Under the Milky Way

October 20 It has been one hell of a weekend.  I had to travel to Blantyre yesterday to go to the hospital here because I have conjunctivitis (pink eye) in both of my eyes. The past three mornings I’ve woken up with one or both of my eyes sealed shut with nasty discharge stuff that comes from this lovely infection. I just received eye cream from the doctor, so I’m hoping that it works fast because right now, I’m embarrassed to take off my sunglasses! In addition to this incident, I also stepped on a scorpion in my house about a week and half ago. My entire house had just been cleaned because the workers who installed my electricity wires and pipes had made a complete mess. So, I thought it would be fine to walk around my house barefoot. Wrong decision. I was walking to my bedroom at night when suddenly I felt a sharp pain my little toe. I thought maybe I’d stepped on a nail or a thumbtack. I jumped back, shining my headlamp and my flashlight on the ground, looking for ...

OCTOBER 14 When I tell people I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Malawi, they always have the same questions, “So what’s a typical day like?” Well, I feel like I’ve been here long enough (it’s now over 7 months!!!!) to approach this question. There is no typical day. Basi. However, today was one of those busy, productive, unpredictable days where everything just seemed to slip easily from one to thing to another. I woke up at half five this morning to go for a run before it got too hot and humid because man , that african sun during hot season is not something to mess with. On my run, I think I probably saw every primary and secondary (high school) school student in my village and the village adjacent to ours on their journeys to school. Most primary students were dressed in blue or purple uniforms and the secondary students wear black on bottom and white on top. The kids typically have track shoe bags for backpacks slung around their shoulders and in their hands they sling a...

September 30 Hello friends!  I am fresh out of IST (in service training) and also from a free weekend spent at a music and arts festival on Lake Malawi.  The second week of our training went well with our counterparts. Although some of the information was repetitive for us, it was good for our counterparts to learn more about Peace Corps and the types of projects we can do. We talked mostly about project design and management and specific ideas for potential projects to do with the community or just at our own homes like nutrition education, permaculture/gardening, the Pad Project, etc. Those are the projects I’m most interested in at least! My counterpart and I are both feeling pretty motivated, and I know what I want to try to get accomplished this month.  The other exciting event of September for me was the Lake of Stars festival that just happened this past weekend. A lot of PCVs attended, and we all shared a beautiful lake house right on the shore of...