1. Got up early, and my bafa water was ready when I was. Nothing like a hot bucket bath on a chilly (but not freezing) morning, ready and waiting.
2. Had excellent chigumu (African corn flour cake, almost like cornbread but a little sweeter) for breakfast. Because my amayi loves me, there was no banana in it.
3. Peaced out of homestay-village life by 7:30, in Lilongwe by 9. Saw most of the PCVs of PC Malawi, and much of the staff as well. Couldn't get anyone who knows my site to tell me, but at least I'll learn it on Thursday, and I'm reasonably confident I'll like whoever lives around me. Not that I was worried about not liking people who joined the PC, but it's always better to know for sure.
4. By 10 or so, we were all at the super-bwana Ambassador's residence! I could seriously live there happily. We were shoved off to the "lower gazebo/tennis court area", and the restrooms (with toilets!) were in the pool area. Let's just say I'm excited for my swearing in ceremony at Jeneane's house (that's Madame Ambassador to you folk).
5. The security/logisitics people running the Hillary meet and greet were actually really entertaining! Sure, Dave, the dude in charge, told us that if we stepped over the chalk line we'd get tackled by security, and for awhile it felt like we were in that episode of 30 Rock where Matt Damon keeps telling the plane he's piloting that it'll be another half hour before takeoff, but there was also a security man in a cowboy hat, and I was literally standing 15 feet from HRC by 1pm. And she shook my hand, and when I told her I was excited to meet her, she told me she was excited to meet all of us (PCVs). I got a couple pretty sweet pictures if her shaking hands with my friends, and I'm pretty sure I'm in a bunch of official photographs because of my awesome positioning skills.
Also, fyi, Hil (as we who've met her call her) is the first Secretary of State to visit Malawi, and she told us she was excited to come since Bill comes every so often for his foundation work. She gave a really nice speech, with a few Peace Corps shout outs, which was awesome.
For the record, Hil looked super fly - royal purple tunic, black pants, longish hair, and giant sparkly necklace. And she shook my hand.
And that wasn't even it:
6. I saw Rachel, my friend from home who's randomly in Malawi (not for the PC) for the year! Apparently the song didn't lie, and wherever you go, there really is always someone Jewish. Anyhow, Rachel got invited I think because of ngo connections (I think? Super not clear), and it was fun to see her and catch up for a little bit.
7. Cookies and diet coke as post-Hil refreshments? I think yes, and well done, American embassy.
8. Post-Hil stop at the PC office, where I got my first Malawian internet! I was able to upload some blogs I had stored onto my phone that I'd drafted, check a little email and facebook, and message the parents, although I didn't get to stay too long. Bummer, but I think I'm actually going to look into getting an internet phone, since using apps on a data plan seems cheaper than calling or texting America. No promises, but I guess by the time I lost this I'll know one way or another.
9. Off to a shopping center for an extremely late lunch; instead of pizza, this time I went for a chicken wrap. Not quite a burrito, but seriously good.
10. The drive home took awhile, with a stop in the middle for the president's motorcade to drive by. What a day full of politicians!
So all in all, today was pretty awesome. I could really deal with knowing my site location, and I'm still gaining confidence at model school (let me tell you, 40 minute periods are an aweful idea, especially if you're me and teach the first period, which includes a 10 or so minute assembly on Mondays). But this week should be good - aside from model school and getting our site placements on Thursday, we have our village appreciation ceremony next Saturday, where we'll be thanking our host families and communities, and I am the training class's representative who gets to read a speech in Chichewa. Hopefully I'll get a complete host family photo! Then on Sunday we move back to the college for the last few weeks of training, and our site supervisors show up for supervisor training! The next Wednesday we'll travel to our sites for site visit for a few days, meet up with fellow volunteers who live in the area, then back to Dedza for the rest of training! And we're not allowed to leave for site visit without phones, so sometime in the next week and a half I'll get one. Woohoo! It's about time.
All right, this long day pooped me out, so it's time for my 8 pm village bedtime. Hopefully I'll get to post this and talk to some of you soon!
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