Home Again

Hey everyone!

I am officially back in Malawi! *cheering & clapping*

My flights weren't so bad, and though I wasn't able to drag myself out of the Amsterdam airport to walk around the city- I did have a hell of a nap in their aptly named 'cozy lounge'. I know that my trip back to Chintheche is going to be hot and uncomfortable, but at least the end is in sight- tomorrow evening, I will (hopefully) be reunited with my beloved Hector, and I'll be able to start getting back to a normal type life... kind of.

Thank You so much to everyone who visited me while I was in the US- and triple that if you fed me. I'm going to miss you all, but my trip was good I think, because it helped me remember what I'm doing here in Malawi.

As for tonight, New Years Eve, I am in the city of Lilongwe, but I think I'm going to end up crashing. I see a pillow in my immediate future.

Alright, love to all :)
Melissa

A Conversation

Ok, so, backstory.

Both of my brothers, Matt and Chris, live in China now, teaching. About 2 months ago, my big brother Matt got married to a Chinese woman who, according to him, is too good to him. They like to talk on Skype with my dad. Alright, so now, here is a conversation they had the other day:

[9:05:11 AM] Matthew Small: dad
[9:05:14 AM] Matthew Small: can you read this
[9:05:50 AM] Christopher Michael Small: Hey Dad
[9:05:58 AM] Matthew Small: lol
[9:06:10 AM] Mike Small: Hello Chris.
[9:06:25 AM] Matthew Small: chris, your situation is comical to me.
[9:06:31 AM] Matthew Small: should I tell dad
[9:07:59 AM] Christopher Michael Small: Hello Dad
[9:08:02 AM] Christopher Michael Small: probably not
[9:08:41 AM] Mike Small: Do you still have a job?
[9:09:02 AM] Christopher Michael Small: Yeah
[9:09:11 AM] Christopher Michael Small: it's nothing like that
[9:09:29 AM] Mike Small: Do you still have a place to live?
[9:09:41 AM] Christopher Michael Small: yeah
[9:09:58 AM] Matthew Small: I suspect that there is somewhere he could crash if he wanted too
[9:10:44 AM] Christopher Michael Small: So pretty much your first impulse was to phone Dad on this Matt?
[9:11:13 AM] Mike Small: Does this involve the police?
[9:11:20 AM] Christopher Michael Small: no
[9:11:25 AM] Christopher Michael Small: some dude is hitting on me
[9:11:46 AM] Matthew Small: you little tease
[9:11:52 AM] Matthew Small: I ment my house
[9:12:09 AM] Matthew Small: but yea,
[9:12:12 AM] Matthew Small: there's that
[9:12:22 AM] Mike Small: Is he Chinese?
[9:12:29 AM] Christopher Michael Small: yeah
[9:12:59 AM] Matthew Small: dad wanted to come by the way
[9:14:22 AM] Mike Small: Did we need to warn you about Chinese men- if so here it is, "please do not get married to a chinese man."
[9:15:21 AM] Matthew Small: Donna says they're good providers
[9:15:38 AM] Matthew Small: although they don't make much
[9:15:58 AM] Matthew Small: but he would you like a queen, kid-o
[9:16:11 AM] Christopher Michael Small: treat me like a queen
[9:16:20 AM] Christopher Michael Small: Bah, I make more money than him
[9:16:35 AM] Matthew Small: yea, probably
[9:16:44 AM] Matthew Small: lol
[9:16:56 AM] Mike Small: Can he cook?
[9:17:26 AM] Matthew Small: true enough
[9:17:35 AM] Matthew Small: he might expect you to do that
[9:17:37 AM] Christopher Michael Small: I don't know, maybe
[9:18:00 AM] Christopher Michael Small: Why, are you writing up a list of pros and cons now?
[9:18:43 AM] Matthew Small: So wait, you have know dad and I for like over two decades
[9:18:55 AM] Matthew Small: and you're still gunna ask that question
[9:19:09 AM] Mike Small: No I am sticking with my original warnings.
[9:19:26 AM] Christopher Michael Small: ok
[9:20:02 AM] Matthew Small: I dunno. I'm pretty hjappy with my chinese spouse
[9:20:35 AM] Matthew Small: you know, I haven't had to do my own laundry since I got here.
[9:21:46 AM] Mike Small: It is hard to believe that she has seen your underwear and is still with you.
[9:24:24 AM] Christopher Michael Small: ok, I think i'm going to sleep soon
[9:24:30 AM] Matthew Small: and yet..here we are. Also, standards in developing countries are different
[9:24:53 AM] Christopher Michael Small: indeed
[9:26:10 AM] Mike Small: Ok. Chris go to sleep. Maybe the three os us can talk tomorrow.
[9:26:25 AM] Christopher Michael Small: ok, cool
[9:26:28 AM] Christopher Michael Small: cya
[9:27:06 AM] Matthew Small: yea, see ya, bro
[9:27:08 AM] Mike Small: Good night Chriss- Goodnight Matt.
[9:27:34 AM] Matthew Small: wait, I'm not leaving
[9:29:29 AM] Matthew Small: so how are things at home
[9:32:04 AM] Matthew Small: alright. talk if your still there. if not, cya later I guess

Proof

The Blue Line is 'Klingon'- the Red Line is 'Chitonga'

Let it snow, let it snow, let it... ok, now, that's enough... ah, oh well... let it snow!

I have been in Michigan for a few days now, and there are a few things I've noticed. The first thing I realized is that I'm normal- yup, that's right, I am absolutely normal. That is to say, in Michigan I'm normal. It is normal to wear shirts about the mitten state, be rowdy on the weekends, and tell impossibly long stories, you just have to be in Michigan.

Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I made the trek to East Lansing with Carrie and Zach to see some friends. When we arrived at Carrie's house, the dogs attacked us (of course), and Carrie's mom fed us breakfast- as each of her family members walked downstairs, I noticed that every single one of them was wearing a Michigan State University shirt or sweat shirt. Even Carrie's brother's girlfriend was wearing an MSU shirt- so there we were, 7 adults with spartan pride. Earlier in the week I went to the mall and saw more than one store selling novelty T-shirts about the mitten state- so there! It isn't just me!

Then we went to East Lansing where we were rowdy. Carrie's little brother- alias 'army of one Bob' showed up at Woody's pretty inappropriate. First he offered to taze us, because apparently it is the secret of the energizer bunny's power- who knew? Next, he pulled out his own bottle of whiskey and a bottle of soda and made his own drink, sometime later, he asked me how it felt to lose both of my brothers to the communists. It was pretty amazing, apparently when I went to the bathroom, he tried to get my friends to help him 'take melissa and her brothers down', because I guess we don't love 'mericuh enough.

The weather here has been dangerous, Carrie and I spun out on the highway on our way home, so we got a ride from one of Carrie's brother's girlfriends, who had a car with newer tires. Because of the weather, I'm staying at Carrie's tonight and going home tomorrow. We just had some turkey with her two brothers, both of their girlfriends and her parents, it is nice to be able to borrow someone elses' brothers for a while since mine are in China.

So I'm happy to be home for a bit, but don't worry about me, I'm definately missing Africa too.

beeb

What do I want for Christmas?

Answer: this is what I want for Christmas.

http://michiganawesome.myshopify.com/collections/t-shirts

I'll be home WEDNESDAY!

Thanksgiving #2!

I can't believe I've been in Malawi long enough to have had two Thanksgivings here, but there you are!

On the actual day of Thanksgiving, I was in Mzuzu, aka, the greatest place in Malawi (or maybe second only to Nkhata Bay), we killed a turkey- Gerard from the zoo wanted to do it by an injection of vodka. That is exactly something he would do.

The next day, Friday, I headed down to Lilongwe, beer, dancing, food, a good time was had by all- then of course, the actual celebration at the Ambassador's house was even more fun- and then that night when we went dancing was a fun EXPLOSION! Ugh, seriously, friends in 'Merica, you'll have to show me an extra good time if you want to try to compete.

So yup, that's that, I'm super excited to go home and see everyone, but I do have a good life here too.

Love love

beeb

Oh beautiful...

Hey guys!

So yes, I'm excited to go to narnia, I mean America, but I can't help but be a little nervous about traveling alone- I'm sure things will be fine, as one of my friends pointed out, I've been living in Africa for more than a year. Still.

I'm also a little sad that I won't be able to show any pictures of Malawi, since my camera charger and computer were both stolen- my camera is about 5 years old, but hopefully I can get a new camera charger when I'm home (or maybe a new camera...?)

That's about it, I'm getting excited to see you all, and the Umoza group is currently at work sewing napkins and place mats for me to sell when I get home- the fabrics here are really something, so hopefully we'll have buyers. I also hope to bring some carvings and stuff home, fingers crossed.

See you in a few weeks!

!!!

Today is going to be a good day.

I am currently in Chintheche on the hunt for a catfish. There are catfish in Malawi, and I am going to fry one with some friends tonight. I cooked a ton of food too to surprise them with once they get here so it should be a good time- you can't go wrong with cookies.

Also!! I just got 3 huge packages in the mail today- one from cousin Gracie and 2 from the Rothwells. I haven't opened them yet because I'm worried about carting them home, but I'm sure they're amazing, I can't wait!.

So that's about it, all in all, a promising day as it is only 10:00.

Home!

Today in the library there was a huge pile of books on the floor when I walked in- Mr. Simkonda and Mr. Msumba were on the floor, spider crouched, sorting through them. When I asked them 'what's all this then', they told me that the books had been donated from a school in Livingstonia that recently upgraded from being a secondary school to a University. I didn't know schools could do that.

Anyway, I started to help them sort, and I came across a book from the early 1950's called 'America in 1,000 pictures', which was just a bunch of pictures sorted by state (all 48 of 'em). I stood for about 20 minutes just looking at the cheezy 1950's pictures.

I'm going home for a visit in December though :)

Two things that are a little sad about my visit though- I won't have any pictures to show since my computer was stolen, and Chris won't be there. The pictures, well, you guys can just deal with that (and I can't put them on the internet from here, so there was no way to back them up, so please, no guilt)- but Chris' being in China- that's rough. I was planning on just doing everything with him when I got back, and soaking up his absurdity and wisdom. Plus, I don't know how I'll react to being in a country where I can wear anything and eat actual food- a place where internet and phone calls are free? Where do I go? What do I do? I wanted Chris to be there, because he would probably go with me to Meijer at 2am and not judge- and afterward, he'd fully support my desire to go into a McDonalds and ask them to make me a flurry with a pie (a plan I've been thinking of for a while). Because of this lack of little brother, I'll need other people to rally and visit, yes yes? Please come see me in Grand Rapids, I miss you all- I have made no travel plans yet, just come see me.

Take care! I'll see you all in a month!

To begin, a shout out to Christi and Kitty who both sent awesome packages around early September- thanks guys! I am going to enjoy my coffee and beef jerky, maybe at the same time, who knows, I'm crazy.

Also, to all my friends living in DC, I am seriously jealous that you get to got to the Rally to Restore Sanity. Wish I could go- even though when people try to explain the current American political scene to me over the phone, I get confused and get a headache.

Finally, congratulations to Chris, who is leaving for China soon. For those of you who don't know, my older brother Matt now lives in China with his new wife (yay!), and my little brother Chris is also going to go there to teach, and maybe also to find a wife- that remains to be seen. So, for anyone who was born between the years 1984-1988, get ready for my mom to empty-nest all over you, because she isn't going to have any kids in America soon. Just kidding mom, don't get mad.

My week has been ok, it's getting really hot, but the library seems to always be a good 10-20 degrees cooler than the outside, so I've been in there a lot, as usual. The acting ambassador is slated to visit my school this upcoming week on Thursday, which should be cool- I'm a little nervous about it actually, my head teacher wanted to have a big party for her, which wouldn't be good, because she just wants to see a normal school day, and I've also had some conversations with people who seem to think that maybe she'll come and build us a laboratory, which she isn't going to do, since the woman isn't Oprah, and that isn't the point of the visit. Plus, I've been working for the past year to try to get the idea across that nobody is going to just build us anything, and that we have to use the resources we have. We had a library that was being eaten by termites, and a bunch of computers in boxes under a thick layer of dust when I came here- and if you'd asked anyone back then what we most needed, they'd have said computers or more books- come to find out we actually had some nice books and passable computers, we just needed to use them. Now we're working on renovating one of our old classrooms to use as a laboratory, so we're cleaning old lab equipment and using locally available resources to build storage and work places. I think that this is actually better than just having someone give us a lab, personally, but it is like pulling teeth to get anything done. Have you ever read that book 'if you give a mouse a cookie'?, I'm pretty sure the guy who wrote that worked in a developing school somewhere.

I guess that's the problem, isn't it? What the community wants isn't what the donor wants to give, and both could be completely different from what the community really needs. I think it is all very sticky- people have the best of intentions when they come out here, but who knows if their projects are going to work? I think that I want to study education and international development in grad school- maybe I'll end up at American University like the rest of Peace Corps. That would be nice, maybe then I could make it to the next Stewart/Colbert rally- September 2012? Anyone?

Malaria Free! Way 'ta Be!

Hey all!

So yesterday I felt head-achey and sleepy, so I stayed around Mufasas and rested- then today, I went to the medical unit for my check up and was declared cured! Whoot! No more parasites attacking my red blood cells!

Welcome to America

So, as you may know, I have been preparing to take the GRE. I got a few test books and went to town on them for about two months, and then this week I went to Lilongwe to take the test. I had some things to get done at the Peace Corps office, so I went down two days before the test to get my work done and get into a GRE state of mind.

The night before I left I felt kind of sick, I puked up the banana I ate for lunch, skipped dinner, and spent the night in an uncomfortable sweaty-sleepy-shaky state. That morning I felt better, if a little sluggish from lack of sleep, so I threw myself on a bus for the 7 hour trip to Lilongwe. The bus trip sucked, of course, and someone next to me ralphed into her chitenge, which was uncomfortable since you can't exactly get off of a bus here in Malawi once you are on it- this is also the reason why I don't drink water when I travel here. By the time I got to the Peace Corps office, I was tired, thirsty and generally ratty looking, but I had a doctor's appointment for my mid term physical, so I went in to see the medical staff.

It took them about two seconds to diagnose me with Malaria.

Now, I'm a good little volunteer, I take my anti-malarials, but sometimes I forget, especially on the weekends, so I must have forgotten to take my meds last Saturday and Sunday, which is when the filthy little vampire bug must have gotten me. I guess though that when you take your meds that the symptoms aren't as bad, so it makes sense that I just thought I had food poisioning.

The worst day was yesterday, when I couldn't keep anything down, and they hooked me up to an IV drip all day, and my temperture spiked to something around 110. That sucked. The doctor let me use his computer to see if I could cancel or re-schedule my test if I had a doctor's note. Nope. All cancelations must be made at least three days in advance, well, three days ago I felt ducky. He was shocked- 'So what, you aren't allowed to get sick? welcome to America'

So what about the test? Well, I took it this morning at the testing center at the embassy, it was a paper based test, and the examiner had some serious time keeping issues (he cut us off early on the first verbal section, dick), but I did it. Now I need to go sleep.

GRE count down, 6 more days

Hey all! Sorry to anyone who has been trying to phone and hasn't been able to get through, my new phone SUCKS. I don't know what else to say but keep trying.

I am still studying for the GRE- I feel like I am going to do ok- apparently the hardest part for most people is the verbal section, but due to my extreme nerdiness I have never had a problem with words, so I'm not stressing on it- I'm worried about the Math section. Math, my lifelong nemesis- my Achilles heel, my Everest... you get the picture. I'm at the point in my studying now where I am just deciding which questions to just skip.

Life in Chintheche is nice- Hector is delightful, as always, though I'm worried that she is becoming a woman now, if you get my drift, and I'm looking for a solution to the possible puppy problem. This is why most Peace Corps volunteers get boy dogs, but she showed up at my doorstep shivering from the rain in the arms of one of my students, how could I say no?

The form 1 students are learning to use the library! I have started to poll students about which books they do and don't like- it turns out that they would like more books about sports, history, science, and animals. They tend to like folktales and other types of stories, but little kids books aren't as popular. Their reading levels are still developing, so things that are too difficult aren't really great, but anything with lots of illustrations and easy to follow readings are great.

Finally, anyone who has sent me a package since my break-in, they haven't arrived quite yet, but since I just got my birthday packages sent in early September, I'm sure they're coming. I did, however, get a letter from my Uncle Kenny, aka 'The Dude', about his golf game that was sent September 20. As always, it was a classic.

Love to all,

beeb

Study Time!

Hey all!

Things here have been normal, though I have been spending all of my free time studying nonstop for the GRE. Suprisingly, since there isn't anything else to do here, I don't actually mind- but this time next week, I'll be done done done, and I won't have to worry about it anymore, I can just get back to my normal schedule of... wait, what is it I do again?

So, I'll be in Lilongwe at the end of this week to take the test on Saturday. I'm nervous about the logistics of it all (getting to LLW, lodging, etc), but I'm sure it'll all work out.

Here's to me getting 700s, right?

Hot Season, Status, Hot.

Hello friends, family, well wishers and enemies. It is hot as hell. I know that it will get hotter, but as for right now, it is difficult to get any work done, luckily the library is cooler than the rest of the school, so I have a coolish place to retreat to.

I had an awesome weekend, it was basically exactly what you would imagine a weekend in the Peace Corps would be like: a bunch of people sitting around on someone's porch chatting and drinking homemade wine, sitting around on the beach, singing songs while someone plays guitar- we are such dirty hippies.

Life is good- I got two birthday packages, one from Carrie and one from the Rothwells, both were AMAZING, and Carrie, I read all of the books you sent in three days.

That's about it,

Beep

Is it November yet?

Hey all!

This week was relatively uneventful- I had some form 2 girls over for tea on Tuesday, which was nice, they had a lot of questions, and are excited to do some dramas for the Form 1 Life Skills class. I'm hoping that their little group will help give them confidence that will influence the Form 1 girls.

The Form 1s had their first week, it was really sweet how shy they were, I wonder how long it will last. My plan for my first two weeks with them was to orient them on the library and get them reading in their spare time, it caught a snag when I walked into the library to find that once again it was being used to store broken and useless lab equipment. I had to explain to the deputy head teacher (vice principal, basically) that our school is too small to use any space for storage, and if anything is in storage, it isn't being used, so we either have to get rid of it or fix it up and organize ourselves and that the library is not a closet. In the end we shifted some of the lab equipment into the middle of the room, but the rest is still blocking our fiction section.

I also went to the police station to try to get a copy of my police report, which was useless, because they never filed one, and said I didn't want one to be filed. I couldn't help it, I ended up yelling at the police officer in charge of my case- I forgot what his title is, but it must be synonymous for 'lazy guy who does nothing', because that's exactly what he is. Ugh. He said that I needed to specifically ask to file a report, and that I hadn't done so, to which I replied that: yes, I had asked, and that even if I hadn't spoken the exact magic words to get him to do his job, he should have explained the procedures to me. He laughed at this idea, as if everyone in Malawi knows how to file a police report (they don't, I asked), and said that I should have just known or 'asked my friends'. Around here is when I lost it and yelled at him.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but after my break in, everything seems to bug me. Kids chasing me, drunks hounding me telling me that I am a 'foreign shit', disobedient students who hack up my bushes in my yard even though I told them not to. Other volunteers agree that they feel the same way right about now too though, so maybe its that I'm at my one year slump, or that it is the beginning of hot season. I don't really know why.

Anyway, I'm going to my friend Meg's for the weekend to cool off. Hopefully I'll feel better after the weekend is over.

Mzuzu day 2

Woke up in a tent, it was freezing outside. Dragged (drug?) myself into the zoo, drank a cup of coffee. Zombie walked with other pcvs to the 'chipatti lady' in the market (pi, did I take you there?) stumbled around Mzuzu in jeans and sunglasses. Climbed into the internet cafe.

I. Love. Mzuzu.

Mzuzu

Hey all!

I'm currently at my favorite place in all of Malawi, well, top five at least, Mzuzu. Unfortunately, I forgot my phone at home, damn, so don't worry if you can't get me until Sunday night.

As for today, I'm going to go to the market to replace the shoes and jeans that were stolen to get me through until all of your lovely packages come in. I'm happy to say that I'm feeling much better.

Love to all!

Beeb

Livin' without soap (and towels, a radio, shampoo, shoes...)

This week has been emotional, and so I wasn't really fair when I wrote last Monday. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about Malawi, or especially my community. Yeah, it sucks when half of your belongings (the useful half, mind you) gets stolen, but I was never directly threatened or harmed, and my dog was unmolested. Maybe amongst the burgled, I can be considered a winner? My neighbors have been awesome, the night I discovered the break in happened, one family let me use their phone to call Peace Corps, and another even brought over a pile of papayas and dinner for Hector (usipa and nsima- alias minnows and starch patties). The Peace Corps community has also been really helpful, I have had two friends call me at great expense (phone time here is expensive), and the office has helped me out a lot too. Hector, our safety and security officer, and my dog's namesake, even called the police station to yell at officers. Oh Hector.

So how am I? I've been better, but my mom has been mobilizing friends and family over in America to help send over replacements for things I lost and, more importantly, give me phone calls so I can catch up on gossip, and have someone to cry to. My cousin Gracie and I talked for an hour, running her a bill of about $250 before she called the phone company to sort it out. That's some cousin love right there, but I advise skype or phone cards- I don't have skype, but you can use it to call me on my cell phone, my number for the time being is (011265991334472) until I recover my old number, I'll let you all know when it changes back.

This week I've been down, so I've just been reading a lot. It took me a while to clean my house (or leave it for that matter), so on Tuesday when my APCD (associate Peace Corps Director) came over when I was expecting him on Wednesday, I was surprised. I just opened my door in my pajamaed glory and was like 'oh hi- um, usually I don't leave garbage all over the place- and normally I shower... and wear professional clothes... and brush my hair'. He was cool about it though, and he brought me goldfish crackers and oreos. We went to the police station, where one of the cops was named 'major'- which made me think of Catch 22, and made me laugh, which was the first sign that my sense of humor was coming back. I don't have much faith that my stuff will come back, but who knows?

I'm getting back to my old routine though, today I sorted papers in the library (and yes mom, I apologized to Mr. Simkonda). I'm just going to relax this weekend, and then get back to things on Monday.

So for any Peace Corps Malawi recruits out there reading Peace Corps Journals- please don't worry, you probably won't have a break in, but if you do, it's still worth it.


****Well-Wishers' Wish List****
-macaroni and cheese (the kind with the powder- you can even just send the powder to save space)
-coffee
-chocolate
-oreos
-books
-jeans (last I checked I was a size 6 in Gap, but you know how sizes go- if it is stretchy, go with the 6, if not, the 8)
-a yesterdog shirt
-any MSU shirts
-Sunglasses
-shoes (size 7.5 or 7 depending on the fit- and some cheaper tennis shoes would be cool- flip flops are already here)
-shampoo, soap, deodorant (yup, they stole that too)
-summer sausage and beef jerkey
-protein bars (why you gotta steal a girl's protein bars?!)
-velveeta cheese (doesn't need refrigeration, so what if it isn't technically 'food')
-a towel (yup. stolen)
-stuff you think will make me smile
-a letter from you (the best part of any package!)

My address is still:

Melissa Small
Box 44
Chintheche, Malawi
Central Africa

Break In Round 2

So remember when I had a break in a few months ago and they took my buckets? This makes that look really, really stupid. Thieves came into my house this weekend while I was at a trade fair at my site mate's house and they took everything of use or value. Laptop- gone, phone charger- gone, towels, donated markers for the school, things my women's group sewed that I was going to sell, sewing kits, half of all my clothes, all of my shoes, food, gone gone gone. They took every bag, backpack and satchel, they even took my pillow case (probably to shove more stuff into).

The list is really long, but it is at the police station at the moment.

The worst part is that my phone fell out of my bag on my way to the trade fair, and so I can't even get phone calls from home, or text any of my friends here about it to get a little support- and they took all my money, so I am having trouble buying food. I get paid again in October, but how can I get to Mzuzu to get that money out? My friend let me borrow his old phone to get a new sim card for to use until I can afford my own- but that was before I knew all my money was gone, so I don't know how I'll afford a new sim card.

I'm lonesome, I don't want to go home, but this sucks.

Klingon

According to Wikipedia, there are about 170,000 speakers of Chitonga, as far as I know, there is no translation of the Bible into Chitonga, and I have yet to see as much as a pamphlet written in it.

However, both Hamlet and the Bible have been translated into Klingon. Though there are few fluent speakers, there is a Klingon language institute.

something to think about.

Azungu Blues

So, I've been hanging around Lilongwe for a while now... I'm getting frustrated. I got my last shot today, so tomorrow I'll be able to get my med hold money meaning I can get out of here the day after tomorrow. Eesh. I'm tired of the city- today some guys were harassing me on the street, making kissing noises and being generally degrading- I didn't even think about it, I just hit one of them and told them all to eff off.

******Warning, I am about to describe something gross, if you are squeamish, don't read on********

I saw the doctor about a thorn in my foot too, I stepped on a thorn a few weeks ago and my feet were never quite clean enough to tell if I got it out or not, but I could feel it was still sore. After a few days of intense scrubbing at Mufasa's Lodge (where the showers are amazing, Piotr can attest), I noticed the heel of my foot where it was sore was kinda discolored, so I decided to show the doctor.

I showed him the callus on my foot where I knew where the thorn was, and though he said that it wasn't a good place to go cutting into people, after about ten seconds of deliberating, told me to get up on the table. Our doctor Erfan loves to cut people, he just can't resist. Honestly, it didn't hurt so much because the bottoms of my feet are really tough now, like hobbit feet, and my foot was just scarring around the thorn, but Erfan sounded a little too excited when he discovered pus. He dug around for about ten minutes and eventually removed the thorn tip (it was little), and now I have a hole in my foot. I was excited to show my friends, I won't lie. My friend Sol also had Erfan dig a splinter out of his foot after me, and was a little dissappointed that I stole his thunder.

Volunteers are weird.

Birthday 2010

Yesterday, I woke up in a bed, ate cereal and toast with jam. I went to the Peace Corps offices and talked to my boss who, after verifying it was indeed my birthday, gave me a few kwacha for lunch (yippie!). We bought meat and cheese and fried up some burgers, which I ate with fries and beer. I stood out on the balcony of Mufasas and talked with my friends. Later, the electricity went out, so my birthday cake was still gooey and amazing. Finally, I went to sleep because I was exhausted. I woke up this morning, drank a coffee, watched some Batman, took a shower, and am now in the Peace Corps offices reading birthday messages- Bridget made me a video of everyone singing me Happy Birthday, which made me feel really cool and scifi, like I was a space explorer or something. Then, just now, I found an MSU t-shirt in the 'I don't want box'.

Best. Day. Ever.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes everyone, it was a wonderful birthday. Who knew getting rabies shots would lead to this?

I'm 24!

So for my birthday, I got scratched by a cat, so now I'm in Lilongwe for a series of rabies shots. It happens. The bus ride down here was pretty awful- I was standing the entire time (8hours) and it was crowded, there were points where I just hated everyone, but I made it.

Weird things happen on busses here- chickens running around, a girl puked on me once, just, you know, weird stuff, but yesterday I had the strangest thing happen to me- I was paying for my ticket, and I guess a hair of mine was drifting around, heading to the floor, because, you know, hairs detatch sometimes, it happens, and the conductor picks it up off the floor and looks at it, and examines it with a woman sitting nearby like 'hey, do you know what this is? It's probably hers', and then they try to give it back to me, and I'm not having it, and then they start shoving it at me like, 'no, it's yours, take it', and I just kind of lose my cool, and just go off Ricky Ricardo style, speaking in rapid English that I know they can't follow- because what the hell? Then they laughed at me.

And that happened to me.

Now I'm in Lilongwe for a few days while they give me my set of rabies shots, I probably don't have anything to worry about, but it's better to be safe. I guess I don't mind, because now I get to spend my birthday with other volunteers who are passing through Lilongwe or are on med hold too. 24, I need to start thinking of a good quarter life crisis (because moving to Africa isn't enough)

beep

Language Barriers

I have lived in Malawi for a little over 11 months, and the most frustrating part of it all is the feeling I have that nobody understands what I’m saying. My Chitonga is decent, I can speak more than I believed I’d be able to, and if people stick to a few predefined subjects, I can understand conversations that I hear. Of course, the easiest way to ensure that conversations stay within the realm of my understanding is to actively participate in them; safe subjects include: my dog, eating, cooking, things my dog eats and or kills, things people cook for my dog to eat, sewing, buying food, walking places, traveling to the capitol city or Mzuzu, washing my clothes, nodding emphatically, telling children to stop yelling at me/following me/asking me for money, saying I don’t understand, telling people I don’t speak Chichewa, telling people that if it is indeed Chitonga that they’re speaking, to please slow down because I’m learning. That’s about all I have, but I have become resourceful with mixing and matching things from these categories.
A sample conversation with a neighbor:

Timoneni Ama (hello lady)
Yeawo, Mwe Uli? (Thank you, how are you)
Nde umampha, mwe uli? (I’m fine, and you are?)
Nde umampha. Hector mwe uli? (Fine. Hector is how?)
Ehhh! Hector wa suzgo! (Ah, Hector is trouble!)
Eh? Wa suzgo? (Hector is trouble?)
Ehh! (Yes.)
Eh! Chifukwa uli Hector wa suzgo? (What is the reason why she is trouble?)
Hector wabya nyoli! (Hector killed a chicken)
Anyacki wa sewe? (Maybe she is playing?)
Panyaki, panyaki cha (Maybe, maybe not)
Ndi paseni nsima (I will give her Nsima)
Ehh! Hector watanja vykula ya Malawi kuluska ku vykula ya Ameraca (Hector likes Malawian food more than American food)
Hey! Hector wa galu ya mzungu cha! (Ah, she is not a white person dog)
Et! Asani, wa buya causwae (Also, she killed a rat.)
Et? (?)
Et! (!)
Causwae wamkulu? (A big rat?)
Et! Wamkulu! (Yeah! A big one!)
Et! Hector ya’umampha (Ah! Hector is good!)
Et! Vyo, ndi luta ku numba (Yes! Ok, now I am going to my house)

My dog’s hunting and eating habits are about as complex as my conversations can get which, hey, is more than I can say about my French speaking skills, which is a language I have studied for a good six years.

I get frustrated when I try to say something outside of my range. I have a second women’s group that I have become involved with over this summer, it is a great group, but none of the women can speak any English, so I either need my counterpart to translate for me, or I need to muddle through with gestures and my small amount of Tonga. We get by.

Sometimes I want to express something new to someone I meet on the street, some agogo (grandmother) or maybe a little kid and I just can’t. It is sad, because I just want to be understood, and I want to understand other people, and we don’t have the same vocabulary.
It even happens when I talk to other Americans, or friends from back home- somehow I forget not to use my Malawian/Peace Corps slang, resulting in exchanges like this:

“Piotr, can you watch my Khutundu? I need to go to the chim, and I don’t like the looks of these iwe.”
“What is Khutundu?”
“You know, all of your ujeni”

But it isn’t just the weird words that get in the way, even in completely straightforward conversations; I get the feeling that I’m not saying what I mean to say. I don’t feel like I’ve changed all that much, but maybe I have, and that’s the reason why it is so hard to be understood. I long ago realized not to refer to my house here as ‘home’, because people think I’m talking about America. I’d say something like ‘I’m going home tomorrow’ on my blog, and I’d get concerned e-mails and phone calls asking me why I was quitting the Peace Corps. More than a few times I’ve told a story that I find funny, and the person on the other end of the line just responds with ‘oh my god’.

The thing I find strangest is when people say that what I’m doing is somehow noble or admirable- it makes me uncomfortable, because I feel that something people say is noble should be harder than this. If it weren’t for the fact that I miss my friends and family, I could easily live in my little house here for much longer than two years and be happy. My place is starting to get comfortable, I like my job, I’m within walking distance of the beach, and I have a lot of time to read and sew. If I had a refrigerator, a toilet, and internet access here, it’d be perfect. It also feels strange when people say stuff like that to me because I feel mostly positive about my life here, and I think that lots of people could do this. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t think that I’m doing a good job, but I wouldn’t describe my life here as ‘noble’. What about our public school teachers in America? Their jobs are harder than mine is here, aren’t they noble?

Like I said, I don’t think I’m doing a good job explaining myself, and that’s the main reason why I don’t think I’ll extend my term of service here after my time is up next year. A lot of people extend their service into a 3rd year, and though I like my job and my life here, I miss being in a place where I can be understood.

Does that make sense?

beeb

I have lived in Malawi for a little over 11 months, and the most frustrating part of it all is the feeling I have that nobody understands what I’m saying. My Chitonga is decent, I can speak more than I believed I’d be able to, and if people stick to a few predefined subjects, I can understand conversations that I hear. Of course, the easiest way to ensure that conversations stay within the realm of my understanding is to actively participate in them; safe subjects include: my dog, eating, cooking, things my dog eats and or kills, things people cook for my dog to eat, sewing, buying food, walking places, traveling to the capitol city or Mzuzu, washing my clothes, nodding emphatically, telling children to stop yelling at me/following me/asking me for money, saying I don’t understand, telling people I don’t speak Chichewa, telling people that if it is indeed Chitonga that they’re speaking, to please slow down because I’m learning. That’s about all I have, but I have become resourceful with mixing and matching things from these categories.
A sample conversation with a neighbor:

Timoneni Ama (hello lady)
Yeawo, Mwe Uli? (Thank you, how are you)
Nde umampha, mwe uli? (I’m fine, and you are?)
Nde umampha. Hector mwe uli? (Fine. Hector is how?)
Ehhh! Hector wa suzgo! (Ah, Hector is trouble!)
Eh? Wa suzgo? (Hector is trouble?)
Ehh! (Yes.)
Eh! Chifukwa uli Hector wa suzgo? (What is the reason why she is trouble?)
Hector wabya nyoli! (Hector killed a chicken)
Anyacki wa sewe? (Maybe she is playing?)
Panyaki, panyaki cha (Maybe, maybe not)
Ndi paseni nsima (I will give her Nsima)
Ehh! Hector watanja vykula ya Malawi kuluska ku vykula ya Ameraca (Hector likes Malawian food more than American food)
Hey! Hector wa galu ya mzungu cha! (Ah, she is not a white person dog)
Et! Asani, wa buya causwae (Also, she killed a rat.)
Et? (?)
Et! (!)
Causwae wamkulu? (A big rat?)
Et! Wamkulu! (Yeah! A big one!)
Et! Hector ya’umampha (Ah! Hector is good!)
Et! Vyo, ndi luta ku numba (Yes! Ok, now I am going to my house)

My dog’s hunting and eating habits are about as complex as my conversations can get which, hey, is more than I can say about my French speaking skills, which is a language I have studied for a good six years.

I get frustrated when I try to say something outside of my range. I have a second women’s group that I have become involved with over this summer, it is a great group, but none of the women can speak any English, so I either need my counterpart to translate for me, or I need to muddle through with gestures and my small amount of Tonga. We get by.

Sometimes I want to express something new to someone I meet on the street, some agogo (grandmother) or maybe a little kid and I just can’t. It is sad, because I just want to be understood, and I want to understand other people, and we don’t have the same vocabulary.
It even happens when I talk to other Americans, or friends from back home- somehow I forget not to use my Malawian/Peace Corps slang, resulting in exchanges like this:

“Piotr, can you watch my Khutundu? I need to go to the chim, and I don’t like the looks of these iwe.”
“What is Khutundu?”
“You know, all of your ujeni”

But it isn’t just the weird words that get in the way, even in completely straightforward conversations; I get the feeling that I’m not saying what I mean to say. I don’t feel like I’ve changed all that much, but maybe I have, and that’s the reason why it is so hard to be understood. I long ago realized not to refer to my house here as ‘home’, because people think I’m talking about America. I’d say something like ‘I’m going home tomorrow’ on my blog, and I’d get concerned e-mails and phone calls asking me why I was quitting the Peace Corps. More than a few times I’ve told a story that I find funny, and the person on the other end of the line just responds with ‘oh my god’.

The thing I find strangest is when people say that what I’m doing is somehow noble or admirable- it makes me uncomfortable, because I feel that something people say is noble should be harder than this. If it weren’t for the fact that I miss my friends and family, I could easily live in my little house here for much longer than two years and be happy. My place is starting to get comfortable, I like my job, I’m within walking distance of the beach, and I have a lot of time to read and sew. If I had a refrigerator, a toilet, and internet access here, it’d be perfect. It also feels strange when people say stuff like that to me because I feel mostly positive about my life here, and I think that lots of people could do this. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t think that I’m doing a good job, but I wouldn’t describe my life here as ‘noble’. What about our public school teachers in America? Their jobs are harder than mine is here, aren’t they noble?

Like I said, I don’t think I’m doing a good job explaining myself, and that’s the main reason why I don’t think I’ll extend my term of service here after my time is up next year. A lot of people extend their service into a 3rd year, and though I like my job and my life here, I miss being in a place where I can be understood.

Does that make sense?

beeb

Stuff I've Used

By popular demand, how I've used things from my packages:

-I traded pens for fruit that my women's group used to make Jam
-My markers have gone dry from my students using them so much
-The yellow beach cover up was adored by all when I visited Nkhata Bay
-Chocolate was devoured by me
-Hector promptly took her new chew bone and lost it (dumb dog)
-My neighbor's daughter tried to eat one of hector's doggie treats (no comment)
-After reading, I traded magazines with some of the artists in my village for art (thus boosting literacy rates and the beautification of my own home)
-My iwes played with everything in my home
-The Umoza women's group made a bunch of baby dresses from donated pins and needles (though our supplies are running low on needles because the tricky things get lost)
-Coffee helped me survive life
-I mixed cheese powder packs from macaroni and cheese with potatoes to make scalloped potatoes, and also with tomato sauce to make cheesy spaghetti sauce
-I rationed my M&Ms for a month (it was worth it)
-Beef jerky kept me healthy when I couldn't afford to buy eggs
-People magazines kept me company until midnight one night when I couldn't sleep from lonesomeness (what has Kate been up to since Jon left?)
-I made many many many outfits from the patterns and sewing kits sent (the most successful being a jacket I banged out last week)
-Every time we get a new book, the students fight over it in the library (and some have started wanting to read the novels!)
-Novels sent to me have kept me sane (currently reading 'The Magus' as sent by Auntie Helen- tell her we need to chat)

so there's just a little idea of how what you send gets used. As always, coffee, summer sausage, jerky, reading material, and things for the library are always wanted (as well as any other strange thing you think would make me smile)

Out

beeb

Camp Sky Pictures!

Ok guys, so here's the thing. I wasn't at Camp Sky the entire time (they were doing something called 'model school' at my site, so I had to leave early... we are all very sad that I can't be in two places at once). Also, while I was there, I was pretty busy, and didn't grab my camera often- plus, right now the internet connection I'm on is s-l-o-w, so all of this means I have very few pictures to share, but here they are:
The Camp Sky Campus

My students, smiling for once (this was attempt #4)

Women's Groups

This week Peace Corps sent two trainees to my site to practice teaching at my school- it was nice to hang around the school, but not to have to do any of my own teaching/grading. One nice thing about it was the fact that we have two HUGE tables in my library that were perfect for cutting out sewing patterns. Normally I cut out my pieces on the floor in my house which is dirty and prone to Hector steps- and at this time of year, there is some sort of itchy dust in the air from a local plant called 'buffalo peas', which is like itching powder, and has been known to settle on my floor. All of this inspired me to go talk to my carpenter who has made me a table, futon, coffee table and shelves for my house over the past few months- honestly, I'm running out of ideas of things for him to make me, but I have a spare room that I use for storage which I decided I could use a big ping-pong sized table in for cutting patterns, and hell, even ping-pong. I am very excited for him to finish so that I can teach my iwes how to play ping-pong. I told him just to make two saw horses and a table top so that the table could be moved outside for ping-pong tournaments. I can easily knit myself a net, so now I just need to find paddles and balls... maybe in a Chinese goods shop in Mzuzu? There are all sorts of strange imports from China at those stores. If I get replaced next year, whoever gets my house next is getting hooked up.

I also had a friend who lives a few hours away visit for a bit- he had some good ideas about income generating projects for my second women's group which I'm excited to try out. The group has been interested in making different jams and jellies, and my friend's idea was to package them in little single serving containers that can be bought in Mzuzu and sell them in the market for 10 kwacha each. Our group's eventual goal is to raise funds to build a primary school to replace the mud brick structure that is currently being used. If we made a more secure primary school, we could stock it with teaching and learning materials, but as it is, without doors, windows and just a thatched roof, everything that isn't nailed down is prone to theft.

Umoza is also going well, we are making little baby dresses while we wait for the school year to start, at which time we can sell our uniforms. I am learning a lot about sewing from my ama, Margaret, and I think that the other women are too. I bought a dress from the group to give my neighbors for their baby Melissa (named after me, poor kid)- she looked so cute! I'm still trying to decide what the group should make for me to bring back home at Christmas time, and baby dresses are definitely a possibility.

That's about all for now, thanks for the packages, letters, emails and phone calls- they've made the past 11 months go by fast (can you believe its been 11 months? I can't)

beeb

Back at Site

hey all- I'm back at site safe and sound,and I got two packages, one from auntie Alison and one from Mary from LDO- thanks guys!

Day 3, Way To Be!

Everything is going well here at camp sky, the kids are having a lot of fun, and so am I! Last night, after dinner, we had a salsa lesson which the kids loved- the lights were out, so the whole thing was done in candle light, which was all quite dramatic. The trainees are here now, so they get to get an idea of what exactly Camp Sky is, and how to run it next year. They are a great group, I can't wait to get to know them better (and of course, come back next year to help out with camp)

My kids are all smiles! Thanks for all of the support!

beep

Camp Sky Day 2!

Hello everyone! I am here at camp sky- my kids (aliases Ken and Olivia) love it. Last night Olivia seemed kind of sad and lonesome, when we signed up for extracurriculars, she made a beeline to my 'sewing' table and was the first to sign up, which broke my heart, but she cheered up today after the first round of classes. For a lot of these kids, this is the first time they've been away from home, so you can understand why they would be a little withdrawn at first.

Hanging out in the staff room with all of my Peace Corps friends is a lot of fun, we're all really getting into our lessons, and since we have a lot of materials, we can really kick them out of the park- construction paper and markers is refreshing after all these months rationing them at site. We're teaching root words in the English classes, so I'm getting my fill of prefixes, suffixes and roots- my mind is reeling, I'm going to kick the GRE's ass.

Our camp director Elisabeth has been working like crazy to pull all of this off, I can't believe it, I could never do her job, but the results are amazing! A lot of time and effort has gone into making Sky a success, especially on the part of our wonderful donors, so if you want to help next year's kids have as much fun as the 2010 group, please donate- Camp Sky is a wonderful Peace Corps Malawi tradition, and all proceeds will continue to benefit students in future groups.

I love you all, I can't wait to come home at christmas time!
Beeb

Camp Sky!

Hello everyone, I am posting from dusty Kasungu where I am helping to prepare the camp sky campus! Thank you all for your support- and if you donated and would like a thank-you card from me and my students, just post your name and address in my comments section, and we will make you a card!

Things here have been good, we've been working hard cleaning out classrooms and dorms for the kids- I am looking forward to the sewing lessons that I'm doing with my friend Jamie and my Batiking class with Esther. We are also semi-planning a run through of Romeo and Juilet for the kids, because even though the play is on their syllabus, most Malawian students haven't seen it (or read it in its entirety for that matter).

The kids come tomorrow, so excited!

Also, we are still accepting funding- any surplus funds go toward next year's camp sky, which I will also send students to, so don't worry, it all goes to a good cause. The link below is still the camp sky link:

http://www.friendsofmalawi.org/grants/how_to_donate.html

Yewu Ukongwa! I'll post later this week with updates about how it is going.

More Pictures!

Eviscerated Pig


Iwes at Esther's schoolThe Market

Pictures?!

Alright, you asked for them, and after 10 months, I guess I can finally put up some pictures. This is me at the beach by my house sometime in February- jealous?


Hector the pup

A meeting of the Umoza women's group


Umoza sewing!


Students working in the library.

Camp Sky

Sometimes you get to teach students who you can tell are always thinking; only in Malawi have I ever felt bad for those kids. One of my students, Ken *, is one of those kids. Ken reminds me of a close friend back home, or at least, the fifteen year old incarnation of him. I don’t know why; maybe it is his smile, or the way he lingers over the Encyclopedias in the Library, poring over articles about foreign countries.
It takes a while to ‘crack’ a classroom, especially one where nobody speaks English, but Ken made it easy for me when I started teaching last December. I could glance over into the back corner where he sat, his head ranging about above his peers, who would inevitably be hunched over their work, weather they understood or not, and he would shoot me looks that clearly said ‘they’re lost’, or ‘speak more slowly’- and at rare times, a slow deliberate nod when they understood.
Another student who made an impact on me was Olivia*. I noticed the way she stood, I liked that she held her arms akimbo, she was one of the only girls I had met at the school who isn’t afraid to stand up straight, and with the way her ears stuck out, she reminded me of a pitcher. When I started in December her English wasn’t great, but has since improved dramatically. She comes into the library at every break, often with a question. When she arrives it is usually with a whispering posse behind her who watch as she walks up to my desk with an open book and asks a question like ‘what is in the middle of the earth?’ This sends us on a frantic search for books with pictures of volcanoes and diagrams of the earth’s crust. She was the student who sold me Hector the puppy for three dollars, and, poor girl, reminds me a lot of myself.
I take my bike into town every Friday, and pass groups of students on the way. They shout greetings at me and scatter out of my way as I go by. On one particular trip into town, Ken came to talk to me while I was buying a pumpkin from the vegetable stall. Always polite and smiling, Ken told me that he was going to visit his father in the hospital, and that his mother was already there. I didn’t realize at that time that in Malawi, people only go to the hospital to die.
The following Monday, I taught my lesson as usual, and Mondays are never good. I teach the first period of the day on Mondays, so students come to class late or tired. Most days the room is not swept on time, so I need to wait until the dust settles before I can teach. This Monday was the same as the rest, so I left annoyed. I was halfway across the yard to my desk in the Library where my mug of coffee waited when I noticed Olivia tramping down the hill behind me, her coltish limbs flailing.
“Miss,” she shouted “wait wait” I stopped to ask her what she wanted, expecting some whimsical question about lightening or the changing of the seasons. Instead she said: “Don’t yell at Ken today. Yesterday he lost both his parents, so if you see him, and his head is down, he is thinking of his parents.” Before I could respond, she turned heel and plodded back up the hill.
Ken still comes to class every day. He is polite and works hard. Olivia still asks questions, and has made her way through our best science and animal books. I enjoy teaching them, but I know that these kids have the cards stacked against them. I decided to invite both of them to Camp Sky, the annual summer camp Peace Corps volunteers in the Education sector organize. It isn’t much, but maybe the encouragement will be good for them, because I have to believe that education in Malawi can work.
Every successful Malawian that I have ever talked to about education has cited the impact of a single person or event to their success. Last week, while I was helping out with training in Dedza, I talked to one of our language trainers, Dinah, about her own experience growing up in Malawi. Her father was a teacher, and he decided to send his daughters as well as his sons to school. Her aunt advised against this, echoing the public sentiment that the girls would only go to school and become pregnant, but her father said he needed to be able to look his daughters in the eye and say he tried. Dinah went on to finish her education, and now has a job teaching Chichewa to Peace Corps trainees. She told us that with her first paycheck, she went out to buy sugar, soap and bread and brought it to her aunt and gave it all to her, saying “here, this is the pregnancy I came home from school with”. Her aunt cried, and now encourages her own granddaughters to go to school.
While I was in Dedza, I also got to meet William Khambwa, also known as ‘The Boy who Harnessed the Wind’. William’s family could not afford to send him to school, so he spent his teenage years studying on his own using books from his community library. During a drought, he decided to try to build a windmill so his family could irrigate their fields. His community thought he was crazy, but he was able to use a windmill to generate electricity for his home, which attracted international attention, landing him a scholarship and a book deal. We wanted to get William to come to Camp Sky so he could speak to the students, but he starts as a freshman at Dartmouth soon, so he couldn’t make it, and came to speak to the Peace Corps trainees instead. I wasn’t expecting him to be shy like my students, but he was. He stood in front of us, talking about his engineering in terms that were far over my head, but he did it in a way that was gracious and calm. We asked him about his plans for the future, and he talked about his plans for attaining his degree in Electrical Engineering, and his hopes to work in sustainable alternative energy fields. He runs a camp for children in his community so that they can make their own windmills, and has since sent his friends and family to school. What would have happened if not for that Library?
I suppose that’s the thing about Peace Corps, or maybe about life in general. You never know what the event will be that will be the catalyst for change, and it is selfish to demand that you see the world improve before your eyes, but you have to keep trying anyway. I think that Olivia and Ken can really do something great for Malawi someday, but life isn’t going to be easy for them. Going to this camp could really make a difference, maybe the goat dissection my friend Jenn has planned will make Olivia decide she wants to be a doctor- or maybe Alexis’ writing classes will inspire Ken to become a journalist. I don’t know what will happen, but these kids can show me if I let them.
Today Ken and Olivia came to visit me in the library to talk about what to pack for camp- they are both bright with excitement. I told Ken about William’s windmills, and loaned him my copy of The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, hopefully we will be able to visit the original windmill during the camp. The two were so happy that I didn’t want to tell them that we are in desperate need of funding for Camp Sky.
I’d love my students to have a chance to attend, if you would like to help, please follow the link below if. My students and I send a ‘Yewu Ukongwa’ to you for reading.
*Names have been changed (mainly so that ‘Mericans can pronounce them)

Camp Sky

Damnit. I wrote an exceptional post about my students this week- really top stuff, the kind of thing that I'm sure would make people cry. Or maybe it would just make my mom cry... if you are sleep deprived, maybe you'd cry. Point is that I forgot to load the post onto my flash drive. Hopefully I can put it up tomorrow.

Maybe I can sum up: Camp Sky needs money. I have two wonderful students to send, but our funding is in jeopardy. If you can donate, please follow the link below. Tear jerker to follow tomorrow.

http://www.friendsofmalawi.org/grants/how_to_donate.html

Back at Home

So I'm back home in Chintheche. I was waiting for my water to boil for coffee when I was bothered by this awful grinding noise- it was my hot plate officially shitting out on me. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a peace corps volunteer, I don't need a hot plate, but damnit, I'm not feeling good, and I don't have a charcoal burner or a kerosene stove, and I'm on some antibiotics with questionable side affects, so the last thing I want to do is go out rousting for wood. Blargh.

I hopped on my bike and went to the town 20 minutes away, but all the shops that sell hot plates are closed, so now I'm at the internet cafe surfing my troubles away.

The President's Luncheon was really cool- the food was great. The menu listed beef, curry chicken, fish, and beans under 'main course'. We all wondered if that meant we would have to choose beef or chicken or fish or beans- luckily, this is Malawi, so we got heaping portions of each, which we devoured. There was also endless wine, champagne, beer, and Armarula (a kind of bailey's only flavored with a fruit that only grows in Southern Africa). We sat through some speeches, and Bingu called us all his children, which is too bad for him, because now we'll all be asking for packages from him every few weeks. Then he called us all out onto the dance floor where we tore it up, Bingu and his wife Callista included. I was proud of us, because we all kept it together until after we took a picture with the President. Once Bingu left though, it was all over, the dancing, oh, the dancing.

Being PCV of the week was awesome too- Esther and I were in Mpalale again, and it was great to see my host family again. Bruce, who was a puppy while I lived there, is now a full grown dog! He followed us all around the village for the entire week, and was just all around cute. I feel bad that I didn't take him back when I was a trainee, but I'm trying to convince one of the newbs to take him to site. The trainees were all so cool, we had a great time- I can't wait to work with them for the next year and a half.

I can't believe that I've been here for almost 10 months, time really goes. Sometimes it is rough being here while my friends and family are all back home, and missing out on things like the family reunion really sucks, but I'm glad to be here. I know that this is where I need to be.

Bingu Woyee?

Hey guys! I am currently in the Peace Corps offices waiting to take the lot of us to the State House to eat with the President of Malawi. Woyee!

Off to help to train the newbs!

It is weird to think that soon I'll be a second year, and that we are already training the replacements for my friends in the year ahead of me. Of course, the school calendar changing makes it extra strange, because the new group came early, so in actual fact, I won't be a 'second year' until September. Still- people are going to be asking me for advice about Malawi. Strange.

Never Don't Go

I never thought of myself as the type of person who would get into an abusive relationship. I once dumped a guy for excessive bickering and have a joke that I like my men like I like my coffee: sweet, short and weak. Of course, this is not true, I actually like very bitter coffee, but that’s beside the point. I recently realized that I am actually in an abusive relationship with my profession.
I love teaching- I love being in the Peace Corps. Sure, sometimes I go home to my little house where termites are eating my walls and I don’t have a toilet and feel so homesick that I want to cry (and often do), but you just don’t know what it’s like with us. Sure, it sounds bad, but you don’t know how things are between us, really. When it is good, it is really good. I have heard the exact same sentiment echoed by people in bad relationships- when it is good, it is really good.
So, for those of you who wonder why I am still here after reading about my Life Skills class, here is a story about something good.
Last weekend was the 4th of July, so nearly every volunteer I know was in the capital for a barbeque at the ambassador’s house. We booked every bed at the two cheapest lodges in town, and gave them a hell of a time trying to stock enough beer for all of us. When it came to deciding where to go for the night I believe the term ‘herding cats’ is apt.
One group wanted to go to the Casino, but my friend Alexis warned against it.
“Why not?” I asked
“Well, I guess it depends” she said “If you like slutty dancing, and bad music you might like it… when I was there last, the music was all ‘untz, untz, untz, untz,’ and everyone was dancing like ‘ah, ah, ah, ah,’… it really was a one time thing for me”
As amused as I was by Alexis’ full body interpretation of a night at the Casino, I decided to take her advice and investigated the next major headliner of the night, some place called ‘oasis’
“What is there to do at Oasis?” I asked a second year
He just looked me in the eye and shouted “OAISIS”
“Yeah, but is there dancing, is it expensive?”
“Oh-Ay-Sissss”
“Ok, but where is it even?”
“OASIS!!!”
I decided that Oasis was too intense for me, so I went with the group heading out to the Karaoke bar- we hopped in taxis and were off. When we got to the hotel housing this Karaoke extravaganza that was so highly hyped by the only person who had ever been there before, our taxi driver tried to negotiate for a higher price than the one he had agreed upon when he was trying to get us into the taxi. Nope. Sorry dude. Next time you negotiate a price, make sure you are happy with it before you take the inebriated people to their destination. We’re already here- see ya.
The hotel was dead. Like, really, really dead- as in only one member on staff kind of dead. We asked him about the Karaoke, and he smiled and led us up the narrowest stairwell I have ever been on into a private room with a television.
I don’t know about you, but to me, Karaoke is best done in front of a large crowd of people for maximum embarrassment- not in a small room with only people who already know you… what was this? My family reunion (actually… it felt a lot like that, to be honest).
We all giggled about this for a little bit, and Meg said that actual Karaoke bars in Tokyo were in single rooms like this, but I still thought it was strange- that was, until the music started.
Zeb did a move familiar to me as ‘the around the clock’ to get things started, and then all hell broke loose, and we danced like a bunch of 12 year old girls at a sleep over. Someone accidentally broke a glass during a spirited rendition of something like “Tutti Fruti”. It was all over when “A Whole New World” was chosen… aw shit, that’s my jam. Meg cited it as a perfect example of “never don’t go”- and I had to agree.
The ride back to our beds was possibly even more fun as we blasted into “A Whole New World” again on the back of the police pickup truck that agreed to ferry us home. My Detroit Tigers hat flew off, but I didn’t mind too much- there will be more hats.
So for all of you out there who are worried about me- don’t, there will always be dancing. For any of you prospective volunteers trolling around on ‘Peace Corps Journals’ looking for some advice, here it is: never don’t go.

Camp Sky

Camp sky is a 10 day camp that Peace Corps volunteers put on for our students. One boy and one girl from each CDSS get to go, so if you want to help out some of the kids I've written about, please follow the link and donate. Something as small as 20 dollars can make a kids' week! (forty would help us feed them)

http://www.friendsofmalawi.org/grants/how_to_donate.html

We are people too

When I first agreed to teach the Life Skills class, I imagined that it would be a good opportunity to get to know my students better. I wasn’t wrong. Admittedly, in Malawi, I am not a great teacher- in the United States as a student teacher I was enrolled in a rigorous year long internship program in which I worked as a teacher in an inner city high school while attending graduate level courses. I spent hours hunched over my laptop with a coffee, crafting balanced lesson plans that promised measurable results. I made my own interactive power point jeopardy games, printed my own worksheets and even filmed my teaching and analyzed the footage with my peers. Did my students ‘actively engage in dialogic discussion?’ were my objectives met? Am I fooling anyone into believing that I’m a teacher? The car I shared with my brother had a bumper sticker on the back from the school, I knew the baristas at multiple coffee shops by name and I woke up early every morning to make copies. I was a good student, and a passable teacher, but I was insecure about my abilities, and spent a lot of time agonizing when a plan failed, and felt a rush of satisfaction every time things worked out. I graduated from my program with a promise from my professors and mentor teacher that I would probably get a job despite the economy, and that I was capable of teaching anywhere. I put my teaching certificate into a fireproof safe, and joined the Peace Corps instead.

But like I said, in Malawi, I admit that I am not a great teacher. I shirk responsibilities in staff meetings, forget to plan lessons until the last minute, and have even changed the entire trajectory of a lesson midway through, especially while teaching Life Skills, which is why I introduced the question bag. The concept is simple: the students write questions on a slip of paper that they are afraid to ask, and the next period, I answer the questions to the best of my ability. The students seem to like the activity, which is my justification for relying on the method so heavily- it is win/win- I don’t need to plan a lesson, and the students get some things off their chests; still, it feels like the lazy way out.

Sometimes I am baffled at the things my students believe.

“Here is a question: ‘madam, is it true that if a person is infected with the HIV, that they can have intercourse with a baby, and the virus will disappear?’… class, is this true? Can engaging in this activity cure you from HIV?”

The class responds with a random smattering of yeses and a few people mumbling no. Some of the louder students respond by shouting “In fact yes madam”

“Yes what, yes this can cure you?”

A student raises his hand “Yes, madam, we have heard this”

“Class, is there any cure for HIV?”

The class responds with a chorus of “no”

“So how can this be a cure? If there is no cure, how can this be one? Class, remember, there is no cure for HIV. Sexual intercourse with a baby can only spread the disease to an innocent person. Never have sex with a baby.”

A tall student in the back raises his hand. He likes to write rap lyrics on the front of his exercise book, and calls himself a thug, which is confusing to me, as we live in Sub Saharan Africa, but nonetheless, I like him. He is a sweet kid, and always greets me when I go to town. “Madam. If there is no cure for HIV, and you are found to have the disease, can you be like, doing drugs, you know what I’m saying? Snorting cocaine and whatnot, you know what I’m saying?”

I shake my head. “What? Are you asking if you should do drugs because why? Because you have HIV?”

“Yeah, and you’ll be dying anyhow”

“No. Don’t do drugs when you have HIV. Don’t do drugs anyway… Where would you even find cocaine in Malawi? Remember, we learned that people can live with HIV for years so long as they take care of themselves and avoid drinking and doing drugs. Also, remember that some drugs require you to share needles, so you’d need to avoid that anyway”

“Yeah, but madam, you’ll be dying anyhow”

I sigh, I want to move on. “You’ll die faster. You’ll just… you’ll die faster… where can you even get cocaine here?” It is time for another question, so I grab one out of the bag and read it out loud. “What are the negative effects of HIV?” I turn to the class. “Who can help me answer this question?”

The class fidgets, finally, one student raises his hand and murmurs “School dropout”

“Ok…” I say “How can HIV lead to school dropout?” I gesture toward a student who has her hand raised

“Maybe it could be that someone who is positive leaves school because people they find out, and they don’t want them there”

“Yes. We call that HIV stigma. Is it right to treat someone who is positive differently? To make them leave school? If someone has the virus, would you want to shake their hand?”

“No madam” a student offers.

“Why not? Can you get the disease from shaking someone’s hand?”

A student in the back raises his hand, “Madam,” he stands up and smoothes the front of his shirt. He is a good student, but he likes attention, I have dubbed him suzgo, which means problem. “Madam,” he repeats for effect “these people, they are dead people, they are dead people madam.”

His friend the tall thug interjects “can’t we just, you know, remove them, put them somewhere, get rid of them. I hear they did this in Uganda”

I don’t know what to say. What do you do when a fourteen year old suggests genocide as a viable option? “Class, people… when they get HIV, they are still people, right? We still need to treat them as people”

“But madam,” Suzgo interjects “they are dead people, they are dying”

I shake my head “No. People who have HIV can still have lives. Any of us could be hit by a motola tomorrow and be gone, we will all die someday. People with HIV… They are still here. We need to treat them like people.”

At this the class explodes, students everywhere begin arguing with me, with each other, and it is because of this that I am the only person who hears the plaintive murmur of a girl sitting in the front row- a tall girl who smiles and waves at me every time she sees me ride my bike down the dirt road, and who likes to check story books out of the library.

She locks eyes with me and says quietly, “Yes madam, we are still people.”

Another week...

Hey all,

This week was pretty good. My form ones have been giving me some grief recently- they're almost to their terrible twos, so they've been pushing my buttons (coming to class late, stuff like that), but they've been overall pretty good; today I got them to edit their own writing, in this environment, I consider that a major win, apparently all it takes is colored pencils.

One bad thing happened this week. Hector followed me down to my Umoza meeting, she saw me on my bike and couldn't resist a good chase, she's done that before to other places, and has behaved, so I didn't think it would be a problem. That was, of course, before she killed someone's baby chicken- now, here in Malawi, baby chickens die all the time, from wild dogs, hawks and just from disease, but all the same, I offered the owner some money to pay for the loss, and found some rope to tie hector up with. A few minutes later, she came back to say that Hector had killed three babies, but when I asked her to show us the bodies so I could assess their worth to know how much to reimburse her for, she couldn't do it, she said she didn't know where they were. After living in Malawi for a while, I've gotten to know a bit about free-range dogs. When they kill something, they eat it- they don't leave it to go kill more things. They stay put and eat their dang meal- and in Hector's case, she brings the dead thing to a comfortable place and eats it there (usually my futon, stupid dog), so here's my question, why would Hector go around killing random chicks and not stick around to eat them? She was only lose for about fifteen minutes, and for most of that time, she was picking at the baby I saw her kill, taking her sweet time eating it way too close to the meeting, may I say. In short, ama was pulling a fast one.

Anyway, when she came back to complain, the ladies in my group rallied on my side, and told the woman to stop telling stories. I was actually impressed with how much of the conversation I understood, and I understood enough to feel offended at the way she was talking about me. The group decided that I should pay the woman back at the next group meeting so that there would be a fair price for the baby that Hector did kill, and the ones she may have. I don't like people who try to wheedle money, but all the same, I feel awful about the chick she killed, so I figure I'll bring the woman a gift of some sort so that she doesn't try to kill my dog. Also, Hector is getting a chain when I go to Lilongwe.

The party at the ambassador's house is next weekend, and that means that the new group comes soon! I'm excited to be a PCV of the week, and to stuff myself silly with food from the college. That's about it, love you all.

Beeb

Yahoo!

I don't normally post two days in a row, but I just got a package from auntie MB! YEY!

also- on packages, you guys have been so amazing on sending packages, that it seems like there are a few things I don't need anymore-

-tampons- I get them free from Peace Corps

-coloring stuff- we have plenty

-velveeta shells and cheese- I have found I like the blue box better

Stuff I ALWAYS need

-coffee- I have a three month supply, but, well, you know

-anything made of meat- your jerkies, stuff like that

-candy

-anything with the word 'protein' in it

-tv

that's about it. Love to all. beeb.

Hector

Tomorrow Piotr leaves for Lusaka, but we will meet up again at the 4th of July party.

I don't have a whole ton to say- but I made two breakthroughs with Hector that I feel have made me a better dog owner.

#1: to keep her from jumping up on the counter, I just hold a bottle of hotsauce up, the smell annoys her, and she jumps down.

and

#2: Bandannas are adorable. I am much less likely to want to strangle something adorable

Cold Season is... Cold?!

I am currently wearing both parts of the convertible jacket that my dad bought me for my birthday, who would have thought Malawi actually would get cold?

Now that term 3 is underway, things are back to normal- I have been recruited into helping a new group nearby as they apply for the US Ambassador's Self Help Fund, basically, they needed an American, so I joined. I'm pretty excited about the group actually, the man who contacted me about it is a retired former NGO worker who decided that he'd rather start a community group than 'sit around at the bottle store drinking beers' (his words). He is a really cool guy, and since he is a Malawian, he is able to navigate a lot of the cultural issues that trip me up. We decided that each week, I could make a little presentation to the mothers in the group about how to prepare their children for school, for instance, I wrote letters on the backs of bottle caps and showed them that the kids could use them to practice their ABC's and could work their way up to making words. I also want to talk to my carpenter about making blocks for their pre-school. So far, all they have is a tiny mud brick shack with a thatched roof, but that's what we are working on fixing.

The Umoza group is starting to pick up again now that the rainy season is over and people have free time from gardening- next week we are going to make pj pants to sell at the big 4th of July party at the Ambassador's house.

Piotr's visit has been going well- we have been hanging out at my site a lot, watching TV on his computer- a lot of The Simpsons, Modern Family (which I love), and Chuck season 1 (which Pi is hooked on now). It is fun to have someone to hang out with at site. He will be leaving next week to go to Zambia for a few weeks, but we'll meet up again in Lilongwe for the 4th.

That's about it! Stay safe, I miss you all!

Beeb

A Draw?

I'll take it.

USA

USA

USA

World Cup!

Hey guys!

Last weekend, as I was pickling my liver, a VSO friend of mine brought up the topic of the World Cup. Apparently the US is playing England in the first round. Now, I'm a patriot- I'm proud of my country, and see my service in the Peace Corps as an opportunity to give back a bit- and AS a true American, I don't care about soccer (sorry, football) at all. Honestly, I couldn't care less. Either way, I'll take any excuse to meet up and drink beer, so: U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A


So now here I am in Nkhata Bay, waiting for the game, beer in hand. Bring it on.

Back from Break, Piotr in Tow

Hey!

So I'm back in Chintheche, safe and sound. Some of you may know that when I am gone, I hire some students to look after my house and my dog- it just gives them a way to make money, and its nice to know Hector is, you know, alive. The downside is that when I return, things are not the way I'm used to (pots and pans in strange places, stuff like that). So Piotr and I are putting things to rights and cooking dinner, and we notice Hector is barking at the school desk that I use as my cooking space- it seems there is something inside. We thought it might be a roach or something, so we get the flashlight, and lo and behold, it is a bird- a pretty one too.

Hector wanted to eat it but we pushed it outside and went about our lives. The next day, Hector succeeded in eating it, and I was a little proud/horrified.

If all of that wasn't enough, my students came back the next day to pick up some stuff they'd forgotten... they asked me if I'd found their bird. I told them keeping a bird in a desk was weird, and that Hector ate it. Don't leave your dinner around if it is still breathing, you know?

Mommy's little killer :)

Ready for Term 3?

Hey all! So I had one successful term break! I got to see some friends, and eat a meal called 'the portuguese', which had something like five different protien sources in it. A friend of mine tried to put some peanut butter on my plate just to make it a good six, but everyone else at the table stopped him. There were nay-sayers who said I couldn't finish it, but man, I proved them wrong. Then I ate a plate of chips*, you know, for fun. Now I'm all caloried up and ready to go back to site.

School starts back up tomorrow- it is strange to think that by August, I'll have taught a full school year. There may be a chance that I could finish my service early (in September rather than December), but that may or may not happen, so I don't want to think about it too much.

My schedule looks like it will be picking up soon, after the fourth of July, the new group comes in, and hopefully (finger's crossed), I'll be chosen to help train them for a week or so. After that we have camp Sky, which is a ten day camp that will take place August 17-27, and should be really fun. After that I will have been here for a year? Crazy.

Piotr is visiting right now, my dog did not try to bite him. This is an improvement on my last dog.


Alright, peace out!

*fries

you know you've been in Malawi too long when

you start thinking of meals as protein sources

Rosie, Malawi Style

This is the shirt design for the new GAD fundraiser. Like?

Ferris, stuff

Hey all,

So I'm officially on term break! I turned in all of my grades yesterday, and literally said 'see ya later suckers!' to the other teachers in the staff room. Before I left, I had a great conversation with another teacher about Lady Gaga and Beyonce, he agrees that they are crazy.

Holiday feels great, sometimes you just need a break

Love, love,

beeb

One more day until term break!!

Hello everyone!

I am getting excited for Piotr to arrive next week, he is going to be here for a while, so it will be like having a roommate! I have even cleared out a room in my house for him to use while he is here, I figured I would put up my tent in there so he could be protected from mosquitoes and Hector, though Hector has stopped peeing on everything and wrecking everything. Still, it will disguise the fact that I don’t have a bed for him. I ordered a futon from my local carpenter, and he told me it would be done weeks ago, so I’ve all but given up on that. I couldn’t find a plan to give him, but we drew plenty of pictures, and he assured me he knew what to do, so I don’t know what the deal is with that.

I found out where Hector has been going to get food- my neighbors the Chonombos and Benulas have been giving her food while I’m at school. I asked if they minded, and they say of course not, so I guess it isn’t a problem. The children from those families have started to come over to my house to play with some of the toys people sent, so I suppose it is a fair trade- free babysitting for a ball of Nsima, not that people here ever really worry about their kids getting watched after they turn four- the bigger kids keep the little ones out of trouble. Anyway, having those little girls over has helped me practice my Chitonga, because even though they all speak English, it helps that they won’t laugh if I try to talk to them in their language. They like to spell words with the bananagrams my mom sent, and can read all of the flash cards Zach’s mom sent- dominoes are a bit trickier, so they use them to build houses. It is cute when they visit, but Hector still scares them- they push her away, which just makes her try to play with them more- it is strange to see little kids not know how to play with a puppy, I tell them to pet her when she jumps, to calm her down, but without my coaching them, they just run, which makes her chase them, and they cry… oh well. She doesn’t mean them any harm but they are terrified.

Last weekend I went to Mzuzu for a meeting with other volunteers about our Gender and Development group, or GAD- the GAD group is getting along well, and we are all very excited for Carrie’s design to go on the shirts we are going to order. We have also thought about having people sell the Peace Corps Malawi cook book for us back home- like maybe a brilliant and caring mom could print the PDF at kinkos and sell it at church or any other group… I thought you lovelies might be interested, because everyone seems so supportive. The cook book is quite funny, and the recipes are interesting, it would give you a feel for how we live here. Buying one book for about ten dollars would be enough to send a girl or boy to camp. We are also thinking of a way to set up an online account for people to donate straight to our fund. I’ll let you know more when I have more to say.

The GAD project is separate from my women’s group, which is also going well. We talked about creating a logo on a rubber stamp so that we could label our stuff, which is a little touch that could make a big difference if we try to sell things to tourists. It occurs to me that I can take orders from people now and the ladies can start making custom things for me to bring home at Christmas- clothes would be difficult to get completely right, unless you like really baggy shirts, so I was thinking maybe bags or baby clothes, which the women are used to making as most are mothers and grandmothers themselves. The baby clothes I see in the market are made of these awesome prints and are super cute, plus, they would be small, so I could bring a lot with me. I thought maybe I could also take some orders on quilts too, though really, they would be more like duvets, since the would make it them hard to bring on the plane- the fabric here is amazing, so a handmade quilt could be really special, and the women could get more practice on the machines before moving on to uniforms. I don’t know how much to sell them for though, maybe I’ll choose a number, and leave it open for donations