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/
Sunday, August 30, 2009
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
