How is your life?

Malawians really love to greet people. everyone. all the time. They often follow up the greeting with the question, "how is your life?" That seems like a pretty loaded question, but I feel like I can honestly answer "my life is good." We just finished our Interim Service Training (IST) in Dedza and now I am hanging out in Lilongwe to do some work and then heading north on Tuesday with Will, Jesi, and Alexis to visit Will's site and hike around Livingstonia. I'm pretty jazzed.

IST was awesome. Once again I am so thankful for the amazing people in our group. We have people starting women's groups, planting tree nurseries, and turning into amazing teachers. Plus, they are just generally really cool. We bonded over mattress diving (yes, as it sounds. we took the extra mattresses and piled them into our living room area. we proceeded to run and jump onto the mattresses for a good 4 hours. yes, we are all over 22) , students names (McVicious, Mavoto Madzi (problem water)), and the general awkward, random, and ridiculous things that happen when you put an American in a Malawian village. Of course, we had legitimate sessions on medical stuff, security stuff, grant writing, permaculture, and technical sessions. We also started our planning for Camp Sky which is a education sector tradition. This year yours truly is the director which is a totally overwhelming and exciting. It is a 10 day camp for the top students in the volunteers schools. It is primarily an academic camp for the students to prepare for the MSCE (the big test when they finish secondary school) but we are also going to do cool workshops about composting, sustainable agriculture, writer's workshops, knitting and sewing, and other IGAs. Camp isn't camp without capture the flag so we will definitely have other fun games, dances, talent shows, and silly camp activities. It is going to be a big task, but I can't wait.

The new environment volunteers arrived today which means we are no longer the newest volunteers in country. It is a good feeling. As much as I as I am enjoying my life it is comforting to know that Peace Corps is a revolving of people coming and going.

If you or anyone you know has a contact with Madonna please let me know, maybe she wants to sponsor our camp! She has a thing for Malawi...it's worth a try. : )


loads of love,
elisabeth