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