[note: this letter arrived the day after Thanksgiving.]
4:00 First rooster crowing wakes us, but we are able to fall back asleep. It is almost like Bean and Humphrey trying to wake us.
5:30 Kristy's alarm goes off. She takes a warm bucket bath that the host mom has heated on the fire.
5:50 Brian takes his bucket bath. Any leftover hot water is used to wash an article of clothing. We found it is easier to wash clothes one by one.
6:30 Host mom and host sister come into our hut with breakfast (bread, eggs, tea...) and we all sit on a mat on the floor to eat.
7:00 We walk through the village and greet about 25 people on the way to our trainer's house where we are picked up for school.
7:30-11:30 We are at our schools doing our practice teaching and lesson planning. We each teach 7 40 minute periods a week. Brian's class has 45 students, Kristy's has 65! We are lucky if we get books or desks on any given day.
11:30 go back to our host family's home in the village.
12:00-1:30 lunch break. Lunch might include 3 of the following: Rice, potatoes, nsima, greens, eggs, soy pieces, beans, chicken, or goat.
1:30-4:30 Chichewa language class at our trainer's house (actually it is not her house, but Peace Corps rents houses from families in the villages during our training). Our teacher-student ratio is 1:3!
4:30-5:30 We walk to a cliff with Laura, the other trainee in our village/language group and enjoy the view of the mountains and fields.
5:30-6:00 Read, lesson plan, listen to music...
6:00-7:00 Help (or watch) our host mom in the kitchen and practice speaking Chichewa with her. Oh, and sunset is at 6:00 so after that we rely on a kerosene lamp, candles, and our head lamps.
7:00-7:30 Dinner. (Usually what we ate for lunch.) MOst of our meals are eaten in silence with a few awkward Chichewa conversations.
7:30-8:30 Reading under our mosquito net until we fall asleep.
A favorite day of ours is Thursday because we get to go to Dedza College of Forestry (where we stayed for the first week). We enjoy the chance to catch up with our fellow trainees and hear about their homestays. Also, we get mail on Thursdays...hint, hint. I (Kristy) get to wear pants on the college days too (otherwise I am always wearing a skirt in the village or at school).
We will be finding out where our site is in a couple weeks. We are excited, but we're not exactly sure what to be excited about just yet. There are so many unknowns! Actually by the time this letter gets posted, we may know.
We will be spending Thanksgiving at the ambassador's house. It sounds like the food is really good. We will also get to meet a lot of the other Peace Corps volunteers in Malawi.
On December 12th we will be sworn in as official volunteers. They will give us a day in Lilongwe to buy what we need for our site before dropping us off. School doesn't start until January 7th so we have about 3 weeks to set our place up. Obviously Christmas is during that time, but we are not sure about our plans. Technically we are not supposed to leave our site for the first 3 months, but they make exceptions for Christmas.
We are having a great time. We miss you all. Write letters!
Love,
Brian and Kristy
P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!
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2 comments:
Wow, you're up early! How long did it take to get used to that? It is so interesting to read about your day - what a different life. You've got to love the experience! Thanks for sharing, it comforts us to know what you're doing and that you sound happy! With all our love- Eric, Jessica, Max, Annika & Emerson
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