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The First Month

Posted on Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Much has happened since I last wrote. I have eaten traditional tribal food, I have attended There is Hope staff meetings, I have learned my way around in the city, I have been to the beautiful Lake Malawi, I have visited Malawian markets and grocery stores, and I now have a house and a car!

Moving in to a new house is something that I don't have any memories of, so this has been a very new experience. I have spent a lot of time in the store looking at appliances for the kitchen, a bed for my room, and curtains for all the windows. I ended up buying curtains from the local second hand market, and a brand new, handmade bed frame from a street vendor. I bought a microwave from a garage sale, and a refrigerator from Game, which is Malawi's  equivalent of Walmart. I am still missing a stove and oven, but those should come in the next few days.

Since I have moved in, I have yet to take a warm shower. Normally either the water is on and the power is off, or the other way around. It works out ok though, because most days have been between 80 and 90 degrees here, and in Malawi, a cold shower is the second best way to cool off.

The best way is to swim in Lake Malawi. On my second weekend here, we drove 2 hours east, to spend a day at the beach. There was a long sandy beach, a few islands off the shore, and almost no people around. The lake is long and skinny, and on a clear day, you can just see across to Mozambique. We spent hours playing in the water, and playing Spikeball on the beach.

My new house is part of a compound that is surrounded by a ten-foot wall, and has a guard at the gate. Also inside the wall, is a big house owned by my landlords, a husband and wife from Rwanda. They speak Swahili, and the local language, Chichewa, but no English. This has been a fun challenge, and I have had to rely on a guard to be my interpreter. Most Malawians speak both English and Chichewa. However, refugees (some of whom are from Rwanda) mostly speak Swahili. Because of this, I have made it my goal to learn more Swahili, so I can better communicate with both my neighbors, and the refugees.

On my first night in the house, there was no power or water, so the landlord and his wife invited me for dinner. They cooked me some traditional food over a charcoal fire. I had rice and chicken soup, to go with cassava and boiled kale, onions, peppers, and carrots. It is a very tricky thing to eat a meal in the dark with people who you can barely communicate with. I did manage to learn a bit about their family, and share a picture of my family with them. I am excited to see how this relationship grows. 

In the next few days I will begin settling in to a more consistent routine, and start spending more days at the office and the refugee camp. Until then, I hope to be learning what it is like to live alone! 

I haven't found a way to post pictures on this blog yet, but I will hopefully have a link to an album soon!

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