touch. Mainly because she's living in Madagascar. Dorothy is a Peace Corps volunteer in Ambanja, Madagascar. She arrived in South Africa in June 2008 for training and was soon shipped to Madagascar. In Spring of 2009 she was evacuated, and sent back to Dayton because of some reason I'm not that really sure about. Something to do with the government blah blah blah. That's how she was able to work at the YMCA with me last summer. Around the time of Thanksgiving 2009, she was able to return to Madagascar and serve the remainder of her term as a volunteer. Dorothy teaches English as a second language.

Dorothy LOVES getting mail and will definitely write you back. Even if she doesn't know who you are or what you're talking about in your letter. Getting mail is really exciting for her. I just wrote her a letter today and plan on putting a couple of hair ties, bobby pins, a sandwich bag, and a bread bag twistie in the envelope to send along with the letter. She told me over the summer that her time in Madagascar has her turned her into a savvy McGyver type that can fandangle just about anything from what she is given.
If you'd like to write her a letter, her address is:
Dorothy Mayne
Voluntera Corps de la Paix
CISCO Ambanja
Ambanja 203
Madagascar

She also writes a blog and updates it every so often with some of her observations and interactions with the culture. You can read it here.

A Rock and a Hard Post

Get it? You see what I did there? I crack myself up!

It's been a while since I last wrote a post and since I'm procrastinating working on an assignment (story of my life!) I thought I'd fill you in on...stuff.

Recently, I interviewed and was accepted into Advanced Study in the the education college here at Kent State. That translates into me being accepted into the actual education program. I'm no longer just an education student....I'm a real live teacher applicant. Next fall I start observing and I can't wait! This process has prompted me to think a lot about where I want to do my student teaching and it's kind of created a little bit of an issue for me.

If you know me, you know that I'm a very decisive person. I usually make decisions pretty quickly and stick to what I say. This decision of where I want to do my student teaching, and where I want to teach for that matter, is making me a little nervous because at the moment I'm caught between three very different scenarios.

Scenario 1: Student teach in a local school here in NE Ohio, be an RA, and finish up school like a normal kid.
Scenario 2: Student Teach abroad in a developed country (I'm thinking Switzerland or England) and have the experience of living in another culture than mine but still be able to have most of the amenities of life in the US.
Scenario 3: Student teach in a developing country and have the experience of a lifetime.

I think you can tell which one I like the sound of most. These are all valid choices that will could give me amazing opportunities, but which do I choose? I guess I have some time...I won't student teach until Spring semester of 2012 but also if you know me well you know that I like to plan ahead.


Countdown to Malawi: 122 days

Malawi fact of the day: Malawi's motto is "Unity and Freedom."

Also: Beware the Ides of March!!!

Also Also: follow me on twitter? "abbsnicole"

One for One

I lurve shoes. Shoes just make me happy. They take any outfit and complete them. Your wedding, the first day of your new job, your graduation day are all days where (hopefully) you've worn shoes. Pumps, flats, chucks, peep-toes, boots, sneakers, crocs, flip-flops, you name it I've got 'em. Why am I writing a post about shoes when I'm trying raise money to go on a trip to Africa you ask? Well my favorite pair of shoes, TOMS, are also a great way to give back.

TOMS is company that takes giving back to heart. Their business model is set up with a One to One theme. You buy one pair of shoes and they donate a pair to a person in need. The founder of this movement and Chief Shoe Giver, Blake Mycoskie, is a young entrepreneur who saw the need for shoes on a trip to Argentina. Their offices are set up in Santa Monica, CA and they go on Shoe Drops all over the world. Here's a video clip from their documentary:



I have three pairs and I LOVE them (pictured below). I wear them everywhere. They are comfortable and stylish. You can wear them with anything. Most of them have a canvas outer layer with a leather insole. TOMS has many different styles that include vegan varieties, boots, wool lined, and even styles that lace. I've got my eye on a pair of their cordones (the kind that lace) at the moment.

Count down to Malawi: 159 days

*Sorry for the bad grammar...it's been a long weekend.