GREETINGS FROM EARTH

The opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine and not representational of the Peace Corps or the United States Government
Greetings from earth everyone,
I am in writing again as I make my way back from Lilongwe (the Capital) from a week long trip. Every able bodied American was invited to the Ambassador’s home for a 4th of July barbecue (Malawi’s independence days is July 6th for the record). His home, for the record, is unbelievable and it felt like I was back in America for a few hours. We got to eat hot dogs and hamburgers, drink beer, and be Americans for a day. The ambassador read Obama’s 4th speech which got the crowd really excited especially the Peace Corps crowd since he is very supportive of our organization. It is the first time in a few months that I got to see all my friends that I went through training with and I had a chance to meet almost all Peace Corps volunteers in country along with other Americans in country doing different types of work. Also I hitched back to Blantyre with 2 friends on Sunday the 5th. Hitching here is pretty common and every time it seems to be a new adventure. This particular ride scored me a bunch of African music I downloaded from the driver and also a sing-along of Michael Jackson’s ‘It doesn’t matter if you are black or white ‘. I have officially been at my village Misomali (which I found out translates to "small nails" for 2 months.
It has been a pretty good few first months. First off Malawi had a successful and peaceful election and the current president was reelected in a fairly convincing fashion. It was fun to be around to see another country go through the process. The president reelect has really re energized the nation with development and the Malawi’s people seem really positive about the future or at least the next five years which is how long his term will last. So as for me the Peace Corps does not really want us initiating any projects until after our 90 day training session which is next month. So the first few months I have been moving around with my assigned counterpart for the Malawi forestry department Mr. Phillimon getting a tour of all the villages in the area we will be working with. I have been introduced to many Chiefs and other village leaders who will hopefully being doing different projects with. I have been only working with him a few hours each morning and afterwards the rest of the day I have been meeting and chatting with many people in the village and just exploring. My Chichewa is slowly getting better, but many people speak English so I am always able to get by in one language or another. I have read a ton of books the Peace Corps has given me and on quite a few books other books for personal entertainment. With no TV or many other entertainment reading books has become something I have come to enjoy more than ever.
I enjoy the day to day life here. I get up between 5 and 6 a.m. everyday and I am in bed by 8 p.m. every night. I am exhausted by the day’s end and with no electricity to give me mindless entertainment such as TV or movies combined with all the movement and exercise I get all day I am staying up until 8 p.m. is about all I can manage. The village has been very good to me and I have made a good many friends. I have joined a men’s soccer team which practices a few time a week and plays games against other villages every 2 or 3 weeks. It has been a ton of fun but the training is a lot of hard work. I have never been a big soccer fan, but I am finding I really enjoy playing. In the first game I played about 20 minutes and when I entered the game people watching went crazy yelling Azungu. That is a name I am called many times a day and it is what they many people call white people in the country. It is not negative by any means and I have learned to get used to it very quick but many people do call me by Pat or Patrick. The second game I got knocked out by an elbow and fore arm to the jaw and temple. I was down for about 20-30 seconds before they pulled me up off the ground and slapped my head and face to get me to come to. After I got my bearings I was told I saved us from being scored on. I was dazed and my ears were ringing, but I refused to come out until it was halftime. My ears rang for hours, my jaw hurt for a week, and I trouble eating the first few days after but I earned my teams respect that day which made it all worth it.
I also went to my first funeral. Culturally everyone goes to funerals for people in their villages. It was quite a day. It started with me going with a friend to give condolences to the family as well as a financial donation to help with the cost of the burial. Men and women sit in separate areas at the family’s home and the body is in the home. Only close family and all women go and view the body. After we spoke to the family we went to the graveyard (which is sacred and not gone into without permission from the Chief) where a good many men chat and dig the hole together where the body will be laid to rest per say. After we watched the hole get dug (I did not help even though if I wanted I am sure I could have) everyone goes back to the family’s home so the coffin can be taken to the grave site. This was a sad day indeed and the person who died was only a 25 year old young man who was HIV positive and died from such complications but…….as everyone assembled and the body was getting ready to be brought out so a people could say some words before we walked the coffin to the graveyard. I happened to be one a few people who was given a chair and I was sitting with all the chiefs from my own and other local villages I happened to move to greet a friend and I was partially on a hill and the chair was not in good shape and lo and behold I fell over. I had on nice clothes and they were very dirty and everyone was trying to clean me off. All eyes were staring at me and I could not help but smile and laugh a bit even though it was in appropriate. As I was giggling at myself I looked over at all the chiefs and they were laughing at and with me. We all quickly regained our composer and things continued. It was a unique experience but a funeral is still a funeral and to be at a funeral with where a 25 year old is being buried is a sad.
I have been trying to do everything possible like going to funerals among other things to let people know I want to be a part or their culture here in Malawi. I also have been attending 3 different denominations of Christianity Catholic, Presbyterian, and Seventh Day Adventist. For those of you who know me this is probably a bit shocking. I am not a very religious person to put it kindly. But as Richard Dawkins may say it is tribal and for me it is a good way to meet a greet many people (by coincidence I just finished his book the God Theory). The Catholic service has live drumming during hymns which I enjoy a lot. The first time I went to the Catholic service the priest in mid service introduced me to the entire congregation and switched over to English for about 10 minutes to give me a brief synopsis of the sermon that day. I appreciated the nice gesture but I was a bit embarrassed to the say the least. Overall I do not mind going for a few hours every Sunday. I enjoy the music and since I am still learning the language I understand little of what is going on so I just go inside my head for a few hours and just relax (for the record women sit on one side and men the other at all 3 churches). Also to note I recently had lunch with the 2 Catholic priests who live in my village and they served me goat intestines and goats blood (they cook it in some way to solidify the blood). That is my only new food adventure since my last post. I keep being asked by people to try mice which they say is very good so I imagine it is only a matter of time.
Other parts of my spare time have been spent working on my home. I hired so 2 men to build me a fence so I can grow some food and plant some tree seedlings. Without a fence, goats and cows which roam free often in my village would eat everything. I wanted to help so I worked with them on most days. It was quite a job. It required the 3 of us to go twice a day about 1 kilometer from my home to where there is a river to cut reeds down. They grow in the moist soil where the river has receded due to the dry season. We would cut reeds for a few hours which may seem simple but they are covered with thorns. I got cut, scratched, and pricked more times that I could count. The 2 men I worked with spoke little English and since I speak little Chichewa our conversations were limited. However, by the end I learned the Chichewa word for thorn is mwina and by my constant use of a four letter word that begins with the letter F they think the English word for thorn is well you can figure it out. So needless to say after we bundled up the reeds into three bundles we carried them back on our head which is the common way to carry things here. They weighed somewhere between 25-35 pounds and it was quite a journey twice a day. People were shocked to see me doing such work but they were impressed. It is funny most people here think Americans never do hard labor but I try and convince them we do such things in the U.S. but I am not sure they believe me. On that note also my neighbor and I just finished digging a fairly big hole to build our new toilet. Recently on a trip out to my pit latrine I stepped inside and the floor gave. Luckily I pulled back in time or I would have fell 2 meters into a pool of foul unpleasantness.
Things are well and I am enjoying and having fun. I look forward to starting my real work soon but for now I am enjoying my spare time and trying to take advantage. Also the 4th of July was the first time I had a beer in two months. People do drink local beer at the village but I do not want to get involved with beer unless I am with other volunteers at a major city. It has felt great to not drink and my body I feel has been thanking me and I have lost 6 pounds. I eat a good bit at sight but it is low fat and high in carbohydrates so I burn them pretty quick. I am curious to see what my weight will be after 2 years. I have also started taking care of a cat my neighbor owns. I have named him Karl in honor of the volunteer I have replaced. Animals here in Malawi are not treated to well. The dogs will not even come near me. Most are not fed to well and people kick them, throw rocks, and etc. It is hard for me to get used to but it is something I will have to learn to live with. I do however enjoy seeing all the goats, cows, chickens, and guinea fowls around my village. They often hang outside my house and I just sit and watch them and my neighbors and friends think I am crazy. All the animals hear get along well for some reason and never bother each other.
Well I feel I am rambling so I bid you a fond farewell. I wish all a happy 4th of July to everyone in the states. Take care all and my good times and smiles be upon you Also for those of you who have asked about my number it is 011 265 884932509
Explanations of pictures
Malawian’s in line for voting
A typical view from my window
Some of the reeds we cut and carried on our heads. We ended up needing over 40 bundles
Working on the fence
Karl the cat hanging out with a chicken
The opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine and not representational of the Peace Corps or the United States Government

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

The adventure has begun

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

Hello all and greetings from Africa. Sorry I have taken so long to update this blog but it has not been my fault. The first 2 months is intense training and we were kept away from phones and the internet. We (19 of us) arrived on February 22, 2009 and were swept away to a District called Dedza and we spent the first week at a college for forestry and wildlife. We had a ton of fun getting to know each other, being introduced to the food, culture, and people of Malawi. We have a really good group of diverse people from all over. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone and hearing their life stories. I am sure as time goes on I will talk about them individually a bit more. After the initial week of training they split the group in half and we were taken to 2 villages where we were each adopted by a host family which we lived with for a month. During the days we trained from dusk till dawn and nights we spent sharing life and culture with our families. When we arrived at the host village all the host families were singing traditional songs and dancing which was incredible and for many of us took our breath away. The village my half of the group stayed in was name was Mzengereza (which translates in English to village of dilly dallying) and my family’s name was the Kambatata’s (which translates to small potatoes). My amayi and abambo which means mom and dad were amazing people and they had 5 kids who were all great. The youngest which you will see in my pictures was terrified of me at first since she had never seen a white person before but by the end loved being held and played with me. I played with my brothers and sisters all the time. We climbed trees, I taught them how to do handstands, played frisbee, and taught them to throw an American football (both Frisbee and an American football were the first time they had seen or played with them). My Amayi was the Chiefs daughter and the Chief himself was always over to chat with me. He spoke English and helped me to learn some Chichewa along with everyone else in the village. Life in the village was just amazing. Everyone in the village was great to us and we treated like family by all. The village was right by mountains and you take paths to walk everywhere. The entire village farms so fields are everywhere and cows, goats, chickens, and whatever roam free all the time. I walked around smiling constantly. People love kung fu movies in this country and I have been called Chuck Norris so many times by kids and adults. It makes me laugh every time. Besides language/culture training we were also given training in technical things such as making stoves from mud, irrigation projects, and my favorite bee keeping. I got to put on a suit and help to harvest honey. What an experience having hundreds of bees all around. The only bad part was my ankle got exposed and I got stung four times but it really did not hurt that much at all. All the trainers here for the Peace Corps are amazing. They work so hard to help us and without them I have no idea how are transition would have been. After a month with our families we were sent to visit our sites but before we left the village threw a farewell celebration. It was AMAZING with all the traditional singing and dancing. A secret society of dancers even showed up in custom. The spirits were summoned before they game and their arrival was just crazy to see. I felt as if I were watching the National Geographic channel but this time I experienced it live and direct. The dancers took a particular liking to 2 of us including me and keep getting very close to us. We were both red haired guys so maybe we are exotic to them more than the usual white person. We were all sad to leave but it is just part of the training experience. So as said we went and visited our sites for a week. I am going to be located in the Chikwawa district and in the village of Misomali. This area is in the deep southwest portion of Malawi. Only one other volunteer besides me is heading south and the rest are going to be in the central and north. My village is between Lengwe National Park and Majete Game Reserve and I will be working with the forestry department for 2 years. I am excited for my site but I will be living in one of the hottest areas of Malawi and I have been told I will most likely sleep outside for around 8 months out of the year it is so hot with temperatures getting as high as 110-115 often in the summer. I am excited it should be a wild experience. After site visit we were shipped off for a week straight of language intensive training and on the last Saturday the 18^th we all had to take a test. It is called the LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) which was set up by the US Government to evaluate language skills across many different government organizations. You get 2 chances to pass it in the Peace Corps and supposedly if you do not pass you are sent home. I am not sure if they would really do it but no matter I scored at the level of advance mid which I was stoked about. After testing we are all back in Lilongwe which is the capital and on April 22^nd Earth Day we swore in as volunteers. The ambassador of the U.S. along with many other important people in the country was in attendance. We were all so excited and after a mighty feast and that nigh all the environmental volunteers in country got to celebrate which included the countries only beer really available which is Carlsberg. The next day we were driven to our sites and are dropped off and now we are on our own and we have 2 years to try and institute some positive change. It has been quite a 2 month whirlwind but it has been amazing. Malawi is a beautiful country and its people are some of the nicest I have ever met. They call this place the Warm Heart of Africa and it is not a tourist slogan it is the truth. I have felt comfortable since the moment I have landed. I know this is one of the poorest countries in the world but it does not seem like it. People spirits are high and I could not imagine myself anywhere else in the world right now. Some days when I am walking around I kind of have to pinch myself to realize I am living in a village in Africa. It seems crazy when I think about it and when I don’t it just seems like everyday life just somewhere new. I miss friends and family but that is to be expected. On a food note for you are curious I have eaten some fun stuff since I have been here. I have eaten a dove, lots of goat (which I am not too crazy about), guinea fowl, termites, caterpillars, and leaves from just about every tree and plat it seems like. From this point forward I will be updated things about once a month so I hope you find these posts somewhat interesting. I hope all is well for everyone back in the states. I still have so much I want to say but time is limited so I will hopefully sometime soon I can do this again. I hope life is well for everyone it surely is hear for me. Next time around I will talk about my village, show you some pictures of my house, and just give some cultural notes of things I have observed which should hopefully be of interest to you all. I miss all of you but like I said I could not imagine being anywhere else at this time.

Pat

Explanation of pictures in order

1. The 19 of us along with the U.S. Ambassador in Malawi. He is really great down to earth man.

2. A view of my homes stay village Mzengereza

3. My friend Joel and I suited up for honey harvesting

4. A dancer from the secret society I mentioned in his traditional custom

5. My host family including the family dog Tiger

6. A small monkey from one of the two parks I am sandwiched in between Lengwe National Park

7. Me learning to rock climb. One of the guys I have gotten close to is the one they sent South with me and he is teaching me to rock climb. His name is John and he is about 2 hours from me and is located at the base of Malawi’s biggest mountain Mulanje. Should be some fun adventures ahead for the two of us.

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

Time to go

Well all the time has finally come for me to shove off. It seems like it has been a long time coming but it has been well worth the wait. I first applied for the Peace Corps on December 24 of 2007 and finally on Thursday February 19 of 2009 I am due in Philly for registration and some important introduction information. There will be a group of around a dozen of us heading to Malawi. We are being bussed the following morning to JFK airport for where we have a quality 17.5 hour flight to Johannesburg. We stay the night and the following morning we have a 2.5 hour flight to Malawi's capital of Lilongwe. Followed by a bus ride to a town called Dedza where we will be trained for a little over 2 months and during that time I will live with a host family. We will then be dispersed throughout the country into our programs. None of us knows exactly what we will be doing yet so I will let you know when I get more information. It is an environmental based program which has many different avenues so who knows where I will end up.

I am beyond excited for the adventure that lies ahead and I am really not nervous at all right now about my impending departure. I am sure there will be huge challenges ahead of me and many humbling experiences but that is exactly what I signed up for. I cannot wait to learn a new language, engross myself into Malawi's culture, and share everyday life with its people. With this blog I will just try and convey what life is like here and hopefully you my friends and family who read this will enjoy following my tales from the cradle of life we call Africa. I am not sure how often I will be able to update this blog but I look forward to doing it whenever I can.

For those who are curious or still unsure exactly why applied for the Peace Corps here it is...

As I have grown person and look around this crazy world I realize that we need a lot of people fighting the good fight and trying to make a positive impact on this world. There are many ways to do this I just happen to be joining the Peace Corps as my first step in a new career life that will be dedicated towards making this positive change I have mentioned above. So I plan to never look back and only push forward in this philosophy.

I want to thank all my friends and family for their support they have given me in this decision. You all have been so great and generous in many ways. I will miss you all very much while I am gone but it's not like this is goodbye forever. I wish all nothing but good times and many smiles in your lives in these few years while I am off the radar. You all will be on my mind in my heart.

PS-I can be a grammatical nightmare at times so bare with me