Recently

Sometimes Peace Corps can seem really glamorous. The 'life is calling' photos with the beautiful sunsets in the background or the beautiful kids looking desperate to be taught. Stories of travel and work make me wonder why my photos don't show up next to Angelina Joli and Madonna (don't get me started on Madonna) in People magazine. Let me be clear, my life is not glamorous. Not in the tiniest way. And if I was starting to believe otherwise the past three weeks have confirmed the lack of glamour. Since returning from Ruarwe I have been entirely at site. This is kind of a big deal for me as I prefer to travel on the weekends to maintain my sanity and see Malawi. But for the past 3.5 weeks I have been dealing with Malawian shenanigans that have made me thankful I can start my countdown home. I'll try and break it down: School I love my school, I really do. I don't love being their go-to person for everything. I have spent the past 3 weeks typing exams for 6 schools. Exams in Chichewa, exams with ridiculous diagrams, exams with intense math equations, exams that don't appear to be in English or Chichewa but some other language belonging to a secret few. Oh, and typing the answer sheets. I type these exams because none of the schools in my cluster have computers and only one has electricity so they would have to pay someone to type the exams and they can't afford to do that, especially since the government has collected ALL the money from the schools without a plan to return it. The problem is that the teachers think I wave the paper in front of the computer and it magically appears-I have the easy job, so it's not big deal to turn in exams 3 weeks late and expect them the next day....I suppose other jobs are like this, I just HATE typing exams. The exams have also taken away time to do other, better things. Like finish the map, teach extra periods, and bathe regularly. But...we did have a special treat this week- A friend of mine stays in Lilongwe and had her sister, Laura, visit Malawi. Laura works at Gymcraftics, a nonprofit group in Boston and wanted to visit a school in Malawi. Monday we had a couple of sessions with the girls, it was absolutely awesome. They are so strong and were able to do some really advanced cool moves. Hopefully I will have photos to post soon but if you are really curious just google Gymcraftics! Exams have begun this week and will finish next week and then it's a 2 week holiday -- Mt. Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar here we come! AYID One of my teachers told me "Malawians are good at starting projects, but they are not good at finishing them." So it seems. We were supposed to open March 17, the date has been shifted to April 4th and sometimes I feel like to babysit to make anything happen. Oh, and we ran out of money....whoops. Life Hmm, some days have been great. Some days I have been woken up at 2am because the witches visited my neighbors in the middle of the night and we had to pray for their house. The more time I spend in Malawi the more I realize how little I know, maybe that is the point. Also, I put a deposit down at the University of Chicago so if you are in Chicagoland let me know, I would love to see some familiar faces! Miss you all! loads of love, e