A Malawi Update - Kasungu Style

Well all my faithful friends, allies, and enemies, the time is long overdue for a blog update. I honestly don’t even know where to begin so much has happened since my last blog. Well, I guess I will just have to try. I have been at site for about a month and a half now. It is a very big house with an indoor bafa (shower room) which is quite a luxury to be able to take a bucket bath indoors every morning. I have a very nice pit latrine as well that collects all the fecal matter in a very deep hole like it was intended. Man I cant believe these people think Malawi is underdeveloped.
Anyhoo, at the house I have a wonderful lady named Fanny who comes over every day to help me around the house. By help me around the house, I mean cook, clean, and do laundry. She also checks on my dog and cat while I am away (like right now). My daily sustenance is rice, one egg per meal, and tomatoes and sometimes onions. Then I throw a little garlic salt and Velveeta from my wonderful mother and away we go to the fine dining of Malawian cuisine. I also come into town about once a week to have a good meal at my favorite restaurant in Malawi called Heaven’s Mouth or K.J.P.’s. There I can have a good burger, steak, pizza, or my favorite, steak & stout pie that I save for special occasions.
Sometimes I eat breakfast of mphala (porridge) ndi nsinjilo (with peanut flour) that is pretty tasty. If not then I head to school by 7:30 and teach for a bit and then have tea and bread at 9:30 and then teach some more. I then head home for some scrumptious and aforementioned rice, egg, and tomatoes then finish out the school day by 2 pm.
Although the workload is not difficult in the sense of having a lot of it to do (I can’t tell you how much free time I can have sometimes) it is the most frustrating teaching experience I have ever had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I have learned a lot about myself and some things I need to work on (like patience and love) and it has helped my teaching style develop.
The frustrations of teaching in this beautiful country are many an unending. The hardest for me is my student’s English ability; or rather lack thereof. And when I say lack thereof, don’t underestimate how bad it is. I have asked, in both my Form 1 (Freshmen), and Form 2 (Sophomores), the following question (keep in mind that when you teach in Malawi you develop a “special English” where you e-nun-ci-ate ev-e-ry syll-a-ble so the stu-dents can un-der-stand you whil speaking slowly so they can keep up. If they can’t, don’t expect them to tell you they don’t understand until you ask them a question!) “A molecule is made up of atoms. What is a molecule made up of?” this was followed by 4 responses in a row of “I have no idea.” Now imagine a full week of this and you can probably capture a bit of the frustrations that that I am discussing with you.
Another egregious annoyance is that every single one of my 130+ Form 1 students are sitting on the dirt floor in a room with no chalkboard, an uncompleted roof that leaks horribly though the gap when it rains and windows that they wired shut so I wouldn’t open them anymore (because who the duce would want to open freaking windows if it gets hot or dusty which it would never do in Africa of course!).
So like I said frustrating but I am learning a lot. The students are progressing and I imagine that some of what I teach them is sinking in. A big problem in Malawi, however is the fact that Malawians have a hard time with free thinking or doing anything beyond memorization. So they can many times answer a simple question, but the moment I ask “why?” every single student freezes, chuckles shyly, and sits down because they cannot answer. I am working on them as they work on me and the Lord is teaching me quite a bit through these kiddos.
Well on another note, Sarah, my beautiful and amazing (although she is dating me so probably a bit crazy as well) girlfriend is arriving in-county on the 15th of March and will be staying with a fellow teacher until the 30th of August. I don’t know if can tell you how excited I am to have her here. I miss her terribly and it will be great to have another “azungu” here with me; especially one that I love so very much.
I want to close up this blog, but I will end it with one funny story: I sometimes give my students an opportunity to ask me any questions that they would like about anything. They usually stick with questions about America, Sarah, and my preferences. Some of them stray a little bit to my obvious expertise about karate and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In two classes I have been asked about both the governor of California and karate. My favorites were “I heard it is true that Americans are very good at karate, how is this so?” and “I was watching Judgement Day, and have heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California. But in the movie he was cutting into his hand and it seemed metal and man. How is this so?” I am not going to lie; I cannot stop laughing at some of the questions.
Well all you crazies out there, I hope all is well and that I will be able to talk to soon. Please call I would love to talk and thanks to everyone who has sent letters and packages. They make me oh so very happy. If you are thinking about sending your favorite Peace Corps Volunteer that special something this holiday season might include DVDs (both movies and tv shows), CDs, junk food of any type especially involving sugar, cheese, protein, or something crunchy, and anything else you might think might be fun or useful. Ok so I am done with the absolutely shameless begging ( I hear Malawians say every day “give me my money.” So I think it has worn off on me!) but I love y’all and ill catch you soon. Peace out from Spencer H. “too bad my middle name is not Howie because then it would rhyme with Malawi” Martin.

Malawi at last and with a phone at that

peace corpsMalawi Blog


Ladies and Gentlemen Boys and Girls: Welcome to the first installment of Spencer’s Blog in Malawi. I just wanted to update everyone a little bit, tell you some news and funny stories. So, fasten ur seatbelt, its going to be a bumpy road. Ok, maybe it won’t be that exciting, but I hope that u will enjoy it. By the way, I really want to express how much fun I am having, but how much I miss everyone. There happens to be one beautiful girl named Sarah that I happen to miss more than everyone else!
Well first off, I am writing this on my laptop at the Malawi College of Forestry in Dedza, Malawi. MACOFO is situated in the beautiful Dedza District in Central Malawi. We have a great small mountain behind the college that most of us have climbed at least once and some as many as ten. I just finished a very important period of the Peace Corps experience called Village Home Stay. I lived in a large (compared to the other villages that PCT’s stayed at) village called Kanyama for 6 weeks getting adjusted to the culture and language while at the same time getting involved in practice teaching at Makota Community Day Secondary School (C.D.S.S). It was a lot of fun and although I am glad to be getting closer to my own site, I will miss my family that I stayed with. They we a lot of fun and we always had people stopping by because the Amayi and Abambo (mother and father) Binga have 9 kids that all live close. For the first week I met another member of my family at least once a day.
I will write more about VHS later, but I also wanted to tell about my future site. I will be living in the Central Region in the Kasungu District. I cannot tell any more details than that because of Peace Corps Safety Guidelines, but you can learn all about the district online if you want ;) I will be teaching Physical Science and whatever else. Physical Science here in Malawi is a eclectic mix of Chemistry and Physics that the students are tested on in the 2nd and 4th form (Sophmore and Senior year). I am also really excited to start a garden at my house if I will be able to do that while leaving plenty of time for Bao and Draft which are the local board games.
Here are a few of the cultural observations about Malawi (aka things that I think are funny, different, or neat): Malawians are big on formalities in the sense of introductions. There are understood scripts when greeting people in this country. They are not, however, big on the formality of being on time. This I feel will probably be the most frustrating aspect for me. I have heard that you can schedule a meeting and receive acknowledgment for one time and Malawians can easily come 2-5 hours late. Apparently, if you are not the last person to arrive, you are not late!
On the whole they are friendly, patient, and all around nice people. I really felt very welcomed to the village and the country. Every time I arrive someplace new it seems I am welcomed with song and dance.
The language that I am learning, Chichewa, is a Bantu language and is a very simple language in the sense of it having a lot of consistency. It is very difficult in the sense of it having almost no similarities with English, pronunciation, and the fact that you can have one-word sentences that are close to 30 letters long. A short and easy example is Ndidzakulemberani – which means I will write a letter to you. I am really excited to get better at Chichewa and eventually to become fluent.
Ok, before I finish this blog, I want to tell a funny story about the language experience. Malawians are very shy about bodily functions and parts as well as sex. If you mention certain awkward anatomy in public than people will think there is something wrong with you. So, with that background, let me tell you a brief story. I was walking to one of my brother’s houses to take a picture of his family. Vitaliano and I were walking in the road and I looked up at a beautiful cloud formation and said “Ndimakonda Mitumbo!” he quickly corrected me and said “Ayi, Ndimakonda Mitambo” (no I like clouds/sky). I didn’t think too much about it until later that night when I realized that Mitumbo means anuses. So if u didn't catch that, I told my Malawian brother that I like anuses instead of the sky. Oops!!! Anyway, I thought I would share that with you. I will be getting a cell phone pretty soon and would LOVE to receive phone calls from everyone. Also, please continue to send letters and packages. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to receive things from the states! Much love, and I hope to hear from many of you soon.

p.s. i have a phone which u can call or text. it is not too expensive using an internet program like JaJa (sp?) if u do please remember the time difference: here it is 0112659118490. I hope to talk to u soon!

Final pre-Africa blog

So I am officially a Peace Corps Trainee. It feels very strange to have that title. On the one hand I am so very excited to be heading to Malawi tomorrow. On the other, I find myself much more saddened to be leaving my girlfriend, along with other friends and family. I will be going from talking to Sarah roughly 2-5 hours a day on the phone, to no internet or phone access for the next 3 months. I am excited as well as concerned.

The training has been great. I think that I expected it to be very dull and uninformative, but Peter, or staging director, has done a great job of getting us involved and we have all learned a lot. My Staging group is AWESOME. There are 26 of us heading to Malawi and we already seem to have this really cool Peace Corps bond. Although I would say I am the loudest and most annoying one, we have some other outgoing peeps along with the reserved ones. We have different backgrounds but similar interests and so on. I am really excited to get to know everyone better over the next years.

I just wanted to share with everyone some of my Aspirations and Anxieties which were really good to write out on paper and share with the other trainees and see that I am not the only one. So here they our in no specific order so you can feel free to pray for this or anything else would be appreciated:

Aspirations – learn a new language and culture, experience new things, help out in Malawi, learn to SCUBA, travel, make a difference, make great friends, make great photographs, develop my teaching style and become a master teacher, learn more about myself, the unknown

Axieties – missing my friends, family and one girl in particular, boredom, loneliness, ineffectiveness, not fitting in, everything changing when I am gone, missing cheese, my cat, hygiene, the internet and other amenities, reintegration, getting sick, HIV/Aids, the unknown.

So as I head to Malwi, please remember me and write me as this will be my last internet post for around 3 months. Thank you for all your love and support. I miss you and hope to read from you soon. In closing I want to end with a quote from an Australian aboriginal woman:

If you came here to save me and my people, you can go home again. If however, you see your future united with ours then perhaps we can work together.

Love, Spencer

the time aproacheth...

Well two weeks from today will end my current routine of life. I will finish up at FUMC in my very important and life changing job as a recreation/fellowship assistant. This job entails sitting a desk and doing whatever I want until someone, somewhere needs me which might happen once a day. It is at this illustrious job that I now sit addressing all of you fine people.

Two days after I finish up at FUMC I will no longer work at Carinos either. Although I don’t like it, it seems as if complaining about that job is a job description to work there – I am continually guilty of it. Although I have enjoyed working there for the last year, I cannot say that I will be sorry to see it go. I will miss my coworkers most of all but the fact that I will no longer have to sort dirty silverware of people I have never met and may not care too gets close to making up for it.

After completing my employment tour of duty, I plan on taking a brief road trip to East and Central Texas to say adios to friends and family. After that I will be heading to California to visit a good friend of the female persuasion that I happen to like quite a bit. (if you don’t know, then I have been trying to avoid something like this since I knew that I was heading to the Peace Corps, so I am very angry at two girls named Sarah – and yes I meant to say two… long story.)

Just to kind of give everyone a clue of what my time will look like in Malawi I thought I would talk a little bit about what my schedule will look like. I will arrive in Malawi on Sept. 27^th after quite a bit of flying. After that, I will begin my Pre-service Training. That entails about 12 weeks of intensive language and cultural training during which I will be staying with a village family. We will have class from mon-sat. and have very little free time. I will have no phone or internet access for my first 3 months, so PLEASE WRITE ME!!! After a few weeks I will also begin a kind of teaching internship in a local school. After the 12 weeks are finished I will be placed at a site where I will stay for the next two years. There I will teach physical science and some other subjects to high school students.

If any one feels the need to send me a care package (hint, hint), I would love it!!! If you would like any ideas, I have a couple. Candy is always good. Cereal, books, parmesan cheese in any form, pictures, letters, burned DVDs and CDs (i will have my laptop and occasional electricity), and other little comfort items will be great. Either way I am looking forward to this adventure as well as sharing it with all of my friends and family. Tiwonana Posachedwa (see you soon!)

A couple of goals and expectations

This is the Flag of Malawi

Moni (hello) - i have been practicing my survival Chichewa which is what i will be speaking.

So I wanted to let everyone know what some of my goals are going to be while in Malawi.
Daily Goals:
- read
- practice the harmonica
- exercise
- practice the language
- write in my journal
- write letters
- love people

So those are a few of the things that i would like to do every day and maybe get a schedule down. A couple of problems present themself. 1) I cant play the harmonica - just purchased one. 2) I will prolly not have electricity so reading becomes difficult after dark. 3) I do very poorly when it comes to doing something every day (see: exercise) 4) there is no formula for love. All things considered I hope to meet these goals as often as possible.

A few of the expectations i have involve the time i have spent in developing nations (Mexico and Morocco), people that i have talked too, and things that i have read . I have never before been surrounded by as much poverty as i will be in Africa and i expect it to be very eye opening. I expect to miss my friends and family. I expect to be discouraged and encouraged by my experiences. I expect to become very good at squatting over a hole to take care of business. I expect to have a great time. I expect to get sick. I expect to not have much flavor in most of my food. I expect to become a part of the culture. I expect to make lifelong friends. I expect to see a lot of death. I expect to see a lot of life. Finally, I expect to learn to take a shower out of a bucket and enjoy it.

I will have no internet or phone access for my first two months in Malawi and plan on writing as much as possible as that will be my only form of communication stateside. Please write me as often as you can. My addie for the first 2-3months will be as follows:

Spencer Martin, PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 208
Lilongwe, Malawi

Every blog I read mentions how much Volunteers enjoy receiving letters from home and how it makes the transition much easier. I will love u forever and ever if u write me!!!! Please label letters "air mail" and "par avion" Also feel free to send me protein (like beef jerky, nuts, bars etc), dried fruit, tasty healthy snacks, tasty unhealthy snacks, and things that i could use in a developing nation and to teach.

I would like to say thank you to all my friends and family for their love and support. If anyone has any questions let me know. You can find me on Facebook and Myspace or just leave one here.

By way of conclusion, let me end with some of the most important phrases in Chichewa: Chimbudzi chili kuti? (where is the toilet) and Ndili gwa ngati mwala (I am strong like a rock)

Much love,

Spencer

Preparations

So I have about a month until i head to Philly for staging and then 3 days after that I head straight to the Sub-Sahara. For those of you who don't know, the Sub-Sahara is that which is below the Sahara...in Africa...the continent. I am going as a Peace Corps Trainee and will after about 10 weeks be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the next two years after that.

I applied for the PC last November and have been excited about it ever since. I am going as an educator and will be teaching physical science to a rural high school in the country of Malawi, Africa. Malawi has no idea what is about to hit it. hehehehe I have been reading and talking to people and so excited about the time that I will spend there. I had a random Malawian guy who sent me a message on Facebook asking if I expected the Hollywood version of Africa and that I should not because of the poverty and the mosquitoes and such. I wanted to respond and say, "now when u say Hollywood version, do you mean Blood Diamond or Hotel Rwanda?" but i didn't because i have such great control over my mouth and what comes out of it.

There are many things i am looking forward to including scuba diving, safari, and the world cup in South Africa in 2010. I am not really nervous about anything except the teaching with little or no materials. Malawi seems like a great place with great people and I am very excited to experience and be changed by the experience. I told a friend today that although i am not sure that i like it about myself, I feel more excited about the adventure then the idealism or opportunity for philanthropy. I do want to help out in the world, but i have a feeling that i will be changed much more than i will instigate anything or anyone else to change. The end...for now....