Seasons greetings all!

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holdiay season in their own way. I thought I would send a quick update about life so far in Kalumbu Malawi!

With training over and done it feels like I am actually working now but still enjoying everything about life in Africa. Swearing in was wonderful if not sad since I had to say goodbyt to my host family since I won't see them for awhile.

I moved to my house in Kalumbu about 2 weeks ago and have been spending a lot of time setting up my home, classes, and life. I have really wonderful neighbors and the fellow teachers (there's only 5 teachers btw) are fabulous. They're all very motivated and work exceptionally hard which is really wonderful to see. With so few teachers, so many students, and the new school calender that was only recently released (making this school year from from Dec-Aug!) there are plenty of challeneges that we face everyday but having a really hard working staff makes it far more bearable.

My classes on the other hand have been incredibly challenging. There are 130 students so-far in my form 2 class and more come everyday there re no spaces for us to walk in the classroom and we have had to remove the desks to make room for the students. It is also incredibly challenging to have students who are learning english as a second language, many of whom really don't know enough to understand anything I am saying in a room with so many other stuents. Some days I feel like I am just wasting my breathe but get motivated by a student who is really understanding. My other classes are really great and a much more managable size. I am also the form teacher for form 3 which I'm sure will pose all sorts of other challenges and inspiration.

In other news I have been traveling this week to visit friends for Christmas. We were given 3 days of special leave (since we're not meant to leave site for the first three months) to visit one another for the holiday which is very much appreciated. I traveled on the worst hitch to Lilongwe (we had a slowly deflating tire that the driver tried to inflate with a bike pump every few km). It took a few hours to go the 30km to the city where I had to sit in the back of a pickup with 16 new friends. Arriving in Llw I had to make the long trek to the post office where I was ecstatic to find a few wonderful although heavy packages that went on top of my head for the rest of the 5 hour trip! We arrived Thursday to Jesi's house which was wonderful. We had quite the evening trying to cook smoe pasta (much more difficult than we thought since none of us are used to cooking for 12 over an open fire and after quite a bit of celebrating tyhe holiday...) After cooking for hours we had some burnt spaggheti which formed a giant ball with "alfredo" type sauce. It wasn't exactly edible but our standards have certainly lowered after the wine and being in Malawi. Also the adventure of walking 12k to pick up the last 2 travellers in the middle of the night made us more fammished. All in all x-mas eve was hilarious and wonderful.

Yesterday we headed to a nice beach lodge for breakfast and lunch. Should have been an easy walk up to the road but involved getting absolutely drenched, hitching in the back of a pickup (ie second shower of the day) and then walking another 4k to the lodge. We were all soaked when we arrived but throughout our 5 hours there and 2 meals we dried out. After more adventure getting home on the back of a flat bed truck we were all exhausted. Christmas dinner was some delicous guac homemade tortillas and chilli followed by a fun white-elephant gift exchange. More details of our crazy Christmas can be found on Elisabeth's blog (http://www.elisabethbenoit.blogspot.com/). She has included a great timeline of the madness that should help paint a picture of our wonderful weekend.

I am heading back to site soon where I have a week off from school for the holiday which will be nice. I will use the time to explore, bake bread, do laundry, and lesson plan! Hope all is well with everyone back home. Please continue sending letter's. They're really wonderful and I love hearing what everyone is up to at home!

Much love from Africa!

Thought I would share some photos from training and of my house! Enjoy!

My homestay siblings (sister and brother-Lucy 5, Nasoni -1 1/2

My giant family in Mpalale (host-mom, aunt, cousins, sister and brother-they were my moving out team!)

This is my house for the next two years!