A low-key Friday :)

Friday, July 1:

            Today was a pretty uneventful day, seeing as it was Friday so only half of our students were at school and all of us teachers were still exhausted from the “go-go-go” mentality we’ve been experiencing.  Katie and I took the students pictures on disposopal cameras last week (nearly impossible since the second you pull out a camera they all jump in the picture).  We had two students in each picture, holding up a piece of paper with their name on it, and after we got the pictures developed we cut them in half, and glued each students picture on their own piece of construction paper.  We tried “cropping” the pictures while cutting so that they were the focus of the picture, but some of the students were literally surrounded by others. Oh well.  We wrote their names at the top, and called them out one of by one this mronign to hand them their paper.  They were so excited, for it was probably the first time they’ve owned a picture of themselves!  Then we handed out string, markers, and crayons and they each had to put their full name, their birthday, their village, and how many brothers and sisters they had underneath their picture.  On the back of their papers they had to draw a picture of their family (again, amazed at their artistic ability), and when they were done they put the string through holes at the top and had their own sort of “dog-tag” that they could hang on doorknobs, exc., at their houses.  This took a lot longer than expected because they were in admiration of the pictures for the first part of the class. 

            After about an hour of us being at the school, us teachers were all called into a room were we were measured.  Apparently, on the last day of school, the teachers all make us traditional African dresses and we wear them around that day (they’re interesting, for lack of better words!).   I am really excited though because it’ll be a great keepsake and I know the teachers are all so grateful for us and will be so excited to give us these outfits.

            Katie and I went back in our classroom while the students finished up their “dog-tags” and we taught them the Malawi song that our drum teacher, Innocent, made up for us on Tuesday.  The song is in Chichewa, and I think our students thought we made it up on our own, so they all cheered and clapped after we taught it to them.  They then sang it with us, and then volunteers came up to sing it by themselves to the class.  It was a hit!  We ended the day singing, “Peel the Banana”, “Baby Shark” and “Down by the Banks” before we parted for the weekend.  I cannot believe next week is our last week, but Katie and I will probably just do fun activities every day.  The children’s attention span is quickly dwindling every day, because usually during these two weeks after their exams are over they don’t learn lessons in school, they just play.  School kind of turns into a daycare center during those two weeks, so Katie and I aren’t going to try to keep teaching them.  We both agreed we just want them to have fun, feel loved and remembered when we leave on Friday.  I really can’t think about it though, because I’m already starting to get so upset.  Anyways, we are all just chilling tonight before a long and eventful day tomorrow, as we are going to the Orphanage with Peter.  Cross your fingers that I don’t fall completely inlove with some orphan and sign adoption paperwork.  Kidding, but not really!  That’s all for today, peace, love, Malawi. 

Safari Day 2

Thursday, June 30:

            Today was another amazing day at Camp Mvuu, although I don’t think anything could compare to our arrival and stay yesterday.  We woke up this morning at 5:15 am, which would have been hard even if I had gotten more than 5 hours of actual sleep!  As we headed to our  morning safari walk, we were stunned at the amount of, and proximity to our hut, elephant and hippo poop.  There was literally pounds of it right outside of our front door! We all wished we had been awake to see them, although I probably would have freaked out that if they saw me they would charge our chalet!  It was actually kind of humorous because one of the workers jobs is to go around in the morning and scoop up all of the dung droppings from the night before. Craziness.

            As all of us tired, groggy, freezing teenagers headed towards the entrance, we couldn’t help but smile at the gorgeous sunrise. The only sunset I have ever been up to experience was at beach week 4 years ago, and God knows an African sunrise blows a North Carolina sunrise out of the water.  Our group met with our guide and headed into the bush for our nature walk.  We saw lots of warthogs, baboons (my favorite!) and impalas (typical), but the beauty of the sahara in itself made waking up at 5:15 am completely worthwhile.  We got the history of all the trees, and I actually learned a lot about birds (who would have thought that they’re actually smart animals?).   One of my favorite things that we saw was the “Butterfly Tree”.  It’s leaves all looked exactly like butterflies, so we all picked our favorite one to take home.  It’s bark is also the strongest bark of any tree in Africa, but it was such a petite tree that I was definitely surprised to hear that.  At 7:30 am we finally headed back to Mvuu for breakfast, which obviously we had all been counting down for.  I got a bowl of Rice Krispie’s with goat milk (I think?) which was perfect because I’ve been craving cereal.  I also got a bowl of fruit and the most delicious banana raisin muffin I have ever had (not exaggerating).  After stuffing our faces, we realized that that was just the appetizer breakfast and that they were going to take our order for the real breakfast.  I don’t know how we did it, but we were all so excited for a real breakfast that we ignored the fact we weren’t even hungry.  I got a great ham, cheese and tomato omelet with REAL ketchup!, and a piece of toast with their home-made apricot jelly. Talk about a feast, but I am definitely not complaining.  After being pleasantly full (it was the first time we have actually felt full while being here), we headed towards the water at about 8:30 am for our morning water safari.  I know, I know, you didn’t think these days could get any better did you?

            Our standard group of 8 plus Dr. Kelly all loaded onto the boat and headed down the Shire River.  We saw literally hundreds of hippos, who are rather ugly, but they’re cute when they’re in the water because you can only see their faces and they all sleep with their heads piled on eachother.  We also saw a ton of monkeys and birds, and were so fortunate to see an elephant while we were on the boat. The elephant literally came right to our boat in the water as he was eating and drinking.  It was awesome!  We then headed up the stream after staying by the elephant for about 20 minutes, and we saw dozens of crocodiles.  As we were approaching two of them sun-bathing, our safari driver kept driving- a little too close for comfort!- until we were literally a few feet away from them.  They looked like they were dead so we thought it would be a great idea to poke them with a stick.  They literally jumped towards us and kept swimming. It was great footage though even though I’m terrified of crocodiles!  And, of course, right after we pissed them off, our safari driver told us that if a human was to fall in the Shire River, they would be dead in less than 3 minutes because of the amount of crocodiles.  Comforting.

            After another amazing hour and a half safari, we headed back to Mvuu and packed our bags.  I seriously thought a few of us were going to cry, we wished we could have stayed there even just one extra night!  It was such an amazing 24 hours and to anyone visiting Malawi, I recommend 100% staying at Camp Mvuu.

            On the drive home, we stopped at the markets in Liwonde that Dr. Kelly has been telling us about the entire trip.  I bought 3 presents for my parents and one for my grandpa that I think are all perfect!  Everything I’ve bought has been for my parents but I’ve only bought 5 things here (typical, Kelsey being stingy even in Africa!).  We arrived back at Annie’s at about 5:30 pm and everyone was completely exhausted.  Katie and I had planned our project on Tuesday night before we left, so we just gathered all the art supplies, ate a quick dinner, and were asleep by 9:30 pm.  What an amazing adventure. Peace, love, Malawi.

Safari Day 1

Wednesday, June 29:

            Well yesterday was by far the highlight of my trip (non-children related) and was probably one of the coolest 24-hours I have ever experienced.  We arrived at Mt. Mvuu at about 11 am, where we checked in, got a tour of the facility and were escorted to our amazing chalet.  I don’t think words can describe how beautiful this place was, and our rooms were beyond my expectations.  The chalets were all little house-like tents with two queen beds inside the door when you walked in, then an amazing stone bathroom, and then another room in the back with two more queen beds.  Everything was covered in mosquito nets and our chalet was right on the water where we could see hippos from our front porch. After we all had a little freak-out and recorded the tour of our room, we all headed to lunch, which might have been my favorite activity of the entire trip.  Just kidding, but seriously it was definitely the most amazing meal we have had the entire time.  The lunch was set up buffet style, around beautiful tables that overlooked the river and all the baobab trees.  They had the freshest pieces of bread with butter, rice with a warm vegetable mix, and a cold bean mix that tasted awesome on top of the bread.  As if we weren’t all in enough heaven, they then brought out the “dessert” which was a fresh bowl of fruit (which we haven’t been able to eat the entire time here!) with a light, warm whipped cream on top.  We all left that meal thinking this was definitely the best.day.ever.

            Straight after lunch, we broke into groups of 10 and got assigned our jeeps and our tour guides for the safari!  Our usual group stuck together (Me, Katie, Anna, Kaitlin, Allison, Bebe, Lindsay and Ashley) plus Dr. Kelly and Dr. Sharon.  We headed out into the gated Sahara at about 3 pm and were all on the edge of our seats out of excitement.  The first animals we saw were impalas and waterbucks, which both basically looked like deer.  However, we all freaked out when we saw them because they were the first animals we saw on our safari!  Our guides were amazing and would spot animals from hundreds of feet away, which I could barely notice even once they were pointed out.  We also kept seeing warthogs, which we all got a kick out of because they are absolutely heinous.  Everything about the safari reminded me of the Lion King and we kept referring to the warthogs as “Pumba” haha.  They look like pigs, aged 20 years, with long hair and horns.  Cute huh?  Halfway through, we finally saw about three zebras!  They aren’t very outgoing though, so we didn’t get very close to them but with the zoom features on our cameras, we got pretty awesome pictures of them!  Still on the lookout for elephants, our jeep ended up popping a tire in the middle of the safari; not many people can say they experienced that! Casually, there were just 11 white girls standing in the middle of the Sahara, praying we wouldn’t get eaten alive (just adding some drama in here, we were completely safe).  The guides literally fixed the popped tire in less than 5 minutes, and we were back en route.  Within 5 minutes of being back in the jeep, we all heard rumbling in the trees right next to us and stopped the car.  Before our eyes, an elephant was eating leaves and waving his trunk.  We all tried to contain our excitement so we wouldn’t scare it, while also trying to take in the moment without the shock of the situation voiding us of reality.  As we were adjusting to the fact that there was a hundred-ton elephant about 20 feet infront of us, we heard rumbling again to the left of us.  Low and beyond, an even bigger elephant comes out from the trees!  The pictures I got were absolutely amazing; this elephant was huge!  After oohing and awing for a good half hour, we finally continued on with our tour, with complete contentment of our experience thus far. 

After roaming around for a little bit longer, we headed back to the grounds for our “sunset safari”.  On the way there to meet the Radford and A&T groups, we ran into a baby elephant and her mom.  We stopped to take a few pictures, but kept heading forward to make it in time for the sunset.  We met the other groups at about 4:40, when our guides then pulled out big coolers of wine and we all toasted to eachother while watching the sun go down.  It was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen, as the mountains were in the distance and all these wild, awesome animals surrounded us.  Our group of 8 took really cute pictures with arms around eachother, backs facing the camera, as the sun is going down on us.  The sun was bright orange and the sky was bright pink and yellow.  I kept thinking of my mom because now Fager’s doesn’t even stand in comparison!  At about 5:30 pm, after the sun was completely gone, we loaded back into our jeeps and headed into the bush for our night safari.  Besides the fact that it was absolutely freezing (yes, we were warned) it was such a cool experience (I’m running out of adjectives to use to describe everything!).  We didn’t see many animals because it was night-time, but we did see a  ton of hippo’s and mongooses, a porcupine and more impala’s.  The most amazing part of the night safari though was the sky.  It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest and most breath-taking things I’ve ever seen.  We saw the Milky Way (which, apparently, is nearly impossible to see now in the United States because of all the light) and there wasn’t a square inch in the sky that wasn’t covered by stars.  I wish I could have taken pictures of it, because there’s no possible way I could try to paint a picture with my words.  We had our guides stop the jeep for a good 15 minutes and we just watched the sky, pointing out different constellations and feeling like the luckiest girls in the world.

To have a perfect ending to a perfect day, we headed back to Mvuu at 7:30 pm where we were served dinner.  At this point, we had been looking forward to dinner since lunch time because the food had been so great.  They started by bringing us out more delicious bread and butter, and then brought out minestrone soup which absolutely hit the spot.  After the “appetizer” they brought out the main course that was thinly sliced pork with gravy, jacket potatoes and pumpkin (wasn’t a fan, but I tried it).  Following dinner, I was obviously anticipating the dessert which satisfied my huge sweet-tooth for sure.  I don’t know what it was exactly, but it had the consistency of pound cake, and it was heated with a butterscotch like sauce drizzled all ontop. Delicious.  Finally, it was about time to head to our rooms, and the 8 of us girls meet in Katie, Anna, Kaitlin and I’s room.  While we were hanging out and drinking wine, we started to hear the hippo’s and elephants literally right outside our door.  The girls figured they should head back to their rooms before the animals really started to come out.  Going to sleep definitely wasn’t a great time since the hut we were staying in didn’t exactly have walls: I was absolutely freezing! I could barely sleep all night because I was so cold and the sheets were so light, and the loud elephant and hippo noises outside our door weren’t so comforting either.  The day had been so absolutely perfect though that I couldn’t even complain, I just kept thinking I wish the day had never ended.

Week 2 of teaching: An amazing start

Monday, June 27:

            Today was an average day that turned pretty spectacular in a matter of minutes.  I had another great breakfast consisting of an omelet and then toast with their delicious jelly.  We loaded on the bus and headed to the schools, and when we pulled up to the Government School, the children were all singing the “banana” song that we taught them last week.  It was hysterical! Katie and I headed straight to the classroom, and it took a while to settle everyone down and get them back in the swing of things after their weekend.  We decided to start off the lecture with a review of the human body from last week, and we did another body tracing since we knew that would be a fun way to get into the lesson again.  They remembered most of the body parts, still getting eyes and ears confused, and still completely butchering the spelling of “elbow”, “knees” and “head”.  Oh well, they had fun and they definitely are making so much progress!  After that quick review, we went straight into todays lecture of geography.  We brought in a map of the continents, and explained to them what oceans and continents were.  We had them each write down the definitions and then wrote down the 7 continents and showed them where they were on the map.  After going over that for a good period of time, we asked for volunteers to come up to the map and show us where certain places were.  They seemed to remember and understand it, but knowing them they probably just memorized where we pointed to things.  If they took one thing out of the lecture, I think they definitely retained that Katie and I are from North America- where the United States are- and they are from Africa- where Malawi is.  After about an hour of trying to explain geography, they were starting to get antsy so we decided to do a free-write lesson.  The question was: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?  Most of them didn’t understand, so Odina had to translate some things for us.  After a few minutes, the children brought up their notebooks and their answers were adorable.  I even took pictures of a few of their responses haha!  Almost all of them put that they would want to go to North America because Katie and I are “beautiful” and “their friends”.  One kid also put “America= anything”.  When I asked him what he meant, he said that you can get anything you need in America.  The responses definitely made me chock up a little, but they were all so happy (as usual) that I couldn’t even be sad.

            After our morning at the school, we all ate our lunches at the college and discussed “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”.  We also spent the 2 hours asking Dr. Kelly a ton of questions about Malawi and its history and government system.  I swear, it amazes me how much she knows about the country, but I have already learned so much in these past 2 weeks.  Afterwards, we all headed to the Demonstration School where we got to meet our 24 scholarship students! This is where the beauty of the day heightened, as Katie and I got to meet the children that we are sponsoring to attend high school, thanks to the donations we raised.

            We arrived at the Demonstration School and went to one of the classrooms where there were about 30 chairs facing outwards, and the rest of the chairs facing towards them.  Shortly after, all the Scholarship students came walking in in their nicest attire, and most accompanied by a family member.  Dr. Kelly gave an overview about the Chimbali Scholarship Fund, which was a good review for all of us.  All of the Scholarship students are students that meet two criteria.  1, the students have to pass a certain standardized test, but secondly, they have to be individuals that would be unable to attend school would it not be for the scholarship funds.  The Virginia Tech students got to meet the one boy that we are sponsoring for the next 3 years to be able to finish high school (which is a huge deal), as did the Radford and North Carolina A&T students.  Afterwards, Doctor Kelly called Katie up to acknowledge her and introduce her to her “students” whom she will be paying for to attend high school for their Sophomore and Junior year.  Lastly, Doctor Kelly called me up where I got to meet 7 beautiful individuals whom I will be paying for to go into their senior year.  Without this Scholarship fund, these students would have had to drop out of high school because their families could not afford it.  I got to take individual pictures with each of my 7 students and their family member, although 2 of them came by themselves, which means that they are probably orphans.  They were so grateful and I was holding back tears the entire time as they were clapping, and giving me hugs.  As if that wasn’t enough gratitude in itself, Dr. Kelly had them each write a paragraph to me about who they are and what they want to do after high school.  As I read these on the bus home, I started crying and so many thoughts were going through my head about everything I want to do for these children.  Dr. Kelly said that I will be able to get the schools email address so that over the next year I can check up on my 7 students and see how they are doing and if they are planning on going to college. How amazing is that? All of the other Tech girls were so jealous they couldn’t sponsor some of the children, so I am definitely going to talk to the Tech students going next year and tell them to raise money.  I am so glad I had that idea, because now I get to help even more people while I am here, and actually get to meet the people that I am directly affecting.  Well, peace, EXTRA love, Malawi.  Now, I will leave you with the notes I got from my 7 students.  Try to hold back your tears. But seriously!

1)   “My name is Steven Mandoto aged 17.  I’m boy and I learning at Domasi Demonstraton Secondary School.  When I finish school I want to be soldier and I am going to thank you for your help and I thanks again for assisting my parents for paying school fees.  I’m going to ask God to bless you in everything and to give you long life in order to assist other people.”

2)   “I am aboy aged 16 namely Christy Gomani.  I was born on 22, 05, 1995 at Bottom Hospital in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi.  I am in form 3 where I was selected from Domasi Demonstration Primary.  I always give to myself a few seconds per day to thank God for you for sponsering me in my school matters.  This opportunity gives to think that I will make my dreams of being a soldier of a journalist become true.”

3)   “My name is Isabel Lajah and I have 16 years.  I was learning at Demonstration Primary School and now I am learning at Demonstration Secondary School.  I am in form 3.  In future I want to become a radio announcer in other ways I can say a journalist.  I would like to thank you for all things you have done to me.  You have help my parents paying school fees starting from form 1.  May God Almighty be with you all and continue help other people.  Thank you.”

4)   “My name is Zainabu Yosini.  I am 16 years old.  Since I learn at Domasi Demonstration Secondary School.  I’m in form 3.  When I finish my school I want to be a doctor.  Thank you very much to response for my school fees, I can say thanks a lot.  Don’t stop to do this thing of payment the school fees. So I encourage you to continue of that.  Thank you.  May God bless all of you.”

5)   “I am Patrick Mtundunwatha.  I live at Kapich Village.  Am a boy aged 18 years old. So I learn at Domasi Demonstration Secondary School am in form 3.  I would like to tell you that I would like to be a doctor if God can allow me end up my education.  So for that I also ask you to continue, help me for my education so God can be with you all the best.  I wish you God bless you.  My message is please can you continue to help.”

6)   “My name is Majorson Macheso.  I am in form 3 at Domasi Demonstration Secondary School.  I am a boy aged 15.  I come from Domasi Zomba, my biological home is Balaua-Malawi.  I came here to live with my uncle who adopted me from my mother.  My ambition is to become a medical doctor.  The final thing is to thank you for the best care I mean for assisting us from form 1.  This is so great, keep on helping others.  May Almighty God be wih you all the time.  Thank you.”

7)   “My name is Fexton Kuloweka.  I am 17 year old boy in form 3 from Domasi Demonstration Secondary School.  I would like to thank the Chibale Project for helping us.  May God bless you and give you health lives so that you should keep on helping the Malawians.  I want to become a doctor because I would like to assist sick people and with your help I will achieve my goal and I am promising that I will work hard at school.  Thank you very much.”

My 2 Year Anniversary in Africa :)

Sunday, June 26:

            Well, today is my 2-year recovery and I almost forgot until I saw the date on my computer this morning.  It kind of stinks because nobody knows that I am in recovery except for Anna, and I haven’t told her that today is my 2-years.  That’s okay though, because my recovery is about me, and the fact that I am in Africa making a huge difference in people’s lives is a true showing of all the progress I have made.  2 years ago, I couldn’t even take care of and make myself happy, let alone other people.  I am very proud of myself, but I have also learned a lot about myself while being in Africa and have realized that there is a lot more progress for me to make. I am still extremely critical of myself and compare myself to everyone around me.  And by comparing myself, I am referring to comparing my body.  Africa has been an extra challenge for me since I haven’t been tanning and am officially paler than I am in the winter at home. True statement.  Also, having to wear clothes that I would not wear at home and also not being able to workout here, even though I know I am being active everyday while with the kids and walking to the bus, exc.  This whole trip has been challenging with ED, and while the days here have gotten easier, they also get harder.  The only time I feel that I am truly distracted from ED and my appearance is when I’m at school with the children, or when I get to come home after school and change into my typical yoga pants and tee-shirts.  I have also realized while being here that I rarely live in the moment.  I am always thinking of the future, and while being ambitious is a great thing, it’s not great when it holds me back from truly engaging in present situations and letting myself take in every moment.  I have really been focusing on trying to do that here, but I am always thinking about what am I going to teach the children tomorrow?, or what can I do today to make me feel better about my appearance tomorrow?, or constantly wondering about the safari and the orphanage.  I really need to make myself stay focused on the present, on this day. Carpe diem.  I want to leave Africa having no regrets, feeling that I gave my all to these children and really engulfed myself in every activity and event that took place.  I know that most of the reasons I am not able to “seize the day” is because I am still so self-conscious about many parts of myself that the thoughts tend to consume me.  Although I don’t act on those thoughts and take it out on my eating, or myself which is huge progress in 2 years! I still need to work on not letting the thoughts consume me.  Hopefully sometime very soon, the thoughts won’t exist at all and I’ll finally be able to think and act completely 100% normally about body image.

            Anyways, today has been a complete lazy day, which I definitely needed! We all woke up at 9 am (got to sleep in, woohoo!) and got breakfast and sandwiches to make for lunch later.  Katie and I came back to our rooms and read (I’ve been reading so much on this trip and Katie’s given me some great books!), and then went back to sleep.  Now it is 2 pm, and I am about to get ready for the dinner Annie is throwing for us tonight at her house. She is cooking us all dinner and there is a cash bar, but other than that I don’t really know the plan for tonight.  I will post again when I get back tonight, probably around 7 is my guess. Katie and I have no idea what we will be teaching this week, but thankfully in that regard there’s only 3 days of us teaching.  Well, touch base later! Peace, love, Malawi.

Tonight was the most perfect recovery celebration I could have imagined thanks to Annie and all the amazing people on this trip with me.  We arrived to Annie’s house at about 4 pm and from the moment we got there we were all absolutely shocked.  We pulled up and were welcomed by a Church choir as well as a tribal dance ceremony.   Her house was, without a doubt, the most beautiful house we have seen in Malawi and Dr. Kelly said that in accordance with American standards, Annie would probably be a millionaire. How crazy is that? (Yes, I do realize how often I am using this expression, but things are continuing to surprise me each and every day.)  We all socialized, drank and danced for about an hour before our amazing dinner was served. It was, by far, the best meal I have had on this trip, and the fact that it was free made it that much better. (Not like the 3-dollar meals here are costing me much money, anyways.) 

The dinner setup was so beautiful.  There were long red tablecloths on 3 long tables, with the exact number of chairs for all of us.  The dinner was buffet style, and I had some rice and beans, a vegetable mix, and a little bit of spaghetti bolognaise.  Of course we all spotted the 2 chocolate cakes from the moment we arrived, so I was saving up room for the dessert when everyone was going up for seconds of dinner.  Finally we had the dessert, and although I probably wouldn’t have liked it in America, it definitely hit the spot and we were all so excited to finally have a sweet.  Of course I indulged in 2 pieces, as most of us did, since we’ve all been craving sweets for the past 2 weeks.  After dinner, it started getting dark and we tribal danced for about an hour and then had another showing from the choir who had the most beautiful voices.  To wrap up the night, we danced in the “Discoteca”, where Annie had huge speakers set up on a stage outside and blasted fun dancing music.  We all got to meet Willie and Annie’s family, which was so nice, and the evening was just perfect.

On the way back to the Lodge at about 8:30, I realized how truly proud of how far I have come.  Even though I have progress to make, who doesn’t have progress to make in their lives?  I’m just fortunate enough to know where progress is needed, and what I need to do to get there.  While I might not be able to eat what I want while I am here, or be able to workout, I am living exactly like 20 other teenagers my age are living and that is a huge accomplishment in itself.  Well, that wraps up another great week. Talk tomorrow. Peace, love, Malawi.

It's the Freaking Weekend :)

Saturday, June 25:

            Today was a great day and absolutely beautiful! We woke up at 7 am, had breakfast, and all piled on the bus to head to Mt. Mulanje, which was three hours away. As we were about two hours into the trip, we could start seeing the mountain and it was the highest peak I have ever seen in my life.  Mt. Mulanje is the third biggest mountain in all of Africa and it blended in with the clouds because it was so high up.  When we pulled up to Mt. Mulanje, we were swarmed with tour guides who were trying to get on our bus and begging us to hire them as their tour guides.  I guess it’s easy money for them to walk up the hill and then get paid 1500 kwacha, which is about 6 American dollars.  It was hysterical because they were all shouting at Dr. Kelly and she was not having it.  She finally pulled three people into our bus, and they rode with us to the starting point where we then all piled out of the car.  We used the restrooms at one of the hostels on the mountain, which was so cute! Dr. Kelly said that since it takes over three days to complete the entire hike, a lot of people would camp out at hostels that are located along the way of the mountain. How cool is that? It was like a little retreat house.   We finally all headed up the hill, stopping only a few times along the 2.5 mile hike up.  And when I say “hike up”, I mean it; the entire thing was up hill and at a few point you had to hold on to trees to hoist yourself up.  After about an hour, we finally got to our stopping point, which still seemed to be at the very bottom of the mountain, but it was a great stopping point.  We arrived at a beautiful, clear waterfall where we all ate our lunches, took pictures and climbed down to put our feet in the waterfall and climb on rocks.  It was such a beautiful day, and we were little in the middle of a mountain underneath a waterfall.  It was so peaceful, and I couldn’t imagine actually hiking to the top of the mountain since in an hour we made basically zero progress to the top! We all hung out at the waterfall for about 45 minutes or so, and then headed back to the bottom since we were on a time crunch to try to get back before dark.  On the way out, we stopped at the vendors, but there were only a few so I didn’t buy anything. I’m saving my money for next week when we go to Mt. Mvuu because apparently the vendors there have much more to chose from.  On the ride back, we witnessed the most beautiful sunset.  The sky was all perfectly white clouds and a completely pink sky with a bright orange sun.  It was amazing! It’s crazy how with all the pictures I have taken while being here, none of them give Africa any justice .  All the pictures of the scenery and sunsets and mountains are nothing compared to the beauty in person.  We finally arrived back at Annie’s at about 7 and we rushed to take showers and order food since we were starving.  Our normal group (Katie, me, Bebe, Allison, Lindsay, Ashley, Anna and Kaitlin) all ate together, feeling great that we had finally gotten a days worth of good exercise.  Some of us drank, but we were pretty exhausted, so everyone went to bed except Allison, Bebe, Katie and myself.  We all stayed up looking at pictures and talking, and were so proud of ourselves for staying up until midnight haha!  Well, that was all the excitement for today.  We are all getting so anxious for the safaris on Wednesday, and we are also all freaking out that we have already been here for 2 weeks, knowing that the second 2 weeks are going to go by even faster.  Craziness.  Peace, love, Malawi. 

It's Fridayyyyy!

Friday, June 24:

            Today was a great ending to the week, but nothing out of the ordinary happened! My seven little boys have become part of my daily routine now, with the whole walking with me to the bus and being my little posse haha!  Today, Katie and I taught the human body and I think that was a really great lesson because they really didn’t know as much as we thought they did.  We asked for a volunteer and then we body traced him on big chart paper that we glued together.  The kids all thought it was a riot and then we hung up the body tracing on the chalkboard and went through labeling body parts.  Then, we took the picture down and handed out worksheets to see what they remembered.  They all got eyes and ears confused, and they really had problems spelling most of the words.  That took about an hour, and then we graded the worksheets and handed out puzzles.  The kids all broke into groups of about 20, and they were really confused, yet fascinated, by the concept of the puzzles.  They had never seen them before, and it took awhile for them to catch one.  It took about 45 minutes for them to actually put the 50-piece puzzles together, but once they did they were so proud of themselves and it was really great to see!  Even the teacher had never seen puzzles before and she said it was a great thing for them to do.  While they were working on the puzzles, Katie discretely called out students 2 by 2 to take their picture outside so that next week we can make their “passports”.  Of course, once the word got out that she was taking pictures, it was nearly impossible to contain them from all running in front of the camera.  I think it worked though, and they’ll love seeing pictures of themselves.

            When school was over, my little posse walked me over to the school where we were getting picked up and I gave them bags of sunchips and a juice.  More kids followed us today, however, so they literally got like one chip each but they seemed happy.  We then all loaded onto the bus and went downtown, where the Tech girls all got fabric and Dr. Kelly is going to have sashes made for us for graduation! That made me really excited because the fabric is so unique and definitely Malawian, and it’s a way to secure us girls will all remain friends during out senior year.  Katie, Ashley and I also bought fabric and plan on getting bags made, which I hope, will turn out really cute.  Us girls all finally had dinner together tonight, since we’ve been making our own food for the past week, and I seriously love every girl here! We then decided to crash Dr. Kelly’s room and talked to her for a good hour while we were all in our pj’s.  She cracks me up! The conversation actually almost entirely revolved around me and my Alldredge stories, but I enjoyed sharing them although I didn’t give them the really personal details but hopefully that’ll come with time.  Anyways, tomorrow we are going to Mt. Mulanje, the third highest peak in all of Africa! It is about a 3-hour ride there, but will be completely worth it.  I am so excited for the fresh air, exercise and beautiful pictures.  That’s all for now, Peace, Love, Malawi.