Okay, it has been a while! (I feel like I start with that sentence a lot) First of all: I HAVE FROGS LIVING IN MY TOILET. Well, maybe they live in the plumbing? I thought this was an appropriate way to start my blog off for the last 2 months because for me it is a very big dilemma....To flush or not to flush - that is the question. I wont tell you what I usually end up doing...I am just worried one morning I am going to look into my toilet and find a black mamba. THAT would be a [View Full Entry]

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I barely got home from Camp GLOW before I had to come right back out of site for a "Strategic Planning" Conference in Blantyre. From Monday, August 17th through Friday August 21st we stayed at the Kabula Hill Lodge. I really loved the Lodge and all of the people running it. They were really sweet and very helpful. The Lodge is nice and well located in my opinion (not too far from the Peace Corps house either) and more affordable than the high-end hotels, but better than a hostel...Okay, so that was my small travel advice. NOW, I gained plenty of [View Full Entry]

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So, for the last week my health group and I have been holding our annual Camp GLOW. This is a camp for secondary school girls implemented by Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide. But before that I kept myself busy. I came back from holiday to the college and spent about 2 weeks teaching Medical-Surgical Nursing and budgeting with the college staff for some sort of Strategic Plan that will be conducted next week. I also road my bike about 20 kilometers with broken gears, taught my first tae kwon do classes in Malawi, and learned how to play netball. Aside from being [View Full Entry]

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NAMIBIA! Namibia was wonderful. VERY different from Malawi. Even though our plane was delayed in Cape Town, it was no problem to get to our hotel in Windhoek. There are plenty of taxis, and a shuttle, eager to take you to Windhoek. HOWEVER, it would be good to ask someone who works at the airport what the real price for taxis are before negotiating with the taxi’s… We stayed at the Cardboard Box Backpackers in Windhoek on Saturday the fourth of July. However, we poorly planned when to come to Namibia as far as tours go… NOTE to the Traveler, make [View Full Entry]

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So Judy, Cathy and I flew from Malawi to Jo'Burg a few days ago. It was a packed flight. They even made us check our carry-on luggage under the plane (poor "Don". He was the guy who took my backpack. I told him that I would be naked for 2 weeks if he lost my bag, and that I would come back and visit him if it happened...In hindsight, maybe that wasn't so nice). Then when we got to Jo'burg we were a little lost. We got off the plane and it was nearly dark outside. Of course, because it’s me, [View Full Entry]

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Sorry it has been a while. So, for an update. I went home as a surprise to everyone (except my dad) in May. It was great, and I really enjoyed going around confusing people. I even visited WV and NYC while in the states (apart from NC). It was great, and I ate A LOT. I was worried that when I returned to Malawi I wouldn't be able to adjust back, but it turned out that it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I flew back into Lilongwe just in time to "rest" in the transit house [View Full Entry]

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I have been very busy this month! A short recap: At the beginning of April I attended a Malawi Blood Transfusion training in Lilongwe. It ended up being only myself and one other volunteer (Tessa)... A lot of people had come into town for a camp GLOW fundraiser, and therefore did not plan to go to the training. My friend and I thought it would be sooo weird and boring because it was just the two of us (and there were more trainers for the seminar than there actually were trainees, haha) but it turned out being quite informative and fun, [View Full Entry]

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So, I should start with the bad news and get it out of the way. I think I heard somewhere that bad things come in threes... My three this month (in no particular order) are: my ipod was stolen, my garden was destroyed, and my boyfriend broke up with me. As for the first there is not much to say...I was really sick (A lovely case of viral gastroenteritis) and while I was passed out in between my sprints to the toilet someone went into my bag and took it :( For the latter, I'm not comfortable talking about THAT. And [View Full Entry]

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Whew. Not much to say about February. Same old same old. The students have not come back yet, but there is a RUMOR that the students will all be coming back on Monday. We are now 8 weeks behind so there is no way that they can catch up so the calendar will probably be pushed back. That means the new students will probably not arrive until June or so, and all my travel plans are going to have to be shifted. My colleagues and I have been doing in-service trainings with the nurses, clinical officers and medical assistants on Wednesdays [View Full Entry]

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This month has been very SLOW. I guess looking at the pictures it appears that I have done a lot, but I feel like I have not. The students were supposed to arrive back to school January 5th. Unfortunately they have not yet returned. I do not want to get into too much detail right now because I think that things have become political with the elections coming up in a few months…but it all has to do with the student’s school fees. Anyway, the school year ends before the first week in April in all of the Christian Health Association [View Full Entry]

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