Not too much goin' on over here, just chuggin' along. I promise the next post will include photos and descriptions of adventures of late, but in the meantime, in continuation of my "life's too short" ponderings from last time, I give you...
An Incomplete an Unordered List of Things for Which I Am Thankful
* Chocolate
* Wine
* The breeze that comes with rainy season
* Wheat bread
* The sun’s rays poking through after a rainstorm
* My faith
* Hilarious cultural and linguistic misunderstandings
* The people who take real human emotions and put them to music (aka. Good
musicians)
* The people who write lyrics that are so terrible, but in earnest, that
you have no choice but to laugh (aka. Bad musicians, or everyone on
the Awesomely Bad Rap playlist we love so much over here)
* Lizards (I never would have said THAT before Peace Corps, but they eat a lot
of the bugs that I am NOT so thankful for. I could do without the piles of
poop they leave everywhere, though. Particularly in my shoes.)
* The postal system, which allows things like Zone Bars and Junior Mints to find
their way to me from across the world
* Everyone behind those packages of goodness (thank you)
* My puppy dog and all of his loyal kind
* Sunblock
* Jordan’s laugh
* Will’s advice
* WAJ in general
* Impromptu dance parties
* Cross-country dance parties (Jojo’s and my tradition of picking a song and a
time and breaking it down together from 100’s of kilometres away)
* 24-hour convenience stores (oh how I miss you)
* (And a note on the previous) Having ANYWHERE to even CONCEIVABLY go after dark
* Coffee
* My family
* The handful of people you meet on your journey who become like family (hold on
for dear life)
* Financial aid
* U-pick fruit orchards
* Cooling systems of all kinds (air conditioners, fans, misters, you name it,
I’m thankful for it)
* Mosquito nets
* Baby wipes
* Full gas tanks
* Photographs
* Whatever it is inside of me that (sometimes) lets me embrace getting caught in
a rainstorm and makes me dance it out
* My love for singing (though often badly)
* Angry chick rock (gotta indulge in it now and then)
* Will’s verb tense usage (I swear the kid doesn’t even know if he’s currently
living in the present)
* Books that are so good I want to read them again and again
* Books on my shelf that I’ve yet to read (some will likely disappoint, but
others will hopefully fall into the former category, and that possibility is
something I’m thankful for)
* Showers
* Nicknames
* The ability to wear trousers without being seen as a prostitute (aka. NOT in
my village)
* Ice water at the end of my 15k walk into town
* Laughing until I cry
* Crying until I laugh
* Solar power
* Text messaging
* Surprises (well, maybe not all of em, but you know, the good ones)
* Extra-strength Tylenol (so versatile! so effective!)
* Amazon.com
* Those instances in the village when I take the time to do something that makes
me feel like a girl (Jordan recently reassured me that I’m allowed to be one –
sometimes)
* The fact that each day brings with it a new opportunity to be better
* Water-resistant materials
* Honesty
* Half Dome
* Fireflies
* Christmas lights
* Icicles
* Snow Days (or in Malawi, Rain Days)
* Unconditional love
* My legs and feet and their ability to take me places
* My son, who will never know how much it means to me that he drops by just to
chat or help me with things
* The ocean, and other sights that remind you just how small you are
* Rain runoff from my roof that obviates my need for a boarhole trip
* Back massages
* Common experiences
* The comfort that some things never change
* Any and all of the places I’d call home
* Eccentricities
* Gifts that show someone really knows you
* The smell of cookies baking
* Silver dollars
* Star charts
* Sailboats
* Sharpies
* Alliteration, apparently
* Small victories
* Road trips
* Cosmic timing
* Motivation
* Happy mistakes
* The way you can talk with the people who know you best
I could go on and on, but I think that's a pretty good group. Dare you to make your own - it feels pretty good =)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
To the Land o' Plenty and Back
In my last few entries, I’ve made reference to the fact that I went home for Christmas, but I haven’t really been able to wrap my mind around my trip enough to write about it. I’m still not sure I’ve processed what it meant to me to stop down briefly in America in the middle of my service, but I’m going to attempt to say a thing or two about what it was like. I’m pretty sure anyone reading this knows what the so-called “First World” is like so I’ll keep my descriptions brief. The thing that blew my mind about the states wasn’t what it is – it’s been my home for 25 years, and I knew exactly what to expect – but how I experienced it after my time here in Malawi. I’ve always heard about “reverse culture shock,” but in all the traveling I’ve been blessed to do in the past few years, I’ve never really experienced it. This time was different.
First of all, I don’t think I ever really processed how FAR AWAY Malawi is. From the time I stepped into a cab in Lilongwe to the time I set foot on non-airport American soil, I think I ate 8 or 9 airplane/airport meals (definitely more than I needed, but hey, when you’re awake for that long straight and airlines are putting pizza in front of your face, especially after 15 months of rice and beans, who’s to say no?). I think I was in transit for a grand total of.. 41 hours? The funny part is that going back was worse, HA! I left my house at 4 pm on Sunday evening and arrived in Malawi at 10 am on WEDNESDAY. But that was due to the forward time change and a couple of well-worthy layovers (9 hours in NYC, and 13 hours in Accra, where I got to go out into the city and hang out with Jason!). Anyway, backing up.. flying home was Lilongwe, Malawi – Nampala, Mozambique – Nairobi, Kenya – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Minneapolis, Minnesota – Las Vegas, Nevada. Yep. I stepped off of a field in Malawi and into a silver bullet that (many bullets and airports later) spit me out into possibly the most obscene spectacle America has to offer. From my village, where there is ONE light bulb illuminated at night within any discernable distance, straight to the strip. It was a trip. Like a true Californian, I went straight to In-N-Out (oh my GOSH, it’s SO GOOD) and then dumped my stuff in our hotel before going to a Cirque du Soleil show with my mom. What does that mean I wore to the show? My ratty travel outfit (see Mozam photos, or think ripped-up, cut-off sweatpants, a fleece pullover, and flip flops). What was the woman wearing who went into the theater in front of me? Full-length fur coat. I mean, maybe I was underdressed.. but STILL. Why do those things even EXIST?! Anyway.. the show was amazing (Elvis), but I could barely keep my eyes open, so we went back to the hotel afterward and I crashed HARD (in a bed that felt like a CLOUD, WOW. My mattress here is a 5 inch thick piece of foam.). The next couple of days mommy and I went outlet shopping, ate amazing food, and took in the sights. And by “sights” I mean everything from the incredible Christmas display at the Bellagio to the (less exciting, but equally mind-boggling for me) ROWS AND ROWS OF INCREDIBLE PACKAGED THINGS AT WHOLE FOODS. Or the NUMBER of LANES on Las Vegas Boulevard – I can only think of two places in ALL of Malawi where you can find more than one lane in either direction! Or the SHELVES of books at Borders. My GOODNESS. I knew it was all there but it still felt so unbelievable to be standing in front of it after experiencing this life for over a year. My “supermarket” has.. 4 aisles? And 2 of those 4 are filled with insecticides, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and buckets. The other 2 have: peanut butter, honey, chips, cookies, salt, sugar, a handful of other spices, corn flour, cooking oil, vinegar, hot sauce, margarine (sort of..), rice, sodas, instant coffee, tea, milk powder, tomato paste, and on good days, spaghetti noodles, corn flakes, oats, and maybe even yogurt or cheese (that has usually melted on the way and doesn’t even LOOK appetizing). My mom just dropped me at Whole Foods and left because she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle it. The funny part is that things like supermarkets, Targets, or department stores were in equal parts exciting and overwhelming/upsetting for me. Toward the end of my trip I was standing in the shampoo aisle, completely lost, looking at all of these colored bottles, different but the same, immobilized by confusion, and finally just put my basket down and called Kathleen to have a mental breakdown. Honestly! I also made the mistake of going to Macy’s After Christmas Sale with my mom to buy a new pair of jeans to bring back to Malawi and nearly cried. I think there were more pairs of jeans in the juniors department alone than PEOPLE I KNOW IN MY LIFE. I combed thru them for awhile and tried on a few and finally had to leave because it was just too much for me. We have SO MUCH.. WHY do we NEED that much? I was talking to a friend of mine here who also went home for Christmas and she said that what she was happy about seeing in America was how hard people work to have that much, which I can also appreciate. But being at home I couldn’t help feel that.. I don’t know.. in some truly idealistic, or socialistic, way, the distribution just does NOT make sense. WHY do we have all of these things? It just feels like we took the global community and arbitrarily put down some divider lines and said, “Okay, MINE!” Obviously some of these lines are more effective and harder to overcome (ie. OCEANS), and I like to think I’m intelligent enough to understand it’s more complicated than that, and that resources, and how we UTILIZE and CAPITALIZE on these resources plays a role, as do many other factors. I mean, at one point America was an undeveloped plot of dirt like everywhere else, right? But at this point it just feels like our development involves making every exit from the freeway look EXACTLY like the others. Where’s the nearest Wal-Mart? 3 EXITS DOWN?! Oh no, we definitely need a closer option. And much as I love Starbucks.. how RIDICULOUS. And the extent to which people are tied to their cell phones.. I mean, it’s like face-to-face time is becoming obsolete. Pretty soon we’ll all just live in the 5-mile radius that surrounds our freeway exit and do all personal and professional business via electronic gadgets and gizmos. We’ll look AMAZING while we do it, though. I swear, the girl in the FACEWASH aisle with me at Target looked like she was going straight from buying Clean & Clear to the GRAMMIES. Did I miss the memo? WHY ARE YOU WEARING HIGH HEELS AT TARGET?! And with access to so many things, and so many comforts, the things people find to complain about.. MAN. Thank God for my cousin, who just got home from Afghanistan, because he was the only one who was as baffled as I was. He nearly murdered a woman at In-N-Out who was going into conniptions over the lack of TOILET SEAT COVERS. Wait.. you mean there’s a REAL FLUSHING TOILET IN THIS JOINT?! IS IT MY BIRTHDAY?! I don’t know.. I could go on and on, but the gist is this: while life here is really tough sometimes, relatively, it makes so much more sense to me. It’s simpler, and extended families are closer, and people help each other more, and are way less concerned with.. well, a lot of junk. I could definitely do with a cheeseburger and a shower every once in awhile, but I only want them because it’s what I’m used to. If I didn’t know they existed, I wouldn’t crave them, and then.. well then, this life has everything that I need. I should, however, put an asterisk next to that statement and a footnote that reads “minus adequate transportation and medical care.” And maybe “access to protein,” haha. No place is perfect =)
I’ve gone off-topic about what my trip entailed and onto a tangential rant how my experience has affected me, but ultimately, I think that’s the interesting part anyway. I ate a lot of good food (a LOT of it), saw friends and family, played with my puppy, drove, and enjoyed many of the things about my American life that I miss while I’m here. If you’ll forgive one further digression before I post a few photos of fun stuff-and-things, I think the most challenging, but important, thing for me to realize being home was how inexplicable many elements of my life here are.. and always will be. Tello stopped me mid-story once to ask this: “..you do realize that everything you’re describing to me is so foreign you might as well be telling me about Mars?” I guess, no – I hadn’t realized that. And I definitely hadn’t realized how hard it would be to have everyone I know (minus the kids who are over here with me) be in that same boat. I’m not totally sure how to deal with that one yet, but I do think it was incredibly important for me to have to face that now so I know to expect it when I go home. Or I need to start bribing my friends to come visit ;-)
As promised, some fun things!
My first sit-down meal, California Pizza Kitchen (it’s hard to even look at these now that I’m back in Malawi):
The beautiful Christmas display at the Bellagio:
A true testament to how much Jordan has affected my life – I walked past this shirt and momentarily thought of buying it for myself:
WHY WOULD I DO THAT?! If it makes it any better, though, I wanted to buy this one for him:
I opted instead for a “Things you need to know about Chuck Norris” shirt. It was his birthday, after all (Jordan’s. Not Chuck’s.).
After Vegas came.. MY REUNION WITH SPIKERZ!
The only time I cried while home was leaving him once again =(
Mommy, Spike and I baked cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve:
And we spent some time with my second family, the Gustafsons, for the holidays. Here are brothers, Seth and Jared:
And us harassing sleeping sister, Taylor:
And all of us:
Here’s my cousin and life-saver, Brandon:
And the beer on tap that we SO APPRECIATED AND ENJOYED:
There’s one beer company in Malawi – Carlsberg. Comes in 5 varieties. That’s all, folks.
I hung out with the Tarantello sisters at Downtown Disney:
And we partied it up on New Year’s Eve:
And I even got to see the SNOW before coming back to what is surely one of the hottest places on Earth. Here’s my home in winter wonderland:
And the drive to the airport:
Crazy dichotomy.
So many other things didn’t/couldn’t make it into photo documentation, like lunch with Les, or long talks with Kath and Deech, or a surprise Cali visit from Jeff, or an epic Ghanaian day with Jas. Or the most amazing Christmas present ever, ie. A MASSAGE, during which I was asked “wow, got some boulders in there, do we?” Yeah, well.. life’s been stressful. And for those of you I touched base with via email, or facebook, or text, and didn’t get to see or talk to (Teenie, Noah, Kyle, JD, Cait, Steve-O, Jemusi…) – I’m so sorry, and SO SAD. Minus my Vegas trip, Christmas Eve and day, and visits to family, I had.. 6 days at home? I felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off. I wish I could explain to all my friends and family how often I think of you, but you’ll just have to take my word for it – you are epically missed. But my time here is now on the downward slope! Which I have.. very mixed emotions about, inevitably. Regardless, I’ll see you before you know it =)
Before I sign off on this entry, I want to touch on one other thing. I’ve also made vague reference recently to lots of emotional stuff going on, which involves both internal and interpersonal struggles of my own and of many people I love. I’m not going to elaborate on what this all entails, but after a few really tough weeks (excited as I was to come back, and still am to be back, life here can drop on you pretty hard and fast), I had a moment of clarity today. I came to a realization, and while it’s in no way novel, it feels particularly poignant at this moment: life’s too short. There are so many things that require our attention and concern on a daily basis, but it feels like so much energy ends up being spent on stress that could so easily be avoided if people would just.. be good to each other. Sometimes I feel like we all must just be really bored to create these kinds of taxing and traumatic circumstances for each other. Honestly. In so many situations recently, I’ve just wanted to ask, “Did you make the CONSCIOUS CHOICE to treat someone else like garbage when it would have been so easy for you to just.. NOT?” Anyway, I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m just going to do my best to cause/participate in as FEW of these kinds of situations as possible. I like to think treating others well is a top priority of mine at any and all times of the year, but it never hurts to do a spot check, right? Anyway, like many of my life-altering moments, this one was inspired by a song, the lyrics of which I’m posting below. It’s by a guy named Peter Bradley Adams, and I highly recommend you download it (words are awesome, but when you put them to music, THERE’S the magic).
Lastly, because I like to end on a not-so-weighty note, do you think they used my GIANT MARSHMALLOWS when making this?
TALK ABOUT THINGS WE DON’T NEED. (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider buying it. I mean, it’s a 2 pound Rice Crispies Treat, after all.)
Family Name, by Peter Bradley Adams
I look around to find the way it all began
The years, they’ve turned like the heart of a man
But I say that I am grateful for the time that has passed
And I'll stay right where I am
Well I raise my glass with the unfortunate ones
Were broken and tired from the miles we have run
But our hearts they are open and the healings begun
And now our chance has come
Win or lose, it’s a hell of a game
The roads we choose, they all end up the same
So rest your hearts on the family name
And we’ll find our way back home
I look around at the ones I adore
Forgive me the chances I’ve wasted before
And I pray for the courage not to miss them anymore
That’s all I’m asking for
Win or lose, it’s a hell of a game
The roads we choose, they all end up the same
So rest your hearts on the family name
And we’ll find our way back home
First of all, I don’t think I ever really processed how FAR AWAY Malawi is. From the time I stepped into a cab in Lilongwe to the time I set foot on non-airport American soil, I think I ate 8 or 9 airplane/airport meals (definitely more than I needed, but hey, when you’re awake for that long straight and airlines are putting pizza in front of your face, especially after 15 months of rice and beans, who’s to say no?). I think I was in transit for a grand total of.. 41 hours? The funny part is that going back was worse, HA! I left my house at 4 pm on Sunday evening and arrived in Malawi at 10 am on WEDNESDAY. But that was due to the forward time change and a couple of well-worthy layovers (9 hours in NYC, and 13 hours in Accra, where I got to go out into the city and hang out with Jason!). Anyway, backing up.. flying home was Lilongwe, Malawi – Nampala, Mozambique – Nairobi, Kenya – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Minneapolis, Minnesota – Las Vegas, Nevada. Yep. I stepped off of a field in Malawi and into a silver bullet that (many bullets and airports later) spit me out into possibly the most obscene spectacle America has to offer. From my village, where there is ONE light bulb illuminated at night within any discernable distance, straight to the strip. It was a trip. Like a true Californian, I went straight to In-N-Out (oh my GOSH, it’s SO GOOD) and then dumped my stuff in our hotel before going to a Cirque du Soleil show with my mom. What does that mean I wore to the show? My ratty travel outfit (see Mozam photos, or think ripped-up, cut-off sweatpants, a fleece pullover, and flip flops). What was the woman wearing who went into the theater in front of me? Full-length fur coat. I mean, maybe I was underdressed.. but STILL. Why do those things even EXIST?! Anyway.. the show was amazing (Elvis), but I could barely keep my eyes open, so we went back to the hotel afterward and I crashed HARD (in a bed that felt like a CLOUD, WOW. My mattress here is a 5 inch thick piece of foam.). The next couple of days mommy and I went outlet shopping, ate amazing food, and took in the sights. And by “sights” I mean everything from the incredible Christmas display at the Bellagio to the (less exciting, but equally mind-boggling for me) ROWS AND ROWS OF INCREDIBLE PACKAGED THINGS AT WHOLE FOODS. Or the NUMBER of LANES on Las Vegas Boulevard – I can only think of two places in ALL of Malawi where you can find more than one lane in either direction! Or the SHELVES of books at Borders. My GOODNESS. I knew it was all there but it still felt so unbelievable to be standing in front of it after experiencing this life for over a year. My “supermarket” has.. 4 aisles? And 2 of those 4 are filled with insecticides, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and buckets. The other 2 have: peanut butter, honey, chips, cookies, salt, sugar, a handful of other spices, corn flour, cooking oil, vinegar, hot sauce, margarine (sort of..), rice, sodas, instant coffee, tea, milk powder, tomato paste, and on good days, spaghetti noodles, corn flakes, oats, and maybe even yogurt or cheese (that has usually melted on the way and doesn’t even LOOK appetizing). My mom just dropped me at Whole Foods and left because she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle it. The funny part is that things like supermarkets, Targets, or department stores were in equal parts exciting and overwhelming/upsetting for me. Toward the end of my trip I was standing in the shampoo aisle, completely lost, looking at all of these colored bottles, different but the same, immobilized by confusion, and finally just put my basket down and called Kathleen to have a mental breakdown. Honestly! I also made the mistake of going to Macy’s After Christmas Sale with my mom to buy a new pair of jeans to bring back to Malawi and nearly cried. I think there were more pairs of jeans in the juniors department alone than PEOPLE I KNOW IN MY LIFE. I combed thru them for awhile and tried on a few and finally had to leave because it was just too much for me. We have SO MUCH.. WHY do we NEED that much? I was talking to a friend of mine here who also went home for Christmas and she said that what she was happy about seeing in America was how hard people work to have that much, which I can also appreciate. But being at home I couldn’t help feel that.. I don’t know.. in some truly idealistic, or socialistic, way, the distribution just does NOT make sense. WHY do we have all of these things? It just feels like we took the global community and arbitrarily put down some divider lines and said, “Okay, MINE!” Obviously some of these lines are more effective and harder to overcome (ie. OCEANS), and I like to think I’m intelligent enough to understand it’s more complicated than that, and that resources, and how we UTILIZE and CAPITALIZE on these resources plays a role, as do many other factors. I mean, at one point America was an undeveloped plot of dirt like everywhere else, right? But at this point it just feels like our development involves making every exit from the freeway look EXACTLY like the others. Where’s the nearest Wal-Mart? 3 EXITS DOWN?! Oh no, we definitely need a closer option. And much as I love Starbucks.. how RIDICULOUS. And the extent to which people are tied to their cell phones.. I mean, it’s like face-to-face time is becoming obsolete. Pretty soon we’ll all just live in the 5-mile radius that surrounds our freeway exit and do all personal and professional business via electronic gadgets and gizmos. We’ll look AMAZING while we do it, though. I swear, the girl in the FACEWASH aisle with me at Target looked like she was going straight from buying Clean & Clear to the GRAMMIES. Did I miss the memo? WHY ARE YOU WEARING HIGH HEELS AT TARGET?! And with access to so many things, and so many comforts, the things people find to complain about.. MAN. Thank God for my cousin, who just got home from Afghanistan, because he was the only one who was as baffled as I was. He nearly murdered a woman at In-N-Out who was going into conniptions over the lack of TOILET SEAT COVERS. Wait.. you mean there’s a REAL FLUSHING TOILET IN THIS JOINT?! IS IT MY BIRTHDAY?! I don’t know.. I could go on and on, but the gist is this: while life here is really tough sometimes, relatively, it makes so much more sense to me. It’s simpler, and extended families are closer, and people help each other more, and are way less concerned with.. well, a lot of junk. I could definitely do with a cheeseburger and a shower every once in awhile, but I only want them because it’s what I’m used to. If I didn’t know they existed, I wouldn’t crave them, and then.. well then, this life has everything that I need. I should, however, put an asterisk next to that statement and a footnote that reads “minus adequate transportation and medical care.” And maybe “access to protein,” haha. No place is perfect =)
I’ve gone off-topic about what my trip entailed and onto a tangential rant how my experience has affected me, but ultimately, I think that’s the interesting part anyway. I ate a lot of good food (a LOT of it), saw friends and family, played with my puppy, drove, and enjoyed many of the things about my American life that I miss while I’m here. If you’ll forgive one further digression before I post a few photos of fun stuff-and-things, I think the most challenging, but important, thing for me to realize being home was how inexplicable many elements of my life here are.. and always will be. Tello stopped me mid-story once to ask this: “..you do realize that everything you’re describing to me is so foreign you might as well be telling me about Mars?” I guess, no – I hadn’t realized that. And I definitely hadn’t realized how hard it would be to have everyone I know (minus the kids who are over here with me) be in that same boat. I’m not totally sure how to deal with that one yet, but I do think it was incredibly important for me to have to face that now so I know to expect it when I go home. Or I need to start bribing my friends to come visit ;-)
As promised, some fun things!
My first sit-down meal, California Pizza Kitchen (it’s hard to even look at these now that I’m back in Malawi):
The beautiful Christmas display at the Bellagio:
A true testament to how much Jordan has affected my life – I walked past this shirt and momentarily thought of buying it for myself:
WHY WOULD I DO THAT?! If it makes it any better, though, I wanted to buy this one for him:
I opted instead for a “Things you need to know about Chuck Norris” shirt. It was his birthday, after all (Jordan’s. Not Chuck’s.).
After Vegas came.. MY REUNION WITH SPIKERZ!
The only time I cried while home was leaving him once again =(
Mommy, Spike and I baked cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve:
And we spent some time with my second family, the Gustafsons, for the holidays. Here are brothers, Seth and Jared:
And us harassing sleeping sister, Taylor:
And all of us:
Here’s my cousin and life-saver, Brandon:
And the beer on tap that we SO APPRECIATED AND ENJOYED:
There’s one beer company in Malawi – Carlsberg. Comes in 5 varieties. That’s all, folks.
I hung out with the Tarantello sisters at Downtown Disney:
And we partied it up on New Year’s Eve:
And I even got to see the SNOW before coming back to what is surely one of the hottest places on Earth. Here’s my home in winter wonderland:
And the drive to the airport:
Crazy dichotomy.
So many other things didn’t/couldn’t make it into photo documentation, like lunch with Les, or long talks with Kath and Deech, or a surprise Cali visit from Jeff, or an epic Ghanaian day with Jas. Or the most amazing Christmas present ever, ie. A MASSAGE, during which I was asked “wow, got some boulders in there, do we?” Yeah, well.. life’s been stressful. And for those of you I touched base with via email, or facebook, or text, and didn’t get to see or talk to (Teenie, Noah, Kyle, JD, Cait, Steve-O, Jemusi…) – I’m so sorry, and SO SAD. Minus my Vegas trip, Christmas Eve and day, and visits to family, I had.. 6 days at home? I felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off. I wish I could explain to all my friends and family how often I think of you, but you’ll just have to take my word for it – you are epically missed. But my time here is now on the downward slope! Which I have.. very mixed emotions about, inevitably. Regardless, I’ll see you before you know it =)
Before I sign off on this entry, I want to touch on one other thing. I’ve also made vague reference recently to lots of emotional stuff going on, which involves both internal and interpersonal struggles of my own and of many people I love. I’m not going to elaborate on what this all entails, but after a few really tough weeks (excited as I was to come back, and still am to be back, life here can drop on you pretty hard and fast), I had a moment of clarity today. I came to a realization, and while it’s in no way novel, it feels particularly poignant at this moment: life’s too short. There are so many things that require our attention and concern on a daily basis, but it feels like so much energy ends up being spent on stress that could so easily be avoided if people would just.. be good to each other. Sometimes I feel like we all must just be really bored to create these kinds of taxing and traumatic circumstances for each other. Honestly. In so many situations recently, I’ve just wanted to ask, “Did you make the CONSCIOUS CHOICE to treat someone else like garbage when it would have been so easy for you to just.. NOT?” Anyway, I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m just going to do my best to cause/participate in as FEW of these kinds of situations as possible. I like to think treating others well is a top priority of mine at any and all times of the year, but it never hurts to do a spot check, right? Anyway, like many of my life-altering moments, this one was inspired by a song, the lyrics of which I’m posting below. It’s by a guy named Peter Bradley Adams, and I highly recommend you download it (words are awesome, but when you put them to music, THERE’S the magic).
Lastly, because I like to end on a not-so-weighty note, do you think they used my GIANT MARSHMALLOWS when making this?
TALK ABOUT THINGS WE DON’T NEED. (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider buying it. I mean, it’s a 2 pound Rice Crispies Treat, after all.)
Family Name, by Peter Bradley Adams
I look around to find the way it all began
The years, they’ve turned like the heart of a man
But I say that I am grateful for the time that has passed
And I'll stay right where I am
Well I raise my glass with the unfortunate ones
Were broken and tired from the miles we have run
But our hearts they are open and the healings begun
And now our chance has come
Win or lose, it’s a hell of a game
The roads we choose, they all end up the same
So rest your hearts on the family name
And we’ll find our way back home
I look around at the ones I adore
Forgive me the chances I’ve wasted before
And I pray for the courage not to miss them anymore
That’s all I’m asking for
Win or lose, it’s a hell of a game
The roads we choose, they all end up the same
So rest your hearts on the family name
And we’ll find our way back home
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Life At Large: The End of 2010
Alright, before I start this off, I have a reader contest that I forgot to include in my Mozam post: I challenge anyone to find a photo of Ryba in which he is not a) wearing his blue & white plaid snap shirt, or b) shirtless. Go take a look. Really. That’s right. There isn’t one. PCVs are generally pretty gross, but really Ben? C’mon now. That’s extreme. Moving on..
So, everything I’ve posted recently has been about specific one- or two-week events, and I realized I haven’t really updated about what’s going on over here in life at large. To be honest, it’s hard to know quite what to say about this last term, which is probably why I haven’t attempted to write about it until now. From talking to other PCVs, I’ve realized that many of us sugarcoat our correspondence (blog, email, phone, whatever) with loved ones because.. well, because it can be devastatingly difficult to articulate how rough things are sometimes. Not to mention, hard for said loved ones to hear. I mean, a wise man once said.. “No one likes a Debbie Downer.” Haha, see what I mean? I don’t even know how to be serious. For real, though. I’m not sure where my emotions are these days.. I swear I used to have some of those, somewhere.. Anyway.. here goes, my best shot at giving a few words about these last few months.. followed by a slew of photos from the up-times (I mean, who takes photos of the stuff they want to forget happened?!).
At the end of my Camp SKY post, I included a photo of the far north four as we celebrated our one-year mark in Malawi. The next morning, we woke up to learn that Will’s headmaster/counterpart/closest Malawian friend had died suddenly of unknown causes. The following morning, I woke up to go to Khwawa to attend the funeral and learned that my own counterpart/BEST friend(/partner in crime/person I confide in/only person at my site who really gets me.. yeah, he’s kind of a lot to me), Mr. Nyasulu, was leaving. I had to be happy for him (he got into university, which is incredible and such an amazing opportunity for him to make a better life for his family), but honestly, him leaving is probably the worst thing I can imagine happening during my service. He didn’t have to leave right away, but of course, had a million things to attend to, so for the next many weeks he was in and out, or “moving up and down” as Malawians say. Meanwhile, another of the six teachers at my school, Mr. Nthakomwa, was out studying at the education extension college, leaving four of us (on GOOD days) to handle all four forms at school (I say on good days because in reality, my headmaster was often out trying to source new teachers, and the other two were out attending to family matters/going to funerals/chasing their salaries, and so there were many days when school was… just me.). I did my best to keep it together, but sometimes it feels like the whole “when it rains it pours” proverb is more like “when it rains you better run because soon blocks of ice the size of cattle are going to be falling on your head” when it comes to Malawi. Before long.. my roof started caving in. Yeah. I was cooking in the hallway one day, and a few minutes after I moved to the living room to eat.. the ceiling beam in that hallway came crashing down. Totally not terrifying, nah. I told my school and they tried to get a builder to come and do something about it, but things in Malawi.. are slow. (My teachers also felt it appropriate to come to my house and poke all of my ceiling beams and laugh at how they were almost all mud/cardboard due to termite infestation. Funny?) So anyway, by the time the next beam came down two weeks later, nothing had been done yet. Luckily Nyasulu was still around at this point (did I mention he’s also the only one I trust to get things done?) and so he laid the smack down and we had a builder at my house two days later. And I spent about 9 hours that day sitting in a corner of my house as these men pulled my ceiling down, bit by bit, with crowbars, and covered everything I own in debris. This was also the day that Nyasulu found out when he had to leave Fulirwa… answer: two days later. And the next day? Will decided to move away, too, because things at his site had gotten progressively and ridiculously worse. “When it rains…” At this point, the only thing I was holding onto was the project I had underway: months earlier, I had spoken with people at the Peace Corps office about how to put up a girls’ hostel, and it was decided that I would pursue a VAST grant which awards funds for HIV/AIDS related projects. So, Tuesday, roof disaster and news of Nyasulu leaving; Wednesday, Nyasulu’s tragically painful farewell party and news of Will leaving; Thursday, Nyasulu leaves, and I conduct what was most likely the most successful meeting of my Peace Corps career about the hostel project (in attendance: the Traditional Authority, who manages an entire region of villages; the Group Village Headman of my area; chiefs from the 15 surrounding villages who contribute to the Fulirwa C.D.S.S. student body; School Management Committee members; PTA members; all of the teachers at my school). My entire community mobilized itself behind this project, it was amazing. Every chief committed to bringing 15,000 burnt bricks for the community contribution portion of the grant. I was stoked, and in the midst of sobbing as I watched Nyasulu’s family drive away (and as every student at my school stared at my crying as if I were an alien), I knew that I had something big going to keep me occupied and feeling useful and busy and sane. And then I got a call from my boss.. to inform me that Peace Corps was reevaluating the way VAST funds were being used, and construction projects were no longer viable candidates. I hung up the phone and laughed, honestly. Like, REALLY?! I’m not sure more could have gone wrong that week, unless I had spontaneously combusted or lost a limb in a freak rooster attack. And I’m not even touching on some of the crazy interpersonal emotional stuff that’s been going on up in this joint…
But here I am, on the other side, and I’m putting my head down and going back for more! Nyasulu is gone, but I’ve been combing the net for funding sources and remain positive that where there’s a will, there’s a way, and GOD knows I have the will. Speaking of Will.. he’s a southerner now – his new site is probably 21 hours away from mine – but he’s my family, and I know that that fact isn’t going to change no matter where we are. My headmaster and I succeeded (after much, MUCH pestering) in receiving two new teacher postings at Fulirwa.. but one has already left in the time that I’ve been on vacation in Mozambique and the states, HA! But Mr. Nthakomwa will be back on board, so we’ll be six strong once again. I have no doubt things are going to be just as hard (I mean, I haven’t even addresses how absolutely, unbearably debilitating I find teaching sometimes.. my kids, and the kids of pretty much all PCVs, are at such a stark disadvantage it seems literally insurmountable), but I’m here for a reason and I’m pushing forward with doing the best that I can. I think Peace Corps is often about redefining your standards: what is a good mark in class? What does “sustainable” really mean? What do I really need to see in order to feel that I’ve made a difference, even to just one person? I think before my trips I was starting to slip into a place where I had no positive answers for these questions, and while I continue to struggle with them now, I’m feeling much more optimistic about my service, and life in general. Hey, sticking with the clichés, I couldn’t end my post without a silver lining, could I? =)
Speaking of, here are some of the silver-lining moments of the past few months in photo/video form. And a few of my sad, sad roof. It just had to be documented. In fact, let’s start with that and get it out of the way… This is the first beam to fall, along with a light shower of 5 inch nails:
And here’s the second:
And here are some shots from the work they did at my house:
Skylight, anyone? Some people would KILL for that, right?
Here’s some of the leftover debris (Mr. Nyasulu helped me clean for hours, bless his heart):
While we’re on things on the sadder end of things, a few shots of Mr. Nyasulu’s going away party. The bwana table consisted of Mr. N, his wife, my headmaster, and me (why me?!). As always, I spent a good deal of my time trying to get Izy to love me. I think we’re getting better =)
My best friend, Phillip Nyasulu:
After the party, it’s the ESCOM AFTER-PARTY:
This is the only shot I’ve captured of Mr. Simwaka ACTUALLY looking at the camera in the last YEAR (in the back of a pickup on our way home):
In this transitional space of sad to happy, I can think of no more fitting image than this to express both comedy and tragedy:
I leave it caption-less.
Back in September, tons of volunteers got together at PCV Melanie’s site on the lake to help her with her trade fair (…and to attend solstice party). We camped on the beach, it was gorgeous:
In October, PCV Sarah organized the annual Game Count in Liwonde National Park. It was the first time WAJ had reunited since SKY, so it was a little bit of a.. mess. See Jordan:
Yeah. Anyway.. It was awesome, we all did transect walks across the park and counted the animals we saw. Here are just a couple shots, including my favorite, our tiny Malawian guide and her huge shotgun:
Oh, and this is the leper tree… where they used to dispose of infected (live) people:
Yeah, skeletons inside. No joke.
And while we’re on an animal kick, I found this beast in my chim:
He wouldn’t let go, either. We battled. And in the war of mammal-beetle vs. Ash-and-stick, I was the victor.
My favorite new tradition: walking from Fulirwa to my trading center, Uliwa (15kilometers). Mr. N and I had been talking about doing this all year and so his leaving was our motivation to get our butts in gear. I loved it so much I started doing it 2 or 3 times a week! Yeah, everyone thinks I’m crazy. Here are our before and after shots:
Tired, man. It takes about two hours, but there’s ICE water at the other end.
In mid-October, we celebrated All Education Day nationwide. Ironically this event was planned ona Wednesday.. meaning that our celebration of education actually took students out of the classroom. Kuno ku Malawi, aiyai.. (Here in Malawi...). Our festival included many of the primary schools around, but as we’re the only secondary school for miles and miles, my kids got to prance around and feel like bwanas since they were the oldest, haha. Here is one of my Form 4s, Kaluba, with our awesomely terrifying EdDay poster:
All of the schools prepared songs and dances to perform. Here are a couple of the primary groups:
And here are a few of my kids:
I wanted to post a video of the chorus, but the clip is kind of painful. Apparently a megaphone is a sign of development and thus HAD to be used, regardless of the HORRIFYING feedback. My headmaster’s reaction:
Hahahaha.
Another thing Mr. Nyasulu and his wife, Mgabi, had promised me they’d do before leaving was teach me to bake scones (in Malawi, scones are more like bread rolls):
Mmm, we made them with vanilla. So good.
Sigh.. here’s a short clip of the room at the hostel meeting I held:
And my favorite part: when everyone combed the earth looking for the RIGHT SPOT for the building:
Please pray that these photos are just the beginning of a successful project.
Right before Mozam, I went to Lilongwe for Thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s. It’s Peace Corps tradition at this point to roast a whole pig:
Intense. Everyone got all decked out – it’s so nice when we get to feel clean and put-together:
Apparently smiles are too much to ask for from these boys:
MmM, food that’s not rice:
A Very WAJ-tastic Thanksgiving:
This shot is for Will to put on his wall. Since he is moving away, he won’t have my disapproving face to put him in his place daily. This should serve as a reminder:
Someone’s gotta keep the kid in check =)
And then there was Mufasa’s at night…
…moving on.
At this point in the chronological timeline, Team Mozam took off for our epic journey, and then I went home for Christmas. Being in America was.. intense. I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet, so I’m just going to jump to the point where I returned to Malawi along with…
EXTRA GIANT MARSHMALLOWS. Ohhhh yes. So many things didn’t make the packing list, but a 2 pound bag of jumbo mallows: essential. Back story: I recently had a dream in which Jordan and I were having a Chubby Bunny competition. And he ANNIHILATED me. In my OWN DREAM. So of course when I saw these marshmallows at home, I couldn’t resist. And the contest? Better than my wildest dreams. Here is some documentation. If you were ever deluded into thinking I was the least bit cool, this will eradicate those mistaken notions:
SO worth the 2 pounds of packing weight. Plus we used the leftovers to make Rice Crispy Treats!
After Chubby Bunny fest in Lilongwe, my ed group headed to Dedza for MST (mid-service training). The three male members of Team Mozam rocked mustaches only for training, which was horrifying and definitely worse than No-Shave-November and subsequent Dirtbag-December. Ryba in particular looked like someone you’d see on a milk carton ad with the caption “Don’t let this predator near your children.” At the end of the week, they shaved, but not before making ultimate spectacles of themselves first:
Wow. HA here’s Jordan’s stache pre-shave, along with the CORNROWS that Jenn gave him:
I’m embarrassed to know this man. I KID, c’mon. I mean, here’s one of the best parts of MST for me – slumber parties with J-Train:
So much love. There’s been a lot of emotional stuff going on lately, but Jojo and Will take such good care of me.
On our way back to Lilongwe, we had to stop because President Bingu was traveling and thus.. Malawi shut down the only road to let his entourage thru? So we got out of the car and did the wave for him:
Back in Lilongwe, we had a nice couple of days together as people started trickling back to site and a new term of teaching. Some of us even treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at Mama Mia’s (amazing, but expensive, Italian restaurant). I love us. And pizza.
Well, I think that wraps it up. Tomorrow I head back to site and I’m simultaneously anxious and very excited. I feel like recently I’ve been relying on the wrong things for comfort and strength, so it’s time to start anew and establish better practices and tendencies. One of the best things about visiting the states for me was realizing how much I actually WANT to be here in Malawi. Home sweet home.
So, everything I’ve posted recently has been about specific one- or two-week events, and I realized I haven’t really updated about what’s going on over here in life at large. To be honest, it’s hard to know quite what to say about this last term, which is probably why I haven’t attempted to write about it until now. From talking to other PCVs, I’ve realized that many of us sugarcoat our correspondence (blog, email, phone, whatever) with loved ones because.. well, because it can be devastatingly difficult to articulate how rough things are sometimes. Not to mention, hard for said loved ones to hear. I mean, a wise man once said.. “No one likes a Debbie Downer.” Haha, see what I mean? I don’t even know how to be serious. For real, though. I’m not sure where my emotions are these days.. I swear I used to have some of those, somewhere.. Anyway.. here goes, my best shot at giving a few words about these last few months.. followed by a slew of photos from the up-times (I mean, who takes photos of the stuff they want to forget happened?!).
At the end of my Camp SKY post, I included a photo of the far north four as we celebrated our one-year mark in Malawi. The next morning, we woke up to learn that Will’s headmaster/counterpart/closest Malawian friend had died suddenly of unknown causes. The following morning, I woke up to go to Khwawa to attend the funeral and learned that my own counterpart/BEST friend(/partner in crime/person I confide in/only person at my site who really gets me.. yeah, he’s kind of a lot to me), Mr. Nyasulu, was leaving. I had to be happy for him (he got into university, which is incredible and such an amazing opportunity for him to make a better life for his family), but honestly, him leaving is probably the worst thing I can imagine happening during my service. He didn’t have to leave right away, but of course, had a million things to attend to, so for the next many weeks he was in and out, or “moving up and down” as Malawians say. Meanwhile, another of the six teachers at my school, Mr. Nthakomwa, was out studying at the education extension college, leaving four of us (on GOOD days) to handle all four forms at school (I say on good days because in reality, my headmaster was often out trying to source new teachers, and the other two were out attending to family matters/going to funerals/chasing their salaries, and so there were many days when school was… just me.). I did my best to keep it together, but sometimes it feels like the whole “when it rains it pours” proverb is more like “when it rains you better run because soon blocks of ice the size of cattle are going to be falling on your head” when it comes to Malawi. Before long.. my roof started caving in. Yeah. I was cooking in the hallway one day, and a few minutes after I moved to the living room to eat.. the ceiling beam in that hallway came crashing down. Totally not terrifying, nah. I told my school and they tried to get a builder to come and do something about it, but things in Malawi.. are slow. (My teachers also felt it appropriate to come to my house and poke all of my ceiling beams and laugh at how they were almost all mud/cardboard due to termite infestation. Funny?) So anyway, by the time the next beam came down two weeks later, nothing had been done yet. Luckily Nyasulu was still around at this point (did I mention he’s also the only one I trust to get things done?) and so he laid the smack down and we had a builder at my house two days later. And I spent about 9 hours that day sitting in a corner of my house as these men pulled my ceiling down, bit by bit, with crowbars, and covered everything I own in debris. This was also the day that Nyasulu found out when he had to leave Fulirwa… answer: two days later. And the next day? Will decided to move away, too, because things at his site had gotten progressively and ridiculously worse. “When it rains…” At this point, the only thing I was holding onto was the project I had underway: months earlier, I had spoken with people at the Peace Corps office about how to put up a girls’ hostel, and it was decided that I would pursue a VAST grant which awards funds for HIV/AIDS related projects. So, Tuesday, roof disaster and news of Nyasulu leaving; Wednesday, Nyasulu’s tragically painful farewell party and news of Will leaving; Thursday, Nyasulu leaves, and I conduct what was most likely the most successful meeting of my Peace Corps career about the hostel project (in attendance: the Traditional Authority, who manages an entire region of villages; the Group Village Headman of my area; chiefs from the 15 surrounding villages who contribute to the Fulirwa C.D.S.S. student body; School Management Committee members; PTA members; all of the teachers at my school). My entire community mobilized itself behind this project, it was amazing. Every chief committed to bringing 15,000 burnt bricks for the community contribution portion of the grant. I was stoked, and in the midst of sobbing as I watched Nyasulu’s family drive away (and as every student at my school stared at my crying as if I were an alien), I knew that I had something big going to keep me occupied and feeling useful and busy and sane. And then I got a call from my boss.. to inform me that Peace Corps was reevaluating the way VAST funds were being used, and construction projects were no longer viable candidates. I hung up the phone and laughed, honestly. Like, REALLY?! I’m not sure more could have gone wrong that week, unless I had spontaneously combusted or lost a limb in a freak rooster attack. And I’m not even touching on some of the crazy interpersonal emotional stuff that’s been going on up in this joint…
But here I am, on the other side, and I’m putting my head down and going back for more! Nyasulu is gone, but I’ve been combing the net for funding sources and remain positive that where there’s a will, there’s a way, and GOD knows I have the will. Speaking of Will.. he’s a southerner now – his new site is probably 21 hours away from mine – but he’s my family, and I know that that fact isn’t going to change no matter where we are. My headmaster and I succeeded (after much, MUCH pestering) in receiving two new teacher postings at Fulirwa.. but one has already left in the time that I’ve been on vacation in Mozambique and the states, HA! But Mr. Nthakomwa will be back on board, so we’ll be six strong once again. I have no doubt things are going to be just as hard (I mean, I haven’t even addresses how absolutely, unbearably debilitating I find teaching sometimes.. my kids, and the kids of pretty much all PCVs, are at such a stark disadvantage it seems literally insurmountable), but I’m here for a reason and I’m pushing forward with doing the best that I can. I think Peace Corps is often about redefining your standards: what is a good mark in class? What does “sustainable” really mean? What do I really need to see in order to feel that I’ve made a difference, even to just one person? I think before my trips I was starting to slip into a place where I had no positive answers for these questions, and while I continue to struggle with them now, I’m feeling much more optimistic about my service, and life in general. Hey, sticking with the clichés, I couldn’t end my post without a silver lining, could I? =)
Speaking of, here are some of the silver-lining moments of the past few months in photo/video form. And a few of my sad, sad roof. It just had to be documented. In fact, let’s start with that and get it out of the way… This is the first beam to fall, along with a light shower of 5 inch nails:
And here’s the second:
And here are some shots from the work they did at my house:
Skylight, anyone? Some people would KILL for that, right?
Here’s some of the leftover debris (Mr. Nyasulu helped me clean for hours, bless his heart):
While we’re on things on the sadder end of things, a few shots of Mr. Nyasulu’s going away party. The bwana table consisted of Mr. N, his wife, my headmaster, and me (why me?!). As always, I spent a good deal of my time trying to get Izy to love me. I think we’re getting better =)
My best friend, Phillip Nyasulu:
After the party, it’s the ESCOM AFTER-PARTY:
This is the only shot I’ve captured of Mr. Simwaka ACTUALLY looking at the camera in the last YEAR (in the back of a pickup on our way home):
In this transitional space of sad to happy, I can think of no more fitting image than this to express both comedy and tragedy:
I leave it caption-less.
Back in September, tons of volunteers got together at PCV Melanie’s site on the lake to help her with her trade fair (…and to attend solstice party). We camped on the beach, it was gorgeous:
In October, PCV Sarah organized the annual Game Count in Liwonde National Park. It was the first time WAJ had reunited since SKY, so it was a little bit of a.. mess. See Jordan:
Yeah. Anyway.. It was awesome, we all did transect walks across the park and counted the animals we saw. Here are just a couple shots, including my favorite, our tiny Malawian guide and her huge shotgun:
Oh, and this is the leper tree… where they used to dispose of infected (live) people:
Yeah, skeletons inside. No joke.
And while we’re on an animal kick, I found this beast in my chim:
He wouldn’t let go, either. We battled. And in the war of mammal-beetle vs. Ash-and-stick, I was the victor.
My favorite new tradition: walking from Fulirwa to my trading center, Uliwa (15kilometers). Mr. N and I had been talking about doing this all year and so his leaving was our motivation to get our butts in gear. I loved it so much I started doing it 2 or 3 times a week! Yeah, everyone thinks I’m crazy. Here are our before and after shots:
Tired, man. It takes about two hours, but there’s ICE water at the other end.
In mid-October, we celebrated All Education Day nationwide. Ironically this event was planned ona Wednesday.. meaning that our celebration of education actually took students out of the classroom. Kuno ku Malawi, aiyai.. (Here in Malawi...). Our festival included many of the primary schools around, but as we’re the only secondary school for miles and miles, my kids got to prance around and feel like bwanas since they were the oldest, haha. Here is one of my Form 4s, Kaluba, with our awesomely terrifying EdDay poster:
All of the schools prepared songs and dances to perform. Here are a couple of the primary groups:
And here are a few of my kids:
I wanted to post a video of the chorus, but the clip is kind of painful. Apparently a megaphone is a sign of development and thus HAD to be used, regardless of the HORRIFYING feedback. My headmaster’s reaction:
Hahahaha.
Another thing Mr. Nyasulu and his wife, Mgabi, had promised me they’d do before leaving was teach me to bake scones (in Malawi, scones are more like bread rolls):
Mmm, we made them with vanilla. So good.
Sigh.. here’s a short clip of the room at the hostel meeting I held:
And my favorite part: when everyone combed the earth looking for the RIGHT SPOT for the building:
Please pray that these photos are just the beginning of a successful project.
Right before Mozam, I went to Lilongwe for Thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s. It’s Peace Corps tradition at this point to roast a whole pig:
Intense. Everyone got all decked out – it’s so nice when we get to feel clean and put-together:
Apparently smiles are too much to ask for from these boys:
MmM, food that’s not rice:
A Very WAJ-tastic Thanksgiving:
This shot is for Will to put on his wall. Since he is moving away, he won’t have my disapproving face to put him in his place daily. This should serve as a reminder:
Someone’s gotta keep the kid in check =)
And then there was Mufasa’s at night…
…moving on.
At this point in the chronological timeline, Team Mozam took off for our epic journey, and then I went home for Christmas. Being in America was.. intense. I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet, so I’m just going to jump to the point where I returned to Malawi along with…
EXTRA GIANT MARSHMALLOWS. Ohhhh yes. So many things didn’t make the packing list, but a 2 pound bag of jumbo mallows: essential. Back story: I recently had a dream in which Jordan and I were having a Chubby Bunny competition. And he ANNIHILATED me. In my OWN DREAM. So of course when I saw these marshmallows at home, I couldn’t resist. And the contest? Better than my wildest dreams. Here is some documentation. If you were ever deluded into thinking I was the least bit cool, this will eradicate those mistaken notions:
SO worth the 2 pounds of packing weight. Plus we used the leftovers to make Rice Crispy Treats!
After Chubby Bunny fest in Lilongwe, my ed group headed to Dedza for MST (mid-service training). The three male members of Team Mozam rocked mustaches only for training, which was horrifying and definitely worse than No-Shave-November and subsequent Dirtbag-December. Ryba in particular looked like someone you’d see on a milk carton ad with the caption “Don’t let this predator near your children.” At the end of the week, they shaved, but not before making ultimate spectacles of themselves first:
Wow. HA here’s Jordan’s stache pre-shave, along with the CORNROWS that Jenn gave him:
I’m embarrassed to know this man. I KID, c’mon. I mean, here’s one of the best parts of MST for me – slumber parties with J-Train:
So much love. There’s been a lot of emotional stuff going on lately, but Jojo and Will take such good care of me.
On our way back to Lilongwe, we had to stop because President Bingu was traveling and thus.. Malawi shut down the only road to let his entourage thru? So we got out of the car and did the wave for him:
Back in Lilongwe, we had a nice couple of days together as people started trickling back to site and a new term of teaching. Some of us even treated ourselves to a lovely dinner at Mama Mia’s (amazing, but expensive, Italian restaurant). I love us. And pizza.
Well, I think that wraps it up. Tomorrow I head back to site and I’m simultaneously anxious and very excited. I feel like recently I’ve been relying on the wrong things for comfort and strength, so it’s time to start anew and establish better practices and tendencies. One of the best things about visiting the states for me was realizing how much I actually WANT to be here in Malawi. Home sweet home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
