Saturday, March 31, 2012

Does anyone still check this?

Once again, apologies for my erratic and far apart blog posts. Thanks to those who are still trying. Sooooo I'm still in Malawi. I recently reached the tipping point actually which means that I have been in country longer than I have left in my service. That kind of blows my mind. It's been 13 months now but it's gone really fast for me. Malawi is hard and Peace Corps is difficult but I am really glad I still have a year left; I'm not ready to leave yet. It's rainy season. Rainy season is also avocado, mushroom, and citrus fruit season which I am enjoying a lot. I was working quite a bit in January and February but it's slowed down lately. I taught all the classes of secondary school (high school) basic HIV and we did some HIV focused activities and games. After class, I stuck around for questions and got a lot more questions about masturbation, homosexuality, and condoms than I did about HIV. So next term, I'll be teaching family planning, reproductive health, and healthy sexuality. I really, really enjoy it. It's what I love to learn and teach about and the kids aren't getting the information from anywhere else so they're really engaged and eager to learn.

I also did a soap making training with an HIV group in February. They're planning to sell the soap for money to support people living with HIV. It turned out really well.

My other big project right now is a borehole project. Uff. My health center doesn't have a water source (much less electricity) and clearly that's a problem so I'm working with the medical assistant to build a borehole at the health center with the help of a grant I'll be writing and a 25% community contribution. We just got the quote so we'll see how it goes.
As you may know, I'm now 24, woot woot! I had bacon and eggs at the beach which was truly delightful. Then I went home and killed a chicken which my neighbor/best friend cajun fried (love that spice Emily!) with rice. It was phenomenal. She also made me an enormous pancake which we covered in sprinkles and actually did put 24 candles on. Thatokowza and the two girls who help me out, Mode and Memory, and Jay all sang me an extended happy birthday song and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

Also, I have recently crossed scuba diving off of my bucket list!! I got certified about three weeks ago to help a an American researcher count the cichlidae in Lake Malawi. The cichlids in Malawi account for something ridiculous like 90% of the world's aquarium fish. They're small and colorful and pretty. So every six weeks, imma go sit on the bottom of the lake for 45 minutes and count fish. I'm psyched!

Towa had 5 puppies at the beginning of January when she was only ten months old herself (teenage pregnancy is a big problem in Malawi). I'm keeping the largest black male for myself, his name is Kuba (which means thief but I'm hoping he won't be). Towa isn't with me anymore now. She'd been stealing fish and eggs and killing chickens from many people in my village and my neighbors and some of the villagers wanted to poison her (which is how a problem like this is handled in Malawi). I didn't feel like she was safe anymore and it was damaging my relationship with my community so I've given her away to another volunteer who lives in Lilongwe, has a huge enclosed yard where she can eat all the food she wants all day long and not get in trouble. It was sad for me, I've had her for a year but she's happy and comfortable and safe at her new house.
Kuba is on the left, Towa is the big one, and the little girl on top of her is Bwezi (friend) who is still in need of a home.

We just had a new group of health and environment trainees arrive three weeks ago. I haven't met most of them but I'm excited for some new blood around here. Unfortunately this also means I'm losing my sitemate Sol. He has been the nearest volunteer to me for the last year and we've had a lot of fun. He stayed in a rural village about 7 km off of the paved road and I stay at the nearest trading center to that village. So our typical MO had been to buy some sort of bird (turkey, chicken, guinea fowl), cook it up in some delicious amazing way that only Sol knows how to do and we'd split it and pass out....except the turkey which we shared with several people. So Sol is leaving and I'm very sad. I will get a new sitemate in May and I'm really REALLY excited for him to come but Sol will always have a special albeit smelly place in my heart. In fact, I'm almost positive that my sleeping bag will forever reek faintly of odor de Sol.
Well this is a long blog post and I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed because I'm sure it'll be at least another six months before I get around to updating again. In the meantime, I've got an iphone so you can facebook me or get whatsapp for texting via internet.
Sending out love and good vibes




........i'm such a freaking hippie

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