The Busy Life. IN and OUT of the village. Go Go Go.

Let’s start with the fact that it’s already April! What?!? How is it possible that I’ve already been here a year and it feels like I arrived yesterday? On March 5th, my cohort marked one year since we’ve arrived in Malawi, and I was able to celebrate by welcoming the new group of Health and Environment Peace Corps Trainees into the country that I now consider home.

Over the past month I’ve been very busy with this new group of trainees, as I was selected to be a Resource Volunteer for Week 0 and Week 1 of their Pre-Service Training, attending a training of trainers, preparing with the office for their arrival, being at the airport when they stepped off the plane, and spending their first ten days in country with them supporting, co-facilitating sessions, and answering any questions they had. And wow, was it rewarding…but also very, very exhausting to be in that role. Myself, and another volunteer, Corey, who is in the Environment Sector, truly had the honor of spending these special moments with what we now would say are our new friends and part of the Peace Corps Malawi Family.

Corey and I greeting the new volunteers at the airport.

Above: 3 generations of Week 0 Resource Volunteers

Below: The new group of trainees

During these weeks, leading up to, and just past our one year mark in Malawi was an amazing time for reflection of my service here as a PCV. The fact that a year has gone by so quickly only makes me realize how little time left I have left in Malawi, and how much I still want to do for my community. Being around a group of people who know very little about this country, the culture, and the language, etc. has made me understand how far I’ve come in the past year. It’s allowed me to see how much I have grown and how much I’ve learned. It has been an amazing journey, and I’m excited to continue over the next year.

Spending the first few days with our new friends :)

Above: The village welcoming in the new members of their family for the next two months.

Below: The little home I lived in for a week in the training village.

Selfies in the village :)

In other news, in the past months I have started to work more closely with the Community Day Secondary School and boarding Secondary School (both equivalent to high school) in Chipoka. I have been working with the teachers to start some extracurricular clubs for the students after school, including Grassroots Soccer (HIV awareness program) and GLOW (a girls club; Girls Leading Our World). Both of these activities have kept me busy and I’ve enjoyed working with the students very much. They are so eager to learn and I have really become close to them. They are learning about how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, being empowered as woman, learning about healthy sexual choices, etc. Seeing this kids learn and participate in issues that are so real in Malawi has really been an awesome experience.

Working outside of site, and closer with the office has also been something new for me, as I have taken on the role of the SOLID Regional Coordinator and one of 3 GLOW Coordinators. Both roles involve working closer with and supporting volunteers implementing these projects at site, working with the office to better improve these programs, and also unfortunately pull me out of the village at times. (It’s hard to work on creating new manuals, documents, etc., on a computer when you have no electricity in your home, as I’m sure you can imagine). However, these are projects that I have started at my site, am very passionate about, and would love to see an increase in the number of volunteers implementing these projects at their sites because I have seen the impact it has made in my community.

So with this short update I hope you are able to get a little more understanding of what I’ve been up to since January. Life is BUSY. I’m on the move a lot it seems. But I still love Malawi, the people, my family here, and my Peace Corps service....and all you people at home (so I've made some time to answer all those letters filling my mail box....Sorry for the delay!) Crazy to think I only have one more year to go :)

#peacecorps