Training in Senga Bay

So, a quick recap of Halloween: we laughed, we danced, we had fun.  Overall, one my favorite weekends in country, but nothing in particular or interesting enough to bore you with.  In case you were wondering, I was a dirty hippie.

Sweet!  Now that you know all about that, we can move on.  This week, I’ve been in Senga Bay for GrassRootSoccer training.  GrassRootsSoccer teamed up with Peace Corps to create something called Peace Corps Skillz.  It’s a program that my counterpart, William, who works at a local CBO (Community Based Organization) named Focus, and I will do in the Uliwa area.  We get a group of about 20-25 kids that are ages 10-19 (preferably keeping the groups in as close of a age range as possible) together for 12 different one-hours sessions where we teach about HIV prevention and sex education using soccer skill drills as teaching aids.  The training was organized by my sitemate, Ilana, and trainers from South Africa and Zambia have come in.  This is the large-scale start of the Peace Corps Skillz program in Malawi and it is our responsibility to spread the program around and run lots of sessions.  Overall, it seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun.  The curriculum is a little lighter of the soccer side that I thought it would be, but they do have incredible ideas to keep the kids interested and excited.  For more information, you can look on facebook.com/grspcskillz

Anyways, Senga Bay is pretty nice.  The lake here is great (not quite as great as south Karonga), and the resort they have us staying at for training, Kambiri Lodge, is incredible.  This is the same place they do COS (Close of Service) conferences a lot of the time, cause they like to send PCVs off nice.  We have electricity, a little fridge, fans (when they work), a view of the lake, and a buffet every meal including two tea breaks. On top of all that, I get to room-up with one of my sitemates, Aaron, which has been an endless source of entertainment.  Pictures will be posted…someday (we have IST in less than a month and after IST I plan to spend a couple nights in Lilongwe, where the PC office is, and use the internet there to finally upload pictures).  On my way back to site Sunday, I'm planning on staying at the Mzoozoozoo, which is always fun.

Well, no stories that will blow you away this week; I just thought while I had electricity and an internet dongle, I better post an update.  As always, I’m just living life the best I can, which lately has been pretty great.