Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the warm heart of Africa. While we couldn't celebrate with out friends and family in the states we are at the Lake with our Peace Corps Family. We hope everyone has a great Christmas day!

Kid's Korner: How do you poop?

Question: How do you poop?

The same way you do! But perhaps you were asking how is human waste disposed of.

Short Answer: In Malawi, the answer depends on where you live. Indoor plumbing is very common within the major cities so, just like in the USA, pull a lever and away it goes. Out in the villages people dig pit latrines called a chimbuzi.

A chimbuzi with a fancy hand washing station.

A slightly more complicated answer: A chimbuzi is just like an outhouse. (Ask your grandparents.) A large pit is dug, then boards are placed over the pit leaving a small hole for the waste. Then a layer of mud or concrete is placed on top of the boards to create a floor. Finally mud or bricks are used to create the walls and a roof is placed on top. After many years, once the pit has filled to the top, the pit is capped and a new pit is dug else where. Often trees are planted near the pits so that the nutrients in the waste can be utilized.

A chim hole

How to use a chimbuzi

The we like to be different answer: While we have a chimbuzi, we don't use it. We wanted to be able to use the nutrients (fertilizer) in the waste so we collect ours in a bucket. Each time we use it we 'flush' with a handful of ash and a handful of leaves to control smell and absorb liquid. When the bucket gets full we take it out and add it to our compost pile. The waste is broken down by bacteria and worms into nutrients (fertilizer) that the plants can use and removes harmful bacteria that can get us sick. We then add it back into our garden for more food.

Composting Toilet with bucket inside.

Not everyone in Malawi has a way to get rid of their waste so they partake in what is called "open defecation" (pooping on the ground). Also, in certain parts of the country, seasonal rains flood out the latrines so they are unusable leading to open defecation. As Peace Corps Volunteers it is our job is to teach about positive waste management. How to use and build pit latrines or alternative systems like compost toilets.

But how do you use the bathroom when you're in the car? No gas stations here so, you pull over on the side of the road and drop trou!

Next time on Kids Korner: 

If you don't have electricity, how do you cook?

Happy Thanksgiving from Malawi!

Here in Malawi most people are just starting to plant for the upcoming growing season but since it is the fourth Thursday in November it is a great chance to share some American Culture with some of our Malawian friends.

We made this for you!

Tara and I were joined by five other Peace Corps Volunteers for a few days of wonderful cooking and feasting. One activity of the day was to draw the male and female reproductive organs. Tara is teaching youth about 'Their Changing Bodies' this weekend at the Clinic's Youth Friendly Health Services. 

Genitalia are fun!

We also kept her family's tradition of drinking mimosas alive.

It wasn't enough.

Today we invited both of our counterparts along with our landlord and his family. We cooked some Thanksgiving staples like Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, and Sweet Potato Pie but did not cook a Turkey. One, because half of us are vegetarian and two, no one wanted to slaughter and eviscerate a turkey.

What a sweet spread!

We shared with them that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to spend time with lots of family, be thankful for all that we have, and continue a tradition celebrating the end of the growing season and a bountiful harvest. Some of the things that people were thankful for were a chance to meet new friends, having so many friends to share the day with, and having great friends and great food.

Feast Time!

Success is SLOW

"What are you guys actually doing there?"

"What are you working on?" 

"Is the the work hard?" 

All of these are questions we get on a semi-regular bases from folks back home.  So I thought I would share with you a quick story from one of my projects.  At some point we will update all of our amazing admirers on all of our projects.  It's just that right now, we're not 100% sure what all of our projects are!!   

During my first four months at site I had numerous challenges and struggles. At times, it has felt like the challenges outweigh the successes. Some of the things that have been easier to adapt to than others are cooking on a fire, carrying water, not having electricity and bathing in a bucket. Some of the more difficult things are being isolated, walking an hour to find food/vegetables, only having access to food/vegetables once a week, feeling like the community does not want us, and not having neighbors. Through all this I feel like I have two major successes during my first four months at site:  being a counselor at Camp GLOW 2014 and co-facilitating my first child projection/child rights training. Since I have already shared with you about GLOW I thought I could fill you all in on something that is happening in our community.  My first training stands out in my mind as my personal best success. Though it was a difficult day, when it was over I felt like I was in Malawi for all the right reasons.

The training consisted of 19 teachers from three different schools and was mostly men. The topics covered ranged from basic human rights, to child abuse, to the role of a duty bearer in the case of child abuse. One of the topics found us discussing some of the situations that might put a child or a woman at risk of abuse. This brought up three disturbing myths:
1) Males cannot be raped.
2) Promoting condom usage leads to more sex, which leads to more STDs, pregnancy and HIV.
3) Children and women are abused for a reason; they would not be abused if they had not done something to solicit the attention.

All of these myths bothered me and set me on the defensive at first but it did not take long for me to feel thankful that I was there when they did come out. My colleagues leading the training with me, while not in agreement, did not contradict these opinions. As each topic arose I was able to have lengthy discussion as to why these were false and to have the teachers come up with realistic opportunities to discuss them with their learners.

The one that took the most amount of time in discussion was number three. Half of the participants, both male and female, felt that if a person was abused physically, emotionally, and especially sexually they must have done something to lead to that result. Whether it was doing a chore incorrectly that would demand physical punishment or wearing short skirts and flirting with a teacher there was always a scenario that would lead to it ultimately being the victim’s fault that abuse had taken place. At one point, to make sure I was understanding, I posed the question: “In the case of abuse who is at fault, the abused or the abuser?”. There was an overwhelming response that it was the abused fault “If she didn’t want to be raped, why would she wear short skirts?” is what one male teacher said to me.

Again, while this was disappointing to hear from a group of teachers I was so happy that it came out in a child protection setting. We were able to discuss the definition of “power”, “abuse”, “rape”, and “duty bearer” in a way that was culturally appropriate but also made sure that the essence of these words and definition, on a global scale, were not missed. Not every teacher left that training with a changed mind, but a few did. Later I posed the question: “Do you think anyone wakes up in the morning and says ‘I want to be abused today’?”. Some of the participants that had earlier stated that it was the abused fault changed their answers and said of course not.

It was hard and frustrating but so rewarding to be able to use my previous skills and passions and apply them to the work I am doing and will continue to do in Malawi. I not only broadened my knowledge and understanding of a topic I am familiar with but I was able to transfer some of my knowledge to others.   

Finally Doing African Things

We recently took a vacation to Kuti Community Wildlife Park in Salima, Malawi.  Instead of being a government owned national park or game reserve, Kuti is a nonprofit trust that is working with the surrounding communities to protect the reserve.  The reserve also hosts a Peace Corps Volunteer who is assisting with outreach and education for the communities.  The park is focusing on deforestation since Malawi has the world's 5th highest deforestation rate.  In addition to planting trees, the park is teaching the community how to make fuel briquettes out of waste materials and how to make mbaulas (clay stoves) that require less fuel than an open fire.  These projects help the communities use less firewood and also provide them with some income.  For more information about Kuti go to www.kuti-malawi.org

Nothing is more adorable than a father and son outing.

Kuti differs from the National Parks and Game Reserves in the lack of large dangerous mammals.  There are no Lion, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, or Elephant.  This is actually a huge benefit.  We were free to hike around the park on our own without a guide or guard, getting as close to the animals as they would allow us.  We were able to see, but not get photographs of all, Giraffe, Zebra, Sable, Warthog, Impala, Nyala, Wildebeest, Baboon and Vervet Monkey.

This is his good side.

Along with all of these wonderful sights we spent 3 days in a beautiful cabin (equipped with hot showers!!) We started our days by waking up at 4 AM having some coffee and trying to see all the animals in the park.  Our days were then jam packed with activities such as cooking lunch and getting ready for our evening ‘safari’.   The highlights of the trip were being able to get within 10 m of the Giraffes and eating wonderful food for a few days.  

The best walks are the ones to the bar

Some extra photos can be found here: http://goo.gl/ynirLl

Almost immediately after returning to our site after our vacation, we (along with 38 other volunteers) had an opportunity to assist Liwonde National Park with a Large Mammal Count.  Over the course of two days we counted hundreds of animals mostly waterbuck but we did also see warthog, elephant and wildebeest.  All PCVs split into pairs, accompanied by a pair of guards to spend one morning in a hide, and the other morning walking a transect of the park.  During our hide day, we had to move position to get out of the path of the elephants. Seeing elephants march in real life is just like this:  http://goo.gl/0zGBwp While preforming our transect we got way to close to a group of elephants and startled a small herd of wildebeest.

We're going to need a bigger fence.

More photos here: http://goo.gl/YxpLlQ

Camp GLOW 2014

In August I had the honor to participate in one of the most amazing, humbling experiences of my life. For a week and a half there was no place that would have rather been. I was given the privilege to to be a camp counselor to 11 secondary school aged girls at Camp GLOW! (Girls Leading Our World).

Camp GLOW is an international Peace Corps initiative that targets high school aged females and focuses on empowering these young women to be leaders in their family, communities, and in society. The camp looks different in each country, however, they all have the universal theme of empowering girls in cultures where being a girl has the potential to make your opportunities much slimmer than if you were a boy.

Our camp covered topics like self esteem and beauty, gender based violence, HIV/AIDS, malaria, careers, professional development, leadership skills, and how to share this with other girls! This is a lot to cover in a week, but we had a blast doing it! By the end of the week, even the quietest of girls, were laughing, having fun and were completely different than when they had arrived.

The camp targets secondary school girls (high school). In Malawi, secondary school girls can range in age from 14-24. We had girls from all sorts of backgrounds there. Some were from a more privileged background, some were from really rural villages, some spoke excellent English, some spoke little to none, some had children, some were pregnant. By the end of the week it didn't matter where these girls had come from or where they were going to, they had leaned the importance of supporting and empowering each other to be the best versions of themselves.

It was amazing to see these girls understand that one empowered woman does not change make, but we must encourage and empower each other as we climb. Hence the theme “Lift as You Climb”. We covered a lot of topics but the coordinators tried very hard to make sure that the theme of empowerment was through out every topic and included the element of empowering others. (the coordinating team for 2014 did an excellent job!) I cannot explain how powerful it was to see these girls from various cultural backgrounds and circumstances hold each other up.

They showed so much courage and perseverance. Out of my 11 campers over half of them had a story of someone mistreating them at some point in their lives. Sometimes it was family, a teacher, or a community member. As these girls began to learn of opportunities and see examples of other Malawian women who were successful you could see the shift in their attitudes. For them to know that women, just like them, from similar backgrounds could achieve great things was a game changer for them, especially those from the rural villages.

The challenging part for them moving forward is that they have transformed and literally have a GLOW about them, but their communities have not changed. The people and communities of Malawi, did not come to Camp GLOW and realize that all people are important, that all people have the same rights, and that all people deserve to be respected. While these beautiful, strong, courageous, intelligent girls have learned all of these things, they have a hard battle ahead of them.

BUT as we speak, these strong, motivated, empowered young women are starting clubs in their own villages and sharing this message they learned at GLOW. There were 66 girls in attendance and already a handful of them are starting clubs of 10 or more girls.

This is going to be a hard and long battle but the beautiful thing is that no one is alone, and these girls understand the importance of bringing others with them. As they improve and empower themselves they are being conscious of the fact that this is a big task and no one can do it alone.   

Shine Girl SHINE!!!!

In case you have not seen the GLOW 2014 youtube check it out!! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbIjZ-Kwj9g

Kid's Korner: KITTEN time!

I know it has been quite a while since we posted. Sooo, we would like to make that up to you by posting 3 blogs in 3 days! Starting with our promised, Kid's Korner, where we answer questions we have gotten from children and youth.  Our first post features our adorable kitten!

Question: Do people have pets in Malawi? 

Short answer: Yes.  Not a lot of people have pets but the ones that do have cats and dogs.  Many people have chickens, cows, doves, rabbits, pigs and goats but they are not pets, they are food.   

The cover of his book entitled:
"The Art of Being Adorable"

The complicated answer: Not a lot of people have pets and not a lot of people treat their pets very nicely.  People have pets for different reasons.  Someone might have a dog to guard the house or someone might have a cat to eat mice.  It is not very often that a person has a pet as a friend.  You know how you play with your dog or cat and make sure that they have good food and water?  Cats and dogs are not treated exactly the same way.  Some times, people have trouble making sure everyone in the house has food, so to feed an animal is considered rude, or culturally inappropriate.  Also, because many dogs are raised to be guard dogs and to chase and bark at people many people are scared of dogs and don't like to play with them.  While, in the U.S. we might think of pets as something to love and play with or a good friend, here in Malawi, everything has to have a purpose.  So, if you have a dog or cat it must do something.  

He insists on helping with
EVERYTHING

BUT that did not keep us from getting a little kitten of our own!  His name is The Amazing Gonzo, for the fact that he is really clutzy, silly, and lots of times does not land his tricks! 

Often times our community thinks we are weird for picking him up, playing with him or feeding him.  But we have been sooo happy to have him!  He has graduated from eating crickets to spiders and we believe he will soon be on his way to a BA in Mouse Hunting...we couldn't be more proud.  

In some ways it has allowed us to share some of our culture with the community and sometimes it has made it harder for the community to understand us.  But we love the little bugger and are super glad he is with us!

Snoozin' and toys...
toys and snoozin'

Once a month or so we will answer a new question from a child or youth!  

So send them to us via: e-mail, letters, or whatsapp!! (we promise to do better!!)

Next Time on Kids Korner:

How and where do you poop?

The Staple Food of Malawi

When thinking of African food one rarely thinks of Malawian fare. People think of countries such as Morocco, Ethiopia, or Tunisia, that have a very rich food culture. Malawi is not on that list. The major crop in our area is corn which is thought to have been brought to Africa in the 16 or 1700s by the Portuguese from the Americas. Corn became a major crop, displacing sorghum and millet, in Malawi in the early 1900s and the government has been promoting it since. While having a higher yield than the native cereals it is also much harder on the soil. The government has been subsidizing chemical fertilizer which is further depleting the soil. In order to grow enough food for the year Malawians need to plant more and more fields of corn to cover the cost of fertilizer and and diminishing yields of their fields.

In the village there would be twice the amount of nsima
and half the amount of dende.

The major food here is nsima which is made from ufa, corn flour. There are two types, ufa ngaiwa and ufa woyera. Ngaiwa is made by removing the outer part of the kernel and pounding it into a flour. Woyera, the preferred flour, is made by removing both the outer shell and the germ of the kernel, pounding into a flour, and soaking it to make it as white as possible. By removing the germ, much of the nutrients and vitamins are removed leaving only the starch. If you wanted to know what woyera feels and tastes like, just try some corn starch, they are very similar, if not the same. Despite the lack of nutrition, many Malawians will tell you that they have not eaten unless they have had some nsima that day. 

Dried peri-peri peppers along side a cayenne for scale 

 Nsima is made by brining a pot of water with ufa in it to a boil. More ufa is then stirred into the pot until it reaches a very thick consistency. It is so thick that two hands are needed to stir and a second person is needed to hold the pot over the fire. It is then spooned onto a plate creating patties about the size of a hamburger. It is traditionally served with a small amount of dende, relish, made of vegetables, meat, eggs, or beans. All are cooked in a healthy amount of oil and salt, and always with tomatoes. The only other spice used in Malawi is peri-peri, a very spicy pepper.

Vegetables variety is scare in our village. When we go to Mzuzu we are able to get a larger variety however they are almost always picked young. I have yet to see a bell pepper larger than a tennis ball and the guavas and citrus fruits are picked while they are green. This is most likely done to limit the amount of food lost to pests. We have learned that the leaves of pumpkin, beans, and sweet potatoes are not only eatable, but also nutritious.

Food works its way into all conversations. Malawians are always asking 'What is the staple in the US?' and “Do you cook nsima?”. Mostly they ask Tara because culturally women do all of the cooking. They are always shocked when she informs them that not only does she know how to prepare nsima, so does Matt, and he does a fair amount of the cooking. We do not cook nsima for ourselves due to the difficulty in preparing and the limited nutrition. We choose to cook rice or sweet potatoes as our staple because they are easier to prepare and have better nutrition.

Quick garden update! It is giving us some greens, arugula, chard, and kale, and our beans, sugar snap peas, peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos are all flowering and setting fruit. We are very excited to share some of these unfamiliar foods with Malawians.

Some upcoming posts to look forward to. Tara is currently a counselor at Camp GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, and will be posting about her experience once she has a chance to recover from the very busy schedule. We will also be starting a Kids Corner to specifically address the questions that our young readers have. We will be tackling the subject of pets in Malawi first.

BRRRR It's Cold??

Slight Dramatization 

We're about a month into winter now, the shortest day of the year just passed us, and it's a tid bit...chilly. We're in the mountains and it is gorgeous but man is it brisk! Of course, it's not cold and we are in no way in danger of a frost, however, we wear long sleeves and blankets during the day. We've been measuring the temperature with a meat thermometer left by the previous volunteers and during the day it is mid to upper 60's and at night it has been low 60's upper 50's....and it will only get colder.

This wouldn't be so bad if the wind didn't feel like it would blow the roof off and better for me if trousers were more acceptable. We are situated right in a beautiful valley, however, the wind gets caught in the valley and rips through everything. At times it can be quite miserable. For women, it is culturally more acceptable to wear skirts which is kind of a bummer when it's 57 and windy.

Every detail here seems to have some sort of cultural implication. There is no climate control, no window panes, no insulation, and no indoor fireplace...even the kitchen is outside. So, at night it gets cold. Many families have limited resources and this can include having few warm clothes and blankets. What this implies and what most seasonal calendars show is that in about 9 months the birth rate will be much higher than it is now!

Recognizing this trend can help curb the birth rate by introducing heavier family planning education. However, mostly it shows that most of the things/issues/challenges we will encounter here have a deeper root. These challenges and ways of life did not just appear one day. They have come from somewhere else. In reality, our biggest challenge will be discovering the cultural implications that lie beneath the surface. In the long run this will help our impact last much, much longer.  

Care Packages

We have received so many questions concerning what we could use in Malawi, what are we missing from the US and can it be sent to us. We are so touched that you miss us and are thinking about us! This post, in no way, means that we think you should send us something and we are in no way expecting anything on this list! E-mail and snail mail are super appreciated and loved!!

Tips for sending us mail:

Padded envelopes seem to send faster than boxes but boxes have just as high a retrieval rate. The postal system in Africa is not always honest. I would be very wary of sending anything that is expensive and many people find that it helps to wright some sort of religious quote or “religious materials” on the package so that it lessens the chance of being tampered with.

If you are sending multiple letters, numbering them will help us to know if all of them got to us. Sometimes delivery dates vary!! We have gotten some letters in 10 days and others in 20...

Items that would help to improve our health:

As we have mentioned before, finding fresh food here has been difficult so staying healthy is sometimes a challenge.

• Soups with dried vegetables
• Spices—Not Curry...we have a lot of curry. Paprika, pumpkin type spices, cardamom pods, anything not curry :) we LOVE spices!
• Nutritional Yeast!--this can be found in most health food stores. It is delicious, high in B12, and tastes like cheese!
• Herbal Teas
• Women's Mulit Vitamins—These are invaluable! PC does not supply them and what we can find in country is poor quality. And a women's vitamin will have extra iron!
• Emergen-C
• Dried Fruit
• Nuts—We have plenty of peanuts here
• Seeds—Flax, sunflower, chia
• Seeds for Planting—Mostly herbs, or something yummy from your garden :)

Items we miss or are for fun :)

• Powdered Cheese
• Chocolate!-- Reeses, Dark Chocolate, oreos (off brand too, not picky!) Chocolate!!
• Fig Newtons
• Granola Bars—or those yummy energy bars like LarBars or Earnest Bars
• Fruit Leathers—or fruit snacks, these make great bubble wrap replacement ;)
• Packets of Soy Sauce from restaurants and such.
• Nutella
• Anything with good taste!!
• Pelleted Hopps for Beer Brewing

Items for Hygiene:

We can find some of these things here but they are expensive.

• Liquid Castile Soap—Dr. Bronner's or Camp Suds are great brands
• Tooth Brush
• Waxed Floss
• Small, Pretty Smelling Lotions from Hotels :)

For fun and leisure:

• Books—read a good book? Let us know!
• Media—flash drives full of movies, books, pictures, kid's recitals/awards!
• Old Magazines :)

Make the Iwes (children) Our Friends!!:

All of these things will be destroyed, so please nothing expensive or high quality. Also, something expensive might lead to fights among the children.

• Dollar Tree/Penny Toys—nothing big or fancy, party favor type toys. No guns or things that look like weapons.
• Crayons/Coloring Books!!!!
• Craft Supplies—Mostly glue and glue sticks
• Little Individually Wrapped Candies—Hard Candies and such

Again, thank you all so much for the interest and wanting to show us support in this way. Please do not feel obligated to send us anything!!

And we promise if you write us, we will write you!!! :)

Shocked with Culture!

We knew this would happen. As you may have guessed, Africa is different than the US and rural Malawi is way different than we imagined! We felt pretty prepared for our living conditions. We've cooked plenty of meals over fire, bathed outdoors in 30 – 40 degree weather, and to U.S. Standards have lived relatively primitively and rural.

The things we were not so prepared for include lack of access to food, the nightmare that is transportation, and feeling really REALLY out of place. We will definitely expand on these topics in later posts.

The food variety here is grim. The cuisine consists of very few vegetables and a domineering presence of carbohydrates. The worst part is that our transportation to good food is expensive and hard to get a hold of! Our options are either walking an hour up and over a mountain to buy tomatoes, greens, and potatoes at the weekly market, or take a two hour matola (flat bed truck) ride at 3 or 4 AM to go into one of the cities to buy staples like rice, and vegetable variety like eggplant, or onion. The price of this trip is not very cheap either.

Then there is the 'Azungu factor.' We, for obvious reasons, STICK OUT! Everything we do is hilarious to Malawians. Especially when we speak Chitumbuka, that's a side splitter. The children especially get a kick out of us, or are terrified of us. It reminds me of the time I was the Easter Bunny at the mall. I was the best, most awesome stuffed animal in the world, OR the things nightmares are made of. Its a hard line to straddle. While I was helping at the clinic I literally made a child pee his pants from the shear terror of being near me... We stick out … one of these things is not like the other... hopefully these things will come to belong.

For all these things we were unprepared for, we also weren't prepared for the absolute beauty of everything! Even the grasshoppers are beautiful, and when flying are commonly mistaken for butterflies. Our site is nestled into the valley of about five mountains so the view is breathtaking.

As Malawians get to know us they stop asking for money and start inviting us for dinner. Everyone here smiles, and dances. It's awesome. While this does not feel like 'home' yet I think we can make it a nice home. We have already started a garden to combat our food dilemma and we are becoming more accustomed with the transportation. We may never NOT stick out, but I think we will slowly begin to fit in. There are certainly things we miss about thee US but there are things we are learning to LOVE about Malawi.

Passion Flower on our porch.

 

Now We're Real Volunteers!

We wanted to update everyone that as of May 7th we are REAL volunteers, no longer just trainees hoping to make it to swear in. We survived some challenges during training such as: having all of our meals, and snacks, cooked for us, being fed way too much food at all meals, and having our bath water heated for us. Some other notable occurrences during training was having a termite mound chased into our house at one in the morning by fire ants, as well as the ensuing fire ant infestation the next morning, and some mild to medium heat diarrhea on and off over the last two months.

Our daily view on the way to class. 

Clara and William Zimba with their grandson Willy Jr.

This seems like a good time to mention our host family. Clara and William Zimba are super crazy nice and taught us so much about living in Malawi. Along side of making sure we were fed and the fire ants were promptly removed from our house they made sure we could cook on a fire, knew how to take a bucket bath, and how to use a Chimbutzi (outdoor latrine), but most importantly they taught us about Malawian culture. They were incredibly gracious and took us in for 9 weeks without compensation.

We moved to Lunjika in Mzimba district on May 9th and are currently working on turning our house into a home (a common phrase used among us newly minted volunteers). For anyone interested in sending mail (shameless plug, mail is like gold here) our new address is:

Box 20055

Luwinga
Mzuzu
Malawi
Southern Africa

Lunjika is a Seventh Day Adventist Mission that has a Health Center along with primary and secondary boarding schools. It is much different than our training village of Domberllara, which was a small village with only 40 houses that shared a lot of facilities with neighboring villages.

OUR NEW HOUSE!

Our house is beautiful! It is the biggest space that the two of us have lived in together. We also have a large yard that we can't wait to put a garden into. There are four large mango trees and a papaya tree. The papaya tree is fruiting now and the mangos will be ready as early as September. Behind our house is Lunjika Mountain which should provide some wonderful hiking. The closest market is an hour walk away, up a mountain, so that is a great incentive to get our garden going.

A glimpse of our side yard and courtyard.

On our way to being dropped off, we saw a baboon just two kilometers from our house. The only other notable wildlife that we have seen so far is a scorpion and a chameleon. We saw the chameleon one morning on our way to class. We found the scorpion inside of our house on only the third day of being here. Fortunately it was only the size of a fingernail and died easily.

Now that we no longer have every minute of every day scheduled for us we will do better at making these posts happen more often than every two months.   

Follow Our Adventure!

Greetings Friends and Family!  Tara and I are on our way to Malawi and new adventures.  For the first eight to ten weeks we will not be able to access email or internet but we would love to hear from you. You can send us mail during training at:

                                       Matthew O'Malley, PCT or Tara Milligan, PCT 

                                       PEACE CORPS/MALAWI
                                       BOX 208
                                       LILONGWE
                                       MALAWI

Letters take about 2-3weeks, padded envelopes take about 1 month, and boxes take about 8-10 weeks.  If mail is in route before we get our new address it will be forwarded to us!   If you send a care package, please do not send valuables or money.  We have also heard that it is wise to list the contents on the outside of the package.

Once we get placed in our communities we will get our new address posted so that we can keep getting timely mail from all of you. We will do our best to keep everyone updated through this blog and occasional email blasts.  Depending on the internet availability we will attempt to make a post once a month, more if we don't have to travel too far. We are super excited to start this adventure and hope everyone back here keeps up with us while we are there.