the final countdown (in pictures)

Well I am back again with another post, which could quite realistically be one of my very last. I'm not feeling too sentimental about it, at least not for now. But anyway, here's my update on the last couple of months. Instead of writing way too much to explain everything like I normally do, I decided to take a different approach and use pictures instead. They are in a very random order, but nevertheless I hope you enjoy...

Kapiri Medicals - first place winners of the 2nd Kapiri Women's Football Cup (sponsored by my soon-to-be-married friend Steph Ohlson, thank you Steph!)

Christmas '11 at Likoma Island (jealous?)

Tithandizani HIV/AIDS Support Group in front of their newly built pig house

Kamera Under Five Health Clinic...Finally finished!

the piggies

Chizumulu Island on Christmas Eve

making a eucalyptus tincture

the beginnings of a homemade beesuit as modeled by one of the teachers

 with my bud Nelson, a cute 5 yr old with a disorder that severely stunts his growth

my dog - I asked my little sister to name him and she affectionately gave him the name "LionTiger"

groundnuts grown for cooking oil production with the women's group

what I see while waiting for a minibus to Lilongwe in the early am

natural medicinal products for sale..

one of the nursery school kids with her donated toy 

part I of a beekeeping training at a primary school

my backyard in the middle of the rainy season...this means I am on constant snake watch

with the local nursery school kids and presenting them with toys, books, posters, and maize porridge thanks to a very special donor (again, thanks Steph!)

Thanks again for reading my post. Hope all of you from back home are ready for this tanned, slightly malnourished, even more slightly cynical, but very happy girl!

technology part II

I’m not sure if it’s ironic or not that my last post was about how great having an internet phone was since it was stolen way back in October. I mourned a little bit for my beloved Blackberry and was angry at the people who hang around the Lilongwe bus depot since this was the second (but first successful) time that people tried to steal from me. So now I am back to checking email and stuff maybe once a week and I am okay with that since I can spend more of my time not being distracted by Facebook and Gmail and enjoying my surroundings while I still can.


Life has been hectic the past few months and I cannot believe that December is already here. Before I give you an update on what I am doing now let me fill you in on what I’ve been up to the last few months…

ANAMED training-
I spent the first week of October in Dedza at an Action for Natural Medicine training. I was able to bring one of my counterparts, Jimmy, as he is the chairperson of the HIV/AIDS support group and already had a medicinal garden that he is in charge of. We spent the week learning about different indigenous and exotic plants and trees and how they can be used for medicine and nutrition. The majority of our time was spent outside identifying the plants, inside the classroom, and the more hands-on part of making teas, ointments, powders, tinctures, etc. The week was by far my favorite training I have ever attended and myself and Jimmy couldn’t wait to get back to Kapiri to start implementing what we have learned. The biggest thing that I took away from the week was that there is definite income generating potential with these plants and trees. My entire service I have wanted to do a lot with these herbal plants but doubted the market availability or demand since most people seem to want to just go to the hospital and buy their medicine there. Now that my mindset has changed I am determined to focus most of my time and energy for the rest of my service on medicinal plants.

Liwonde National Park Annual Waterhole Game Count-
After ANAMED I headed down to Liwonde National Park with about a dozen other PCVs, most of whom are in my group. Our job for the week was to sit in a hide perched above a waterhole in 4 hour shifts and count every single animal that comes to drink. So all day long from the middle of the night to the very hot afternoons we sat quietly at the hides and counted elephants, water buffalo, hippos, antelope, warthogs, zebra, sable, hyenas, and the extremely rare and ever elusive black rhino. Highlights of the week include hearing elephants eating from a tree directly above my tent during the middle of the night but being too scared to get out of my tent and run away. Monkeys and baboons were always hanging around our camp and were constantly trying to steal our food and playing with our tents. During one shift an elephant came so close to our hide that I could have literally reached out and touched him if it were not for the park guard grabbing his gun and telling us to not move.

Camp RENEW-
I then headed way up north to Nyika National Park for Camp RENEW which is a one week camp for kids in secondary school to learn about the environment. It’s so important to teach these kids about how to care for the environment since as their population continues to increase at such a rapid rate, the dependence on their natural resources will only continue to increase as well. Therefore we discussed issues such as deforestation, alternative energy, nutrition, permaculture and sustainable farming, environmental business, environmental activism, and more. Nyika was a very fitting place to have the camp as we were able to take hikes throughout the week and on the game drive through the park we got to see zebra and roan antelope.

50th Anniversary-
Peace Corps worldwide celebrated its 50th birthday this year and in PC Malawi we celebrated by having a celebratory function at the US Ambassador’s house. It was also a celebration for USAID and so we hosted a variety of government officials and people working with NGOs. Peter Mutharika, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the President’s brother, and the possible next president of Malawi came and gave a speech. Overall it was a nice affair, but then again any excuse to dress up and eat nice food is good enough for us.

GRE-
I took the GRE back in November, I had been studying for it for a while so I’m hoping to do well enough to get into the schools I’m applying for. However, I’ve been feeling lately that maybe I should put off school until ’13 since one of the things that you need before going to school is money and I certainly don’t have that after being a poor volunteer for the past 2 years. But regardless we will see how it goes…

Thanksgiving + Mulanje -
I traveled to Blantyre for Thanksgiving and spent it with a few friends from my group. I ate the best Indian food I have ever had, then we went to Malawi’s only movie theater and saw a movie called Columbiana. It was a dumb movie and we spent way too much of our monthly allowance to see it, but for two hours we got to feel like we were back in America and that certainly made it all worth it!

The next day I went south to Mulanje with my friends Bri and Amy to Bri’s site. She prepared a trip up Mulanje Mountain (Africa’s 2nd tallest mountain) with her wildlife club at the local primary school and so Amy and I helped out with it. For 2 two days we hiked up and back down part of the mountain with 30 kids in 7th and 8th grade. Aside from the rain and my sore legs for a few days afterwards it was a really great trip.

Ukwati-
Something I’ve been excited for for months finally happened on the 3rd of December… my amayi and my landlord got married. They’ve been living together for about 5 years and in Malawian culture once a couple starts living together they are seen as being (officially and unofficially) married, but since they both want to join the Presbyterian church here they needed to have an official ceremony with all the proper documents, etc.

My amayi is one of my favorite people here, she is always looking out for me and treats me as her own daughter. If I am sick she takes care of me, when I first got to site and couldn’t make a fire she taught me how, whenever I unknowingly break a cultural faux pau she politely takes me aside and lets me know, and every night I eat with her, my landlord, and some of her grandkids that she takes care of. She likes to tell people that I am her second born child out of the five kids she already has, and most importantly she is the closest thing that I have to a mom here. And for that I was excited about their wedding and wanted to help make it a special day for them.

In the few days before the ceremony I enjoyed helping the other women prepare for the reception by gathering firewood, making thobwa (a drink made from corn that they like to drink at special occasions), and cooking the food. But my favorite part was the night before the wedding when all of the women stayed up all night to dance and make bawdy jokes about amayi’s wedding night.

Their church is about 6 miles from their house and since they have very little money their plan was to ride their bikes to the church. Thinking of my amayi in her wedding dress on the back of a bicycle seemed unacceptable so I rented a 3 ton flatbed truck to take them, their family, and some of the neighbors to the church. So the 2 of them sat in front and myself and about 40 other people rode in the back singing the whole way to the church and it was great.

After the ceremony we went back to the village for the celebration. I could go on and on about Malawian weddings since they are completely different than what I am used to. Needless to say I pretty much hate weddings here, they are basically a shameless ploy for everyone to give the couple money. People spend hours just dancing around the bride and groom throwing money at them and I always felt forced to give more money than everyone else since I’m seen as the rich white girl. I normally do everything I can to avoid going to a wedding, but this one was definitely different for me.

My sister bought a goat and so a few of the men slaughtered it and then some of the women made nsima and goat for lunch. It was delicious and afterwards we all danced for a couple hours. After dancing came the time for people to give money to the bride and groom. In total they managed to raise over $100 which for this time of year during the hunger season is quite a feat. Overall the day was great and I think it will be one of my favorite memories of my village.


Projects-
Most of my activities are winding down as the health clinic has finished being built and the only remaining part of my project with the AIDS support group is to buy their pigs which we will do tomorrow. I am still doing work with the medicinal plants, my volleyball club, beekeeping, the women’s group, and other things but as far as funding goes my work is done. Right now I am focusing on slowly distancing myself from the projects and to try to set up the people that I am working with to continue the projects once I leave. It’s a weird feeling giving up a lot of the responsibility as I like to have everything go only the way that I want it to, but I know that for the sustainability of the projects that it must be done.



What’s Ahead…
Christmas will be spent at Likoma Island, a tiny island on Lake Malawi that is a favorite getaway for a lot of volunteers. It’s pretty remote as the only way to get there is by a boat that comes in and out once a week or by plane. So I’m hoping to spend the week swimming, eating fish, watching a ton of movies, and trying not to miss home too much.

New Year’s will be spent in my village and I’m very excited to buy some fireworks and celebrate with my friends. I wasn’t able to be there for New Year’s last year and since this will be my last one here in Malawi I am hoping to make it extra special. I’m thinking a lot of dancing, eating rice and goat, and maybe even cooking some American food is in order.

In the beginning of January we will have our Close of Service conference at Senga Bay on the lake. Each group has this conference 3 months before they finish their service and for Environment ’10, ours has FINALLY come. Basically we spend 2-3 days talking about how to spend our last 3 months, close out our projects, talk about site replacements for those of us who want another volunteer in our villages, and most importantly we each choose our official dates to come home. It’s the last official time all 18 people in our group get together and it’s something we’ve all been looking forward to for a long time.




Well that’s about it, if you made it to the end of this very long post then I must congratulate you and say thank you for reading all of it! Check out my Facebook soon for pictures of everything I just talked about!

technology

Wow, so I just realized that I can update my blog from my phone. I live without electricity or running water, my bathroom is a large hole in the ground, and I bathe outside in a small hut while trying to fight off lizards and the occasional scorpion. But yet I can check my email and facebook, browse the web, even do some online shopping (even though it will take months for anything to get to me), and now write on my blog from the comfort of my hammock in a remote village in sub Saharan Africa. Crazy isn't it?

Crazy and yet awesome and not so awesome all at the same time. Up until about a month ago I could easily go two or three weeks without checking my email, sometimes longer. While I was training last year it was 2 months without touching a computer or internet phone. To think of having to do that now seems frightening. I love having access to the outside world, and I'm slowly reverting back to the addicted blackberry user that I am back in the States.

One of the reasons that I love living here is the slow, simple pace of life. I've come to see that living without electricity and running water is a blessing, I spend more time at the bore hole chatting with the women while we all draw water and I'm outside on my bike or working on my garden rather than being glued to a computer. It's great. I've read more books in 19 months than I've read in probably the last 5 years

However the downside of that was always the feeling like I was out of touch with my family, friends, world events, everything. It was definitely one of the causes of my frequent mood swings. I could go from over-the-top happy to sad and miserable at any time. And I think that had to do with not knowing what's going on outside of my village. But now I feel much more happy knowing what's going on in the world and with those that I care about, it helps me to live mine more freely.

I still haven't decided whether I'm better off with or without my blackberry, but for now I'm just trying to enjoy my simple and strange life here as well as trying to stay connected to home...

busy as a bee

The problem with being a volunteer for only two years is that once you truly begin to feel integrated into your community, when you have a strong idea of what you want to accomplish, when projects finally start getting off the ground, when you feel comfortable being “the black sheep” 24 hours a day 7 days a week, when you get to know the local language well enough that you can make sarcastic jokes (even though they have no idea what sarcasm is), that’s when you find you only have a short time left in your service.
Now don’t get me wrong, 2 years is a long time. And I still have 7 left which is also a good chunk of time. When I first got to country it seemed like it would last a lifetime. A lot can certainly happen in that time, but in the world of development it’s like the blink of an eye. When it comes to real change and to sustainable projects it’s extremely difficult. And that’s one of the problems we face as volunteers.

My projects are starting to move along, things that I’ve been waiting months for have now thankfully come. As great as that is I find myself slowly losing momentum and motivation as I think more and more about home, grad school, family, a job, and everything that I’ll get to enjoy in America that I don’t get to here. Even though I'm looking more and more forward to finishing out my service I am thankful especially for the friends and family that I've made while here, they definitely help me to stay happy and sane!

PROJECTS AND LIFE UPDATE:

KAMP KWACHA – I spent a week at the Lake helping out with Kamp Kwacha, a business camp for 20 kids who are in secondary school. It was the first time we had the camp and I think it went really, really well. Myself and 5 other volunteers spent the week teaching kids about marketing, accounting, risk management, networking, etc. Basic business practices are rarely taught in school or practiced in daily life here, so we taught a lot of stuff that was completely new to them and I was surprised at how much information they were able to retain. We put the kids in 5 groups and at the end of the week they presented a business plan for the company that they wanted to start. From canned fish to mobile clinics they came up with some great ideas. Overall it was a fun week and the fact that it was held at Senga Bay in Lake Malawi made it even better!

KAMERA CLINIC – the roof is built, the walls have been plastered, and now we are in the painting phase. Next week will include laying cement on the floor and starting the toilets. Got some more donations, whether it be money or seeds for a future medicinal/nutritional garden, and we are super happy and thankful about that!

WOMEN’S GROUP – finally got the oil press and so the women have started making cooking oil and making sweets and peanut flour from the groundnut press cake. Next week they will start selling the oil and the sweets and flour. They are also preparing their nursery beds to start growing paprika and chillies . This will be their first time to grow the plant and although they are a bit hesitant I am hoping that they will make a large profit come harvesting in May.

BEEEEEES – one of the things I have wanted to do my entire service is beekeeping. I’m not quite sure why (maybe it has to do with my Dad and his love for it), I even started a beekeeping group in my community (it pretty much failed). I think it was a classic case of an outsider trying to enforce one’s own ideals before really assessing and seeing that beekeeping is probably not what people want or even need. However, my luck has changed and this time people have first approached me and asked for help with apiculture. The request came from a primary school and I was a bit hesitant since the last project I did with a primary school (it was a tree nursery) completely failed. However, when I visited the school I was really impressed with the staff as well as the kids. For the last eight years they have been planting trees every single year and for here in Malawi that’s a really big thing since not many people bother to plant trees. About a third of the classes are taught outside and there is no housing for the teachers even though the school is in a very remote area. Therefore a lot of the teachers have to walk or bike a far distance to school every day. Instead of just requesting money to build classrooms or teachers’ housing, they found a creative solution in beekeeping as an income generator to help them accomplish those projects. No one in their area is doing it and it’s a great way to give the kids a hands-on educational experience since all of them have agriculture classes and some are members of the school’s wildlife club. So, I have a good feeling that this project will be my last that deals with writing a proposal and funding and I can’t wait to start it.

MEDICINAL GARDENS – myself and the chairperson of the HIV/AIDS Support Group wrote an application for a training at ANAMED (Action for Natural Medicine) and were thankfully one of the few chosen so in October we will spend a week learning more about herbal medicine. My counterpart is especially excited for this training and I am as well since we both have a basic understanding of most medicinal plants, but we really need to know more about how to care for the plants, what the right dosages are for making medicine, how to propagate them, and stuff like that. So hopefully we’ll be able to take the knowledge gained and apply it to the group and teach neighboring support groups as well as to start a medicinal garden at Kamera.

LIFE etc. – I’ve been more and more neglecting my house and it’s starting to show especially since the 5 puppies in my compound have basically destroyed my door. It’s my fault since I fed them a few times and now they think they own my house and backyard, so I’m trying a new technique by avoiding them and not feeding or petting them which is difficult but is best for my sanity since they constantly want to be around me.

My mom was supposed to come and visit me next month and as excited as I was about it, my friends here were even more so. The whole trip was planned out but unfortunately she broke her ankle and just this week had to get surgery. She will not be able to walk for three months and won’t be able to walk without crutches for six months. It was a serious injury and so needless to say she won’t be able to make the trip. We are hoping that she can make it in December! Prayers would be greatly appreciated for my mom that she makes a speedy recovery.

HARD TIMES – tough times just seem to get worse. Skyrocketing prices on everything, no fuel, constant blackouts for those who have electricity, no foreign exchange, and A LOT of political tension. Because of that people are once again preparing to demonstrate this month against the government. It’s hard not to take a stand on this issue especially since I am also affected by what’s currently happening. The protests planned for last month were rescheduled for the 21st and many people are wondering if it’s even going to happen. I also do not know, but looking back at July and the 20 people who died during the protests, I am hoping that this will one will at least be peaceful on the side of the government and those demonstrating.

CHICKEN!!! - yesterday I went to visit the parents of one of my best friends here at Kapiri. I had a really fun day hanging out with her two kids and her parents and sister. Most of the times when I visit people they give me groundnuts, mangoes, papaya, maize, beans, even fried mice. But Lois' family definitely topped the list when they not only killed one of their chickens for our lunch, but they also gave me one to take home. I wanted to say no at first but to refuse a gift is not very polite here so I just smiled and said that I was thankful for the gift. But the longer I thought about it the more flattered I was, for a person to give a chicken is basically like handing them money, animals here are an important source of income so for them to freely give it to me means a lot. Anyway, now I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do with it. I'd love to keep it and build it a nice home but I'm sure something will happen to it so I might just eat it. But I'm open to advice so if you have any feel free to let me know!

Lois' mom handing me the best gift ever!

another way to help

Progress on the clinic is continuing to exceed my expectations. I have not been able to visit the shelter for almost two weeks now since I've been away from site helping with a business camp, but when I was last there the builder was putting on the metal sheets for the roof. I believe that now they are finished with the roof and are currently working on putting cement on the floors as well as plastering the walls. Every single day the community is out there doing the labor to get it all done.

One of the challenges we have faced so far is that our budget did not inlude some key items that we need. This is because we were trying to make the budget to be as low as possible and also because we did not anticipate that we would need certain materials. Also, the budget was created last year and due to inflation, the current fuel crisis, and rising prices we have faced a deficit and therefore some of the things we purchased were a bit more than we had budgeted for.

I know I have bugged pretty much everyone I know for money, and yes, I am doing it again (sorry!). So maybe for all of you who wanted to give for the clinic the first time but were not able to, here is another chance. Unfortunately since the grant has closed it is not possible to give through the Peace Corps website anymore. Therefore I think the best way to give is through PayPal. It's quick, easy, and will go right to me. It won't be tax-deductible but I will be able to show you where every dollar will go to. Here's a list of the things we need...

1 table and 1 chair - $2.40

Ant Repellant - $12.10

Door - $12.10

Door Frame - $12.10

Paint (5L) - $21.20

Locks - $9

Water Paint - $21.20

Hand washing facilities (2) - $18.20

Water taps (2) - $7.30

Drug Shelves - $18.20

Curtains - $7.30

Plastic basins (2) - $6.70

TOTAL = $147.80

So there it all is. We underestimated paint, decided to put a door and locks in the front of the building for security purposes, and want to build two handwashing facilities at the toilets to encourage hygiene and sanitation, and a couple other small items. And to do these things we need your help. Yea, the project is going well and we are almost finished, but I know that having these extra materials will help it to be that much better. So, if you want to give you can easily do it by clicking on the PayPal button below. Thank you all!

just another update

First of all I need to apologize for my infrequency in posting and lack of creativity with this blog. I read other PCVs’ posts from time to time and it definitely puts me to shame. My only excuse is that I’ve been really busy lately but I promise to try harder. I know that my family and a few friends read this on a regular basis so I’ll try harder for you guys, but for now I’ll just let you know what’s been going on these past couple of months…

RUARWE

Over 4th of July I went on a vacation with my friends and fellow PCVs Twila, Bri, Sara, Amy, and Twila's friend Donny who is visiting for a few months. They are all in my enviro '10 group and even though we live spread out through the country, I always enjoy the few times when we can all get together.

So we went up to the northern part of Lake Malawi and stayed one night at a PCVs house who lives right on the lake. We then hiked three days/60km south along the lakeshore. It was fun but tiring and I know we were super happy to reach the lodge on the third day. We stayed at Zulunkhuni River Lodge for three days and it was absolutely beautiful. The whole trip was amazing and it was great to spend a carefree week away from cell phone reception, electricity, internet, and running water.

If you want to see some pictures of the trip you can see them on my facebook album http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.528409657352.2027305.170100061.

A NEW BABY

If you’ve read some of my previous posts you might have heard about my friend Margaderina. She’s the one who is a member of the women’s group that I work with and her husband passed away from meningitis last December. She’s younger than me and already a mother of a 2 year old and so last year when I went home for Christmas I asked everyone that I know to help her out in any way possible. Because of people’s generosity she’s been able to provide for her family through buying maize, fertilizer, soap, medicine, etc.

So, when she told me earlier this year that she was pregnant (her late husband is the father), I knew I had to try to help her again. Because of a certain person who gave $100 to me earlier (I hope you know who you are – THANK YOU), Margaderina was able to buy blankets, buckets, clothes for her and the baby, a suitcase for her hospital stay, and other essentials. And when the call came that she was at the hospital in labor, I knew she was ready and prepared to have the baby. On July 1 a beautiful baby girl was born and Margederina asked me to name her. I felt so honored to name the baby and after over a week of thinking about the right name I decided to name her….JESSICA. I named her after my sister and very best friend and it was supposed to be a secret that I was going to reveal on here but a certain someone spoiled the surprise, thanks a lot Dad. Just kidding.

**Just tried posting a picture of Jessica but after over an hour of waiting I got too frustrated...Sorry, will post pictures of her and the clinic ASAP**

THE CLINIC
As I last wrote, all the money has been raised for the clinic. And as soon as the money came in, I was able to break the news to the community and their reaction was so touching. The women and kids were singing and dancing and all the chiefs kept coming up to tell me how happy they were. This was about 4 years in the making for them and to know that it was finally happening was a big deal.

The next week the Health Surveillance Assistant and myself went to get all of the building materials and we loaded up a huge flatbed truck with 95 bags of cement, doors, lime, wheelbarrows, and other materials. We didn’t arrive at Kamera until well after midnight but even so we were greeted by everyone coming out of their houses to dance and celebrate and once again I was blown away with the excitement and motivation of the people.

For the past three weeks the community has been busy chipping in with the building. We hired a guy to be in charge of the building and so the villagers are doing everything from helping pour concrete, collect sand and stones, drawing water, and doing most of the labor. Every day they come out and the progress has been amazing to see. Already the foundation has been laid and the sides are almost completely built. Definitely by the end of August or early September it will all be finished.

Also right now I am trying to do my best to have the shelter be a place where people can get HIV testing. Since they are so far away from a hospital many people don’t even bother to get the free testing. Also, we would like to have the clinic be stocked with ARVs (Anti Retroviral Therapy) so those who have HIV/AIDS don’t have to trek the 22km just to get their meds. Additionally I am working with a certain NGO in trying to get bednets, condoms, and safe water treatment.

 

OTHER PROJECTS

The women’s group just finished paying off their first loan and went back to Opportunity International to get their second loan. It’s a great accomplishment for them that they were able to successfully pay the loan back and that they want to get another. This time most of the women will use the money to buy and sell groundnuts and a few will continue with their other businesses.

The volleyball team is on a break and will be resuming in September. Things are still moving along with the other projects and now I am gearing up for a big tree nursery project that will take place in the next few months. Also I’ll be heading back to the lake in August to help out with our first “Kamp Kwacha”, a week-long business camp for high school age kids.

THE PROTESTS

If you've seen my facebook posts last week or maybe saw it on the news, you might have heard about the protests that happened on July 22 and  23 in the capital of Malawi and a few major other cities in the country. The demonstrations happened because people here are tired of the abuse of civil rights, a lack of foreign exchange, the fuel shortages, and some other things. People aren't happy with the President and decided to demonstrate but unfortunately it got a bit violent. 19 people ended up dying and lots of shops and other things were damaged. 

Thankfully where I am things were very safe but it was still unsettling to hear about everything going on. If Malawians are proud of anything, it's that they are "the Warm Heart of Africa" in that they are extremely friendly and also that they are a peaceful people. So it's strange to see how things have been changing in the place I have called home for the past year and a half.

There are supposed to be more demonstrations on August 17 and I'm not sure if they will happen. But for now I am trying to stay quiet on all the political issues since one of our jobs as PC volunteers is to not take any sides politically.

EVERYTHING ELSE

On the home front everything is as usual. My cat Chips is extremely pregnant and any day I’m sure she’ll be popping out some kittens. Normally I’d be overjoyed but to be honest am getting tired of kittens, especially since about half of them end up dying tragic deaths before I can even give them away. Also have been making some home renovations like painting and reorganizing, I think I’ve finally been here long enough to get bored with my stuff. Lastly is that I’ve been spending a lot of time studying for the GRE which I’ll be taking in November as well as researching grad schools, however the latter has been really difficult to do here so I’m considering postponing school until ’13. We’ll see…

Thanks for checking in!

development through discos and compost

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!