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Published: July 13th 2008
Hiking in Dedza
Behind the college there is this huge mountain that a lot of people like to hike...The elevation is soo high here! Okay, so I have a lot of pictures that I really want to put on the internet, so we will see how many actually download. Otherwise I am going to try to send a few of them via email if it is faster…
Anyway, for the last 5 or 6 weeks I have been living at a college in Dedza and/or in a village called Zuze not far from the college, also in the Dedza district. At the college I lived in a hostel with the other 21 Peace Corps Trainees that will be working in the health sector of Malawi for the next 2 years. There are only 3 nurses here, including myself, and a couple others that actually have a health background, the rest will be teaching proper hygiene, HIV/Aids prevention…etc depending on their sites. My roommate at the college was a girl named Cathy who actually studied abroad in Kenya not long ago.
Okay, so when I lived in Zuze village (and hopefully my awesome ‘Day in the Life’ story will arrive in the states any day now) I stayed with a host-family of 7 people. They did not speak English, but Chichewa, so that was a little
My house
This is my host home. My room is behind the fense on the right... intimidating, but I grew to really enjoy living there (even without running water or electricity). While at site or at the college we spent a lot of time in training sessions, either learning about health issues in Malawi, or trying to learn how to speak the language. When I spent time with my family I learned how to cook on a fire, do my laundry by hand, get water on my head from a borehole, or learn from the kids how to play the strange games here in Malawi… Also while we were at the college I hiked some of the mountains near the school, and at first I thought I was REALLY out of shape, but then I realized that the elevation there was super high…
While in Zuze we got the opportunity to see the King of the ngoni tribes get sworn in, and we also got a chance to see the President of Malawi. The ngoni’s are pretty much spread out through Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, and there is a southern and northern element to it. The chief that ruled the southern tribe passed away last year, and the new king/chief went through a series of rites/initiations
my zuze group
These are the other trainees with me in Zuze! that I am not clear on (but it involved slaughtering 100 cows?) and we got to see some of it. Unfortunately it was all in Chichewa, but it was still a very important thing to see. All of the villages (even Zuze) in Malawi pretty much have a chief, and this guy is apparently the King of all of them. So that was neat.
We moved out of the village Thursday, July 3rd, and I was super bummed about it. On Saturday, July 5th we had a village farewell that was very neat. Peace Corps trainees were stationed at 3 villages in Dedza, and all 3 turned out for the farewell that took place at the soccer field at the border of Zuze. Jen gave a speech in Chichewa about how we appreciated our villages and host families, and a few other people stood up and spoke. Then the women from the villages got up and danced for us, then we got up and danced for them, and finally some masked dancers came out and preformed. It was awesome.
Last week I traveled to Blantyre and then to my site in Nsanje. It took a while but I really like
zuze
This is one view of my village! my site and the college I will be teaching at. Granted, the facilities in the hospital and the university are not to U.S. standards (there isn’t even a doctor there) but it was nice. I am practically living in a jungle, and I am near the Shire River were all the crocodiles are! YIKES. Anyway, right now I am at an internet café in Lilongwe, and tomorrow I will set off with a few other trainees to Salima were I will be doing “Intensive Language Week” before going back to Dedza and taking an exam on Chichewa. I hope you are still writing me!! I have a cell phone now so if you want my number email me!
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