Saying Goodbye

July 25th was my last day at site. I packed up my stuff, said a few more goodbyes, got into a share taxi that happened to be passing by transporting a few hikers into town from Mulanje, and I was off.

It's hard to believe that two years have come to a close, and that I won't be seeing my friends and neighbors and the village everyday anymore. As I looked out the window at the rolling hills, the brick houses, the women filling buckets at the borehole, the children playing at the side of the road, I couldn't help but feel sad to say goodbye to my village and my home of the last two years.

Goodbye, Village

Goodbye, School

Goodbye, Mountains

Goodbye, Neighbors

Goodbye Other Neighbors. Goodbye, cow.

Everyone was so sweet when we were saying our goodbyes, and they all wanted to know when I would be back. I had to answer "kaya" (who knows?) because it's hard to know what the future holds. But Malawi will always hold a special place in my life, and I would love to come back again someday.

Last week at site

I have just about a week left at my site. Despite the fact that school is out and I've been staying in the village, my days have been really busy.

I've been trying to go through my stuff to prepare the house for the next PCV that will replace me. Somehow I have acquired a ton of stuff in the last two years. It's mostly clothes, papers and junk like tin cans, plastic bags and water bottles, but it's all gotta go somewhere. I'm giving away most of my stuff to my neighbors, though I'm leaving the household items like dishes, sheets and books for the next PCV.

The weather has been overcast and chilly, so it's perfect soup weather. I've been making vegetable soups using whatever veggies I can find at the market, a few spices, and fresh basil from my garden. Sometimes I add beans. Here is a soup I made on Friday with some macaroni noodles added in. I seasoned it with garlic salt. It was so warm and delicious!

My neighbors have been coming by to chat more, since everyone knows I'm leaving soon. And I've been making daily trips to the trading center so I can see my friends there too. When I think about the final goodbyes it makes me feel a bit sad, so I'm trying to just be present and enjoy the little things in my PCV village life while I can.

These last two years have been full of ups and downs, and I am very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends back Home, but I am going to miss my life here in Malawi too.

Just hanging around

This is one of the trees by my house. Hey, what's that in the tree? Is it a bird? Is it a snake? Hmmm...

Oh, it's Nowelo! He's climbing the avocado tree just outside my house.

There aren't any avocados on the tree this time of year. He just wanted me to take a picture of him climbing it. Then all the other kids started climbing trees in the hopes I would take pictures of them, so it was time to put the camera away.

Compost Happens

When I first moved here, there was a small trash pit in my yard. A trash pit is a hole in the ground where you throw all your trash, and then burn it periodically. Everyone has one here. So the first thing I did was to only throw food, plants and other decomposable stuff there, and make it into a compost pile.

I've had some challenges with the compost pile, like other people burning it, and then having to burn it myself because it was infested with linthumbu (red driver ants). Another problem is people trying to throw plastic and other non-organic material into it, because composting food waste is not really a thing here. But it's been going a good six months now without any major issues.

I talk to the kids about the compost a lot (or composti, as they call it here), and how it is important to feed it organic matter. I tell them, "Ali ndi njala. Akufuna kudya masamba, zipatso, maudzu ndi zomera zambiri!" (It is hungry. It wants to eat many leaves/vegetables, fruits, grasses and plants!) That always cracks them up. Then they run, laughing, all the way to the compost pile with their leaves, orange peels and sugarcane fibers to "feed" it.

Today my landlord was repairing my fence, and as he left he took a whole wheelbarrow full of the compost for his garden. He said it was very good material. I was so proud! It showed me that he saw the value in what I was doing, which means a lot. He is a dedicated farmer with a lot of farmland around us, so I'm glad he will be making good use of it. Hopefully he will start his own compost pile now too.

My Iwes

There are a lot of iwes* (kids) that live near me, mostly between the ages of 3-10. They come over everyday, sometimes several times in a day. Often when I am napping or working on a lesson plan and don't want to be disturbed. They knock and knock and knock on my gate until I answer. Then they say, "Tikufuna kuwerenga" or "Tikifuna kuphunzira English." (That's, we want to read and we want to learn English, respectively). Even if I am tired or busy, how can I refuse them?

We have a whole routine now. They come in and sit on the porch. I take out my little box of books and games and art supplies that I keep for them to play with. (Kinda like a "kid kit" from The Babysitter's Club, if you ever read those books). They take out what they want, and put it away when they are done. Sometimes I read with them or we use my flashcards to practice English. Sometimes they read while I work on my lesson plans. If I have power I might make them a cup of tea or give them some of my bread. It's a good time.

They love when I take pictures. They know I like to photograph the wildlife in my yard, so now when they see a bug they grab it and say, "Kujumbula!" which is Chichewa for take a photo. The other day they found a snakeskin near my lemongrass plant. They immediately picked it up and said "kujumbula". So I went and got my camera, and somehow we ended up doing a photoshoot.

For the record, I did not tell them how to pose. This is all their own idea. I just suggested the backgrounds. The fruits and faces are all them.. 

This girl is the happiest girl in Malawi. Her name is Aisha and I have known her since she could barely walk. Even then she always had a smile on her face. Now she knows my name and says "Hi" and "Bye" to me when she sees me. She always brings a smile to my face.

Those are my iwes. They keep me company, they drive me crazy, we laugh together, and my service would not be the same without them!

*Note: the Chichewa word for kids is "ana". "Iwes" is PCV slang for kids, since when mothers call for their kids here they always add "-iwe" to the ends of their names, like "Stesi-iwe!" Iwe translates to you, informally. So we PCVs call all the kids "iwes". It's funny to us, but maybe you have to live here to appreciate the humour.

Adventures in Malawi - Village Life

During our visit, we decided to celebrate Christmas in July, since we weren't able to celebrate together last or this year. So we made chocolate pancakes and listened to our Christmas playlists. It was great!

Pancake time! She even had maple agave syrup from HOME! It was perfect!

YAY! Water! The 1st couple days we were there we didn't have water, so when we did, we filled all the buckets and started checking off the chores list...

...starting with laundry.

My host mom has a washing machine, so washing my clothes like this was a new experience for me. And, like with bucket bathing, it gets your clothes "almost" clean...at least they smell like soap, so that's cool.

My host mom doesn't have a dryer, so hanging my clothes to dry is something i'm used to.

The building on the right is Stesi's outside kitchen (the 2 windows on the left) and her bathing room (the window on the left with the chitenje hanging behind it). She doesn't really use her outside kitchen (her guard stays there at night), but her bathing room gets used daily...provided there's water of course.

Our reward for a job well done: raw sugar cane! - a common treat in Malawi. Stesi makes it look so easy, but it' not if you're a beginner. She's a pro!

It's very fibrous and you have to chew off the outer layer first before you get to the sweet juiciness that awaits you. It hurt my teeth to try to tear off the outer layer, but it was worth it once i was actually able to get some decent chunks of the good stuff!

Time for a bucket bath - my 1st since shaving my head!

Stesi's preparing the fire for us to make our Christmas cookies :o]. I'm so impressed with her fire-starting skills! For anyone who knows Stesi, knows she hates (or hated) fire! Look at how awesome she is now! She's a total pro! Not only is she not scared of it, she actually enjoys it now! We might have a pyro on our hands ;op.

Our chocolate chunk peanut butter Christmas cookies! We meant to give some to the neighbors...but they somehow ended up in our stomachs instead...oops!

Adventures in Malawi - Stesi's Cozy House

After our 1st night in Lilongwe, we went to Stesi's village for a few days. It was really great. Nice and relaxing and just us...no host family or keeping up appearances (like having to wear a skirt in public). It was a great start to an awesome visit!

Here's Stesi rockin' the ubiquitous Malawian chitenje!

Chitenje's are great, and like a bucket, quite multifunctional! They're most popularly used as a wrap skirt by almost all women, as Stesi is demonstrating above. But they're also used as a towel, table cloth, lid, light blanket, curtain, etc.

This is looking into Stesi's house from the front door...as you can see, there are chitenje's covering her windows :o]. And look at all the glorious buckets! That's a true PCV's house right there!

Still looking in from the front door to the right, there is her table (with toilet paper on the edge to be taken with you as you leave the house to go use the chim) with a chitenje for a table cloth.

You can also see hanging on the wall a world map - another item that probably all PCVs have hanging in their room/house somewhere!

The door to the left of the map goes to Stesi's bedroom.

Here is another view of her kitchen/work table. You can see her hardcore water filtration system (the large metal container) - apparently Malawian PCVs get REAL water filtration systems...Moldovan PCVs get a Brita.

And looking through the doorway is Miss Stesi standing in her hallway/kitchen cupboard.

A better view of the hallway/kitchen cupboard...and yes, another bucket ;o].

This is the 1st room to the right of the hallway. It's basically her storage room.

Here's another view of it - an extra mosquito net, 3 extra mattresses, a clothing rack, a clothing line, etc.

Here is the kitchen, which is the last room on the right down the hallway/kitchen cupboard. Stesi's making dinner out of a PCV-made cookbook/misc "how-to" book. Again, some more buckets (blue and orange)...it's her homemade sink!

Stesi's bedroom...not a great photo cuz my mattress and mosquito net are in the way. I actually brought the mosquito net with me from Moldova cuz PC gave me one when they knew i was going to Africa. It could probably fit a family of 6 in it comfortably. I left it for Stesi :o].

Another view into her room. You can see her mosquito net behind mine. Also, notice the chitenje curtain over the window!

Stesi's chim (squatty-potty) in the corner, with what else, but a chitenje as the door. On the ground you can see her compost pile (in the foreground on the left) and her burn pile (in the background on the right). Also, from the floods earlier in the year, part of her wall was destroyed, so her landlords built a makeshift fence until they "get around" to repairig it...the reality is, that probably won't happen.

And here's me rockin' my very own chitenje! :o]