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 whatever it was that I had stepped on. I closely examined the entire floor, not seeing anything. Then, I noticed a movement on the wall. An inch-long scorpion went stalking behind my bookshelf. Damn. The pain in my toe was throbbing, swelling, tingling, and hot. Knowing that there’s not much you can do about a scorpion sting, I continued with my evening. Eventually, the pain was too intense and my toe was twice its size, so I just got into bed. That night, the tingling, intense pain crept up my foot and my leg, waking me up and preventing me from falling back asleep. The next morning, I couldn’t put all my weight on my foot. The best way to describe the feeling is when your foot falls asleep and it’s tingling and it hurts to stomp it on the floor, but you know that’s the only way to wake it back up. The pain lasted about two days and eventually went away, but it definitely heightened my awareness for scorpions in my house and the need to always wear shoes!
Besides medical issues, I also went through a huge disappointment this past weekend. The two students from the secondary school near my house who were going to go to camp TEICH were unable to go because I mixed up the travel days. I don't think I’ve ever felt so guilty in my whole life. These two students were insanely excited to travel almost the length of Malawi to go to Nyika National Park and spend a week learning about health and environment, and they were unable to go because of my mistake. They made it to Blantyre and had already purchased their bus tickets to get to Mzuzu when I received a call from a PCV organizing the camp asking where my students were. I explained that they would be arriving the next evening, after which she exclaimed, “nooooooo….” They were supposed to be in Mzuzu that night. After many phone calls with the students and other organizing PCVs as well as visiting my counterpart for advice on what to do, we had to visit the teacher of the students and the headmaster of the school and explain the error and that the students would have to return to Bondo the following morning instead of proceeding to Mzuzu. After breaking the news about five or six times that evening, I was feeling exhausted and ashamed, and I also had itchy, dry, red eyes.
So, that’s enough of the bad, depressing news. Positive things that have been happening in my village now! I had my carpenter build a double bed frame for my double mattress, so I am totally prepared for when Anna Curtis and Abby Self are here in Malawi in about ONE MONTH! My carpenter also made me a nice food prep table. My house is feeling so homey, and I love it so much (minus the scorpions). I will hopefully have electricity within the next week or two as well! Our electricity in Bondo is run by a hydroelectric project a few villages away from me. This means that once rainy season begins (which could be any day now), it will have plenty of water and should be working every day. It has not been working recently because it is dry season and the water volume has not high enough. In addition to having electricity soon, I will have a toaster oven/hot plate, a refrigerator, and a wicker couch from one of my favorite PCVs who just moved to Lilongwe from Mulanje. Kim is a response volunteer with a TON of experience in the HIV/AIDS field and, while we are all so sad to see her leave our district, she is loving her new work with which she is partnered with USAID and doing exactly what she is passionate about: designing effective HIV/AIDS activities and programs that reach at-risk populations. She was very helpful and generous and practically gave away all of the things she had accumulated at her house here in Mulanje which greatly benefits us. We all really appreciated it!
Right now at my site, I am still planning activities to begin in December. My SOLID training group is progressing as well; we have been discussing malaria, water and sanitation, and HIV. Last week my counterpart taught the lesson on HIV because he is the HTC (HIV testing and counseling) worker at my hospital, and he did a great job and even did a condom demonstration at the end. I am really enjoying working with my group that has six very motivated members. This Thursday we are discussing nutrition and food diversification which I am very excited about, and I think my trainees are interested to learn about.
In about three weeks, I am leaving for South Africa to meet up with two of my best friends (Anna and Abby)! We are all very very excited to explore Cape Town and have an adventurous week and a half of bungee jumping, cage diving with sharks, climbing table mountain, and other things. I will also be attending a training on HIV prevention and mitigation called grassroots soccer in a few weeks and am looking forward to all the new ideas that will bring. Many exciting things coming up. Thankfully I still have 20 months to plan and implement projects in my community!