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.