Skip to main content

Home Sweet Home

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 now rather than having to go all the way down to the boma. (Especially wonderful considering I just received a whole bunch of electronic resources on malaria interventions!) And, I might potentially be able to get electricity wired to my house. Who knows what will happen, but I am just so happy to be back in my village. Every time I return to site after being gone for a few days, I appreciate it's beauty and the wonderful people even more. ✌️

Popular posts from this blog

One at a Time

"I just paid the money," she told me as she twisted her hands and stared down at them. I was immediately flabbergasted and almost shaking with anger, frustration, and sadness.  One of my wonderfully dedicated but extremely timid SOLID members who I began working with last year had been facing trouble at home. Following our graduation from the program in May, she'd been attending meetings less and less. I assumed it was because she lives 2.5 miles away from our meeting place, and that she was probably busy at home. Then one day I ran into her at the health center. She had a large cut on her forehead and was filling a police report. I refrained from snooping in her business.  Then, about 2 weeks ago, she showed up to our weekly training. After we finished, she approached me and apologized for being absent so much. She explained that her husband had been abusive (the gash on her face had been from him) and that she had applied for a separation from him. She didn't ask me...

STOMP Out Malaria boot camp

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...

Emergency Evacuation!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. A giant tropical storm slammed the southern region of Malawi a few days ago with multiple feet of rainfall in 2-3 days. Considering homes and buildings are made of sandy mud bricks around here, lots of rain can weaken these walls and cause walls and entire structures to collapse. Thankfully I was not in my village when the storm hit (I was staying with a friend who knew the storm was on its way), so I was safe. I watched the storm bend palm trees and flop big branches from the safely of a large front porch that overlooked the tea estates. The rain came in waves usually of ridiculously hard rapping on the roof to light drizzling, and we had phases of thunder and lightning. One thing was for sure though—it didn’t stop raining for three days straight. The only discomfort I experienced though was temperamental electricity (which didn’t bother me since I’m used to not having it anyway). Besides that, I spent four days working on lesson plans for programs in...