Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Close of Service (COS)
Brittany, our new site mate who is located just 2km away at a local health center, was so helpful as we prepared for our departure. She's actually one of those volunteers with electricity, so we were able to use a laptop to write our final reports before we went into the office to close up business. She'll be our future connection to our village and will be able to give us updates.
Dora, our Associate Peace Corps Director of Education (APCD) reviewed our final reports,
Dr. Erfan, our Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO), collected "specimens,"
Vic, our country director (CD), signed off on our official Description of Service (DOS).
Peace, Roligs in Malawi. For more adventures with Brian and Kristy, please visit our new blog, Roligs in Minneapolis.
Dora, our Associate Peace Corps Director of Education (APCD) reviewed our final reports,
Dr. Erfan, our Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO), collected "specimens,"
Vic, our country director (CD), signed off on our official Description of Service (DOS).
Peace, Roligs in Malawi. For more adventures with Brian and Kristy, please visit our new blog, Roligs in Minneapolis.
Print Pictures for Gifts: Check
We began taking pictures of our friends and colleagues in the village so we are able to make prints to give them as gifts. As we near our end of service, it seems that the time to run these little errands has creeped up on us.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Chad
Chad visited! He enjoyed our village wine and a ride on the back of a World Relief International truck. We were taken to the vegetable garden that Chiyembekezo HIV+ Support Group is growing for added nutrition. We also visited the fabric market in the area he was supposed to be dropped off by his midnight bus.
Prerequisite photo at the PC/Malawi Office
Chad and Baxter at our home in the village
At the beach for book club
links to pics
I just realized some of our friends posted pictures of the IGA camp. Check out these blogs if you are interested in pictures:
http://malawiadventurez.blogspot.com/
http://malawiwowi.blogspot.com/
http://malawiadventurez.blogspot.com/
http://malawiwowi.blogspot.com/
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Updates on our life!
I know we are much overdue for a blog update, but we have been so busy lately that we haven’t had a chance (or we have been in the village and away from computers).
First of all, I should start with the most important news and that is that we will be eating 2+ Thanksgiving dinners in the U.S. of A. !!! We don’t know exactly the day we will be back, but will be home to spend Thanksgiving with our families which makes us really happy. But let me back up and update you on all we have done since the last blog. In the picture on the previous entry we enjoyed a day at the beach with our site-mates in our district. We have been lucky enough to get a new site-mate, Brittany, a health volunteer, at the health center only 3km from our house and school. We are so excited to have her as we see a huge need for a health volunteer in our area. Plus she is going to take Baxter (or Baxy, or Baster, depending on which Malawian you ask.) when we leave! If I hadn’t wrote this earlier, Moto, our awesome cat, ran away when we were traveling with Katie and Nick and Kevin. We are assuming the best that he found a really nice family that could afford to feed him fish all the time.
The last week of July we had our IGA camp which went off without a hitch. All 20 young adults that were invited attended the camp as well as 7 Peace Corps Volunteers as facilitators. The students learned about different business types, marketing, book-keeping, customer service as well as some exposure to some IGAs such as oil pressing peanuts, fisheries, bee-keeping and peanut-butter making. Some of the students who attended already had some IGAs (barber shop, pineapple farmer, tuck shops, etc.) that they are planning to make improvements to. Many thanks go out to office supply donations sent by Carol R., Amy and Andy F. and Joe and Katie W. We were also able to give each participant a red “Summer Reading Program 2007” t-shirt donated by Friends of Malawi. Nobody seemed to care what the t-shirt said, they were just excited to have them. We even heard reports that 5 people wore them to church the next weekend after the camp.
After the IGA Camp, we headed off to Lilongwe to pick up Chad. His arrival was quite interesting compared to our other visitors. After waiting until midnight in a borrowed car in a sketchy part of town near the bus depot (we are talking people warming their hands over trash fires…just to give you an image) we were able to contact him on a phone he borrowed from someone else on his bus. We convinced them to drop him off at a safer part of town and quite literally we picked him up on the side of the road in the middle of the night. The next day we took him to our site, where we stayed for two nights. Everyone was really impressed with Chad’s ability to eat 3 nsima patties when we dined at a friend’s home. Then we spent three relaxing nights on the beach (in tents of course). After the lake we headed back to Lilongwe and he was able to meet a bunch of our Peace Corps friends before we headed off to our COS (Close of Service) conference.
The same day that Chad left we went to our COS conference at Nkhotakota Pottery on the lake. We discussed a lot of issues at the conference- medical, financial, pulling ourselves out of the village and readjustment to American life (Please be patient! We may act strange!). Also, it was nice to spend quality time with our training group with whom we have become close with over the last two years. Besides that we can never get enough of Lake Malawi. I expect it is something we will greatly miss.
Now we are back into our routine at school. We are in Salima town today, so I am sending this from an internet café. Sorry, no pictures until we get free internet time in Lilongwe.
Love to everyone! B&K
First of all, I should start with the most important news and that is that we will be eating 2+ Thanksgiving dinners in the U.S. of A. !!! We don’t know exactly the day we will be back, but will be home to spend Thanksgiving with our families which makes us really happy. But let me back up and update you on all we have done since the last blog. In the picture on the previous entry we enjoyed a day at the beach with our site-mates in our district. We have been lucky enough to get a new site-mate, Brittany, a health volunteer, at the health center only 3km from our house and school. We are so excited to have her as we see a huge need for a health volunteer in our area. Plus she is going to take Baxter (or Baxy, or Baster, depending on which Malawian you ask.) when we leave! If I hadn’t wrote this earlier, Moto, our awesome cat, ran away when we were traveling with Katie and Nick and Kevin. We are assuming the best that he found a really nice family that could afford to feed him fish all the time.
The last week of July we had our IGA camp which went off without a hitch. All 20 young adults that were invited attended the camp as well as 7 Peace Corps Volunteers as facilitators. The students learned about different business types, marketing, book-keeping, customer service as well as some exposure to some IGAs such as oil pressing peanuts, fisheries, bee-keeping and peanut-butter making. Some of the students who attended already had some IGAs (barber shop, pineapple farmer, tuck shops, etc.) that they are planning to make improvements to. Many thanks go out to office supply donations sent by Carol R., Amy and Andy F. and Joe and Katie W. We were also able to give each participant a red “Summer Reading Program 2007” t-shirt donated by Friends of Malawi. Nobody seemed to care what the t-shirt said, they were just excited to have them. We even heard reports that 5 people wore them to church the next weekend after the camp.
After the IGA Camp, we headed off to Lilongwe to pick up Chad. His arrival was quite interesting compared to our other visitors. After waiting until midnight in a borrowed car in a sketchy part of town near the bus depot (we are talking people warming their hands over trash fires…just to give you an image) we were able to contact him on a phone he borrowed from someone else on his bus. We convinced them to drop him off at a safer part of town and quite literally we picked him up on the side of the road in the middle of the night. The next day we took him to our site, where we stayed for two nights. Everyone was really impressed with Chad’s ability to eat 3 nsima patties when we dined at a friend’s home. Then we spent three relaxing nights on the beach (in tents of course). After the lake we headed back to Lilongwe and he was able to meet a bunch of our Peace Corps friends before we headed off to our COS (Close of Service) conference.
The same day that Chad left we went to our COS conference at Nkhotakota Pottery on the lake. We discussed a lot of issues at the conference- medical, financial, pulling ourselves out of the village and readjustment to American life (Please be patient! We may act strange!). Also, it was nice to spend quality time with our training group with whom we have become close with over the last two years. Besides that we can never get enough of Lake Malawi. I expect it is something we will greatly miss.
Now we are back into our routine at school. We are in Salima town today, so I am sending this from an internet café. Sorry, no pictures until we get free internet time in Lilongwe.
Love to everyone! B&K
Friday, July 24, 2009
Getting ready for exams
Here's a picture of me cleaning the typewriter and a video of the "Duplicater Machine" printing exams.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Independence Days - 233rd & 45th
We have been in Lilongwe the last few days for the 4th of July. Once again we celebrated at the ambassador's house. Highlights of the event were eating hamburgers, hot dogs and lying in the grass. We felt really American! It was fun, but not as fun as being at the cabin with family. No fireworks either (sorry to disappoint, Dad!). Also, today is Malawian Independence Day. They are celebrating 45 years of independence.
Preparations for our Income Generating Mini-Camp are going well. We received some supplies from the Wahlbergs that will help our students with bookkeeping, note taking, etc. Thank you very much. The camp is July 27th-31st in Nkhotakota. There will be 20 young adults attending the event and 7 are coming from our village.
We are expecting our friend, Chad, to roll into town the day after the camp. Literally, he will just be rolling in as he is travelling overland from South Africa. Then we will spend around 9 days with him in our village and at the lake. The day Chad leaves we head to our Close of Service conference at Nkhotakota Pottery Lodge on the lake. At the conference we will discuss wrapping up our service, bank issues, re-entry into American culture and actually find out what day we are going home!!! We'll keep everyone updated.
Oh, I should also tell you that we are thoroughly enjoying the cold season here. We drink tea, sleep under the covers and even put socks on sometimes! One day last week I was chilled all day and put long sleeves on. Then I went to check out the thermometer and it was 76 degrees. Who am I?
The pictures are of our wine making, me selling yarn, Brian at a chess tournament and us enjoying the grass at the ambassador's.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
IGA Camp
We were in town today to plan an IGA (Income Generating Activities) camp for some young adults. We, along with some other volunteers, have been working on this camp, which will happen at the end of July, to help some of the young adults in our villages get on their feet. At the camp they will learn business skills, be exposed to different IGAs and write their own business plan. Some of the IGAs might be things like fruit drying, knitting, jam making, charcoal making and many other things.
Sooooooo....I am writing to solicit donations again (and only because people keep asking "What do you need? How can I help?"!). We are looking for donations of office supplies- more specifically about 30 folders, 30 sets of black and blue pens, 30 notebooks, etc... Also we have a few other random things we are looking for. One is old point and shoot film cameras. Film is still the most popular here and owning a camera is a really great way for some of these people to make some money. They love taking portraits of their friends and charging a small fee to get them developed. I thought I would bring it up because I know many people at home just have these cameras sitting in their junk drawers. So, if anyone is so inclined, we would definitely appreciate the donation. Consider it a favor to the environment and helping Malawi at the same time! Of course like I said, the camp is the end of July, so only if it is feasible for you to send it by then. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Sooooooo....I am writing to solicit donations again (and only because people keep asking "What do you need? How can I help?"!). We are looking for donations of office supplies- more specifically about 30 folders, 30 sets of black and blue pens, 30 notebooks, etc... Also we have a few other random things we are looking for. One is old point and shoot film cameras. Film is still the most popular here and owning a camera is a really great way for some of these people to make some money. They love taking portraits of their friends and charging a small fee to get them developed. I thought I would bring it up because I know many people at home just have these cameras sitting in their junk drawers. So, if anyone is so inclined, we would definitely appreciate the donation. Consider it a favor to the environment and helping Malawi at the same time! Of course like I said, the camp is the end of July, so only if it is feasible for you to send it by then. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Kristy's brother Kevin visited!
Border crossing for our South Luangwa Safari
Baobab tree (more than 1,000 years old?)
Backbacking to the beach
Carrying water
Nkhotakota Sunrise
PC/Malawi office
Meeting PC friends before Kristy's 30th Birthday!
Map Reading 101 (meeting our Form 3 students)
Preparing for a fishing excursion
Fishing boat pose
Bike taxi ride in the village
Croc Valley Lodge Bar
A sign for Doug
Baobab tree (more than 1,000 years old?)
Backbacking to the beach
Carrying water
Nkhotakota Sunrise
PC/Malawi office
Meeting PC friends before Kristy's 30th Birthday!
Map Reading 101 (meeting our Form 3 students)
Preparing for a fishing excursion
Fishing boat pose
Bike taxi ride in the village
Croc Valley Lodge Bar
A sign for Doug
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