Getting there and surprises along the way

We are in Blantyre, Malawi, at the AGC Lodge (which has zero web presence, hoping to change that).
Here is the view from the sitting room, just after sunset.

Surprises along the way:
1. Ethiopian airlines - WOW! The 787 was great, the service was great, the food was great!

2. Ethiopian airlines - schedule management - Hmm - the Toronto flight departed 40 minutes earlier than scheduled, the Rome flight change arrived an hour after the fact, the Addis flight landed AFTER the Lilongwe flight started boarding, leaving us 20 minutes to get off the 787, find terminal 2, get on the 2nd plane and have our luggage transferred

3. Ethiopian airlines - ground transfer - WOW - as we were endlessly rolling on the Addis tarmack, realizing that there is no gate, but that we will all have to climb down the stairs to find our way to the terminal, all hope for making our connection was just about gone...and then there is this fellow waiting for us on the tarmac with a shuttle which drove us right to our next plane, also nearby on the tarmac. The whole transfer took 3 minutes max and we made our connection.

4. Ethiopian airlines - luggage transfer - not so good, the boxes of books got transferred to the next plane, but neither of our suitcases did. So we are living out of our carry on, hoping that the suitcases will show up tomorrow. Please pray they do, I don't even have a hair-brush in my carry on!

Entering the Blantyre airport:

Richard getting hassled about yellow fever shots (which are not required for Malawi), in hopes that he will just pay off the guards...which he did not...