Zanzibar

It was a typical weekend in Malawi. I got to doing lots of much needed chores at my house and didn't make it to Maji Zuwa until Saturday morning. As the morning went on, I got to talking to Matt and after telling me about his trip to Zanzibar, I was invited to tag along with him, Ken, and Geoff. How could I say no? I went back to my house that afternoon to pack (luckily I had done laundry and had it drying in the sun) and the following morning we were on our way to Tanzania!
We left Maji Zuwa on a Sunday morning and made it across the border to the next big town, Mbeya where we stayed the night. We had two options on Monday morning of how we would get to Dar Es Salaam, the port city where we were to catch the ferry to the island. We could take the bus (18 hours) or try to get a flight (1 hour). We took a chance and headed to the airport and with only minutes to spare, were able to get tickets and board the plane! There is a new low-cost airline based in Tanzania called Fast Jet. If you are able to book in advance, the tickets from Mbeya to Dar Es Salaam are only about $20. We also took this flight on the way back. The company also offer flights to Johannesburg and now Lusaka. It's a great thing for this part of Africa and it would be amazing if they start flying to Malawi! After arriving in Dar, we got a taxi straight to the ferry office to catch the 12:30 ferry to Stone Town on Zanzibar. Breakfast in Mbeya and dinner in Stone Town is pretty spectacular, not to mention unheard of!
On the island, we spent one night in Stone Town and two nights at a place on a northern beach called Kendwa Rocks. While at Kendwa, I was able to schedule a Spice Tour on the island. Because I was the only one to sign up (nerd alert!) I got a private tour of the spice farm and I loved it! I spent the morning walking around learning about all the plants and what they are used for. At the end I was able to purchase some cloves and vanilla pods as well as a mix of other spices for cooking. After finishing my tour and making it back to Kendwa, I saw that the guys were still on their excursion to swim with dolphins so I took the opportunity to lay on a lounge chair and soak up some much needed rays. It was so peaceful to lay in the sun and sip a cocktail with not a care in the world.
One of my favorite things of the trip, besides the great people I was with, was the yummy yummy seafood! We ate so much octopus, calamari, lobster, and crab. I was in heaven!

Here are some pictures:

A group shot after meeting up with some friends who were also travelling in Stone Town

Lunch on the first day at Kendwa. Octopus!

The view from my lounge chair on the beach! Happy Hour!

Spice Tour! The "Spice Boy" made me flower earrings :)

Don't Blink

Not only is the title of this post a reference to one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, it is also how I'm starting to feel about my time left in Malawi.

I have roughly four months left in the Warm Heart and I'm trying to live it up as much as possible.

 Let me give you a quick recap of the last month or so:

• I celebrated my birthday on the 12th of December at Maji Zuwa. James, Matt, and I ate my favorite meal, Chicken Chipati Tacos (with CHEESE!), and had a few glasses of wine. It was relaxed and comfortable: just the way I like it! James made a card and everyone at Maji Zuwa signed their birthday wishes for me. It's now hanging on my wall at the house.
• I also received a great birthday package from mom and dad that included my very own special birthday cake: vanilla wafers and vanilla icing :)
• The fact that Christmas came so fast blew my mind a little. Living in Malawi, you just don't get the same type of hype that comes from living in the states. There are no Christmas commercials or special catalogs. No decorations or talk of Santa. I spent the holiday at Maji Zuwa and on Christmas Eve we were provided with a chicken dinner thanks to America, a Spanish volunteer with Latitude, and her mother who was visiting from Spain for the holiday. On Christmas day I watched White Christmas and hung out with some fellow volunteers in the sand at Maji Zuwa.
• School began on January 6th. I'm adjusting to living on my own since Carly's departure and so far so good. I've enjoyed the solitude, something in which my inner introvert relishes. Although I miss Carly (and Sami and Aaron), I'm enjoying this new adventure of being on my own in Khwawa. 
• Lusubilo, my neighbor that helps out a lot, has been quite busy with school lately. She's standard 8, which means that she will be writing her national exams for entrance into secondary school. She still likes to come around to see what I'm cooking or to see if I need any water drawn from the bore hole. Her brother Owen also likes to come over a lot. His main joy comes from watching me attempt to build fires in the rainy season.
• I've started my search for teaching positions. I've been looking mainly in the Dayton area but also keeping my eye on any positions in Cincinnati. I've applied to one school so far and I'm hopeful that things continue to go smoothly on that front. 
• Special shout-out to Sharon for helping with my resume and cover letter!
• Packages have been coming in! I received two from my parents around the time of my brithday (one was meant for Thanksgiving...) and so far I've gotten one from Grandma Bev and one from Phyllis and Larry Burton and their Sunday school class at FUMC. My friend at the post office tells me that I have three waiting for me, so when I get back to my house I will make the trip to pick them up. Thanks to everyone who has sent something! I have really enjoyed seeing what everyone puts in their packages. My favorite things so far have been the large jar of Nutella, a block of Velveeta, and all the candy!

Thanks for reading! I'll try to get a few more posts up soon.

Here are some random pictures from the last few months:

Me with some of my Form 4 girls after being taught how to make kondowole

Christmas eve at Maji Zuwa.

Sookie had babies! They are getting cuter every day!

Thanksgiving

Sorry for the lack of posts since I returned to Malawi!

Thanksgiving was a big deal at Maji Zuwa this year. We were lucky enough to have the US Ambassador to Malawi as a guest for the afternoon, as well as her husband who is a retired US Ambassador.

Also in attendance were some local peace corps volunteers, latitude volunteers staying at Maji Zuwa, an Argentinian who happened to be traveling through, a couple from Karonga working with the Paladin Mine, and Matt.

It was a long day of baking and cooking and by the end of it I was covered in flour and sweat but it was well worth it. We had a great lunch and I'm thankful for all the help in the kitchen! I also had a lot of help from my mom. She e-mailed me some recipes to work with and helped to find substitutions as needed.

What was I thankful for? The fact that the electricity stayed on the entire time I was cooking with the toaster oven!

Here's some pics!

Eating Like Queens

We have been eating really well lately. Our neighbor Aaron gave us all of his leftover American food from care packages when he left for the states and we have been putting it to good use. 

Carly wrote a post this week about her top 5 foods that we make. You can read it at www.carlymalawi.blogspot.com

For each meal we typically take one thing we've gotten from care packages and mix it with a traditional Malawian ingredient. On my wish list page (link at the top of the page) you can see a list of ideas for care packages.

Our friend Nick, a peace corps volunteer near us, visited Khwawa this week and shared a block of velveeta. We made the best macaroni and cheese ever! To add some protein to our meal, we sautéed some soya pieces with garlic, Parmesan cheese, and some other spices from our bin. Needless to say, I had a great nap afterwards. 

Waking Up

It's been a seven days since I landed in Lilongwe and my five weeks in America seem like a dream.

Saying goodbye at the airport wasn't any easier but this time a little less dramatic. dryer eyes, shorter hugs. We're old pros by now! I encountered zero problems traveling from Dayton to Lilongwe. In the capital I was greeted by Carly, who escorted me back to Khwawa. We made it to our house on Sunday morning and I was thankful to be able to sleep in my own bed that night. Jet lag has been tough and I think I'm just now getting over it; glad that I have a week-long  buffer before school begins.

I've had a week to think back about all the things I was able to do during my visit home and I am overwhelmed with gratitude to those who made these events happen. I went on vacation with my family, visited friends in Kent (and Seven Hills!), was invited to speak at my church, welcomed guests for a backyard party, and participated in the baptism of my niece/goddaughter. I played golf and went to the aquarium. I'm still amazed at the amount of people I was able to visit with and the things I was able to do.

Thank you to those who took me out to a meal, made me food, donated funds to help me throughout the next year, or pledged to send a package. The support I received during my time home heart-warming and will stay with me for months to come.

I've woken up and it's back to reality. Building fires and tucking in bed nets. I'm back.

This Was PROBABLY A Lot Of Fun

Over the last few weeks I've been scrambling to cover last minute material before my form 2 students take their national exam, the JCE. This is a pass/fail exam that must be passed in order to continue in secondary school.

A few weeks ago I planned to teach a unit on probability. My school lacks a lot of materials when it comes to mathematics. And when I say that we lack a lot of materials I mean that we have none. Typically I would teach this lesson with dice, counters, or blocks of some sort. Instead, I passed out baggies filled with candy I bought at the trading centre and the kids went wild! They had fun being split into groups learning about theoretical vs. experimental probability.

Home Sweet Home

Sorry for not posting in the last few months!

There has been no Internet in my area for the last three weeks but I've just come to Mzuzu to get some wi-fi. To take advantage of the Internet I thought I'd post some pictures of my house in Khwawa.

This is pretty much everything we own. Our beloved shelf.

Our dining room table. So much rice has been eaten here.

The shower! And by shower, I mean a bucket and a big plastic cup.

Our bedroom. The nets are a little annoying but I've gotten used to it. In fact, it helps me sleep a little easier knowing critters aren't crawling all over me.

The sink! Water is life.

International Women's Day in Malawi

Today is International Women’s Day and let me tell you; it was a day to remember.

I started the day off meeting Sharon, The country director for Latitude New Zealand. She is in Malawi visiting the volunteers she sent for a Gap year. She’s been in Malawi about a week and has been more places in Malawi than me! It has been a whirlwind trip for her and she’s just got about 6 days left. Meeting her was great; I’m really interested in what she does, getting young people prepared to travel and live a bit abroad. As a teacher, I’m looking forward to having an opportunity very similar, of offering opportunities for students to travel and experience different cultures. My time as a travelling as a middle and high school student were instrumental in getting me to where I am today.

I met up with Sharon because she was traveling with Matt to Kaseye Girl’s Secondary School, a National Boarding School and one of the top schools in the nation. I heard about the trip and was excited to tag along. Matt and Sharon’s purpose was to visit the two Latitude volunteers, but I was more interested to witness all the great things I've heard about this particular school. I was also excited to see one of the girls sponsored by Matt’s NGO. Alinafe, a girl from Sangilo Village, was raised by her very old grandmother and against all odds was selected to such a prestigious school. Without the help of Determined to Develop and Maji Zuwa, Alinafe would never have been able to afford attending such a high-ranking school. Kaseye Girls was a sight. The Head Teacher of the school, Mr. Mtombo, was so incredibly welcoming, and gave us a tour of their ever-improving campus. I've never seen so much construction and motion happening at such a fast pace in Malawi. It was refreshing to see such an up-beat and positive attitude all over the campus. The two volunteers placed at this school at first were a little disappointed with their placement; disappointed that they weren't getting the more traditional experience without the amenities that come along with living at such a nice school. One of the female teachers at their school explained that the two volunteers were doing more for those girls than meets the eye. Just the fact that they are there setting a great example for the girl students was help enough. A lot of the girls may not have a female role model in their family who has pursued an education, or maybe not even a female role model at all. The girls at this school are going somewhere. Almost 30 of the total 300 students (male and female) in Malawi considered for University last year came from this school. The girls they are mentoring and teaching are going to be the women running the country within our lifetime. Visiting Kaseye was a great motivator for getting my Girl’s Club to become more stable and sustainable. I’m excited to brainstorm more over the term holiday that starts after the next two weeks of exams and to return in April full force.

On our way home from Kaseye, we stopped in Karonga town for Matt to get some building supplies for Maji Zuwa. While Matt was doing boring business things, I took Sharon into the market to have a look around. As Sharon was buying a soda from a shop inside, a lady from the next stall over and I exchanged greetings. As we were talking I noticed that she was wearing a beautiful ivory bracelet. It caught my eye because I had seen only one before; two and a half years ago, when I first visited Malawi. I asked her about the bracelet and told her about how I had met a woman who wore a very similar bracelet. The woman told me that the bracelet, traditionally, was a sign of royalty and had been passed to her from her father when she succeeded him as chief of her village. That’s right, a female chief! How awesome is that!? What’s even better, we both realized that she was the woman who spoke to me about women in Malawi in 2010. Here I am, standing in a random spot in the middle of the busy Karonga market, and I come across such an incredible example of a strong woman in Malawi, who also happens to be the women I spoke to in 2010. It was a “pinch me” moment if I ever had one! 

2010

2013

I've had so many great female role models in my life. My mother, other women who are also practically my mother, grandmothers, teachers, preachers and friends are all women who I hold very near and dear to my heart. So here's to all the women in my life; I love you, miss you, and wouldn't be here without you. 

I Hope You're Sitting Down

I've got a big announcement for all of you!

I have decided to stay in Malawi a little longer than previously planned. And by a little longer I mean an entire year longer. Khwawa will be my home until August of 2014.

The Malawian secondary school curriculum is set into two halves, each half taking two years. By staying another year, I'm able to take my Form 1 class through their Junior Certificate Exam (JCE). The JCE is the pass/fail exam all students take at the end of their second year. If passed, students move on, if not passed, students either stop going to school or return and redo form 2 at an open or night school. I will also be able to take my Form 3 class through to their Malawi School Certificate Exam (MSCE). The MSCE is scored like golf, the lower the score the better you did on the exam. This score stays with a person their entire career and determines if they can be considered for university for a certificate or degree program. It also determines what kind of job they can get. I'm really excited about this opportunity and I'm interested to be able to see the passing rates of the math section over the next year and a half.

It wasn't easy to make this decision and I went back and forth several times. I miss my family every single day and I'm anxious to be doing the things my peers are doing, like getting big person jobs and starting their careers. It's important that I stay focused on what I'm doing and how this experience is improving my chance at greater things in the future. With that being said, I obviously don't hate it here. I love being in Malawi. It's not all sunshine and rainbows but the good outweighs the bad and that's all I really want. I love walking back from the form 1 classroom and being able to see the lake and Chitimba Point in the background of the school. I hate riding on minibuses but the view is always amazing. I have met a lot of really great people here, Malawians and expats alike, who make it a lot easier to be so far from home.  Life is good.

I'm also incredibly thankful to also be announcing that I will be coming home for a visit at the end of the summer. I will be in America for about a month from July 27th to August 29th. I'm hoping to hit the ground running to be able to see everyone at home and hopefully even a trip to Kent.

Can't wait to see you all! Keep coming back for more updates. I have a few posts in the works and I hope to have those up soon!.

In which I have a freak out about Grad School.

I'm a planner. I have been and always will be.

I came to Malawi with a definite plan for my future but the longer I'm here the more it's changing and it's been driving me nuts! My plan for life after Malawi was simple and involved getting a teaching position when I returned....and that's about it. Come back to America. Teach math. Be happy. Sounds good, right? I think so too. 

But now that I'm here my eyes are starting to open to a few different paths. Every time I'm able to have internet and electricity for a long amount of time I end up researching different grad programs at outrageously fancy schools to which I'm sure I'll never be accepted. I even think I might have to take the GRE! Boo! I lay awake at night thinking about where I want to live, where I want to go to school, and what I want to study. Of course the things at the top of my list to study are Math Education and possibly Curriculum and Leadership  but I'm also looking at a few programs designed for International Education Development. There are a few grad students coming to my area of Malawi this summer to do some work from Teacher's College at Columbia and I'm very excited to pick their brains about their program and life at TC. Do I really see myself living in Manhattan? Or maybe DC while attending American University? I just don't know! 

And maybe instead of grad school applying for the Math for America fellows program? 

So many options. So many questions. Too much to think about!

Oh well, at least I live in the most beautiful place on the planet. I can hear the waves from the lake at night as I'm going to sleep. I work with great people. Life is good.

PS: If anyone has GRE prep material, can you send it this way?

6 Month Update

Friday will mark my 6 month Malawi-versary!

I honestly can't believe I've been here for 6 months. It's been an incredible journey and I can't wait to see how the rest of my time here plays out. Currently I'm in the 4th week of our second term. I'm teaching 3 math classes and starting to get Girl's Club up and running full-time. I've been very happy with my classes this term; it's nice to not have so many things to which I have to adjust. I was able to start off knowing what to expect.

At the beginning of January I said goodbye to Sami as she headed back to Ohio to look for a big girl job! The day before Sami left, we welcomed Carly to Malawi as she began her 1 year adventure of being a teacher at Khwawa with me. She's my new roommate and fellow teacher and I'm very excited to have her here! I met Carly in 2006 at the SW Ohio HOBY seminar, where she was my group leader. HOBY is also where I first met Matt in 2008. I guess you could say that Hugh O'Brien played a big part in getting me to Malawi!

I want to give a big shout-out to all of those people who have sent me care packages! They have kept me going more than you think! The letters, candy, movies, pictures, and battery-operated lights/fans make my world go round. I have appreciated them all and it's a highlight of my week if I get a text message from my post-master letting me know I have a package! A lot of people have asked me for ideas of things to add to packages so I made a new tab at the top of the page titled "wish list."

ALSO: Determined to Develop and Maji Zuwa are still looking for people to help sponsor some of our kids. Your sponsorship would cover school fees, medical care, food, clothing, and transport. Let me know if you are interested and we can get you matched with a student! It's a low monthly payment that can be automatically drawn from your bank account. All of the money donated is given directly to the NGO, no fees for processing! I know and see almost all of these kids on a weekly basis. I see first-hand how your donation is being used, some of the kids are even my students!

Term 1 is in the books!

My first term as a teacher in Malawi ended a few weeks ago. It blows my mind sometimes when I think about how fast time is moving. One year ago I had never taught more than a weeks worth of one single class and now I have four courses under my control. Isn't it incredible how one year can change your life? 

The term started kind of rough. It took me a while to get my footing but once I got my balance I could feel improvement with each passing week. I had been taught to be a teacher in the 21st century. Yet I found myself in a dirt floor classroom with open air windows and the occasional chicken pecking at the ground. I had learned to be a teacher in a place where SmartBoards hang on walls and sets of calculators sit on shelves. The adjustment hasn't been easy, and is no way near complete, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it. 

There are days here where I've felt like I've lived in Malawi my whole life. I don't embarrass myself greeting anyone in Tumbuka and my lessons go as planned. These are usually the days when I can catch a minibus to the market within 5 minutes without being crammed into the person next to me or a student offers to fill our water buckets at the bore hole. I would say the best example of a day like this was when I taught my first lesson under a mango tree. My form 2 class struggled with behavior at the beginning of the term. They are a tough bunch but after a few weeks it had improved. To reward them I decided to have a little fun (and by fun, I mean 'math teacher fun') and hold class outside. It was a beautiful day and I could tell the kids were getting a little stir crazy. I gathered them all under the mango tree and we did this lesson. It was a hit! Everyone loved it and I could tell they had improved their skills of reducing fractions and adding positive and negative numbers. Who wouldn't have fun when solving tangled ropes with math? It felt completely natural to be teaching outside, using only a chalk-board and rope as my materials. It was a day in Khwawa that I will not soon forget.

Conversely, I also have days where I wonder what I'm doing here. These are the days when I'm over charged for tomatoes at the market or the minibus fare from my village because I'm a mzungu (white person) or the days when I find children in my garbage pit combing through rotten food and empty boxes in their bare feet. I have days where I walk into class and after 20 minutes of struggle I realize students aren't paying attention to constructing a parallelogram because only 4 out of 50 of the kids have a straight edge, compass, or protractor. 

But what is life without the bad days to make you truly appreciate all the happy times? Overall, my first term at Khwawa was pretty amazing. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunities I've had so far and I'm looking forward to the next two terms!

Tough Decisions

This post is long over due. I want to tell you all about the school where I am teaching and living.

I have been teaching at Khwawa CDSS since the beginning of September. This week will mark the 9th week of classes for the 14 week term (2 of which are for exams at the end).

There are three types of government secondary schools in Malawi. To be selected to such a school, students take an exam in Standard 8 (8th grade). Only the top third of students are selected to secondary schools. Of that top 33%, the students are sent to either a National Boarding School, a District Boarding School, and a Community Day Secondary School. Most students are enrolled in a CDSS and it is the cheapest option for students.

Once students are in secondary school, there are two big exams that they have to take. The first is called the JCE (Junior Certificate Exam) and is administered at the end form 2 (the second year). This exam is to see how the students are progressing. The exam is pass/fail and it must be passed to continue in school. The second exam is the MSCE (Malawi Senior Certificate Exam) and is taken at the end of form 4 (4th year). This is the exam that will determine if students can attend university, a trade school, or even get a job.

At our CDSS I am teaching 4 different courses with 23 periods a week. I teach mathematics for form 1, 2, and 3 and Physical Science for form 1. Form 1 and 2 have about 50 students each and form 3 has about 25.   There are nine periods throughout the day starting at 7 am and ending at 1:20 pm. The students stay in their classrooms divided by form and the teachers rotate through the classes.

I'm also the Form Mistress for form 1...which means I'm basically the class teacher. I take their attendance each day and monitor behavior. I'm also in charge of registering each student, knowing their information, and assisting with bursary support if they receive it.

A few weeks into the semester, our headmaster, Mr. Kamwambi came to our staff meeting with information about a new government bursary (scholarships) that is being piloted for form 1 students. As the head teacher I was asked to assist the bursary committee with interviewing the students. About 20 students were noted as being the neediest of their peers and it was my job, along with one of the Malawian teachers, to help them fill out the application. The application was three pages long and full of questions to help the government gauge the neediness of the student. Here are a few of the questions:

• Does your family own any cows? goats? pigs? chickens?
• What is the roof of your house made of? (thatch, metal, tiles)
• What are the outer walls of your house made of? (burnt bricks, unburnt bricks, mud and sticks)
• Is your mother living?
• Is your father living?
• Who takes care of you?
• Does your household own a bicycle? radio? cell phone?
• How many children in your household are attending primary school? secondary school?

After listening to the heart-breaking answers of my students, many of whom I learned are orphans, it was then my job to rank each students by their level of neediness. How was I supposed to do that? How was I supposed to rank my students based on their neediness when ALL of them, including those who weren't interviewed, should be ranked number 1. How could I choose? 

Thankfully, Sami was there to help me. Ranking my students based on their applications was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do this term. It just didn't seem fair to me that I had to rank a person lower because maybe only one of their parents is dead, compared to two; or maybe they have burnt brick walls, where one of their peers is living with walls made of mud and sticks.

This process forced me to really open my eyes to the poverty my students live in every day of their lives. It forced me to understand the lives my students have outside my classroom and the reality they face when they leave the school grounds. Where do they get food? How far do they walk for water? Who is taking care of them?

Nyika and Vwaza

This past weekend Sami and I were invited, along with our neighbor Aaron, to go on a safari with a few other volunteers in the area. How could we pass that up??

There are four Aussie volunteers north of us at two different schools. In addition, there is also a Canadian volunteer here with Determined to Develop for a few months. Two of the Australians have a student whose father works for the National Park Service in Malawi. He offered to take them on a trip for free for up to ten people. All they had to do was split the cost of the gas for the hired car he would get us. As far as the food, all we had to do was bring the supplies and the staff would cook it for us. Score!!

On Friday afternoon, Aaron, Sami, and I packed our bags and set off for the stage at Khwawa. The stage is the bus stop just down the hill from our houses. It's where we pick up public transport or sometimes Matt will pick us up on his way to Maji Zuwa. We were picked up in a safari truck by the 4 Aussies, a Canadian, our guide (who was in posession of a rather large gun), and our driver. It was a 6 hour drive to Nyika National Park and most of it was on bumpy dirt roads. Nyika is the largest park in Malawi and it was also the first. The locals call is the Scotland of Malawi because of the rolling hills and frigid temperatures at night. We arrived late Friday night and stayed in the camping hostel that the park operates.

Saturday morning was safari time! We ate a quick breakfast of instant milk with corn flakes, and bread and peanut butter and headed out in the truck. We trekked through the park for hours and saw tons of wildlife. We saw antelope, zebras, warthogs, giant things with horns that looked like giant deer, and some awesome looking birds. Not only does Nyika have beautiful wildlife, but the scenery is gorgeous as well. In the park is the second largest peak in Malawi and a few protected Juniper Forests. Apparently Tolkien traveled through the area and based some of the settings in the Lord of the Rings books after the landscape of this park and the Zomba Plateau in southern Malawi. Our guide also showed us the fancy cabins and lodges in the parks that I'm sure a lot of international tourists stay in...not a volunteer's budget!

The next morning, Sunday, we packed up our hostel and headed out of Nyika in search of more traditional animals that you think of finding in Africa. Our guide was nice enough to get us into Vwaza Wildlife Reserve and inside the park we also picked up another guide and a random Peace Corps Volunteer who happened to be there that day as well. His name was Stony and he is stationed at the Reserve as part of his service. Inside Vwaza is a giant watering hole, reminiscent of The Lion King scene when Pumba recalls his traumatic experiences there. In fact, we talked a lot about the Lion King on our trip. How could you go on a safari and not sing every song? Anyway, back to Vwaza. Our first animal we met was a herd of elephants. They were heading back from the watering hole and we caught them just in time. The mother of the herd got a little territorial so we had to drive away, luckily enough we ran into a few more herds along the way. Once we finally got to the watering hole, there were TONS of hippos. Get it? Tons? Anyway, they were awesome. It was kind of surreal to see the elephants and hippos. They are such massive creatures and something you only see in movies or on TV. Also at the lake were some impalas and Kudu.

We had an awesome safari and I can't wait to hopefully do it again soon. Sami and I plan to travel to southern Malawi after our term ends in early December. We're hoping to hit up the Zomba Plateau and Liwonde National Park.

I'm headed to Livingstonia this weekend. Sami and I are hiking with a guide starting at our house in Khwawa. It should be about a five hour hike. On Sunday I will be attempting to skype with my church in Farmersville for World Communion Day. Hopefully I will be able write a few more posts on Saturday.

Life at Khwawa

I've lived at my house at Khwawa for a few weeks now and so far so good.

It's a small house with four rooms, an outdoor kitchen, shower, and latrine and we just recently got a fence around our yard. Woo!!

Luckily enough, our neighbor is a Peace Corps Volunteer from Texas who is starting his second year teaching at the school. He has been a huge help to us as we've gotten started. Seriously, I think I would be starving without him.

For water, we walk about 20 yds to the water pump. We have buckets that we fill up every so often and we even were able to buy a bucket with a nozzle. The nozzle is useful for washing our hands and for filling cups and pans.

A typical meal for us includes cooking on our mbaola (charcoal stove) or over an open fire. We eat a lot of rice, beans, and tomatoes! Sometimes we spring for a soda at the shop by the road and I'm very thankful for the Kool-Ade I brought from home! (hint hint ;)

Sorry the posts have been few and far between! I will try to post at least once every weekend. It's my plan to spend the weekends at Maji Zuwa or traveling around Malawi. This weekend I'm in Mzuzu with Sami and our PCV neighbor, Aaron.In Mzuzu we found pizza....and ICE CREAM!!! oooooh yeeeaaahhh. Also, we met two Ohians! One from the columbus area and one from Akron. What a small world!

Cobras, Lizards, and Crabs....Oh My!

Many who know me know that I am not an outdoorsy type of gal. I’m not a big fan of bugs or critters and I would be a happy camper if I never had to see a spider again. (Side note: I probably wouldn’t be afraid of spiders if I had not been subjected to the horrors of the movie Arachnophobia as a small child. Thanks, dad. I can still to this day only watch that movie in daylight.) A fact I’m thankful to know is that there are not poisonous spiders in Malawi….just really huge ones. I think I can get over that. The animals that are poisonous though are the snakes. Great. Awesome. Wonderful. Are you catching my sarcasm here? (Brenda Gisewite may want to stop reading at this point. Skip directly to the next paragraph.) One night as Sami and I were headed back to our rooms for bed, we met our night watchman, Nathan, on the bridge. He told us in a very matter of fact tone that he had just killed a cobra by our chalet and that he had put it in the ditch under the bridge. He was so calm that I didn’t even understand what he said. I think I had to scrape my jaw off the ground once I finally comprehended that a 60 year old man killed a massive cobra with a stick. A STICK. This is not a drill, this is not a ride at King’s Island in the 90’s, this is a real f@%#ing cobra that is usually only seen in zoos or Indiana Jones movies in America. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very soundly that night. 

Let’s move on, shall we? The lizards are actually pretty awesome. They’re the same little guys you might see on a vacation to the Caribbean and I remember them from when I was in Honduras. These critters are on my side of the matter when it comes to spiders except I think they take it a little far. They EAT the spiders. Praise baby J! It’s almost as if they are my army in a war against the arachnids. ALL the lizards are welcome in my house and one of my favorite things to do is sit under the Mango tree and try to count how many are on the branches. 

Crabs. Did you know that there are crabs in Lake Malawi? Because I didn’t. I was in the kitchen cooking and had asked Sami to go to the boys’ laundry bin for an egg when I heard her shout from the other room. (let me explain why there are eggs in the laundry bin: The bin itself is a large wicker basket with a lid. The hen likes to go in there and lay her eggs. I don’t know why. It just does.) When she went over to the bin, she only saw the legs sticking out from behind and had thought it was a rather large spider, hence the shouting. When I came out to see what the ruckus was all about, I saw Fumbane (foom-bon-e) holding up the mop with a crab dangling from the end. It was something that both of us never expected to see but it was definitely a highlight from the past two weeks. 

I have made it to Malawi safe and sound. I’ve been spending my first weeks in country at Maji Zuwa, which is the place where I stayed when I visited two years ago. Matt was nice enough to let us stay here to become acclimated to the culture and to learn a few skills before we moved to the house at Khwawa Secondary School where Sami and I will be living and working; me for the next year, her for the next five months.

While at Maji Zuwa we have been learning a few key phrases in Tumbuka from the boys who work and live here. We’ve also been learning how to cook Malawian dishes over a fire from the women who work in the kitchen as well as from a few girls that live in the village.

The first Sunday we were here, Matt asked two of the girls who live in Sangilo Village to take us on a tour to meet their families, see their homes, the primary school, and the hospital. The walk around the village was also an opportunity for us to get out of Maji Zuwa for a while. Although this place is gorgeous and amazing, we were going a little stir crazy. We walked for an hour and a half and had a great time. While we were walking with Alice and Patricia (the two girls) asked for our surnames. After I told them mine Alice started smiling and I asked why. She replied that that was the name of her sponsor. This was huge news. My mom and dad are her sponsors! As her sponsors, they pay for her education in Secondary School including school fees, uniform and shoes, books, and a bicycle among other things. How often is it that you are able to meet the person that is benefiting directly from a donation or sponsorship? Another cool thing is that Alice will be one of my students at Khwawa CDSS (Community Day Secondary School). School fees for a CDSS come to about $15 and it’s more than most families can even think about saving for the children and in most to all cases, if there is a choice between education a son or a daughter, the son will be chosen as top priority.

Meeting Alice and learning that my parents sponsor her education was a great start to my journey in Malawi. A lot has happened since then but I plan to break up my posts into a few shorter stories instead of having one large one. Internet will be sparse so posting and checking emails will happen infrequently. I did get a cell phone and I am able to text a few times a week but calling out is really expensive.

Stay Tuned!

This blog is being set up so that I can share my experience in Malawi as it is happening.

Stay tuned as more posts surface.

I arrive in Malawi on August 2nd!