Independence Day

Happy forth of July!!! We had a big party at the Ambassador’s house yesterday with a couple hundred Americans, country music, hot dogs, and cheeseburgers. It was an authentic Independence Day party, but it all felt very out of place to me since it was set in a third world country. Most of the volunteers in Malawi have been in Lilongwe the past few days so there are lots people to talk with that I haven’t seen in a while and new people that have come into country since I began my service. Peace Corps is strange because there is such a high turnover of people. Most of us are only here for two years so people are always coming and going. I have meet a lot of cool people in my time here, but many of them are already gone by now.

Here is a picture of my newest mud stove. As you may or may not know, deforestation is a huge problem over here, especially in the area where I live. Therefore, we are trying to persuade people to construct these mud stoves. They do a good job of conserving the heat that is generated by the firewood so that less firewood is used, less trees are cut down, and the world is a happier place. Furthermore, they are easy and free to make with mud, bricks, and ash. Earlier I made one in my kitchen, but the construction of that one wasn’t the greatest (it was my first time) and I wanted to make another in an area where more people can see it. This one is located in the front of my house so that everyone can see it as they pass by. As have only used it a few times because it is a bit susceptible to the southeasterly wind that we get. Both times I had a bunch of people come over to see what the crazy white man was doing. I explained to them what it was all about, and we made informal agreements that I would help them make one in their kitchens. Once I find the time, I will start doing this.
But time is something that I don’t have a lot of right now. I am happy to say that my life is very busy these days. I was concerned last year during training that I would face a lot of boredom (because that was what training was like-BORING), especially while at site in the village. However, a lack of things to do hasn’t been a problem for me at all. In addition to school, I’ve got a lot of other projects that I’m starting to get going on. These other projects include things like mud stoves (mentioned above), my garden (which is nice and green-even during this dry season), a women’s group that is making peanut butter that I sell for them to my rich friends in town, a group of scattered amateur beekeepers that we are trying to organize into a cooperative group that can sell in bulk, a tree nursery at the school, a girl’s dormitory that we are trying to build at the school and get funding for, and something called Camp Sky that I talked about a few posts ago. My idea is that a majority of these projects will fail (no matter how hard I work) so I want to try and start a bunch of things, and maybe by the time I leave this place, I will have at least a couple of successful endeavors that I can brag about.
I a few weeks I’m going to be ready for a vacation. We have a three week break coming up at school, and I planning to spend two of those weeks traveling on the Mozambique coast. It should be pretty exciting, and even just the planning of it is fun. Well I don’t have a lot else to say right now, but I do have some other things to do—so I think I’ll end things here. Post comments or send an email it there are other things you would like me to talk about on here.

"Sanity is not truth. Sanity is conformity to what is socially expected. Truth is sometimes in conformity, sometimes not."
Robert M. Pirsig