1st Week! Get comfy; it's a long one!

So here I am. Karonga, Malawi. Can you believe it? I’ve been here for almost a week, and I’m only now just starting to really realize that I’m here.

We arrived here late Friday evening. Sarah Wdowiak, one of the volunteers who will be staying with us for another year, and Br. Bill, an American Marianist who is the Director of MIRACLE, picked us up from the airport in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We then rode in Br. Bill’s pickup truck all the way up to Karonga, stopping a few times along the way for lunch, dinner, and a few rests. The entire ride was through the countryside and was extremely beautiful. However, Sarah informed us that it is the burning season now, which is when all the farmers burn their fields in preparation for the next planting Additionally, everything is dying since it has been a while since the rains, and it is beginning to get warmer again. So, long story short, according to Sarah and the other volunteers, Malawi isn’t as beautiful right now as it will be after the rains come. Apparently, though, the ‘good sunset season’ just started and will continue into, through, and beyond the rainy season, all the way to January or February. HOW COOL IS IT THAT THERE IS A WHOLE SEASON OF GOOD SUNSETS!?!?! (Anne and Helen, I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures.)

The ride was long, but all of us were excited to finally make it here. We arrived at our house around 9:30PM, where Ryan Dugan and Emily Richardson were awaiting us with a delicious dinner, including cake made from scratch, all prepared by one of our cooks (I’ll write about our cooks later). Saturday we were allowed to sleep in, which we all very much needed, and then we unpacked, and began to get settled. Since then, we’ve had a few house meetings, discussing various things from expectations, hopes, strengths, weaknesses, goals, budget, and other community building issues. I think we are off to a good start, but I know it will take some time for us all to get settled in, including Sarah and Emily, who have to now get re-settled in with the four of us.

The third term of school just started this week. We had our first staff meeting on Monday morning, which was really interesting. It’s very intriguing to be entering into this position. Not only am I learning all about a new culture, but I’m learning about what it is like to simply be an employee—to be a member of a staff—to be a teacher as opposed to a student, which may be a tricky thing for me. The headmaster Mr. Ntala led the staff meeting, and the other teachers shared their views and ideas. I’m finding that everything is very formal here, and hopefully I can describe more the formality of everything later with various stories.
Since we are here, we have officially been welcomed onto the staff, and are expected to start teaching as soon as we can. Luckily, Matt, Kat, and I, the three teaching at Chaminade, have all been given only one subject to teach for this term, and we have mentor teachers with whom we will be observing and then team teaching. Classes started Tuesday, and I think I was a bit overwhelmed by the suddenness of it all. I ended up coming down with a bit of a headache on Monday afternoon, soon a mild fever, and then Monday night I got sick shortly after I went to bed. Luckily I had felt it coming on a little earlier in the night, so I had a bucket next to my bed. Had it not been there, Dugan and Matt, my two roommates probably would have had quite a mess to clean up. I ended up spending the ENTIRE day on Tuesday in bed, which was actually really nice. I think the whole sickness was my body’s way of telling me I needed more rest before jumping into everything. My stomach was pretty upset, and my temperature stayed pretty constant at 1.5 degrees too high. Luckily, my mom bought me a whole bottle of Excedrin so I was able to combat the migraine pretty effectively. I didn’t have any appetite until Tuesday evening when I had some applesauce and pineapple. The acidity of the pineapple probably wasn’t the best thing for my stomach, but the taste was so delicious that it made me feel much better…at least mentally. I slept in pretty late on Wednesday, and then lounged around most of the day watching a movie or two, taking naps, and snacking on the small reserve of American food I have.

During the time my stomach was upset, the smell and even the mere thought of eating rice, nsima (corn mash), or chipati (equivalent of a tortilla)—the three main staple foods here, mind you—all made me even more nauseous. So if you are considering sending a care package, basically ANY American food would be received with jubilation on my part! I already miss fruit snacks, cereals, pasta, pasta sauce, cheese, pizza, yogurt, milk, and ice cream more than I ever imagined I could miss them, and it’s only been a week and a half since I left the US! The volunteers have informed us that Velveeta is a godsend, and I’m already seeing why. It doesn’t have to be refrigerated, so it can be easily shipped, and it brings to us the taste and enjoyment of cheese. I guess even pizza with Velveeta taste good here. In the States I never would have gone for it, but already here, my mouth is watering at the thought of it.

I don’t think I would have begun craving these foods so soon had I not gotten sick, but I found myself very much desiring those things that bring me comfort. It was pretty hard being sick in a place so far from home. Thankfully, Ryan and Matt have been phenomenal roommates, and the girls have been absolutely wonderful in accommodating me and helping to comfort me. Also, the couple of messages I was able to download from my email yesterday were extremely encouraging. It’s amazing how much a message from a friend at home can bring an extra bit of energy; thank you! (And, please, I welcome many new ones! )

It’s now Thursday afternoon. I slept in again today, even though the others have been going to classes, teaching or observing them. They are all supportive of me, though, and are definitely encouraging me to take my time getting better. I don’t want to and they don’t want me to fall back into sickness before I’m all the way well again. Alick and Vicki both have been supportive of me too, which has been very sweet; I can tell they are somewhat like house parents for us. And Frank and Ricky, the two boys who do work around our house for us, have also wished me a speedy recovery every time they’ve seen me. (I’ll tell you more about Frank and Ricky later; much like having cooks, it’s weird to have house boys, but I can already tell that both of them are wonderful young men. Apparently, there is a third one whose name I’m not even going to attempt to spell right now. We’ve heard rumor that he is in jail right now; no one seems to know what that is about. I’ll fill you in when I figure out what is going on there.)

This is getting long, so I should get to closing this. I think I will go observe Sarah’s class tomorrow. She is my mentor teacher, which is really nice. I will only be teaching Social Studies this semester, which is also nice since it shouldn’t be as complicated as Biology. But I do hope to teach Biology in future terms. The education/teaching/learning system seems a bit different here than it is in the States, but I will write more about that in the future, perhaps when I get a better feel for it.

Really, there is a lot I can get a better feel for. I haven’t left the house too much because I’ve been sick. Also because of the sickness, I haven’t had much energy to observe, absorb, or appreciate anything, so I will really only just now be getting into it all.

Rest assured, I am feeling much better now. It’s perhaps the first time in a month or so that I’m feeling close to full energy. July was a whirlwind with the GRE, graduation party, fundraiser, preparations, and goodbyes. Then the week in St. Louis was mentally, emotionally, and physically draining. From there I went straight into a two day string of sleepless flights, stopped in Nairobi, Kenya for a major does of culture shock, hoped on another plane, only to jump in the back of a pickup truck for an 11 hour car ride. (The ride was FREEZING by the way!!! Much of the journey is up into the mountains where it got very cold, especially in the back of a pickup truck. I never would have expected to be shivering on my first day in Africa, but I suppose those surprises make up a part of the beauty of life.) Then once I got here, it felt like we were just being thrown into the ring with no time to get adjusted, so I’m actually quite grateful for these past three days during which I’ve had much time to simply let my body, mind, and spirit rest.

I’ll have unlimited access to the internet here, as long as the electricity and internet are running, which isn’t always the case. (It’s quite typical for the power to go out. Last night it was out for about two hours, so we decided to make a “Blackout Box” in which we put all kinds of suggestions for things for us to do whenever we have a Blackout. None of us shared what we were writing, so all the suggestions will be a surprise to the group. We get to pull two different ones out, and we have to do one of those two. We are all pretty excited for the next Blackout so we can pull out the Blackout Box and see what kind of fun we will have.) However, the internet access is at MIRACLE, which is on the other side of campus and is about a 10 minute walk from our house, so I probably won’t make it over there everyday—actually, you can count on me not making it there everyday. I do have a cell phone, WHICH YOU ARE EXTREMELY ENCOURAGED TO CALL. From what I understand, the best way to do it is to buy an international phone card. Or, if you have skype, you can also call from skype, which is much cheaper than a phone card. Or, if you are interested in talking to me on a regular basis, we can set up a time where we can talk skype to skype, which is free! (That’s what my mom and I will be doing. ) Let me know if you want my phone number. (I can also send/receive texts to/from the US!)

This is ultra long, so I will end this here, but hopefully you all have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy reading about my experiences, challenges, reflections, and other random writings. I enjoy doing it, but let me know what you think. Post a comment, send me an email, or give me a call. What are your thoughts on what I’ve written? Is there something you’d like to know more about? What’s going on in your part of the world? I look forward to hearing from you.