Under the Milky Way

There's nothing like being gone from my site for a week (and being in the capital city) to make me love and appreciate my village even more!  The woman selling me produce in the boma automatically gave me a Malawian price instead of trying to up charge me. I was given the front seat in the mini bus because I had 3 bags. A form 2 boy carried one of my backpacks up the mountain as we chatted about malaria and he asked me questions and encouraged me to come to his school to help teach about malaria and HIV. My neighbor kids FREAKED OUT with excitement when they saw me walking up. My amayi friends had me come up to sit and catch up with them while they talked about how much they missed me and gifted me sweet potatoes before I left. A two yr old curled up in my arms. The gates to my fence were fixed. And most importantly--MY HEALTH CENTER NOW HAS ELECTRICITY!!!!  Aka a few houses also have electricity! This means I can hopefully  charge my phone and laptop at the health center...

Hi all!   So I just returned to Mulanje from a trip to Lilongwe for a (mini) STOMP Out Malaria boot camp. It was such a wonderful week! Kudos to Brooke Mancuso—our national malaria coordinator— for planning a successful camp! The STOMP Malaria team in Malawi has now more than doubled from 4 to 10 people. Last weekend, I traveled to Blantyre which is the nearest big city to me and a good stopping place between Bondo and Lilongwe. I met up with some PCVs there and was able to meet some of our new education volunteers along the way. We have a new education volunteer coming to Mulanje, so we’ll be a solid crew of five. I was able to explore the city some, even found some incense and a yarn store which was exciting!  When we reached Lilongwe, it was so nice to be reunited with volunteers from our H&E 2014 group—especially the ones who live far up north! We had a great time hanging out and being able to catch up all week.  Our training began with lear...

Moni onse! I don't really feel like typing up a whole long update, but here are some interesting, funny, or random things that have happened recently.... My lovely mulanje buddy, Adia, left to go home to America at the beginning of July. I was and still am very sad to see her go, but I know she's doing what's best for her. We had many hilarious memories together, as she was also my neighbor during PST, and bonding times. She was there for me through all of my struggles since arriving in Kasungu, and I'm so thankful for the time I had with her. It will definitely be different without being able to meet her in the boma to catch up and for lunch, but thank god for whatsapp! And all of the other wonderful volunteers who live in Mulanje!  This past weekend (July 12), I ran the Mount Mulanje Porters Race. I almost backed out of running it, but the guys I did the trial run with held me to it...and I'm so glad they did! We had a decent sized group of PCVs running, about 9, ...