My house

The opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine and not representational of the Peace Corps or the United States Government

So I am giving a second quick update on my home and a few pictures because people (my Mom and Dad) are curious about what my place looks like so I thought I might as well share with all. So I can say there are 2 types of typical houses in Malawi. The first one is a brick house with a tin roof that and is they type I am living at my site. The other is a mud brick house with a grass roof. I will put future pictures up of the second type once I take a few. If you were to look at them side by side my house looks much more modern but I can tell you both types have advantages and disadvantages and I think one is no better than the other. As for my house at site it has a cement floor, 2 rooms, a small pantry and cement floors. Outside my house in the front yard is another small building with two rooms one being a kitchen of sorts (I am using it to store corn cobs for a project I am working on which I will get to in a future post), and the other is used as my bath house. In the back yard my bathroom is located in a small building which I share with a neighbor and which is terribly short especially for a guy who is over 6 foot tall. The tin roof which I have tend to leak a lot less than however the swing side is that when it rains hard which happens quite a bit during the rainy season is that the sound is deafening (it has rained in the 3 weeks I have been at site so I speak from experience). The other disadvantage is that tin roofs trap heat in houses quite well so with me being in one of the hottest parts of the country I look forward to seeing what it is like during those hot days. Luckily now is our winter time in Chikwawa which means temperatures mainly in the 80’s with a few days in the high 70’,a few in the low 90’s, and nights which are perfect. As for my house I really do enjoy. As you can see form the pictures it is slowly coming along. I had a carpenter make me a bed and a kitchen table is under construction. I have put up some pictures of family and friends along with some maps which have been a big hit. My home is small but I have little with me and it is exactly what I want. I forgot to take a picture from the front and the view you see of the grass and trees is my back yard. If you look in the distance you can see a dark green tree line in the distance (about 4 kilometers at the most) and that is Lengwe National Park and the other way from my front yard about the same distance is Majete Game Reserve. I am excited to be where I am and in three weeks I have met a lot of good people and feel very comfortable already. As for living with a house with no electricity, taking baths out of a bucket, using a small hole in the ground for a bathroom, no running water, and everything else I have forgotten I can say it has been an easy transition. The lack of those American luxuries has not bothered me a bit. I do not even think about real showers, toilets, electricity, faucets, and etc. at all. Maybe that will change with time but as of now I am happy as can be in my simple home. I have a lot of things I want to do to the house and yard specifically so I look forward to showing you all my home renovations as they come along. On a quick side not this Tuesday the 19^th the young democracy of Malawi will officially be voting for a president. It is the 4^th election they have had since becoming a democracy and the country is excited with very and peaceful rallies have been taking place all the time on small and larger scales. I feel lucky to be able to see another country go through the electoral process. So goodbye to all and I hope life is well in the States. I will talk to you all again in June sometime.

Explanation of pictures in order

1. View as you enter my home

2. Backdoor and the other side of the room of the main entrance

3. My bedroom and bed of course

4. My bathhouse and kitchen

5. Close up of my kitchen (as said being used for storage)

6. My lovely bathhouse bucket and all

7. View of my house from the back yard

8. View from my back yard

The opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine and not representational of the Peace Corps or the United States Government