I am about to leave for Mangochi to start the three days of training and field activities. There will be two days of training for the hardware and software and then a third day of field testing of the forms that the team designs. This will be a bit of a compressed schedule, but I have learned how to be flexible under field conditions.
I enjoyed my drive from Lilongwe to Mangochi yesterday. This very fine highway extends southeast out of Lilongwe and follows a elevated spine directly east of Tanzania. It rains intermittently here a great deal during this season. The weather is delightfully warm (thawing out from Armenia still!), but fortunately it is not hot, but it is lush and green. The views to the plains below were some of the most spectacular that I have ever seen.
At one point when I discovered that Malawi was on our left and another country which I had not visited was on our right, I asked the driver to pull over that I could enter another country without having to present my passport to an immigration official. Walking back across the highway (carefully) to our vehicle, I drew a crowd of children with my camera. They were delightful.
Later, I noticed young children standing at the side of the highway lifting up colored plastic bowls. I knew that they were selling something, so I asked the driver to pull over. He smiled and soon I found several children pushing bowls of dried ants towards me. So, I ate ants. They are a nutritious source of protein, great for on-the-road snacks for the myriad truck drivers. They have a slight slight crunchy texture with a slight hint of formic acid, and definitely do not taste like chicken!
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