I have a seemingly never ending list of things I want to accomplish, projects I want to start, and people I should meet up with.. But it's hard to know where and how to start. This isn't a job or position I can just slip into, this is completely based on my own initiative. The idea is to access the needs of the community and then plan and implement projects accordingly. Additionally, make them sustainable damn it!
Whhhhhat? Okay makes perfect sense in a development standpoint, and ethically, and everything--but shoo it is a lot of pressure. Wouldn't want to waste your tax dollars or the good people of Malawi's precious time.
Many volunteers have been lucky enough to be matched with counterparts and advisors who have actively aided them when they first arrived at site, taking them to meetings, introducing them to the chief, showing them around, helping brainstorm possible projects--but I've had to seek mine out as I haven't seen him since he dropped me off for site visit. While that seemed like a bummer at first, it's given me a lot of independence, freedom, and space to do things at my own pace and to follow my own desires and ambitions. I've met already someone at Chilumba secondary school who will be an incredible counterpart and many potential counterparts at the rural hospital. Counterparts are key to your success- they have the language, cultural understanding, and standing in the community that can make or break projects.
Everyone is curious about how I'm spending my time..
Most days I go to the local market to buy whatever fruits and veggies I can find. Food doesn't last more than a few hours here with the heat and lack of refrigeration.
I also spend a lot of time outside. I've planted a garden, I do lots of home improvement projects, I do my dishes and laundry outside, I cook outside on my porch over charcoal for every meal, (baking is an exciting adventure with no stove or electricity) this enables me to take care of my own business and speak with and greet my neighbors constantly.
The first three months at site Peace Corps asks us not to work, but to focus on integrating into the community, and to learn-- it's like I'm Johnny 5.
I've come up with some goals to get me through my first few solo months (/ year?) there is a famous rollercoaster that peace corps volunteers experience during their time of service with extreme highs and lows throughout the entire two years. Mental health is a real thing to be aware of and deal with during PC. It's just a reality and I've come up with daily goals to help me cope, not stagnate, and not become depressed.
Solid rules:
*Leave my house every single day--try to explore somewhere I haven't been yet, if feasible
*Find and eat vegetables everyday
*Interact with other human beings face to face for 3 hours a day--even if we can't speak to each other and end up sitting there awkwardly in each other's presence, it's worth it.
*Do at least one thing that makes me feel like a productive and worthwhile human being
Optional/ Do it if I can:
-See the lake
-Learn new a Chitumbuka word
-Eat a piece of fruit
-Connect with another American
-Read or write
They seem simple and probably dull, but they have kept me happy, sane, and feeling like I'm doing something right. It would be so easy for me to never leave my house and just read books like a chain smoker.. But I really want to challenge myself, I want to make this experience worthwhile for me and the people here in my life. I want to not let myself fall into old harmful patterns that I lived out in the states...
Okay but I know what you're actually asking. "So, like, are you doing any work or just sitting around?"
I go to the rural hospital most days and often help with checking kids for malnutrition, ARV clinics, family planning, HIV and AIDS, TB counseling sessions, or hang out in the maternity ward.
Why the hell do we choose to procreate? Seriously though, when I saw my first rural hospital in training, I was so scared. It seemed like the waiting room for hell . Lines and lines and lines of sick mothers and babies and the elderly waiting. Pregnant women giving birth on sheets on the floor with no pain killers.. I just was so overwhelmed with what a rural hospital was and what it looked like. It's still.. Unnerving at times, but it's not scary or alien anymore like it used to be. I'm excited to start projects there... My first being building hand washing stations. There is no soap to be found nor places for any of the sick patients to wash their hands. I'd also like to start nutrition classes especially for HIV patients, and do some cooking demos. Eventually I'd like to have my friend Matt come do a cross site visit and help me plant a perma garden at the hospital.
I'm also going to Chilumba Secondary school and running a girls club, helping teach the life skills classes (my first one is on stress management) and doing Grass Roots Soccer. I'd also like to implement a perma garden at the school, (again with Matts help,) the pad project- giving girls methods to deal with their periods, and some malaria projects.
I'm happy with where I am right now, and happy about the future projects I have planned.. But they won't happen for months and months.
On that note, I'm incredibly happy here; that's not to say that I don't get lonely and feel isolated and question what the hell I'm doing sometimes. I still can't think of this as a two year experience or sometimes I lose my shit. I live this experience day by day and in that way I am loving it. I miss my friends and family back home and in my Peace Corps family, but I am really trying to build a life for myself here, because it is my life for 2 years.
Frankly, it is a beautiful, confusing little adventure!
