It’s been a long long time since I have written. There are many reasons for my absenceJ But in short I have been super busy! Which is great right?! Some volunteers have had experiences of being bored, but because I have been blessed with a great site, a great supervisor, great counterparts and a great community; my experience is very different. I am the first health PCV placed in Kapiri ever! And though the hospital that I work with has had many volunteers that are Azungus (a foreign person), I am the first that will stay for 2 years. Therefore my supervisor is utilizing my time here as much as possible. There is a stereotype that Malawians are lazy, easy going, nonconfrontational, and always waiting for a handout. My supervisor Dr. Sister Eva does not fit into this category. She works had and expects everyone else to do the same. As most people know that I can be somewhat of a workaholic this is a good match for me! Every morning I wake up at 4 am and think of all the things I want to accomplish in my day. I begin my morning routine which I has become my constant. Though there are challenges I feel myself changing more and more everyday for the better. I feel as though I am becoming more assertive not because I feel as though people are taking advantage of me all the time. But because I feel as though my work is so needed and important that being passive would be a disservice to my community. Projects I am currently working on:

Setting up a research to do a comparison study of natural medicine vs. conventional medicine for under 5 children with anemia due to malnutrition.

Helping supervise the building of 2 under 5 clinics is under served villages.

Implementing a data system in the hospital to have better access to bio statistics.

Most of my projects centers around natural medicine. Because this is a developing country with limited access to conventional medicine this is a method of providing a sustainable approach to helping treat minor to moderate health ailments, preventative medicine and supplementing poor diets. Everyday no matter the challenges I face I know that this is exactly where I am suppose to be and doing exactly what I always wanted to do. But enough inspirational talk! Funny stories…..

So the children of course when they see me with my leggings, riding my bicycle wearing sunglasses; no matter how dark I have gotten know that I am an Azungu! So they chant ‘Azungu, Azungu!’ So I have started stopping my bike coming back to them and saying in Chichewa “My name is Aisha, and not Azungu, you hear? You understand” they say ‘Eya (yes)’ “My name?” “Aisha” “And not” “Azungu”. Then as I ride away they usually laugh and sometimes cheer! The great thing about Malawian sounds is the way you speak Chichewa is almost like singing. I can’t even begin to describe it by typing. But instead of say Ok you would say “OOOHHHOOHH” in a singing manner. If women or children are laughing it’s like simultaneously they make a sound perfectly synchronized like a high pitch “OOOOHHHH” and then a low pitch “EEEEEEE”. It’s awesome. So from my village all the way to the farthest village in my catchment area which is 22K most of the children know my name now!  Also this is the end of the cold season and the end of the harvest. Soooo it is of course mice season. It isn’t as bad as it seems. What they do is light the fields on fire and wait for the field mice to run and then catch them. I think I will try to sample some this week. I know it sounds unappetizing but people swear by it…so when in Rome…I mean Malawi. I have also become a pretty good wine maker. Best wine yet is pineapple, papaya and ginger wine. Finally the progress of my garden; this month I have begun making my first harvest from my garden. Did you know you can eat the leaves of cauliflower and broccoli? Quite tasty it is.

My weeks are full of visiting villages, meeting with chiefs, meeting with chronically ill patients to give them natural and conventional medicine and designing and discussing my projects. On the weekends I usually attend some cultural event such as a wedding this weekend. Which I must say was great. The way it works here is you show up, invited or not. Sit down and they keep bringing you food until you say enough! Then you make a donation which you feel is fair. Then the women and men do traditional dances for a ridiculous amount of time. It’s not that it’s boring, but I don’t understand how a 78 year grandmother can dance in a provocative way for more than an hour. But I must say grandma can’t get down! This is also the season for the Nao, which is part of the Chiwea culture. Every harvest there are men who dress up in scary costumes and dance around. They also appear if the children aren’t going to school to make them go to school…which works. Then they go to the chief’s house and demand money. If they chiefs don’t pay up, then they take a chicken; which seems fair.

But for now all is well! I will try my best to keep my blog updated as much as possible. But it may just be in Malawian time! By the way this may not be grammatically correct because my Chichewa is getting better as my English is getting bade LOL!

Quick funny story. I was trying to bake a cake at my site mate's house who lives about 10K away in his brick wood oven. So this is a tedious process of heating the brick stove with firewood, waiting for it to become hot and then placing the cake in afterwards. So after doing all of this I realized that I forgot to bring baking soda. So he went to ask his neighbor if she had some. She said no, but then arrived later with something that we thought was baking powder. After further investigation we realized that it was actually baby powder. Oh language barriers:) Needless to say it was a flat cake:)