Day 1 - Arrival (Eventually!)

All the pieces, or should I say people, finally fell into place at Heathrow. Anxiety was growing at the prospect of not having a full complement by the time the flight boarded (I should add that this was entirely due to the weather in Edinburgh, and not any individual’s fault!). Eventually the last boy from Scotland joined us at the check in desk just as we persuaded the extremely helpful SAA staff to carry our excess baggage at no extra cost. The excess baggage was not entirely normal, consisting mostly of tools from the school workshop and safety equipment courtesy of Mr Cherry. 

The journey from this point on was very smooth, and the two extras joined us at Johannesburg  airport as expected.  Things only started to get complicated on the final descent into Blantyre. The landing gear had been lowered and the airspeed had dropped and we were expecting to land in a few minutes. The cloud was quite low though and at what appeared to be the last minute (but wasn’t!) the engines roared and we lifted up again. Mr Smith and I shared a knowing glance and knew that something had just gone wrong. A couple of minutes passed before the captain announced that the Instrument Landing System at the airport was not working and due to the low cloud it was impossible to land. As I write this we are sitting on the tarmac at Lilongwe, waiting for the weather to clear or the I.L.S. to be repaired at Blantyre. (I don’t want to worry any of you by posting this story without a happy ending, even though I can get a 5 minute free trial of the internet connection at Lilongwe airport.)

Eventually the cloud cover lifted at Blantyre and the message got through to us on the ground; it seems that the telephone communications between the two airports were not very reliable. We all applauded upon hearing the news and then again when we finally touched down in Blantyre three hours late. The journey to the hotel, via the school, was very interesting and gave the boys a very vivid introduction as to what daily life is like for the people in this part of Africa. Arriving at the school just before dark there was just time to say hello and then head off to the hotel before darkness set in. The final climb to the hotel was up into the cloud cover we had been trying to avoid all day; visibility was challenging but the drivers knew the road and everyone arrived at the hotel safely for supper and an briefing about the next day’s plan of works.