I had a unique Christmas this year. Katie, Alisha and I managed to find transport to Lilongwe on the Thursday before Christmas. On the way we saw these guys standing on the side of the road with what we thought were umbrellas. Alisha finally told us they were actually mushrooms and we pulled over and bought a few. That evening dinner was amazing, and I am still shocked at how enormous mushrooms get here. Anyway, that is beside the point. You want to hear about my vacation I am sure. So that Saturday our bus from Lilongwe to Dar es Salaam [View Full Entry]

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It doesn't really feel like December here...100+ degrees, rains, floods and cholera. BUT, I did have a great Thanksgiving and Birthday! At Thanksgiving we were invited to the Ambassador's house. Unfortunately, we had pork instead of turkey, but there was still PLENTY to eat. AND a pool! By 4pm I was absolutely worthless, and I went back to the transit house with a handful of others to lounge around. BUT, many of my friends (despite the fact that they had what they dubbed as 'food babies') went to another party afterwards at Christine's house. The Friday after Thanksgiving we spent m [View Full Entry]

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Happy Thanksgiving! Maybe this weekend I will have pictures of Thanksgiving up...we will see how transport is. I hope to be back at my site by Monday since I got a ride with one of the Ambulances (the only way to travel! ha!). Don't worry, I am not sick. Soo, TODAY I am very excited because all the Peace Corps Volunteers are going to the Ambassador's house for Thanksgiving. There is supposed to be A LOT of food. And he has a pool. Alright, let me rewind a little bit. I set off for Cathy's not long ago with Kelly. And [View Full Entry]

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Whew! I have been BUSY. SO. Basically after Halloween I went and sparred at the Buddhist Temple. That was fun and the students (children!!) there are VERY TALENTED. Like back flips talented. Katie, Brian, Danny (other PCVs) and I got a great ride up to Dedza Sunday the 2nd. There we met up with the remaining volunteers from our health group. We had lost 3 volunteers (they terminated early...they are still alive! That sounds really harsh) over the last 5 months, and another is going home in the next day or two. Our number is now 18 people. It was nice [View Full Entry]

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Happy Halloween! It seems like forever since I have been on here! You know, I had this halfway decent entry already written to just copy and paste on to this blog, and since I have Vista on my computer it is NEVER compatible with anything and I have to always reformat all my documents...SO of course I forgot to do that this time... BUT, I have plenty of pictures. Sorry, none of Halloween though. I am on my way to Dedza again for In-Service Training. I will be away from my site until around December 1st. BUT, for the last month [View Full Entry]

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Hey! So I arrived in Lilongwe this past Wednesday. I came up with some people from the office, so that was a nice way to travel...Beats the matola! Anyway, so I have been very busy. 2 weeks ago I had to teach 20 hours of Nutrition. It was my first time meeting these kids (I say kids but they were all my age, maybe older), and then they were stuck with me 4 hours a day in the MORNING all week. I am sure they LOVED it. But, they found out that I used to do tae kwon do, so they [View Full Entry]

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Okay folks, this is going to be a short one... I am supposed to be on here looking up NUTRITION facts because I will be teaching ALL next week by myself. 20+ hours on Nutrition...Yikes. Not to mention, the most recent Nutrition textbook in our library is from like 1963... BUT, I did find one book titled Nutrition: For Developing Countries, by Felicity Savage King and Ann Burgess which is actually relevent to Malawi, but doesn't have too much depth to it. We will see how it goes! My cat, Zuze (zoo-zey) and I are still alive. And we encountered more [View Full Entry]

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Hey again! So I have spent the last 4 weeks in Blantyre doing an orientation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It has not been my favorite thing to do so far in Malawi, but I have learned a lot. And I have seen a lot, but I will spare you the gory details. Usually, my typical day, Monday-Friday consists of me getting up around 6am. Putting on my lovely nurse’s uniform. Walking about a mile (uphill, in the rain - jk, it isn’t rainy season yet) to where the mini buses park. Paying about 50 kwacha (many times they try to charge [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! I hope things are good in the states? Here time is moving, but probably not the same speed as it is back home. We swore in and became official Peace Corps Volunteers Wednesday, July 23rd. The next day nearly my entire group departed Lilongwe for their respective sites. I, unfortunately, had an interview with a representative of the Board of Nursing and Midwifery Counsel or whatever they call it here… I was very nervous, but I think it went okay. She did, however, assign me to a 4 week orientation in Blantyre, but the other nurses have similar orientations [View Full Entry]

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Alright. So we swore-in yesterday so I am officially a Volunteer. A few of my friends left today to move in to their sites, and I will leave tomorrow with the other 2 nurses. However, I probably will not actually get to my site until Saturday because I am the farthest volunteer to the south. Anyway, the swearing in was a little rushed, but awsome because it was at the ambassador's house, and later that night we ate dinner with Dale, the country director at his house. [View Full Entry]

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