June 4th, 2014

June 4^th, 2014

Language

Since moving to Malawi, I have learned how to greet people in countless ways and languages (or so it seems). As I have mentioned before, during training I lived with a family who spoke primarily Chichewa, but knew and understood about 5 other languages from Malawi. Unfortunately, Chilambya was not one of those languages. Because of this I was able to pick up Chichewa and tidbits of the other languages my fellow volunteers were learning. I then moved to my site in Kameme which is known by the rest of Malawi as having the most languages in a specific area. I live close to the boarder of Zambia and Tanzania which both influence Kameme since many products and services are imported here to Malawi. As a result, Chitipa speaks over 22 languages. In Kameme, according to the traditional authority, there are 6-8 languages spoken in this small area. We have seen this demonstrated at the start of each meeting, where the first order of business (of course following the prayer), is to agree on which language to use.

My favorite thing right now is learning how to greet people in each of the languages, I’m up to four! 

Here is a small sample of what I have learned:

General Greetings:

-        Mwaghona! (Hello! Chilambya & Chinyha)

-        Muli scheti? (How are you? Chinyha)

-        Muli akiza? (How are you? Chilambya)

-        Muli bwangi? (How are you? Chichewa)

-        Muli uli? (How are you? Chitumbuka)

Morning:

-        Makata (Chinyha)

-        Mwalamusha (Chilambya)

-        Mwadzuka (Chichewa)

-        Mwauka (Chitumbuka)

Afternoon:

-        Mwaomba (Chinyha)

-        Mwalinda (Chilambya)

-        Mwaswera (Chichewa)

-        Mwatandala (Chitimbuka)

Thank you:

-        Wasalipa (Chinyha)

-        Ndagha (Chilambya)

-        Zikomo (Chichewa)

-        Yewo (Chitimbuka)

As you can see, they are pretty similar. Most people will get the jist of what I am saying even if they don’t really understand that particular language. I’ve been told that you can sit in on a meeting here in Kameme with four people and they can each be speaking in a different language, still understanding each other. It is fascinating that things get done here, and maybe why meetings take 5 times as long here compared to the states, at least that is one of my theories.

I’ve also included the speech that I gave during swear-in at the ambassador’s house. Five of us were chosen to speak, four of us in the languages that we learned during training and one in English. The speech was split up between the four different languages and then translated fully in English. I was the last to go, here is my section:

Umuchinzi wabikikwa kale

Mwaghona mwensi!

Ngati bantu be bakufuma ku America sona ma volontiya, tukwikala mu mwoyo uwa kuswigha nu kusekelela chifukwa cha ba Malawi be twabamanya nu kubaghana.

Posona, tukwanda imbombo uithu iyi ni myoyo ya kwighuka. Tukwitikizya izya mbombo yithu yo yili kuntazi kuti nkulu hee, lole tukusimikizya kubomba akiza nukuyipa sana ku Peace Corps naku Malawi.

Twasalifya sana, pakutupa umwabi uwu uwa kubomba imbombo iyi. Ndagha ndagha ndagha!

Rough Translation:

Respect has already been given

Hello everyone!

As people from America, we are living in awe and great happiness because of Malawians we have known and loved.

We are starting this job with open hearts. We acknowledge that the job we will have in the future is challenging, but we promise that we are going to work well and will dedicate ourselves to Peace Corps and Malawi.

We thank you for giving us this opportunity. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Language has been fascinating and frustrating all at the same time. I am hoping to get a tutor in the next week or so in order to better understand the villagers I meet on a daily basis (plus being able to talk to my landlord might be helpful). It’s exciting, and daunting at times to be learning a language that only a miniscule percentage of the world’s population uses. At times this motivates me, when else will I ever have the opportunity to learn such a unique language?? But at other times it is extremely disheartening, what is the point? I will never have the chance to use it once I leave. Hell, as soon as I leave Chitipa, Malawians look at me like a crazy lady when I great them in Chilambya! It’s all part of the game I suppose. I am embracing the here and now, going with the flow, and taking the time to fully immerse myself in the culture. That’s why I’m here, right?

May 26th, 2014

May 26^th, 2014

A day in the life of a PCV on site lockdown:

5:10am- Alarm goes off. Lay in bed and listen to things scurry over my tin roof for about 10 minutes. Finally find my lighter and light the candle next to my bed.

5:20am- Head out to the Chimbuzi (bathroom… ok, hole in the ground). Check around for any snakes/bats/huge spiders before entering. While I have yet to see a snake in my Chim, others have come across black mambas, green mambas, and cobras of other varieties…

5:30am- Go on a run with Isabel. Say “Makata” to every single person we see, and get stared at because of our scandalous leggings with shorts on top (fully clothed head to foot, but you can see the outline of our legs…not ok). Oh and we are running, people don’t do that here… crazy Americans.

Side note: I have dabbled with running back in the states. I enjoy the exercise but have never been able to keep it up for an extended period of time. Here it’s a different story. I love the excuse to wake up early to watch the sun rise over the mountains. The feel of morning here is unlike anything I have experienced in the states. I remember running along the river in Tennessee and feeling something similar watching blue herons flying over the misty, rocky river; but here, the sky is a different color every morning, the chickens crow and birds call, the wind sweeps over my small little valley making the palm trees sound like waterfalls. It’s magic.

6:30am- Back to the house. Grab a bucket and head to the borehole (waterhole). Carry 20L of water on my head back to the house. Get laughed at by all the women along the road since I am usually pretty soaked by the time I get home… Often they will try to take the bucket from me, but I have convinced them that I am capable of fetching my own water. They will call their friends over and point at me laughing still. It’s the worst when someone decides that they need to try and have a conversation with me while I am standing there with water on my head. I don’t know how the amayi’s do it. They usually have buckets twice my size and will walk twice the distance. By the time I get back to my house my head is wobbling all over the place because my neck is tired. I can only get better right??

6:45am-Take a “bath.” Basically splash around in a bucket of cold water really fast and hope my neighbors don’t look into the holes in the wall/come into my courtyard (no door and its outside).

7am- Start the fire. Boil some water for coffee, make breakfast. Usually I’ll have eggs or oatmeal depending on what’s around. I can only buy oatmeal in Mzuzu, so it’s pretty precious.

8am- Since I already have coals going, I may make rice, beans, or sweet potatoes for later.

8:30am- Do dishes from the day before. Sweep out my house since the dirt is constantly falling from my walls. Battle some termites who like to eat the dirt and bricks (who knew?) of my house.

9:30am- *** Read/Yoga/Blog/Write letters/Go on a hike/Wander around the village to talk to people.

12ish- Maybe head over to Isabel’s, if she isn’t already at my house. Wander over to the ladies who sit under the trees by her house to buy some tomatoes or avocados. Make more food. Chat.

5ish- Head home since it’s no fun walking through the village in the dark (snakes!).

5:30ish- Visit with a neighbor probably on my way home, or they will stop by my house. I will give a report of what I did that day, mostly in English trying to throw some chilambya, or chinyha words in. They will respond mostly in chinyha throwing some English words in.

6ish- Eat leftovers from lunch/breakfast (who am I kidding, I’ll probably just eat some peanut butter). Light some candles and read more.

8 or 9pm- In bed. Maybe watch a movie if the solar panel was outside during the day.

***This is of course if there are no meetings, or special events going on. If there is a meeting, it would look like this:
9am- Show up to meeting on time, realize we are the only ones there… ask around to make sure we are in the right place

10:30am- The people leading the meeting show up (even though they are the ones who told us 9am). Do greetings, sit around for a bit.

11am- Meeting (maybe) starts. Once the group decides on which language to use (because there are 7 to choose from), they begin. We can loosely follow what they are saying, but mostly we just sit in the corner and try to look attentive.

1pm- The meeting might be finished. What was covered would probably take 20 minutes to cover in the states. But that’s ok, because we are in Malawi… it is what it is. 

Obviously my day to day routine will change once I am no longer on lockdown. For the first three months of being at our site we are told to not start or be involved in any projects. We are to integrate into the community and basically learn how to live on our own in Malawi. In a month, I will start doing community assessments to identify the needs of my community from my community. Once I have a better understanding I will attend an in-service training in Lilongwe at the beginning of September. There we will hopefully learn more skills specific to what our community needs are. After that, I’ll be off and running!

May 21st

May 21^st, 2014

I wish there was a way to talk to each of you individually rather than over this blog. I was having a weird day today. One of those days where all you want to do is stay in bed, eat junk food and watch trashy movies. I slept in which helped since usually I am up at 5am each morning. The junk food and trashy TV though are harder to come by. Instead I ate the banana bread I made over the fire yesterday and opened more of the letters you sent with me before I left home. I cannot explain to you how grateful I am to have each and every one of you in my life. The letters and love you sent with me is overwhelming. It is not often that people have an opportunity to have letters written to them these days, and to have so many people in my life that I have known since I was a little girl, to those who I only met this year, write to me poems, funny memories, inspirational quotes and sometimes nonsense (Michael)… I am the luckiest. 

Not to worry mom, I am still saving many of them since I know I have a long road ahead of me.  I’m not going to lie, if it felt like there were pictures in the envelope I opened it (sorry Liz). I love having so many photos of friends around my house! I especially appreciate the photos from all places I lived over the past couple of years. I have hung up photos from home of family and animals, I have photos of the beautiful Smoky Mountains (thanks Kevin!), photos of the farm on Bainbridge, and from vacations to Vancouver with some of my favorite people (Beki & Mary!). I have hung up some of the inspirational poems and mantras you have sent me, a wedding handout (congrats Emily & Jeff) along with the paper text messages from my seestor J I want to write back to each of you individually but do not have your addresses… if you would like a letter back PLEASE PLEASE send me your address!!! Mailing letters has become one of my favorite things since being here and I would love to thank you specifically for anything you sent me!

Send me stuff in Malawi! Here's how:

When sending be sure to write things like "God Saves" or just draw crosses all over it... this helps reduce the temptation to steal. Also, when claiming what you are sending please put things like bible, and tampons...

What I would like/miss:
-Seeds (fun stuff like flowers and vegetables!)
-Candy (I LOVE Reese's, Reisens, and anything chocolate. Also Starburst, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles are fruity faves)
-Trail mix
-Spices
-Dried Fruit
-Nuts
-Granola bars (Luna and Cliff are my favorites!)
-Good books
-Movies/music/tv shows on a flash drive (things can get pretty boring, I would love entertainment!)
-Bungee cords
-Clear tape (I'll use to make dry erase boards)
-Dry-erase markers :)
-Any type of hobby materials, I have a lot of time on my hands (I've gotten really good at juggling..)
-Any kind of food/sauce you can just add hot water to
-Photos of your beautiful face!
-Oreos!!!
-Southern Hemisphere start chart
-Good sunscreen
-Beef jerky
-Tuna
-Kid toys
-AAA Batteries
-Deodorant
-Pens/Cool paper
-Scissors
-1 Liter Nalagine bottle
-Sunglasses
-Envelopes

Here is my address:

Britney Tonning
PO Box 51
Chitipa, Malawi

THANK YOU!!!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!

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!