Wrote this one awhile ago when I first got here... apparently it didn't publish when I thought it did!
That's Chichewa for "here in Malawi" for all you Chizungu speakers. Yes, after not quite a month in Malawi, I already speak fluent Chichewa!
[and now we pause for 10 minutes for all of your hysterical laughter to subside, since obviously I sound like an idiot trying to speak Chichewa. At least that's what I assume because of the dozens of children in my homestay village who laugh everytime I speak]
So yes, I made it! 14 hours on a plane will apparently get you from New York to South Africa, where if you're lucky, you'll have just enough time for a mad dash across the airport to hop on a plane to Lilongwe! That all was about a month ago now, but it feels much longer. I'm writing this on my phone on July 16, in the hope of saving it and making it to an internet cafe sometime in the near future, but who knows for sure. I figure I can at least add a few things to this draft every few days and update it eventually.
So yes, 3 and a half weeks ago I flew to Africa with the 21 other people who are currently being forced into being my friends, ending up at a college for trainibg where I lived in a hostel/dorm situation for a few days to begin training before being sent off to my homestay. Dedza is a beautiful place, and even though it's currently winter in the coldest region of Malawi, it's not too bad. Those first few days were a shmorgasbord of meeting the majority of the Peace Corps Malawi office, getting shots, starting malaria meds (I'm on mefloquine for those of you who are connoisseurs of malaria prophylaxes), and not appreciating electricity and real toilets as much as I should have. All too soon, we were assigned our permanent language study groups (only 2 groups aren't learning Chichewa, which although one of the official languages of Malawi, is not spoken by the entire population; those groups are learning Chitumbuka and Chilambia, and their members will be heading to the north, while Chichewa speakers will be in central and southern Malawi), and separated into 2 homestay villages.
So hello from Mpalale! My amayi (host mother) would love you to come visit so she can make you nsima. It's weird to not see the 8 trainees living in Katsekaminga every day, but I've grown really close to the Mpalale group, and we see everyone else a couple days a week when we train together. They may have more English speakers and electricity in their village (someone even has a refridgerator!) and be walking distance from a big market, but I really do like Mpalale. We're walking diatance from the college where we train on hub days as well as several mountains my comrades convince me to climb every weekend.
Remember that hysterical laughter from early? You can continue it now, as you imagine me climbing mountains. I have patented the slide-on-your-butt technique of going downhill steep rocks, rather than "shimmy" as has beeb suggested. Still, the views are beautiful, and it's good to get outside and see a little piece of Malawi.
Some details on homestay life:
I live with an amayi, abambo (father), and 2 brothers, Yosefe (who's 11), and Melodi (who's 8). My abambo is a farmer, like many who live in Mpalale, and I think he mostly grows Irish potatoes. My amayi's extended family lives in the compound next to ours, so I see some number of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmothers every day. My family lives in a brick house with a tin roof, while I stay in a separate building that I think is normally used as a storeroom. My room is pretty tiny, with a dirt floor and thatched roof. There's badically only room in it for my mattress (on a reed mat on the floor, covered by my mosquito net), a tiny table with my water filter on it, and all of my crap sitting on the floor next to me. A few of my friends have cement floors or bedframes in their houses, either of which would be awesome for keeping my stuff not so dirty, but oh well. The kitchen is also a separate room from the main house, as are the bafa (bathing room) and chimbudzi (pit latrine, aka the bain of my existence). My family also has a goat house with 6 or so goats, a pig pen with 2 pigs, and 6 dogs (including 2 puppies) who run between our compund and the compound next door. Occasionally chickens also run through the area, but I don't think they belong to us. I think I live the farthest from the main training house among the trainees, since it takes me 10 or so minutes to walk to that area since I greet a lot of people along the way. Until a week ago that's where I got water, too, but a brand new borehole just opened right near my house! It's especially amazing since now the number of people laughing at me carry water in a bucket on my head is effectively quartered. Score one for team Allison! This morning I even was able to lift my (child-sized) bucket onto my own head and carry it home, with minimal spilling!
[this post now continued a few days later...]
Since I'm sure you're all dying to know what my actual training sessions are like, let me tell you: I have training everyday from 8 am till around 5 pm, minus two half hour tea breaks and an hour and a half lunch break starting at noon, although sessions frequently start or end early or late. We have a few different categories of sessions - language and culture (of which we usually have at least one per day, if not two), technical teacher training, medical sessions (usually a couple per week, accompanied by shots; today the doctor complimented my bruises left over from last week), and various safety/security/well-being. While most trainings take place in my village, once a week we train together with the other village group in one of our villages, and another day each week we train together at the college (our original training site, where we'll return after homestay finishes). We do most of our trainings with staff members primarily based in Lilongwe, like medical and security sessions, when we're altogether.
Since many of the training sessions are mandated by PC HQ in Washington, and others are full of Malawi-specific information we need to know, it varies day by day how interesting I find sessions. The days can be long, but by and large, I'm glad for a detailed training, and I hope it's preparing me well for service. I'm excited to start some more hands on activities, though - especially model school, which we start in a little over a week. For 2 weeks, my fellow trainees and I will be teaching a sort of summer school at the local secondary school for forms 1 and 3, the equivalent of freshmen and juniors. It will be my first time teaching an academic subject in a classroom setting, which I'm both nervous and excited for. Since I'm the only bio teacher in my village, I will be teaching all the classes for both forms, which turns out to be 5 periods of 40 minutes per week. The current teachers left notes on what material they didn't cover this past year as suggestions for what to teach, so it looks like the Form 1s will be learning about vertabrate and invertebrate animals as well as parasitic worms, while Form 3s will get some combination of the circulatory system and reproduction. Both are huge subjects I could easily spend more than 6 class periods on, especially with students for whom English is a foreign language, but there you go.
Other things I'm looking forward to in the near future:
Visiting Camp Sky, a camp put on by education volunteers to motivate bright students and help them prepare for their high school exit exam. I hope to be involved next year!
Finding out my site, which we won't officially know until the end of homestay in a few weeks, but I'm hoping to know sooner. I keep trying to bribe my language trainer, the homestay coordinator, current volunteers who come to help out at training, anyone who works in the office... But I still don't know yet!
Making my homestay brothers talk to me more. They're starting to, especially while we play cards, and they'll dance while the radio is on, but I need more Chichewa to communicate more fluently!
Actually learning how to start a fire and cook a meal over it by myself... Definitely not there yet, but my amayi has asked if I can cook American food, so I want to! I have a feeling that soup (the easiest/most accessable thing, and different from pasta) is not going to be a winner though, since it's so liquidy and there's no nsima involved. But if I get some matza meal in the mail, I feel like my family might like matza balls!
Going back to the college to train with everyone together... I love my homestay family, but it's weird to be separated from half the group, and I like wearing pants in public.
Getting some chitenje fabric and going to a tailor to get dresses or skirts made.
Writing and receiving more letters and packages. It makes my day when I get mail, and I miss everyone at home! I'm working on responding to people who have written.
That's Chichewa for "here in Malawi" for all you Chizungu speakers. Yes, after not quite a month in Malawi, I already speak fluent Chichewa!
[and now we pause for 10 minutes for all of your hysterical laughter to subside, since obviously I sound like an idiot trying to speak Chichewa. At least that's what I assume because of the dozens of children in my homestay village who laugh everytime I speak]
So yes, I made it! 14 hours on a plane will apparently get you from New York to South Africa, where if you're lucky, you'll have just enough time for a mad dash across the airport to hop on a plane to Lilongwe! That all was about a month ago now, but it feels much longer. I'm writing this on my phone on July 16, in the hope of saving it and making it to an internet cafe sometime in the near future, but who knows for sure. I figure I can at least add a few things to this draft every few days and update it eventually.
So yes, 3 and a half weeks ago I flew to Africa with the 21 other people who are currently being forced into being my friends, ending up at a college for trainibg where I lived in a hostel/dorm situation for a few days to begin training before being sent off to my homestay. Dedza is a beautiful place, and even though it's currently winter in the coldest region of Malawi, it's not too bad. Those first few days were a shmorgasbord of meeting the majority of the Peace Corps Malawi office, getting shots, starting malaria meds (I'm on mefloquine for those of you who are connoisseurs of malaria prophylaxes), and not appreciating electricity and real toilets as much as I should have. All too soon, we were assigned our permanent language study groups (only 2 groups aren't learning Chichewa, which although one of the official languages of Malawi, is not spoken by the entire population; those groups are learning Chitumbuka and Chilambia, and their members will be heading to the north, while Chichewa speakers will be in central and southern Malawi), and separated into 2 homestay villages.
So hello from Mpalale! My amayi (host mother) would love you to come visit so she can make you nsima. It's weird to not see the 8 trainees living in Katsekaminga every day, but I've grown really close to the Mpalale group, and we see everyone else a couple days a week when we train together. They may have more English speakers and electricity in their village (someone even has a refridgerator!) and be walking distance from a big market, but I really do like Mpalale. We're walking diatance from the college where we train on hub days as well as several mountains my comrades convince me to climb every weekend.
Remember that hysterical laughter from early? You can continue it now, as you imagine me climbing mountains. I have patented the slide-on-your-butt technique of going downhill steep rocks, rather than "shimmy" as has beeb suggested. Still, the views are beautiful, and it's good to get outside and see a little piece of Malawi.
Some details on homestay life:
I live with an amayi, abambo (father), and 2 brothers, Yosefe (who's 11), and Melodi (who's 8). My abambo is a farmer, like many who live in Mpalale, and I think he mostly grows Irish potatoes. My amayi's extended family lives in the compound next to ours, so I see some number of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmothers every day. My family lives in a brick house with a tin roof, while I stay in a separate building that I think is normally used as a storeroom. My room is pretty tiny, with a dirt floor and thatched roof. There's badically only room in it for my mattress (on a reed mat on the floor, covered by my mosquito net), a tiny table with my water filter on it, and all of my crap sitting on the floor next to me. A few of my friends have cement floors or bedframes in their houses, either of which would be awesome for keeping my stuff not so dirty, but oh well. The kitchen is also a separate room from the main house, as are the bafa (bathing room) and chimbudzi (pit latrine, aka the bain of my existence). My family also has a goat house with 6 or so goats, a pig pen with 2 pigs, and 6 dogs (including 2 puppies) who run between our compund and the compound next door. Occasionally chickens also run through the area, but I don't think they belong to us. I think I live the farthest from the main training house among the trainees, since it takes me 10 or so minutes to walk to that area since I greet a lot of people along the way. Until a week ago that's where I got water, too, but a brand new borehole just opened right near my house! It's especially amazing since now the number of people laughing at me carry water in a bucket on my head is effectively quartered. Score one for team Allison! This morning I even was able to lift my (child-sized) bucket onto my own head and carry it home, with minimal spilling!
[this post now continued a few days later...]
Since I'm sure you're all dying to know what my actual training sessions are like, let me tell you: I have training everyday from 8 am till around 5 pm, minus two half hour tea breaks and an hour and a half lunch break starting at noon, although sessions frequently start or end early or late. We have a few different categories of sessions - language and culture (of which we usually have at least one per day, if not two), technical teacher training, medical sessions (usually a couple per week, accompanied by shots; today the doctor complimented my bruises left over from last week), and various safety/security/well-being. While most trainings take place in my village, once a week we train together with the other village group in one of our villages, and another day each week we train together at the college (our original training site, where we'll return after homestay finishes). We do most of our trainings with staff members primarily based in Lilongwe, like medical and security sessions, when we're altogether.
Since many of the training sessions are mandated by PC HQ in Washington, and others are full of Malawi-specific information we need to know, it varies day by day how interesting I find sessions. The days can be long, but by and large, I'm glad for a detailed training, and I hope it's preparing me well for service. I'm excited to start some more hands on activities, though - especially model school, which we start in a little over a week. For 2 weeks, my fellow trainees and I will be teaching a sort of summer school at the local secondary school for forms 1 and 3, the equivalent of freshmen and juniors. It will be my first time teaching an academic subject in a classroom setting, which I'm both nervous and excited for. Since I'm the only bio teacher in my village, I will be teaching all the classes for both forms, which turns out to be 5 periods of 40 minutes per week. The current teachers left notes on what material they didn't cover this past year as suggestions for what to teach, so it looks like the Form 1s will be learning about vertabrate and invertebrate animals as well as parasitic worms, while Form 3s will get some combination of the circulatory system and reproduction. Both are huge subjects I could easily spend more than 6 class periods on, especially with students for whom English is a foreign language, but there you go.
Other things I'm looking forward to in the near future:
Visiting Camp Sky, a camp put on by education volunteers to motivate bright students and help them prepare for their high school exit exam. I hope to be involved next year!
Finding out my site, which we won't officially know until the end of homestay in a few weeks, but I'm hoping to know sooner. I keep trying to bribe my language trainer, the homestay coordinator, current volunteers who come to help out at training, anyone who works in the office... But I still don't know yet!
Making my homestay brothers talk to me more. They're starting to, especially while we play cards, and they'll dance while the radio is on, but I need more Chichewa to communicate more fluently!
Actually learning how to start a fire and cook a meal over it by myself... Definitely not there yet, but my amayi has asked if I can cook American food, so I want to! I have a feeling that soup (the easiest/most accessable thing, and different from pasta) is not going to be a winner though, since it's so liquidy and there's no nsima involved. But if I get some matza meal in the mail, I feel like my family might like matza balls!
Going back to the college to train with everyone together... I love my homestay family, but it's weird to be separated from half the group, and I like wearing pants in public.
Getting some chitenje fabric and going to a tailor to get dresses or skirts made.
Writing and receiving more letters and packages. It makes my day when I get mail, and I miss everyone at home! I'm working on responding to people who have written.
Hi Allison!
ReplyDeleteIt sure sounds like you are having fun and learning many new things. I want to see a picture of you in your chitenje fabric dress. I get to share your adventures at dinner with Gramma and Ricky. They are very interested in what you are doing.
Linda