Here's my permanent address:
Robert Gormley, PCV
District Forestry Office
PO Box 38
Chinteche, Malawi
Almost done with training! Two weeks left then I swear in and become a volunteer!
A lot of time has passed, and I can't remember everything that's happened, so I'll go backwards in time because its easier for me to remember.
I've spent the last couple days at my new site by myself. My site is really cool, I'm 5 minutes away from the beach, and I can hear the waves crashing in the distance. At the site I've inherited a dog named kubaya boko (hippo killer). My forearm is sore from fanning my fire when I cook. But its cool, I'll power through typing this post because I'm sure you're all wondering whats going on.
We had a village farewell last week. It was craziness, and leaving homestay was kind of sad. All four villages met up and we showed them what we had been learning in PST. Then we had a cross cultural exchange session in which the Americans played a baseball game -- I was the peanut vendor. We explained its history and what was happening, but I'm pretty sure we just looked really weird to them. Also, the day before, the trainees played the staff in an epic Malawi vs USA soccer match. Sadly we lost 2-4, but we definitely impressed them with our sweet skills.
The first week of homestay crawled by so slowly, I thought it would take forever. But we all adjusted to it, and time flew by. And now PST is almost over. Woohoo!
Our days in homestay were very structured...kind of. We had breakfast, language and tech training from 8am to noon. Lunch from noon to 1:30, then another language and tech session from 1:30 to 4:30. My family usually ate around 6:30, and I was in bed by 8pm. But often times, when we needed transport to get to a session, we would spend a lot of time waiting around, if it ever came (which it didn't a couple times).
The best part of homestay was Thursdays, when all the trainees came together at the college. Its amazing how quickly we all bonded, and how great it is to see each other again.
Anyway, that was homestay. I'm heading to language intensive where i'll be chilling at a lodge in Nkhata Bay for a week, learning Chitonga non-stop. Then we'll all meet up in Dedza for a week, get ready for move-in. Then we swear in April 26th!
I'm trying to load a J&A episode right now and its taking forev. That's definitely been the hardest part about Malawi so far. But other than that, training has been pretty sweet. But soon my small bubble of a world will soon break, and i'll be living at site, being all independent or watev. Can't wait! Miss y'all! Take care.
