Oh, Malawi

It's a well know fact that transportation is every PCVs arch nemesis. Well, one of my exciting new projects is as an adjunct professor at the University of Livingstonia. Part of the negotiations for me to teach there was that they provide transport from Chitimba, a small trading center not too far from me, to the campus, an hour up a steep dirt escarpment. 

So Wednesday was my first day to go up and teach. I was told the vehicle would leave Chitimba at 3p, so me being the eager beaver got there at 2p. Early, in Malawi? I should've known better. 

After several phone calls to the dean who was coordinating my transport, time had progressed to 6p. I was informed the vehicle had broken down on the way, but would be moving in 10 minutes. Mind you, it gets dark around 6:30p and nothing good happens in a village after dark. 

Finally, after waiting for an hour past dark (the deans phone had been switched off at this point), I was picked up. 

Is this the end of my story? Nope!

Halfway up the drive, the driver managed to drive into a ditch and bottom out the vehicle on the frame. I then got to watch them attempt to unstick the vehicle using various methods such as putting it up on the jack stand then driving, pushing it further into the ditch, inserting rocks behind the rear tire so they could attempt to reverse further into the ditch, and trying to lift half the vehicle while the driver gunned it. Obviously, these methods proved unsuccessful. Finally, after an hour, someone thought maybe it'd be a good idea to actually listen to the scientist in the vehicle, and they attempted the whole operation in drive after putting rocking in front of the tires to build a new road. 

Oh, Malawi! I thought private transport would be different. At least I was up and could start teaching Thursday. 

Wrong. 

The dean was sick, and I needed to finalize a few things with him first. 

Good news, I did finally get to meet my students (well, half of them) on Friday afternoon. Let's try this all again next week!