I am living with my host family, who are fantastic, in a village called Kaphaizi in the district of Kasungu. I love my host family, my Amayi (mom) and Abambo (dad) are really nice and speak good English so are very helpful. My Abambo used to play for the Malawi national football team which is pretty cool. I also have a 18 year old brother and an adorable 2 year old sister. I somehow lucked out and got placed in the nicest house in the village. We have couches (a rarity), electricity, and even a tv! We watch a lot of Malawian music videos and football. We still don't have running water though, and that has been the hardest to adjust to. Every morning I help my Amayi get water from the pump a couple minutes from our house and carry it back on my head. The first couple of times I definitely spilled a lot but I've gotten much better. No running water means no toilets or showers. I take baths out of a bucket in a detached brick room in the backyard. The toilet here is called the chim and it is basically a hole, cut in a cement floor, over a deep hole, in another room in the yard. The first few weeks I was here the chim definitely scared me and, although I don't think I will ever be completely fine with it, I'm getting a lot more used to it. I think one of the things I miss most from America is the food. The food here isn't horrible but its pretty much the same things everyday. Breakfast is usually bread or porridge with tea. Lunch and dinner consist of rice or nsima with cooked spinach-like vegetables and a protein, either beans, soya or eggs for me. Also, we do not use utensils and everything is eaten with our hands.
In addition to living with my family and learning how to cook, bathe, and basically survive in Malawi, I am also going to language and technical classes everyday. Most of the sessions are about peace corps policies, safety, medical, or teaching techniques. Last week we got to actually teach a Malawian class for seven days at the local secondary school. I taught form 1 physical science. It went pretty well but was more challenging than I expected. The students, in form one especially, don't understand English well which makes it very difficult for them to understand science concepts taught in English. Other than that, I think my lessons were good and the students seemed to learn at least a little.
There is so much more that has happened so I will start writing more often now that I have Internet and try to include everything in future posts.
This is a picture of the road leading into my village:
