I watched My Fair Lady last night, and I felt enormous sympathy for Eliza Doolittle. My language teachers aren’t much like Henry Higgins, but they have in common a tremendous concern over tones. This is because the meaning (rather than the just polish) of Chichewa rides on tones. For instance, the word “kungu” means either blind person or skin when pronounced differently. The verb “kulemera” can mean to be heavy or to be rich. And a whole category of verbs can either be emphasis or causative depending on which part of the word is pronounced in an elevated pitch. 

I am finding my language classes immensely enjoyable and also quite challenging, which is a great combination. I will finish my classes on Wednesday of next week. It's hard to believe that we've already clocked more than 100 (of my required 120) hours. Masiku ndi chitseko, which literally translates to "days are like doors"--over time, you stop noticing the frequency with which they open and close.

When I finish language classes next week, I will focus more fully on my research project. Since getting my ethics clearance earlier this month, I’ve been conducting interviews with educational administrators about policies related to teacher distribution in Malawi. With this research, I’ve been learning about three Malawian policies aimed at mitigating the shortage of rural teachers: the rural hardship allowance, targeted recruitment of teachers from rural areas, and a bond that requires teachers to spend five years in rural schools. Starting next week, I’ll be going into schools to talk with teachers about how they understand and experience these policies. I'm really looking forward to talking with teachers; they lie at the heart of all of these policies, and I feel a connection with them because of my work as a teacher in Malawi. 

I am also deriving a lot of enjoyment and value from this project because of what I'm learning about the process of conducting research in Malawi. Pursuing this research has allowed me to think critically about how to get research done here. And approaching the project with this goal--of learning how to do research--has made the experience pleasant and productive, even when important policy documents sometimes just can’t be found and when interviews get cancelled at the last minute. 

I’m at an internet café right now, though it's the kind of day where I really should not stay inside too long; it's too beautiful out there! Earlier today, one of my language trainers was complaining about how warm it is. He said it shouldn’t be this warm in winter. While I agree that this doesn’t feel like winter, I’m pretty pleased that it doesn’t. After all, this is summer for me. And it is a pretty great one, though I am really looking forward to coming home. One month from tomorrow, right? I'm sure July 29 will be here in no time. Masiku ndi chitseko! 

Right now, I’m sitting in a hammock overlooking Lake Malawi, listening to the waves crash against Domwe Island’s boulders and waiting for Terence to wake up. I was trying to read and take notes on articles about girls’ education in Sub-Saharan Africa for a research proposal I'm writing, but I don’t think you’re supposed to do real work in a hammock. They don’t really seem to be designed to be work stations. So I’ve decided to write a blog post instead.

Terence and I arrived at Domwe Island, a small island off of Cape Maclear, Saturday morning after staying a night in Cape Maclear. Domwe is a national park with no electricity, running water, or permanent inhabitants. We’re camping in one of the (maybe four?) tent shelters Kayak Africa, a travel and safari company, has constructed here. Our shelter is hardly visible from the lake -- it blends in so well with the trees. But from the shelter, we have a fantastic view of the expansive lake and two nearby islands. We can even see the mountains of the Northern lakeshore.

This is such a great break from Zomba, where both Terence and I have been managing to keep quite busy. The travel to Domwe definitely made us feel that we’ve put some space between us and Zomba-- it involved four types of transport (minibus, big bus, matola, and kayak) and about nine hours, in total. We enjoyed the kayak trip over, and have since used the kayak to paddle close to the shore of the island. We’ve been able to see quite a few fish eagles, kingfishers, and other cool-looking birds. We also rented some snorkeling gear and have had a chance to see about one million brilliantly-colored cichlids.

At this point, though, the only mammal we’ve encountered is a giant rat-like creature. We tried to explain it to Felix, one of the workers here. We were hoping he’d be able to tell us what it is. The conversation went something like this:

Terence: We’re seeing these big rodent creatures.
Felix: Yes, there are rats here.
Alyssa: I don’t think they're rats. They are just so big.
Felix: Yes, those are the big rats.

Thankfully, some British travelers later disabused us of this and informed us that they are rock hyraxes, or dassies. We looked them up - they’re not even rodents! Too soon, though, we'll be taking a boat out of the land of the dassies to resume our Zomba lives.

I was sick all weekend. Coughing, sneezing, sleeping—those three activities pretty much sum up my activities from Friday afternoon, when a blind acquaintance told me “You are much sicker than you were yesterday. I thought you might be someone else entirely.”

On Sunday, though, I began feeling better, and Alyssa and I went on a jogging and walking trip through Zomba. Zomba is the former Colonial capital, and there are large, white, wide-porched buildings from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s planted throughout the town's hills. Many have continued to be used as government administration, while others are now hotels or cultural/tourism centers. These buildings' large plots on the uneven terrain have allowed for Zomba's vegetation-- already varied due to elevation and relatively consistent rainfull-- to become dense, lush, and gorgeous. From the foot of the plateau, through the botanical garden, around these colonials holdovers and other, newer, impressive government buildings, we walked, and the baboons and monkeys didn't harass us at all.

On Monday my health improved further, and we went to Blantyre so I could attempt to meet with the Executive Director of the Malawi Union of the Blind, who I hoped would be able to assist me in coordinating interviews. We were lucky enough to catch him at the office, and through his connections, I'll be able to interview people at a variety of institutions—a vocational training center for the visually impaired, the Union's office, and in schools. During the meeting, Alyssa was working through her extensive collection of flashcards (see photo) and fighting her frustration that a mispronunciation of her name had sounded like “Ulcer”.

After leaving, we took advantage of the time in Malawi's second biggest city to buy some toiletries otherwise unavailable in Zomba. American-style Shave cream! American-style Conditioner! Face Wash! We are gradually finding our comfort zone in terms of Malawian self-maintenance: a bit more care than in Peace Corps, and befitting our roles as researchers. This means I am keeping my facial hair more trimmed and am refraining from growing out the extended goatee that I sported when Alyssa and I began dating in 2010. That's probably for the best.

Our return journey home was on a minibus: a second (or third or fourth)-hand minivan packed with five rows of seats each with four adults and as much carried material as would fit. In this case, that meant everyone's bags, maybe a hundred cans of paint, and several bales of clothing that the driver's assistant told us were made in China-differentiating these items from clothing has come from America second-hand. As a side note, you know that t-shirt you donated to Salvation Army that said “VODKA: Bringing People Together” in a font that looked like “NOKIA”? I saw it on an elderly Malawian woman yesterday.

While waiting for the car to load up, a man approached my window. As I tried to figure out what the DVD was of, the seller described it to us: “Fighting, you know?” then miming punching himself in the chin and feigning a concussion-induced eye wobble. Though that was awesome, we got cokes instead.

The ride back was pretty much as expected: the back end of the minibus opened up unexpectedly as we climbed a hill, the seat we were on was only theoretically attached to the supports beneath and lurched painfully into people's knees, and awesome Malawian rap, pop, reggae, and choral music was played the whole time. I'll try and capture some of those tunes soon.

We arrived back at the house and had some leftovers from the night before: home-made tortillas ('chipatis'), fresh-bean burgers, avocados, and Garlic Nali hot sauce. This meal was simple and amazing and will be one of our staples. I think we still have some....

So that was a big, full, fun day, and I look forward to following up on these leads. Thanks for reading!

This is a big deal. Carlsberg is by far the most popular beer in Malawi (excluding village-brewed hooch). It's former tagline was “Carlsberg: Probably... The best beer in the world.” 

Pretty awesome, eh? Even better, Peace Corps volunteers made t-shirts that said: “Peace Corps: Probably...The best volunteers in the world.” If you think that's arrogant, you might have some Carlsberg Green to more fully appreciate the humor. It's as if to say: “Yes, people love Carlsberg, and it does have its charms and even largely does what its intended to do, but let's not get carried away!” We applied that thinking to ourselves and the organization to which we were giving two years.

Their new tagline:
“THAT DESERVES A CARLSBERG.”

And, yes, I would personally enjoy wearing a shirt that says
“THAT DESERVES A PEACE CORPS.”

Our first week in Zomba was largely devoted to figuring out the area's general landscape. Now that we've identified the main roads and how to get where we need to be, I've made it a personal mission to identify all of the njira za chidule, or short cuts.
One potential short cut turned out to be a bust. I thought that, perhaps, I could cross the golf course (yes, there's a golf course in Zomba) to get to town rather than walk all the way around the golf course. Although a river separates town and the golf course, I had noticed other people walking through the course and so I decided there must be a bridge somewhere. I discovered a little too late in my adventure that there is no bridge. Luckily, I was walking behind a nice teenager who noticed my struggles and waited to make sure I was all right as I hopped across rocks in the river and climbed a small boulder to get to the main road.
Later in the week, a path caught my eye while I was on a morning run. I was near the base of Zomba mountain when I noticed a delightful trail through the woods. As I started jogging on the trail, I turned off my music so I could listen to the birds chirping and the wind in the trees. Instead of these peaceful sounds, I heard the bark of baboons! A gang of baboons was approaching me as I accidentally encroached on their turf. I turned around and got out of there as quickly as I could. The baboons didn't seem intent on catching up to me (thank goodness!); they just wanted to let me know I didn't belong in that space.  
Apart from these misadventures, I have actually discovered a few legitimate njira za chidule that don't require crossing a river and, for now, are devoid of baboons.

As of yesterday, we've been in Malawi for one full week. And it has been a very full week indeed! Last Sunday, we traveled from Lilongwe to Zomba. We spent about nine hours on the bus, reading our books, eating tangerines and boiled peanuts, and appreciating the landscape changes as we moved from the central to the southern region. The central region is relatively flat, and this time of year it is very dry. Zomba district (where we're staying) is more mountainous, and this area gets a bit of rainfall all year round so it is very lush. 
We arrived in Zomba late Sunday afternoon. After taking a few wrong turns, we eventually found our guest house and met the guest house supervisor, Mr. America. Mr. America stops by the guest house every day to make sure things are OK. As he leaves, he likes to say "any time, any day, we shall meet." Despite all the mystery he tries to create, it's nice to know we will see him the very next day. He looks out for us and for the house.
After our Sunday arrival, we spent Monday getting acquainted with our house, finding the market, and meeting our local counterparts. Terence and I went to the Centre for Language Studies and met Alick and Arnold, who are my Chichewa tutors. Each day, I get four-hour lessons, usually two hours with each tutor. Terence has spent his week conducting research with a Malawian named Francis whom he met through the African Library Project. They're collaborating to evaluate how book donations are being used by primary schools and to design appropriate training for teacher librarians. Terence is working on this project for two weeks before beginning another research project exploring assistive technology for visually-impaired individuals. 
We spent our Saturday morning doing laundry. Doing laundry by hand really isn't something that I've missed, but it sure feels like an accomplishment when it's done. I'm just so glad I no longer need to draw water from down the hill!

"You're so excited and ready to get started.  I'm going to punch you."
These were Alyssa's words for me at three in morning earlier today, when I was getting more and more stoked up for being in Malawi and the work that we'll do. She had to remind me that even though the rooster is crowing, day time might still be several hours away, and I realized that . I was sitting in the darkness of our friends' lovely house in Lilongwe, thinking about all of ways I was ready to get started: It's avocado season! Maybe I'll work with the Malawian Union of the blind! Listen to all of those different kinds of birds!
This over exuberance is familiar to me (and all of the folks that traveled with me when I first joined Peace Corps), but I know that Malawi has the antidote: lots of calm, slow days, and many interesting things to look at, think about, and listen to.  Already, I've been so happy to see kids pushing wheels down the dusty back-roads, chat with my friends while idly watching the many varieties of birds, and talk with Alyssa about all of the ways we're surprised and what we're each looking forward to. She does prefer those conversations to take place during the daytime, though. 

Thanks for checking out our website. We're hoping to be use this space to share info and pictures with everyone during our summer in Malawi. We'll be in Malawi May 17 through July 29, staying in Zomba on the campus of Chancellor College.

We leave for Malawi tomorrow. Our plane takes off at 11 am. We'll fly through South Africa, and get into Lilongwe (Malawi's capital) at 12 pm on May 17 -- that's 5 am EST.

We're both so excited to reunite with Malawi!