Peace Corps Training and all that Jazz

March 5th, I boarded a plane for staging in Philadelphia. I was running a bit late because of flight delays, but I made it on time. At staging we had a short introduction to what the Peace Corps was and were able to meet the other 38 volunteers going to Malawi. Half are Environment volunteers and half are Health volunteers.  Then we were able to wander the streets and get a last meal in America. I had a Philly Cheese Steak. We  boarded our bus at 2 am for JFK and then around 10:30 am we were on the Plane for Johannesburg, South Africa. When we reached South Africa we got on a plane for Malawi. We were greeted in Malawi by the country director and some current on Culture, Language, Safety and Medical. After the many shots I had received I could probably fall in a Chimbudzi ( Malawian toilet=hole in the ground) or get bitten by a rabies infested lion and still be okay. If not, I have my medical kit which has everything from Mr. D pills (diarrhea) to my Malaria medication. My malaria medicine gives me some pretty awesome dreams....dreaming is better then watching tv. However, sometimes I get nightmares, and when I wake up I just think ok that must have been a dream because 1. I can't see anything in the dark regardless of a crazy spider and 2. nothing can ever get me underneath  my trusty mosquito net.

After the first week at MIM, we moved to our Homestay village to live a host family. Here we learned many technical skills, learned language Chichewa for me, as well as more safety and more medical information. During technical, things I've learned were building improved cook stoves; Malawians cook over a 3 stone fire which is unsafe and inefficient; composting, ANAMED/medicinal gardening, irrigation methods, contour gardening, tree nurseries, Permaculture and much more. My homestay village was Kaphaizi located in the Kasungu District of Malawi. I love my Malawian family even if most of the time I couldn't understand what they were saying.  I have an amayi (mom) Mary, 2 achimwali (sisters) Violet and Esta and 2 achimwine (brothers) Dixon and Gilbert. Dixon is technically my cousin, his parents both passed. His mother at childbirth and not sure how his father passed. I don't have an abambo (father) he passed in 2004 of a stroke at age 40. I had assumed HIV, but I asked my amayi. It is sad to think she lost her husband when she was only 36 years old. We lived a small brick hut, thatch grass roof with no electricity or running water. The chimbudzi I was deathly afraid at first and tried to only use it during daylight hours to ensure that I would not come in contact with any spiders or cochroaches. Of course nature calls and when I look at the clock and it is only 1 am , I know I cannot hold it for another 4.5 hours....if I had 1 or 2 hours to hold it maybe, at the expense of losing sleep.

Each day I woke up went to the borehole to fetch water and carry it back on my head, swept the dirt in my room and outside my house, washed dishes, ate breakfast, went to training, ate lunch, went to training, came home ate dinner, took a bucket bath, danced with my family under the stars, read and  went to sleep. My day ran from 5:45am to the late hour of 8pm. Food here is simple. The staple food is Nsima which is maize boiled into a thick porridge. It is served with greens such as mustard, potato leaves, or pumpkin leaves with usually onion and tomato thrown in. It is also served with a meat or meat substitute. This includes soya (so good), osipa (dried little fish that I will not eat), beef, goat, eggs, beans or chicken. The beef you have to chew for half an hour before deciding its not going to get any more digestible and just swallow it whole. We sometimes had rice because Peace Corps provided it, but that is usually only served on special occasions.

Training was 7 weeks long, we took many tests. I passed my Chichewa Language Proficiency Interview with an Intermediate High!!! The first time I failed. We were sworn in as official volunteers on April 30th and came to site on May 1st.

My site is located in Mkhomba village. I will be working on Chichere farm which is part of Children of the Nations. The try to produce enough food cheaper than it would be to purchase it for over a 1000 children. I will also be working with 6 surrounding villages. My house is very nice and I am very lucky compared to most other volunteers. I have electricity, running water, shower although cold a nice comfy queen bed, and a TOILET!!! Two days ago when I moved in I was unable to move in until later because there were swarms of bees surrounding the area. They killed the 4 watch dogs and several chickens, it was very sad. I am though very excited to be at site and ready to integrate into my community, and help out in ways that are needed. So I hope you continue to read my blog, feel free to ask any questions: the posts in the future will than likely be much shorter. Tiwonana!


Other tidbits about Malawi/Malawians:

• Most Malawians don't like dogs....they throw rocks at them because they are associated with rabies
• Men can hold hands...men and women cannot
• Feel free to pick your nose in public, its okay
• About 11% of Malawians have HIV
• Showing your knees in a village is scandalous...women make sure to always wear your tchenge
• Without women here in Malawi, I'm not sure if men would survive
• Many Malawians have never seen an elephant or any other exotic animal as they are in wildlife reserves
• The Kwatcha is the unit of money: 420 Kwatcha to the dollar is the current exchange rate---this can buy me 4 Fantas or 2 KG of rice or lots of tomatoes (everyone sells them)
• Most students don't go past Standard 8 in school if they are lucky enough to go to school at all as in Form 1-4 they are taught in English
• Malawians always look stern, until you greet them and then a smile lights across their face. Many times they do not smile in pictures.
• There is very strong faith here: public meetings are usually opened and closed with a prayer