Did I mention it is remote?

Training seems like it was a blink of an eye at this point! We had over a month in village home stay where we had the opportunity to stay with families to learn the culture. It was a great introduction into normal life here, the normal arduous life of subsistence farming and lack of modern convenience. My host family was the real deal. They were so welcoming and worked hard to ease my adjustment while showing me how to survive in Africa. The main difficulty was that they spoke the main language of Chichewa while I was leaning the lesser-known Northern dialect of Chilambia. During training our time was divided between language intensive, technical training, and basic safety and security lessons. There are 36 other volunteers in my group, half in the health sector and the other half environment, most of which I can call friends or at least colleagues. We had 39 but unfortunately three have decided to go home. From home stay we had more training at the College of Forestry before swearing in and getting shipped off to site.

My site is beautiful! The mountain ranges of Zambia and Tanzania surround the remote village of Kameme, Malawi. The people are so very welcoming and are very busy greeting one another in passing. If you look down the dirt roads you will find fields of wildflowers and sunflowers influencing the beautiful fabrics the women wear, called chtenjes.. The sky is wide and open featuring all different types of clouds, cumulus nimbus mostly (and yes I know this is a dorky detail). The night skies are so clear, so clear that you are not sure if the falling stars are lightning bugs or if the lightning bugs are falling stars, mystery solved…it’s both! I have only been in Kameme a week so there is much to learn. I do know it takes about two and a half hours to bike into the Chitipa Boma (trading center). I have made this trek twice now on my Peace Corps issued Trek Bicycle. Did I mention it was remote? Because it is. I will be spending the next few months doing community assessment and looking for sustainable projects to start. I think I am going to start teaching Life Skills at the secondary school once a week to get to know some of the youth in the area.

I often find myself asking the question what will win out, during my time here, my greed or my laziness? For if I want I must do. If I want eggs I must raise chickens. If I want vegetables (a variety) I must plant a garden. If I want water I must carry it on my head, from the borehole. If I want anything Western (internet, mail, powdered milk) I must bike 30k to the Boma (I just told you that is the trading center…did I mention it was remote?). It takes a lot of work just to exist. Where back at home that is also the case the only difference is the level of complexity. Instead of dealing with car trouble I am dealing with the troubles of hitchhiking (don’t tell my mom). Instead of worrying about bills I worry if the devaluation of the Kwacha currency will impact my new community. Instead of trying to figure out what to wear…who are we kidding I still do that. Instead of making plans and checking the time I check the time and go make plans. For now the simplicity is still a novelty…a profound novelty. Part of me feels as if I have seen the wizard behind the curtain. My food comes directly from the ground and is cooked over the fire I must first start. My water is not magically purified from my tap it is filtered by me...three different ways if I am prudent. Should I mention the pit latrine…I think you get the point. It is refreshing, a very time consuming life that is very simple. I know the day will come when seemingly basic tasks (laundry) take the better part of the day and I grow frustrated but for know I am basking in the simplicity.

I should go I need to go figure out how to raise chickens…turns out I am greedy.