Happy Turkey Day!

Yes, I would love a piece of apple pie with ice cream. Thanks for asking. : ) Yes, I would love to be with my family watching some football games (okay, with my mom) enjoying an incredibly luxurious lazy day being completely spoiled by my family. Alas, this dream will have to wait because here I am celebrating #1 of 3 Thanksgivings in Malawi. Even though I am so far away from the American thanksgiving (we do get to celebrate at the ambassador's house on Saturday..woohoo!) I am certainly not lacking for things for which to be thankful. I am doing something I have wanted to do FOREVER and I have family and friends supporting me a million percent (yes, I think this is actually a real number)--so yes, I am very thankful this year.
Last week I found out where I will be living for the next 2 years...I am living in the Nkhotakota district along the lake shore (read: extremely hot!). I am about 40k south of the Nkhotakota central village which I have heard has Internet and a few restaurants. Salima is about 60k south of my village, Salima is considered a city (everything is relative), but I have friends in both villages so it will be really great to be able to visit both sites regularly. My village just got electricity at the trading center (where the market is) which means I can have a cold coke anytime I want! Beyond there, there are no homes or buildings with electricity (including the school and my house). My house is beautiful, I even have a spare bedroom for you to visit! I am in a small compound with 3 houses (one belongs to a policeman and his family--mother, you can sleep soundly now), it has a great porch and a tin roof. I am about a 4k walk to the lake, 5 minutes from the school, and about 5 minutes to the road and the market.
My counterpart came to Dedza last week for a supervisors workshop with all of the other counterparts (headteachers). We spent a few days together discussing expectations and guidelines, Saturday we all departed for our sites. We took a small minibus from Dedza to Lilongwe and a big bus from Lilongwe to my village. It was about a 4 hour trip from Lilongwe on a very crowded, standing room only bus...I have spent the past few days meeting the other teachers (I am now the only female staff member), meeting the primary education advisor, the community development organizer, police officers, the chiefs of my village and surrounding villages, an environment couple who live very close, and other good people. We traveled to one of the other schools in my cluster and spent a lot of time sitting underneath a tree. I am still not exactly sure what my job will entail, but I definitely know that I will keep myself busy.
I am in Lilongwe at the moment and will travel back to Dedza today or tomorrow, we come back to Lilongwe on Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving at the ambassador's house, Sunday I am going to Blantyre for our language intensive week. We will come back to Lilongwe on Wednesday or Thursday to visit camp SKY ( an academic camp for students from our schools with potential), then we get ready to swear in on December 9th. The second month has gone much faster than the first...which is a good thing. I also have a phone now and it doesn't cost me anything to receive phone calls. I think Skype is the cheapest way to call (about 16 cents/minute)--I would love to hear from you! Also, once I am at my site I should be able to check my email every couple of weeks so keep those emails coming!
I hope you are all enjoying your turkeys and families. : ) Love and miss you all!

loads of love,
elisabeth