Well let's start where I left off. Term two started in January. I missed the first two weeks because of traveling to England and France for the holidays and a mandatory training for Peace Corps. When I returned in week 3 of school it seemed that I hadn't missed much. Many of the teachers were out opening bank accounts for the Ministry of Education's new initiative to pay all teachers electronically. All government employees were switched to this scheme so nurses, agriculture workers, etc were busy opening bank accounts (think: longer lines than usual.... a normal trip to the bank was 1-4 hours long). In theory, it was a good plan but in a country with such intermittent electricity, lack of proper identification for most citizens and the distances between banks it didn't turn out so well. For me however it was back into the classroom and daily routine. Things went very well overall school wise minus some financial problems. Apart from all of my fellow teacher not being paid, yet thankfully still showing up everyday we were battling other money issues at the school. A new plan to root out correuption, all schools were required to deposit all the school fees paid by the students into a central bank account which would then be monitored and dolled out to schools accordingly. I think it's fairly obvious what happened next. Since there was nothing I could do about this I chalked it up to another frustrating thing that happened in Malawi and focused on getting the students ready for national exams!
The biggest project I had happening in term 2 of school was a sewing workshop at Vanessa's site in Mchinji. A women's orphan care group had many non-functioning sewing machines that were in serious need of parts and maintenance and the group didn't know how to sew. Vanessa worked with the group to figure out a plan for using the machines to make school uniforms for her students to buy, therefore generating income for the women's group and giving the women valuable skills. The project went well overall with a lot of late hours and early mornings getting patterns and instructions ready for the workshop. Overall it was great to spend time with the women and two other great volunteers. We also had an education specialist from Peace Corps Washington DC come check out the work we were doing and talk to about teaching in Malawi. Of course, this being Malawi there were frustrating aspects but overall it was rewarding.
The most memorable aspect of that project however wasn't the actual workshop but rather my travel to the workshop. As usual, I taught my lessons in the morning and waited for the rain to stop so I could begin my travel to Vanessa's village. During rainy season it can be quite a challenge to get in and out of my village which is 8km on a dirt road. I also live in very mountainous region of Malawi and my house it at the very top of one of the peaks. Generally pick up trucks pass through the village in the mornings going into Lilongwe and I can generally hitch a ride with them. I waited for a few hours hoping an open truck would pass but with the rain and the poor roads nothing came in the two hours I waited. Eventually I found a bike that was willing to take me the 8km to the M1 despite the rain and we started off. So here I was.... A Malawian man pedaling furiously down this dirt road which has turned to mud, me on the back with my backpack on and an umbrella over us both. In Malawi, I always travel with a chitenje (a big piece of cloth worn by all women to protect their clothes) and it was quickly splattered with mud. Also, my umbrella kept turning inside out because of the wind and rain and I eventually abandoned it. I usually have a lot of confidence in the bikes I hire to take me places since they don't want to get hurt or damage their bikes (their only means of making money) but on this particular day I started to worry. The rain had been pretty intense and the road was getting very dangerous as we sped down the steep hills covered with slick mud. When the bikes tires started losing traction and slipping off the bumps I knew there was no chance of staying even remotely clean or dry. After a few close calls where the bike driver did a great job keeping us on the bike the inevitable happened and we fell over into a ditch. There we were trapped under his bike, in a puddle at the edge of a maize field. He was embarressed and helped me up and apologized profusely. Knowing he had done the best he could I wasn't mad and we got back on the proverbial horse and took off again and within seconds found ourselves again on the road under the bike covered in mud. At this point almost every inch of my clothes, skin, backpack and hair were covered in mud and my leather sandles weren't staying on with all the slippery mud. Deciding not to tempt fate again we started walking, barefoot and covered in mud. Essentially I was paying this kind man to slip through mud and walk next to me in the fruitless hope the sun would come out and we could remount the bike. We got about 2 km down the road when we heard a truck barreling down the scary road so I quickly paid the bike taxi for his efforts and flagged down the truck. I spend a lot of time traveling by open vehicle and usually find a spot nestled in with the village ladies. When I first arrived the close nature of these trip were a little starnge as you essentiall sit on someones lap or pressed up against someone else, leaning on them for support. After a few trips I can to find comfort in the closeness of the rides and the feeling that I was being accepted as one of them! This time however, I was ushered to the front of the truck's bed where I held on for dear life while standing with all the men. Maybe it was because of the mud covering my clothes or the rain but they wouldn't let me sit. After some scary turns where I nearly crushed the very small man in front of me, the car stopped at the small river close to the main road that we usually just pass over. Here some of the men started jumping out of the car and told me I needed to wash some of the mud off before we could continue. Yes, I was so dirty Malawian men told me I needed to bathe in a river because I was getting the open truck dirty even though it was still raining. Truthfully I wasn't the only one going to bathe in the river but still it was a rather pathetic moment. Anyway, I rinsed the mud off my legs, clothes, hair, shoes and face and jumped back in the car for the rest of he journey to Lilongwe. It was certainly not my finest moment and I was very thankful to get to Vanessa's house later that day where she had a hot bath ready for me. Also she has an amazing house keeper, Rose, who took my disgusting clothes away from me and returned them a day later sparkling clean!
After term 2 ended in April I went up to Dar es Salaam with 3 friends, Amy, Vanessa and Irene. We planned to take the bus but luckily our boss was driving to Dar around the same time so we went with him for the same price as the bus in much less crowded and comfortable transport (although one person had to sit in the trunk of his small SUV with the luggage the whole way). We made good time and crossed into Tanzania in the early afternoon. There we were shown the huge difference between Malawi (a country with very little tourism or homegrown revenue) and Tanzania (where tourism is a huge part of the economy thanks to Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park and Zanzibar). The actual crossing of the border was a pretty good example of the vast difference. After finally getting someones attention on the Malawi side and convincing them to do their job of stamping our passports, we walked across the most obnoxious bridge in the world (Imagine lots of men shouting Lady! Azungu! Change money! Good price! Taxi! Hello Mammy!) we got to the Tanzania side where the efficient agent processed our visas and we were officially in Tanzania. Unfortunately we then discovered a flat tire on the car which our boss changed. Us women decided to be culturally appropriate and let him change it while we sat chatting on the side of the road and the African men watching the white man work. One man helped and even refused payment for his help saying "Welcome to Africa!" which prompted all the spectators to put out their hands expecting payment for watching.
We broke the long journey to Dar into two days and spent one night in Mbeya close to the Malawi-Tanzania border. We stumbled into an incredibly strange hotel after 15 straight hours in the car. None of the stairs were equal heights and although the bed was incredible wide (at least a king and a half) it wasn't quite long enough to accommodate our heights (well ok. My height. Sorry, Amy!)
At the hotel restaurant we had some issues with our very drunk waiter who liked to stand way too close and didn't seem very familiar with food services. Everything we ordered caused confusion. For example, someone ordered a coke and he asked in absolute serious "hot or cold coke?" How many people have asked for their coke to be heated up for them? It's possible he meant cold or room temperature but it was stifling hot despite the late hour so I can't imagine many people want a room temperature soda! Other odd interactions included Vanessa ordering fried chicken and him asking "beef?" He also didn't understand why we weren't wiling to pay a bill with random and ridiculous prices on it. Many times he told us "Ah ok just pay!" Of course this whole evening caused us to laugh nonstop but clearly illustrates the need for service and hospitality training in Africa.
We finally arrived in Dar late at night, tired, sweaty and hungry. We weren't able to find our hotel so our boss dropped us at one of the few restaurants open late on a Sunday night where we ate and then found a taxi to take us the rest of the way. The next morning we braved the Tanzanian heat and headed to find coffee, ferry tickets to Zanzibar and a guide book (in that order). Finding all of those easily, we explored Dar for a little and then went off to the ferry. The ride was nice and luckily no one got seasick which might have been hard since we were in the very luxurious first class section we'd upgraded ourselves to for a whopping $5!
The ferry ride was a nice short hour and a half and we were all in vacation spirit chatting and laughing! About halfway through the journey a young woman who was dressed in a very extravagent fashion came into the cabin, chatted up the cabin attendant and sat right next to Vanessa and I despite half the cabin being empty. Now in Africa, prostitutes are not subtle. From the clothes to the fancy cell phones to her chatting so opening with the cabin attendent it was pretty obvious this woman/girl was a prostitute. So Vanessa and I were talking and listening to music minding our own business when out of the corner of our eyes we both see our new friend (who had ignored us up until this moment) pull out her fancy phone and snapped a picture of us before quickly facing forward and continuing to ignore us. We were speechless. We tried our hardest to hold the laughter in but eventually we just collapsed into giggles. The young woman did a great job of keeping a straight face and pretending she hadn't done anything and eventually left. Oh to be white in Africa. Oh wait! I am! She probably shows her friends the picture of her new white friends all the time!
So we arrived on Zanzibar and eventually found our way through the twisting narrow alleyways of Stone Town with the help of a nice stranger. Our hotel was in a great location close to everything (ok ok. Stone Town is tiny and everything is close to everything). We'd asked for a room at the top to catch some breeze so we made our way up the increasingly steep steps to our rooms. The final flight of starts was essentially a ladder with a hand rail! Not the kind of "stairs" to go up or down after a few drinks or carrying very heavy packs. Famished we asked the receptionist for a restaurant and she directed us to one "right around the corner". Well we got hopelessly lost walking for ages until we finally stumbled upon an Italian restaurant. Yes, our first meal in Zanzibar was pasta! A few days later after getting our bearings of the town we found the place she had directed us to and it really was just around the corner! Somehow we'd gotten none of the instructions right but we did get to see a lot of the city which was beautiful! Our time in Stone Town was spent exploring, eating, drinking and eating. It was some of the best food I have ever eaten, I might add and all totally affordable even on a Peace Corps budget! One of the days we went on a spice tour where we got to see how lots of amazing spices are grown and harvested. On that day we also checked out the natural caves that were used to hide slaves before boarding ships. Another day we went out on a small boat to prison island (which was never actually a prison) where we hung out with some amazing 100 year old tortoises from the Seychelles and snorkeled!
After exhausting the sights of Stone Town we headed to the beach to relax even further! Also it was Vanessa's birthday so we were ready to celebrate. We stayed an a small little beachfront hotel which was very nice. It was one of the few that was open despite being the off-season. It was nice and included in our rooms was an hour massage and a free drink! My kinda hotel!
Unfortunately the fun had to end eventually and we were quickly thrown back into Peace Corps life as we took a public bus from Tanzania to Malawi. A trip I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart or anyone really. The first day we sat on the hot crowded bus traveling for 15 hours with dozens and dozens of our closest friends. Unfortunately Vanessa was very sick and the other people on the bus were awful awful people. They were so rude to us and each other. They refused to let anyone open a window and when we were digging our bags out of the back of the bus at our destination someone threw the bag I was reaching for farther away from me! We were all glad to get back to Malawi after the bus from hell until we remembered we still had the bridge from hell ahead of us. We got out of the taxi that dropped us at the border (after 4 hours of traveling and it was only 8am) and immediately people started yelling horrible things at us. It was one occasion where I wished I didn't understand the local language. While we were trying to walk away from the belligerent drunks a bike literally ran into Amy! We were shocked! His front tire was resting on top of her foot when he stopped! Not the way to get 4 very bitter travelers into a better mood. At some point some man was calling out to us "hello nice people" in an effort to sell us something, change money for us or maybe just rob us. Irene immediately turns to him and says "You obviously don't know us! We are not nice people." In general we are nice people! But on this particular journey we were fed up! It was very true at this point in the ordeal. The rest of the journey was similarly frustrating including me threatening to punch a man in the face if he didn't stop talking to me and having to tackle people to get onto the bus after our first bus broke down. The cherry on the cake was when we finally arrived in Lilongwe at 10pm. We were exhausted and just wanted to be home. As soon as the bus arrived the door was immediately swarmed by aggressive taxi drivers wanting to find customers. Amy stopped at the top of the stairs and told them "We want to go to [this address], we want to pay k500, and we want only 1 taxi! 1 taxi! And I choose YOU!" Anyone who has met Amy would know that this type of outburst or shouting is very uncharacteristic which made it even funnier! We piled out of the bus and into the chosen man's taxi only to get to the bottom of the hill outside of Irene's house only to find the car did not have enough gas to make it up! Our driver assured us we shouldn't worry (a very common thing is for Malawians to suggest "Don't worry!" even when worrying is justified). We were all delirious from lack of sleep, water and food that we just about died of laughter. Our driver got us home though by driving backwards up the hill but we were all thankful to have a break from traveling.
Soon after the Tanzanian adventure the new school term started and I met my new sitemates! My previous sitemate had finished his service in April and I was given two new ones at two villages both about 6km away from me. It was wonderful to be able to share my knowledge and experiences with people who were fresh out of training and they quickly became great friends! It's been so nice having really fun people nearby and has helped pass the last few months quickly. We have a lovely tradition of sitemate Sunday where we rotate whose house we'll go to and just have a nice get-together and chat while the rest of Malawi is in church!
Other fun things that have been happening are a last minute safari to Zambia with a friend's family and a short trip down to Blantyre to meet up with Victor and students from The Kings Academy. I was very fortunate to get great travel down to Blantyre (a rarity for sure!). It was fast and crowded but I was allowed to sit on the engine compartment so I didn't have to stand the whole 3 hours down! Sometimes the white person card works in my advantage! After getting great transport I was reminded that nothing is perfect in Malawi as I couldn't get a ahold of anyone once I got to the turn off. Thankfully there was a road block so I asked the police to direct men to the orphanage. Thinking they'd know where it was located was a fine guess except there are three orphanages in the proximity of the road block I had been dropped at. Luckily the police were friendly and we just chatted while I tried to figure out how to get to this mysterious orphanage. The police devised a plan where I would write a letter to Victor, send it on a bike taxi and wait for a reply. If we found the right orphanage, the police would let me wander off into the village. It was pretty cute that they were so worried for me and I couldn't convince them that wandering into villages was pretty much my life in Malawi! Eventually I got a hold of someone with Victor and they came and picked me up. It was nice to see people from California and a little strange to here them talk about places I know in America. I stayed with them for a few days and was able to help out at the orphanage. It was fun chatting with the young Malawians at the center and meeting the American students.
More recently, the new education volunteers arrived in Malawi. After a few days at the training site they went out to different volunteer's sites to shadow them. Two came to my site and stayed with me for a few days. They got a chance to see what life in the village is like and observe some of my lessons. It was nice to have visitors and share my experiences in Malawi with them. However, it was slightly weird to know that soon one of the new trainees will be replacing me! How did two years fly so quickly?
The biggest project I had happening in term 2 of school was a sewing workshop at Vanessa's site in Mchinji. A women's orphan care group had many non-functioning sewing machines that were in serious need of parts and maintenance and the group didn't know how to sew. Vanessa worked with the group to figure out a plan for using the machines to make school uniforms for her students to buy, therefore generating income for the women's group and giving the women valuable skills. The project went well overall with a lot of late hours and early mornings getting patterns and instructions ready for the workshop. Overall it was great to spend time with the women and two other great volunteers. We also had an education specialist from Peace Corps Washington DC come check out the work we were doing and talk to about teaching in Malawi. Of course, this being Malawi there were frustrating aspects but overall it was rewarding.
The most memorable aspect of that project however wasn't the actual workshop but rather my travel to the workshop. As usual, I taught my lessons in the morning and waited for the rain to stop so I could begin my travel to Vanessa's village. During rainy season it can be quite a challenge to get in and out of my village which is 8km on a dirt road. I also live in very mountainous region of Malawi and my house it at the very top of one of the peaks. Generally pick up trucks pass through the village in the mornings going into Lilongwe and I can generally hitch a ride with them. I waited for a few hours hoping an open truck would pass but with the rain and the poor roads nothing came in the two hours I waited. Eventually I found a bike that was willing to take me the 8km to the M1 despite the rain and we started off. So here I was.... A Malawian man pedaling furiously down this dirt road which has turned to mud, me on the back with my backpack on and an umbrella over us both. In Malawi, I always travel with a chitenje (a big piece of cloth worn by all women to protect their clothes) and it was quickly splattered with mud. Also, my umbrella kept turning inside out because of the wind and rain and I eventually abandoned it. I usually have a lot of confidence in the bikes I hire to take me places since they don't want to get hurt or damage their bikes (their only means of making money) but on this particular day I started to worry. The rain had been pretty intense and the road was getting very dangerous as we sped down the steep hills covered with slick mud. When the bikes tires started losing traction and slipping off the bumps I knew there was no chance of staying even remotely clean or dry. After a few close calls where the bike driver did a great job keeping us on the bike the inevitable happened and we fell over into a ditch. There we were trapped under his bike, in a puddle at the edge of a maize field. He was embarressed and helped me up and apologized profusely. Knowing he had done the best he could I wasn't mad and we got back on the proverbial horse and took off again and within seconds found ourselves again on the road under the bike covered in mud. At this point almost every inch of my clothes, skin, backpack and hair were covered in mud and my leather sandles weren't staying on with all the slippery mud. Deciding not to tempt fate again we started walking, barefoot and covered in mud. Essentially I was paying this kind man to slip through mud and walk next to me in the fruitless hope the sun would come out and we could remount the bike. We got about 2 km down the road when we heard a truck barreling down the scary road so I quickly paid the bike taxi for his efforts and flagged down the truck. I spend a lot of time traveling by open vehicle and usually find a spot nestled in with the village ladies. When I first arrived the close nature of these trip were a little starnge as you essentiall sit on someones lap or pressed up against someone else, leaning on them for support. After a few trips I can to find comfort in the closeness of the rides and the feeling that I was being accepted as one of them! This time however, I was ushered to the front of the truck's bed where I held on for dear life while standing with all the men. Maybe it was because of the mud covering my clothes or the rain but they wouldn't let me sit. After some scary turns where I nearly crushed the very small man in front of me, the car stopped at the small river close to the main road that we usually just pass over. Here some of the men started jumping out of the car and told me I needed to wash some of the mud off before we could continue. Yes, I was so dirty Malawian men told me I needed to bathe in a river because I was getting the open truck dirty even though it was still raining. Truthfully I wasn't the only one going to bathe in the river but still it was a rather pathetic moment. Anyway, I rinsed the mud off my legs, clothes, hair, shoes and face and jumped back in the car for the rest of he journey to Lilongwe. It was certainly not my finest moment and I was very thankful to get to Vanessa's house later that day where she had a hot bath ready for me. Also she has an amazing house keeper, Rose, who took my disgusting clothes away from me and returned them a day later sparkling clean!
After term 2 ended in April I went up to Dar es Salaam with 3 friends, Amy, Vanessa and Irene. We planned to take the bus but luckily our boss was driving to Dar around the same time so we went with him for the same price as the bus in much less crowded and comfortable transport (although one person had to sit in the trunk of his small SUV with the luggage the whole way). We made good time and crossed into Tanzania in the early afternoon. There we were shown the huge difference between Malawi (a country with very little tourism or homegrown revenue) and Tanzania (where tourism is a huge part of the economy thanks to Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park and Zanzibar). The actual crossing of the border was a pretty good example of the vast difference. After finally getting someones attention on the Malawi side and convincing them to do their job of stamping our passports, we walked across the most obnoxious bridge in the world (Imagine lots of men shouting Lady! Azungu! Change money! Good price! Taxi! Hello Mammy!) we got to the Tanzania side where the efficient agent processed our visas and we were officially in Tanzania. Unfortunately we then discovered a flat tire on the car which our boss changed. Us women decided to be culturally appropriate and let him change it while we sat chatting on the side of the road and the African men watching the white man work. One man helped and even refused payment for his help saying "Welcome to Africa!" which prompted all the spectators to put out their hands expecting payment for watching.
We broke the long journey to Dar into two days and spent one night in Mbeya close to the Malawi-Tanzania border. We stumbled into an incredibly strange hotel after 15 straight hours in the car. None of the stairs were equal heights and although the bed was incredible wide (at least a king and a half) it wasn't quite long enough to accommodate our heights (well ok. My height. Sorry, Amy!)
At the hotel restaurant we had some issues with our very drunk waiter who liked to stand way too close and didn't seem very familiar with food services. Everything we ordered caused confusion. For example, someone ordered a coke and he asked in absolute serious "hot or cold coke?" How many people have asked for their coke to be heated up for them? It's possible he meant cold or room temperature but it was stifling hot despite the late hour so I can't imagine many people want a room temperature soda! Other odd interactions included Vanessa ordering fried chicken and him asking "beef?" He also didn't understand why we weren't wiling to pay a bill with random and ridiculous prices on it. Many times he told us "Ah ok just pay!" Of course this whole evening caused us to laugh nonstop but clearly illustrates the need for service and hospitality training in Africa.
We finally arrived in Dar late at night, tired, sweaty and hungry. We weren't able to find our hotel so our boss dropped us at one of the few restaurants open late on a Sunday night where we ate and then found a taxi to take us the rest of the way. The next morning we braved the Tanzanian heat and headed to find coffee, ferry tickets to Zanzibar and a guide book (in that order). Finding all of those easily, we explored Dar for a little and then went off to the ferry. The ride was nice and luckily no one got seasick which might have been hard since we were in the very luxurious first class section we'd upgraded ourselves to for a whopping $5!
The ferry ride was a nice short hour and a half and we were all in vacation spirit chatting and laughing! About halfway through the journey a young woman who was dressed in a very extravagent fashion came into the cabin, chatted up the cabin attendant and sat right next to Vanessa and I despite half the cabin being empty. Now in Africa, prostitutes are not subtle. From the clothes to the fancy cell phones to her chatting so opening with the cabin attendent it was pretty obvious this woman/girl was a prostitute. So Vanessa and I were talking and listening to music minding our own business when out of the corner of our eyes we both see our new friend (who had ignored us up until this moment) pull out her fancy phone and snapped a picture of us before quickly facing forward and continuing to ignore us. We were speechless. We tried our hardest to hold the laughter in but eventually we just collapsed into giggles. The young woman did a great job of keeping a straight face and pretending she hadn't done anything and eventually left. Oh to be white in Africa. Oh wait! I am! She probably shows her friends the picture of her new white friends all the time!
So we arrived on Zanzibar and eventually found our way through the twisting narrow alleyways of Stone Town with the help of a nice stranger. Our hotel was in a great location close to everything (ok ok. Stone Town is tiny and everything is close to everything). We'd asked for a room at the top to catch some breeze so we made our way up the increasingly steep steps to our rooms. The final flight of starts was essentially a ladder with a hand rail! Not the kind of "stairs" to go up or down after a few drinks or carrying very heavy packs. Famished we asked the receptionist for a restaurant and she directed us to one "right around the corner". Well we got hopelessly lost walking for ages until we finally stumbled upon an Italian restaurant. Yes, our first meal in Zanzibar was pasta! A few days later after getting our bearings of the town we found the place she had directed us to and it really was just around the corner! Somehow we'd gotten none of the instructions right but we did get to see a lot of the city which was beautiful! Our time in Stone Town was spent exploring, eating, drinking and eating. It was some of the best food I have ever eaten, I might add and all totally affordable even on a Peace Corps budget! One of the days we went on a spice tour where we got to see how lots of amazing spices are grown and harvested. On that day we also checked out the natural caves that were used to hide slaves before boarding ships. Another day we went out on a small boat to prison island (which was never actually a prison) where we hung out with some amazing 100 year old tortoises from the Seychelles and snorkeled!
After exhausting the sights of Stone Town we headed to the beach to relax even further! Also it was Vanessa's birthday so we were ready to celebrate. We stayed an a small little beachfront hotel which was very nice. It was one of the few that was open despite being the off-season. It was nice and included in our rooms was an hour massage and a free drink! My kinda hotel!
Unfortunately the fun had to end eventually and we were quickly thrown back into Peace Corps life as we took a public bus from Tanzania to Malawi. A trip I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart or anyone really. The first day we sat on the hot crowded bus traveling for 15 hours with dozens and dozens of our closest friends. Unfortunately Vanessa was very sick and the other people on the bus were awful awful people. They were so rude to us and each other. They refused to let anyone open a window and when we were digging our bags out of the back of the bus at our destination someone threw the bag I was reaching for farther away from me! We were all glad to get back to Malawi after the bus from hell until we remembered we still had the bridge from hell ahead of us. We got out of the taxi that dropped us at the border (after 4 hours of traveling and it was only 8am) and immediately people started yelling horrible things at us. It was one occasion where I wished I didn't understand the local language. While we were trying to walk away from the belligerent drunks a bike literally ran into Amy! We were shocked! His front tire was resting on top of her foot when he stopped! Not the way to get 4 very bitter travelers into a better mood. At some point some man was calling out to us "hello nice people" in an effort to sell us something, change money for us or maybe just rob us. Irene immediately turns to him and says "You obviously don't know us! We are not nice people." In general we are nice people! But on this particular journey we were fed up! It was very true at this point in the ordeal. The rest of the journey was similarly frustrating including me threatening to punch a man in the face if he didn't stop talking to me and having to tackle people to get onto the bus after our first bus broke down. The cherry on the cake was when we finally arrived in Lilongwe at 10pm. We were exhausted and just wanted to be home. As soon as the bus arrived the door was immediately swarmed by aggressive taxi drivers wanting to find customers. Amy stopped at the top of the stairs and told them "We want to go to [this address], we want to pay k500, and we want only 1 taxi! 1 taxi! And I choose YOU!" Anyone who has met Amy would know that this type of outburst or shouting is very uncharacteristic which made it even funnier! We piled out of the bus and into the chosen man's taxi only to get to the bottom of the hill outside of Irene's house only to find the car did not have enough gas to make it up! Our driver assured us we shouldn't worry (a very common thing is for Malawians to suggest "Don't worry!" even when worrying is justified). We were all delirious from lack of sleep, water and food that we just about died of laughter. Our driver got us home though by driving backwards up the hill but we were all thankful to have a break from traveling.
Soon after the Tanzanian adventure the new school term started and I met my new sitemates! My previous sitemate had finished his service in April and I was given two new ones at two villages both about 6km away from me. It was wonderful to be able to share my knowledge and experiences with people who were fresh out of training and they quickly became great friends! It's been so nice having really fun people nearby and has helped pass the last few months quickly. We have a lovely tradition of sitemate Sunday where we rotate whose house we'll go to and just have a nice get-together and chat while the rest of Malawi is in church!
Other fun things that have been happening are a last minute safari to Zambia with a friend's family and a short trip down to Blantyre to meet up with Victor and students from The Kings Academy. I was very fortunate to get great travel down to Blantyre (a rarity for sure!). It was fast and crowded but I was allowed to sit on the engine compartment so I didn't have to stand the whole 3 hours down! Sometimes the white person card works in my advantage! After getting great transport I was reminded that nothing is perfect in Malawi as I couldn't get a ahold of anyone once I got to the turn off. Thankfully there was a road block so I asked the police to direct men to the orphanage. Thinking they'd know where it was located was a fine guess except there are three orphanages in the proximity of the road block I had been dropped at. Luckily the police were friendly and we just chatted while I tried to figure out how to get to this mysterious orphanage. The police devised a plan where I would write a letter to Victor, send it on a bike taxi and wait for a reply. If we found the right orphanage, the police would let me wander off into the village. It was pretty cute that they were so worried for me and I couldn't convince them that wandering into villages was pretty much my life in Malawi! Eventually I got a hold of someone with Victor and they came and picked me up. It was nice to see people from California and a little strange to here them talk about places I know in America. I stayed with them for a few days and was able to help out at the orphanage. It was fun chatting with the young Malawians at the center and meeting the American students.
More recently, the new education volunteers arrived in Malawi. After a few days at the training site they went out to different volunteer's sites to shadow them. Two came to my site and stayed with me for a few days. They got a chance to see what life in the village is like and observe some of my lessons. It was nice to have visitors and share my experiences in Malawi with them. However, it was slightly weird to know that soon one of the new trainees will be replacing me! How did two years fly so quickly?
