IST, and on to home!

Greetings friends and family! I am still on my way home from In-Service Training (IST). After training I decided to travel with my best friend Kathi, who lives in Dwambazi, in north Nkhotakota district. Kathi lives and works at Dwambazi Rural Hospital, which is a bit different than the health center I work at. Her catchment area is much larger, and they have more staff (both curative and community medical workers) to cover so many people. And they speak Chitonga! Luckily, most people around have been able to appreciate my Chitumbuka. Kathi has been a wonderful host, and it’s nice to finally visit a volunteer in my group’s site to see what everyone is up to.

I just spent 2 weeks in Dedza at the College of Forestry, which is where Peace Corps hosts all the trainings volunteers go thru- pre-service training, in-service training, etc. It was nice to see the old stomping grounds again. For the first week of training, both the environment group and health group were there (all 43 of us!) and it was wonderful to see everyone again. We are lucky that we are such a friendly and fun group and all really get along. It was awesome to hear what everyone was up to; Malawi varies so much by location! I can’t wait to see more of the country when I am able to travel some more.

During the big group first week, we had some basic sessions with office staff about general Peace Corps issues- administrative, safety & security, medical, etc. I am proud to say that I am an alternate warden for the northern region of Malawi- that means myself, the other alternate wardens, and the head warden, will be taking the lead should the volunteers need to consolidate for safety and security reasons. Of course, I hope that never happens, but you never know. We also spent 3 days of that first week with all HIV/AIDS sessions lead by our PEPFAR Coordinator, the incredibly inspiring Irene! Irene was a PCV in Lesotho (where my friend Mike is currently serving) and did Peace Corps Response in Malawi. She is now the liason for PEPFAR funding in Peace Corps Malawi, and for Peace Corps Response Malawi. Irene is the bomb, and incredibly supportive of volunteer’s works. We got the extensive training we needed on how to deal with HIV/AIDS in our communities, and many many guides and resources to help us along the way.

During that first week of training, I heard from home that my grandmother, Concetta Ursini, had passed away. It was sudden news, and extremely hard to be away from my family at that time. I was lucky in that I was with everyone I knew best in Peace Corps Malawi- my amazing group of 43. The night I heard the news, we went to our local watering hole, Ed’s, to toast my grandmother’s memory. It was a really special night filled with an outpouring of support from all of my fellow volunteers. I just want to say to them how much I appreciate the being there for me, and I know everyone at home is looking out for my family as well. I love you all!

The Sunday we spent at training we were able to go visit the families we lived with for the 5 weeks of homestay. I have to say it was really emotional! As my village crew was driving to Mkonkera we were pretty quiet, unsure what emotions would hit us when we saw our families again. When the Peace Corps vehicle dropped us off, people finally heard the word that we were in town and they came running into the street! I saw my agogo (grandmother) running towards me with my baby brother Haroldie!! I gave then a great big hug when I saw my amayi (mama) running towards with me with her beautiful smile!! They escorted me back home, where I saw my bambo (father) and we sat and had a Fanta and biscuits. Haroldie was a little hesitant with me, having not seen me in so long, but he was pretty willing to share biscuits with me. I really loved my homestay family, they are a beautiful family and I am grateful to having been able to spend my homestay experience with them. Sadly we didn’t have too long to spend with them, but for good measure, and in true Dedza style, my amayi sent me off with a sack of potatoes. Love them!

Eventually, the environment group headed home, and our counterparts came for their week of training with us. My poor counterpart, who had one of the longest distances to travel to training, had a rough time getting there- his bus from Mzuzu to Dedza broke down several times along the way, but luckily he was able to arrive by 7:30pm that night. A late hot meal (and ice cream!) was hopefully enough to soothe the troubles that is transportation around Malawi.

The week of training with the counterparts was very inspiring. We all did presentations on our sites, and it was great to see what everyone and their counterparts are up to at their respective sites. All of the counterparts were incredibly engaged, and brought new perspectives to our hopes for our sites. We definitely learned how to utilize our counterpart-volunteer relationship to the greatest benefit of our communities. One of the most important things we learned about were Income Generating Activities (IGA) that we hope to implement in our villages. IGAs often fund Community Based Organizations (CBO), HIV/AIDS support groups (PLWHA), youth groups, etc. We learned how to make soap, peanut butter, healthy biscuits, and more. We also had a session on beekeeping! Apparently, my site is a good place for beekeeping, so I will be looking towards the experts in my area to help start beekeeping in Mlowe. I am hoping that many community groups in my areas will be willing to receive training in IGAs and put their profits to great use. My counterpart definitely benefitted a lot from training, and I am really excited to get to work for these next 19 months in Mlowe with Laston.

Things are going great and I am really happy here. I have tons and tons of work to do, and I am so happy to have the opportunity to live and work in Mlowe! I believe my trip to America may be scheduled around the very end of April/beginning of May… so fear not, you will see me soon enough and for a few weeks at that!

Oh yes, and I wanted to brag about some amazing cooking that Kathi and I did when I visited her site (you probably saw the pictures on facebook, but I’m going to brag anyway). One night we made PIEROGIES!!! We stuffed our pierogies with mashed potatoes, cooked greens and boiled carrots- we fried a few for an appetizer, and then boiled the rest- which we topped with an Italian seasoned tomato sauce. It was amazing!!! Kathi is the dough expert, and now I am an expert by association, and I will soon be wrapping all my meals in dough, just because it’s damn delicious. Another night we made tacos!! Homemade tortillas, green beans, zucchini, onions, pepper, and taco seasoned mince soya/tomato as the meat!! It was flipping delicious!!! Of course we miss tacos with ALL the fixin’s- guacamole (avocadoes are out of season), sour cream, cheese… but they were pretty damn good. I’m hoping to become more adventurous with my cooking, even though the selection of food in my village is limited. I loved cooking in America and it’s time to translate that love to my charcoal stove here in Malawi!

P.S. I reorganized my wishlist- I’ve been meaning to for awhile, and now it is much more organized for your viewing and carepackage sending pleasure.

P.P.S. I believe I mentioned this in my previous post, but does anyone have any contacts with a t-shirt screening company looking to “give back” to benefit the works of GAD Malawi? Please let me know!!!

On the Way to IST

Greetings! I am spending the night in Mzuzu on my way to IST in Dedza. I get to catch a 7am bus for a 6 hour ride (at least) to Dedza tomorrow... I'm glad at the end of the road will be many familiar faces, free food, and many new things.

We have a new Peace Corps Response volunteer (the mini-Peace Corps you can do after you complete regular Peace Corps) that lives in Mzuzu, and she was a volunteer in The Gambia- and we definitely knew each other there! We just had lunch and its great to have a friend who experienced the specialness that is The Gambia around. Especially that lives in Mzuzu, since I am here about once a month. It will be exciting to continue to hang out and reminisce.

Things at site have been going well. I feel like there is so much to do and so much I need to do, which of course is a good thing, and is why I'm there. However, it is a lot of work that I can't do all on my own, and I'm trying to find the right people (and the motivation on all of our parts) to get to work. But my counterpart is great, and I know we will both get a lot out of IST and will help us focus on how to go about addressing everything we need to.

I start teaching Life Skills at the local CDSS when I am home from IST. Unfortunately the old Life Skills teacher got transferred and hasn't been replaced, so there is only me- and unfortunately again, I don't have enough time to teach more than two classes, so I am only able to teach Form 3 and Form 4. However, I'm hoping this will be an opportunity for me to train some Peer Educators, so at least they will be a resource to the Form 1 and Form 2 students.

The East Rumphi Youth Network is still in the beginning stages, but it looks like my old youth group in America wants to be a counterpart to the youth network here. This is really really exciting, and could be a lifetime lasting relationship between kids in Malawi and the USA. It's exciting to be apart of it all!

Hopefully we're going to be hosting a GAD meeting at IST, to reflect on GAD camp, discuss new ideas, talk about going national (we're currently based in the north), and of course, money money money. I'll let you know how it goes! Also- do any of you Americans out there know a t-shirt screening company that would be willing to donate some t-shirts to our GAD committee? If you do, please get in touch with me via facebook message or email!

Patti recently received a pink collar and bejeweled name tag in the mail from my family. Needless to say, she's the hottest pup in town. She is truly too cool- I'm almost concerned about the crowd she is running with, she's been coming home late, haha. Patti is doing great and I miss her already, and she will be excited when I finally get back home in a few weeks. Thank you family for the amazing packages!! I don't want to reveal how quickly I ate all the m&m's... also this is the best watch I have ever owned, THANK YOU!!

Hope everyone is doing well. Just a reminder to please send all mail to my address in Mlowe, since I am basically never in Lilongwe-
Renee Angelo, PCV
P.O. Box 2
Mlowe, Rumphi, Malawi

Keep in touch!! Love you all!

Just Checking In

Hey everyone! I unfortunately didn't prepare a blog this time around as I had other work emails and things I needed to do, but everything is still going well and I will post a blog on my way to IST in two weeks.

My wishlist is now actually on my page- for whatever reason I was editing it but it wasn't publishing to my page, but it is there now!! So thank you in advance :)

Love you all!

A Day In The Life...

Greetings friends & family! I have to give a shout out to everyone whom I’ve received mail and packages from recently- (letters) Gina, The Beckers, Ben, Nard Dog, James, Ryan, and (packages) the Kings, the Dorrs, and my family! (and thanks to my sister Kara for the amazing birthday presents!) You guys have no idea how exciting it is to go to the post office and there actually be something there waiting for me. I feel like every time I’m just as surprised as the previous time that stuff actually shows up. The postal system is amazing, and I’m pretty sure just about everything everyone has sent has actually reached me. I feel like packages always show up at the best time- i.e. when I’m sooooo tired of cooking or happen to be very hungry at the moment I open a package and there are oreos inside, haha. Patti seems to be receiving just as many presents as me... she is making such a good impression on all you guys, and unfortunately, you guys will probably never meet her. Do not worry though- she appreciates the presents just as much as me. She has no idea how lucky she is!

So I’m totally ripping this blog post idea off of my best friend Kathi, who did a little “average day in the life” post, so… here is what I might do on an average day.

I get out of bed by 6am, I often wake up before then and maybe read or surf facebook on my phone before getting up. I get out of bed, open all my windows (they’re closed at night to keep out mosquitoes… and robbers). I open my back door to go to my chimbudzi (local toilet), and Patti (anxiously waiting for me to feed her) sits outside my chimbudzi waiting. I grab a big handful of usipa (these tiny fish dried in the sun, they are the main staple of protein here in Mlowe… I’m not a big fan, but Patti loves them) and put them in Patti’s bowl out back. Then I eat breakfast- if I’m lucky, I made a boiled egg the night before to eat, or I have hot water in my thermos to make oats if I have them. Otherwise I may eat something from a package (thank you everyone who has ever sent me granola bars!!). I don’t drink coffee or anything, so I feel no need to make a fire in the morning.

So yeah, I eat my breakfast, read a little bit, and I get to my health center by 7:30am. My health center is funded/run by the CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) so we do prayers and hymns every morning. After prayers, I do whatever the HSA’s (Health Survelliance Assistants) are doing- which could be an outreach growth monitoring clinic (where we weigh children under 5years to monitor malnutrition) or it might be a day where people come for the Supplementary Feeding Program, or an immunization campaign. If nothing particular is going on, I talk with the HSA’s talk about what’s going on in the village, health issues, etc. I’m lucky that my HSA’s are pretty awesome, and we share a lot of information with each other. I ask about Malawi, and they ask about America- it’s an equal exchange (and directly address the 2^nd and 3^rd goal of the Peace Corps, woot woot). I should note that Patti is present for all of this- she follows me to the hospital to play with all the dogs that live here, and everyone knows her, she is very famous.

At noon everyone goes home for lunch, so I head home. Give Patti some more usipa. If I’ve planned well, I have some leftovers from dinner the night before- which I may have eaten for breakfast- if so, then I eat breakfast food (eggs, oats, granola bar) for lunch. I’ve always felt that food has no certain time of day, its just food, it’s for whenever you’re hungry. Oh, sometimes I make a salad as well (which is often just tomatoes, but hey, its salad like). I often take a nap after lunch, or just lay in bed and read for a while, because it’s really really hot at this time and nobody is doing anything anyway, so I’m not missing out. After that, I take care of my chores for the day- picking up some tomatoes for dinner, doing dishes or laundry or bathing in the river, stop at the post office, chatting with people all along the way (and Patti following).

Late afternoon/early evening (4:30-5) I start to light my (new!) bawula, which is a charcoal stove. You put charcoal in the top and start a fire underneath until the charcoal gets hot- it takes awhile, but it stays hot for a really long time, so I can do a bunch of cooking in a row. I’ll probably make myself some rice and beans or soya and pasta, making extra to eat the next day. I have this porridge that’s for babies that I give to Patti to supplement her usipa diet, so I make that when I’m done with my food, and Patti stares at the pot the whole time as she knows its almost her dinner time (6pm). When Patti is fed, that’s when I boil eggs or water for my thermos, as the bawula is now super duper hot and perfect for boiling. The bawula has made cooking so much easier, and helps me organize my meals, which is great. While I eat dinner I either listen to music (if my phone or kindle is charged) or read. After dinner, I write letters, or journal (by candlelight). Or I workout! I made a workout mix on my phone, so I listen to that, do some resistance bands, dance around, etc. Patti is not amused by this, so she usually takes this as an opportunity to sneak off to my bed for a snooze.

By 7pm its totally dark, so usually I’m in bed- of course, after I’ve lured Patti out of my bed and the house with a treat, because even though I love her terribly, I still want her to sleep outside. I read in bed or (if I was able to charge my computer at the health center that day) watch some TV or movies on my computer. Then I fall asleep. I probably haven’t willingly fallen asleep this early since I was in elementary school, but I mean, it’s dark. I don’t have electricity, and you can only do so much by candlelight anyway (and hey, candles cost money too). It’s better to wake up early and take advantage of all the daylight than stay up at night, so oh well.

So now that I write that all out, it doesn’t seem that interesting, haha. But it is my most average day. It might not seem like much, but everything just takes so much time here. I like the slow pace of life- I’m never bored, there’s always something to get done or someone to talk to. I’ve also read like more than 30 books since being here, haha. Sometimes I have meetings during the week with community groups in the afternoon, and I’m meeting new people all the time in my village (still! There are a lot of people… and only one me). Then I have days that are totally not average- which are the days that I usually write about in here. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse in the life.

Next time I’ll write a blog on the fun and stress that is Renee trying to get out of her remote village to the city. That’s some work!

I’m in Mzuzu right now, doing some banking and errands on my way to my friend Robert’s in Nkhata Bay to see friends for the weekend. I’m excited! I got into Mzuzu yesterday, after I went to Rumphi boma (boma kinda means like the “city” party of your district- its where all the government offices are- Rumphi is my district) to meet the District Health Officer with my counterpart. The district hospital is not directly charge of my hospital, but only the Health Survelliance Assistants, as they are still funded by the government. The main hospital that oversees my health center, is the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia, and will be celebrating 100 years in August! There’s going to be a celebration and I am excited to go.

So things are going well. In-service training next month- it will be the first time that I’ve travelled south of Nkhata bay (which isn’t even south, its still the northern region) so I’m not looking forward to travelling all the way to Dedza in the central region (it will probably take 2 days). They partially combined our training- so the first week of training my entire training group (environment and health, all 44 of us) will be at Dedza together. It will really be a trip to be with the whole group again back at our old stomping grounds (Dedza College of Forestry, where we had PST). It will be great to hear from everyone and exchange ideas.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. I updated my wishlist as well, for anyone who may be planning to send me some treats J I mean hey, Christmas is just around the corner- at least, when you consider that it could take 1 or 2 months for a package to get here, haha. Everyone else, keep in touch! I love getting your letters and writing. I hope you all are doing great, and I’m sorry that summer will soon be over for you guys at home. Hot season is on its way here, and I gotta say I only keep hearing terrible things about it. We’ll see how my average day changes come hot season!

Hello Everyone!

The more I spend time with Patti, the more she reminds me of Bernard - which is a little strange, since they are completely different kinds of dogs, and different genders. They remind me of each other because they are A) weird B) they love me. Patti has decided that she wants a bed (how does she even know that dog beds exist?) so she tries to lay on mine. However, mine is surrounded by a mosquito net, and going under the mosquito net continues to elude Patti. Therefore, she lays on top of the net, on the bed. It is extremely silly. She still sleeps outside, but occasionally I let her in the bed during naptime (naptimes are important in Malawi). If anyone wants to send a bed to Patti, she would really appreciate it. Thank you to Mary Ann & Rich for sending Patti some treats, flea meds, and bones!

In other news, the last day I was in Mzuzu after the end of GAD camp, I shaved my head. I had been thinking about it for awhile, and was [maybe] planning to wait until IST (there is a girl in my group w/a shaved head so I figured hey, leave it to the experts) but my hair was driving me crazy all week at camp so I finally committed. It cost me $2. I have pictures but my phone network hasn't been working, but as soon as they do, they'll be online. I have to say that it looks really good, and it is way easier to manage- especially considering that I bathe in a river.

My first three months are over! So now I am an even more real volunteer. I feel like I am about to get really busy... I have been meeting with community based organizations in my village, and other various committees. I am on the Board of Trustees of the East Rumphi Youth Network (which is going to be AMAZING) and there is going to be a lot of work to get it off the ground. And one of my environment volunteer friends should be visiting my site soon so we can get my health center's garden underway. Then IST (in-service training) with my counterpart, and it will be great to see my training group again and make a 6 month action plan with Laston. I am really excited with how things are going. I will keep you in the loop everytime I have internet access!

Thanks to everyone whom I have received letters and packages from recently, you have no idea how much they mean to me!! My post office is so small (smaller than my house) that sometimes I suspect that I am the only person getting mail there, but whatever it takes to give Isaac (the postmaster) a job. We both thank you!! Keep in touch!!