Since I am in Lilongwe and have some spare time I thought I would just spend some time to update my life since the football tournament at the beginning of May. Speaking of that, if you read my last post it might have come off as very pessimistic and while that it is still true, thankfully some good things have come out of it. The second place team continues to practice three times a week and now we are preparing on starting a team to compete in the premiere women’s league in Malawi. We are looking to recruit players from all over the area to form one team as well as to set them up with the local men’s premiere team as sort of a franchise. It’s still very new and not much has happened yet, but it’s exciting nonetheless as this was my hope from the beginning to form a premiere team in my community. Also, many other teams are starting up and I am being asked every day to give teams footballs so they can play. So although I wasn’t too happy with the outcome of the tournament, I am glad at least to see that some of the girls are continuing to play.
And some big, big news is that WE FINALLY HAVE THE FUNDING TO BUILD THE COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINIC! After a couple months of bugging my family and friends to give up some money, it has all come together and the project is about to begin. Within this week I will have all the money sent to my bank account and then immediately we’ll start buying all the materials (cement, iron sheets, trees, etc.) and hopefully it should take us about 2 months to get the structure built. I get a smile on my face every time I think about this project and I have decided to wait to tell the community until the money has finally reached into my account that the project is ready to go. I know they will be even more ecstatic than I am. Definitely stay tuned for more news and pictures on that front, and for the 1000th and not the last time I will say thank you to everyone who donated money. People’s lives will be changed and it’s because of you.
The HIV/AIDS group I am working with is still waiting to start the nutrition and income generating project, so while we are waiting this past week we made some really awesome compost to help with the medicinal garden. We made two different kinds of compost and it was a really great way to teach the members that you don’t need expensive chemical fertilizers to help these plants to grow well. The best things for these medicinal plants come right from their own homes and fields and it doesn’t cost them anything!
This week I will be spending a couple of days with at my sitemate Vanessa’s house, she is a secondary school teacher and she lives about 20 miles from my house. Myself and three other PC volunteers from my district will be assisting Vanessa with an HIV/AIDS day that she is running at her school. Not only will I be enjoying the company of my fellow PCVs and electricity for two days but I’ll also be teaching students about good nutrition and how it relates to HIV/AIDS.
The women’s group is in the last month of paying off their first loan. So far at least 7 of the 13 women are going to take another loan immediately after repaying their first one. This time most will increase the amount from an average of about $45-60 to about $70-100. We are also planning on doing some cash crop diversification since all the members have decided to no longer grow tobacco. It’s a decision I completely support not only because of the extremely low prices this year, but also because it requires chemical fertilizers and it is very harsh on the soil (and not forgetting the fact that it’s the main ingredient in cigarettes). So right now we are contemplating between growing paprika, soybeans, and/or groundnuts. I am hoping to have a mixture of the three just in case of potentially low prices next season.
I am still continuing to meet with the girl's volleyball club at my local secondary school. Although they are all busy with the end of the school year coming up, they have all told me over and over again how much they want to go on a trip and play another school. We have played a couple of other local teams in the area but I think that they want to go and play girls from another school. Of course they chose to go to Lake Malawi so they can enjoy both some volleyball and the lake. It sounds like a perfection combination to me but since there is no money we decided to do a fundraiser. So next Saturday the team will be hosting the "Kapiri Disco", and by disco I mean basically it will just be a dance party. So they'll sell tickets to get into the disco and maybe some food and drinks and hopefully the money generated from the event will help us to take a trip in the near future. Also, the girls really loved "HIV/AIDS Month" in March so basically I've just extended it and now once a week we do different activities related to that. Not all of it is directly related to HIV, some of it's also focused on helping them to become empowered, educated young women of Malawi. It's great!
On the personal front this month I'll be part of a few volunteers welcoming another new group to Malawi next week, this time we'll have 17 people who will be teachers placed throughout the country. The rest of the month of June will be dedicated to gardening, spring cleaning around my house, and trying to stay as warm as possible through the coldest month of the year. Also I'll be celebrating Independence Day on a one week hike around Lake Malawi with a bunch of friends. Very exciting!
And some big, big news is that WE FINALLY HAVE THE FUNDING TO BUILD THE COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINIC! After a couple months of bugging my family and friends to give up some money, it has all come together and the project is about to begin. Within this week I will have all the money sent to my bank account and then immediately we’ll start buying all the materials (cement, iron sheets, trees, etc.) and hopefully it should take us about 2 months to get the structure built. I get a smile on my face every time I think about this project and I have decided to wait to tell the community until the money has finally reached into my account that the project is ready to go. I know they will be even more ecstatic than I am. Definitely stay tuned for more news and pictures on that front, and for the 1000th and not the last time I will say thank you to everyone who donated money. People’s lives will be changed and it’s because of you.
The HIV/AIDS group I am working with is still waiting to start the nutrition and income generating project, so while we are waiting this past week we made some really awesome compost to help with the medicinal garden. We made two different kinds of compost and it was a really great way to teach the members that you don’t need expensive chemical fertilizers to help these plants to grow well. The best things for these medicinal plants come right from their own homes and fields and it doesn’t cost them anything!
This week I will be spending a couple of days with at my sitemate Vanessa’s house, she is a secondary school teacher and she lives about 20 miles from my house. Myself and three other PC volunteers from my district will be assisting Vanessa with an HIV/AIDS day that she is running at her school. Not only will I be enjoying the company of my fellow PCVs and electricity for two days but I’ll also be teaching students about good nutrition and how it relates to HIV/AIDS.
The women’s group is in the last month of paying off their first loan. So far at least 7 of the 13 women are going to take another loan immediately after repaying their first one. This time most will increase the amount from an average of about $45-60 to about $70-100. We are also planning on doing some cash crop diversification since all the members have decided to no longer grow tobacco. It’s a decision I completely support not only because of the extremely low prices this year, but also because it requires chemical fertilizers and it is very harsh on the soil (and not forgetting the fact that it’s the main ingredient in cigarettes). So right now we are contemplating between growing paprika, soybeans, and/or groundnuts. I am hoping to have a mixture of the three just in case of potentially low prices next season.
I am still continuing to meet with the girl's volleyball club at my local secondary school. Although they are all busy with the end of the school year coming up, they have all told me over and over again how much they want to go on a trip and play another school. We have played a couple of other local teams in the area but I think that they want to go and play girls from another school. Of course they chose to go to Lake Malawi so they can enjoy both some volleyball and the lake. It sounds like a perfection combination to me but since there is no money we decided to do a fundraiser. So next Saturday the team will be hosting the "Kapiri Disco", and by disco I mean basically it will just be a dance party. So they'll sell tickets to get into the disco and maybe some food and drinks and hopefully the money generated from the event will help us to take a trip in the near future. Also, the girls really loved "HIV/AIDS Month" in March so basically I've just extended it and now once a week we do different activities related to that. Not all of it is directly related to HIV, some of it's also focused on helping them to become empowered, educated young women of Malawi. It's great!
On the personal front this month I'll be part of a few volunteers welcoming another new group to Malawi next week, this time we'll have 17 people who will be teachers placed throughout the country. The rest of the month of June will be dedicated to gardening, spring cleaning around my house, and trying to stay as warm as possible through the coldest month of the year. Also I'll be celebrating Independence Day on a one week hike around Lake Malawi with a bunch of friends. Very exciting!
