This is the second part of “Journey to Malawi Part 1”. Please find that one below, and read first. Otherwise it’s a story ending spoiler. Enjoy!

A British Ariways Boeing 747 Landing in Johannesburg, South Africa.

When we got back to Heathrow Airport and made our way through security. We went to Giraffe, a world cuisine restaurant with high quality food! I had a 100% Scottish Angus burger with a coke, and Joni had Lemon Chicken and a coke, though sparkling water was her usual that day.
We both were tired, but I didn’t want to rest. Joni napped, and worried I would sleep right through our boarding time I took a walk. I freshened up, as much as you can in an airport bathroom, and walked around the duty free shops. I kept looking at the departures screens, waiting for our gate to be posted. At last, some information! It said I should see a British Airways representative. I stepped up to ask what was going on. “Well, your flight has been canceled.” the fine young chap exclaimed. I asked what happened, and he said, “Well, you see, we don’t have enough flight crew for your flight. But make your way to Gate A19, then the BAA (British Airport Authorities) will assist you back through to the Luggage Reclaim area. Collect your luggage and make your way to the ticket counter and try to rebook your flight there. There’s one more flight this evening to Johannesburg, if you hurry you might make it.” “Thanks!” I said as I started to run to where Joni had passed out. I grabbed her hand and pulled her off the seat, tossed her backpack to her and said, “run!” I explained everything to her as we rushed to the gate.

The BAA didn’t know what to do yet, so they were going to have us wait until everyone else got there. I told them I know I had to be at Luggage Reclaim belt number 9, so they let us through! We were at least 15 minutes ahead of everyone else. I thought we had it in the bag. Then we waited another hour for our luggage to finally arrive on the belt. We made our way upstairs, still ahead of most everyone else. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make any of the next flights out that evening. British Airways rebooked our flights for the next day and, because South African Airways didn’t have a Wednesday flight to Malawi, we had to reroute through Zimbabwe. They booked us a nice hotel, gave us some meals and even let us make several international calls to inform family and friends of what was happening, the least they could do.

It was a bit tough having to haul 8 total pieces of luggage around, on and off busses, into and out of the hotel and back to the airport. We were back at it the next day! We got to the airport with a little extra time, made it safely to our gate, and finally boarded the 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We were seated next to a wonderful British man who we were engaged in conversation with for a couple of hours, both at the beginning and the end of our flight. Though it was an overnight flight, Joni didn’t sleep, and I only slept for an hour or two. We arrived in Johannesburg, and had about a 3-hour layover. Wanting to sleep, hungry for no reason, we struggled to convert Dollars to Rand, and pay the right price for our food. Finally, they started boarding our flight to Harare, Zimbabwe.
I don’t know how well versed you all are in African History, or current African events, but there are better places to be than Harare, Zimbabwe. On the edge the possible end to Robert Mugabe’s 28-year dictatorship presidency and the nations economy on the verge of collapse (pretty much is collapsed, $1USD=$50million Zim) it was the last choice on the list of places to pass through. A recent article in the Malawian Newspaper said that, in the past 28 years, Zimbabwe has seen an inflation of 165,000%. But we only had to wait in the airport…and wait…and wait. In what is called the second nicest airport in all of Africa, in a place that was once first in education and was acclaimed for its form of government as the model for other African nations, we waited 6 hours for our next flight. At 8:30pm, our departure time, they started hauling our aircraft around, then putting the luggage on, then the meals and service carts, and then fueling it up. I think we finally started boarding about 9:30, and left shortly after. When we stepped on board, it looked as though it were a refurbished Russian airliner. Trying to put my stomach at ease, I told myself, “It’s only an hour long flight, and then they’re flying to London, it has to be in good shape!”

We arrived safely in Lilongwe, Malawi at 10:30pm, collected ALL of our luggage and were greeted by Daniel, Kelvin, and Brandon. What a joy to see our ride already waiting, after all that! We got to our guest lodge where our heads hit the pillow before we even knew it!