(look! we saw a rhinocerous! and hippos! and we were enumerated in the Malawi decennial census!)

I am very glad that I went to Malawi, but I am VERY GLAD to be almost home and VERY EAGER to get back to work on papers, planning data collection, and my secret hobby project.

Yesterday was a travel-hell day. Malawians, for all their niceness and other virtues, welcome chaos whenever queuing is involved. I think my overall assessment of the trip will improve in a couple days when it is not so stained by standing in line at the ticket counter for two hours and having more general chaos going from our hotel to finally getting off the ground.

Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, is wonderful.

I’ve just sat down in Heathrow for a 5-6 hour layover. I think after this I am going to log off and find somewhere for breakfast that has choices on its menu. (Not that Malawian menus don’t have choices, but when you decide you are going to be a vegetarian for the trip, Malawian menus basically don’t have choices. Among the many things I did not anticipate when I went to Malawi was eating french fries [a.k.a. "chips"] 20+ times.)