The First 6 Weeks!

I am making it. I am making it day by day, meal by meal, conversation by conversation; I am making my life in Malawi and I love it.
After nearly 72 hours of traveling from Grand Rapids to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to New York, New York to Johannesburg, and finally Johannesburg to Lilongwe I was a bit dazed arriving to a warm Peace Corps welcome at the airport. Many first and second year education volunteers excitedly greeted us with banners and cheers as we deplaned and were shuttled to the baggage area. After being so emotionally and physically exhausted from the weeks leading up to this point it was a huge relief to finally arrive. We had a brief meet and greet with the country director and current volunteers then we were promptly shuttled to Dedza College of Forestry where we spent the first week of training. I tried to take in the first moments of traveling through Malawi but the bus ride quickly put me to sleep…
Our first week of training was a combination of language, culture, and technical sessions to help prepare us for home stay and our teaching practice. We got used to the local cuisine (and by cuisine I mean nsima) and local bedtimes (between 8-9pm…perfect). One morning a few of us woke up around 4:30am to climb a little mountain next to the college. The sun was rising and it was one of my favorite memories so far. Saturday afternoon we split into three different villages for our home stay experiences. I realized how babysat I had been for the past week and became incredibly nervous to depend on a family I could barely communicate with. At that moment everything became so much more real, I realized this is how it is going to be for the next two years…I will not be babysat; I will be in a village BY MYSELF. For some reason I never really internalized what that would feel like…perhaps the idea that accepting those feelings would make it real made avoidance so much easier. Nevertheless, this moment could not be avoided so as Sexual Healing blared on the Malawian radio station our little group of seven sat in the back of a Peace Corps land cruiser heading towards Katsekaminga, our new home for six weeks.
About 30 minutes later we arrived to a large group of women and children clapping and singing for our arrival. I had no idea what they were singing about, but I knew I was in the right place. In a field, in a village, in Malawi, in Africa…thousands of miles from everything I know, but exactly where I was supposed to be. I was escorted to my home for the next six weeks with my Amayi (Malawian mom…though it should mean the backbone of the Malawian culture (specifically in Chewa land) and toughest ladies in the world). I have my own little home with two very quaint (read: tiny) rooms. I am incredibly lucky to be the only trainee to have electricity in my home, though being spoiled now is going to be tough when I live on my own…without an Amayi or electricity.
In the past five weeks I have gained three siblings and countless cousins/relatives. My amayi and abambo (father) have three children, Precious-12, Ayiesha-6, and Patrick-4. They are hilarious and certainly keep me entertained. Precious is in school and is the man of the house when my abambo is away. He has been so helpful and though might think I will make a really terrible Malawian women, he has been incredibly welcoming and is constantly saving me from looking completely ridiculous doing house chores (though that cannot always be avoided). Ayiesha is my six year old sister and probably the biggest diva in Katsekaminga. She loves pretty dresses, dance parties, and taking care of others (by others, I mean me). She and I have become pretty close (well, as close as I can become with a six year old I can have very basic conversations with). Our amayi is teaching both of us how to take care of a Malawian home and cook over a fire…she is much better than me. If you listen really carefully you might hear Patrick’s voice in America. He has more personality and spunk than most and LOVES cars…he will spend the entire day pretending to drive around his house. My abambo works in Blantyre for a transportation company, he was home the first two weeks of my stay but is now living in Blantyre for work. My amayi is a machine, I mean that in the most loving sense, but I wouldn’t mess with her. ever. She cooks three meals a day over a fire never once using an oven mitt or cutting board. She can wash clothes to make them whiter than I ever thought they could be, chop wood like a lumber jack, and makes the best African cake probably in Africa. (she “bakes” by putting coals on top of pot) She also has a free-zee business that takes up a lot of time. She makes free-zees from baobab trees and sells them in the market and to the neighborhood children; she is a smart lady that has taken advantage of her electricity and a freezer.
During the week I wake up around 5, sweep with Precious, and meet my friend, Alexis, for a run. We run down the road through Katsekaminga running into no less than 20 people we must greet. I take a bath (bucket style), eat breakfast (mandesi (fried dough), African cake, or bread, and a banana), and then head to school. We teach at Katsekaminga Community Day Secondary School, a 10 minute walk from my house. When we are at site I probably won’t be able to teach because my official position as a teacher development facilitator is more about training teachers and helping schools, but at the moment I am teaching English to form 3 (junior year). We have about 70 kids in form 3 which was intimidating at first, but because they are so eager to learn it has been a lot of fun and totally redeemed my love of teaching. I only teach one block a day and spend some of the other blocks observing other trainees, lesson planning, and reading old National Geographics. (Alix-I just read an article about the racetrack business in Kentucky and the problem with red births that was killing all the foals-it was a really interesting article from the May 2003 magazine…you should check it out!) We all go home for lunch (nsima or rice, soy pieces, eggs, chicken, goat, and greens), and then meet for Chichewa class around 1. We have a language class of four people (the other people in our village are learning Chitumbuka), I am slowly starting to have a decent grasp but there is much work to do in that department. We finish around 4:30 so sometimes we go to the market, sometimes we just sit and chat, sometimes we do group Yoga, and sometimes I just go home to help my Amayi make dinner. (See lunch menu) My family has a TV and a DVD player (I know, not the scene I thought I would have) so after dinner we watch music videos. Picture a man singing in front of the cheesiest backdrop you can imagine and a single camera zooming in and out and you have 99% of Malawian music videos. I go to my house around 7:00 to read, do crossword puzzles, or write letters and am asleep my 8:30. It’s a good life.
The Malawian education system is something I can could try to write about for days…there is definitely a need for some major changes but there is no clear solution. They recently instated free primary education for every child in Malawi which is an excellent start and very promising for the future of Malawi. However, there is still a fee for secondary school and an extreme difference in the quality of secondary schools between private schools, government schools, and community day schools (we are teaching and working in the community day schools). After primary school the students must pass a test to move on to secondary school; however there are not enough secondary schools or teachers for every student so enrollment is based on test scores and ability to pay the fees. Once in secondary school the students must take and pass two separate exams, one after form 2 and the final exam after form 4. The tests are extremely difficult, many of the teachers are not qualified, and the students are competing for a minimal number of spaces in universities. Unfortunately, there are not many technical schools available and many students return to the villages once they have finished school. They have recently changed the school year (as in last week) to begin December 7, meaning many students will have a two week “summer” break. The school year has begun in January in the past; this meant the students take the tests in October and November, the hottest months in Malawi. The people in education want the tests to begin in June and July so they are working on a two year plan to change the beginning of the school year to September. Unfortunately, we swear in as volunteers on December 9 which means we will miss the first few weeks of school. I am planning to spend much of the first term observing teachers so it will definitely cut down on sitting around time which is okay with me.
Our days in Katsekaminga are numbered and I am excited to move back to the college, find out our sites, and get started. I miss you all and would LOVE to hear from you! Letters make my day and I promise to write back. : )

Loads of love,
Elisabeth