If you haven't checked it out yet, we have pictures posted!! I've got an album at http://picasaweb.google.com/tinawaterbury/MalawiPics
and Zeb has some different pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/zwaterbury/MalawiPhotosAttempt1#
and
http://picasaweb.google.com/zwaterbury/MoreFromMalawi#
I hope everyone has had a great Christmas. Ours didn't go quite as expected, but it was still pretty nice. We had planned to be back at our site for Christmas after our quick trip into the city. Zeb was having a rash checked out by the doctor that has been getting worse for the past month. But by Wednesday morning it had spread further, including to his face, which looked like he'd been punched in the eye. The Dr. said it was an allergic reaction, although we can't figure out what to, and put Zeb on "med hold" (meaning he has to stay in Lilongwe) until Monday, dec 29. The good thing about that is that because this is now a medical trip he'll get reimbursed for travel costs, and since it is Christmas they're going to cover mine too.
So, we spent our Christmas at the Peace Corps transit house in Lilongwe. At first we thought that we'd be the only ones there for Christmas, then two others from our training group, Erika and Meagan, showed up. However, they're reason for being stuck at the house was far more interesting than ours. They were at the beach and saw a cute little monkey sitting on a bench smelling a flower. Erika decided that it was too cute to pass up and took a picture. The monkey kindly stayed put until she got the perfect picture, and then proceded to drop the flower and jump onto her leg biting and scratching. Not such a cute monkey after all. Luckily the monkey was pretty small and only left a bruise and a few scratches, but since it drew blood she had to come in for rabies shots, and Meagan was a good friend and came with her.
So the four of us had a nice Christmas Eve dinner of steak kabobs on the grill with garlic mashed potatoes and homemade toffee for dessert. Then Christmas Morning we made french toast, zucchini bread, and christmas cookies. It was amazing. Aside from the food, it was still a nice, relaxing day. I even took a nice long bath. (Of course, I had to spend a good hour bleaching and scrubbing the bathtub first since this house is about as clean as a frat house, but it was worth it.) And then on Saturday I even went clothes shopping-- Malawian style. Here in LL there is a giant used clothes market, where there are probably hundreds of vendors with piles and piles of used clothing (most sent here from Britain or the States). If you dig hard and long enough you can find some sweet deals on some nice clothes. Its kinda like Goodwill on steroids. So even though our plans were completely turned around, it worked out alright. Christmas was still tough though, just because it would be so nice to be able to be with our families. This has probably been the most homesick since we've been in country, but it has been really nice to at least be in the city with email access so can have more communication than we'd have had at site.
So the plan for now is to finish up what we need to do here tomorrow morning and then head back to site, although it may not be until Tuesday that we actually make it there. The worst part about this whole week is that we are supposed to have a staff meeting at school Tuesday morning and turn in our Schemes and Records (rough weekly outline of lessons) for the first term of school then too. We left without bringing all of the books we need to finish them since we thought we'd be back Wed or Thurs, so now we don't know if we'll get them in on time (or at least have the time to a decent job) and we might not even get back in time for the meeting. I know there wasn't much we could do about it and our headmaster understands that, but I still feel bad about it. Plus, that's just that much less time to get things around before school starts next monday. It will be a busy week for us coming up anyway, and probably even busier the week after that. I am looking forward to starting classes, getting to know the students, starting up the library, and just finally settling into a routine. We've been moving around so much since we got in country that it will be a welcome (I think) change to be staying in the same place doing the same thing for a while.
Well, I will wrap up here. Thank you to everyone for your emails! It is so nice to hear from home. I expect that it will probably be April before I update again. We have a term break and have another week of training. But then, plans change often here so we will see. I hope everyone is doing well and having a great holiday, and I wish everyone a happy New Year!!
Tina
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
My first blog as a PCV!!
The Last Two Weeks
First I must apologize. My last post got cut a little short and I did not post pictures as promised (although I maintain that this is the fault of of the computer for failing me and for the crazy whirlwind pre-swearing in schedule--I tried). Anyway, as I type this I am uploading pics on Picassa, so hopefully it will work.
Well, we've had almost 2 weeks at site now. I was also wrong in my last blog when I said that we would be moving to site and then getting started with what we came here to do. As it turned out we arrived at our site Wed afternoon, moved our stuff into the house, had a nice tea time with the other teachers, and then got sick. Wed night Zeb got hit hard with some bacterial dysentery ( I think), and lets just say that the chim (if I haven't yet explained, chim is short for "chimbuzi," meaning toilet--or hole in the ground) was broken in rather well very quickly. So Zeb had a very rough night. I won't talk too much about the gross details, but you can probably read about them on his blog if you want. Then the next morning it hit me too. Not quite as bad, but my bowels were still pretty unhappy. By Thursday afternoon we had fevers of 102'F. We called the Dr and got on meds that evening (Peace Corps takes care of us well-- in our med kits we have a bunch of 'just in case' medications should we need them at site). So it was Sunday before we even started unpacking, Monday before we left the house, and probably wednesday before we were really back to being productive.
But once we got back on our feet we got to planting our garden, which was exciting and fun because it was nice to play inthe dirt and actually feel self sufficient and productive. If all goes well, we will have an AWESOME garden (thanks to our parents for the seeds!!). We planted like 24 different things, and we hope once it gets going we won't have to buy produce. We also want to expand the selection from what is available in the market (right now all the produce we have is tomatoes, onions, greens, and sometimes potatoes at our market). We also hope that the garden works out well because we're also hoping to use it as a demonstration garden to encourage our students and other community members to try different, more sustainable farming techniques. Our neighbors thought we were crazy for planting in guilds and not planting only maize in neat little rows, and I think they expect that it won't really work. We also want to really encourage people to diversify crops. The diet is very monotonous, and more kinds of fruits and veggies means more nutrients, as well as security from plant specific diseases and the benefits of filling a new niche at the market (there's a lot more profit in being the one person that sells carrots than in being one of 50 who sell tomatoes). So, those are our hopes for our garden. When we left yesterday we had radishes beans and watermelon popping up. We are also trying our own special fertilizer; we got a 'night time pee pail', which we then dilute and apply inthe mornings. We'll see.
So once the guarded was planted, we moved on to some work on the house and started to prepare for school. Things are slow right now, so I think it will be a shock once classes start up and things get moving again, but I'm looking forward to it. I am also going to be the librarian (and zeb is the sports master) which I am very excited about. Right now the library is a big, pretty nice room, but with only one shelf of books. It is meager, to say the least, but it is loaded with potential. Classes start Jan 5th.
Christmas Plans
With school on the way, we were thinking of spending Christmas at our new home, and having a nice quiet holiday to ourselves. But, as you may have put together, it is now Christmas eve and here I am in Lilongwe on the computer. About a month ago Zeb got a rash under his fake wedding ring, so he stopped wearing it. It didn't go away, and in the last couple weeks it spread and a few days ago it spread to his face and he looked like he'd been punched in the eye. So we came to Lilongwe yesterday so Zeb could see the Dr. It was an allergy (although we don't know to what) and now he has meds to take again. It worked out though because we had some things to pick up in town, including mail (sidenote: we will have new addresses for mail, although the current one will still work, but we will only pick up mail when we get to Lilongwe-- next week our parents will have the new addresses), and getting online. As for our plans now, we will try to get back to Mzuzu tonight and stay the night at the PC transit house, maybe with some other volunteers, and then return home either Christmas afternoon or the next day. I may be temped to stay at the transit house and bake Christmas cookies...we'll see. But who knows. One thing I have learned here is be flexible-- never expect anything with too much certainty.
The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love
So, that is the update of our lives since swearing in. I can say that so far Peace Corps has lived up to its claim of being "the hardest job you'll ever love," and I think that it will continue to be true. Training was very frustrating, and even difficult, but nothing like our limited experiences this far at site. Being sick just flat out sucked, and even after getting over that communication is a challenge, and I feel like really integrating into the village will take far more time and effort than i anticipated. Now that we have the freedom to hole up in our house and read all day it takes a lot of motivation to get my butt out the door and make the effort to meet people. A favorite pasttime of Malawians is kuchezga-- chatting--and you all know how much of a chatter I am (and for those who don't, I'm not). You cannot travel anywhere without stopping to talk to each person who is out working the fields, or getting water, or walking somewhere. Here in Malawi, walking is a social activity. This is frustrating because sometimes I just like to walk to explore, or just want to get somewhere, or just want to go becuase I like to go hiking and running and walking and be left to my own thoughts. And stopping every minute along a 30 minute walk is very inefficient (I'll write more on efficiency later... I've thought a lot about that lately). However, it is good because it just shows how open Malawians are to building relationships--even if at first that relationship consists of me stumbling through a jumble of incorrect Chitumbuka words and English and the other person just laughing at me. The thing is that is what I came here to do, to cross cultures through building relationships. And even if the progress is incredible slow and there are many (very many) times when I really don't feel like "building relationships," there is enough there to provide some fulfilment and keep me going and make it worth being here.
Appreciating My Culture
I came to Malawi wanting to really become Malawian, to immerge myself in a different cultures and come to appreciate the benefits of a non-American culture. However I have found this expectation shifting since I've been here. I still think that Malawian culture has a lot to offer and I look forward to learning from that over the next two years. For example, friendliness and the value of relationships and community are things that we sometimes overlook in the US. But I am also learning to appreciate some of the things that my own culture has to offer. One example, as I mentioned earlier, is efficiency. Efficiency is an American value, but not necessarily Malawian. There times here when I just want to pull my hair out because of the time (and thus productivity and thus progress) that is wasted because of time spent chatting or because of poor planning or any number of other reasons. I had looked forward to living in a culture that was so laid back and not so time oriented and scheduled, but now I am shocked at how frustrating that culture really is to me. I still think there is value there. Time may be money, but even here in malawi money is not everything. To touch on Zebs theme, even with all of the money and progress in America (relatively speaking), life there is still hard in a real way. We do still need to take time to appreciate each other and the things that we do have. I think that if I can come out of this experience with a healthy appreciation of what is important, what values from any cultures are worth holding onto, then I will be happy.
First I must apologize. My last post got cut a little short and I did not post pictures as promised (although I maintain that this is the fault of of the computer for failing me and for the crazy whirlwind pre-swearing in schedule--I tried). Anyway, as I type this I am uploading pics on Picassa, so hopefully it will work.
Well, we've had almost 2 weeks at site now. I was also wrong in my last blog when I said that we would be moving to site and then getting started with what we came here to do. As it turned out we arrived at our site Wed afternoon, moved our stuff into the house, had a nice tea time with the other teachers, and then got sick. Wed night Zeb got hit hard with some bacterial dysentery ( I think), and lets just say that the chim (if I haven't yet explained, chim is short for "chimbuzi," meaning toilet--or hole in the ground) was broken in rather well very quickly. So Zeb had a very rough night. I won't talk too much about the gross details, but you can probably read about them on his blog if you want. Then the next morning it hit me too. Not quite as bad, but my bowels were still pretty unhappy. By Thursday afternoon we had fevers of 102'F. We called the Dr and got on meds that evening (Peace Corps takes care of us well-- in our med kits we have a bunch of 'just in case' medications should we need them at site). So it was Sunday before we even started unpacking, Monday before we left the house, and probably wednesday before we were really back to being productive.
But once we got back on our feet we got to planting our garden, which was exciting and fun because it was nice to play inthe dirt and actually feel self sufficient and productive. If all goes well, we will have an AWESOME garden (thanks to our parents for the seeds!!). We planted like 24 different things, and we hope once it gets going we won't have to buy produce. We also want to expand the selection from what is available in the market (right now all the produce we have is tomatoes, onions, greens, and sometimes potatoes at our market). We also hope that the garden works out well because we're also hoping to use it as a demonstration garden to encourage our students and other community members to try different, more sustainable farming techniques. Our neighbors thought we were crazy for planting in guilds and not planting only maize in neat little rows, and I think they expect that it won't really work. We also want to really encourage people to diversify crops. The diet is very monotonous, and more kinds of fruits and veggies means more nutrients, as well as security from plant specific diseases and the benefits of filling a new niche at the market (there's a lot more profit in being the one person that sells carrots than in being one of 50 who sell tomatoes). So, those are our hopes for our garden. When we left yesterday we had radishes beans and watermelon popping up. We are also trying our own special fertilizer; we got a 'night time pee pail', which we then dilute and apply inthe mornings. We'll see.
So once the guarded was planted, we moved on to some work on the house and started to prepare for school. Things are slow right now, so I think it will be a shock once classes start up and things get moving again, but I'm looking forward to it. I am also going to be the librarian (and zeb is the sports master) which I am very excited about. Right now the library is a big, pretty nice room, but with only one shelf of books. It is meager, to say the least, but it is loaded with potential. Classes start Jan 5th.
Christmas Plans
With school on the way, we were thinking of spending Christmas at our new home, and having a nice quiet holiday to ourselves. But, as you may have put together, it is now Christmas eve and here I am in Lilongwe on the computer. About a month ago Zeb got a rash under his fake wedding ring, so he stopped wearing it. It didn't go away, and in the last couple weeks it spread and a few days ago it spread to his face and he looked like he'd been punched in the eye. So we came to Lilongwe yesterday so Zeb could see the Dr. It was an allergy (although we don't know to what) and now he has meds to take again. It worked out though because we had some things to pick up in town, including mail (sidenote: we will have new addresses for mail, although the current one will still work, but we will only pick up mail when we get to Lilongwe-- next week our parents will have the new addresses), and getting online. As for our plans now, we will try to get back to Mzuzu tonight and stay the night at the PC transit house, maybe with some other volunteers, and then return home either Christmas afternoon or the next day. I may be temped to stay at the transit house and bake Christmas cookies...we'll see. But who knows. One thing I have learned here is be flexible-- never expect anything with too much certainty.
The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love
So, that is the update of our lives since swearing in. I can say that so far Peace Corps has lived up to its claim of being "the hardest job you'll ever love," and I think that it will continue to be true. Training was very frustrating, and even difficult, but nothing like our limited experiences this far at site. Being sick just flat out sucked, and even after getting over that communication is a challenge, and I feel like really integrating into the village will take far more time and effort than i anticipated. Now that we have the freedom to hole up in our house and read all day it takes a lot of motivation to get my butt out the door and make the effort to meet people. A favorite pasttime of Malawians is kuchezga-- chatting--and you all know how much of a chatter I am (and for those who don't, I'm not). You cannot travel anywhere without stopping to talk to each person who is out working the fields, or getting water, or walking somewhere. Here in Malawi, walking is a social activity. This is frustrating because sometimes I just like to walk to explore, or just want to get somewhere, or just want to go becuase I like to go hiking and running and walking and be left to my own thoughts. And stopping every minute along a 30 minute walk is very inefficient (I'll write more on efficiency later... I've thought a lot about that lately). However, it is good because it just shows how open Malawians are to building relationships--even if at first that relationship consists of me stumbling through a jumble of incorrect Chitumbuka words and English and the other person just laughing at me. The thing is that is what I came here to do, to cross cultures through building relationships. And even if the progress is incredible slow and there are many (very many) times when I really don't feel like "building relationships," there is enough there to provide some fulfilment and keep me going and make it worth being here.
Appreciating My Culture
I came to Malawi wanting to really become Malawian, to immerge myself in a different cultures and come to appreciate the benefits of a non-American culture. However I have found this expectation shifting since I've been here. I still think that Malawian culture has a lot to offer and I look forward to learning from that over the next two years. For example, friendliness and the value of relationships and community are things that we sometimes overlook in the US. But I am also learning to appreciate some of the things that my own culture has to offer. One example, as I mentioned earlier, is efficiency. Efficiency is an American value, but not necessarily Malawian. There times here when I just want to pull my hair out because of the time (and thus productivity and thus progress) that is wasted because of time spent chatting or because of poor planning or any number of other reasons. I had looked forward to living in a culture that was so laid back and not so time oriented and scheduled, but now I am shocked at how frustrating that culture really is to me. I still think there is value there. Time may be money, but even here in malawi money is not everything. To touch on Zebs theme, even with all of the money and progress in America (relatively speaking), life there is still hard in a real way. We do still need to take time to appreciate each other and the things that we do have. I think that if I can come out of this experience with a healthy appreciation of what is important, what values from any cultures are worth holding onto, then I will be happy.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Swearing In!!!!!
Well, today is the day we finally become Peace Corps volunteers. I am very happy for that. It seems as though we have been in training for so long. In a couple of hours we will go to the ambassedor's house for our swearing in ceremony. We will sit through the ceremony, take the official oath (the same one that Obama will be taking in January!), sign some papers, and then first thing tomorrow morning we leave for site to finally start doing what we came here to do.
It will be a huge adjustment, but I am excited about it. Training here is such a controlled environment. Lots of rules, lots of structure, lots of scheduled classes and sessions, and not even the freedom to choose what I want to eat. I am so excited to actually cook a meal for myself for once!!! Don't get me wrong, training has been an important and (mostly) necessary thing, but we are just ready to move on.
It will be a huge adjustment, but I am excited about it. Training here is such a controlled environment. Lots of rules, lots of structure, lots of scheduled classes and sessions, and not even the freedom to choose what I want to eat. I am so excited to actually cook a meal for myself for once!!! Don't get me wrong, training has been an important and (mostly) necessary thing, but we are just ready to move on.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Hello all and happy Thanksgiving!! I cannot believe that the holiday season is starting already. We are in Lilongwe now because tomorrow the US Ambassador is hosting all the PCVs at his house for Thanksgiving dinner. It does not seem like the end of november. It is hot here and getting hotter every day, and we are entering the rainy season, so it is now starting to get humid as well. Yuck! Although today we got to spend a little more time in Lilongwe for the 1st time and we found an actual grocery store. They had a Christmas tree up and were selling Christmas decorations. It was like walking back into the States for a few minutes. Of course we couldn't afford anything in there. It was the equivilent of about $12 for a stick of deodorant! Although I did splurge on a chocolate bar for 500 kwacha (a little over $3).
So anyway, training is still going well. We have finished up our homestay and are stationed back at the Malawi College of Forestry (for the most part) for the time being. The most exciting news so far-- we learned our sites!!! Last week we had site announcements and then Saturday thru today we went to visit our sites. We are going to be teaching at Kacheche Community Day Seconday School, which is near Rhumphi, just north of Mzuzu. We love our site! Our headmaster (principal) just took over at the school halfway through last year and is already doing a lot of great things with the school. We are in a river vally which means that we can grow crops even in the dry season, although it also means lots of mosquitoes. We definitly have our work cut out for us though. I will be teaching forms 1 and 3 biology (instead of grades 9-12 it is forms 1-4), form 3 math, and form 1 physical science (ps). The school previously did not have a ps teacher and so did not offer that class, even though it is required for students to go on to any type of post-secondayr education or training. So, even though I will be teaching only the form 1 class, I will be doing intensive after school ps clubs to catch up other students who are interested. Also, Zeb is teaching not only english, but form 1 math and forms 1 and 2 life skills! It looks like we are going to focus a lot on teaching rather than any type of secondary projects (atleast for this first year), but that is what the school and the students really need. It will be hard but we are excited. The other teachers seem pretty good so far too. They previously had 5 teachers at the school, and in addition to Zeb and I they are hiring another, which will make a total of 8. AND, there will be 4 women teachers (including the deputy headmaster) and 4 men, which is very exciting here! Over all we are quite pleased wtih our site. We have been raving about it since we returned to Lilongwe this afternoon.
Well, once again I am in quite a hurry, so I will have to cut it short again. We have so little free time as trainees! That will change soon though (Dec 9!!). I also apologize for the lack of pictures. I have not had the camera with me both times I've gotten to use the computer. In a couple of weeks though we'll have a chance to write more and post pictures. I can't wait to show you all what Malawi looks like!! So in closing I will say have a great Thanksgiving, stay warm and safe on the roads, and take care!
Yewo Chomene ndipo tiwononenge!
So anyway, training is still going well. We have finished up our homestay and are stationed back at the Malawi College of Forestry (for the most part) for the time being. The most exciting news so far-- we learned our sites!!! Last week we had site announcements and then Saturday thru today we went to visit our sites. We are going to be teaching at Kacheche Community Day Seconday School, which is near Rhumphi, just north of Mzuzu. We love our site! Our headmaster (principal) just took over at the school halfway through last year and is already doing a lot of great things with the school. We are in a river vally which means that we can grow crops even in the dry season, although it also means lots of mosquitoes. We definitly have our work cut out for us though. I will be teaching forms 1 and 3 biology (instead of grades 9-12 it is forms 1-4), form 3 math, and form 1 physical science (ps). The school previously did not have a ps teacher and so did not offer that class, even though it is required for students to go on to any type of post-secondayr education or training. So, even though I will be teaching only the form 1 class, I will be doing intensive after school ps clubs to catch up other students who are interested. Also, Zeb is teaching not only english, but form 1 math and forms 1 and 2 life skills! It looks like we are going to focus a lot on teaching rather than any type of secondary projects (atleast for this first year), but that is what the school and the students really need. It will be hard but we are excited. The other teachers seem pretty good so far too. They previously had 5 teachers at the school, and in addition to Zeb and I they are hiring another, which will make a total of 8. AND, there will be 4 women teachers (including the deputy headmaster) and 4 men, which is very exciting here! Over all we are quite pleased wtih our site. We have been raving about it since we returned to Lilongwe this afternoon.
Well, once again I am in quite a hurry, so I will have to cut it short again. We have so little free time as trainees! That will change soon though (Dec 9!!). I also apologize for the lack of pictures. I have not had the camera with me both times I've gotten to use the computer. In a couple of weeks though we'll have a chance to write more and post pictures. I can't wait to show you all what Malawi looks like!! So in closing I will say have a great Thanksgiving, stay warm and safe on the roads, and take care!
Yewo Chomene ndipo tiwononenge!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Mid-Training Update
Monile Nonse! (hello all)
Well we've been in training for the last month but got a quick break in the city, so I'll give a quick update while I can.
We are still in our "homestay" part of training where we live in a village with a family and learn all of the basics of rural Malawian life. We are staying in the village of Kasina. It is a small village with no running water or electricity. Our family gets water from a boar hole about 300 meters from our house, cooks over a fire, lives in mud-walled and thatched-roofed house, and uses outdoor chimbuzi's (pit latrine). We eat a lot of Nsima, usually with boiled greens and either chicken, goat, beans, or soy pieces, but sometimes we have rice instead of sima. The food isn't very exciting for the most part, but we did try cow intestines (gross) and flying termites (not too bad) after the first rain last week. Our host mother cooks for us and takes very good care of us, but it is difficult to live with other people and sometimes feel like we're in the way, so we are very much looking forward to moving out of homestay.
We have been teaching at the local secondary school since the second week of homesty. Zeb's teaching form 1 (9th grade) english with about 70 students and I'm doing form 3 (11th) biology with only about 40 students. We teach in the mornings, and afternoons are taken up with language class. We ended up being put in the Chitumbuka language class. The bad side to this is that I had already been studying Chichewa prior to leaving the US, but the really bad part is that our homestay village speaks Chichewa. So, we go to language class to try to learn one language, then go home and try to communicate (usually unsuccessfully) with our host family in a different language. Plus, Chitumbuka has many different dialects, so different Chitumbuka teachers use different vocab and pronunciations. I like to compare it to going to Italy to learn Spanish from a Spaniard to prepare to live in Mexico. Frustrating. The upside is that it means we will be going to the north part of Malawi (we find out exactly where in 2 weeks) which is wehre there are mountains (ie cooler temps) and the lake. For us that makes it well worth all the stress.
Despite the heat and frustrations with language, I love Malawi. It is a beautiful country and the people are very nice. We hitch-hiked forthe first time last week and met some friendly locals who gave us a ride for free. We are very much looking forward to moving to our site and settling in and start teaching at our school.
I hope this finds everyone well.
Well we've been in training for the last month but got a quick break in the city, so I'll give a quick update while I can.
We are still in our "homestay" part of training where we live in a village with a family and learn all of the basics of rural Malawian life. We are staying in the village of Kasina. It is a small village with no running water or electricity. Our family gets water from a boar hole about 300 meters from our house, cooks over a fire, lives in mud-walled and thatched-roofed house, and uses outdoor chimbuzi's (pit latrine). We eat a lot of Nsima, usually with boiled greens and either chicken, goat, beans, or soy pieces, but sometimes we have rice instead of sima. The food isn't very exciting for the most part, but we did try cow intestines (gross) and flying termites (not too bad) after the first rain last week. Our host mother cooks for us and takes very good care of us, but it is difficult to live with other people and sometimes feel like we're in the way, so we are very much looking forward to moving out of homestay.
We have been teaching at the local secondary school since the second week of homesty. Zeb's teaching form 1 (9th grade) english with about 70 students and I'm doing form 3 (11th) biology with only about 40 students. We teach in the mornings, and afternoons are taken up with language class. We ended up being put in the Chitumbuka language class. The bad side to this is that I had already been studying Chichewa prior to leaving the US, but the really bad part is that our homestay village speaks Chichewa. So, we go to language class to try to learn one language, then go home and try to communicate (usually unsuccessfully) with our host family in a different language. Plus, Chitumbuka has many different dialects, so different Chitumbuka teachers use different vocab and pronunciations. I like to compare it to going to Italy to learn Spanish from a Spaniard to prepare to live in Mexico. Frustrating. The upside is that it means we will be going to the north part of Malawi (we find out exactly where in 2 weeks) which is wehre there are mountains (ie cooler temps) and the lake. For us that makes it well worth all the stress.
Despite the heat and frustrations with language, I love Malawi. It is a beautiful country and the people are very nice. We hitch-hiked forthe first time last week and met some friendly locals who gave us a ride for free. We are very much looking forward to moving to our site and settling in and start teaching at our school.
I hope this finds everyone well.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
T minus 1 day
Well, our journey begins tomorrow morning, and I feel fairly confident that we are as ready as can be. For those that don't know, we started with this whole Peace Corps thing nearly two years ago when we heard a radio commercial that advertised living in a small village on the African Savanna with no plumbing or electricity. We did some research, completed our applications in Spring of 2007, and after a year and a half of waiting and wondering, here we are now about to move to a small Malawian village with no plumbing or electricity. It's been a long last month, finishing up with our jobs here in Michigan, doing last minute preparations and paperwork, and, hardest of all, saying lots good-byes. As difficult as it will be to leave, we are excited to finally get started on this adventure.
Here is summary of our plans for the next couple of months:
Tomorrow (Friday) morning we fly to Philadelphia for a couple days of orientation. This will be a crash course of what we've gotten ourselves into, as well as plenty of paperwork and shots, I'm sure. We then take a bus Sunday morning to JFK airport in NYC, where we will catch a long (17 hours, I believe) flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We'll spend Monday night in a hotel, then Tuesday morning will take one more flight, finally arriving in Lilongwe, Malawi (Yay!!)
Upon arrival we will be taken to the College of Forestry in Dedza (about an hour from Lilongwe). We'll stay in dorms for the first week as our bodies adjust to the time (6 hours ahead of EST), food, elevation (Dedza is at about 5500 ft), weather (although I believe that being in the mountains, weather shouldn't be much change from Michigan in September), and many other unforeseen changes. The next week we really jump into things as we move in with of host family in a small village similar to the one where we'll be posted (although we still don' t know where that is yet). That means no running water or electricity, travel by foot, washing clothes by hand--the whole nine yards. As crazy as it sounds, I'm looking forward to living that way, leaving American comforts behind--or at least all of them except for camera and iPod, which we're taking with us. We'll live with the host family throughout our 10 weeks of training. During this time we won't have access to computers, so my next posting probably won't be until early December.
Our training will cover everything from language and culture to job skills for the classroom to how to cook and (most importantly) use a squat toilet. However, we recently learned that the language portion may have an unexpected twist. Since we received our invitation a couple of months ago we have been studying Chichewa, the language spoken by the majority of Malawians. The rest speak one of 12 local tribal languages. Just last week we received an email detailing our upcoming training and learned that our training class will be split into two language groups-- one to learn Chichewa and the other to learn Chitumbuka, a local language. So basically, there is a 50/50 chance that we will be learning a language that we had never even heard of until this week, after having spent the last couple of months learning a different one. Oh, well. We've been told many times during the application process that patience and an open mind are the key to success with Peace Corps, and I'm sure that will be confirmed many times for us in the next few weeks.
As hard as it's been, we have enjoyed getting to see everybody this last month, and we really appreciate all of the prayers and well-wishes. We would never be able to do this without having such a support system in all of our family and friends. Please feel free to leave comments, especially any questions that you may have about what is going on in our lives. Also, check out Zeb's blog at zebandtinainmalawi.blogspot.com.
Tsalani Bwino (Stay Well)
Tina
Here is summary of our plans for the next couple of months:
Tomorrow (Friday) morning we fly to Philadelphia for a couple days of orientation. This will be a crash course of what we've gotten ourselves into, as well as plenty of paperwork and shots, I'm sure. We then take a bus Sunday morning to JFK airport in NYC, where we will catch a long (17 hours, I believe) flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We'll spend Monday night in a hotel, then Tuesday morning will take one more flight, finally arriving in Lilongwe, Malawi (Yay!!)
Upon arrival we will be taken to the College of Forestry in Dedza (about an hour from Lilongwe). We'll stay in dorms for the first week as our bodies adjust to the time (6 hours ahead of EST), food, elevation (Dedza is at about 5500 ft), weather (although I believe that being in the mountains, weather shouldn't be much change from Michigan in September), and many other unforeseen changes. The next week we really jump into things as we move in with of host family in a small village similar to the one where we'll be posted (although we still don' t know where that is yet). That means no running water or electricity, travel by foot, washing clothes by hand--the whole nine yards. As crazy as it sounds, I'm looking forward to living that way, leaving American comforts behind--or at least all of them except for camera and iPod, which we're taking with us. We'll live with the host family throughout our 10 weeks of training. During this time we won't have access to computers, so my next posting probably won't be until early December.
Our training will cover everything from language and culture to job skills for the classroom to how to cook and (most importantly) use a squat toilet. However, we recently learned that the language portion may have an unexpected twist. Since we received our invitation a couple of months ago we have been studying Chichewa, the language spoken by the majority of Malawians. The rest speak one of 12 local tribal languages. Just last week we received an email detailing our upcoming training and learned that our training class will be split into two language groups-- one to learn Chichewa and the other to learn Chitumbuka, a local language. So basically, there is a 50/50 chance that we will be learning a language that we had never even heard of until this week, after having spent the last couple of months learning a different one. Oh, well. We've been told many times during the application process that patience and an open mind are the key to success with Peace Corps, and I'm sure that will be confirmed many times for us in the next few weeks.
As hard as it's been, we have enjoyed getting to see everybody this last month, and we really appreciate all of the prayers and well-wishes. We would never be able to do this without having such a support system in all of our family and friends. Please feel free to leave comments, especially any questions that you may have about what is going on in our lives. Also, check out Zeb's blog at zebandtinainmalawi.blogspot.com.
Tsalani Bwino (Stay Well)
Tina
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