Happy New Year from Malawi!!

We survived our first week here with minimal damage . After four days of getting acquainted with the city of Lilongwe, we ventured to a small rural village called Luzi to begin our first camp. We covered topics from HIV to deforestation, to gender empowerment and creative writing. Our students ranged from ages eight to sixteen and we were thoroughly impressed by their eagerness and enthusiasm to learn. Though the language barrier could be frustrating at times, our Field Staff Cyrus and Rejoyce were wonderful and made communication a breeze. Despite the seriousness of the issues we were teaching, we found that humor was one of the greatest teaching tools available and were grateful that our students could laugh along with us. By the end of the week, they were experts on the material and, on the last day of camp, preformed skits and songs for the community.

Village life was interesting to say the least. We learned to be flexible quickly in a place where chickens roamed freely in our classrooms as we taught and the only time we were close to getting run over in the road was by a heard of cattle. We had our first encounter with the local staple meal, nsima, a corn flour based starch that you eat with your hands. We came across several new types of bugs and Cara and Christine will be the first to admit that neither of them used the latrine after dark for fear of running into a family of large cockroaches.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of the families that hosted us. They, along with the village as a whole, opened their homes to us as if they were our own. As warm and welcomed as we always felt, we often found ourselves feeling like an exhibit at the zoo, surrounded by (literally) hundreds of small children who were completely bewildered by the strange visitors. Though saddened by the remarkable amount of poverty we witnessed, we were inspired by the happiness and sense of community that surrounded us in the village. By far the highlight of the week was Mark's take on the Chichewa version of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, which we sang with our kids every morning before class. Each time we got to “Chiuno” (hips), Mark would proceed to put his hands on his waist and shake his hips like a twelve year old school girl. It was hard to tell who appreciated this hilarious move more, the kids or the interns. Overall, it was an exhausting, wonderful, exciting, challenging, and hilarious week and we can't wait for the next.

Peace and Love from Malawi,

Christine, Cara, Mark, and Tucker