Question box

I got the idea from a peace corps friend of mine to start a question box in my classroom and it's been a huge success. It's a simple cardboard box with a slit at the top where students can put any question they have about school, life, America, or anything. When I have extra time left in a period I use it to answer the questions. It's been a great way to share American culture and teach the students about topics they typically don't learn in school or things they are curious about. It also lets me know some of the things they believe and what they are thinking about. I get a lot of questions about American musicians. Even more about Obama. And I constantly get asked if there are black people in America. Here are some of my favorite questions that I have found in the box. And in italics some of my thoughts about them. 

Q: Can you fly? 

I wish!

Q: Are you a satanist?

A: No

Q: Are you a Christian? If you are a Christian why you don't respect yourself about dressing? Sometimes I see you while you are in leggings. Are you normal? 

Good to know that my students think I dress scandalously and also think I'm abnormal (it's culturally inappropriate for women here to wear anything besides long skirts). I spent a good 15 minutes answering this one and explaining that in America it's okay for women to wear pants. Even to church. They were shocked. 

Q: In America where do you put the people that died?

This wasn't too odd of a question but as I answered it I realized how odd of an answer it was for them. They completely followed and understood when I explained about putting dead people in a coffin and burying it in the ground- they do the same here. But then I explained that some people choose to be cremated instead. I told them that these people decide they want their dead body set on fire until it turns to ashes. Then we usually throw those ashes in a ocean or outside somewhere. As I explained what cremation was I got a lot of gasps, wide eyes, and unbelieving faces. They definitely think I'm a satanist now. 

And this is, so far, my all-time favorite question:

Q: White people they use plastic cups in order to avoid to be burnt their lips. So why has you given is a steel cups? Do you think that we cannot burnt our lips?

 

Ummmm. What? I have never used a cup during class, give a cup to any student, or seen a steel cup anywhere in Malawi. This one stumped me. Where do they come up with this stuff!? 

I love the question box. It leads to a lot of laughs and some really interesting conversations with my class. 

Game count

The first weekend in October I got the amazing opportunity to participate in game count, a Peace Corps and wildlife office organized survey of large mammals in Liwondwe National park. About 40 Peace Corps volunteers were there and we paired up with park rangers to do walks through the park and count and record the animals we saw. The 20 second year volunteers got to stay at Mvuu camp, a nice resort in the park right on the river. We camped there for 2 nights and had to wake up at 4am both mornings to do transect survey walks. Each morning we got in a safari van or the back of a truck and were driven to different places in the park to start.

The first day's transect walk we saw very little. We walked about 12 kilometers and saw a few warthogs, impala, and common duiker. We also saw a green mamba in a tree which was pretty awesome. Apart from the animals, we also found a lot of evidence of poaching and took down at least 15 wire snares.

The second day was a lot more exciting. Our walk was along the river and we got to see more animals. At a few points we got really close to groups of hippos. We also saw a huge crocodile sunning on the shore and at least 10 more crocodiles in the river near it. We saw more impala, bushbacks, sable, warthogs, and even found an elephant skull.

The walk ended at a clearing near the river that had a huge hollow baobob tree covered with a thick vine. We had to wait there a while for the truck to pick us up and bring us back to camp, so obviously we decided to climb the tree while we waited.

While the walks were fun, we saw the most animals during the drives around the park and just hanging out at our camp on the river. On the drive into the park we passed a group of elephants less than 100 meters away from the truck! Sitting by the river we saw even more elephants with two baby elephants drinking and were close enough to a warthog to almost touch it. Another time driving around the park we saw a herd of buffalo. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience and I'm really happy I got to do it.

Natural medicine project

Sorry I have been majorly slacking with writing posts recently. Classes started up again about 2 weeks ago and I have been pretty busy lately. I'm teaching math form 2 and biology form 3. So far it's going really well. In addition to teaching I have two other major projects I will be working on this year.

In August I applied and was accepted to be the logistics coordinator for Camp Sky 2015 😄 That means me and 3 other coordinators are in charge of planning, organizing, and running the camp next year. I wrote about Camp Sky in April. It was the best week of my Peace Corps service and I'm so excited to be able to help lead it this year. Currently we have booked an awesome venue and are working on writing grants and planning. I'll write more about this later when we have more figured out. 

The other project I've been working on is a natural medicine project in my village. In April I also wrote about a training I went to called ANAMED. It was natural medicine workshop where I, and my Malawian counterpart, learned about health, different plants, and how to use plants to make medicines. We realized that the information we learned would be very beneficial to our village and decided to use it in our community. We are about 15km from the closest hospital and the road to get there is in very bad condition making transport difficult. Because of this, most people don't go to the hospital when they get sick.  We thought that we could use the training we had to make natural medicines and immune boosters for people who could not get official treatment. We started a group of 8 people from my village and a few surrounding villages. The first few meetings we taught our group about plants, how to make the products, and about business. Within our group we appointed a chairman, secretary, and treasurer. Every week we meet to make products that the villagers need. About once a month our group also travels to surrounding villages to give a presentation about health, how to take care of yourself, what natural medicine is, and what products we sell. Some of the products we make include a eucalyptus tincture for cough and sore throat, chili ointment for rheumatism and sore muscles, and moringa leaf powder which is a great nutritional food additive and immunity booster. Our most popular product is anti fungal soap and ointment made from cassia lata and neem leaf powders. We sell all of our products for k300. About 75 cents. The profit we make from selling the medicines is used to buy the supplies we need to make more medicine.  

These are a few members of the group working in my backyard making anti fungal soap. 

My counterpart showing some of the leaves he is drying. Once the leaves are dry we pound them into a power and put the leaf powder into soaps, ointments, or tinctures. The medicinal properties in different leaves are good to help cure different ailments. 

The project is going really well and has been well received in my village and even many of the villages around me. We are currently working with a group of American college business students to make the project more official and sustainable. Eventually we want to start a stand in the local market or at the health clinic to sell our products. 

Graduation

I'm officially finished teaching my first school year in Malawi. The students have taken their final exams and a few weeks ago the form four students had their graduation ceremony. I was on the commitee to help plan and organize the graduation so I knew it would be a bit different than American high school ceremonies, but it was even more unusual than I imagined. Graduation day started at around 7am. All the form four students came to the school in their work clothes to begin cooking and decorating for the celebration later that day. About 10 fires were started to cook nsima, rice, cabbage, and chicken that we would eat for lunch. Meanwhile, other students worked to set up the ceremony "pavillion" created from thick bamboo poles and old white bed sheets. I was happy to be able to contribute decorations, thanks to Mrs. Leers' amazing first grade class who made beautiful carboard flowers and sent balloons for my students. The gifts really brightened up the ceremony and the students were very grateful. A huge thanks to Mrs. Leers' students! You guys are awesome!

Around noon, guests started showing up. Teachers from other schools, parents on the PTA, and village chiefs were invited early to join us for lunch. Afterwards, the students went back to their houses to change and get ready for the actual ceremony. Unlike a lot of schools in the area, the students at my school were not required to wear their school uniform to graduation and instead could wear any nice clothes they liked. This led to, what seemed like, a competition for Malawi's most stylish student. Dressing fancy in Malawi reminds me of children playing dress-up with their parents nicest clothes. Many of the girls wore traditional African dress but a lot also wore buisness style skirts and jackets and a few wore secondhand prom dresses or overly fancy evening gowns. Instead of the school required close cropped hair cut, many of the girls got weaves or wigs and had their hair in crazy styles. They also put a large amount of glitter in their hair to match whatever color dress they were wearing. The boys dressed in oversized suits, usually with bright or busy collared shirts and unmatching ties.

When all the students were dressed and assembled back at the school we had a short time to prepare for the ceremony and take pictures. As ususal everyone wanted a picture with the weird white teacher, so I had to pose and smile while the entire form four took turns taking a picture with me.

Finally the official ceremony began. It would take place in a field behind the school buildings, which happened to be right next to my house. The parents, teachers, and village members sat in chairs under the tent that had been set up. Around the perimeter of the field all the children from the village gathered to watch. We rented a microphone and speaker setup for the occasion and started to play music as the students, not walked, but danced onto the field. Halfway through their dancing procession the speaker system broke and the students walked out and refused to come back in until the music started playing again. Someone was able to fix the system and eventually the graduates made it to their seats. Then the system broke again. A few people gave speeches. Which we couldn't hear due to the microphone not working. After the speeches from the village chief, the head boy, and the guest of honor someone got the music working again and the ceremony turned into a giant dance party. Occasionally, while the students were dancing, they would dance up to the chief who gave them a certificate of completing secondary school. Then their family would dance around them and throw money on the ground for them or give them gifts such as a bundle of sugarcane.

After the graduates all recieved their certificates, the music continued and the rest of the guests and children joined in to dance and celebrate. At this point is was about 5:00 and I decided to leave. Unfortunately the event was directly next to my house so even going home I couldn't get away from the horrible quality speakers playing awful Malawian songs on repeat. The annoying music, screaming, and hoards of children running by my windows continued until about 8pm. Finally everyone decided to go home and graduation day came to an end.  

Mt. Mulanje hike

After over a year living in Malawi and seeing Mt. Mulanje everyday from my yard, I finally went out and climbed the thing with my boyfriend. Over the course of three days we hiked over 40 kilometers reaching an elevation of around 9,000 feet. The hike was brutal. The first day alone we walked for 6 hours uphill, climbing over 6,000 feet, to reach the first cabin we were staying at. The views along the way were incredible.

We stayed that night at the cabin at the base of the highest peak, Sapitwa, and the next morning planned to surmount it. Sapitwa, in Chichewa, means "don't go there" and we probably should have headed the warning.

We woke to a blanket of fog covering the mountain. After waiting for about an hour, the fog wasn't clearing and we decided to attempt the climb anyway. The hike turned out to be even harder than the day before. Most of the hike required us to crawl, climb, and scale impossibly steep rock cliffs. The fog never lifted, so we couldn't see more than 40 feet in front of us; it felt like we were climbing forever with no clear destination ahead. When we started, the terrain was all rock and small shrub trees. Further up the mountain we entered a weird valley that had conditions more like a rainforest. Everything was wet and green, moss and ferns coated everything. Our clothes were wet from the strange fern gully as we climbed out to reach the final ridge before the peak. And then the wind began. We were not prepared for the cold that we then experienced.

After over 2 hours of climbing in the cold wet conditions it became too freezing for us to continue and we had to turn back. We got within about 400 ft of the peak but could not physically continue without possibly losing a finger to frostbite. So we climbed back down to our cabin and sat by the fire for awhile to rest. After lunch we continued with the next leg of our journey, a short 2 1/2 hour walk to another hut.

Going down in elevation, it became a lot warmer and the weather cleared up. The hike was enjoyable and we made it to our next cabin without any problem. The next day was our final day hiking. We took a beautiful path down the mountain, going by rivers and waterfalls.

We finally made it to the bottom. It was a difficult, crazy, fun adventure. I am glad I did it, but it might be a while before I attempt it again.

The New Englanders take on Malawi

Two weeks ago I had a very special visit from my aunt and cousin from America. 

The trip had been planned since before I even moved here so I had spent almost a year anticipating them coming. They are the first, and possibly only, Americans to visit me in Malawi and it was very exciting being able to show them my home and have them experience how I live here. After greeting them at the airport we went to the Avis desk to rent a car. As is typical of Malawi, it did not go smoothly. They didn't have the car that we had reserved and we spent a long time trying to remedy the issue. It was confusing, chaotic, and stressful- a perfect introduction and representation of Malawi and my life here. We finally got it resolved and headed to the lake for a day, then down to my district of Mulanje. The rest of the trip went much better. Only a few bumps (some literal-the roads are awful), and some bad weather, but overall everyone had a great time. The highlight was definitely going into my village and introducing my family to my friends and neighbors. We had a traditional Malawian lunch of nsima and ndiwo on a reed mat in my friend's house. We took a tour of my house, my school, the health clinic, and even dipped our feet in the river that serves as the border of Malawi and Mozambique. We met and talked with a lot of people and I had to convince my cousin she couldn't take all the children home with her. 

All too soon we were driving back to Lilongwe where they would board a plane back to America. I really enjoyed having visitors here. They got to understand a little bit more about how I live and I got to see Malawi through a fresh and excited pair of eyes. I also got to see family who I hadn't seen in over a year and missed very much. That calls for a carlsberg! :)

Another important event happened for me recently. June 20th was the anniversary of me being in Malawi for one year! Time has gone surprisingly fast. On the 21st I was at the airport yet again to greet a new group of education volunteers just starting their peace corps service. It was strange being there and remembering what it was like being in their shoes one year before. When we got off the plane we were excited, exhausted, and had no idea what life in Malawi would be like for us. Welcoming the new group I could see just how different I am now and how far I've come since arriving here. 

Elections

Last Tuesday, May 20, was Malawi's first ever tripartite elections. And in typical Malawian fashion things turned out to be confusing, chaotic, and altogether ineffective. The three main candidates were: The current president Joyce Banda representing the people's party (PP), professor Peter Mutarika with the democratic progressive party (DPP), and Lazarus Chikwela for Malawi congress party (MCP). Election Day went smoothly enough. Voters 18 and over took their IDs to the polls, got their fingers printed, and cast their vote. It was a good turnout and the voting stations stayed open late into the night. The next day everyone grouped around their radios as results started trickling in. As numbers started being announced it seemed that Mutarika  was sweeping the board. In all districts he was receiving significantly more votes than the other two candidates. But still less than 30% of the votes had been counted so no official result could be announced. A day or two into the counting, accusations of rigging started surfacing. People were accused of hacking phones to cast more votes. At one point it was discovered that in some districts there were more votes cast than there were registered voters in that district. Stating that it was because of the "irregularities" surrounding the voting, president Joyce Banda called for the whole election to be nullified and another election take place in 90 days. She also said that in the redo she would be running. Many people thought that this was an attempt to make Mutarika lose. Banda had previously tried Mutarika with treason when he attempted a coup to take over the government.  Now people believe that Banda is afraid of the revenge Mutarika might take if he gets office. Especially due to the fact that there was a major corruption scandal while Banda was in office that she could be held accountable for. Anyways, the nullification didn't happen as the Malawi electoral commission (MEC) decided that it was somehow unconstitutional. Instead they decided to do a manual recount of the votes. Mutarika got his lawyers to try to stop the recount. MEC said they couldn't recount yet anyway because the original votes weren't even counted yet. Meanwhile, there have been riots in some of the major cities, burning of party headquarters, and attempted suicides of ministers and government officials (one successful). As of today the news is that results from the original vote will be announced Friday. After which the recount will maybe take place. How that will be possible I don't know. The votes were turned in on pieces of paper and collected in baskets. Most votes have probably been lost or ruined at this point. As its looking now, it will probably be a while before we have a new president. 

Update: May 30th around 11pm Prof. Peter Mutarika was announced as the winner of the elections. Before the announcement there were more riots, fighting in the capital, and a shooting. I am very safe in my village and far away from any discord. Mutarika is definitely the people's favorite but seemed to be causing some problems within the government. So we will see how this announcement will affect things. And hopefully it will be the end of this election chaos. 

In response to the question, "what's a chitenje?"

The amazing, versatile chitenje!

Now, for a limited time, only 1,200 kwacha! ($3)

Nothing embodies the culture of Africa quite like these beautiful two meter piece of printed fabric. They come in all colors, designs, and patterns. Mostly worn as wrap skirts or head wraps, chitenje (plural zitenje) are all-purpose fabrics that can be use in 100+ different ways. 

Forget your bag at the market? No problem! Wrap up your items in a chitenje for a quick makeshift sack. 

Can't afford a baby carrier? Use a chitenje to tie your baby to your back. 

Too cold? Wrap a chitenje around your shoulders like a scarf or shawl. 

Use zitenje as towels, blankets, window curtains, diapers, tablecloths, pillow covers, book bags, cleaning cloths, chair covers, flags, advertisement, decoration... The possibilities are endless! 

Or, bring the fabric to your local tailor and get beautiful, custom designed chitenje clothes made just for you! You will look stylish and trendy sporting the national fashion of Malawi. 

So quick! Act now, before these amazing, versatile cloths sell out. 

But wait! There's more! Come to Malawi to visit me and we'll throw in an authentic Malawian chitenje completely free! (Limited time offer) 

Camp Sky (+anamed and vacation)

Warning: this is going to be a long one, a ton happened in the month of April. Also sorry this is so late. I haven't had Internet recently and haven been able to post this. I'm going to break this post into three parts; ANAMED, Camp Sky, and vacation. 

ANAMED- I left my village on March 30th with my Malawian counterpart to attend a training about natural medicine and how to use local plants to heal and prevent disease. (ANAMED= action for natural medicine). We spent about 4 days working in the garden, making teas, ointments, oils, medicines and soaps. We also learned about nutrition, permaculture and composting. The weekend was pretty much what I pictured peace corps would be like- working outside, creating products from local tropical plants. The training center we were staying at was at the base of a mountain and during free times, a few friends and I would go on hikes. One day we found a waterfall. Another day, the training coordinator took us up the mountain and we saw ancient rock art left from the Chongoni tribe. 

The weekend was very informative and my counterpart and I plan to start workshops at our village clinic to teach our community about what we learned. We were given seeds and a few saplings and we have already started a garden to start growing some of the useful plants. 

Camp Sky- First, a huge thank you to everyone who donated to camp. It was by far the best and most encouraging week of my peace Corps service so far. The official description of camp sky is that it is a week long camp to help promising form four students study and prepare for their MSCE (national exam). Peace Corps teachers could send the top 2 students in their school. To me that sounded kind of boring and I expected it to be something like regular school, but during break. It was absolutely nothing like I expected. 

The schedule each day was pretty much the same. In the mornings (before lunch) were classes. I taught 2 periods a day. The first two days I taught reproduction and the steps of meiosis. The last two days I taught the lymphatic system. Class sizes were only 20 students (as oppose to the 100 I usually teach) and all the students could speak English! It was so much fun and a completely different experience to teach such smart, motivated students. My lessons went really well and the students seemed to enjoy them. For the lymphatic system I drew a picture of a capillary bed on the floor of the classroom and students had to act like blood plasma, walking through the vessels and explaining how they became lymph fluid. They did very well and it was a lot of fun. 

 After lunch each day the kids went to lab, then had evening activities. I helped lead the biology lab which was one of my favorite parts of the week. Many of the students had never been inside a real laboratory before or worked with any lab equipment. I got to help them test for macromolecules in food and titrate an acid to neutralize a base. It was incredibly inspiring to see how excited they were about science. 

The evening activities were different everyday. The first night a musical group came and helped the students be creative and create their own music. The second night we watched the Romeo and Juliet movie, then acted out the famous balcony scene with a few adaptations to make it culturally relevant to Malawi. It was hilarious. Another night we did an egg drop, the students had to use their knowledge of physics to create a container that would protect an egg when it was dropped from heights. Some groups did so well, we dropped their eggs off the water tower and they still didn't break! We also had a talent show and, on the last night, a dance. 

After dinner every night the students broke up into small groups and had reflection time. The groups were organized by planet names (the whole week was space themed) and I was the counselor for ten campers in group mars. During reflection we talked about their favorite part of the day and discussed our daily theme (inspirational message such as 'sky is not the limit' or 'nothing will prevent my success'). 

One of the favorite parts of the week was the field trip we had to the resource center at the US embassy. There, the students learned about applying to colleges in Malawi and America and they learned how to use a computer. For most of the students it was the first time they had ever touched a computer so we had to explain the simplest things like how to move and click the mouse or how to put a space between words when typing. I was helping one girl named Mphatso. She practiced typing her name and changing the font and size. Then we attempted to open and search the Internet. I told her that she could type a question or topic into google and it would give her an answer or information. She didn't fully understand because she typed the question "will I pass my exams?" Later that night, as I was doing reflections with my group, one of the girls said that her favorite part of the day was sitting on the chairs at the embassy that had wheels and could roll around. Oh the simple things we take for granted in America.  

In addition to all that, we did the typical camp-y fun things. We sang songs, played games, I taught the campers the cup game, we played ultimate frisbee, and so much more. It was a busy, exhausting, rewarding week. 

I could go on and on about this camp, how incredible the students were, how much fun the activities were, and how much we all learned. If you want to see more pictures my friend Cam wrote a great blog about the whole week: campskymw.tumblr.com. There are also a ton of pictures on Facebook and I think camp sky has its own page. 

Vacation- After camp a big group had planed to take a trip to the northern part of the country to do some hiking and see the mountains. Unfortunately that fell through so we had to make other plans. Me and two friends decided to go to the lake. (Because I will never pass up a chance to hang out at the beach). We spent the week swimming and sleeping, recovering from a sleepless week at camp. On Easter, the scuba place was organizing an underwater Easter egg hunt. A friend and I decided to get involved. It turned out that it was only a snorkeling hunt, and mostly kids participating, so we decided to do an official dive. It was beautiful. We found a prehistoric crocodile tooth and saw a lot of fish species I hadn't seen before. 

I am now back in my village and readjusting to life here. While I was at the lake it was still really hot, but here in Mulanje it's actually started to get cold. I've been wearing sweaters to class! Term three classes started on Monday and I am currently working on grading exams to return to my students. My next big vacation is going to be with my aunt and cousin! My first visitors from America!  I can't wait :)

9 months

Last week I hit the nine month mile stone. As of March 20th I have completed one third of my peace corps service. And, overall, it was a particularly exciting and eventful week. 

Early in the week I got a text saying that I was invited to work at Camp Sky. Sky is a peace corps run camp for form four students from all over the country to help them prepare for their national exams. These are students from the poorest, lowest quality schools in Malawi. The camp gives them the opportunity to work with lab equipment not available at their schools, understand difficult topics through fun activities, and learn how to apply for jobs. It give them the opportunity to do better on their exams so that they have the chance to get into college and have a better future. I feel so excited and privileged to be a part of this camp. 

Another exciting thing that happened this week was that I received a free pair of shoes. Toms shoes advertises that they give away a pair for every pair purchased and it turns out that that's true. It was really neat seeing it in action. A truck pulled up to my school on Monday with burlap sacks full of solid black Toms shoes and every student at my school and at the village primary school got a pair. Since they had left over, the teachers got a pair too. I'm glad to see that this company is true to their word and that shoes are going to people who definitely need them. 

(I decided that solid black was too plain so I made mine a bit more colorful with some embroidery thread)

On Tuesday, I went to a village football match that turned out to be a lot of fun. I knew a lot of people there and talked to some of my students. My neighbor saw me and came over to give me a bag full of oranges and to talk. We won the game and a huge crowd of spectators proceeded to run onto the field, then march back and forth, from goal to goal, singing and dancing in celebration. 

Aside from all that, the rest of the week was pretty routine. I had Chichewa language lessons with my tutor. Another neighbor came over for dinner, brought me a pumpkin and taught me how to cook it. Another night, I went to her house for dinner and she sent me home with even more food (my neighbors are too nice to me). I went to church yesterday, which consisted of sitting under a tree and listening to a sermon in Chichewa. And of course I have been teaching. This week was a review week. Term 2 exams start tomorrow. I can't believe that I have finished two terms of teaching already. Time has gone by so fast. 

(If you want to help us with camp Sky here is a link where you can make a donation. We run on donations and need your help to keep the camp running and make it possible for students to participate in this amazing program! Any amount helps. 5$ is equivalent to about 2,000 Malawi kwacha and enough to cover one student's meals for the entire week of camp)

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-614-002

Pictures

I have good Internet service right now so I have decided to go through my photos on my phone and post some of my favorites. 

This is my Amayi (mother) who I lived with for the first three months during training. We were playing tug-o-war during a sports day in the village. 

Me and some friends playing bao, a very popular game here, similar to mancala. 

Some of my neighbors standing on my porch. 

A really sketchy bridge going to the market in Lilongwe. 

Me with our makeshift Christmas tree. Made from a mosquito net with attached leaves and random hanging decorations. 

Me with my neighbors baby, Joanna. This baby is now walking and is afraid of me. 

At the lake. 

Sunset at the lake. 

February travels

It's been a busy month and I've been away from home a lot and for a lot of different reasons. My travels started February 1st when I went to Cape Maclear to meet two friends for a weekend trip to the lake. The weather was beautiful and it was an amazing weekend. One of the friends is also a Floridian and also a diver, so I got the opportunity to go SCUBA diving with him in one of the most diverse fresh water ecosystems in the world. The water was crystal clear and the were hundreds of fish surrounding us the entire dive. It felt like we were swimming in a fish tank; the dive site was appropriately named 'the aquarium'. While at the lake we also kayaked, swam, snorkeled, played bao, and ate some delicious food. 

From the lake, I travelled to Lilongwe. I recently got accepted to be on a committee called VSV which supports and acts as a resource for other peace corps volunteers. I spent 3 days in the capital attending meetings. The last day I was there was also one of my friend's birthday so we went out to celebrate. 

I spent a week back home teaching, then headed off for my next adventure: climbing a mountain in Zomba. I spent Valentine's Day soaked and freezing, hiking up Zomba plateau in the foggy, cold rain. We finally made it to a lodge about half way up and decided to stop there and try and wait out the rain. The rain never stopped so we ended up staying for the night. We were dry and warm and we got a cheese platter and some wine and it turned into a fantastic Valentines day. The next day was still cold and rainy so we caught a ride the rest of the way up the mountain to the trout farm cabins where we had planed to stay. Even though it was far from ideal mountain hiking weather, the clouds and fog made everything ominous and pretty awesome looking. The rain trapped us in the cabin all day so we ended up talking and playing games and had a great time. Hiking down the next morning it finally cleared enough to see some great views of Zomba town and the surrounding mountains. 

In the span of two weeks I accomplished two of the goals I set during training: hike to the top of a mountain and dive to the bottom of the lake. So far it has been a pretty awesome month.