(I can't think of a good title today-just read below please)

Hello everyone, I’m back in town again. [Town is what we call Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, which is about 60 km from my site (but between 90 min. to three hours travel time including a 45 min bike ride until I reach Mitundu where I can pick up a minibus that takes me to the bus depot in town, and from there it is a 10 min. walk to either the Peace Corps rest house (pictures of the outside and inside below)




or the Peace Corps office (where I am currently on the computer composing this fantastic blog)), and is a place where I can retreat from my site for a few days for both a mental break and some time to get work done at the office and on the internet.]

Please allow me to vent with my one complaint, and then we can get to the good stuff: There are seven teachers at my school. Three of us, the headmaster; deputy head; and myself, live immediately next to the school, while the other four live in Mitundu. As I have said in the past, Mitundu is the nearest major trading center, but it’s about a 45 min. bike ride away from the school. As far as I can tell, these other four have had the opportunity in the past to live closer to the school, making their lives easier with a shorter commute to work.

However, they prefer to live in Mitundu instead for a variety of reasons. First, most, if not all of them, have businesses there to supplement their teachers salary (which isn’t great, but relative to the respective national average, it’s a lot better than high school teacher’s salaries back in the states). Secondly, they thoroughly enjoy drinking, and there just aren’t any good bottle stores (bars) near Chadabwa. Finally, I heard that one of them actually did try living in Chadabwa a few years ago, but he had to leave because his family, which lives in this village, was always bugging him for money.

With that being said, they all feel that there long commute to work is a good excuse for them to show up late to school EVERY day. Take note that I said “EVERY” day. School begins at 7:30, and not a single one of them has showed up on time on any of these day during these first five weeks of school. It would make sense that if you were a half hour late for work every day you would simply depart home a half hour earlier. Unfortunately, in this case (and in an overwhelming amount of cases in this country), “sense” seems to be lacking. People are surprised to hear that where I come from, back in America, a worker is fired from their job if they show up late to work everyday. Well, that can’t be done here because there are enough teachers in the first place. If these lazy teachers are fired there simply won’t be anyone to replace them. Is a lazy teacher better than no teacher at all? What a great example these guys are for the students. How am I supposed to expect my students to show up on time if the teachers don’t????

With that out of the way, I should say that I am trying to focus my energy on working with the students and the community rather than the teachers (I must point out that I do get along very well with the Head and Dept. Head, who are good people-to the best of my knowledge). It has been difficult teaching Form 1 because their English skills are horrible. Therefore, much of my teaching in that class is done in Chichewa, but a lot of things, especially in the realm of science, don’t translate very well. Oh well, if anything they’re getting better at writing, hearing, and speaking English. I make them take a lot of notes (there aren’t many other options since we don’t have textbooks here for the students) and answer a lot of questions out loud.

It’s definitely easier for me to teach Form 3, although they’re not fluent speakers by any means. Last Thursday in Life Skills, we were having a discussion about gender roles in America versus Malawi. This somehow morphed into me leaving them all baffled when I ended class by telling them about homosexuality in the States (a concept that most of them were apparently completely unaware of). In sum, the actual teaching part (outside of the office) of being at school is going well, and I’ll see how much my students have learned this upcoming week, as they will be taking mid-term exams.

I’ve been excited to post this picture since I took it a few weeks ago. This is my new favorite food in Malawi:


The local name for it is ngumbi or inswa, but it can be simply explained to you all as fried ants! I prepared this batch myself by first boiling them, and then frying them in margarine and salt. Result: delicious. They are definitely better than the fried pig intestines I had a few months ago. They have a hard-to-describe nutty flavor and are a good source of protein in the village. But I must admit that the amayi (the women in the village) can prepare them a lot better them me. Andrew Zimmern would be so proud of me. Maybe I should invite him out to Chadabwa to do an episode of Bizarre Foods. There’s another exotic, African food that I should be trying in the near future. I won’t tell you what it is yet, leaving it up to your imagination…

My garden is looking good now that it isn’t being attacked by chickens. I should have some tomatoes; pumpkins; and cucumbers within the next month, with some different peppers; basil; cabbage; cilantro; beans; and peanuts on the way after that. Everyone around my place is addicted to fertilizer, and they are all trying to persuade me to use some. As a result, I have to constantly explain the concept of an “organic garden” that won’t destroy the land after a few years. In addition to caring for my vegetable garden, I recently planted a papaya tree seedling, and one of my students gave me a young banana tree from his grandparents large grove. The papaya was a heck of a deal-less than a dollar (although everyone in my village thought I got ripped off when I told them I paid 100MK for it). Both of these should start to give fruit during my two years here, assuming I can keep them alive.

I don’t really want to spent all morning on this silly computer so I should wrap things up here. Please send me an email, letter, or post a comment so I can get an idea of who is reading this. Also, let me know what you would like me to write about.

“The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around.”
-Robert M. Pirsig