Visiting all the different compassion ministries here in Lilongwe has been more work than just dropping by to do the interview.  Brian has been the guy to set up all the appointments and get all the directions for the TMC team over the last 4 weeks.  Here’s a bit of what he’s experienced…

Getting directions to anywhere in Lilongwe is an adventure. Street names are virtually non-existent, so it’s a matter of finding the most obscure land markers, like random shops, signs, and objects that identify the path. One of the places we have visited involved turning left after you see the Catholic church, then after the big bump in the road turn left, go down that street and there will be a man in a red shirt outside. We saw at least 5 red shirts before the right one! Another one took us to Crossroads Hotel and then we were supposed to head to what sounded like Pacific Flood, but that didn’t make sense. We eventually looked for Pacific Hotel, but that took us to the other side of town…eventually the guy had to come pick us up somewhere. But we were newbs then.

The phone conversations are great too because certain words are hard to understand because of the accents. I thought someone’s name was Dress Dollar, but it was Grace Dora – haha! And the phone calls drop or get intermixed. I was talking with a man once and then all of a sudden I heard a lady speaking Chichewa! Or when I’m talking to someone on the cell phone and they say they want to transfer me…from a cell phone! I hear the beep and everything. Who knows! All the while, I’m trying to make sure I don’t rack up the minutes. It’s an adventure. But I think all of us on the team are experts by now.