Wow, I'd better get on the ball...

...my classmates in India are totally showing me up with their blog right now.

For anyone whom I haven't given the Malawi shpiel - I'm headed there to work for 9 weeks on a research project with the Center for AIDS Research/UNC Project in Lilongwe, Malawi. I'm incredibly excited to be learning more about infectious disease medicine in developing countries, about HIV epidemiology, and to have fun with my colleagues there (Hi Emily R!) at the UNC guesthouse where I'll be staying.

Well, its 10:34 pm my time, and I'm safe/clean/fed in Johannesburg, South Africa, thanks to Poonam and her brother, Bhavesh. I'm staying with him, his lovely wife Indira, and their two adorable sons, Sohan and Rithik, tonight. (Don't worry P, I'll attach some photos of your cute nephews soon!)

I'm pretty exhausted and don't really know what time it is. I should preface this by saying that in general I love traveling and enjoy air travel - at least, the idea of it...airports, people coming together and going in a million different directions, I think its neat.

But I've decided I hate the actual flying part. I flew from RDU-->JFK on wednesday morning, had a 4-hour layover and flew out of JFK around 6pm Wednesday. We flew all night - in the biggest plane I've ever been in. It was 8 hours to Dakar, Senegal, where the plane stopped for an hour to refuel (but we weren't allowed off.) At this point I hadn't been able to sleep and was feeling a bit queasy. Then we had another 8 hour flight to Johannesburg - which I spent alternating between trying to sleep, being sick, and watching movies. I must say the in-flight movie collection was impressive - I watched Margot at the Wedding (very strange.) Love in the time of Cholera (Zzzzzz...) and Juno (as fantastic as the first time.) I walked off the plane looking and feeling like I'd been run over by a truck.

The most enjoyable thing about today, though...well, there were two things...one, my suitcase made it to Jo'burg, which I count as a small miracle. I'm really thrilled about that. Two, I had some really lovely conversations with folks...from a team of American college kids going on a Habitat for Humanity trip, to a dialysis nurse named Margaret heading home to take care of her brother (who is dying of AIDS) in Zimbabwe, to Francis, a HIV aid worker who I'll see on my flight to Malawi tomorrow, Leilani, the bubbly flight attendant from Cape Town, and Eddie, who saw I looked confused and let me use his cell phone in the Jo'burg airport...anyway, everyone was so friendly.

I think I'll sign off for now - my computer's dying and I don't have an outlet adapter for south african outlets! Hope everyone has a fabulous day/afternoon/evening...whatever time it is where you are :)

happy trails,
mj