Blog Post for GAD!!!

Greetings friends and family from home! In a short time I will be hitting the 5 month mark in Malawi, which I can hardly believe. I feel like hitting the 5 month mark is significant since that is the longest amount of time I have spent away from USA. I’m so happy to have the support system I do here in Malawi and to know that I have all you guys at home. I hope you know that I think about you a lot, and appreciate you reading this and being in touch with me.

As I have previously mentioned, I was recently elected as the new president of the Gender and Development Committee (GAD) for Peace Corps Malawi. However, I am just the president-elect because the old executive board is still here, and hosting the first major project by the committee right now in Mzuzu. We are hosting our first camp in Mzuzu for 25 secondary school students. The students come from all over the northern region, and spending the week in Mzuzu shadowing Malawian professionals to get a glimpse of the possibilities for them once they are beyond secondary school.

Each morning the students spend 4 hours with a Malawian professional- doctor, nurse, mechanic, businessman, businesswoman, legal aid, broadcaster, etc, of their own gender. It is quite the opportunity for them, and it is wonderful seeing the students inspired by the potential opportunities that await them through hard work. I have been dropping three boys off every morning at the mechanic, and it is so rewarding to hear from them how much they are enjoying it and seeing that they are trying to learn as much as possible from the experience.

In the afternoon we PCVs host the activities- we have been playing tons of classic camp games that have gone over really well with the students. We all definitely love to have fun and are laughing a lot. Before we start a game sometimes we wonder if it will translate, over culture and language boundaries, but they have enjoyed every game so much (and so have we volunteers). It’s so neat to see kids play these games for the first time and really enjoy them- camp is not an average opportunity here in Malawi (unlike in America, where many of us have served as camp counselors) so it’s so fun to play with them. We played BINGO one night and I wish I could explain how exciting it was for them to play- even to play before they realized there were prizes (glowsticks, which I brought… they are a hit). My BFF Kathi has some great pictures of game time which I will hopefully share on my facebook wall or here.

One day we were able to take an afternoon field trip to the courthouse where we met the chief judge of Mzuzu. He was incredibly inspiring and talked with the kids for a long time. The kids had some really wonderful questions as well, which was exciting for us to know that they are taking advantage of the experience. I think us volunteers were equally if not more inspired by the judge as well- maybe a law career isn’t totally ruled out for my future.

Since this is the first time that a camp like this has been hosted by the GAD committee, we are working thru a few kinks and it’s a great experience to be here to see what works and what might not be working so well. Myself and the rest of the executive board and committee members are really excited to see what we can do for GAD camp next year. There is so much potential for a project like this and I am really excited to see where we will be able to take the GAD committee over the course of the next year. I am hoping that when I go to America next year that I will be able to raise some funds to supplement the camp funds and other future activities of GAD.

I think I previously mentioned that I am hoping to write a proposal to fund a penpal program between the students in my Life Skills class and the youth center I worked at in America. Two of the goals in Peace Corps relate to educating the people of our host country about Americans, and to educate Americans about the people of our host country. This project would address both and I think it would be a wonderful experience for the youth on both ends. It’s hard to try to do this without reliable electricity and costly access to internet, but I am hoping to get it done before the fall term of school starts. I will keep you posted!

I am looking forward to spending some time in village until further notice since I have been travelling a lot since the beginning of July. Oh I forgot to talk about my amazing holiday! My friend Christian hooked about 15 of us up with a deal to spend a few days in Nkhata Bay, which is a more “touristy” area of Malawi, and incredibly beautiful. We were at a lodge right on the lake, and spend the weekend swimming, dancing, and eating wonderful wonderful food! My BFFs Kathi & Stacey made a pin the tail on the donkey game for my birthday, and a homemade piñata!! Yes, they are incredibly resourceful! The lodge provided free chocolate cake for my birthday, which we all shared around a big bonfire that night. On the 4^th of July we spent a lot of time hanging out on a big rock in lake, and just before evening set in Stacey, Meredith, Trason & I set off some small fireworks (like roman candles & such) off the rock, just as a little tribute to America. We had amazing BBQ food for dinner and danced the night away. It was an incredible holiday.

We were all thinking about what our friends and families were doing in America and I was definitely thinking of home. I was so happy to talk to my family and BFF Kdo on my birthday, thank you for calling!! The next big holiday for Peace Corps Malawi is Halloween, when we will be attending the traditional PC celebration in Chitipa district. My friends and I already have our Halloween costume idea worked out so I am really excited about it.

Come mid-September my heath sector training group will be heading back to Dedza for In-Service Training. We will spend a week with just the trainers and the next week our counterparts will come so we can make an action plan. My counterpart is named Laston, he is a Health Surveillance Assistant at my health center and he is awesome. I feel like there is a lot of potential in my village with the help of Laston, so I am looking forward to our work over the next two years. And I know he will gain as much as I from the experience, so he will be a valuable asset to our community even when I am eventually gone.

Anyway, life is good. Patti is awesome. She traveled with me to my birthday and was a total champ- I'm sure you have the image in your head of African women tying babies to their back and such? To travel with Patt I tied Patti in a sling around me like the mamas do around here. We were quite the sight. People were constantly talking about us as we passed by. My favorite thing that was said to me was "That is not a baby, that is a dog!" (in Chitumbuka). Haha. All the PCVs loved Patti and she had a great time on the holiday as well. She is not at GAD camp, but at home being taken care of by Laston. I miss her!

Well I miss you all and hope to continue to be in touch with you all thru here, facebook, phone, and letters! Thank you for being in touch, and I look forward to your support as my work and projects come to be!

THE LONG AWAITED UPDATE!

Firstly, I updated my "Keep In Touch" page with my new mailing address at site and my cell phone number- there are directions there on how to call from a phone or from skype. Letters and texts and calls are wonderful! I really miss you guys but only have access to things like internet every-so-not-often, so letters and my phone are generally the best way to contact me.

Well, it has been 3 months since I came to Malawi, and I can't believe I'm a real volunteer already. I really loved training, I love my site now, and I am loving getting to know my community and what it is like to be a volunteer. I happen to be in the northern city of Mzuzu right now as I just finished an HIV/AIDS training with other volunteers in my region, so I knew I had to update while I had the chance.

Training was a wonderful experience. Each week was numbered and extremely different. The week we arrived was "Week Zero", where it was just about getting to know each other (my training group of 44, half health trainees and half environment), our amazing amazing staff, and the country of Malawi. This is where we were introduced to the concept of PCVs of the Week- 4 current health/environment PCVs joined us for the week as peer support and to let us know what its like out there in the field. The PCVs, our trainers, and my fellow trainees would prove to be an support group throughout training and now.

Week 1-5 we moved to our host-villages. We were split into 4 villages (2 health, 2 environment), and I lived in the village of Mkonkera with my host dad (John), host mom (Louisa), and their baby Harold, and bagogo (grandma) and my cousin Stazio. Although initially this was a hard transition (living in country for one week and then suddenly living with a family that I can hardly communicate with) is a lot, but I really loved my host family and we had a wonderful time together. However at the end of Week Zero I found out that I would be learning Chitumbuka (a language of the northern region of Malawi) and we were living in Chichewa speaking villages, so even though the language barrier stayed, we were still somehow able to get by and communicate. We really had fun! I really miss them and will hopefully visit them next time I am in the area.

So myself and 9 other trainees (across 3 of the host villages) were assigned to learn Chitumbuka. We had daily language class and I really enjoyed the language learning experience. My class was the best (shoutout to Michelle, Ilana, & Kate) and our teacher Geoffrey was amazing, we are all truly indebted to our amazing language trainers. I think all of the Chitumbukas in our group are totally awesome, and that pride is indicate of us northerners, who tend to be a very proud people. Hey, we're awesome, what can I say.

Also during these Weeks 1-5 we had daily technical training about the health sector in Malawi. Our host villages hosted a current health volunteer each week so they could lend their expertise to our topic of the week. I of course think that my village hosted the coolest and best volunteers, and I really appreciated the volunteers taking time out of their schedule to contribute to our training. I also obviously have to shoutout to my amazing technical training Grace, who is a nurse here in Malawi, and truly a pioneering in working for the public good in the health field here.

Week 6-7 we hit the road! The first week all the northerners (The Chitumbuka speaking trainees and Chitonga speaking trainees) headed to Mzuzu for a meetup with current volunteers in the northern region. Then the volunteers had us shadow them at their sites, and then we got to visit our own sites! Yes, the sites we're living at for two years! Health volunteers are generally assigend to health centers, so I got to meet my health center staff and spend two nights there in the village. My village is Mlowe and it IS the most beautiful place in Malawi (pictures on facebook). Week 6 was a great week- it was awesome to meet all of the volunteers, get to know the region, and see our sites!

Week 7 we left our site visit and headed to Ekwendeni for the Chitumbuka Language Intensive Week. We stayed for a week with all of our language trainers for what else- a week of intensive language, our final preparation for our language test and for moving to village! It really was a fun week, and especially fruitful in working on our language skills. Our trainers and the Chitumbuka trainees are awesome, how many times can I say this? We all passed our langauge test with flying colors!

Week 8 was just the last minute preparations before swearing in. Swearing in was held at the ambassador's house and it was a beautiful day and I have to say we then-trainees cleaned up pretty well. One of the trainees and friend of mine Matt wrote a speech on behalf of the trainees. The language trainers broke it up and translated it into the 3 languages we learned (Chichewa, Chitonga, Chitumbuka) and I was selected to read the Chitumbuka portion. It was great to be apart of the ceremony. The speeches by our trainers were really heartfelt and it was a wonderful day. And finally, we were volunteers! And yes, I momentarily cried after finishing swearing in- I was just REALLY excited and sitting next to my best friends Stacey & Kathi and I was overwhelmed with joy to say the least. Way to go, me.

So now I live in my way too big house in Mlowe, cook my meals over fire, shit in a hole, sleep under a mosquito net, and work! My first 3 months at site are supposed to be focused on community integration and a community needs assessment, and I'm just getting started. It's an undertaking to say the least, but I love Mlowe and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I don't know when I'll be able to update again- I actually will be in Mzuzu again next week for a Gender & Development meeting, so I write a post at site and translate it here so you can get a better picture of my daily life. I really miss you guys and want to thank everyone who has been in touch with me so far, it has really meant a lot! Plenty of you I do NOT have your addresses or phone numbers, and the best way to get that to me is thru a letter, so please send one! I always write! I love you, keep in touch!

Renee Angelo, PCV
P.O. Box 2
Mlowe, Rumphi, Malawi
Central Africa