Under the Milky Way

As thrilling and adventurous as my life may seem from the outside, sometimes it’s just downright hard. This past week tested and tried me—It was probably one of the most difficult of my service. Yet I still can’t seem to figure out why… Transitions are always difficult; change often goes against human nature. We get comfortable in a lifestyle, and we can become resistant to change. I have become as comfortable as I can possibly be in the village—as someone who grew up with so many luxuries, it will always be challenging in times of discomfort to not crave things like a comfy couch, a hug from a friend, a good movie, a glass of wine, being able to call a friend without worrying about a dwindling phone battery and network issues, etc. But anyway, back to the point, transitions. I’ve now gone through the COS (Close of Service) conference for my two year Peace Corps experience and am looking to the future. Correction , I’m anxious and stressed about the future. As much as I want to c...

Over the past few months, I worked with our local secondary school to do a fun, arts project. Having wanted to start an art club at the school for the past year, I've been too busy to really commit to the project. Also, it doesn't exactly fit into the health framework that I'm supposed to be basing my projects on. Despite this, I worked together with the head teacher and artistically-inclined students to do a 4m x 2m World Map mural! We started in December although here in Malawi, that's not ideal timing. Afternoon rains forced us to stop multiple times, but we rescheduled and continued working. First, we used small rulers and triangles to make a grid of 6cm x 6cm squares--28 rows x 56 rows of them, so 1,568 squares in total. This took much longer than expected to get them straight and perfect. Then the rain came. The next session, we worked on drawing each continent and country using this grid. The group, which comprised of almost all boys except for one ...