Saturday Morning Run

There isn't much to do in Lilongwe, but there is a fairly active expat community. In addition to the Monday Hash run there is a Wednesday afternoon run, a Saturday morning long run, and a Sunday afternoon ultimate frisbee game. This morning Quinn and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 6am (this is also a very early town) and found the group. The location rotates; this week it was a couple's home in area 43 and they had mapped out 9km, 11km, 15km, and 18km routes through dirt paths and roads in the city. Most opted for the 9 or 11 kilometer options. Margie, a very fit looking white Zimbabwean who has been in Malawi now for many years, road next to us on a mountain bike and set up a water stop at about 5km. She used to run a lot, even running the Comrades Marathon in South Africa regularly, but finally had to give up running because of bad knees. At the water stop we ran into another American, Manuj, out for a run - Manoj turned out to be an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the CDC in the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases branch and is in Malawi for about a month working on a safewater project in Salima, a little town near the lake. We absorbed him into our group and it turns out that he graduated from UNC Medical School and the School of Public Health! It is such a small world! The run was followed by a potluck breakfast with lots of good coffee, homemade goodies, and conversation. It was interesting hearing about everyone's work here; it ran the gamut from sustainable agriculture to teaching to commerce to medicine. The host couple have lived in Malawi for over 20 years; they originally came to work as transportation engineers but now own a shop in Old Town. The run/breakfast was also a great networking opportunity. I
met the CDC's Monitoring and Evaluation officer who overseas all of the Antiretroviral resistance studies (the CDC and Malawian government are just getting started looking at ARV resistance in the country) and since this is an area that I am interested in expanding into as an extension of my current study we are going to meet sometime while I'm here. A great way to start off the day and weekend!