The Alendo Hotel is in downtown Blantyre. By African standards it’s a find. $55 a night buys you a queen bed, a flat screen (with Aljazeera the only news and lots of soccer channels) a mosquito net, no a/c, free breakfast, and HOT WATER! The wifi is pay as you go and it doesn’t like Apple products (so far).

Marthias, the manager has an eye for meticulous service.

It has a school of tourism attached so man of the staff are students, clearly working hard to learn the tourist trade.

The leftover influence of the British leaves a sense of pride and propriety and eagerness to serve well.

As I gave thanks for a generous breakfast of fried eggs, sausage, French fried potatoes, baked beans and coffee, I was struck by HOW generous it was in light of the overwhelming poverty I’ll see in the villages today.

1 John 3:17-18 NIV
[17] If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? [18] Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.