Pictures pictures

Go here.

The end

It's been over six months since I arrived in Africa. I was looking back over the blog today and realized I never exactly finished it. It brings back so many great memories.

The orphanage, as you might imagine, was a very moving experience. We planned a special day for the kids which was basically all games. One thing that surprised me was that "orphanage," at least at the one we visited, had a slight misnomer. Most of these kids had living parents or grandparents; the problem was they were unable to feed their children and as a result the kids weren't going to school. The orphanage we visited was more of a place that provided them nsima for lunch and served as a place to play with other kids.

A volunteer in the first WC session brought with her a huge donation from her church at home and donated enough money to the orphanage to feed all the children lunch every day for six months. There were probably 100 kids at the orphanage, which showed how far her gift was going. The orphanage, called Yossa, consisted of one concrete room with a few desks. Normally it is run by local volunteers. There also appeared to be a lot of construction going on around the main building, including a library. I think they had a previous donation to fund the building.

(this little girl was so cute, she was falling asleep while the rest of the kids were eating on the floor.)

Unfortunately, the day we went to the orphanage was the day I was feeling under the weather. Luckily I didn't get as sick as some people throughout the trip. I tried to play with the kids but I also didn't want to get them sick. Some kids were extremely young but oh so extremely adorable. One of my favorite pictures from the trip is this one: these are two brothers wearing identical shirts.

Since I wasn't feeling so well I sat near the Land Rovers and had a very interesting conversation with one of the orphanage volunteers. We talked about Malawian politics, Madonna, the U.S., women, everything. It was very eye-opening and exciting to have such an in-depth talked with a Malawian.

I did finally feel well enough to play with the kids, which was so much fun. I think they really enjoyed having us there. I'm just glad we could be there to give them something different. The orphanage was really our last experience with the kids. At the end all the volunteers were so sad to leave, some in tears. A group of girls sang us what seemed to be a hymn about saying goodbye, which was absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. There are definitely some memorable faces throughout the whole trip that I will never forget.

For our last few nights in Africa, the WC team drove once again to Lake Malawi. Luckily this time I had my luggage, and it was warm enough to go swimming! Despite warnings of contracting bilharzia, a parasite, aka schistosomiasis, in Lake Malawi, we of course went swimming anyway.

Some from the group went on a motor boat ride to a nearby island, where we got to snorkel! It was so beautiful. I got to see amazing African cichlids up close and personal. I also got to witness a beautiful sunset that evening, the last in Africa. Later that night, we were giving superlatives by the program coordinators. I was the one "whose ipod was most likely to be stolen" because the PC's liked my music and would play it via the tape deck in the Land Rovers on our long drives to the schools. WC also gave each of us an engraved wooden nsima spoon with our name on it as a final gift.

The "resort" where we stayed at a second time, Cool Runnings, was recently host to Ewan McGregor filming for a TV series "Long Way Round," where he and a friend travel by motorbike from Scotland to South Africa. Their whole crew and Ewan's wife stayed at Cool Runnings, which was exciting. I've since looked to see if the show has aired, but I don't think it has made its way to the U.S.

In the morning everyone got up early to watch our last African sunrise. Most of us kept our sleeping bags on and toted them out to the lawn in front of the beach to watch. That morning was bittersweet because the first few volunteers left to go home.

On the way back from the lake to the WC house we stopped at an amazing wood market. For all the deforestation education we brought to Malawi, we sure did cut down a lot of trees via the amount of wood items we bought. Most were made of mahogany and hand carved. I brought back a plate, jewelry box, necklaces, a hippo figurine, and salad tongs just to name a few things. It was really fun to bargain with some of the vendors, and it served dual-purpose too to get rid of some of the things we didn't want to take home with us. Speaking of taking things home, I brought back a good 10 bottles of my favorite Nali hot sauce.

Here is a picture of the whole group together in front of the lake at night:

The last day at the house was full of packing and also uploading pictures onto the house computers to trade with everyone. Some people left later that day. I left the next morning.

I remember traveling home as being extremely emotional. Not only was it hard to leave Malawi, but it was especially hard to leave Africa. I basically broke down in the Johannesburg airport, for a few reasons. I knew I would miss the World Camp lifestyle, the volunteers, the volunteering, the kids, etc. Waiting at the gate for my 18 hour flight home, I was surrounded by tourists. Americans. It was such a culture shock to be exposed to these people again, and for some reason it made me incredibly sad to come back into the real world of American ideals and lifestyles. And to top it off, the movie screen in front of my seat didn't work on the flight either. But it made for a good time to reflect on the trip and organize my hundreds of pictures.

Of course I loved being home again, to see my parents and Kipper and friends. The first home cooked meal I wanted? Spaghetti. And some sushi on the side. But a part of me missed the constant companionship and activity back in Malawi. And still misses it. I did since go to the first World Camp reunion, which was a fun overnight camp-out near Boone, N.C. I got to meet more of the volunteers from the first session and others who went to Honduras and India. It is going to be an annual event from here on out. I've also tried to keep in touch with many of the volunteers. Even though some go to UNC with me, it's unfortunate because I rarely see them. Everyone is always so busy!

I feel that in my lifetime something somehow will bring me back to Africa. But I realized that instead of exploring more places, I want to go back to Malawi more than anywhere. They are still in desperate need of any aid they can obtain. It was in the news recently that Malawi will be unable to reach the UN's Millenium Development Goals by 2015.

I'm looking into how I can go back.

Namwili/Chisomo

So far, teaching has been a rewarding experience for me. When kids comprehend what you are teaching, combined with the importance of the subject matters you are teaching them, it feels like a huge success. Namwili school was a huge downer. Not only did the kids not participate, but they were not absorbing anything. The curriculum is set up to be interactive and most activities are reinforced with note taking or quick review. Even in the past when some schools have been less knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, they still comprehend what is being taught. During a review on the first day the kids at Namwili thought that T-cells kill HIV and continued to repeat that answer even after another classmate gave a correct answer. I tried to keep patience at this school but it was extremely difficult. Luckily other classes were having similar problems too. It was ironic because the teachers at the school were friendly, outgoing, and more progressive than other schools, but the kids were totally backwards. My class was a mix of standards 6 and 7, ages 11 to 15. Maybe teaching was more challenging because we had to cram three days of teaching into two and the day seemed never-ending, but I felt like this was a poor end to our 6 camps. Everyone kept in mind though that this was the last time we’d be singing, doing games and teaching, so we tried to keep up the enthusiasm.

After teaching we had some delicious pasta salad for dinner, then followed the village chief across the street to the village. Pairs were dropped off at various houses. I stayed with Simone but we were in close vicinity to Korey and Gina. Our family was very sweet and welcoming, but not quite the same as my first family. English in the village was very scarce and people would keep talking to us in Chichewa…not getting the point as they were receiving blank stares from us. We had a lot of fun though, especially dancing. The village kids were really cute and imitated us as we danced to a local radio station. Some older ladies were very eager to introduce themselves and led us to the well to pump. My homestay mother and father were both 23 with a 3 year old daughter, Sabina. We met the 19 year old sister of the mother who had 2 children of her own. We taught them some dance moves, like the chicken dance, which they really seemed to enjoy. We also sang whatever we could come up with, from the Sound of Music to Baby Got Back. Since communication was more of a challenge we were kind of forced to be active instead of enduring awkward silence. Our host mother offered us nsima which we had to refuse…it was more difficult than I imagined because they were so hospitable. Since our host father knew some English, we compared words in English and Chichewa. Simone and I slept in a small concrete room with a grass roof.

Since it gets dark at around 6:30, we all felt more tired than usual and couldn’t really see much outside since it was overcast. We ended up going to bed at 8:30 after listening to some Chichewa news on the radio. Even though this family didn’t have the charm of the first family I stayed with, my feelings in the village were still the same. It’s amazing to see their sense of community when everyone congregates together, which in America is such a rarity. I also repeated in my head a few times “wow, I’m really in the middle of an African village.” With no electricity, feeling the silence and tranquility of the village is something rare to experience. It is so soothing and relaxing to be in the middle of nature, especially when these people have no sense of stress or obligation.

The next morning our family woke up at 5:00 on the dot but we decided to sleep in before it was time to go to school. I was not especially looking forward to day 2, but again realized that this was the last time we would be teaching together and tried to keep up the energy. Surprisingly the kids did pretty well during our review board game, so I felt a little better. During presentations, the headmaster made a really nice speech to us, saying how he felt that our work was very valuable and how we should come back next summer to follow up. He also decided to accept our condom donation publicly, which was a first. A good number of villagers showed up for presentations, but not in the crowds like our first homestay school. After presentations some girls did a traditional circle dance, which was very similar to what we watched in the yard of our first homestay, i.e. it went on forever. Then we played a game of football which we tied and ate canned food from our solar ovens.

Back in the village that night we danced and sang more. The villagers joked with us about how we should take their babies back to the US, which I would have done in a heartbeat. There are so many babies in the villages! Soon enough it was time for bed, but you could see fairly well outside from the light of the moon. In the morning we had to leave early, but exchanged addresses and said our farewells. As much as I enjoyed homestay, I couldn’t wait to rush into the shower at home before the hot water ran out.

Back at the house we were all exhausted but were preparing lunch for our translators, since it was the last time we would be seeing most of them. Saying goodbye really signified that we were…done…scary thought. That night we went out to a nightclub, which was an interesting and hilarious experience. It’s fun when we get to have little outings around town. I’d say I could get around central Lilongwe if I had to by now, and when I get home I am not going to be used to driving on the right side of the road.

Today we went to the Chisomo community center, which houses city kids who are homeless or come from bad homes. We planned some activities for the kids, like lunch, arts and crafts, relays, and a piñata. These kids were really different from village kids, in that they were very receptive to us and less shy. There were about 40 kids total, which was good number, and most were boys. It was so fun to take a break from teaching and really have a good time with them, whether it was dancing or talking. I helped man the arts and crafts station, and the kids made pictures and necklaces out of wire and buttons. There were some memorable little boys around age 10 but who could pass for 5, extremely sweet and always holding someone’s hand. One boy even offered to share his nsima with me. They loved getting pictures taken and dancing with us. We stayed for about 6 hours. Overall our planning went well since we didn’t know what to expect. Tomorrow we will try to do the same thing at an orphanage, except there will be close to 250 kids as young as 2.

After we visit the orphanage, we are going back to Lake Malawi for a few days for final relaxation/bonding time, then it will be time to go home. I can’t believe that these 5 weeks have passed so quickly. When I get home I will miss the constant companionship I have here…I doubt there will be any other instance in my life where I get to live in a house with 22 other people. I will certainly miss random conversations and inside jokes and learning from these people who are all so different but so amazing. The World Camp house is a second home for me.

Mlale

Mlale is by far the nicest school we've visited, partly because they had desks and furniture but also because of the students' English abilities and prior knowledge of what we were teaching them. This school was supposedly a Catholic school, so we had to ask if we were allowed to do the condom demonstration. There wasn't much evidence of it being religious though, and turned out it was actually a boarding school too.

Our questions during the negotiating sex portion of the class were not as harsh as last time. The teachers also get to do anonymous questions too, and the teacher meeter shared one with us that said they had heard AIDS stood for
American
Invention
Discouraging
Sex.
There were more teachers here than was usual, about 18.

Something different also came up about vitamin K. Some of the boys think that semen contains vitamin K and that girls need it for nourishment...another fatal cultural practice in action. Apparently labia stretching is common here too, I'll leave that description out.

We planted cassias again today, and it went well. My partner at this school was Bridget, so we decided to combine our names and name the tree Midget. Our kids were extremely enthusiastic and a lot participated, we really enjoyed them. They also worked really hard on their presentation and even came into school before we got there to practice it. It was nice to be able to communicate with them somewhat in English too, it made it more fun. Their team name was Nyika, which is a park ?...better than the Hungry Lions name which comes up at every school.

Since tomorrow is our last camp and we have a few days in between that and going back to the lake, we voted on visiting a refugee camp and coming up with a curriculum to serve them. We did lots of planning for this and met in committees but were informed yesterday that it wasn't going to happen...they wanted too much money from us believe it or not. So instead we are going to visit kids in the city for a day and visit an orphanage. Tomorrow is our last homestay and our last camp. I can't believe that we are so close to the end.

Hike

Today we did a super grueling hike up the Nkhoma mountain. I don't know any statistics about how high it was, but it took us 2 hours to get up and about an hour to get down. At the top we spent some time admiring the view and taking pictures. It was breathtaking - nothing around us was developed and there was absolutely no movement in the villages or on the roads. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday and finally get some exercise here.

Mtsiliza

This school was our “urban” school, a 20 minute drive from the house. The past session actually visited this school but only taught one standard because it is such a large school. We taught standard 6. We were also forewarned of the rugrat problem, since there are a lot of them. Our first day though, we were spared because it was a national education day and most people actually don’t come to school.

Doing parachute games was an ordeal. It was extremely windy and dust got everywhere. Literally to the point where it was in our teeth. Glad I had sunglasses on to somewhat shield my eyes, but I don’t think I’ve ever been dirtier because my face looked like I’d tanned three shades. Our class (ages 11-14) was really smart, much more knowledgable than the homestay school. They saved us a lot of explaining, even at points where we expected them not to know things. Because they are situated in central Lilongwe there is probably a lot more NGO traffic there.

The second day was a million times worse. There were a lot more rugrats. And not only were there a lot more of them, but they were brats. Evil. In one class a kid threw a lit match through the window. The team leader got stones thrown at him and got his lunch torn out of his hand. All the kids were climbing in the trailers and on the cars the whole time. Usually it’s safe to leave our things in the classroom but our translators advised us not to. The worst part was during negotiating sex, where we try to create an intimate environment, we couldn’t even hear ourselves talk. Now I understand why some of the headmasters go around with giant sticks to keep kids away. It was just utter chaos. We skipped morning and afternoon games because it would have been too hectic.

Perhaps another one of the saddest moments I’ve experienced here was during the anonymous question part of negotiating sex. One of the questions we got was “what should I do if my father is raping me?” Another was “what should I do if my parents invite a man with HIV into my house to rape me?” It’s really hard to answer a question like that, partly because of the shock but also because there is only so much we can say. We can recommend that they seek help, either from the police or a trusted friend. But these poor girls are so shy, who knows if anything is really going to change for them. Apparently this man who goes around raping girls is known as the “feci.” It is a cultural practice for him to rape girls once they’ve started menstruating in order to “cleanse” them. And they know this man is HIV positive! It’s so ridiculous and upsetting. I emphasized to these girls that in some instances they can be more knowledgeable than their parents, because the parents are the ones encouraging this to happen. It was so odd being in this city school where you’d think kids would be better off because there are more people around and more law enforcement, but it’s just the opposite. On a lighter note, one of our questions was “if a girl hasn’t gotten her period yet, can a boy get her pregnant if he is menstruating?” That one was fun to explain.

On our third day it was a lot quieter because: there were other white people at the school! It was weird because this was the first time we’d run into another group doing volunteer work. They were a missionary group who was taking people to clinics to get tested. For the first time, we added a tree-planting section to our curriculum. I felt like the environmental curriculum was really effective at this school, because the kids recognized deforestation was happening but that people didn’t do anything about it. Usually when we ask them to define deforestation someone says “cutting down trees carelessly,” but these kids were so smart that we didn’t even hear that come up.

On our way from the class to our planting site, I heard some yelling behind me. I turned around and thought I saw big particles of dust, but it turned out to be bees. Our translator yelled “get down Mindy!!” so I pulled a duck and cover. It was more exciting than scary or anything, I think the whole thing lasted 10 seconds. Once at our planting site, we explained what conditions were needed for a tree to grow and how they would pick good planting sites in the future. All of the kids are responsible for watering the tree everyday and we made a calendar which we leave with the teachers. We planted cassia trees. I really enjoyed this part of the curriculum, partly because the students did all the dirty work, but also because it was a way that we could leave our mark. I think they walked away with a sense that tree-planting was easy and effective.

Tonight we went out to eat for the first time at an Italian restaurant. It wasn’t exactly Italian food, but it was a chance to get some meat. It was pretty good. It’s crazy because I’ll be home exactly two weeks from today…everything has gone by so quickly.

SAFARI

This past week has been probably the best experience of my life. First homestay, then safari. To get to Mfuwe, Zambia, we rented a 30 seater bus to seat 25, but with all of our stuff it was incredibly crowded. All the roads in Malawi were paved, and the border was about a 2 hour drive from the house. This was my first experience crossing an international border not by plane. We got off the bus, waited in a super long line, then filled out a form and got our passports stamped. Then everyone walked across to Zambia, and did the same thing with an entry form. With all of us it took about an hour and a half to get through. Driving through Zambia was an experience in itself. The drive we took was extremely beautiful; it did not look anything like what I would have expected of Africa. It is very mountainous and lush with trees. It was also very unpopulated. Once in Zambia we had about a 3 hour drive on unpaved road…not the best conditions for napping.

We stayed at Flatdogs campground. When we got there we were given a safety talk basically telling us to keep good distance from animals and not to scream or run away or do anything stupid. The campground was sandy and was right next to a lake which had hippos and crocodiles. We didn’t see any up close but we were also told not to go up to the bank. Flatdogs had a really nice restaurant with American food, and American prices (it was so good to have a burger though). There was also a swimming pool and bar, and luckily the showers had hot water. Overall the facilities were very nice.

Since we got to the campground a little late and tired from traveling, it was a chill night. The next day it was beautiful out so we spent pretty much the entire day lounging around the pool, talking and reading. We saw a few elephants come up to the campground to eat leaves. Apparently they eat 24 hours a day. They are such interesting animals to watch. We had to be careful at night too because elephants and hippos can come right up to the tents, which means no leaving food around. The group went for a night safari at 4:00. The campground ran the game drives but they took place within South Luangwa National Park. We had to pay a fee to get in which lasted 24 hours. The vehicles were completely open and had 3 tiers to sit about 4 people across on each. Our guide Javis was very friendly and knowledgeable. When we entered the park we crossed a bridge over the Luangwa river. The park was very big with lots of steep and sandy terrain. There were trees everywhere. When we saw animals we would stop the car and watch and take pictures. Sometimes we would go off the dirt path and literally stop right in front of the animals. The first animal we saw was a water buffalo. Over the course of the drive we saw lots of impala, puku, mongoose, giraffes, zebras, baboons, elephants, a hyena and a leopard. The drive was amazing. The people from last session said that they hadn’t had one as good.

For sunset we took a break near a whole family of giraffes, it was so fun. We got out of the car to stretch our legs and take pictures. As it got darker, we had a spotter, Eddie, who moved a huge spotlight back and forth to try to see animals. Some were easy to see because their eyes reflected back like a cat’s, other animals they were just talented at catching. Seeing the leopard was a rarity. When we found it a lot of other cars from other safaris came to look too. Javis was good because he rode ahead in the direction the animal was going so we could get better pictures.

At about 8:00, Javis drove us to a random ditch and found a lioness in it. She was following a group of impala who were going to bed. We put an infrared cover over the spotlight to not distract the animals as much. It’s funny because even though these animals are in the wild, they are constantly around safari cars. I was surprised that many of them didn’t flinch or run away when we shined an incredibly bright light in their faces. We watched the lioness, undetected, go past the impalas in the ditch and creep around to the other side. It was a very exhilarating moment but also very stressful that we could witness nature in its brutal ways. Sadly, the park closed at 8:30 and we had to leave. We did get to see the lioness crawling closer and closer. Maybe it was for the better that we didn’t see a slaughter. The drive back to the entrance was extremely chilly because we were speeding through the park. I came back from the game drive extremely satisfied with what we had seen, definitely better than some other groups. Another World Camp group did get to witness lions in the act, however.

That night we had a late dinner and then went to bed somewhat early because we had to get up at 5:30 in the morning for a 6:00 morning game drive. Sadly this drive did not live up to the last night’s standards. We did get really close to some elephants and zebras, and saw more birds, but we didn’t see quite the variety as during the night. There were longer periods of time where we just drove around and didn’t see anything except impala, which were everywhere.

In the afternoon we drove to a textile market called Tribal Textiles. They sell amazing hand painted wall hangings, bedspreads, table cloths, anything textilish. We definitely spent too much time and money there, but the craftsmanship was amazing. Back at the campground we lounged around again. The relaxation time we spent was well worth it and well deserved…we are teaching straight through the end of our stay here until we revisit the lake.

We left the camp early this morning and headed back to Malawi. On the road the bus suddenly pulled over…up ahead it looked like a parade of people were approaching in the middle of the road. Someone announced that it was a funeral and that we shouldn’t take pictures. The group walked past our bus singing…the women were in the front and many were sobbing with bloodshot eyes. They all turned to look at us and we looked back at them. The men walked in the back. They were carrying a tiny casket that was hand-painted. In this solemn moment I think this was the first time I experienced the reality of the true tragedy within Africa. Whatever the cause of death for this child, these people feel the same pain as we would at home for the death of a loved one, except they are plagued with it more often. The power and love within a simple community like this one re-instilled in me why I am here.

The silence in these places, the village and safari, made me contemplate a lot of things. I was in two places that completely utilize and focus on the earth around them, something I am not attuned to at home in NC or even at our house in Lilongwe. A peaceful environment, like a village that is so quiet that all you can do is focus on the stars, makes you appreciate the slow pace of life here that we often forget at home. There is certainly an emphasis on family and relationships that overcomes superfluous needs in both of these places, because survival is a struggle. And seeing the sheer diversity of wildlife on safari, as well as a glimpse of the “circle of life,” just put me in awe of nature’s intricacies and natural beauty.

Homestay

The end of Ngulule was uneventful...being team leader, I was a little tired of the smell of nsima from serving it and of trying to keep the little kids occupied. The word for “go away” in Chichewa is “chakani,” and to keep the little ones away from the classrooms Gina and I would constantly say “chakani chakani” or “numba,” “home,” and they’d mimic exactly what we said. I didn’t think I’d be annoyed by the little kids here but when there are a lot of them constantly watching your every move, it is very tiring. I helped introduce the groups for the presentations and everyone ran after the cars when we left.

By the time we got back it was time to pack for homestay the next day. Instead of three days of teaching, we’d be condensing it into two. Mkanda was a lot like the other schools we’d been to, except there were even more animals. Lots of chickens, goats, cows, and pigs. At one point two chickens walked into my class. My teaching partner was Korey, and we taught standard 6. Teaching younger kids is a lot more challenging. They don’t know as much as the older kids and are much shyer. It’s helpful when the kids participate, at least it alerts us that they’re learning something. Since it’s not healthy to eat in the village, we all had pasta salad for dinner in a classroom. All the little kids stood outside the windows and yelled the few words they knew in English, like “give me.” There was really no escaping the persistence of these rugrats the entire time we were in the village. At about 5:00 we were ready to meet our families.

Ronald and Kondwa Mtora hosted Korey, Tara, and me. We met Ronald first. He was only 22 and married with two kids. He spoke fairly good English (although it helped for me to annunciate every word when talking to him) and had attended business college where he met Kondwa, who was 23. He walked us around the village before we got to his house to meet some people. Keep in mind that we were followed by a trail of children the whole time, quite excited to see azungus. People were very friendly and introduced themselves right away. Some only spoke Chichewa, others could greet in English. The village had a dirt path with houses on either side. When we got near the house the sun was setting, so we decided to climb a small mountain up ahead. It was an easy climb even in a constricting long skirt, and it was well worth it. I got some incredible pictures of the sunset, the type of sunset where the sun just sinks into the ground. It made the whole experience of living in this village very surreal.

We went back down to the house. It is surrounded by a gate on all sides made out of straw. Inside there was an open space where the house was and a small bath area in the corner. We would be sleeping in a room, basically, separate from the house but with a low door and concrete floor. The roof had some kind of covering to keep rain out, but then was covered with more straw. Later we met Kondwa, who was very very beautiful, and their 5-month old son Bryan. Simply adorable. They don’t have diapers here, so they just use little nappies which don’t really provide any protection if you’re holding a baby. Luckily I didn’t get peed on, but some other volunteers did. Another interesting thing about babies – there is no discretion when it comes to nursing. All of the mothers with young babies, of which there seemed to be a lot, just pop it out.

Since it got dark very quickly, around 6:30, we lit some candles inside the house. It had 3 rooms. Two were bedrooms and the biggest was a sitting room, which basically had a straw mat on the floor. Ronald and Kondwa also live with Kondwa’s younger sister Maria, who is 14 and in secondary school. They had an older daughter who was 3 but she was staying with grandparents in another village. We sat on the floor and learned more about the family. Neither of them are native to the village we were in, but they run a small market where they bring in things from the city. I suppose that is where their business knowledge kicks in. They said they are happy with two kids and didn’t want any more. They also had no animals. We walked around the village some more and a lot of people were singing and dancing for the other volunteers. In the house some friends came over and we played cards. The deck they had was old and not even complete. I think after dark there is really nothing to do there besides sing and dance or listen to the radio or get drunk. And a lot of people do that every night.

We taught them how to play go fish and I think they really liked it. Then they brought out this plastic bag full of photos and showed us pictures of them and their family. I got the impression that this couple had seen lots of Malawi, including the city. I found it interesting that they chose to live in this village with no running water, no electricity, no furniture, etc. even when they seemed rather well-to-do. However there is an extremely strong sense of community that emphasizes family and friends. People are interacting all the time. They walk around really dirty and barefoot, with used clothes with lots of tears, and very few amenities compared to what we have at home. People live a very simple lifestyle in the village but they seem to be very happy.

One of the pictures Kondwa showed us was from when she was suspended from school. We asked her why and she said it was because one of her teachers proposed and she refused. This is one of the things we try to teach the younger girls at school…I think I will use her story as an example from now on.

As we were listening to the news on the radio in Chichewa, Bush came on. We asked about him and everyone had heard of him. We asked about the current president of Malawi and whether or not people liked Banda, apparently they did. However, they did not know about the war in Iraq or even Darfur. We were lucky that this family spoke English so that we could ask them about Malawi and other things. They asked us a lot of questions too, like what houses and food were like in America, and whether or not we had granaries. We just kind of said everything was similar instead of going into detail or risking offending them.

Even though it was early, the fact that we were in near dark made us tired quickly. We ended up going to bed around 9 even though the family said they stayed up until 11. It was hard to sleep through the night. The floor was extremely hard even with a sleeping mat, and it was chilly out. The toilet (not to be confused with bathroom) was located right outside of the fence. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. When we went outside, the stars were the most breathtaking I have ever seen and may ever see in my life. It was like you could see the entire Milky Way. I’m not sure if what we saw was exclusive to Africa or was because it was very dark in the village, but we all took a moment to just stare up.

In the morning we were woken up at 5:30 to help with chores, which basically included pumping water. This was a lot of fun though. The pump was not that difficult to use but my arms started burning after I’d been doing it for a few minutes. The well is a very social place, women just stand around chatting while others are pumping. You can probably imagine how strong these women are. Tara attempted to carry a bucket of water on her head but almost fell over and spilled the whole thing. Most of the women carry one bucket on their head and one by the arm. I think they are truly stronger than the men here.

Since they run their own business, the Mtoras have a flexible schedule. They walked us back to the school, about a 5 minute walk, where on the way we were greeted by even more villagers. At the school we got to compare stories from other volunteer’s homestays. I think the worst I heard is one volunteer not sleeping a wink because there were mice running everywhere and dropping from the ceiling. On the other hand, some volunteers stayed in a house with leather couches. It seemed like the language abilities of the hosts varied too.

Day 2 of school went fine. For the presentations, I think the entire village showed up. We had a humongous turnout, including some of the parents of my students who were exciting to meet. Ronald and Kondwa came too. My class did a song about solar energy. Just to note: one of the little boys in my class was a spitting image of Webster. When the performances were over I tried to take pictures, which turned out to be a disaster because all the little kids squish to be in them and then want to see what the pictures look like after every one that is taken. Then some old ladies came over and started pulling on my hair, which really freaked me out. There were just so many people around that some other volunteers and I needed our space and wanted a break, it was crazy there. Since we were staying in the village the volunteers played a soccer game against some of the students. Of course they whooped us, even though we have a few college soccer players. For dinner we ate a variety of canned food that we “cooked” in our solar ovens.

On the way back to the house, we were all worn out and said we would try to go to bed at 7. But when we got there, 20 people seemed to squeeze inside the sitting room, I’m guessing to see us, but they just kind of sat there. Then they went outside to sing and dance. Finally we were beckoned to come outside. There was a drummer and girls were dancing around him in a circle. They danced for literally 2 hours. It was interesting at first, but just got repetitive. They kept asking us to dance over and over. We finally did once, but then all they did was laugh at us. Probably because we didn’t stick our booties out enough or something…that’s basically what their dancing is. There were a lot of drunk people out there too. We didn’t want to be rude but finally just said we were going to bed.

That night it was very very windy…we thought all the straw on the ceiling would blow off. We woke up at 5:30 again to pack up everything and say goodbye. Kondwa prepared a bath for all of us in the little bathroom corner of the house, which was basically a basin of warm water. It was very refreshing though, I ended up washing my face and my arms. WC decided the day before that we were going to hike an even bigger mountain at 6:15, so we did. Again, very challenging in a skirt, but we did it! It was an amazing view.

Everyone was relieved to be going home though. It was a mad rush to the showers before the warm water ran out. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been dirtier before, I was dripping brown water. It is really nice to be back to the house though with lots of food and electricity.

One thing we did differently at this school was administer a 10 question quiz before and after our lesson to assess student and teacher progress. Korey and I got most improved. The average before teaching in our class was a 61 (the lowest of all classes because they were young); after we taught it was a 91.

Now that we’re back everyone is just relaxing. We are going to take a trip to the fabric market this afternoon and do some last minute grocery shopping before…safari!! I am so excited for safari, not only to experience it but also to have a break from teaching. We are leaving early tomorrow morning…my next entry should include lots of fun pictures.

Ngulule

Ngulule = mouthful. We arrived at the school yesterday after an hour drive on unpaved road, quite an adventure. Since this school was slightly smaller, about 110 students, we divided up the volunteers. As team leader with Gina I had to pack extra school supplies and lunch...i.e. a 50 pound cooler of nsima and another cooler of relish. The kids at this school all wore bright blue uniforms. They did not seem very excited to have us there, so it took awhile to get them into our songs and games. We all agreed that the first school had more character. There was also a lack of rugrats, which was nice because we didn't have to be bothered by them as a distraction. In this school we taught standards 5-8, about ages 11-18. Being team leader requires more preparation than a teacher but certainly gives more down time. We have to introduce the volunteers, divide the kids into classes, and lead evaluations back at the house.

I also had to cook last night and my group decided to make veggie chile. It was more difficult than we expected because you can't get canned beans here. We had to soak them and they took forever to cook. Turned out to be an OK meal though. We haven't had a bad meal yet here and it's always a nice surprise to see what people make for dinner. Each group is limited to 4000 kwacha per dinner, the equivalent of $28 for 25 people. Our meals are vegetarian, but it's amazing to see how far kwacha can go here.

On the second day at the school there were a lot more rugrats and younger students who didn't want to go home. To keep them occupied and away from the classrooms I taught them "We Will Rock You" with a stomp stomp clap, but they had a hard time pronouncing the words. These kids will mimic literally anything. Even when we told them the Chichewa words for "home" and "goodbye," they would repeat them over and over. I guess our Chichewa isn't that good. Gina and I ended up sitting inside the Land Rover to read, and all the kids came up to the windows and watched our every move.

This school had a particularly abundant animal population...lots of goats, chickens, and dogs. The dogs remind me of some of the giant chihuahua-looking ones in Oaxaca. Apparently there is a term for these types of dogs - DWD, developing world dog. They are all very skinny. The highlight of our day though was feeding puppies some leftover nsima.

Tomorrow is our last day at the school, then when we get home we are going to pack for our homestay. We'll be staying for two nights. Apparently communication with the families is near impossible, so people don't bother. We stay with one other volunteer in each house. In the villages people go to bed when it gets dark and wake up to do work right when the sun comes up. Guess I'll have to adjust my sleep schedule again, it gets dark fairly early here. (Also since I won't have a computer/phone while we are there, happy birthday Daddy!)

In World Camp news, WC has planned their first reunion. It's going to be in September in Boone, and it's for all the volunteers from the past 7 years from Malawi, Honduras, and India. It'll be exciting to see everyone again!

Lazy Sunday

Saturday was our last day at the school. We finished up by playing a review game with the kids and using our solar ovens. They actually worked! If they had stayed out in the sun longer the water might have boiled, but it was certainly hot enough for tea. Another sad point of the lesson was our unit on how to care for someone with HIV/AIDS. The kids created an abstract character who had AIDS and we mentioned that making a will and saying goodbye to friends and family were important. To culminate our three days at the school we give all of the students red AIDS ribbons. We explain that it is a global symbol in the fight against AIDS. When they receive them they recite “I will help fight against HIV/AIDS.”

At the end of camp we had our presentations. They were all in Chichewa, so I wasn’t really sure what was being said but most of the classes did songs. My class’s skit and song went well…I recorded a video of it. Only a few parents showed up, but the village chief did. Apparently he was really drunk and we weren’t supposed to let him speak in front of everybody. The teachers who came for all three days were given World Camp certificates, and we also left condoms with the teachers.

When everyone got up to leave all of my students gave me hugs (of which I was slightly surprised because boys do not usually hug girls here) and A LOT asked to be pen pals…I have a lot of writing to do. While we were waiting for everyone to pack up we did some singing and dancing in a circle. Hip-hop culture is very reminiscent of the dancing here, i.e. a lot of grinding movement. I can see where it got its roots. They also sang a song which I thought was in Chichewa, but then realized it was in English, and then realized that the kids didn’t exactly know what they were saying. AIDS is said like “aids-ee” here, and the lyrics were “Aids-ee, Aids-ee, Aids-ee, it’s a keel-ah.” Based on the way it was sung, the other volunteers agreed that it was just treated as a normal song and the kids didn’t know what it meant. Music and dance are definitely a big part of the culture here.

It was sad saying goodbye to the school but I think we all walked away with an idea of the success there and that we had done good in the community. Since Sunday is our free day, we spent the rest of the night relaxing. We ended up going out to a casino, which was really fun. I spent 500 kwacha on blackjack, (140 kwacha = $1), but I didn’t win. At least I can say I gambled for the first time! There is a large middle eastern/east asian community here, they seem to run a lot of the businesses. Anyway, a lot of them were at the casino. It was also someone’s birthday at midnight, so we watched movies till pretty late.

In the morning some people went to church, I took the opportunity to sleep in. Since I am cooking with a group on Monday, we went to the vegetable market and then to Shoprite, the most “western” grocery here. It’s a short walk from the house. Shoprite is very enjoyable because they play the best of what you’d hear on Delilah, a lot of great tacky love song singalongs. Not everything is necessarily cheaper here though. Cereal is expensive. Veggies though are very cheap. They have the biggest avocados here you’ve ever seen. The size of a small watermelon. When we got back from shopping the group got to go on a city tour in the Land Rovers. We drove through one of the main markets, where we will get to go to in a few weeks. One of the main industries here is coffin production; we passed a lot of coffin dealers (yet another source of deforestation). I have also been noticing a lot of funeral-parlor like places in town and on the way to the school. It’s a sad reality. We also got to see a lot of government ministries and the Lilongwe hospital and UNC clinic!

Lilongwe is a very beautiful city. Today was a lot of fun and very relaxing, a lot of us watched more movies and went out for ice cream. Sunday is also our comment night, where we read funny quotes and whatever people submit into a comment box. Afterwards we decided as a group that for our last project, we want to visit a refugee camp 2 hours away. This is personally what I wanted to do as opposed to working with kids in the city, but the refugee camp is supposed to be more challenging because a lot of languages are spoken and the refugees are older.

World Camp recently purchased a massive vehicle, I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s currently sitting in the driveway area and being worked on. Nickname: The Steroid. It’s painted on the front. Apparently the program director, Baker, bought it so that everyone and all our school materials could fit in one vehicle. Right now about 12 people can fit into one Land Rover because you can enter from the back and the seats are shaped like a U. The steroid might be fixed in time to take it on safari, which is a week from today! I can’t believe it. It looks like it’s meant for tourists, I’ll just have to put up a pic later. Some other news in the house…we had a power outage the other night while I was in the shower, apparently this happens often.

Tomorrow the group is dividing and visiting two smaller schools. I am going to be one of the team leaders. Should be exciting!

Random fact: According to a Malawi guide book, Hastings Banda banned the song “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel because the lyrics corresponded to issues in his current love life.

Chiseka

I anticipated our first school not knowing what to expect but certainly looking forward to it. The night before we go to a school, we and our teaching partner get together a big container of materials that we will need for the next three days at the school. This school, called the Chiseka school, was not very far from the house. We leave every morning at 9am. When we arrived at the school, the team leaders go first to talk to the teachers and find where our classrooms will be. Just about every school has a large field, so this is where everyone goes for morning games and songs. Again, the “rugrats” are really interested in seeing us there and say “angunu,” which means white person. It takes awhile to get them out of the way but eventually they all stand barely outside the circle. Chiseka was still fairly large but still smaller than the Salima school. To begin, the students in standards 6-8 and the volunteers and 8 or so translators get in a big circle. The team leaders stand in the middle and announce why we are here. Then one by one the volunteers and teachers and headmaster are introduced around the circle and run into the middle, usually in some way to make the kids laugh. Then we go back out into the larger circle and sing some more songs with dances, like boom-chicka-boom. The kids seem to enjoy it. Then we divide everyone up into classes. My class was standards 7 and 8 and had 28 students.

Before entering the classroom we do some team building activities. One is called the circle sit where in a circle everyone faces to the side and we all try to sit on each other while balancing the circle. It can take a few tries but the goal is to get the students to communicate to make it work. Then we have a few games with a giant parachute. One of these games is called Lake Malawi, where we try to mimic the lake by shaking the parachute. Inside the classrooms, we did introductions. We asked the kids to say their name, age, and something that interests them. I’m not really sure if there are traditional Malawian or Chichewa names, but they seemed to vary with western names. There were two boys in my class named Gift (pronounced Geeft), a girl named Loveness, then a John and a Rebecca. The ages in the class varied from 11 to 18. The kids were really all shapes and sizes, but many did not look their age. Some of their typical interests are school, music, and football; they tend to repeat what is said before them. One of the boys in our class was hard of hearing. Some of the other boys helped him out but he certainly had no sign of hearing aids. Every class had to come up with a class name and song. We decided on “Kirk Range,” which I guess is a nearby mountain range? It sounded more like “Keeek Rage.” The kids came up with a song very quickly, saying something in Chichewa like “Kirk Range, strong team”.

What I noticed at first about this class was that they were very mature. They were great listeners and were very engaged throughout the lecture. All very smart and unique. The boys tended to stick with the boys, and all the girls sat in the front row. The classroom consisted of 4 open windows with concrete patterns in them and a blackboard, no chairs or desks. There were a few handmade posters on the wall. A lot of them depicted agricultural tools and carpenter tools. I wasn’t expecting a primary school like this to have a technical/agricultural emphasis, but I suppose it is suiting for the lifestyle here. Everyone sits on the floor, which was concrete. Most of the students introduced themselves in Chichewa, maybe one or two could do it in English. Sometimes outside the class the older kids would ask us something in English but they didn’t seem to comprehend anything from our answers.

What I wrote earlier about seeing traditional clothing is certainly not the case. All of these kids wear what look like hand me downs. A lot are full of holes and falling apart and dirty. Some of them have t-shirts from places in the US. All of the girls wear skirts below their knees and the boys tended to have shorts. All of the kids have shoes. A lot of them are flip flops or sandals. However, they do not enjoy wearing them. They prefer to go barefoot and it shows because their feet are incredibly dusty.

At the beginning of the class we handed out World Camp journals, which correspond with some of the activities we do. Our first topic is HIV/AIDS. A lot of the kids are familiar with the terms and what they stand for, but not much beyond that. We started with teaching the kids that you cannot tell if a person has HIV by looking at them; the only way to know is a blood test. Then we created an abstract character. With a poster we explained what t-cells are and how HIV destroys them. We tend to use the analogy that t-cells are like soldiers protecting the immune system. There are several interactive activities we do to communicate how HIV/AIDS affects the body. After this we talk about the ways in which you can contract HIV. A lot of times the kids will say that you can get it from sweat, saliva, or mosquitoes. They were familiar with sexual and blood to blood transmission, but no so much with mother to child. Then we discuss the three behaviors to protect against HIV: abstinence, monogamy, and covering up. In Chichewa these three things all start with Ku, so we call them the Ku Ku Kus.

After lunch comes the bananas. We do a full out banana condom demonstration. There are of course a lot of giggles, especially from the boys. But pretty much none of these students have ever seen a condom. The demonstration seemed to be successful. At the end of the demonstration we eat the bananas, to show that condoms are safe. One teacher at the school thought that lubrication could give you cancer. I think the curriculum we teach is a lot more effective than we realize.

After lunch we start to discuss deforestation. The main problem here is the typical Malawi definition for deforestation, which is always “cutting down trees carelessly.” World Camp wants to emphasize that cutting down trees is not careless; people have a need for trees for cooking, building, etc. We tell them that the key is replenishing the trees, either naturally or from humans. The kids were definitely the most interested in this section. They are familiar with erosion and drought and the other consequences of deforestation. They had not however, heard of global warming. One boy asked if it was hot in America, and we told him it was hotter and that deforestation is happening all over the world. I think the kids walked away with a good idea that cutting down trees has serious consequences. At the end we gathered in a large circle again for some relays before we left. The past World Camp volunteers said this was definitely one of the better schools they had been to, and overall the day was successful.

We leave the schools around 4. When we got back all I wanted to do was shower, I was covered in dust. We have bins and bins of materials to put away at the houses. After dinner we all sit in the living room for evaluations and discuss what went well during the day and what didn’t.

For my birthday, I was surprised with some incredible lemon squares, a candle to blow out, and happy birthday songs all day. They made it great!

The second day was Malawi independence day (the 6th), so not as many kids and teachers came to school. When we got there we got to spend some time with the rugrats. They started singing songs with us, and basically mimicked every move we made. It was kind of funny to teach them the chicken dance or some disco moves. They were just incredibly adorable, as you would expect. We repeated the morning games and songs, and did some new team building activities.

On day two, most of our day is focused on the topic of negotiating sex. For this we divide the girls and boys. Me and a partner, Maria (from UNC) were assigned a group of 15 girls, ranging from ages 11 to 16. We explain to them that our learning environment is completely confidential. Despite this, the girls were incredibly shy and reluctant to participate; it is a very uncomfortable topic to them. We start with the basics, like, the basic basics. Most children do not talk to their parents about sex, they usually get information from siblings or friends. We essentially went over the female anatomy and menstruation. It was amazing how much these girls did not know. The saddest part of this entire session was when we asked, whose choice is it to decide when to have sex? They all unanimously answered “the boy’s.” We explained to them that it is the women who deal with the consequences of sex, i.e. pregnancy and HIV, and that they have the power to say no. We talked about the ways to convincingly say no to sex with body language and had them do some skits based on what boys will say to them to convince them and how they would react. A lot of times money is involved in convincing girls to have sex. We also discussed the process of making decisions and asked them to think of some hardships and what they could do to overcome them. One example was not having enough money for school fees. Some suggestions for a solution were farming or starting a small business or getting a loan…so I think they have learned about microfinance. At the end we had a Q and A session where they wrote down anonymous questions in Chichewa. We gave each of them little yarn bracelets for them to remember our lecture by.

During lunch I decided to take a few pictures of the school, but instead I was bombarded by the rugrats asking me to take pictures of them, then they’d say what I’m guessing was “show us” in Chichewa and I’d turn the camera around to the LCD screen and show them, they were incredibly excited.

After lunch we returned to our first class and continued with the environment curriculum. We talked about population and its effect on deforestation. The point of this was basically to suggest family planning, which the kids were familiar with. The typical family size in Malawi is 8-12 kids…so we told them that more people require more resources. Then a fun hands-on activity: the solar oven. At orientation the volunteers were put into groups and tried to make a solar oven based on the curriculum’s directions; no one could do it. But it actually is very simple. It only takes a cardboard box, some reassembling, aluminum foil on the inside, and black paint on the outside. Apparently these solar ovens can heat food to over 100 degrees, but not quite to the point of boiling anything. We wanted to show the kids that firewood is not always needed for cooking. We are going to test them out on the third day.

Also on the third day, we have presentations at the end of camp. We tell all the kids to invite their parents, friends, and community members to come and see what they’ve learned. Each class has a different topic, and I assigned my class the topic of deforestation since they enjoyed it so much. At first it was difficult getting a group of 28 kids to compromise. But what surprised me most was how quickly they worked it out. Within 10, 15 minutes, they decided to do a skit and a song. After some rehearsal they showed us. All I can say is incredible. They absorbed the information so well and were able to communicate the important points across in the play. And the song was beautiful. They arranged it from scratch and wrote their own lyrics; it seriously sounded like a professional choir. I’m so excited to see how it will turn out tomorrow.

Orientation

After a good 30 hours spent traveling, I arrived in Johannesburg. My flight from RDU to Washington-Dulles came late and got even more delayed since there was lightning, so the flight was an hour behind giving me pretty much zilch time to find my way around a huge airport to my South Africa flight. I got to the gate completely sweaty and frantic but made my 15 hour flight on time. However, my luggage was not so fortunate. So I arrived in Jburg basically just happy that I had made the biggest part of the journey…I didn’t get annoyed about not having “stuff” until I was stuck with the same pair of underwear and realized I had to actually take the hotel’s complimentary shampoo and body wash.

I didn’t get to see much of Johannesburg besides a five minute drive between the airport and the hotel. I met two other volunteers who had to stay the night as well. The next morning we departed for Lilongwe. Looking out the window on the plane, the landscape truly signified AFRICA. It was really exhilarating to finally have arrived at our small destination that took me 3 and for some volunteers 5 or 6 plane rides to get to, after months of planning and anticipating. We were greeted at the airport by some World Camp program coordinators and drove to the house. The drive was like a first glimpse of Malawian culture. People walk and bike right against the road, sometimes selling or transporting goods. Many are barefoot and wear traditional clothing. (By the way, all the driving is done on the left here since Malawi used to be a British colony.) The closer we got to Lilongwe and the real part of the city the more trees and activity we saw. The World Camp house where we live is secured on all sides and has a gate with a huge logo on the front. The house is beautiful. Outside there is a driveway for our three Land Rovers, a pool, foosball and ping pong table. Inside there is a spacious living room, huge kitchen, office, and four bedrooms with bunk beds covered with mosquito nets. We were introduced to the volunteers who had already arrived and some who also did the first session and are staying till August. Total there are 19 volunteers and 5 program coordinators, who have participated in the program before.

In the living room we all introduced ourselves, broke the ice, etc. People are from all over the US, go to school everywhere, are majoring in everything and anything. By the way I just want to add that I love these volunteers. They are all so much fun to be around and we all bonded very quickly. I am actually the youngest volunteer here; some volunteers graduated college a few years ago. We talked a bit about the problems in Malawi and what we would be encountering in the schools. Apparently the former dictator Hastings Banda was a disaster – extremely abused government funding. For example when we got to Lilongwe we passed a huge blue glass building that had once been a conference center and received more funding than for all of healthcare the year it was built. He also mandated that all Malawians eat two meals of the traditional food, nsima (pronounced sima), per day. Nsima only fills stomachs but has no nutritional value – it’s made of corn meal and usually served with relish. It seems like being with the kids will be somewhat difficult. We have to be very careful to think before we speak in order not to offend anyone personally and make it easier on the translators. Every class has a Chichewa translator because in rural villages English is rarely spoken. The volunteers from the first session seemed to have really enjoyed it though – no one wanted to go home.

Early the next morning we headed to Lake Malawi for our orientation. Luckily there were some clothes and left over sunscreen, bugspray, and toiletries from the house that I was able to borrow. We all stuffed into the Land Rovers. The 2½ hour drive was really inspiring. We witnessed the true rural and poverty stricken Malawi. We passed many small huts with straw for roofs, a few goats traveling on the roadside, the typical African mother balancing a something heavy on her head with a baby strapped at her back, along with some vendors selling firewood or mice on sticks. Everyone seemed very busy and dedicated with the job they had to get done that day. Schools along the way were easy to identify because the kids wore uniforms. Some were really excited to see white people and gave us thumbs up or waves in the bigger village of Salima. One of the volunteers from last session said that here we are basically treated like rock stars – kids are always excited to see us and are curious about who we are. Overall I was surprised to see so many people even in these rural areas. I imagined Malawi to be more sparse because the life expectancy is so low. Another thing I noticed was that families seemed to have very separate duties during the day. Men with men, children with children, etc. Little children walked in groups alongside the road with no shoes and often without any supervision. Most of the people here have short hair, so you can only tell gender in children based on what they’re wearing.

The landscape on the way to the lake was very interesting. The coordinators said that 20 years ago you could stay on the road in the dark by following the canopy. Now deforestation is killing Malawi. We saw some underbrush on the way, more on sloping hills. There are hardly any large trees still standing. Some were overturned and hollowed out near the road. There were more trees as we got closer to the lake, partly because fishing is an alternative income to selling firewood.

I noticed a few things that reminded me of Oaxaca. There were a some stores with painted logos of products, taxis with signs on the dash for far-away destinations, as many people in the back of a pick up truck as you could cram, and bridges above highways for pedestrians.

The lake was absolutely beautiful. It sounded just like the ocean. When we got there it was windy and choppy, we never ended up actually going swimming. Lake Malawi is the third biggest lake in Africa and 9^th largest in the world. Walking along the beach, the sand was extremely soft and sometimes black and glittery.

We passed a few groups of women doing laundry in the water and grinding clothes against rocks on the beach. They all greeted us very nicely and sometimes started singing and dancing.

I saw a washed up cichlid on the way back. We stayed at a small resort right against the lake called Cool Runnings, like the Jamaican bobsled movie. Some people camped outside but since I didn’t have my sleeping bag I stayed inside a small house with 3 bedrooms. There was a long dining table outside where we sat for most of the orientation.

The purpose of our orientation was to familiarize ourselves with the curriculum and structure of teaching. We went through a 65 page curriculum over the course of 3 days. It is definitely a lot to memorize. At the schools most volunteers serve as teachers in the classroom with the kids; others are called team leaders who make sure everyone is on track and everyone and thing is where they are supposed to be, and then there are teacher meeters who talk with teachers about our curriculum so they can teach it in the future.

Just a note about the food – World Camp gives us all our meals except breakfast. Peanut butter with honey or jelly are our typical lunch believe it or not, and then a small group cooks dinner for all of us. At Cool Runnings, they served us eggs on toast for breakfast, tomato, cheese, and avocado sandwiches for lunch, and something with vegetables for dinner. World Camp tries to make everything vegetarian. I haven’t had anything that exotic yet except for this excellent hot sauce called Nali, and a beer called Kuche Kuche, which translates in Chichewa to “party party all night long.”

On the second day we walked five minutes to the Senga Bay school in Salima, for the past volunteers and program coordinators to do a condensed day of teaching and show us the works. Little did we know, the school was much much bigger than we expected. When we arrive at the schools we only teach standards 6, 7, and 8, which can have children ranging in age from 11 to 18. At every school there are younger kids that World Camp calls “rugrats.” They are eager to see us but we have to tell them to leave because they are too young for us to teach. So the first challenge when we got to the school was separating the rugrats from the older students. When we get there we all stand in a giant circle with the students and teachers. We sing songs and introduce ourselves. Then we divide into the standards and go into the classrooms. There were two classrooms here with about 60 students each.

The past volunteers said that usually there are about 20 kids per class. Meeting these kids was really overwhelming to me. They all want to introduce themselves and shake hands and ask us “muli bwanji” how are you; they are just beyond adorable. Some of the kids used what English they knew to ask us if we had pennies or money for them, it was just so sad to say no because we cannot provide for all of the students. We will be learning lots of Chichewa while we are here, words for good morning, and listen, and go away and sit down, goodbye, good work, understand? The program coordinators know a lot.

After a hectic few hours we returned to the lake. Apparently this school was a lot different than most of the schools we will be going to. At the lake we went through more curriculum and met two of our eight translators, Sirus and Chisomo. They are from Lilongwe and have graduated from one of the three colleges in the country. On the third day we decided to pack up early and go back to Lilongwe. We stopped at the airport because my bags had arrived! and picked up one other late volunteer.

Tomorrow we are going to our first real school. It's 40 minutes away and more rural. I will be a teacher and my teaching partner is Yael. She is from California and we both spent the night in Jburg. In order to prepare we had to make sure we had all the supplies we needed. Going to the schools requires a lot of planning ahead of time because we use a lot of materials in the classroom and also serve the children nsima. The volunteers make our own PBJs for lunch the night before. Early tomorrow we will be packing everything up in the Land Rovers. I’ll go into more detail about what we teach later on.

Some other random notes: the weather here is perfect, sometimes chilly at night but always bearable. Every night someone yells out "Has everyone taken their malaria medicine today?” And today we went on an unpaved road: basically a roller coaster. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I brought motion sickness pills which were supposed to be for the plane.

Happy 4^th of July! We didn’t really celebrate but had barbeque for dinner. Tomorrow is my birthday, so we’ll see if anything special happens. Now I have to keep going over the 4 hours worth of curriculum, songs, and games. So far Africa is so good!!

*Just to note I'm not sure how often I'll be uploading photos - the connection here is really slow but I'll try when I have time!