May 13th

May 13, 2014

Well, its official, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer! The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of Peace Corps traditions, tests, tears, and travel. Getting back to Kasungu after our site visit, we spent the next couple of weeks wrapping up our classes, preparing for our language assessment interview, and trying to soak in as much time with our families and friends as possible. There were several walks to Linga (nearby village) for Carlsberg’s which is Malawi’s beer of choice, our last ultimate Frisbee game, and the last chance to run as a group as the sun rose over Kasungu Mountain. I wish I could write about all of these very special moments, but that would take hours and I don’t have enough computer battery for all of that! I’ll try to highlight the main points:

- I scored advanced-low on my language assessment (which is much higher than it should have been in my opinion). The grading scale goes from Novice-low, med, high, Intermediate-low, med, high, advanced-low, med, high to native speaker. While I am proud of the progress I have made, I have a lot to learn over the next couple of years, and especially since my village speaks Chinyiha which I feel should learn… good thing Peace Corps provides money for a tutor!

-We had our graduation ceremony at the United States Ambassadors house in Lilongwe. Many girls had traditional dresses made in Kasungu so there were bright colored dresses everywhere! It was beautiful. The ambassador’s house was amazing, we arrived and were ushered to this lawn where tents were set up for our group, our trainers, and for returned Peace Corps volunteers still serving in country. I was chosen to give part of a speech on behalf of the Peace Corps trainees. There were four languages taught during training based on where each trainee would be placed in Malawi. There was a Chichewa group, chitonga, chitimbuka and chilambya. The speech that we gave was split up into each of these four languages and then spoken all in English at the end. As soon as I have enough internet I will post the video of the speech on here for all of you to hear! After the speeches we gave our oath to serve as Peace Corps volunteers and boom, we were official volunteers! While all of this should have been very moving and emotional, all any of us had on our minds was the food being served after. As embarrassing as this is, we were so excited for the promise of cheese… Once let loose we attacked the servers as they passed around cookies, breads, keish, cake, bagels and other delicious foods we had been missing for months. I kept looking up to make sure I was not the only one feasting like I had not eaten in weeks, only to realize I was one of 37 others who was in a food frenzy. As we were leaving we all kind of looked around at each other in a daze like we didn’t know what had just happened, we were in a food euphoria. It. Was. Wonderful.

- The following day we had our village appreciation. Peace Corps set up tents at the grounds in the village and the village headmen, local traditional authority, country director for Peace Corps and others made speeches of how appreciative we were to the families and village for opening their homes to us. The women from each village performed dances for us including my amayi which was very fun to watch. We then were each called up to receive a certificate of appreciation. My Malawi parents were so proud and excited, it was very fun to watch. Cedric (the culture and language director for Peace Corps) arranged a performance from the traditional masked dancers which was amazing! Again, as soon as I can I will post video for you. I am hoping to do some more research about them, and will probably make a whole blog entry about it in the future. After the village appreciation several people in our group who live close to Kasungu was sent out. It happened so fast. All of a sudden 7 of us were on the way to their site. We would not see each other for the next 3 ½ months. It is so weird to be thrown together as a group, spend over 8 hours a day with each other (sometimes more), six days a week only to be separated completely for such a long time. I can’t wait to be reunited for our in-service training in August!

-The following morning we were told to meet at the community hall at 5am with all of our belongings. I felt so bad waking up my mother and siblings to have them carry not only my luggage, but my water filter, mattress and every book I had accumulated over the past 2 months of training and walk it through the village in the dark. Unfortunately in true Peace Corps Malawi fashion, we then sat at the hall for the next 2 hours waiting for our cars to arrive… Once they finally showed up and we packed everything into the cars, we gave our last hugs and goodbyes. It was a little overwhelming. I am not sure if it is just the culture or what, by my amayi basically threw herself on me saying (in Chichewa) that she would miss me, and started crying. For those of you who know me, I do not do well in emotional situations… it was awkward to say the least. We waved goodbye and were off!

-They packed 3 of us into a small ass car. Bike, mattresses, water filters, luggage, everything was squished into a 4 person car… It was insane. Somehow we all fit in and were on our way to Chitipa. I will be living in Chitipa with Dylan and Isabel. Isabel is in the same village as me. We are the only ones to be placed together since we are so rural from the rest of Malawi. I am so extremely grateful not only to have a site mate, but to have one that I actually really enjoy hanging out with! Dylan is located in Meru which is about 70km away, but we share the same boma (city center) so we will see each other frequently which is great. We had to stay the night in Karonga on the way up which was fantastic. The hotel we stayed at was a 5 minute walk from Lake Malawi. The lake is huge, the water is clear and warm, and it’s surrounded by mountains. I cannot wait to be able to really spend some time in it!

-After dropping Dylan off in his tiny village we made our way to Kameme. We unloaded, unpacked and have been exploring ever since. So far we have gone on runs, hiked a small mountain to watch the sunrise, made banana bread, had some great meals, attended a youth program focused on theater for development, met the local medicine man, put together a solar panel so we can charge our computers, saw the president of Malawi speak, drew water from the well ourselves, and had a Monday movie night. Each of these things were equally exciting. I feel so lucky to be placed in such an amazing site. The people are so friendly and warm. Every time I walk anywhere I am greeted by someone new welcoming me to Kameme. There are some established programs already in place in my village, along with a secondary school where the opportunities for me to be involved with programs and projects are endless. I keep having to keep myself in check, everything seems so perfect right now, I know there will be challenges in the future but I right now I am on cloud nine!