one peace corps volunteer's journey into the warm heart of africa

Saturday, April 10, 2010

hello from the warm heart!

Hey everyone!

I am so excited to share my first blog post from Malawi! I have been here for almost a month and a half and a lot has happened since then. My environment group has been going through a ton of training and in less than two weeks we will be swearing in as official Peace Corps volunteers!

For the last five weeks I was living with a host family in a small village south of Lilongwe. I had a great experience with them and despite the fact that they spoke little English and I even less Chichewa. But, I have learned to appreciate the awkward silent moments! Other than that, my group has been kept very busy with language, technical, cultural, safety, etc. training. I am learning a lot of Chichewa and I am really, really enjoying the technical training such as agriculture/permagardening, bee-keeping, composting, mud stoves, income-generating activities, etc.

And just a few days ago I found out where I will be living for the next two years of my stay in Malawi. My site is in central Malawi in the Mchinji District in a village called Kapiri. I am replacing a volunteer and I am very excited about meeting the people and the potential projects that I may be a part of. Today I will be shadowing a fellow environment PCV who lives in my district, and after a few days I will be going to my site for about three days. Then, I will go for a week of intense language training, followed by swearing in and then moving to my site. Scary, exciting, crazy!

Well that's it for now, but I do want to say thanks again for the continued prayer and support. I appreciate it greatly and ask that you would continue to keep me in your prayers. And if you think about it, send me a letter!

3 comments:

leslie said...

Congrats, Katy! It's so exciting finding out where God has placed you for the next two years. I know you'll be great at continuing the work of the PCV before you. Soak it in; it goes really quickly!

janine said...

Oh, Katy, so great to finally hear from you! I actually saw your dad last night at MSJ and asked him how you were doing. He is so proud of you and his face just lit up when he talked about you!

Sounds like you are learning a lot of new, amazing things! I will continue to think of you and pray!

Love you!

Unknown said...

KATY! Birthday in Africa...crazy. Hope all is well, you are missed dearly but the work you are doing is terrific. Thinking of you lots and excited to read the blog updates!