Pictures!

Our camp the first night on Mt. Kilimanjaro.  That building in the distance is the toilet.

Me at Uhuru peak, the highest peak in Afica.

Coming back from the peak.

Us with all the guides and porters...

The four girls with our guide, August.

Summit day sunburn.

Zanzibar.

Raw Cinnamon right after its cut from the tree.

The big moon happened on Zanzibar too.

The streets of Stonetown, click on the picture to see it bigger and you can see the walls bowing in.

There are a lot of really cool doors in stonetown, I'm unsure of any cultural significance.

This building used to be a private hospital but was renovated in 1994 or something. Beautiful.

Creepin.

A fort.

Pan in Dar Es Salaam.

Scarfs.

I thought this building was attached to a building that Freddy Mercury grew up in.  It didn't, we found it later.

And this is it.

Mercury house.

Genuine excitement.

Bri's lunch.

 

Look up at the poles keeping the walls from bowing.  These buildings don't age well because of the materials they're built with combined with the harsh weather and constant sunlight.

Bees eat dates.

Queen.

Shark scewer?  Tuna?  Octypus?  No problem!

Octypus, muscle, chipati for dinner.

This peacock escaped from the statehouse and was not having an easy day, people kept taking its feathers for jewelry.

Street calamari.

Street food near the fish market in Dar Es Salaam.

When you buy an orange in Dar es salaam, they peal it for you.

Shwarma!

Bri and I in the cab on the way to the airport!

Sunrise through the sand in Doha, Qater (taken from inside the airport).

Contracti Yatha!

"My contract is finished"

I officially finished my Peace Corps Service yesterday! I'm a free bird (free meaning unemployed) now. I got no strings on me. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Zambia!

I wanted to post pictures but the slow internet connection killed that dream, I guess you'll have to wait until I'm back on the other side.

Saying goodbye is liberating and heartbreaking.

Pretend this is me singing.

http://youtu.be/zqiblXFlZuk

April Fools!

Ok, not only am I not extending a third year but I have less than two weeks left in Malawi!

Where to begin......

About two weeks ago I was counting down the days like usual and realized I only had a week left at site before I moved out. Panic. I started packing that day and warning people that I won't be around much and that I had to go to Mulanje to say goodbye to people. So I packed up most of my stuff and hit the road to Mulanje.

I got an easy hitch into Mulanje Thursday morning two weeks ago in to the mulanje boma. I said goodbye to people I know there, post office workers, internet cafe workers, the banana guy, and the market master. The market master was so upset that I was leaving that he was complaining about not getting me a present because I didn't give him any warning that I was leaving...I told him that if he really wanted to give me a present, he should get me a free mini bus ride to Mimosa, my old site. He happily agreed and ran off. I boarded the bus, said goodbye and thank you and was on my way.

Mulanje is the same, even though I've been gone for a year now. The second I walk down the road into the village I hear people from both sides yelling, "Emma!!" I started into the village to different friends of mine saying that I was around for two days, then I was leaving and headed home. Slowly I made the rounds, the women's groups, the post office mistress and the old lady who lives across the street, my old neihbors, Spoon's, Andrew's, The Chief's, my old Landlord's house, where I saw Chuck!

Sidenote: I wanted to take tons of pictures of everyone but my battery died, then there was a two day long district blackout so I couldn't charge my camera. Se La Vie.

So I wandered around the village for two full days (I crashed at Bri's place) saying goodbye to everyone and wishing them a nice life and thank them for the nice times.

Chuck had another liter of puppies. Three of them were eaten by hyena's...there's one left. I really wish I could have taken a picture of my adorable puppie! She still cries and pees on my feet every time she sees me. The one puppie that's left is the size Chuck was when I first got her. Adorable.

On the second day, Bri joined me for my village rounds. Eventually we made it to the Group Village Headman, Duswa's, house where there was a gathering of people. My women's group sang and danced for me and gave me Chitenje, the cheif had some words, there were a couple brief speeches, then we were on our way again. Everybody who is anybody told me to send their best to my parents and Diana and my brother the pilot....consider it sent.

Saying goodbye was difficult but easier than I expected, especially seeing as I have been out of that village for a year and making an effort to stay away and off the turf of the new volunteer who has been living there since September. The only time I had a hard time saying goodbye was to Briska, my old neighbor girl who I used to get water with...then I started crying like a little baby.

After two days of goodbyes in Mimosa started two days of goodbyes in Maliera, Bri's village. Bri's village had more warning of her leaving so they put together a goodbye party for her. That Saturday Bri and I headed to limbuli to say goodbye to people we both know there. That meant delicious Indian food for lunch and then meeting for a few cold beers later in the afternoon with a bunch of cops and some friends of mine from Blantyre who also happen to be at the border to see some friends. That was fun. We got SOAKED in the rain on the way back to her house 7 km but didn't mind because we realized it would be the last time.

The next morning I tried to calm Bri down and she ran around here house trying to pack. I cleaned up the house after that while she went to put the final touches on the library she built in her village. While she did that, her village prepared for her fairwell party. Donuts! Fanta! Dance Music! Friends! It was fantastic. I have video of everything!

Then came time to say goodbye to Bri's village. That night after all the dancing and before we went to her counterpart's house for dinner (delicous chicken!) we walked around and danced a bit more with different friends of Bri's and had a great time in our last few momments together.

Leaving my old village was easy, but leaving Bri's was sobering. As much as I've moved around in the past 2 years (four houses), Bri's village has been stable. I'll miss it there. That night Bri's counterpart's entire family escorted us back to her house, where she did the final packing and we got ready for bed.

The next morning we woke up before sunrise and had tea with Bri's counterpart and his lovely wife one last time. We finished and before we knew it the bicycle taxis were there to take us to the the border so we could get the 5:30am bus from the border to Limbe. When I was in Mimosa I had borrowed and umbrella from Spoon and forgot to bring it back from her so I told her I would have the bus stop for long enough so I could pu t it on a bike taxi and have it brought to her house. I got the bus to stop briefly and went to find a bike taxi only to find Andrew waiting at the stage with three pineapples waiting to say one last goodbye. I gave him a hug (very culturally inappropriate but I couldn't help myself) then got back on the bus that quickly pulled away.

Before long we made it into Limbe with more stuff than Bri and I could carry (or should have been able to) and slowly made it to the Chiradzulu buses. We dropped her stuff at my half-packed house and headed into the Chiradzulu boma to start my 6 hour goodbye race.

We got to the boma after lunch just in time for the rain to start like crazy. After the rain died down a bit i started doing the rounds in the offices, only to find out everyone was going to a meeting. The district commissioner said I should attend the meeting to announce I was leaving. 4 hours of meeting and of course I wasn't allowd to say goodbye until the very end of it. I announced I was leaving. Right after I sat back down my office mate, Reggie, stood up and announced that they are throwing me a last-minute goodbye party. People pitched in for beer and food and then the meeting was over. I went back to the offices, made a few more goodbyes and that was that.

I should also mention that sometime in the week before Mulanje I got Giardia again. I took the medicine last week and am feeling better now.

Anyway, we had a great impromptu going away party, Bri, me, and all my friends. That night my neighbor, Hendi, made a feast for Bri and I and we passed out asleep. A rat ate my pillow. When we woke up my backpack was outside on my porch. Bri and I are still confused as to how that happened. That morning we worked on packing my house up. Eventually we got everything together and got her stuff and my stuff to the stage where we waited for a mini bus. We got LUCKY. Rather than trying to hall 4 huge bags on 3 different mini buses to get to doogles in Blantyre, a friend of mine happened to drive by, loaded all of our things in his car and dropped us at doogles where we got the staff there to bring the bags into our room. Lucky, lucky us!

We stayed in Blantyre for a few nights, some friends came down. We hung out and did Blantyre things, and before long it was time to go to Lilongwe.

Here I am! In Lilongwe. Close of Service Paperwork! Medical Checks! Pooing in Cups! Purchasing plane tickets!

Waiting for life to go on....

The end of my service has come. I take my language test tomorrow afternoon.

Ndawoncheza Chaka China pa Contract Yanga

"I've added another year to my contract"

April 1st today, I was supposed leave April 13th in less than two weeks. I decided I wasn't ready to go. I did an emergency application through the Peace Corps office and decided to extend for a third year.

It's been a tough decision, especially since I decided not to come home for the optional month to see my family and everyone to save myself the money (I opted to cash in the round trip ticket to and from home and keep the cash in my pocket for my post-Peace Corps experience that will happen now in May, 2013.

Watch out Malawi, I'm not leaving yet!

Ndasala ndi matsiku 43 ndisanachoke Malawi

'I'm left with 43 days before I leave Malawi"

Some young man riding his bike SCHREECHED to a stop by where I was walking and shoved his headphones in my years telling me to listen to what he’s listening to. It turns out he was an artist…he’s not untalented. I told him “Uli ndi chidwi” or “You’re talented” and he let me go. That was a perfect example of something that doesn’t really faze me as uncommon here, I wasn’t shocked or surprised by it at all, but back home, I would tell everyone about it as something really weird that happened to me. That being said, I have 46 days and one wake-up before I leave Malawi.

So, this past weekend I went to a wedding. Not only did I go to a wedding, but it was the fanciest wedding I’ve ever been to here, or back home. Fancy Fancy Fancy. There was even champagne, or the people I was with thought it was champagne and got all excited, enough that they took turns taking pictures of it. Then someone actually read the table of it to find out that it was non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice. That was funny to me because I was the first one to see what it really was but didn’t bother telling anyone because they were so excited about it.

Oh Malawi, 32 days left in Chiradzulu, 44 days and a wake up left in Malawi. Malawi, the country where every day someone asks me if my ipod is a phone, its polite and encouraged to go to your neighbors’ houses and demand to be fed, and if you want to bath you have to walk down a hill, then back up with a bucket of water on your head…unless it’s raining (because then the water comes to you).

Right now I’m sitting in my office drinking an ice cold coca cola and listening to “Halo” by Beyonce over and over again on my iPod loud enough to drown out my ex-landlady and current office-mate’s terrible singing to terrible gospel music (not that I have anything against gospel music, I just have something against bad music-which is ironic given what I am currently listening to).

Since we’re on the topic of my starting to enjoy bad pop music, today is the two anniversary of the Environment group 2010 coming to Malawi. Two years together. 44 days and a wake up to go. Crazy. That’s all can say about it. Crazy. Twenty-one in, sixteen out. 76% Successful. Two years here and every letter I get I still read 4 or 5 times. A big hand to Janice and Wanda for double handedly (mostly) providing me with reading material during my stay here.

It’s been almost 6 months now that I’ve been counting down and trying my best to push time forward. It’s time now to pull back. I’m ready to go but I’m upset about leaving (yes I realize that every post I contradict myself).

Side note: I’m still listening to Beyonce…also, I just added Beyonce to the dictionary on word on my computer so I can talk about her all I want and the red squiggly line won’t come up like it just did when I wrote squiggly…take that , world.

My supervisor just came in and saw the backdrop on my computer and made a noise in my direction suggesting that it is inappropriate. Change requires words or actions, not mumbles. Mumbles get nothing done here, out there, or anywhere- think about that world! Would it kill you to enunciate? What do you want? I informed him, in answer to his mumble that it is my computer, not the offices so my backdrop requires no action as per his mumble. My backdrop is the one I had with Milty, for those who know me and have seen it before (yes, I still think it’s funny and I always do…he was and economic pimp daddy).

Like I said, Environment 2010, Twenty-one in, Sixteen out. This is us during our Close of Service Conference.


Us how we normally are.

Fancy fancy fancy wedding.



The "champagne" that turned out to be bubbly juice. I'm still laughing at everyone's reaction.




I took this at the Limbe post office last week. Limbe, Airmail, Elsewhere.


The soccer pitch right outside of my boma.

That delicious coke I was drinking.

“Nthawi yobwerera yakwana”

“The time to return has come”

Zambia, our neighbor to the west, and cultural look-a-like, has won the Africa cup of nations. Huzzah! Zambia, we are celebrating with you!
I was walking to work this morning (walking and not bicycling because its too hot to wear pants and I flash people when I ride a bike while wearing a short skirt…flashback to flashing the village headman in Mulanje way back when) when my neighbor pulled up in his mini bus and gave me a ride to work. It was nice.

In other news, Peace Corps is rolling through town today, I’m trying to decide if I’m going to send them up with my bicycle or not. I have a few hours to decide.
As of now my office mate and former landlady is playing the same song over and over again as I take a picture of my fanta bottle (fanta passion is delicious! It tastes like passion fruit). She’s complaining that I haven’t taken a picture of her so I won’t be able to show everyone in America what she looks like. She’s not a good person but I feel for her because her husband cheats on her. Ok, I just took a picture of her…and of everything else. Diana keeps complaining about how I don’t take enough pictures.

I know I’ve been here too long as I just spoke this sentence after someone in the office offered to make me tea:

“Eyai, Sindimakhonda tea upanda mkaka” or “No thanks, I don’t like tea without milk”

Good news! I finally bought the cement to fix my well yesterday!

Seven bags of cement. Large stones and river sand have already been collected. The driver who was with me whined so much about having to do physical labor (because when it came time to load the bags into my house the only people around were my 84 year old and 21 but pregnant with malaria neighbors….not much help) that I ended up buying him beer once we got back to the office. Either way, it’s here, it’s safe in my house, and its going to help a lot. Once people started to find out that the cement actually arrived, they started coming back to my house telling me any number of the following:

“Mulungu akudalitse” or “God bless you”

“Mulungu akupatse nzeru” or “May God give you intelligence”

Ect. Ect. Ect. You get the picture; needless to say, they were grateful. This is the first time I’ve done a project and been thanked for it. I don’t know how to handle it. At any rate, the cement is here, not we just have to actually do the project….we’ll see when it gets done. Just call me the community mobilizer! I will organize this project so hard people won’t know what hit them.

Then my neighbor lady (the old one, not the pregnant one) woke me up this morning banging on the door. I thought there was a problem so I rushed out to the door. She was begging body lotion because her skin was dry…..not a fun way to wake up.

I saw this sign in Blantyre..evidently they have a problem with people rushing up and down the completely open staircase.



"Chigumu" which is cake made with maize flour and banana's (which sounds much more delicious than it is as it is dry and gritty even freshely baked. They bake them in cut off sweet and condenced milk tins.

Cement.

Cement. BIGGEST THANKS EVER to Dave and Irma!

When I talk about soya pieces, this is what they look like.

The 99 kwacha shop.

This is the old lady who lives next to me. She's Zulu, from Johannesburg but came to Malawi in 1964 by train to be married. She never went back home to South Africa even though her husband passed away in the 1980's because the chiefs asked her to stay. She has no contact with any of her family. She's the one who woke me up wanting lotion. I don't know her name, everyone just calls her "Agogo" which means "Grandmother". She's hilarious. She sweeps my backyard every day to keep me safe from snakes. When I told her not to sweep, I want grass to come and I'm not affraid of snakes, she said that she needs the exercise so that she doesn't walk like an old lady... My landlady is Agogo's only surviving child of four daughters.

Agogo sits on her porch all day long. She tells me that she's my "moronda" or "gaurd".

My neighbor, Davy, brought a picture of himself for me to take a picture of so everyone back home could know what he looks like when he's all dressed up. He wants me to take another picture of him on Sunday when he's wearing his Sunday best.

This is what Africa does to headphones. I just got these in September. It has to be at least my 6th set since I've been here. I hope these last a couple more months.

Eggplant (Mabilingano)! I eat this more than i will admit.

This is my old landlady, and current office-mate, Mrs. Shawa. She's the mean one.

Co-workers co-workers co-workers!

Another co-worker...he's an accountant.

The market across the street from my office.

The market across the street from my office.

This is the UNDP car that the District Commissioner rolls around in. Thanks United Nations for donating cars to the people who can already afford them!

More co-workers

This is them posing for the camera. People here don't normally smile for pictures...

Some of my co-workers.

Working hard, or hardly working?

Some of my co-workers cracking themselves up over something.

Fanta Passion is DELICOUS!

This is the game called snake on my phone. It looks like this. I had to stop playing because I kept having dreams that snakes were chasing me. My top score is REALLY high though.

Sometimes I do this...I'm getting better. In this game, when you win, the cards bounce in VICTORY!

Termites like books too...

Thanks for reading!

Atsikana ndi Asimayi

"Girls and Women"

I might not do much in these past couple months of my service, but if I do anything, it will be on my long walks to and from the office every day, walking with young girls knocking off and going to school throughout the day. They might not remember what I’ve done for work, but I at least will have crammed their young impressionable and tender minds with my strange, liberal thoughts of gender equality and self progression. I find myself saying these same strange things over and over:
Topic Numero Uno: The troubling eternity that is hopelessly inescapable village life and its relation to education.

“Usamatamangire chikwokwati, anyamata, chiyani chiyani. Pitirizani ku school, Khalani serious. Ukamaliza, udzadziwa moyo wa bwino kwambiri. Sudzadandaula za zokudya pafupifupi, sudzatunga madzi tsiku ndi tsiku, kutaya nthawi ako kuyesesa kupeza nkuni. Zimenezo, eyai. Usamavitike choncho eyai. Ndimakufinira moyo wa bwino.”

Translation:

“You shouldn’t be always running toward early marriage, and chasing boys, what what. Continue with school and be serious about it. After you finish, you can know a very good life. You won’t have to worry about food all the time, you won’t have to fetch water every day, or waste your time looking for firewood to cook on. These things, no. You shouldn’t be troubled like that, no. I want you to have a good life.”

Topic Numero Dos: Relationship/Marriage/Gender equality in terms of sexual and physical abuse (Of course addressing this topic is why I had to leave my old site, and why it is so important to me. I breach the topic often, but tread lightly.):

“Mudziwa chiyani? Kwathu, mamunayo, amakamenya asamayi, apolice, amamumangira, amapita ku jail mpaka zaka zambiri. Amakafuna kugona ndi akazi wake, ngati akazi safuna, ndi chimodzimodzi kuguirira. Amapitaso ku jail. Kathuwaso, anthu, amakalowa mu jail, samathuluka sanga ingati kuno. Kuno, amakalowa mu jail, mawa amathuluka. Amangosalamo umo nthawi ayithali kwambiri. Ifeyo, asamayi, tisamawope asibambo. Tikhale limodzi, kuchezana, kuguirizana, kugayirana, basi, osati kumenyana, eyai.”

Translation:

“Do you know what? Where I’m from, men, after they beat a women, the police arrest them, they go to jail for many years. Even after they want to sleep with their wives, if the woman doesn’t want to, it is the same as rape. They go to jail for that too. Where I’m from after people go to jail, they don’t get out quickly. It’s different from here where when people go to jail for these things, they get out the next day. They just stay in there for a long time. We women, we shouldn’t be afraid of men. We should be together as one, chatting, agreeing, sharing, that’s all, not fighting each other.”

Note: The most devastating part of this conversation (which, believe you me I have every week, minimum) is that women are always SHOCKED to find out that in America, men go to jail for raping and beating their wives, and not only do they go to jail, they stay in there to rot until we decide they’re decent enough for society again. When I say shocked, I mean open mouth, jaw dropped shocked. The response is immediately, “that would never work here” or “do you hear what she’s saying? “ like every single women is being beat and raped by her husband (which is common here I know for a fact. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a man say, “it’s her duty to satisfy me, she can’t refuse, she’s my wife,” I would be sickened by how rich I would be) and the thought that someone doesn’t have to live like that is shocking to them. It breaks my heart every time.

I’m sure these girls get sick of my lectures but they like talking to the crazy white girl so they have to listen to them. As far as I’m concerned, one day, even if its way in the future one of them will listen to me.; On that day, but not before that, my entire two years of service to this country will be justified and I will feel, in my soul, through an internal, intercontinental, sisterly bond, that I did something worthwhile, and I will smile and be proud. I feel for these girls who will grow up to be troubled, trapped, abused, un-liberated.

In other news, I can tell it’s time to move along, away from Malawi as the following songs are popping up more and more frequently on my playlists by no intention of my own (much like before I came to Malawi):
“So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” –Woody Guthrie
“Gotta Travel On” –Au Go-Go Singers
“Hard Road to Travel” –Jimmy Cliff
“Midnight Rider” –The Allman Brother’s Band
“Wagon Wheel” –Old Crow Medicine Show
That kind of thing. Oh subconscious, you are what you are and you know its time.

Bad news. Yesterday, I accidentally deleted all the music off of my ipod. 7000 songs! 30GB! All gone! Ironically enough, I was trying to back them up on my hard drive but before I did that I decided to delete a playlist. Due to the computer being slow, I just closed the program, only to find later that there was nothing on my iPod. I’m upset about it but trying not to lose my cool. I keep reminding myself that it’s all backed up at home. Thanks goodness! At least I have space for all that Malawian music I like, now...
Yesterday, to distract myself from flipping out over the one thing that has been keeping me relatively sane, I made mango wine. Two weeks until its ready. Something about squishing the life out of each mango and then throwing the pit at the goats that wake me up every morning baaaaahhhhhing, made me feel better.

In other other news: How about that super bowl game? How about that halftime show? Huh? Huh?