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.