Week 3: April 21-27

I would be remiss if I did not begin this blog by wondering how much longer I will be here. As you know, my primary reason for undertaking this ulendo was to find meaningful work, which has eluded me since our move to the UK. The position posted on the Peace Corps website seemed custom made for me, and thus the journey began. While I was attracted to the romance and nostalgia of this part of the world, my primary motivation was always the job.

It's early days yet, but the job has not materialized into anything meaningful. My counterpart has been absent for most of week 1 and all of week 2, leaving me with nothing to do. I have managed to carve out a project for myself, but without interaction with Phil, I cannot proceed. I mentioned this to our boss, and she has been very gracious and included me in a couple of meetings, for which I am grateful. But I still don’t have a handle on the work itself. It’s too soon to commit to an early exit; I am committed to giving this role two months. But if, after two months, there are no signs of improvement, I will cut my losses and head home.

I can handle the loneliness, boredom, isolation, poor diet, and lack of exercise if the bulk of my day is spent in a productive manner. But coming to work only to surf the internet is a terrible use of my time and the US government’s money. I can do that in England where I can be near family, eat healthy food, and get regular exercise, sleep in my comfy bed, and enjoy the excellent company of my husband and family.

One positive about my short time here is that I am no longer multi-tasking. Multi-tasking makes me too efficient, and I need to fill the hours in the day, so I do one thing at a time. I really like it. It allows me to completely focus on whatever I am doing, and give it my all. It feels very pure.

While English is the language of business in Malawi, it is not people’s first language. The reality is that English is only spoken when a native English speaker is in the room. There are a lot of languages here, but the primary one is Chichewa. I really like learning new languages, but I’ve found Chichewa to be ch-challenging. There are lots of letter combinations that my mouth has never made before, and the rules of putting together a sentence are complicated. In addition, in English, the letters ‘r’ and ‘l’ are interchangeable, so sometimes I am ‘Bella’ but sometimes I am ‘Berra’.

My permanent accommodation is still not ready. The constant refrain is ‘next week’. When I went to look at my new place, I was told that the work would be done much more quickly if only the Peace Corps would give them a lump sum. I’m pretty sure the Peace Corps will not be providing a lump sum, so I suspect there will be little, if any, progress. And to top it all off, the manager of the place where I am currently staying is now texting me asking for money, telling me that the Peace Corps is not paying them for 30 days. So I don’t know what’s going on, but it's no bueno.

In happier news, I’ve met some wonderful people. This afternoon I spent time with two Canadian volunteers, one of whom contacted me because she wanted to talk to other ‘older’ volunteers. Ouch. And tonight I went out to dinner with my neighbours and had a lovely visit. There are some delightful people here.

My big adventure this week has been transportation. Yesterday I took a shared taxi. It was a Toyota Prius, and at one point there were 8 people in it! This afternoon I caught my first minibus, an extended minivan with 4 rows instead of the usual 3. I was one of 21 people in the bus. It was quite something.

That’s it for now. On Wednesday I went to a very big launch party for Immunization Week. There was singing, dancing, presentations. It was great. Pic below.

How could I resist taking this photo that is mounted to the door of the toilet where I work? I get to look at it every day!