Friday 27 August: Kalino Village

The day we have all been waiting for... brick making day!



A primary school is going to be built in Kalino Village through Villages in Partnership. Since we were in the neighborhood, we thought we'd help make some bricks! Most people make their own bricks for a house or school or whatever, then hire someone else to come in and actually build something out of them. In Kalino, they made bricks out of a patch of earth that they were growing vegetables on last year. What does that say about the soil that they're farming in...

So, to make bricks: first, mud is mixed. Typically, women fetch water, but some men helped. Then, we grab a chunk of mud and slam it into the molds, which have been sitting in water so things don't get too cake-y and dried up.



Then we flip the molds over and leave the bricks out in the sun to dry. We did this by assembly line after a while.



We probably a couple thousand bricks. It takes 30,000 to build a modest home (by their standards; in the US it might be more of a nice, big shed). I'll leave you in suspense about the next steps in brick making for now (we got the full explanation the following day in another village)...

After I washed up a bit to help the women cook lunch, Violet insisted I walk to the well and carry a bucket of water on my head. It wasn't an unreasonable request, or even something I was particularly avoiding. But Violet really, really wanted me to do it, just once. We walked down to the well, which was only a few minutes away from where we were working. Many villages have to walk much further, but in Kalino, the Muslim community had put in a borehole well very close to the middle of the village. Violet wrapped her chitenji up into a little pad for my skull to carry the half-full bucket of water that I'd pumped. I felt terrible because she filled her bucket to the very top (I'd guess 15 gallons) and was carrying it on her head without any sort of buffer. I tried to get her to take back the chitenji since she was letting me carry a lighter load, but no luck-- she is a strong but stubborn girl. It wasn't the most comfortable or graceful thing I did, but I did it, and she was very happy that I had the experience. I was pretty happy too, I think mostly because it seemed very important to her that I try.


I am not in this picture, this was a family walking to a village that was further away from the well


The mosque in Kalino, which the well was built next to

There was a little "tea" break with some boiled cassava and thobwa, this awful lukewarm grainy beverage made from water, corn flour and ground millet. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new foods (at least, vegetarian foods) but this was not something I will not be making back home. Then, we began cooking lunch!



The women all sat together shelling nuts and beans, cutting up other vegetables. Yes, I washed my hands pretty well-- I know what my feet look like here. There was lots of talking, although I wasn't particularly involved in any conversation, but it reminded me a lot of having too many women in the kitchen cooking holiday meals together, what my mom often refers to as being very carefully choreographed (and is so impressed how my sister-in-law has joined the dance so gracefully). Granted, we weren't walking around a busy kitchen here, in fact, they barely had any kitchen tools at all, but it was a really great time of fellowship.

Later, I got to help over the fire as well. Here, I am taking a turn stirring nsima, which I can only describe as trying to stir concrete:



Lunch ended up being completely vegetarian, which is just a fact of life for these people most days, but I was certainly grateful.



We had nsima, nsima made with some ground nuts mixed in, rice, cabbage (made with ground nuts, tomato and onion), lettuce (cooked in the sun with tomato, onion and salt), papaya (cooked with salt and ground up nuts), some fried bananas, and a sort of hot peanut butter (made by grinding nuts and cooking them with a little oil and salt). I ate very well!

I joined a Village Savings and Loan group called Titanzani, which means "let's help each other". Basically, a group of friends and family in a village got together and decided to contribute a little bit of money each week that any member could borrow in a time of crisis or just for entrepreneurial reasons. It then gets paid back, with interest, and each member receives a share of the interest back. The money is kept in a box with three locks, so that three different people hold the keys, avoiding any sort of corruption. I didn't have much to contribute and I don't plan on hunting down my cut of the interest, but they were really excited that members of VIP had joined them (Charlie, the youth pastor/documentary maker on our team, is also a member of this particular VSL).

Tree of the day: moringa tree, which I learned about on a walk to the well with Mwalabu. The leaves of the tree, crushed up and cooked (usually with porridge) work just as well as ARV's in treating HIV/AIDS. Incredible. There is a lot of research being done on how to do this sustainably and on a larger scale, but it's so amazing that these possibilities exist.

After a day of hard work, we went back to Namagazi to quickly shower and then visit the Chinamwazi CCAP church for a time of worship and potluck dinner. There was a lot of singing and dancing, and despite our exhaustion, it was really great. We were all given chitenji of our own!


Men don't wear chitenji, so they wrapped Bob's around his shoulder like kings used to wear them


so so so many dishes!


my plate, piled high with vegetables

Dinner was great, although lunch had been a bit late in the afternoon and I was still rather full. I had a pineapple Fanta and sat with a bunch of choir members and youth workers, talking about what our programs are like at my home church and what sorts of things they're up to. It was all very good, but I was so exhausted. Liz rescued me from conversation around 10.30 and we probably didn't leave for another 20 minutes. I was so, so happy to climb into bed after such a long day.

Thursday 26 August: agriculture and meetings

Another glorious day at the foot of the Zomba Plateau


We found ourselves with a bit of extra time between breakfast and heading back to the villages, so we were able to walk around the Namangazi Farm and talk about agriculture in Malawi. You know I was all up in this conversation!



Here you can see cabbage, fish ponds, and off in the distance, papaya and rice. They are experimenting with larger varieties of cabbage here. The fish ponds are fed by a little stream that comes down from the plateau. There are a few wet patches on the other side of the fish ponds where they are growing rice, but there were also drier rice plants elsewhere on site. Papaya is something being encouraged more recently, because it's relatively easy to grow in Malawi and has some great health benefits. It wasn't a particularly well known or popular fruit until recently.

Mwalabu (from Synod) and Nelson (a groundskeeper for Namangazi) walked around the farm with us. Namagazi was an agricultural experimental center run through Blantyre Synod, at least, until the crooked accountant kind of brought them down. The place is still open as a hotel and they do raise a lot of their own food, but the program is not as extensive as it used to be. Still, there is hope that they will be able to return to hosting farmers from the villages to teach new agricultural practices. The emphasis is on "Farming God's Way" which is a transition to organic, low-impact farming over the course of a few years. This includes a switch from chemical fertilizers to manure and compost over the course of a few growing seasons and leaving crop residue to reduce erosion and to continue a composting cycle to enrich the soil, among other techniques. I won't bore you to death about farming. It was a really beautiful place to walk around though.

In the villages, we met with the Village Development Committee and Area Action Committee, leaders from the villages in the Sakata catchment. After many introductions (everyone has to be very formally introduced every time-- this goes for us and them!), long discussions began about the work being done through VIP. They were very excited and grateful for all of the changes in the villages.

Looking through my other entries about Malawi, it seems I have not yet introduced you to Daniel Bonongwe. My apologies! This is as good a time as any. He is VIP's community worker in Sakata. He is a high-energy, charismatic, friendly, hard working, awesome person. With a very, very memorable smile.



In the middle of the meeting he decided everyone was getting to sleepy, and proposed an energizer-- a game called Zip, Zap, Zoom that I actually learned in 2003 from a guy I worked with at camp who was from New Zealand. Amazing how connected the world is! And it was hilarious to see all of these leaders, some of whom seemed a bit stodgy, get silly and laugh together as we attempted to play the game.

After a traditional village meal sans silverware at Mwalabu's sister's home (how on earth do people eat rice with their hands without making a huge mess?!), we met with the village chiefs and the Traditional Authority (another leader who is in charge of exactly what it sounds like). An awesome moment in this meeting for me was that during the introductions, Mwalabu introduced me as "Amayi Colleen Earp". My name is very difficult for Malawians to pronounce, but I enjoy hearing them take a stab at it (Mwalabu always did pretty well, speaking very slowly and carefully so my name didn't sound like rude noises). But more importantly was the Amayi. Mayi literally means "mother" but is used like we would use Mrs. or Ms. Adding the "a" in front of it is an additional sign of respect... a huge turnaround from my first meeting with Mwalabu, when he thought I was a child. Despite being the "young one" one this trip, as I was frequently introduced, it seems that people did respect me. It was a very welcoming feeling.

Wednesday 25 August: meeting friends in Sakata

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We traveled to the Sakata region near the city of Zomba in the morning along a very rough road for about an hour and a half. We actually stayed at an agricultural center near the villages, but since I didn't get to see much of it until the second day, I won't focus on that now. We dropped off our bags and headed straight to Kanuple, where a health clinic had been built during the last two years. There we would meet with many villagers as we distributed chicks that had been donated through Villages in Partnership.


the clinic, and Zomba Plateau in the distance

Actually, the clinic was pretty sweet. There was classroom space as well as a room for health workers to come run clinics, examining patients and giving out basic medication and supplies like soap. Tree of the day: mango tree. You can see one small one right at the corner of the clinic building, but the site of the clinic is very close to a pair of much larger mango trees, under which many villagers and leaders met with the people from the Allentown Presbyterian Church in 2008, which lead to the formation of Villages in Partnership, which lead to the building of this clinic and many other projects that we'd visit in the coming days. Actually, a few of my teammates had helped make the mud bricks that became part of the clinic. I was thrilled to see such a major accomplishment, but it was especially exciting for them to see.

Most of this trip was focused on meeting with people and talking about the issues they were facing, not necessarily doing the labor and leaving tangible change. The goal was to show the villagers that we are not just some blind benefactors far away, but we truly care about their progress and want to work with them to accomplish the things that they think are most important.


Liz, our leader, talking with some of the village women with Violet's help

Helping us communicate was Violet, the furthest right in the picture above. When I met her, I immediately liked her. She's really spunky and sweet. However, I struggled to have conversation with her for most of the first day because I could not for the life of me place how old she was. Was she in school? Was she married? Was she a mother? I didn't want to ask questions that might come off as offensive or stupid. Late in the day, I learned that she is 20, and has a 3 year old daughter. Violet didn't finish secondary school, presumably because she got married and had a baby. However, she dreams of completing secondary school and going to college to become a nurse.


Bob, the president of VIP, handing off one of the chicks

After the chick ceremony, we toured some of the farmland in Sakata. Our visit was during the end of the dry season, which is usually when the food starts running out from the previous harvest. One of the reasons for the shortage of food is the shortening of the growing season due to climate change. They just can't grow as much as they need. Another reason is because of the lack of irrigation infrastructure.


Above are some small plots that are constructed this way to help reduce erosion when irrigated-- this has been made possible by negotiating a little bit of waterfront land and connected a series of long hoses to the manual water pump picture below! It is basically like a Stairmaster, and once it gets going, it's really quite easy. I imagine pumping water loses its novelty quickly, but it's easy enough for people to take turns, and makes a huge difference in their ability to grow more food for more of the year.




It was easy enough for the smaller boy to work steadily on his own. I think the bigger boy just jumped on to help when he saw all of the cameras out!


We visited with a man (pictured above) who received a goat from VIP, based on his neighbors decision that his family was at risk. He is a pastor in his village (Roben), and he and his wife are sending their two children to school, plus two other children who were orphaned who they've taken in, plus another child or two besides whose father is not in the picture for whatever reason. Pastor Sewula's goat was pregnant, and he gave the kid to another family in need. In talking with him, he seemed very dedicated to the concept of paying it forward. His goat is pregnant again. Not sure what that says about the goat, but it is good news for the villages, who see goats as security.

It actually rained at the end of our time with Pastor Sewula, which is absurd because it's the dry season. However, it was warm and gentle, so it was not a bad thing. The VIP team walked back to our vehicles with probably two dozen children following us. They were excited to hold our hands and walk with us. Unable to communicate with the little kids who haven't learned much, if any, English yet, I just acted silly, taking large steps or jumping or skipping and dragging them with me. This brought so much laughter, which was more than adequate means of communication.


sunset over Zomba Plateau, through the rain clouds

Tuesday 24 August: Mbayani and maize mill

On this day we visited Mbayani, an urban village (which is defined as not having land and agriculture; it's like a small city, though this one in particular is an impoverished slum).



We received a warm welcome. I wondered throughout the coming days, who taught children in villages to pose for cameras?



There was a large program full of singing, dancing and dramas before we toured the village. These two women below were sitting very close to me. I thought they were really beautiful.



Touring Mbayani was difficult. I think I was better prepared to see the poverty and struggles than most of my team-- I've been studying and reading about the region for quite a few years now. It's not that I was unaffected. I was definitely moved by the hardships these people face, I just knew roughly what I was going to see before I saw it.



Above is a household we visited and gave some groceries (cooking oil, rice, tea, soap, candles and matches, etc.). Amazingly minor staples in my kitchen at home, but a very moving gift for this family. The girl on the left is the head of the household. She's 17. She has AIDS. Where will her younger siblings go when her time comes? We visited two other homes, one which was also child headed, and one which was headed by an older woman who is also ill. We delivered some groceries to them as well. All three families were chosen by their neighbors to receive our visits. That's one of the things I really love about Villages in Partnership-- they enable development and aid projects to occur, but leave a lot of the decisions about priorities in the villagers' hands. I love how even though the neighbors may have so, so little, they still knew they had more than these kids.

I learned most of my Chichewa on this day. A boy named Patrick, age 14, walked throughout Mbayani with the team, helping carrying things. He would say a phrase and expect me to get it the first time, forcing me to practice greetings and introductions and instructions with everyone we passed by. In theory, Chichewa is not very hard for an English speaker to learn. Since it was British colonists who first wrote the language down, it makes phonetic sense. There are a few tricks though that made it difficult to pick up instantly. I wasn't used to listening for the different between the "r" and "l" sounds... there really isn't much of one. It's very subtle and I miss it almost every time. I think I'm decent at pronouncing all of the unfamiliar consonant combinations though, lots of "nd" and "mb" and so on. Patrick wrote many phrases down for me, but there was just so much to take in as we walked around Mbayani that I found myself stressed out when he would walk me up to an older woman and demand I ask her, in Chichewa, for her name (Zinalako ndani?), or having me ask a group of children if I may take their picture (Ndikujambure?). However, I was fortunate that this was my most challenging experience in my visit to Malawi so far. The lessons did pay off when I was able to say to everyone as I left, "Ndapita. Ndizabweranso!" (I am going. I will come back again!)

Later, we visited one of the Machinjili's maize mills.

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This was amazing to me. Maize is an important staple in Malawi, used to make nsima, porridge and thobwa (this warm beverage made from water, corn flour and millet. It's often used as a meal substitute, to give energy until dinner. It was grainy and not the most pleasant thing that I would try during my trip). Serah grew up in the village and could describe the labor involved in grinding corn into flour. They would start at dawn and finish around lunch time. Half the day spent just preparing the food-- it still needed cooking! Then we watched some people run their maize through the mill. It took only a few minutes.

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One of the projects Villages in Partnership is getting going is bringing a maize mill and the electricity infrastructure it requires to the village. Can you imagine how life changing it will be? The women will have so many more hours free in a day, to go to school, to cultivate other/more foods, to pursue other business ventures, to take care of themselves. It's incredible.

We finished the day by going out for Chinese food with the Machinjili family. It seemed a bit odd, but it was very good. And everyone was very amused when I followed through on Liz's dare to speak Chinese to the workers. Thank goodness for my semester and a half of Mandarin!

Monday 23 August: Chinupule and Health and Development Commission

In the morning, we visited a slum called Chinupule to spend some time with a women's prayer group there.

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This is the most joyful group of women I have probably ever met. They are by no means wealthy. Some are single, some are widowed. Some are raising their grandchildren because their own children have died. They do not have much, but the fact that they have each other seems to suit them just fine. Despite their struggles, they welcomed us with such joy and excitement. We sang and we danced. We spent some time looking in the school, a one room concrete building where the children all crowd in together to sit on the floor and learn. These women promised to take minibusses down to the airport to see us off. We know they made good on this!

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a picture on the wall in the classroom-- interesting, because I didn't see any ducks except on safari later in the trip

one of the school teachers walking around Chinupule

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The rest of the day was spent at the Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission. This is when we met Wellings Mwalabu, the director of programs at BSHDC, pictured above on the left. He is a well educated man working with the Livelihoods Program, focused on environmental and agricultural issues like climate change and conservation. Our first meeting was a bit awkward for me-- he asked one of the women on our team if I was a girl (meaning a child-- I look young everywhere in the world!). He was not expecting a graduate student who would ask him tons of questions about climate change, tree species, agricultural methods and conservation efforts in the following days. Thankfully we got to spend a lot of time with him in the coming days, because I really did have a lot of questions. Also, our first meeting with him was somewhat overshadowed by a doctor involved with the health aspect of the BSHDC. It was a very useful discussion, but we definitely spent more time focused on health issues in Malawi than Livelihood issues as the meeting was originally intended.



The BSHDC only recently gained "health" into its name. Really though, health and development are closely tied together. We discussed some of these issues with Dr. Roland, who is from Holland. Malawi has no cardiologists, no oncologists, and no ventilators. The country received its first CT scan machine in 2008. There are only 4 or 5 Malawian OB/GYNs, maybe a few more including expats but still less than a dozen for the 14.5 million people in the country. The top killer is malaria, but number two is rather predictable: HIV/AIDS (number 3 is tuberculosis and other respiratory problems). I was surprised to learn that most of those with the disease have completed a secondary education and are married. I would assume the opposite, but the tendency for the educated to move away from their families in order to work and support them, and the instability of such a lifestyle, are apparently where the problem lies. The government and various NGO's have brought the rate of HIV/AIDS down to 12% nationally, most notably through the testing of pregnant women for the virus and providing appropriate medications to prevent transmitting it to the baby. There is also a huge emphasis on public health, which is where this all ties into development. Clean water. Sanitation. Basic hygiene. Family planning.

This is what I wrote at the end of that day: "The meeting ran later than expected? Planned? Hard to say since schedules seem loose here, which is fine." This would become the ongoing theme, but I didn't mind for the most part since I was a very happy sponge, soaking up all sorts of information and stories and songs.

Sunday 22 August: CCAP and Synod visit

We started the day by attending the St. Columba CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian-- I don't understand why they phrased it that way either) in Blantyre, a very large church with both Chichewa and English services. We went to an English service, and all of all the Sundays to visit, worship happened to be lead by the children that day. It was very interesting to watch the children sing and dance and recite verses, but it was also interesting to see the different degrees of "Sunday best", particularly with the girls. Boys wore shorts and some sort of t-shirt or dress shirt. Girls though, quite a variety in dress. Some wore skirts with t-shirts (including one girl who had on a Hooters t-shirt, inside out), some with dress shirts. Some wore dresses-- one little girl sticks out in my mind, who was wearing a sea-green colored satin dress with a totally busted zipper, so her back was totally exposed. One little girl who had on a dress with a broken strap. Few wore shoes, but most wore socks. Some were barefoot. It was just amazing to me how they all came together in this one place with the best they had to offer, and how varied "best" can be.

The rest of the day was relatively low-key. We actually spent a bit of time around the Blantyre Synod grounds (for those of you not Presbyterian savvy, a group of Presbyterian churches in some geographic region forms a Presbytery, a group of Presbyteries in some geographic region forms a Synod-- in Malawi, there are three Synods; in the US there are sixteen). The grounds were really lovely.


amazing tree on the Synod grounds that I still need identified... clearly tree of the day

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St. Michael and All Angels church, constructed in the late 1800s by Scottish Presbyterians, one of many beautiful buildings on the Synod grounds

As the sunk sank behind the mountains, we walked around the cemetery on the Synod grounds. It sounds kind of creepy, but it was actually rather serene. I noticed many things as I walked down row after row of graves. It seems people either live to be very old (80s and 90s) or die pretty young (30s, or infancy). I'm sure HIV/AIDS explains some of that away. There's a whole generation missing. A lot of the given names were English and Biblical, or at least related to Christianity-- Blessings, Mercy, Innocent, as well as countless Michaels, Davids, Marys, Sarahs, etc. I saw a Janet (a name that runs heavily in my family), a Deron (I went to college with one of those). We walked by many graves that were well settled before walking into a section full of fresh plots. Months fresh, weeks fresh... and days fresh. Previous to this experience, I had only ever spent time in cemeteries while attending funerals, or walking around Civil War cemeteries with my dad during college. This was definitely different from both of those experiences. It's hard to explain exactly what I was thinking and feeling there.

I wandered to the back of the cemetery on my own and watched the sun set.



We all left together very soon after that.

August 20-21: arriving!

I figured the best way to share my adventure is from the beginning. But what can one really say about a 15 hour flight followed almost immediately by a 2 hour flight, followed by many hours of trying to stay awake till a reasonable time in the evening to stave off some of the inevitable jet lag?

The flights themselves... I'm usually decent at sleeping while in transit, but you can only sleep so much of 17 hours away, especially when you're excited beyond belief. Maybe I slept for 5 or 6 of those hours, but that still leaves more than 11 to... contemplate the deeper meaning of my excitement? Think about sleeping? Stare out the window and try to guess which major city we were flying past in the middle of the night along the western coastline of the African continent (true story, I did that, and was actually pretty good-- I was wrong about Nouakchott, shame on me)? I generally pass the time on long flights by watching movies that I'd be embarrassed to watch with anyone at home-- stupid chick flicks that don't require much brain function to watch and that I won't regret falling asleep in the middle of. However, two that I will admit to: The Princess and the Frog, which was awesome, and Marley and Me, which was a terrible choice given my own somewhat recent loss. I also killed time dozing on and off to two great albums: Kind of Blue and Time Out. That was a good choice.

So, I passed the time. It was chilly when we exited on the tarmac at O.R. Tambo International Airport and hurried off to our next flight to Blantyre, Malawi. The landing in Blantyre was extremely memorable-- it's a shorter than average runway, so the flight descends at a steeper angle, resulting in two landings with a large bounce in between. But, we arrived safely around lunchtime, and were soon met by our leader, Liz, and our hostess for our time in the city, Serah Machinjili.

We didn't do much for the rest of the day besides fight to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime. We had tea (which would happen many times each day, a small sign of the British heritage) and snacks upon our arrival at the Machinjili family's home in Blantyre-- various fruits and nuts that were grown fairly locally.



Dinner was a mix of traditional foods (nsima) as well as some that any of you would recognize (salad, green beans, steak, which I clearly skipped). The power went out about as soon as dinner ended, which happens every second or third night for a few hours. I didn't make it much longer before absolutely crashing with some encouragement from the cool weather and the lack of light pollution...

This is the story of how we begin to remember.

The subject is a line from Paul Simon's "Under African Skies" which was admittedly stuck in my head as I was leaving on August 20th, at which point I used the lyric about walking the length of the days under African skies as my facebook status. Nerdy, I know, but appropriate. Over the next few weeks I'm planning on sharing some of my stories and journal entries on here, but in the meantime, here's what I accomplished in my visit to Virginia over the weekend:

• Still not on Eastern time, woke up and drove down to Paul's in Alexandria early Saturday. Stopped in to say hello and then met Taylor and Scott for lunch on King Street. Good to see them!
• Took a nap back at Paul's because I wasn't functioning. Woke up after a little over an hour and was functioning at a lower level than before, just in time to meet a few of his friends who were over for the football games. I bet I made an awesome impression. Sorry guys!
• Ended up heading into D.C. to meet a group of internationals I worked with over the summer and wandered around with them for a bit. There was an awesome sunset as we crossed the mall. Great to see everyone (Julia, Gyöngyi, Timi, David and Dave) before they continued traveling and heading home!
• Went back to Paul's and caught the end of the game. Stepped away to brush my teeth and continued my good impression on his friends by not saying goodbye, since the games all ended and they left before I returned. My bad.

Sunday was Jeremy and Adrienne's wedding in Fredericksburg!

• I went down several hours early to veg/ pretend to make lesson plans for Tuesday at Hyperion. I love love love that place. If there is one thing I really feel that Rutgers is missing, it's a good, local coffee shop like that. I actually ran into Ross and Matt as they were heading off to do groomsmen stuff, which was fun like old times. Actually, one of my favorite random memories of the end of senior year was running into the two of them there on a gorgeous day and just sitting for an hour since I had little else to do anyway. Oh, Hyperion. So lovely.
• I walked around town for a little while, seeing what's new and what's old, before heading over to the Presbyterian Church (which is definitely old). The wedding ceremony itself was hands down the shortest I've ever been at, but the pastor got all of the important things in there. It was downright impressive. And also beautiful. I just totally adore Jeremy and Adrienne together.
• The reception was at the Alumni Center and was a totally classy affair. It was great to catch up with music department friends despite the fact that my travels have left me a bit under the weather*.
  
• After, some of us went to the Kenmore Inn. How didn't I know where this was?! Pathetic. But there are a lot of major historic sites in Fredericksburg, so I guess it's fair to not know every single one of them. We hung out in the basement, which seems like a pretty cool place to go with people. I was still feeling the jetlag though so I went back to Alexandria for the night.

Monday was a really nice day.

• I met up with my dear college roommate Brittany and walked all over Old Town Alexandria. For all the times I've visited Paul, I haven't really walked around that part of the city. Brittany and I walked from Braddock Road down to King Street and to the waterfront, where we happened upon the Torpedo Factory. This is a place I actually learned about in a geography class once! We checked out some of the art inside and continued along the waterfront. I love seeing this woman. I'm so glad we were able to coordinate!
  
• Then back to Fredericksburg for a quick run-in with my friend Noah and a few of his people. He had gotten back from England the night before after spending the summer there. He might have been the only person I saw over the weekend who looked more exhausted and crazy than I did. Sorry Noah...
  
• I spent the afternoon with my cousin Laura, who just started at Mary Washington. She grew up somewhat near Fredericksburg but hasn't really walked around town and figured it out for herself yet. However, she seems to be doing great at school and we had a lot of fun getting ice cream and checking out other shops and houses downtown. I am loving this excuse to get to know her better, and also to stop in Fredericksburg even though my friends have all graduated and moved on!
• In the evening, the plan was to meet Taylor, Alison and Scott for dinner, but the latter two were at a wedding, so really Taylor and I just people watched from benches on campus walk for a while before deciding we weren't hungry and traffic wasn't going to be that bad. I made the drive home in decent time despite some initial congestion (people returning from holiday weekend?) so that I could be well rested for my first day back in the classroom today.

Total mileage: 627. Good weekend. I really need to spend some time relaxing though. I realized going into the weekend that I haven't slept in the same place for more than six consecutive nights since... at least January, quite possibly actually last year. The new quote in my blogger profile is from my friend Becky, who is working on settling down a little bit after serving in Peace Corps with her husband and then traveling the world a bit. It's kind of true. My toothbrush is in the same place each night though-- my travel toiletries bag...

flying into the future

I'm safely back in New Jersey!... for a couple of days.

Like I said, I have no idea where to begin with telling you about my awesome time in Malawi. I suppose the best way to start is with the end, since that was the most recent part. In the coming weeks, I'll post some snippets from the journal I kept. You can look through some of my photos here in the meantime.

Yesterday morning, the team had a nice breakfast together with our hosts in Blantyre, the Machinjili family. The power was out, which is actually unusual-- there are planned power outages several times a week, but those happen at night when everyone is using the most electricity. Even so, Serah provided us with plenty of cereals, fruits and bread as well as our morning tea.

Breakfast felt relaxed. We spent a few minutes celebrating Crystal's 17th birthday, too. Once we got in the cars though, we ran all over Blantyre trying to accomplish last minute errands, deposits, purchases, goodbyes. We arrived at Chileka Airport a little bit later than anticipated, but as we learned over the past two weeks, very little runs on time. It was a small airport, and it took us a while to get through security, but our plane didn't even arrive until it was time for us to depart... so... yeah.

The amazing part about leaving was that a women's prayer group that we met early in the trip took minibuses from their village all the way to the airport just to send us off. They stood at the edge of the parking lot singing and dancing and hugging. It was really joyful and amazing. Then, even after we parted ways there, they remained and took over the end of this balcony overlooking the runway, so they could wave to us as we got on the plane and took off-- that wasn't for about another hour! That was the warmest farewell I may ever have received.

Chinupule women

Then things got a bit sticky. During the two hour flight from Blantyre to Johannesburg, I learned that I wasn't booked as a vegetarian and there weren't any extra veggie meals. Two hour flight? Not a big deal. Enjoyed the bread and salad that comes with the meal. They suggested that when I checked in at Johannesburg, I let them know that they needed to get an extra emergency vegetarian option on board, because an 18 hour flight is a whole different story.

No such luck. I understand these things need to be planned ahead of time, but in a travel/ hospitality/ service industry, I expected some sort of flexibility or contingency plan to accommodate crazy people like me. Nope. There was no chance of me getting a proper meal unless some vegetarian didn't show up. And of course, it seems that I am currently out of good travel karma... I obviously lived on bread and salad and crackers but it was a bit frustrating. At least the team was able to relax and share beers in O.R. Tambo Airport before flying to Dakar and New York City... the organization's president bought us all Castle, a South African brew, which were probably nothing exciting by any means, but was absolutely perfect in the moment.

Today's sunrise caught up with us as we passed between Bermuda and Nova Scotia. The colors were really amazing. I found myself thinking about the next few days-- I head to Virginia to celebrate a friend's wedding this weekend, and then back to school on Tuesday (to teach. I'm done with courses!). I've been trying really hard all day to stay awake, hoping that if I went to bed at a reasonable hour and was super exhausted, I might sleep off some of the six hour time difference. I don't really have time to recover from the travel part of my trip (the homecoming took over 26 hours, start to finish), but my life keeps moving forward and I'm happy to keep up as best I can!

sending my love from the warm heart of Africa

My time in Malawi is almost done, and it has been a really amazing adventure. I am worried that when talking about this trip, I won't really know where to begin.

I have seen many smart, hardworking people who would be very successful had they been born somewhere else in the world.

I have witnessed several wells in various stages of completion-- freshly dug, nearly completed, being dedicated.

I have tried many different traditional foods. I love cabbage so so much.

I have learned a bit of Chichewa.

I have carried a bucket of water on my head (of which there is no photographic evidence).

I have sang and danced (of which there is also no photographic evidence, intentionally).

I have made bricks from mud that will be used to build a primary school.

I have been presented with a rooster (so I wouldn't be hungry on my long journey home).

I have negotiated prices at the market.

I have learned about many different tree species.

I have discussed agriculture and climate change and conservation efforts.

I have been a part of something really wonderful here in Malawi.



PS: I can't wait to show you all the pictures of the elephant I was ten feet away from on my safari trip!

en route to the airport in 6 hours!

I think I've always been decent at packing for travel, but I think I just brought this to new heights. I managed to put all of my clothes (ALL! for TWO WEEKS!) into one standard sized carry on suitcase. My toiletries and over 40 pounds of donated supplies made it into the infamous black duffel bag. I have a backpack that has various important objects (passport, wallet, journal, etc.) but also enough space to carry a few things for the others I'm travelling with.

Tomorrow morning I'll meet the team at check-in, where we will each check at least one 50 pound bag of just supplies, plus our second 50 pound bag mixed with our own things and supplies, plus we're each carrying two carry ons that are a mix of our things and supplies. Probably 500 or more pounds of things to give away. This is so amazing.

I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to update while I'm over there, but there is a chance I might be able to post a little something once or twice. Regardless, I can't wait to share my awesome experience with you when I get back! Thanks so so much for all of the well wishes and support.