Done with homestay...hooray!

Yes yes!  It is time for another unexpected update!  I hope this entry still finds you all well, and you are doing your best to enjoy ice cream and homemade macaroni and cheese for yours truly ;)  Life in Malawi is still awesome, and every day I wake up I can hardly believe I live here!

So I survived Lilongwe and was so thrilled to get back to my homestay village.  I gave my amayi a huge hug upon my return, which I'm sure freaked her out.  I didn't realize I would be so happy to get back out into the country and out of the city...all things considered being a city girl.  In the week I arrived back we learned about bee keeping and tree nurseries.  The tree nurseries got me exceptionally excited and is something I would like to do at my site.  Deforestation is a HUGE huge problem here in Malawi and most of Africa and I would love to do work with building back up the forests.  So that was an exciting lesson!

The rest of homestay was pretty low key.  The last week or two you could hear all of us chatting/complaining/ujeni (Chichewa for whatchamacallit!) about how we were so ready to depart homestay and for learning our new sites, which were announced on April 7th.  Now, I will tell you, this was so nerve wrecking for me!  If you think about it, it's a bit like waiting for a college acceptance letter.  However, in this case we were waiting for someone else to determine our future!  I had a hard time sleeping and eating a few days before (yeah, silly, but couldn't help it!  I had good reason, I assure you!) when all I could do was wait.  So back at the college we all gathered outside the classroom to hear where we were all going, and more importantly the locations that the staff had taken such consideration to place us.  We had a big map of Malawi with sticky notes covering our faces pointing to where were going to go.  One by one, Brian and Lu' (PC staff) read off details about the location and what the site had to offer (which typically matched up with little requests we'd made during out placement interview).  Slowly the sticky notes were pulled off and more of our faces dotted the poster. Okay, okay, I'll get to it...my site placement for the next two years is Bwanje in the Ntcheu district!  I was so thrilled when Brian read off some of the opportunities: mushroom farming, women's groups, tree nurseries!, and more.  Ha, so those butterflies ended, and new ones were born in the anticipation of seeing my site.

A little about my site:  Justine and I are considered site mates, being that we are a short 30 minute minibus ride away from each other (she's in Sharpvale)...which cracks us both up since we clicked well right off the bat.  I'm not sure that anyone else in our crew is as close together as we are.  Bwanje is located about half way between Lilongwe and Blantyre and is considered to be in the south central region.  Look it up on a map ;)  It was such a relief to be able to put a name to the place that I will be calling home, and the name that all of you will be putting on those glorious packages once I get a mailbox!

Our village farewell in Mzengereza was amazing and a bit surreal.  I've never really felt like I'm leaving somewhere until I'm already gone...does that make sense?  Now I sit thinking of all the meals my amayi cooked, playing with my siblings, and watching the sunset on my beloved rock, wishing a little bit I was still there.  But, I'm not....rest assured my current status is much more exciting ;).  The ceremony was a mix of English, Chichewa, and Chitimbuka and felt much like a college graduation!  We welcomed the Gule Wamkulu dancers which was absolutely amazing.  I couldn't believe how creative their costumes were out of some of the most basic materials (left over chitenje fabric, spoons, and more).  Here is an example of the dance, it was awesome!

My last night in homestay was bittersweet, to say the least, and was concluded with sitting up on the rock that I enjoyed so much during my 5 week stay.  You would not believe the sunsets here!  I will try to upload pictures at some point, however they don't do it justice.  The pinks and blues are unbelievable.  I also sat and had a 45+ minute conversation with my abambo in a mix of Chichewa and English and felt so comfortable and welcomed.  I felt a bit sad that I didn't hit that comfort point with my family until about week 3, but all things in due time, I suppose ;)  We sat outside the house under the amazing stars that I am so privileged to see nightly.  Dinner by candle light with my oldest sister, Tandi, as we laughed at each other missing our mouths with spoonfuls of rice.  I do miss homestay, it was a wonderful experience.

We had the 9th to chill out, trade music and movies, do laundry, and relax at the college.  Probably most exciting for me was wearing pants!  Attire here is skirts all the time and it was refreshing to be back in my customary outfit.  What a pleasure to have them not fit like saran wrap!  Early morning April 10th we all departed from the college for our site visits.  Bye buddies :(  We're always giving hugs and saying "see you soon!" to our friends...  Justine and I headed off to our sites together being that we're close in distance.  We flagged down a minibus, bargained our price, and piled in.

Heading to site visit was the first time that it had hit me "holy cow, I'm in Malawi!"  Not sure exactly why that point, but it finally felt like I was on my own and having to find my way somewhere instead of being taken around by PC transport.  The minibus would fill up, let people off, let more people on...for about 2+ hours down south to Ntcheu.  You should have seen the look on both of our faces when a man walked in with a HUGE bag of fish.  Yeah...delicious...the smell is nauseating.  We counted 23 people in the minibus, and I'm sure we'll push that record here in the near future.  Packin 'em in like sardines!

I met my shadow PCV in Bilila, about 20 minute ride from Bwanje.  Dannelle is awesome!  She was a fantastic hostess and we had a great time together.  I got my first taste of having to come up with food ideas with limited resources and ingredients.  It's amazing how creative one can become!  We bounced around the area for this past week, going to the Ntcheu boma (main market of my district) and doing sporadic clothes shopping (HEY!  All you gals with cute clothes! Donate them so they can be shipped to Africa!); visiting Balaka boma (since we have two to choose from this is the other one); and most importantly seeing my site and new house!

So my first impression of the house was "holy cow...this will take some work."  But now I'm really really excited for it and for some new changes.  I live a 15 minute walk off of the main road in a compound setting with a family of 4 (and maybe more?  Not sure who lives there permanently yet...).  They are tobacco farmers and it is harvest season so they are busy busy!  My house is a mud brick with tin roof and has a bedroom, living room, guest room, and kitchen area.  I have a porch out front surrounded by potted plants (i have no identified them all quite yet), which is ideal for hanging the hammock I brought to Malawi! Out back I have my bafa ("shower" = a square of bricks where I bring my bucket of water to dump on me) and chimbudzi (toilet = hole in the ground).  I'm extremely fortunate to have a water well in my backyard where I can get my H2O, opposed to having to go to a water tap that is a long walk from my place.  Spiders, cockroaches, and lizards currently inhabit my house, but I hope in due time I will be able to move in as the primary resident.  The family in my compound, Flag (the father) and Blessings (the mother) both speak English but approach me with Chichewa first.  They have two little girls who are absolutely freaked out of me.  But I'll capture them soon with my "Tiwonana-na-na-na" song (to the tune of "Getting Jiggy with It" haha).  I can foresee picking up Chichewa even faster here in a few weeks!  Last night I slept at my house for the first time (the other nights I was with Dannelle, having fun chats and making delicious food) and was able to begin grasping all the noises.  The bugs do, indeed, come out at night.  I will tell you, sandals make a great bug squasher!  (Along with sports bras being the new purse, great to carry things in, and dirt being natures *free* Brillo pad to scrub pots and pans).  It felt like I was camping, hanging out under my mosquito net watching Battle Star Galactica episodes on my iPod...geeking out and loving every minute of it!  The nights here are relaxed and the mornings are as well.  Malawian time is amazing :)

So this all brings me to Blantyre, where I am currently staying the night at a lodge with Justine.  Blantyre is the city where we will most likely stock up on our food goods and we thought it would be a good fun time to head down here to check it out.  Also, we have to be in Thyolo by tomorrow sometime to begin out Language Intensive week...basically we get slammed with LOADS of languages lessons in hopes to hammer more Chichewa into our brains.  It will take time to absorb it all, but this time will be nice.  In a week we have our final language test (I'm always nervous for tests!) and this week will help us to prepare for it.  Overall Chichewa is coming a long for me, and I know I will pick it up more once I get back to Bwanje after swearing-in.

The next exciting date is April 28th, our Swearing-In ceremony in Lilongwe at the U.S. Ambassadors house.  I'm excited to then become a PCV (volunteer) instead of a PCT (trainee)!  It will be an exciting time for us all!  Then on April 29th we will all be driven to our sites with all the baggage we thought we might want during our 2 year stay in Malawi.  We will stand on our porch (ok, I have a porch, but not sure about anyone else) only to watch as the Peace Corps transport tires roll away.  The dust will  settle and it will inevitably hit me "holy cow, I'm in Africa."

Until then, be well everyone!  And just so you know...I'm having more fun than you ;)  Feel free to visit anytime to see what Malawi is all about!

P.S.
This one is for mama.  So the gal I replaced left a paraffin stove so I tested it out yesterday.   I was making some rice concoction for lunch and BOOM! FIREBALL!  I still have my eyebrows and my house is still intact.  Don't worry, I'll be buying a new one :)