Congrats to the Malawi PCVs

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now! The 19 of us in the Peace Corps Malawi Education group swore in on the 28th of August at a ceremony in the village of Chinkhombwe, Kasungu District.

Here we are, in all of our Malawi finery! Notice the sweet 'staches on some of the guys. It was just for swear-in though.

Wish us luck! Our service to Malawi has officially begun!

**Update**

We made the Malawi news. Check it out:

http://www.nyasatimes.com/2014/08/28/19-us-peace-corps-sworm-in-to-work-in-malawi-schools/

A few corrections - Please note that despite the quote in the article, we actually do have two volunteers posted to the district we trained in, including one from my group. Also, there is a Secondary School nearby the village, which is where we completed our Model School. Finally, if a school would like to have a volunteer placed there in the future, all they need to do is contact Peace  Corps and apply.

Chakudya Cha Masana ku Malawi

Here are photos of some of my lunches during homestay.

Nsima and chicken

Nsima and soya pieces (cooked with onions, tomato and oil)

Ngaiwa nsima with beef and cabbage (Yum! Anything ngaiwa is delicious, and cabbage is my favorite vegetable side dish here. This isn't typical, but I enjoyed it so I wanted to share.)

Nsima and cabbage

Dinner is usually the same as lunch. The leftovers from lunch are covered and stored in our house until dinner time, then reheated and served with fresh nsima for dinner.

Other lunches/dinners:

- rice with scrambled eggs

- nsima and beans

- rice with hard-boiled eggs

- nsima with pumpkin leaves

Chakudya Cha M'mawa ku Malawi

Here are photos of some of my breakfasts from homestay in Malawi:

Ngaiwa (whole-grain maize) porridge mixed with sinjiro (peanut flour) and sugar, tea

Rice, tea

Potatoes

Chigumu, also known as African cake. It is made with maize flour. Amayi usually makes this in the evening and then serves it for breakfast the next morning. Despite it's name, it is less like a cake and more like cornbread. There is very little sugar in it. Sometimes mashed nthochi (banana) is added, which makes the cake a little more sweet and moist.

Chipisi (French fries):

Other typical breakfasts (not pictured):

- roasted peanuts and tea

- white bread and tea

Care Packages

Last week I received two care packages, and it made my day! See how happy I am? That's because getting mail from home is wonderful!

So far I have had three packages mailed to me, and everything has arrived safely. I know Coalee has received several packages sent to her also. We have both received letters too (including from each other). So it seems like the mail systems in both Malawi and Moldova are pretty reliable after all, which is great.

If you want to send us a care package, please do! It is so nice to get something from home when we are so far away. If you need ideas, here are a few suggestions:

Coalee in Moldova

Granola bars (Lara bars & kashi bars)

Markers

Polaroid camera & film

Mini portable speaker for iPhone

An adult wooden rocking chair kit that I can build myself

Sticky tack, to hang pictures on the wall

Stacy in Malawi

Photos of you!

Duct tape, in cool colors/designs

Clif Bars, Lara Bars

Trail mix

Dried fruit

Sugar-free gum

0.7 mm pencil lead

Sticky tack, to hang pictures on the wall

Chocolate that doesn't melt, like plain M&Ms or Nutella or cocoa powder

Anything you feel like sending!

Munabadwa Liti?

In Chichewa, that means "When were you born?" You answer, "Ndinabadwa pa 9 October 1940", for example. (That is the birthday of my favorite Beatle. Guess which one...)

When we learned this in Chichewa class back in June, I went home and asked my amayi (host mother) when everyone's birthdays were. She knew everyone's birthday except my middle brother Roddy. She knew he was born in August, but couldn't remember the day. That might sound strange to an American, but here in the village they do not celebrate birthdays. However, this seemed like a fun opportunity to share a little about my culture, so I made plans to do a little birthday celebration for Roddy.

On August 3rd I asked my abambo when Roddy's birthday was. He told me it was August 4th, the very next day! That meant I had only one day to prepare.

The next day I made Roddy a birthday card and grabbed a few strawberry candies I had brought from America. After dinner I presented him with the card and sang the Happy Birthday song to him. My amayi joined in at the end. Then I gave him the candies.

He gave one of the candies to abambo, one to amayi, and one to his older brother. My amayi split hers up, saving a piece for my little sister who had fallen asleep. A few minutes later a couple neighbor boys came over, and she gave them part of her candy to have as well.

It is amazing how communal this culture is. Sharing is not even a thought. It's almost automatic. Could you imagine sharing a small piece of hard candy with three other people?

After she finished the candy, my amayi mentioned that her birthday was the next day. I knew it wasn't though, as she had told me her actual birthday when I first asked, so I called "bodza" * on her. She laughed, and said sort of apologetically, "I like sweeties." **

*Bodza - translates to "lie", but it has a more playful connotation depending on the tone, so here it is more like "fib" or "I know you are joking"

**Sweeties - sort of a generic term for candy

Food or Pet?

Here at homestay, there are quite a few creatures sharing my living space (the outside part). Try to guess which of these animals are considered food and which are a pet here in my rural village in Malawi.

A) Mbudzi (goat)

B) Chivala (grasshopper)

C) Mkhuku (chicken)

D) Mbira (Rat)

The answer is, they are all for food, sort of. My family eats goat, chicken, beef (not pictured), mice (not pictured) and grasshoppers. However, they haven't eaten these goats or chickens during my stay. The goats are kept in an elevated pen near the house, and the chickens sleep in a coop adjacent to the kitchen. My host brothers are raising the rats in an underground pen to sell, and they said some people eat them, but my family does not.

And the grasshopper? My host brother said he was planning to cook them and eat them today. Yum.

Bread Day

In Malawi PST we love Mondays. Why? Because it is the day PC gives us trainees bread, peanut butter and fruit. It probably doesn't sound too exciting, but when you eat nsima everyday, it is pretty amazing. Bread and peanut butter fills us up when we need a snack or can be a meal when we have been feeling sick and can't eat our regular meals (which has not happened to me in a while, luckily). 

The peanut butter provides a little extra protein in our diets. Peace Corps provides meat to our families three days a week plus eggs and soya pieces, but my family still has some days where we will eat all three meals without any protein. Plus, the protein portions of our meals are very small. So a little protein boost is nice.

The fruit is also especially welcome. Fruit is pretty scarce in the diets of our host families this time of year. They eat small, green oranges that grow on the trees here, which were pretty sour in July, but are finally getting sweeter. Small tangerines just finished ripening last week. (My host brother got stung by a bee while harvesting a bunch of tangerines.) You can find small bananas and apples at the outdoor market in the city, but we do not go there very often. Plus, the apples are from South Africa so they are pretty expensive. Of course, this is the "cold season" in Malawi, so the real fruit is on the way. Papayas, mangoes and pineapple--oh my!

Today we each received two apples with our bread and peanut butter, and they are my favorite fruits right now. So happy bread day to you!