So, I've been living at site for over two weeks now. A lot has happened in those two weeks, but
not all of those events are worthy of being shared on this public forum (ask me
sometime, a few are pretty funny).
Well, we all swore in as promised on the 29th. Did some more shopping in Lilongwe then we
made our way back to Dedza and the next morning we all departed the college for
our sites. Those of us that are lucky
enough to live north of Mzuzu have a two day trip to get to site, even leaving
in the morning, so Donald and I spent the night at Mzoozoozoo, which is great
cause I got to stay there and see Mzuzu during site visit but Donald didn't go
on site visit due to a medical hold, so now he got to see it. I think we both thoroughly enjoyed the little
bit of R&R.
Then, we got to site.
Donald told me about that some PCVs, after being dropped off at site,
run after the Peace Corps vehicle as it drives away. I can proudly say that was not me. I think I was in a little bit of shock about
being alone. Well, I spent that day
unpacking a little, hanging my mosquito net, and just generally in a daze. For dinner (and breakfast the next morning),
I ate apple pie thanks to Caitlin. The
next day I spent painting my living room blue!
Well, the bottom half of the walls at least, covering up the boring and
damaged yellow. That took a lot longer
than expected using only a 2” brush.
Well, I made it about 3/5 through
the room and through half my paint and called it a day. J was in town, and wanted to hang out, so I
spent the afternoon chilling with him (and discovering all the things I needed
to fix on my bike).
The next day, I did not paint. The thought of more painting made me a little
sick after the huge undertaking the day before, so I just unpacked, cooked a
wonderful and complex meal of pasta with soy sauce (the first meal in months
that I actually got to pick), and just chilled.
The next day school started, but thanks to the wonderful Ministry of
Education and my teaching only Forms 1 and 3 (9th and 11th
grade), I had no students. See, to pass
8th or 10th grade, they must pass a national exam, and
even though they took these exams in July, and this being September, the
Ministry of Education still had not finished grading them. So, the students can’t start school till they
know if they are actually in that grade or not.
Yay! I got to spend the day
finishing painting, the next day shopping in Uliwa, and then the teachers “felt
bad for me” and “didn’t want me to get bored” so they so kindly let me guest
teach the Form 4 students Nuclear Physics and Ecology. Yes, those are actual topics on the
curriculum, as well as organic chemistry and others.
Onto the weekend!
Weekends are the best, if you didn’t already know that. All that free time to do fun things like
laundry. Well, that weekend I just
chilled. Took a swim in Lake Malawi,
well, actually a bath (soap & shampoo), which is like the greatest way to
bathe ever!
The next week, Form 1 started. Yay, teaching (sarcasm). So basically, I had a ordinary week, but I am
getting a lot better at starting a fire and cooking over it. I also got two 20L buckets for fetcher water,
and one of them has a red lid so it will be used to make my fire water (aka
bucket wine). Ilana also was in Uliwa
and brought me an orange tree sapling for me to plant, which is awesome. I hope it makes it! Saturday I did laundry, which took forever
seeing as I had a ton of dirty clothes, some still built up from Dedza (I only
did half of it last week, then it kept building up for some strange
reason). I had 4 buckets full of clothes
being washed, but now they’re all clean!
Even the extra sheets that are going to be turned into curtains.
Finally, the fun part!
We have a meeting in Mzuzu and shucks, it’s in the morning. That means going to Mzuzu the day before,
shopping, and spending a night at the zoo.
A bunch of PCVs staying the night at the same place that serves cold
beer? Sounds like torture. Well, I’ll try to make the best of it.
So ya, that’s my life.
For the first time in my life that I can remember, I have felt
legitimately homesick, and for the first time I have actually questioned why
I’m in Peace Corps, but I also am very well aware that I wouldn’t trade this
for the world.
During training, they
showed us this funny graph that was the emotions of a PCV, and the first few
months after moving to site was the lowest of the lows, and I think I’ve been
pretty ok.
I’d say the lowest
blog-appropriate moment was when a mouse ran across my foot while my new cat,
Tako, laid hiding under a low table.
The
cat was delivered to me in a sack tied shut, so basically it’s no surprise she
was scared for a while.
After the mouse
incident though, I found it only appropriate to name her after a Chitumbuka
curse word meaning butt.
Now, the cat
could not be any clingier (Microsoft Word just corrected me; apparently more
clingy isn’t correct grammar).
It
doesn’t like to go outside, so I guess I have an indoor cat.
It’s ok, because one night I was laying in my
room being kept awake by the shenanigans of the mouse, like every night, and
all the sudden Tako comes tearing into my room, running around like a bat out
of hell, across the foot of my bed, then out the bedroom door.
Next thing I hear is the distinct sound of a
cat eating into a fleshy critter.
Ever
since then, I have not been kept awake or woken up by the mouse (instead, Tako
wakes me up in new and creative ways).
I met my future puppy (name to be revealed after I know the
thing is going to live to 6-weeks when I’ll take it, but I got a glorious name
picked out). Funny story about the
puppy. I went to this house of a random
guy in my village that had two litters of puppies. He said I could have whichever one I
wanted. One puppy, the smallest one,
immediately came up to me and I knew this must be the one. I checked it over and it was a boy, which I
was hoping for (cheaper to get neutered).
So I said “I like this one, and it’s a boy which I was hoping for.” They guy goes, “oh, you can’t have that one,
we need a male dog to make puppies with its mother since we don’t have
one.” First of all, you said any puppy I
wanted! Second, have you ever heard of
incest? Well, I saw another puppy that
was clearly the misfit of the group and had the most random color pattern, and
took a liking to me, so I told him to put that one aside if it was actually
available. I’ll pick her up at the end
of the month when she’s old enough.
Well, that’s all for now.
I would say stuff is going pretty well though. Remember to keep writing those letters and
feel free to stuff printed pictures in them.
I want to decorate my living room with pictures, but so far I only got
about 4 feet of the wall covered. It is
nice to look over there and see all those happy Americans. Just don’t include pictures of cheese or
draught beer in the pictures, cause that is a little more teasing than I want
to deal with.
So yup, I now have an adorable puppy named Fletcher. She is adorable (would be cuter if she didn’t
make an insane amount of noise all night and maybe peed outside more than 50%
of the time, but still adorable). She
follows me around the house all day when I’m around. I wish I could upload decent pictures, but I
guess next time. 
Honestly, I wish I had something interesting to tell you all
about, but life has been pretty usual (or as usual as life can be living in
Malawi). I got a sofa and coffee table
and am waiting on my table and chairs then hopefully another table to come
after that. I got some of the wood I
need to fix up the screens on the windows.
Basically, I’m just doing what I gotta do to do what I do. (That’s right, I just used do in a sentence
that many times. What are you going to
do about it?) Hope all is well with you wherever
you may live!
