LILONGWE, Malawi — Dancing school children. Old men beating on goat-skinned drums. A frayed red carpet on the baking African tarmac.

First lady Melania Trump's arrival in Lilongwe, Malawi, the second stop on her four-country African tour, had all the pageantry of a presidential visit to Africa, but none of the crowds.

"Malawi and America are united," sang several dozen children in Chichewa, the local language, somehow not breaking a sweat in their uniform sweaters under the midday sun.

Absent were the fawning crowds that greeted President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, on their first visit in 2009.

Missing were the billboards that lined the airport road in Dar es Salaam, when President George W. Bush visited Tanzania in 2008.

Part of Melania Trump's reserved welcome was due to the trip's secrecy.

Two days before she landed in Lilongwe, many residents were in the dark about her impending visit. And it wasn't because the power cuts out for five or six hours a day.

The embassy didn't announce a precise arrive date until the day before her plane touched down.

But among those who had heard, there was a sense of excitement, mixed with pride, about a visit from the first lady and former fashion model.