Highs and Lows

Wrapping up our first year of service as Peace Corps Volunteers, we have to say that we are really enjoying ourselves. We have CampSky under our belts now. I was the headmaster of the camp which basically meant I dealt with academic, camper and staff issues. Another volunteer, Tom, was camp director which dealt with logistics, budget, etc. Perfect if you ask me because I hate that stuff and he was wonderful at it. Brian successfully completed his first teacher workshop with Malawian counterparts at the camp. While we were short on sleep for two weeks, there are no regrets. Working with this hand selected group of students and teachers was very rewarding. They come from some of the most under-resourced schools in one of the poorest countries of the world and they are our top-performing students. Very deserving. In the mornings the students had their regular examinable subjects including Maths (British English), Physical Science, Biology and English. Their afternoons were filled with elective courses in 4 different tracks: environment, health, business and arts. All of the groups took career-related field trips as well as the trip to Liwonde National Park. As volunteers we were challenged in new ways. Most unexpected was our discussion of HIV/AIDS testing. Many in our group wanted to hold an HIV testing at the camp, but some of our colleagues were opposed due to the fact that the students could potentially receive such terrible news while they are so far from home. Although no testing was held at the camp, in light of our wonderful discussions I am sure that many of us will hold testing events within our own villages.
All this activity has taken us away from our village for a while. We haven't missed the heat, but we have definitely missed the people. Having lived there a year, we feel more integrated into the community. This is a wonderful thing most of the time. However, Malawians don't have it easy and the closer we become with them the closer we feel their hardships. On Thanksgiving day while we were walking back to the Peace Corps transit house to be picked up for our feast we ran into one of our students begging on the streets in Lilongwe. I wasn't sure how to feel; sad, frustrated,guilty, mad...First of all he was far from home so it most have cost him something to get there, but also, we know the reality of this time of year. The hot season is also called the hungry season here. And of course this happened as we were on our way to gorge ourselves on good American home-cooked food.
The last couple days we were back in our village trying to reconnect with people and prepare for Jack and Bonnie's visit. While we were there we had our first rains of the year. I didn't mind getting wet at all. In fact, I walked around in my wet clothes for a couple hours. We were also able to collect water from our tin roof in buckets which is much easier than getting it from the borehole. Then this morning as we were about to push off for Lilongwe again (J& B are flying in Friday morning), I heard that one of the women in my knitting group passed away last night while giving birth. I was heartbroken to hear this. Besides the newborn, she leaves behind a husband and three other children. While this would be a tragedy in any culture at any time, it is particularly devastating here. On our way back to Lilongwe (we unfortunately had to get back here so we couldn't stay for the funeral) Brian and I were talking about the baby. How will it get fed? It is not like there is formula in the village. And if there was, certainly the family couldn't afford it. Perhaps someone else will nurse it, but I am not sure how these things are handled here. And one less adult means one less person to work in the fields and grow food. Not to mention the tremendous grief this family will feel. But that is how it is in Malawi. People are being born and dying at an exponential rate everyday. Even among developing countries, Malawi has one of the highest death rates during childbirth. Recent figures from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey show that 1,120 mothers and 4,200 babies die for every 100,000 live births.
So with heavy hearts, we move on to our new highs. This next day and half we are making our arrangements for Jack and Bonnie, our first visitors. We are very excited for them and can't wait to blog about all of the adventures we will have!
Peace and love for now.