Archive for October, 2008
Nalua
by Dom on October 9th, 2008
Oh yeah, I posted some knew pictures of that hike I went on and of my village farewell…enjoy.
Peace Corps.
by Dom on October 8th, 2008
Yeah so Peace Corps being Peace Corps. It’s great. I think I’m coming home even earlier! They can’t connect me between Atlanta and Augusta on the 17th. So they said either the 16th or the 19th. Why not the 18th I asked. Apparently it’s all crazy, I’d have to fly through Blantyre and leave late or something ridiculous about money too. Whatever. I was curious if I was even technically allowed to leave a day earlier, but a short call to the country director relieved me. So now I just have to tell someone I want the 16th so it can be finalized before Peace Corps happens again. hehe.
Some post-return thoughts.
by Dom on October 7th, 2008
I’m a bit scared to come home, I’ll be honest. I mean, I can’t really form cohesive sentences to explain my probably now more strange thoughts. I use Malawian English. That includes a lot of pronouns and use of the words “just” and “somehow.” An example “My school, they have just somehow managed to build shelves.” As opposed to “My school built some shelves.” So yeah visiting schools is going to be fun talking like that! I’ll be honest I don’t care what words I use as long as I can think of them when I go. It’s worse when I sit there for like 5 minutes trying to think of a word I used to use fairly often. That’s definitely more awkward.
Of course most of my fears don’t lie in my now jacked speech. I’m more worried about what is going to annoy me. I mean stupid things annoyed me before like french fries and people who wear bluetooth headsets when not in use. Now I think I’ll be annoyed at plastic wrapped tomatoes and too much air conditioning or something. I don’t know. Then there’s the economy…
So if you think I’m acting funny, don’t be surprised.
Of course I also have come to like Malawi; I mean I dont want to stay a volunteer teacher but I like the weather and the market and other things. The lifestyle is nice. I’m going to miss my friends and my leisure time. It’s going to be very different. I think what it comes down to is when I came I was happy to be leaving America and happy to be coming to Malawi. Now I’m only happy to be coming to America. So we’ll see how it all goes. Again though, if I act funny, don’t wonder why.
Done
by Dom on October 7th, 2008
That’s what I’ve started signing in the log books instead of Dom. I looks pretty similar in my scribble. So I’ve moved in to Lilongwe yesterday and started my finalizing today. Sweet.
Saying good bye to my school was surprisingly easy. There were no last minute beggars. No super awkward gifts like a guinea fowl or something. Just a lot of people asking for penpals, so if you guys want a penpal…For real though it was nice. They mixed my farewell party in with the form four graduation so they could basically just add a few more lines into their speeches and cover all their bases. There was some good food and I had to give a speech as well. Took a lot of pictures, some with people, some just of people, some even just of things. I really can’t tell if I can speak/write well anymore even when I try.
The last night at site Yorgos and Mary Cate came up and we had a nice time. In the morning it was a bit weird when some, like 30, students decided to come up and just watch me pack and finish cleaning my house. I gave some last minute things away like extra toothpaste and matches and the like. I went down to the school when I was finished with my house and shook all the students hands, said some words and then got escorted out to the bus stage by a teacher and two students carrying my bags. It was nice. Then we sat for two hours waiting for a ride.
I won’t say my last ride into town was bad, just scenic. After the two hour wait we got a nice ride to Yorgos’ site and so that was nice to be able to hang out there with him for a little bit. Got some chips and a coke. Then MC and I rolled out, with a ride that we talked out of having to pay for, to Kasungu. Bike taxi-ed it from the middle of town to the junction and got a ride pretty quick that ended up buying us pizza and milkshakes at this first-world-ish place. Pretty awesome. And no truck bed rides at that!
