Old Lady Smalls

The other day, I was sleeping in to 6:30 because it was a weekend, and I decided to treat myself, when I was woken up by a horrible booming sound of rocks on my tin roof that could only be those dang kids in my yard again, throwing stones at my tree to steal lemons. I let my dog out, who chased them away and cackled before I got to work on my new quilt.

You kids today and your internet references I don't understand, and your Ga Gas, and iPads- in my day, we had phones that made calls dagnabit.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND TWITTER

A PCV Watches TV

As some of you may know, I recently received what is quite possibly the greatest package of all time. Zach sent me a little netbook and a hard drive loaded up with TV and other media, and it has changed my routine in amazing ways. Now, instead of compulsively reading books all day when I'm not working, I read COMIC books on my computer all day when I'm not working. This, my friends, is progress.

And, of course, there is the TV, oh TV, how I missed you- one of my favorite parts of having shows to watch is the way that Hector will watch it with me- or rather, she'll watch me watch TV. Last night, she laid on my chest sphinx -like, and twisted her head in that cute sideways dog way every time there was a strange noise on the show I was watching- and every time I would laugh, her eyebrows would crease in concentration, and she would look between me and the screen, alternatively twisting her head and whining a little. Dogs are cool. I had about two seasons of shows to catch up on- some observations:

-30 Rock- always awesome.

-The Office- over it. I'm sorry, but you all have jobs with health insurance, and get to have houses with toilets, and I'm supposed to derive humor from the fact that you get bored at your job?

-Parks and Recreation- like it. Pretty much like the office, but with less complaining.

-Various BBC Sci/Fi shows- nice escape for a lonesome little PCV, because hey, I may have problems with ants in my house, and on more than one occasion have woken up with a cockroach in my bed and stuff, but at least I'm not a vampire/misfit who can read minds/ghost who lives with a werewolf/or the last of the time lords. Another thing I like about the BBC is that I feel like the actors on it are good looking, but aren't too good looking. This is good for my self esteem, because even though I ran out of shampoo a month ago, I feel like I could be on TV, at least in England.

-Mad Men- you would think that after living in Africa, that I'd be sick of consumerism or the ad industry, but I think that Don Draper might just be too handsome to do anything that would really make me annoyed for long.

Of course, I don't spend all of my time watching TV on my wonder of a netbook (its so small!), I have also been working- though in the past five weeks, we have had school on a Monday exactly ONE TIME! The reasons for the various holidays in chronological order: Easter Monday, Labor Day, Something I can't remember, possibly a bank holiday, and last Monday, it was Kamuzu day. Any time there is a holiday over the weekend, the government closes down schools the following Monday, but doesn't announce it until the Friday before at around 2:00. I went to Catholic School, and we never had Easter Monday off- and how can you have a Labor Day if your country doesn't have unions? Or Labor, for that matter, practically every day is Labor day if 90% of your country is unemployed. The one that gets me the most, however, is Kamuzu day- the man was a genuine dictator, but he still gets a national holiday.

Ah well.

My women's groups are going well- the Umoza group which sells school uniforms is inching toward our goal of buying a new sewing machine! Thank you very much to anyone who bought a bag from me over Christmas, because this is how we have been able to afford to really get the business going. We just need a few more people to pay us for their school uniforms, and we can buy it. See, we have a problem, as a PCV, I am unable to be in charge of the group finances, which is fine, but that also means that the group 'sold' all of its uniforms on credit this term, even though I told them not to, but then, I only really work with the group on an advisory capacity, so what can you do? Either way, this has made me sigh like a Peanuts character on more than one occasion. If we hadn't sold the uniforms on credit, we would have bought the second sewing machine months ago, and Ama Banda would have been able to teach sewing lessons out of her house to the other group members. Instead, we've been chasing people to pay us for school uniforms their children have already been wearing for months.

The other group, which I usually think of as the Wednesday group, is also really getting into its stride. A few weeks ago, I gave the group members a little loan of about 3,000Mk to start a scone* business, and they have already managed to start paying me back while maintaining the business. The group has pulled together nicely now that they have a purpose, and each member now has a little bit of money to take home to their families, but the majority of the profits are going toward making improvements to the primary school in the village. Their long term goal is to hire a teacher, and there is some talk of perhaps hiring one of my current students once he has finished with school. For a kid with such few options, this is huge.

The other day, that kid and I were walking home from the group meeting. My bag was full of fresh baked scones from the group, and we ate them as we went. I asked Franzelo what the previous PCV in my area was like, and after much deliberation he came up with two statements: “He had a bicycle, and he loved vegetables.”- but he didn't just say that he 'loved' vegetables, he said he 'loooooved' vegetables. What will they say about me? She had a bicycle, and she loooooved dogs. I'll take it.

Ok, I should go, the ants are back.

-Melissa

*a scone in Malawi is really just a bread roll, don't ask me why they call them scones

Regular Days

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't written much lately, but really, to me life here is the same old same same. Here is a rundown of how my days tend to go- to me, this is boring everyday stuff, but maybe it will be interesting to the likes of you:

Most days, I wake up, set a pan of water to boil, let the dog out (or else she stands on me until I do), and then I go back to doze until the water boils. I have a hot plate in my bedroom, which makes me really spoiled. Once the water is boiling, I mix it with cool water from the tap in my backyard (another thing that makes me spoiled), and I take a bucket bath in my shower (spoiled!). While I am bathing, I have another smaller pan of water that I boil for my coffee.

After bathing, I make breakfast, usually pancakes. I mix the batter from scratch, which is actually pretty easy. I can get dressed as I fry them in my skillet, a benefit of having your hot plate in your bedroom. Finally, I eat my breakfast while reading, I drink half of the coffee at the table, and bring the rest to school so that I can be nice and caffeine buzzed when I teach. If I am running good on time, I can drink my coffee slowly and really savor my book, but usually I have to sort of bolt down my breakfast before I run across the street to the school.

At the school, I teach my classes and sit in the library making sure that the students are working. At my desk, I plan or grade, but mostly I read books. The best times are breaks when the form one students rush in for new books. The classes I teach are Life Skills for forms one and two, and English for form one. The form one students are great, they work hard and ask good questions. The form two kids are troublesome and I have to keep on my toes with them, and usually have to plan very structured lessons that bore me. With the form one kids I can get more creative.

After school, I either have meetings with my women's groups, or I go to the market. Umoza meets on Thursdays, the Kaweta group on Wednesdays, and the Science and Tech. Club meets on Mondays. Other times, I might nap. I also might make a snack before the meetings, popcorn is pretty easy to do.

On Fridays, I go to Chintheche, I check my mail and go online. After that, I buy my food for most of the week. There is a guy who sells lots of different vegetables who I like to visit because otherwise its only onions and tomatoes all week. I also have a place I like to get my flour from, a fruit guy and an ufa lady. Ufa is the flour I make Hector's food with. The man I buy my fruit from is a cheerful little old mad who greets me the same way each week: 'Hello Madam!!!!'. My ufa lady always asks about my dogs and tells her friends about me, she lets me try my tonga on her. Of course, there is also Bright, at the internet cafe, and the guy at the post office who likes to joke with me. When I get parcels, the guy at the post office might pretend I have nothing, and then bust out a pile of packages and laugh- he never tries to get bribes, good man. After shopping, I sometimes visit my carpenter, who is a good guy, and is fun to talk with. He has made all of my furniture.

On Saturdays, I do my laundry while listening to the BBC, and afterwards I tidy up my house, sweeping and mopping the whole house. This usually takes all day, so that by four, I am done, at which time, I read or sew. The little neighbor girls might come over to play at that time, which is nice, they are quiet and polite, but Hector scares them.

On Sundays, if it is hot, I'll go to the lodge. Hector usually comes too. There I read and swim until I get light headed and have to go back.

My evenings are the best time, and they are the same every day. I will read until the sun sets, and I can't see anymore, and I'll turn on the light to keep going. At around six, Zach calls, and we talk while I make dinner. I can most days fix a whole meal and eat it while we talk during his lunch break. When we are done talking, he goes back to work, and I'll read at my kitchen table with a handful of candy to cool my mouth off (I use too much spice in my dinners almost every day).

That's about it-

Beeb

Science Camp

Hey everyone!

Well, science camp was a success! We ran out of time, so I'm saving some of the experiments for later, but the kids LOVED it! Especially the solar cars. I was very happy that some friends were able to come and help- Vanessa took over the lecture on the electric motor, because, yeah, I don't really know much about electricity. I was able to do the demonstration, but as for taking questions... nope, couldn't do it.

Everything here is good! Sorry, I don't have much more time to write a big long post, but I love you all!

beeb

WHO'S READY FOR SOME SCIENCE!!!

I am!

I got the go ahead for my itty bitty day camp from the boss-man, who said that we can get me a little grant when I apply for it, so that's good, now I just have to write and submit the thing. We don't need money right this moment, but I'd like to know that the group will be supplied with iron nails and insulated wire for a bit longer. The experiments and posters are all set and assembled- I just need to add color to the posters that I made, but I can get that done over the weekend. Vanessa is coming up next Tuesday to help set up and teach- and by this time next week, we will be on our way to Mzuzu so I can buy more fabric for Umoza, and she can go to some meeting.

Umoza is going just fine- and the other women's group, the one that meets on Wednesdays is also just fine. They have started turning a profit on home made peanut brittle which they store in my house at night when it rains. Yeah, guess who their #1 customer is...

Also, as of yesterday, all but one of the puppies are GONE! This is a good thing. One puppy is cute, five puppies are a pain in the ass.

so that's about it in the world of Melissa. The world is puddle wonderful and green, things are good.

beeb

Science and Technology Club Part II

Hey all! So after a weekend at the beach to celebrate a friend's birthday, I'm back and really getting into preparing for next week's break when (drumroll please...) I am going to have a day camp for the Sci/Tech club! What?! Yeah, it is a week long break, and yes, I am going to spend it fiddling around with science experiments with my students. Don't judge.

Most of the experiments I'll be presenting/ letting kids mess with come courtesy of Kitty and her amazing science kits! My favorite was definitely the kit that showed you how to make little things like a battery operated motor out of wire and paper clips, or another one which used the concept of electromagnets to create a telegraph machine. The solar cars are also awesome, I kept looking outside in hopes that the sun would come out so I could test them. Hope and pray for sun next week!

This is how the camp will go- I have 5 main topics: sound, flight, electricity, magnets, and solar. The magnet activity will be next to the electricity activity so I can save time with the electromagnets. Each subject has about 5 activities to go with it, so the camp will either need to happen over the course of 2 days, or I'll need help (I have friends who are maybe coming though, keep your fingers crossed). Either way, I'm excited! I feel like Esther.

Science and Technology Club

SUCCESS!

Ok, ok, maybe this is a little premature, since we've only had our first meeting, but I will say that I for one had a good time teaching the little lecture I put together on flight. I told the students the basics of airplane flight, showed them some books that they could borrow for more reference, and then we took some of the balsa wood airplanes that I got in a package (thanks kitty!), and we threw them around, trying to see which model would go the farthest, and why. The kids loved it when one of the planes did loops. Then, we went back to the library and the kids made their own airplanes out of some index cards I'd found. It was a fun little lesson to start with. I think that next week we are going to work on simple machines (screws, wedges, levers, maybe even, gasp, a pulley)- I've got my carpenter working on making some simple shapes out of scraps for us, and he is even making me a peg board so that I can better demonstrate the principles. Today, a form 1 who isn't even taller than me yet borrowed a book about airplanes that I'd pulled and put on display under the 'technology club' poster. I'd say thats progress.

melissa

Ant Problem

I have an ant problem. There is really not much to be done about it, I keep all of my food in ant-proof containers, and the dogs make sure that there isn't a bit of food on the floor, but the ants seem to be ok with eating anything- dead insects, book glue, my backpack (why, I don't know, but they always seem to be on it). Sigh. Some day, I'll have nice things, and a house that isn't infested with things I only used to see on the discovery channel... someday.

Things here are good, as you know, the rainy season is my favorite, so I am generally happy. I also have a pretty exciting stack of books sitting in my bedroom waiting for me to take them to the beach down the road. Yup, its a good life alright.

In my most recent packages, I received some science type kits and a bunch of science books, which has inspired the staff to start a science and technology club. Now, I am no science teacher, but I think I'll manage. I think it would be cool to get the kids to make contraptions, sort of like what we used to do with tinker toys when I was growing up, and hopefully I can give small lectures about physics and simple tools. I have an idea in mind that we'll all make crazy contraptions a la Rube Goldberg that will solve all of our problems. This is, of course, not going to happen, but a girl can dream, right? Hopefully my local carpenter can help us by providing scraps of wood and things for a low cost, anyone who would like to send tinker toys or gears and stuff in their next packages will be very popular with the kiddies, I'm sure.

Otherwise, no new news!

Love,

Melissa

Rainy Misty Mountains

Before I start in on my planned blog entry that I penned in my off period while I was sitting in the library, let me just thank Kitty R., who is a rockstar, and sent me 4 packages which all arrived today- my postmaster pretended at first that only one was coming, that joker. They are now strapped to my bike- I am waiting to open them until I get home :D

We are in the middle of the rainy season here, so the entire countryside is green. This is my favorite time of year here, I have decided. There is a pass North of Mzuzu along the M1 which goes up the mountains and along an escarpment. The last time I traveled North to visit my friend who lives on the other side of the mountains, it was dry and yellow, and you could see scorch marks on the hills from brush fires, and the trees were sad low twisted things. Now though, when you travel through the mountains, everything is misty and green, it is the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time.

This time last year, I remember being in the back of a pickup truck with some friends on our way to some training or another, and we went through the mountains from Salima to Lilongwe. I think what I liked most about that trip was the way the clouds touched their surrounding hills, because we don't have anything like that where I'm from.

My goal this term is to stay in the North and avoid the capitol as much as possible, unless Peace Corps demands that I go, or if, no sorry, WHEN Esther comes back. Last term I went six times: once in September for a rabies shot, then in October for the GRE (and an unfortunate bout of Malaria at the same time, in case you were wondering, even though I was on an IV drip 12 hours before I sat for the test, my scores weren't too shabby)- then I went again for Thanksgiving and to fly out to America, then of course I was there again when I returned from America, and finally I had MST in January, which meant that I was through Lilongwe both on my way to and from Dedza. I. Hate. Lilongwe. I have been away from the stupid place for about a month now, and I'm still annoyed by it- I can never meet with anyone from the office unless I am missing school, since office hours are only on the weekdays, and in order to get home in one day, I have to leave at 5:30. No thank you. So I'm boycotting the city- a bridge went out to the South of me, barring my way to the capitol, good riddance.

I'd rather stay here along the lake shore up in the North, and when I do travel, I'll try to stay as close to home as possible. I think that in the future, I'll remember my time in the Peace Corps as me sitting in the back of a truck going along the lakeshort, or though the mountains to Mzuzu, my hair tucked into a hat to save it from the wind as I pass by terraced fields on steep hillsides, then past banana trees, and finally through the rubber tree plantation, where the rows of trees all seem to lean to the South. It is a good life here in Northern Malawi, I promise.

Losing My Mind

I wrote a long, awesome blog post, and forgot it at my house. Now in the internet cafe, they have had the same song on repeat for an hour straight.

5 minutes left on my time, I'm definitely going crazy.

On Bravery

When I was in America, I sometimes felt like when I was talking to people, it was difficult to explain what my life is like here in Malawi- I think the term ‘ships passing in the night’ applies here- no matter how hard I tried, I don’t think I was able to get my point across, and it isn’t that my friends and family didn’t try to understand my stories, it’s just that the way people live here is so different, that without any point of reference it is impossible for us to understand each other. I guess the thing that bugged me the most about it was that I seem to get credit for living in a place for 2 years where people live their entire lives. People live here, raise their children here, fall in love, have dreams, tell jokes and have spats with neighbors. It isn’t always a happy sunshine type life, but what is?

A lot of people have the idea that Peace Corps volunteers are brave, but really, that’s not bravery, it’s something else maybe, but whatever it was that compelled me to choose to come here needs another name. Bravery is when you face something that is bigger than yourself, and you know that you can lose, but you do it anyway.

Right now, my Uncle Kenny is very sick. I found out about this when he wrote me a letter about his golf game, which has been slipping. Two and a half typed pages later, he nonchalantly mentioned that perhaps the reason behind this is because of his Chemo treatments. Here’s the thing about Uncle Kenny, he doesn’t let himself get depressed, or maybe it isn’t even something he has to block out- maybe that’s just how he’s wired. I can just imagine him talking to the doctor about his treatment plan, and mentally taking notes about how he’ll have to change his tee time. That’s just the kind of guy he is. In his own words:

“But hey, this is the Dude. I have been knocked down. Used to get knocked down playing football in high school all the time. So what do you do when you get knocked down? What do you mean what do you do? You get up off your butt and get back after it. That’s what I am doing… My handicap has gone up from a 6 to a 9 but what the heck. The upside is that I don’t have to give Uncle Tommy as many strokes as last year. See, look for the upside.”

I often get homesick, but this is different, in a time like this, single days mean more, and I wish I could be home so that I could be with my family, but I know that if I could talk on the phone right now with Uncle Kenny, he’d tell me to stay here in Malawi, and make good on my promise to my community, and that he’ll be up and golfing in no time. I hope so.

Maybe someday I’ll have to find out if I’m brave, but not if I’m lucky. I love you Uncle Kenny. Get better.

Beeb.

sidenote: Uncle Kenny totally looks like Colonel Alistair MacDonell of Glengarry

Back to Work

Those of you who know me know that I worry- I worry a lot. Well, I'm happy to say that all of my worried about coming home were baseless. My student took great care of my house *AND* kept a detailed record of all the household expenses so there would be no problems when it came to paying him- I'm proud of the kid. My house is still standing (albeit crawling with ants- oh rainy season, how I missed you).

My dog is still alive, though a bit worse for wear, she had her pups when I was gone and is skinny as a rail at the moment because all of her energy is going towards making milk for her babies- also, apparently she was bit by a snake on her leg one day after they were born while she was going out to feed them at whatever strange place she gave birth to them. The wound is not infected or anything, but it is pretty gnarly- I don't want to gross anyone out *cough cough, Mom, cough* but she was bit on the part of her leg below what I learned in Coach T's class was her heel, and I can see her tendons. She has let me clean it and bandage it though, so hopefully it will heal. You know, I'm actually pretty happy my student was watching my house while she had her pups, because he knew what to do- he followed her out to the hidey hole she gave birth in, brought the pups back to my house, and then he even put ant poison outside of the storage room they are in, because I guess ants can swarm newborn puppies and kill them. Hector, for her part, seems to have grown up a lot- I'm a little sad my bouncy dog is gone, but I guess she's just concerned with eating and nursing, I think she's a good mom, as far as dogs are concerned. Her puppies are nice and fat, there are four boys and one girl, which in Malawi, is ideal, since people prefer male dogs. My head teacher already asked for one (he recently had a break in too).

Otherwise things are getting back to normal. I had a huge pile of exams to grade when I got to work today, but the grading is going quickly, I think that the change in weather is making it easier since it is much cooler now. One of my kids defined the word 'library' as 'the place where books are stolen'- I think he meant to say 'stored', but it made me laugh all the same.

Shout out to Megan & Thom, who sent me a package ages ago that I didn't get until just now, the summer sausage inside was an amazing choice. Also, I got an outstanding package from Alice who blew me away by sending an entire bag of Oreos. I cried a little. Berrios, I used the book you got me today in my Form 1 class, so Yewu, and last but not least- I finally, after many trials and tribulations, received my package from Gracie. I haven't opened it yet since I still have to bike back home after this, but I will proudly wear the world map coat to my training next week, and all of my Peace Corps friends will be jealous.

Love you all!

beeb