NEWS!: Welcoming Lucas Guy Taylor

I wanted to let you all know that I have a new member in my family! Lucas Guy Taylor was born on June 6th at 3:49 PM. He is 7 lb 12 oz and 20 inches long. Mom, Dad, and baby are doing great! I'm so excited and happy to have a new addition to our family. I love you all so much and really miss you. It's days like this I want to get on a plane and run right home. Love you! Congratulations Erin and Eddie.

Random Picture Post

thought I would do a post of all the other random stuff that fills up my day and entertains me as well! Hope you enjoy


My neighbor is moving into a new house so Charles (and me, some days) are helping to move bricks from the place where we burned them to the new house.

This is me at a wedding, can't you tell? You dance around a big plate and toss in your money. The bride and groom sit in chairs off to the side and try to look at unhappy as possible.

Clement and Charles playing on my front porch

Charles. Love the purple pants!

This is my agogo (grandfather) sitting on top of his grain stores. You can't tell, but he looks quite smug!

We found this guy walking around the Lilongwe market--in bright red ski boots! I just HAD to take a picture.

Clement (in red) and Charles learning how to play with yo-yos. This lasted all of two days because they weren't really that great at it and I got tired of rolling up yo-yo strings every two minutes.
Apparently people in Malawi love to pop bubble wrap too!

There are lots of people close by at my new site: Jen, Caitlan, Danny, Cathy, Joe, Tim, and our new site mate Danielle. So we get together every few weeks and have a party! It's a lot of fun and a great way to relax without actually leaving the village. This week we made mexican food complete with homemade tortillas (you get really good at making everything from scratch in Malawi).

Caitlan (my closest site mate) and I have tea in the tea house at least once a week. Thankfully it's a really cheap form of entertainment.

Sharpevale Crew (well at least when the Payne's were here). Don't we look smart (and clean in this picture if I do say so myself)

I decided you really need to see what cooking nsima looks like. This is me making porridge which you pour in about half the flour, cook 10 minutes, then pour in the other half and stir like crazy so you don't get any lumps. I eat dinner with my family next door every week on Tuesday nights--it makes me feel like I'm actually part of a family. I get to learn how to cook nsima and its lots of fun just to hang out.

Once it is cooked you have to spoon it out into patties. You dip the spoon in water so the nsima doesn't stick. This requires hands made of asbestos.

This is Clement, Charles, and Mordy eating dinner. We all eat together on the grass mat.

This is my favorite meal in Malawi! Whole-grain nsima, pumpkin leaves with groundnut (peanut) flour, and white beans with lots of tomatos.

Jen is taking her chickens back to her house via bicycle.

Jen's mom came to visit and we go to see the Guli WamKulu! I got to see some spirits that I had never seen before!

This guy was on stilts!

IRELAND

So my parents really wanted to meet me for a vacation but not all the way in Malawi (a bit too much I think). They have always wanted to travel to Ireland, and I really needed a vacation…so we booked the tickets!
The flight from Johannesburg to London was incredibly long (as expected) and when I landed in London the first thing I did was immediately stop by the closest coffee shop I could find. I asked for the biggest cup of coffee she could find and proceeded to tell her I hadn’t had a good cup of coffee in 14 months. I certainly felt a bit out of place in Heathrow. Everyone was so trendy with their wool coats and hats, adeptly balancing a cup of coffee and their Blackberry at the same time, all while on a pair of stylish heels. And then there was me: dirty jeans, no make-up, not in a hurry. I caught my flight to Dublin just fine and arrived shortly before lunch (just in time for another cup of coffee:). I didn’t have much trouble finding my parents as the Dublin airport is a bit small. I think we were all so overwhelmed by the moment that we couldn’t even be bothered to cry. It was so great to finally see them after 14 long months! Unfortunately, I had to immediately look in my suitcase to make sure the ice hadn’t melted on the second series of my rabies post-exposure shot.
Sorry for the side-bar, but the story (in retrospect only) is hilarious. So a few days before I was scheduled to fly out I decided to give my dog a bath. Sako doesn’t really like getting a bath. About a week later I’m in the medical office getting clearance to leave the country and Dr. Max casually asks, “So, is there anything else I need to know?” And I respond, “Well, my dog scratched me about a week ago. Do you think that is a problem?” Dr. Max thought a 1-inch scratch was severe enough to give me the post-exposure shot—only problem was that I needed to give myself the second shot three days later, but was leaving for Ireland in 12 hours. So, Max and I spent the next 30 minutes scheming how to get it on the plane. Do we smuggle it in checked baggage, hoping they won’t look? Attach the prescription hoping they won’t read that it is for rabies. I could just imagine me spending my vacation in quarantine because Ireland has no rabies and they won’t let me enter the country. My favorite part of this whole story is when I decided to consult my boss, Brian, about what he thought was best. I go in his office and explain my predicament and all the illegal options that Max and I have come up with. Brian’s face becomes increasingly twisted and at the end of all this he turns around in his chair, bangs his head on the wall three times, and then turns back to me saying, “I should write a fucking book about the trouble you guys (i.e. Peace Corps Volunteers) get yourselves into.” In the end we packed it on ice and I got to play Dr. Alicia for about 30 seconds three days later.
Ok, back to Ireland. After some wrangling with the rental-car company and with the GPS (which dumped the maps about half-way through the vacation and became totally useless) we were headed out of Dublin. About halfway toward our destination for the night we stopped at the ruins of Casheel Castle. (Not a vacation in Europe without castles and monasteries!). It has beautiful views of the surrounding hills and valleys as well as one of the only remaining intact round towers in Ireland. We traveled a few more hours to Rathellen House. I think this was my favorite place that we stayed. Although a newly constructed B&B (surprisingly most of them in Ireland are) it had great views of the mountains below. We went out for dinner in town and I had some really amazing chicken with blood sausage and we also had the first good bottle of red I have had in well, 14 months!
Tired from flying, we woke up late the next day but still got the full Irish breakfast: white and blood pudding, sausage, tomato, toast, jam, fruit, and of course, more coffee. I will tell you right now I ate more meat in those two weeks in Ireland than I did the past 14 months in Peace Corps. Both my stomach and my waistline paid the price for that, but it was delicious! We traveled to Kilkenny town where I could have spent hours wandering around, but it was raining like crazy so we didn’t. We got to see Kilkenny Castle, which I think to its detriment, had be restored a bit too much. Continuing the meat tradition, I had a burger and a Guinness for lunch. And yes, the Guinness is better in Ireland.
We left Rathellen House on Good Friday and went out towards the Ring of Kerry in County Kerry and our B&B, Kathleen’s Country House. We arrived in early afternoon and went had enough time to go to Muckcross House just outside of town. The grounds were beautiful and the house was equally as impressive. Much of the renovations on the house had actually been done for a visit from Queen Elizabeth; renovations which in the end, bankrupted the family and caused the owner to have a nervous breakdown. They also had a weaving shop where real people weave real stuff—an art that is all but lost these days. In the afternoon we went to see Ross Castle—the most intact 14th Century castle in Ireland. The reason 14th century castles are cool is because they are the stuff that 5th grade history projects are made of. They are complete with pots of boiling oil, rocks falling from above onto unsuspecting victims, and closed rooms with holes for guards to shoots arrows on intruders below. We had dinner at Bricin in town where I took a break from meat but switched to dairy overload on full cream wild mushroom pasta and chocolate cake. And more Guinness.
The next day we took in one of the most common sights for tourists—the Ring of Kerry. And after seeing it I can see why. It is a long but beautiful drive around the Kerry peninsula with cliffs plunging down into the sea and lush green fields full of sheep. We drove through parts of Kilarney National Park and it was a fairy tale forest. Much of it reminded me of parks I had travelled to in New Zealand. It was a long drive for Dad, so I convinced him to stop for a break of coffee and carrot cake. I can’t really do the drive justice with words, so I’ll just include a lot pictures below.
On Easter Saturday we headed north toward the Dingle Peninsula. We stopped for a bit at Inch Beach and then kept heading west and north round the peninsula. The weather was the best day we had in Ireland. I wouldn’t call it warm, but we had blue skies almost the entire time. Speaking of weather…it was freezing! Ok, at least to me it was. In Malawi it never gets below 55, even at night. We arrived back late at our Inn and ate dinner at Foley’s Restaurant in town.
On Easter Sunday we went to a small church in town and then left Kilarney for the Cliffs of Moher. We arrived around lunchtime and got to stop and eat lunch overlooking the cliffs. Dad had his picture taken with someone one who was campaigning to make the Cliffs of Moher a World Heritage Site. We kept driving through County Clare and arrived at Dunratty House which overlooked the bay and behind us the Burren Mountains. I really enjoyed the Burren. The biological landscape is just so bizarre that the place is captivating. It is covered in heavy limestone deposits and where people can eke out some farmland, they have built the fences from the limestone rocks. For all its barren appearance, of the native wildlife in Ireland, 90% of its native species are found in the Burren. Dunratty House also had the best breakfast spread by far and all arranged in beautiful pottery by one of Ireland’s most famous potters. And as most of you know, I’m a sucker for pottery.
The next day we went to Bunratty Castle and Historical Village. The castle was cool, but I thought the historical park was better. We chatted with lots of the people who worked there, walked around the grounds, and had some really great food in a local pub. Dad had some of the best lamb sausage I have ever had and I got some amazing lasagna. The park included a working water fed grist mill, a small sheep farm, a beautiful walled garden (complete with 2 Irish wolfhounds), and thatched roof cottages that had been moved from their former location and reconstructed on site. The village reminded me of vacations we use to take as kids to historical Williamsburg.
We left Ballyvaughan (town that Dunratty House was in) and drove through the Burren and the Connemara on our way to Clifden. The Connemara was beautiful and so different from the Burren! The Connemara is full of rolling hills, including the famous Twelve Pins. We took a drive through vast peat bogs and into Connemara National Park where Dad and I took a short walk inside the park. The park visitor center had a great information section on both the biology and Irish culture behind the peat bogs in this area. Often Irish immigrants to America would bring a piece of the family peat with them to remind them of home. And, peat is considered a fossil fuel since it takes thousands of years to form and just the right ecological conditions!
The next day we traveled all the way east, back to Dublin. Halfway there we stopped at Kylemore Abbey which is one of the most photographed buildings in Ireland. It is indeed a gorgeous abbey built along the River -----. High in the hills above a statue of Jesus has been constructed as a place of prayer and pilgrimage for the nuns below. We arrived in Dublin in the late afternoon with just enough time to take a walk down Fleet Street. In the area of town that we stayed in all the doors are painted different colors. After Queen Elizabeth died, the Irish were asked to paint all the doors black as a sign of respect. So with a big Irish F* you, they painted all the doors the brightest colors they could find! We had dinner at a restaurant that served just kofte, which are pancakes made of potatoes and filled with some kind of delicious filling. I had a creamy mushroom filling in mine. Apparently, this is a very traditional Irish food. And, I also had a plate of oysters with a Guinness, which surprisingly is a much better combination than Tabasco sauce or lemon juice!
After only two days in Dublin it occurred to me that it is a very young, hip, party hard city. Everyone woman under the age of thirty, and I do mean everyone, was running around the city in brightly colored tights and flashy ballet flats complete with some kind of baggy dress cinched with a belt and a bag they could fit a small child in. It didn’t take long to figure out Dublin’s style. But, none the less, I loved it! On out first day for a bit of Irish history (and a fantastic history it is) we headed to Killmainham Jail on this big touristy double-decker bus. I felt like a big nerdy tourist, but at least it was convenient. The Killmainham jail is at the center of so much of Irish history. Throughout “The Troubles,” the jail was used to house and execute many famous Irish dissident of the crown. Our tour guide placed a special focus on the women and children that were jailed and executed there, which I greatly appreciated. It was a saddening experience, but I don’t think any trip to Ireland would be complete without an appreciation of its rich history.
On Saturday we also travelled to...the Guinness Factory! They charge a small fortune for the factory tour, but at least you get a pint of Guinness at the end. The tour was great! They have toasted barley for you to eat, pump in real hops smell around the fake vines, a tasting lab with instructions from a real Guinness taste tester (how would you like that job), and they have a huge exhibit about Guinness advertising and the Guinness Book of World Records. My favorite part of the tour was the exhibit about the Cooperage. The Guinness coopers were thought to be the first people to burn the inside of the barrels in order to burn away the tannins which will make the beer bitter. It took true skill, brute strength, and dedication to be a Guinness cooper. The apprenticeship alone took seven years and even after that each cooper was required to mark his own barrels, thus allowing the bosses to keep track of who’s leaked and who’s didn’t.
That night we ate dinner at a restaurant called Fire, where I had a delicious beet salad and thin-crust pizza. On our way out we happened to be eating right next to the place that was hosting the Irish Daytime Emmy’s! So, Mom and I stood around and gawked at all the pretty dresses for about 15 minutes.
On Sunday we went to church at St. Patrick’s Cathedral—which to my great surprise and disappointment was completely empty. This beautiful cathedral had halfway been turned into a tourist shop, there wasn’t a choir to be seen on the program list, and there was only 3 other people in church that morning. It is really quite a shame. We had our last Irish breakfast at a local café and then took the big red bus again to Trinity College and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is also another massive tourist attraction, and I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing at first. But, after seeing the books I can totally understand why people flock in droves to see them. The Book of Kells is one of the first copies of the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Trinity College places on display two of the four books at time and also two other Coptic texts. The craftsmanship alone is enough to amaze most, but I think for the religious the books hold a special spiritual importance. The books are made of the skins of 150 calves, the inks made from various rocks and beetles, all painstakingly scribed by candlelight over many years. My trip to see the Book of Kells was actually one of my most favorite experiences in Ireland.
That night we under-estimated the availability of Irish restaurants on a Sunday night and ending up eating at a burger place! It was actually really good. Mom and I walked just around the block to see the Dublin Chamber Orchestra perform and the National Concert Hall. What a treat! After being in Malawi for so long it was wonderful to hear the music of my own culture: Handel, Mendelssohn, and even modern Irish classical composers. It was a great evening of music and a wonderful way to share my last night together with my mom for the next 8 months!
The next morning I rode with my parents to the airport even though my flight didn’t leave to a few hours after theirs. It was a wonderful trip and I really enjoyed spending time with my parents for a full two weeks. We made some great memories together and it is a trip I will look back to with great fondness. We said our sad goodbyes at the airport and parted ways for the next 8 months. But, I get to see them again at Christmas so I’m already looking forward to that!

Alicia's Update - April 6, 2009

New Year, New House, New Outlook! Before I leave for Ireland (which is tomorrow!), I thought

I should catch all my faithful readers up on what has been happening at my new home in Ntcheu. Last time I left you all I had just arrived, so we will pick up from there. Bryan, Keah, Jen (one of my site mates), and Mr. Liwonde (my neighbor and counterpart) helped moved all my stuff into the extra bedroom. After being here for one year I am amazed at how much I have actually accumulated; boxes and bags were literally packed up to the ceiling in my room. For the next two weeks Bryan and Keah showed me the ins and outs of life in their village. We visited the three irrigation clubs that B&K started during their service, went to the market to meet their friends, worked in the garden, read a lot, and just got to know each other better. B&K were so hospitable and I really felt like we had a great transition and I hope I can do some good work at their old site. Thanks guys!

Sharpevale Gang: Jen, Keah, Caitlan, Me, and Mr. Liwonde and Brian in the back (this is the day that I arrived in Sharpevale, everyone came to welcome me!)

I guess I should tell you a bit about my house. I have a two bedrooms, a sitting/library/dining/exercise/office room, and one small narrow room I can use for storage all inside a brick house with a clay tile roof (even though the tile leak like crazy and my roof is actually covered with two tarps). I have an outdoor shower, a bricked patio, pit latrine (but I have a toilet seat as well!), outdoor kitchen which I just use as a shed, 5 raised planter beds, a chicken coop (complete with chickens which are currently not laying eggs and may become dinner if they don’t get on the ball), a dog pen with a dog (Sako, I ‘inherited’ him from B&K), a rabbit coop (soon to have rabbits), and a solar food dryer. My house has lots of old fruit trees which make for great shade (and eating). I live very close to the Liwonde family and they take really good care of me. Examples, if I didn’t absolutely insist on paying them they would bring water for me and my garden for free! Also, the other night, a fox killed one of my chickens that insisted on flying out of the coop and staying out for the night. Mr. Liwonde hears it and runs out of bed at 3 in the morning to try and kill the fox. (Of course my completely worthless dog, although very cute, does nothing). I live in the middle of a corn field, so my only neighbors are the Liwonde’s, her sisters, and the agogo’s (grandparents). The location is great because I have lots of privacy, just a few kids that I get to hang out with, but I still get to spend lots of time with a family. The agogo is always giving me food, and the kids like to come over and read books with me on the front porch. I only ever see Mr. Liwonde’s children (Mary, Mordy, Charles, and Clement (sadly, Jennifer died just a few weeks ago from rabies)) and a few of their friends. Compared to my old house where I had kids passing my house all the time and sometimes it could be a bit overwhelming. Sharpevale is about a 100 m lower than my old house, so it will be a bit hotter here—but I take it compared to all the other improvements!

Desk, door leads to my bedroom

Hallway leads out the back, first door is to the kitchen, second is the store room

Kitchen Prep area (I cook outside on my porch)...thanks for all the food packages.

Store room, my water filter on the left

Bookshelf, door to front porch on the right.

Back of the house. You can see my herb spiral (with lots of herbs this time! and it has a drip irrigation kit hooked up to it). All my firepit and veranda. Shed is off camera but to the left.

Veranda, bathhouse, and the chim (toilet) just to the left and behind of that.

I also have two site mates. Caitlan, is a first year education volunteer, and Jen, an environment volunteer in my group. It is great to have site mates because we can talk things before they become a big problem, meet up for tea, see each other at school, go to the beach on the weekend, and have each other over for great big dinner parties!

Jen coming over to pick up her chickens from my house.

Caitlan over for Mexican Night!

After B&K left I really started to get to work. The first week I tried to be busy because I knew I would be going to Senga Bay for two days (have to have a little fun with the ladies, right?) and then welcoming the NEW Environment group as their plane landed in country (W.I.E.R.D—more later). So the first thing I did was to re-start (it’s best not to re-event the wheel for everything you do) a women’s group with Mr. Liwonde’s wife and some of her friends in my village. They had already formed the group but weren’t meeting regularly. Out first meeting they outlined all the things they wanted to do and learn. Unfortunately it was a list that was 20 things long, so I had to get them to focus. They decided to start with learning how to make jam (Malawi has some amazing fruit, my new favorite being mposa, I think we call it custard apple). They have made jam a few times with some different fruits and each time re-invested the profits for the next batch. However, last week they learned a valuable lesson: they must sell the jam immediately because it only lasts a week or two without refrigeration in this hot weather! They managed to save enough money to pay a carpenter to make a stand for an oil press (Very cool, made by Mtiba, check it out, I’m totally getting one when I get home! You guys can make all kinds of cold press oils with all out local nuts at home). I inherited an oil press from B&K (I also inherited the debt too!). In an effort to foster personal responsibility, I told the women I would give them the press if they paid for the stand to mount it. Mr. Liwonde and I tried it out with some sunflowers and after we worked out all the kinks it worked great! The other thing they highlighted was that they want to learn how to knit. Unfortunately, I don’t know how. My Mom doesn’t know this but she will be teaching my how during all those car rides across the Irish countryside! In between we will also do other small classes on relevant topics. Example, last week we had a class on preventing childhood diarrhea. We covered hand washing with a cup tied to a string with holes punched in it (so the dirty water runs off, the two cup system of taking water out of its storage container to prevent contamination, and making your own oral rehydration salts (which are 35 kwacha in the market and people don’t always give them to their kids when they need them because they can’t afford them). We also spent one afternoon making mudstoves—which they totally love! It is such a simple, appropriate technology (there is a development buzz-word for you) in which they modify the traditional three-stone fire so it is more efficient by filling in the spaces with mud to direct the heat toward the pot. This ‘technology’ saves them as much as 30% on firewood! They want to have other classes on making cakes, cooking lessons for increased nutrient intake, and much to my surprise, they wanted to learn how to protect themselves from getting HIV/AIDS. Although I was really excited to see their interest, I was also a bit saddened. I thought to myself: I shouldn’t have to teach you this, you are all married, you should be safe. But all too commonly, this is not the case. For the vast majority of married women, it is not a choice. Their husbands are highly promiscuous and they can’t say no, they can’t force their husbands to wear a condom. On a happier note, I really love working with them on such a regular basis. They are a great group of women and I think they will do really well with a bit of help! (Apologies for the length of that last paragraph).

A "test press" with Mr. Liwonde, we made groundnut oil.

Making mudstoves (sorry the pic is so bad!)

Tilimbike Women's Club. We made gwava jam and they used to profit to pay the carpender to make the stand for the oil press.

Before I left for Senga Bay and Lilongwe I met with the headmaster to discuss the possibility of working at the secondary school. He was immediately excited and said yes. It is really common for Environment volunteers to teach life skills and have Wildlife/Environment clubs at the high schools. I began teaching life skills to Forms 3 and 4 (grade 11 and 12). Life skills in Malawi will cover topics from self-esteem, goal setting, public speaking, HIV/AIDS (BIG topic), healthy relationships, career planning, and job application skills. It is meant to help students in a very practical way beyond just basic reading, writing, and math skills (although important as well). In the first term we focused on self-esteem, peer-pressure, proper relationships, and goal setting.

My favorite lesson (so far) was one where I had the students draw a picture of their future. The students then put their ‘future island’ on the floor on the other side of the river (a big blue cloth). The river had hippos, crocodiles, and snakes in it which were meant to represent the barriers they face when trying to reach their island. Students said they represent things like HIV/AIDS, STIs, lack of parent support, peer-pressure and poverty. The students then got a “bridge” (a big stick) to help them cross the river. After crossing with just one bridge they got a second and found it easy to cross. The bridges represent things like parent support, friends, education, and a positive attitude. Once they crossed the bridge they all shouted, Nditha, which means, I can! It is very rare that students actually visualize their future outside the village life. It was great to see students wanting to be nurses, teachers, radio broadcasters, and lawyers. I left for Senga Bay at the end of the week (just so you know I didn’t do all that stuff in a week, but over the last two months, so don’t be too impressed). I met Audra, Jen, Kory, and Bright at Senga Bay on our way to Lilongwe. It is great to live so close to the beach! We spent the weekend swimming, relaxing, and reading. Senga Bay is a lot cleaner than Nkhata Bay and there are far fewer tourists!

Me, Audra, Kory, and Jen relaxing on the beach (which is funny because we are an inland country). I just love my new site, I can jet to the beach for the weekend. Promise, the green shirts were not all planned, but we are Environment volunteers!

Children fishing in Lake Malawi at sunset.

Senga Bay

Random: Remember that cover of time magazine a while back. Yeah, it was actually Tim Strong. (Hey Tim! How's America?)

We headed into Lilongwe to meet the new Environment group at the airport, just like everyone did for us when my group flew in last year. I cannot explain to you the depth of just how weird it is to be standing at the airport, waving to the new guys coming off the plane. The differences between then and now are so stark! This was my first time back to the airport and I thought to myself, wow this airport is kind of nice as opposed to when we landed a year ago and I thought, oh shit, this place is a total dump what did I get myself into! I remember getting off the plane and meeting the PCVs and thinking, ‘wow, they look so tan, dirty, wise, established, comfortable’. As soon as I saw the new guys I thought, ‘they are so pale, clean, and look totally overwhelmed by what is happening’. February 2008 seems so very far away, yet the year went by so fast. You don’t really recognize the differences until you meet someone who is now where you were. The new kids are completely unrealistic about what they can achieve here, clean, complain about being sick all the time, worry about things that won’t happen and don’t even ask questions about the things that will really bother them, they don’t know what their favorite foods and activities actually are. They are totally bizarre! That said, I really like the new group of Environment volunteers and think they are going to do a great job and fit in really well!

Jen, Sarah, Devin, Alinon. Waiting for the New Env group to land at the airport

We love America!!!!

Bright and Emily waiting at the airport

New and old volunteers (oh God, that's ME!) meeting each other in the airport parking lot.

New Environment Group in Dedza just begining their training. They look so clean!

Can't come into Lilongwe and not go out! Megan and I (we are going to Zambia on safari in August, I'm really excited!)

Another thing I have been working on is exploring the possibility of building a community center. I met with the GVH (group village headWOMAN). That’s right, she is a woman. Good story, so I’ll make a bit of detour here. So, she was next person in line to the GVH because there were no remaining blood relatives (i.e. not married into the family), but her brother-in-law went to the Traditional Authority ((TA) the one above the GVH) and said that he was the ‘only remaining male hier’. Now although that is technically true and he didn’t lie, she was the next in line. After he took over, people went to the TA and told him, that no, this other woman was actually next in line. So the TA removed the brother-in-law from his position and gave the title to her! Awesome! Okay back to the topic of the community center. I met with the GVH and the Village Development Committee, and they thought it was a great idea. So far we have formed a committee of 15 to oversee the project, including at my suggestion, Mr. Liwonde and my friend Annie (she lived in Denver for 5 years and speaks really great English, but now has a shop in town because her husband is stationed here as police chairman). We have met once and they are supposed to write a constitution for the center while I am away for the next three weeks. I am really skeptical that the project will actually work because to get the grant the community will have to contribute 25% of the cost of the project. Generally this cost is usually labor, thatching grass, locally burned bricks, or bamboo. Also because of the size of the project the committee will have to donate a lot of their time. This is where we run into a bit of cultural snafu. Malawians are very helpful and kind, but they don’t volunteer for things like this. Americans are known for volunteering for lots of community projects—almost everyone I know is doing something with some organization, we donate money to lots of causes, we run in races for charity and participate in silent auctions, etc. Now, I’m sure some of you are saying, “but we can donate the 25%”. That would be great, except then it is not a community center, if the community wants the center than the community will have to contribute towards it. That may seem a bit callus, and I hope you all understand, but if I find money to pay people to build the whole thing, then it will never be used: i.e. I will have wasted all your money. Often times with big projects like this volunteers become blind to the problems, they just want to get it finished no matter what problems they run into just to say they have accomplished something. Although it is early in the project and this may not in fact be a problem, I am keeping this issue in the back of my mind. I decided I’m not going to force the project to happen, I would rather do small, individual projects that have a higher probability of continuing once I am gone. I think it would be irresponsible of me to act otherwise (i.e. to act like almost every other well wishing NGO in this country). We shall see!

Last Friday I had an all day nutrition workshop with an HIV/AIDS club that I meet with on a weekly basis. We spent the morning covering food groups, making balanced meals, stressing local foods (which are often more nutritious), safe water practices, and the importance of eating whole grain nsima. We had a great activity were they made a list of foods they buy, find (in the forest), and plant. At first they had almost nothing in the ‘foods we find’ category, but after some prodding (I reminded them of the famine in 2001 and asked them what they ate then) they came up with a HUGE list. The young people learned about new foods they could eat from the old ones. I tried to stress to them that between foods they can plant and foods they can find that they need not spend money on bought foods and that they can eat very healthfully! The other topic that was quite controversial was the difference between eating whole grain and white (processed) corn flour to make nsima. Whole grain is taking straight from the cob to the maize mill while white flour is pounded, the chaff and kernel removed, taken to the mill, then fermented for a day, and finally dried in the sun. By the time they are done processing it is essentially starch. It’s glue, you could make a collage with the stuff. I tried to explain to them that they spend so much money on seeds and fertilizer, and time, but then they just throw away all the nutritious stuff! They told me if they have visitors come and they give them ufa woyera (white flour) that people will think they are lazy. I then replied that is ok to eat is some days, just not all days. I was a fun conversation, but Malawians do not like people messing with their nsima! At the very least I gave them the information and they had a good time. In the afternoon we had some cooking demonstrations: eating things with the skins, steaming instead of boiling, not overcooking vegetables. Much to my surprise they loved the chips (French fries) with the skins!

All day Nutrition Workshop for HIV/AIDS patients. We had a really great turnout of almost 40 people!

That about covers it! As you can see things are going well and I’m really happy in at my new site. In retrospect, I made the right decision. Ok, I’m going to wrap things up because I need to go pack for my vacation! Love and miss, Alicia.

This is a random picture, but I just thought this was so smart! Can you tell what the lamp is made of?

Alicia's Update - March 24, 2009

So my New Years Resolution was to be better at blogging. As you can see I’m doing such a good job at keeping it! Actually I haven’t been avoiding blogging (ok, I have a bit), but SO many things have changed since my last post in mid-December.

When I posted my last post in early December, secret to just about everyone besides my family, I was in the process of talking with PC Malawi about moving sites. Although I have tried to remain positive on my blog, I guess it is time to come clean with all of you: the last year has been extraordinarily difficult. That said, I don’t regret the time that I spent in Mwanza. I do think it is funny that I had almost exactly the same conversation about changing sites with my APCD all the way back in MAY. Although a difficult decision, now in retrospect, it was the right one. After talking with family and friends they all encouraged me to move, sensing that I was incredibly unhappy. The decision was not an easy one because I just felt like I was giving up, that I was abandoning my community, that I couldn’t complete what I had set out to do. As many of you are well aware, I am really stubborn. Throwing my hands up and saying, “I can’t do this anymore” is not in my personality. After long discussions with family and friends, I had to accept that everyone has their limits, even me; and if mine are in a different place than other volunteers then that is OK. It took an additional 3 weeks after Thanksgiving to have to OK from the office, make sure the Department of Forestry would pay my living allowance, and to work out the logistics of the move. It was really a coincidence that I was able to move. Bryan and Keah, second year environment volunteers, are extending for a third year near Liwonde National Park, so I was able to move into their house. Peace Corps and I set a date to move of January 27th, which worked out really well because I could finish up my mushroom project in Mwanza and take an extra long Christmas vacation! So, I returned to my site with the knowledge that was only going to be there for another 1 ½ months. My last few weeks in Mwanza before Christmas was spent training my women’s group how to plant mushroom spawn, care for the mushroom house, harvest and sell mushrooms. We had a three day training covering substrate pasteurization, bag preparation, incubation, placement in the house, harvesting, and house maintenance. Although my Chichewa shills are sub-par, I was able to conduct the training all by myself without the help of any translator. We ate lunch together each day in between the morning and afternoon sessions. The ladies were really enthusiastic and willing to learn a new skill. Mushrooms are very popular in the villages and once they were ready to harvest they had no problem selling them to their friends and neighbors. The women in this group really made my time in Mwanza worth it. Even on days when we didn’t have meetings I would walk down to their village and hang out for the afternoon. We could just sit around and chat, without any pressure, they were interested in my life and my family and friends. They always gave me huge piles of mangoes and were the only people in my village that knew me well enough to know that I love popcorn—especially the crispy burnt half-popped village kind! I hope I was able to provide them with all the information they need for a successful project that will last for many years as well as the skills and confidence to start other projects.

Putting up the clear plastic on the walls

Preparing the pots to pastuerize the substrate

Covering the pots to hold in the steam

Pasteurizing the substrate

Placing the substrate to cool

Placing the substrate and mushroom spawn in the bags

Because I knew I was leaving I took an extra long Christmas vacation. Shortly before Christmas I left site and headed up north to Mzuzu where I met my friend Emily. We travelled to her site near Rhumpi for a village Christmas. On Christmas Day we visited Emily’s friends and brought them cookies and other Christmas gifts. Christmas in Malawi is often an excuse to get drunk (as I remind myself how many Americans drink to get through the holidays!) so walking around town was quite a lot of fun! People that Emily had never seen touch a drop of alcohol were totally demolished. As we made the rounds we drank several obligatory cups of tea, visited friends in the boma and ate lots of doughnuts and cold cokes. In the afternoon we biked to the Stains house. They run a paprika farm near Emily’s house and they invited us to dinner. I drank so many cold cokes I almost made myself sick! We spent the rest of the week eating more doughnuts, visiting friends we didn’t get to on Christmas day, finished off a few books, and made some pretty good village food. Emily and I were only 100 meters from each other during homestay, but now she is up north and I don’t get to see her that often, so it was really nice to spend some time together. (Sorry I only have three pictures from this whole time!).

Drinking Coke and eating donuts at Emily's site in Rhumpi

We travelled back to Mzuzu and then made our way to Nkata Bay for New Years. Nkata Bay is full of rocky shores surrounding a small bay and is a very popular tourist stop in Malawi. We spent our days swimming in the lake and reading under shady umbrellas. As Peace Corps volunteers, we spend our nights drinking when on vacation. It was great to see all my friends that I haven’t seen for a while and just relaxing after a really stressful fall in my village.

Eating at Chipati Lady. The. best. drunk.food.EVER.

Swimming in NkhataBay

Happy New Years 2009.

We are Peace Corps--we love America!

January 1. The drinking continues....

January 2...

View from our hostel over NkhataBay

After New Years, since I didn’t really want to spend too much time back in my village before the move I decided to travel to a remote lodge called Rurarwe. The easiest (or so we thought) way to get there was to take a boat from Nkata Bay to Rurarwe. Averill, Shar-dey, Bright, Jen, and I chartered a boat to leave Nkata Bay at 9 AM. After buying petrol, snacks, packing the boat, etc, we left at 11. The waters within Nkata Bay were pretty calm, but as soon as we got outside the protection of the bay things got a bit more rough. After 2 hours we actually had to pull into this bay in the middle of nowhere (so far out that I don’t even know how the people who live there got down into the ravine) and wait. The driver told us that he wanted to wait until night to travel because the waves would have been smaller. He might have been right, but we were thinking that if the waves stayed this big then we really didn’t want to be travelling at night, and we really wanted to get there! Averill negotiated with the driver to leave at 2 with the condition that he bail out the boat from the water coming over the top (Averill is still convinced that the boat was actually leaking). So, we set back out. Shar-dey was sea sick so she put on her iPod, covered her head with her jacket and ‘danced’ to the waves for the next 4 hours to fight the sea sickness. Bright was so excited to be traveling there that she was totally lost in her book and oblivious to the big waves. Averill put on his life jacket (and if you see pictures of him you will see why this freaked me out) and then kept turning around every 10 minutes to ask me if Shar-Dey (his GF visiting from America) still had life jacket on. Jen couldn’t even read a book because the wind kept blowing waves on her. I could read, but kept looking at the ever increasing size of the waves and the creeping darkness. By time we got there it was dark and we were all soaked to the bone, but Rurarwe was totally worth it. The lodge is tucked away that you can’t even see it from 50 meters away. The youth hostel had a balcony that looked out onto crystal clear lake water were we could see 20 meters to the rocks below. The group dinners of curry and crepes with chocolate sauce were amazing to us village bound PCVs. At night, when it was time to take showers, the staff would heat up a gravity fed tank and you would have to shout at him when you were finished so he could turn off the water! We spent all day in our bathing suits snorkeling, jumping off 26 foot platform into the lake, reading, and napping in the sun. It gave me some time to really think about putting my old site behind me, and moving on to a new site. It was a great way to start 2009. We travelled back down to Nkata Bay via the Illala- the ancient ferry boat that runs up and down the lake. Christmas vacation over I travelled all the way back down the Mwanza to spend my last few weeks in my village before the big move on the 27th.

Jen and I waiting for the waves to pass.

Those smiles are so fake! Averill and Jen

Rurarwe. Can't even tell there is a lodge there, can you!?!

Jumping off the platform--20 meters

The group the went to Rurarwe: Rob, Emily, Jen, Shar-Dee, Averill, Dave, and Bright

Rurarwe

On the Illala going back to NkhataBay. I look very scary in that hat, don't I?

As you all know, during this time Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and on a totally less important note, I turned 25 on the same day. I like to think that I got Barak Obama as my birthday present. To celebrate the day I dressed all in red, white, and blue, and bought mushrooms from my womens group for a ‘fancy’ village birthday dinner. Although a memorable even, I was a bit sad to be spending this historical occasion alone in my village—until I was listening to President Obama’s Inaugural speech. As he was speaking about how America will renew our pledge to help all those in the “forgotten villages” around the world. That was my village, my friends, me, that he was talking to—I was a member in one of those forgotten corners of the world. I was so proud of the United States, my fellow citizens, and my new President. Do I think that Obama will actually affect much change in Africa? Absolutely not. But I do know that people here look up to him. They see a descendant of Africa become the leader of one the greatest nations in the world, an inspiration, and an example for leaders across Africa to follow (and God knows some of them need a good example!). My students tell me they want to be the President of the United States, just like little American children, and I just don’t have the heart to tell them you can’t be a naturalized U.S. citizen. If I slept at all on moving night, I got up even earlier to make sure things were in order before the Peace Corps car picked me up the morning. I had 3 or 4 times the amount of stuff that I actually moved to site with, but with my years of traveling experience I have become an excellent packer and it all fit into one car! I was rather impressed with myself. Three hours later I was giving an “Odi” (what you say when you approaching someone’s house in Malawi—it just means, “hey, I’m here!”) to Bryan and Keah. Keah responded with, “You don’t have to give an ‘odi’ at your own house!”. I was home, and couldn’t be happier about it. (You can take a tour of my house on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j6RVTBWmP8&feature=related).

Glow bracelets for the kids!

Reading books and eating popcorn on my front porch.

Rose and I. Having a last party with Mtendere Mushroom Club.

Mtendere Mushroom Club

Harvesting mushrooms.

All my stuff packed and ready to go to my new site--all in one Land Rover!