Christmas

My holiday involved hiking twenty miles in the pouring rain, hitchhiking in the back of a pickup truck while balancing on the hind quarters of a seizing goat and the sharp toe of a military boot. There was also some illicit Oreo eating, and two pots of gluey pasta that even twelve volunteers failed to be able to cook properly. A ridiculous amount of fun. Happy New Year and lots of love to you in 2010!
Loo

Goat manure, tarantulas, and other sundry items

The first hours at site started off a little shaky. The house didn’t seem to be ready when I arrived; door and window locks weren’t fixed as promised, the few pieces of requisite furniture were absent, and when the bedframe did come, it was evident it had functioned most recently as a bat’s toilet. As it got dark, a few cockroaches, as big as the Australian ones in our Sydney flat, began to crawl around in the kitchen. Of course, there are never only a few cockroaches. The kitchen itself is filthy, dark gray with a three-foot layer of smoky grime extending from the ceiling down the walls. In the back of the house, the kitchen, toilet, and bathing area are walled with gaping unscreened holes, presumably for ventilation, but also convenient entry points for mosquitoes or any other critters that might want to come in. The toilet and sink were leaking, and the electricity wasn’t working properly. The second night, sweating and huddled under my mosquito net with a dimming headlamp, I listened to things scuttling around in the dark. Above the bed, from a hole in the ceiling that had been repaired with cardboard and plastic bags cobbled together, a giant hairy tarantula jumped and landed on my net, inches from my face. That was a low point. I opened a bulk-size bag of Starbursts I had brought from America and ate them all—probably not the healthiest coping mechanism for stress, but I felt much better afterward.

So, it’s been a week now. I’ve scrubbed the bedframe, initated a roach holocaust, spent the whole month’s budget on food storage containers, and come to accept that I have ants, lizards, and spiders as housemates. They have a balanced little ecosystem going on, and I won’t interfere too much with them if they leave me alone. I invested in three cans of Olympic oil paint and am just now waiting for a painter to come and cover up the kitchen’s many flaws with a thick coat of Bermuda Blue, a shade I am told will facilitate roach visibility in the dark.

My first week at school was slow, but promising. The teachers spend the entirety of their out-of-classroom hours sitting and chatting and marking papers under the shade of a big tree in the school yard, occasionally moving as the sun shifts. So, I chatted with them, and learned about their classes, took notes on a few technical manuals, visited the library and the District Education Office, and came up with an action plan for my first few months here. Next week, which is shortened because of the holiday, I’m going to bike to some other local schools and introduce myself and distribute a teacher survey.

A few of the local schoolgirls have taken to stopping by in the afternoon and chatting on my stoop. Around town, everyone stops and asks me what I am doing and where I am going. Sometimes I am very happy for the company and a chance to talk, but it occasionally requires a lot of patience to be under a microscope when I am just shopping for vegetables or attempting to dismount a bike gracefully in a skirt. Yesterday, I wandered around the school grounds with a red bucket gathering materials for a compost pile; I scooped up a lot of goat manure, abundant here, to the sheer delight of passersby.

A PCV neighbor invited me to the lake for a party held by the health organization where he works. There were hammocks and barbeque, children dancing, bare feet and sand, and everything was wonderful. I had been in the dumps after a (second) failed attempt to make butter toffee with margarine, and because of the dirty infested house and the perpetual heat and all that; so, the lake party was just the pick-me-up I needed. Things will get better, and settling in is always a challenge.
Next week I’m headed up the lakeshore to spend Christmas with a few friends. Malawians don’t seem to make a big thing of it, except that we have a week’s holiday from school. So I will be thinking of everyone at home, and hoping your festivities are very merry, and sending you lots of love in the new year. Miss you all! Loo

Almost done (with training)

(December 7): Since I last checked in, the end of homestay has come and gone. We've spent the past four weeks traveling around central Malawi: first, I spent four days exploring my future site in Salima, then Thanksgiving in Lilongwe, next to Mchinji district for a language intensive "week" (actually two days), a visit to Camp Sky (run by first year Education volunteers) in Lilongwe, and a few trips back to the training college in Dedza in between. I'm in Dedza again now, enjoying a weekend of relaxation with the other trainees after completing the last major training hurdle, the Chichewa language proficiency exam, on Friday.

We've been living out of suitcases for about ten weeks now, and tempers are running high. Thereís been the predictable frustration of operating within a bureaucratic organization (so much paperwork! so many evaluations and reviews!), and also the suffocating adolescent sensation of not being able to control one's own schedule and to come and go freely. Suffice it to say, my fellow compatriots are very eager to finish up with training this week, swear in on the 9th, and settle in at our sites in the following days.

Site Visit. So, my future site is in Salima, about 30 kilometers from Lake Malawi, just east of Lilongwe, if you feel like GoogleEarthing it. Itís a fairly urban area (by Malawian standards), with paved roads and access to food stores and electricity and running water and internet, all amenities most of the other volunteers do without in their villages. Since I had been getting excited about some kind of agricultural secondary project or a composting toilet venture, I have to admit I was a little disappointed to end up with a living situation so different than that experienced in most of the country. My sister, with perhaps justifiable incredulity, has pointed out I am ridiculous to complain about having a flush toilet and electricity, so I'll stop. I will be working with a cluster of 17 schools, some of which have the benefit of laboratories and libraries and computer labs, while others lack even electricity. So, there will certainly be a lot of potential opportunities to acquire or improve available resources. The best aspects of my site are the headmaster and deputy headmistress, both of whom are engaging, intelligent, and excited about working together. I should also mention, as a warning to future visitors: Salima is hot. So very hot. Hot, hot, hot. Always damp, pillow-soaking, hand-swelling, sweaty sweaty hot.

Thanksgiving. I hope yours was wonderful. We spent the holiday with the rest of the in-country volunteers at the ambassador's beautiful home in Lilongwe, gorging ourselves to the brink of illness on roasted pig, mashed potatoes, and an array of awesome dishes prepared by the volunteers. There were even beets! Six weeks in the village had left us ravenous and chocolate-crazed; the foreseeable results of two years of such living genuinely concern me.

Language Intensive. Our language group of seven stayed at Kayesa Inn, a quiet roadside retreat near the border with Zambia, for a few days, practicing Chichewa, interviewing the community, and finally delivering an HIV/AIDS presentation (in Chichewa) to the hotel staff on World AIDS day. Our audience not only was politely attentive as we probably butchered their language, but also they asked questions about the material that illuminated the scope of the myths spread about this disease. After my partner Jesi and I presented the ABC's of prevention (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms Correctly and Consistently), one woman asked if condoms were really safe. If left in the sun, she said, they get oily and grow maggots; wouldn't this also happen inside a woman who allowed her partner to use a condom? Other follow-up questions demonstrated similar misconceptions about the virus and prevention. I am really hoping to tackle these issues by teaching Life Skills at my school or in my community while I am in Malawi. Life Skills is an umbrella course that covers sexual health education, AIDS prevention, gender issues, and decision-making skills to achieve life goals.

Downtime. Despite the hectic traveling and studying schedule, it hasn't been all work and no play. During our time at the training college we've played a lot of ultimate frisbee and kickball, I've read a few books (I recommend The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind if you want to read about Malawi), biked around the local villages, played cards, watched movies, jogged, sipped a lot of orange Fanta and a little beer at the local, and even attempted to make butter toffee and brew mango hooch. Yesterday: an epic battle of Capture the Flag.

So life has been good. But of course I am missing all of you, especially as Christmas approaches and I think about all the things and people I love in Virginia. Missing cold mornings, bundling up, the fireplace at 906, hot cider, and all of those comfortable wintry things. Please do write and tell me about life... or call! (I don't want to post my digits on the internet but I will email them asap). International calls using Skype are super easy and cheap, so please do be in touch.

If you are so inclined to send a package, I would be delighted to receive these things (or any other things):

coffee (ground)
movies and music
oatmeal
reese's peanut butter cups
chocolate
anything delicious
good books or magazines
photos or stories about you

But most of all, I would just be happy to hear from you. Sending lots and lots of love from Africa,

Loo

Ah, sweet internet!

Where to begin?
Well, hi from Africa, more specifically, from an empty computer lab at Katsekaminga Community Day Secondary School, where I am killing time typing this up while the students take exams. Yes, the school where we’ve been training has a number of dinosaur computers (sans internet)—unusual in Malawi, but this school got lucky. One of my colleagues is blasting Burning Spear. It is a good morning.
This is my fifth (and penultimate) week living in Katsekaminga village, a sleepy little corner of an urban area called Dedza, up in some mountains bordering Mozambique. The landscape is dotted with white gum trees, and acacia trees, and baobob trees, purple blooming trees, and mango and banana trees. There are chickens and goats, mangy dogs, dusty roads, burning piles of trash, and on the horizon, small karst mountains that bubble up every few kilometers.
The people:
I have been living with the Bvumbwe (or Mvumbwe? or Vumbwe?) family, who are taking very good care of me, especially their 17-year-old daughter Fanny, the youngest of seven, who does most of the work around our compound. Homestay has had its ups and downs, as might be expected from spending six weeks as a houseguest anywhere. Since I am learning how to cook and clean Malawi-style, the family is under the general impression that I am like a newborn who has never seen a broom or a frying pan before. They have taught me how to cook rice (and mop, and wash clothes) about six million times. My occasional protestations, that I am capable of doing these things on my own, are greeted with raised eyebrows of disbelief, to the extent that I also begin to question their veracity. The women in the Bvumbwe family are Amazons who carry giant vats of water on their heads, and children on their backs, and firewood similarly, with the same ease as carrying a purse. Their arms are rippling guns. I am impressed. Six other PC trainees, all of whom are awesome, live in Katsekaminga too.
The day:
In the mornings, I wake up around five, sweep (or, displace dust in) the yard, and meet my friend Elisabeth for a run. Fanny or my amayi (host mother) leaves out a hot bucket of water for a bath, and then I eat a quick breakfast, and hike to school on a neighboring hill. The afternoons, after lunch at home, are spent learning Chichewa, which is coming together pretty well. Our free time (45 minutes after language class) is generally spent drinking Fanta at the outdoor market. After dinner I read a little bit and usually pass out by eight. It’s a wild life.
The food:
Okay, so Malawi cuisine is, as I mentioned previously, pretty much nsima. And a lot of starch. And then more starch. Also: starch. Plus a ton of cooking oil. The Peace Corps has done an excellent job of preparing our host families with the means to meet our nutritional needs. Nonetheless, we are all at the point of insatiably craving things like cheese, and good bread, and bacon and beets of course, and chocolate, and grapefruit juice, and yogurt, ice cream, and cottage cheese, and, more generally, just the ability to control one’s own diet. (I take back anything I said in previous entries about bacon jumping the shark!) I have been eating a lot of goat, and also many animals and their parts that I wasn’t able to identify. Nsima, the consistency of mashed potatoes or grits, is basically just white maize flour and water, a bland base to be flavored by whatever relishes it’s served with. Since nsima is virtually flavorless, it is hard to like or dislike. I am strongly ambivalent toward nsima. It should be noted that nsima, however flavorless, provides the main source of sustenance for most of the children in this country. Interesting fact: In Malawi, they eat mangos like apples!
The chimbudzi (toilet) and bafa (bathroom) (You know you were wondering.)
The chimbudzi is basically a squat pit latrine, just a hole in the floor. It’s scary at night, but perfectly serviceable when adequately lit. My faulty olfactory senses continue to serve me well. The bafa, on the other hand, is a roofless bamboo-walled enclosure for bucket bathing outside. In the morning, when the sky is blue and birds fly close overhead and the sun is rising, I love the bafa. Conversely, when it is cold or when giant bees divebomb my head while I am shampooing, the experience is less pleasant.
The wildlife
At this very moment, a pride of lions is sitting on the adjacent hill, watching in wait as zebras frolic nearby. Okay, not really. Most of my wildlife encounters are with chickens, the occasional goat, and flea-ridden emaciated dogs that wander around the village. Early in my stay I did have a bedroom encounter with a small snake on my pillow, while I was reading with my head on that same pillow. The next night, I killed a palm-sized colorful spider blocking my entrance to the chimbudzi (toilet). I am told to expect more of these run-ins when the looming rainy season finally reveals itself in full. Now, the clouds are gathering darker every morning, and the winds are colder than in September.
The schools
So, during training I have been teaching English Literature to about 75 students in Form 3 (the equivalent of high school juniors). They are good kids. The Malawian school system has a lot of challenges, which I will go into in more detail at a later point. But in brief: from Form 1 (freshman year), students are taught all subjects only in English. The primary objective of education is to pass a national exam after Forms 2 and 4. Because the school system was expanded to include the entire populace recently, there is an extreme teacher shortage, especially of qualified teachers. Exacerbating this, teacher attendance is often a big problem. Textbooks and materials are in short supply, so students may share only a few books in a class of 50 or 100. Some students work hard planting in the early morning and walk long distances to school, without breakfast and without a break for lunch, so their attention wanders, especially during later classes. It’s frustrating. My job, as a teacher development facilitator, will probably include some teaching. Also, I will be working with teachers in a cluster of schools, helping them acquire materials, access teaching resources, and work toward their professional development goals through a Malawian distance learning college available to them. There is also a camp for girls, and a health camp, and a number of workshops in which I am excited to get involved. We are also expected to have secondary projects within our community or at school. More on this later.
Everything Else
There are so many beautiful scenes in the village, and all of them are ruined when you pull out a camera. Everyone freezes, the children huddle around, and the moment is gone. But I hope you will enjoy the ones I have been able to sneak. Not able to post them yet, but very soon I hope.
In the next few weeks, we will move out of homestay back to our training site at the Dedza School of Forestry. Soon, we’ll find out our site locations for the next two years, visit them for a sneak peak, have a week of language intensive before the big Chichewa exam, and then swear in as official PCVs on December 9. Sometime this month I will be issued a cell phone, and hopefully resume more regular access to internet, and get in touch with the ones I love, and all that. In the meantime, I am missing you all incredibly. Please write and send word what is going on in the rest of the world. I would love to know the big and the mundane, including in precise detail exactly what you ate for breakfast and are preparing for Thanksgiving. Lots of love,
Loo

p.s. I've got a terrible connection and about five minutes, so apologies for all of the unanswered emails!

Eighty pounds of luggage and 5 trips to R.E.I. later...

I'm heading to Philadelphia tomorrow for "staging," which sounds like a six-hour orgy of paperwork and vaccinations. Then we'll check out nice and early (2:30am) to catch a flight from JFK to Malawi on Saturday morning. This may be the last you hear from your LooBird for a while; during pre-service training, I won't have access to phone or email. So, for the time being, and til late November, just remember that no news is good news.

But wait! I will still be able to receive and send snail mail, which, though super slow, is better than no mail at all. So, please do keep in touch and let me know how things are going because I will be missing you all very much. In a related note, I am very grateful for all the sweet goodbye gestures, and Mas dinners, and homemade dinners, and taco runs, and baseball games, and trips to the park, and general good times I've shared with the people I love this month.

Au revoir,
Loo

Things you might send, if you want to send me things.

Annie’s Mac and Cheese (shells and white cheddar)

powdered drinks (not a huge fan, but apparently they make the water taste better)

chocolate

snack bars: I like Cliff, Luna, and SoyJoy

spices and flavor packets (and cheese!)

pictures of you

The Economist, New Yorker, or similar magazines

dried fruit or other delicious nonperishable items

NYT or WaPo crossword puzzles

movies

games

music

novels

A special note for my pork-minded readers: bacon is perishable, so don’t mail it. Also, I hate to say it, but bacon (in its kitschy forms) jumped the shark in late 2008 or maybe earlier. And, while I would never dain to abandon the occasional blissful moment of porcine excess, you don’t really need to send me that bacon-striped mumu or bakon vodka or whatever it is you just couldn’t resist. Seriously. Unless of course you were thinking of sending bacon butter toffee, which is just simply and undeniably delicious.

Nom Nom Nsima

(Nsima and relishes, from a wikipedia image search)

A question that seems to be weighing hard on the minds of certain friends and family (read: Dave and Camilla) is what I will be eating in Malawi.

Well, this very helpful website, Friends of Malawi, offers an informative summary of the Malawi diet. The staple food, nsima, sounds a lot like grits, minus cheese and butter and S/P and all that. I am nonetheless excited to try it.

Friends of Malawi also features a page about mailing things to Malawi. Check it out.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

Gentle Reader,
At this point, you are probably wondering where Malawi is, and what exactly I'll be doing there. More on the second part later, but here is an excerpt from the Peace Corps Welcome Book:

History
Malawi is a small country in southeast Africa, and is known
for its natural beauty and its warm, hard-working people.
The first significant Western contact began with the arrival of
David Livingstone in 1859. Fiery sunlight glittering from Lake
Nyasa gave the name “Malawi”—land of flaming waters—to an
ancient Bantu empire. Present-day descendants revived the
name when what had once been the British Protectorate of
Nyasaland became independent in 1963.

The country is considered something of a success story
in African political development. In 1994, after 30 years
of one-party, dictatorial rule dating back to independence
from Britain, Malawi quietly and peacefully elected a new
government committed to multi-party democracy. In spite
of the wave of euphoria over their newly won freedom, the
Malawian people continue to face the obstacles of poverty,
drought, environmental degradation, hunger, disease, rising
crime, and illiteracy on their path to social, political, and
economic reform.

Economy
Agriculture forms the mainstay of Malawi’s economy,
accounting for nearly half of its gross domestic product
(GDP). Tobacco, tea, and sugar together generate more
than 70 percent of export earnings, with tobacco providing
the lion’s share (over 60 percent). The agricultural sector
employs nearly half of those formally employed and directly or
indirectly supports an estimated 85 percent of the population.

Malawi has a narrow economic base with little industry
and mining and no known economically viable deposits of
gemstones, precious metals, or oil. As a landlocked country,
transport costs make imported goods very expensive.
Zimbabwe and South Africa are Malawi’s most important
trading partners, and the value of the Kwacha, the local
currency, is greatly influenced by the economic conditions
in those countries. Currently, inflation is running at about 15
percent per year, and economic growth is in the 3 percent to
4 percent range.

People and Culture
Malawi is one of Africa’s most densely populated countries
with a population of about 12 million in a land area roughly
the size of Indiana. The African population includes six
principal tribes. Although there are distinct linguistic and
cultural differences among ethnic groups, geographic region
tends to be the predominate means of group identification.

English is one of the official languages, though it is not
commonly used outside major urban centers. More than 50
percent of the people speak Chichewa, the other official
language, and almost everyone understands it.

Malawi is predominantly a Christian country, but it also
has a sizeable Islamic population, mostly located along the
southern lakeshores. Along with the major organized religions,
animist beliefs are still strong in many areas of the country,
and these beliefs often influence the organized religions as
well. Many religions take different forms than what you may
be accustomed to, as local cultures and historical beliefs
influence the practice.

Environment
Malawi is a narrow country that hugs the western shore
of Lake Malawi (sometimes referred to as Lake Nyasa). At
places, its land area is barely 50 miles wide. Malawi shares
borders with Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique.

Malawi’s altitude varies from less than 200 feet above sea
level, at Nsanje in the south, to almost 10,000 feet at the
peak of Mount Mulanje. Lake Malawi, about 1,500 feet above
sea level and 380 miles long, is Africa’s third largest lake and
Malawi’s major tourist attraction. Imagine—the lake is larger
than the state of New Hampshire! Malawi has rainy and dry
seasons. The rainy season is from November to April, with the
heaviest rainfall between December and March. The terrain
varies widely and includes grassy slopes, rolling hills, striking
rock outcroppings, and dense forests.

Very first item to check off the packing list.

French press coffee mug.

Last time, at least for a long time

I’m anticipating many firsts in the next few months. But for the time being, here is the growing mental tally of lasts. Some already done, and others soon to come.

Last Bodo’s bagel

Last ride in the bug

Last meal at Mas* (*there might be lots of these)

Last glass of wine on the deck of 906 slapping mosquitoes

Last drive on the Blue Ridge

Last float down the James

Last time printing four colors of perforated paper while entertaining Ignatius J. Reilly filing fantasies

Last time waking up early on Wednesday to farm at Roundabout

Last time falling into bed late closing down the restaurant

Last muddled mojito

Last night bartending

Last run up Carter’s mountain

Last bacon-wrapped date

Last ANTM marathon on the couch all day with Catherine

Last time strapping on beat-up black serving shoes

Last arugula beet salad

Last hot shower

Last stroll downtown

Last above the knee sundress

Last drive up 29

Last dip in the Atlantic

Last time mowing the entire lawn with a weed whacker

Last night sleeping on a deflating air mattress

Last time hanging out with friends in our twenties. (ouch.)

Last Ashtanga class

Last time reading Hayden a book while he’s still two

Last bike commute

Last drive over the Potomac River on the 14th Street Bridge

Last family dinner

Last long look at Virginia

Last Monday

Last Friday

You get the idea.

If you want to share any of these moments with me, I’d love to spend some last times with you. (Not the hot shower, Perv).

Here we are.

Well, friends, I am leaving for Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer on September 25. It is, for those of you who might wonder, not exactly where I expected to land. But, in the words of the late great Mr. Vonnegut, "peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."** And I tend to find myself in agreement with Kurt, so we'll just see where this bus takes us.

Hopefully, I will have semi-regular internet access and can post pictures and stories and other bloggy items up here, so you can hear all about my adventures and not forget your LooBird.

Also, pretty soon I'll post up a snail mail address, in case you feel an urge to send me things. You know how I love things. Just be sure to mark it "Par Avion" or "Air Mail" or it will take even longer to get there.

And, of course, before I go, I would love to see you and say goodbye and hug a lot and all that. So, let's please do make that happen.


Loo

**That was the first and last cheesy quote you'll find on this blog. Promise. We don't want that stuff here. Except for the very next entry, which might also trend in that direction. Deal with it. And then dance like nobody's watching. Boom. I owe you three dollars.