Buckets are the New Sinks

My training group has now been in Malawi for four months! It seems like much longer, because we've been so busy. I am in my sixth week of teaching, and settling in nicely, I think.

School is going well! My Form 2s (sophomores) just finished a pretty gruesome Roald Dahl story -- it required explaining taxidermy (the story was 'The Landlady', if you're curious) which was definitely news to them, but I think they appreciated it. Nothing like blood and guts to get the kids reading. On Thursday all fifty or so of them checked out books from our library, my very first project at site! I'm pretty proud -- we have maybe 500 books, organized into Junior Fiction, Adult Fiction, Academic Textbooks, Academic Workbooks, Teacher Resources, Periodicals, Reference, Biography, Sociology, Poetry & Drama, Anthologies, and History. Whew! It was a lot of work getting it all cleaned, alphabetized, labeled, categorized, alphabetized, indexed, and listed, but it's almost completely done! Yay! I just hope the students use it as much as possible. We've had training sessions now on How to Use a Dictionary, How to Use and Encyclopedia (we have 2 incomplete sets - an incredible resource for a Malawian school), How to Use an Index and Please Don't Totally Screw Up the Books. My Form 2s now have 3 weeks to write a book report. Only one of them has ever read a novel before.

A couple of kids got Nancy Drews, or Babysitters Club-type series books, but I personally was most amused by the cadre of popular boys who all wanted love stories. They asked me to pull out some romances for them, and the first book officially checked out from our library was a pink-covered, heart-adorned, cherub-gamboling paperback called Forever Angels #4: Ashley's Love Angel, which was checked out by a very sturdy class monitor who the same day got in trouble for fighting (the fight was, surprisingly, unrelated to his book choice). It's nice that these kids really are free from some of the gender stereotypes we have in America, but it did make me laugh.

In Form 1 History, we've finished the Development of Man and spent a little bit of time on Ancient Egypt -- they had NEVER HEARD of the pyramids, thank goodness we have some old National Geographics so I could show them pictures -- and on Friday, for the unit on the ancient kingdom of Ghana, I had quite possibly my proudest moment as a teacher. Since they seemed to be having some trouble understanding exactly how the kingdom became wealthy with so few natural resources of its own, I made them have Trading Day. Half of the kids were Ghanians, half traders from the middle east, with one brave volunteer as King of Ghana standing in the middle of the class. They were each given seven dinars (pieces of paper), and materials to trade, depending on where they were from (gold, salt, ostrich feathers, gemstones, pottery, and silver, all represented by various trash from around my house, like foil). They had to pay export and import taxes to the king every time they crossed the 'border.' The kid with the most money at the end won some M&Ms -- they were very motivated by the promise of American candy. I expected this to all blow up in my face, to be unable to make the kids understand the rules, and even if they did understand the rules, for them to not understand the connection to Ghana. I expected a 40-minute period of free-for-all mayhem punctuated by foil missiles hurtling through the air and and 50 kids screaming in Chitumbuka. But... THEY GOT IT. I'm not sure anybody who is not in the education system in Malawi can understand how proud I am of this. THEY GOT IT! The girl who won had turned her 7 dinars and two pieces of salt into 43 dinars and one ostrich feather. It was the best imaginable use for those M&Ms, and I have never been so happy to give away chocolate.

At home, I am getting better and better at carrying water (the #1 most difficult thing in Malawi) and lighting a fire (the #2 most difficult thing in Malawi). I'm still not good -- I still, like the weenie American I am, use TWO HANDS to steady the bucket of water on my head, unlike most Malawian women -- but I'm getting better. In no time at all I fully expect to be jumping hurdles with 50 litres intact on my head. The water is even more necessary now than it has recently been, since Malawi is suffering a drought, especially in the south. This is now the rainy season, meaning typically the one time of year when everyone can eat regularly, but the drought means that soon a lot of Malawi will be starving. Officials are just hoping that it breaks soon, and unofficially I am hoping so too, both for my neighbors (excuse me, neighbours, this is a former British colony, after all) and my own garden, as well as an end to the RIDICULOUS HEAT. My garden is surviving okay though so far -- my beans are growing so fast I half expect a giant to climb down them any minute -- and though my cilantro has all passed on to the Great Garden In the Sky, my many squash plants are thriving. Just pray for the basil to make it through.

ALSO -- new environment people coming soon -- I don't know if anybody is reading this who wants packing advice, but before I left I definitely wished somebody had posted some on his/her blog, so here you are.

1. Tent and sleeping bag. Bring them! You will want them. Every time you travel and stay in a city, it's much, much cheaper to camp than to rent a bed (sometimes free since you're Peace Corps). Also, when you're visiting other volunteers, you'll want something to sleep on, especially if there's a lot of you in one place and there's not room for everybody in the house. I would also definitely consider a sleeping pad.

2. Bring as much as you want. A lot of PC people say, "don't bring much." I disagree. The only time you'll have to lug all your own stuff is when you're going to Staging. When you get to Malawi, there will be people at the airport to help you, and you'll never have to move it all again by yourself until you move to site, when you move it from the College Storage Room into the back of a truck (maybe 15 feet) and then into your front door. So don't be afraid to bring a lot. Also, I know the limit is technically 80 lbs, and who knows if you'll have the same situation at the airport, but my luggage was never weighed at any point in time. So if you want to live life on the edge it might be worth risking bringing an extra couple pounds.

3. Pillow. Peace Corps does not give you one, which is weird, since they give you a mattress and sheets. So I'm really happy I brought mine. Definitely worthwhile.

4. Camping chair. Likewise. Comfortable furniture is hard to come by and IMPOSSIBLE to transport. Obviously, not essential, but I sit in mine every day and everyone is jealous and threatens to steal it. Really.

5. First Aid stuff. You don't need it. Peace Corps gives you a LOT of stuff, and a LOT that is not on that official list on the website (including broad-spectrum antibiotics and other prescription business). I would, however, bring a hefty supply of any prescription drugs yu take regularly, because otherwise you have to rely on Peace Corps a)being willing to give you the same one you're taking now and b) having it in stock all the time.

6. Seeds! You can get tomatoes, beans, and a few other things here, but it's nice to have herbs and other vegetable seeds you can't get, like eggplant, carrots, or spinach.

7. Computer/external hard drive. We've all been trading music and TV shows -- sorry, International Copyright Laws -- and it's very nice to have some new things. Also, I am using my computer to do my school's registration, which is required to be computerized, despite the fact that most Malawian schools do not have electricity, much less computers. So you'll probably use it for other things too, besides mindless entertainment.

8. Other stuff I'm really glad I brought: a good kitchen knife, school supplies (markers especially), cards, my contacts (you're not supposed to wear them, but try watching your feet while carrying water on your head while wearing glasses, it's impossible), sunglasses, cheese packets from macaroni & cheese (pasta is widely available), Clif Bars, sports bras, good non-stick frying pan, headlamp (ESSENTIAL), Tupperware.

9. Stuff I wish I had brought: travel-size toiletries (you really want to lighten your load when you have to walk a couple miles to get to your campsite, plus shampoo, toothpaste and things are very easy to find -- but no contact solution in the entire country), more good knives, cumin, a spare headlamp, a solar charger.

10. Stuff I brought and probably should not have: socks (I never wear them, ever), silverware.

I'll try and keep thinking of helpful things. And about clothes, for girls -- really, they're serious about the skirt-length thing. I can wear skirts that go just below my knees, but no shorter, and I am actually at a pretty liberal-minded site. I do wear trousers at site, but not jeans, because they are too tight, and definitely not to school. Also, go for things that dry fast. I brought a long knit dress that I really like, but it takes so long to dry when I wash it that I just never wear it. I do wear tank tops, especially because my site is so hot, but I still can't wear them to school, and again, I live in a pretty liberal place, so I think maybe farther away from the lake even tank tops would be too much. All that aside, you can wear whatever you want in Lilongwe, Mzuzu or Blantyre! They are impervious to Azungu Shock in the cities.

That's all for now. Wish me luck with exams in two weeks, and keep on mailing me things! I'm sorry if I don't respond -- but I'm sending Positive Thought Waves in your direction(s).