I just returned from a whirlwind tour to the south of malawi. I went to blantyre, Zomba, my friend Nikki's village and Jenn's village (at the base of Mt Mulanje- the 2nd biggest mountain in Malawi). I had really wanted to see these places before I left.
My group had our close of service conference at lake Malawi at Nkotakota in April. The food was delicious and the lake lovely although I was frightened of swimming as a few people got the schisto at their cos conference. I have all my pictures up from the conference as well as the south on my flickr page. So the most exciting part of the conference was I got my cos date- I'm officially out of Peace Corps July 2nd and have already bought my tickets to Bangkok on the 3rd! So the next few weeks will be busy with me wrapping things up and saying goodbyes and completing the millions of forms PC requires.
In other news, I have heard some things about the Madonna malawi charity and the documentary on Malawi. I went to the website, raisingmalawi.org and was shocked by the inaccuracies on the website. It states that "75%" of the population in Malawi is HIV positive- the actual statistic is 14% according to UNICEF and even lower in the rural areas. It is not that I don't see that HIV is a problem here. But I get so irritated with the perception many westerners have that Africa is just a place of disease and despair- Malawi has been so much more than that to me. Also the perception that an NGO like Madonna's can come into Malawi and solve their problems (when they can't even be remotely close on a statistic) is very arrogant. ok.
anyway I'm going to go with my friends to lunch now.

the rainy season here seems to be finishing up. it's my last one here so i'm trying to take a lot of pictures of the maize everywhere and the greenery. there is starting to be more food in the village, tomatoes are there regularly now and have even had a few avocados! I made tortillas and had guacamole. i have been here in lilongwe this weekend, it has been strange being here recently because i am now one of the "older" volunteers and everyone in the house has come to country after me. Now that the new environment volunteers are in training, my health group is the next one to go! i am trying to enjoy the last few months here although it is difficult sometimes when i have so much to look forward too- my cos trip to thailand as well as coming back to america. the womens' group i have been working with has their pigs now- three little pigs! also the under five shelter is about halfway built- there is a situation with getting more bricks since someone is in jail for fraud... also there was a traumatic incident a few weeks ago in the village- a women had died in childbirth and her father also died the same day. At the women's funeral a guest went into a trance and said that both deaths were due to witchcraft, and named a woman and a chief who were the witches who had caused the deaths. so a group of people who had been attending the funeral went to find these people. The chief ran away. The women was told that if she didn't say she was a witch, she would be killed. so she said she was a witch. so the group of people beat her with machetes. she died the next day saying "god knows the truth". she was killed outside the health center, next to my house, and the police did nothing! in fact, nobody did anything. everyone seemed to be convinced she was a witch! witchcraft is an accepted part of life here, something that is written into the laws. people are sentenced to years in jail for being witches. it's something i have had difficult knowing how to handle.

I returned back from Zanzibar yesterday. It is a beautiful place. We spent a few days in Dar es Salaam (where i watched a movie and ate at subway!) before taking a ferry to the island. We spent about four days in stonetown, which is filled of windy narrow streets where it's impossible not to get lost. There is a lot of Arab influence there and carved wooden doors. The food was really good- we ate every night at the outdoor fish market which was delicious and had small cups of spiced coffee for 10 cents. There was also delicious fruit juices and sugarcane juice and mangoes and pineapples sliced up for sale everywhere. The only problem was the large amount of annoying tourists inappropriately dressed for a Muslim country and moving in packs.
We then traveled to the beach, which had clear water and white sand beaches. There was a coral reef 5 km out so one day we took a sailboat there and snorkeled. In the mornings the tide went far out and women were farming seaweed in rows.
We had four days of traveling to get back to Lilongwe- mostly on buses. It was nice to be back in Malawi i realize how much I'm going to miss it.

i arrived back from my vacation in mozambique a few days ago. we hitched to tete, and then flew to the capital maputo and then traveled to tofo on the coast. maputo seemed like a real city, and had movie theaters, malls and coffee shops (and gelato and good bread). there was a seafood market which had crabs, lobsters, fish, etc raw and sitting out- we bought what we wanted and took it took a restaurant which cooked it up. they cooked them well, too- esp the prawns with garlic and lemon- i didn't think i liked prawns. but i discovered i didn't really like crabs or lobster much. our hostel in tofo was right on the ocean, and i went on two scuba dives- one to a reef called salon, another to manta reef which is apparently quite a famous place to dive. we saw many manta rays really near us. since it was my first deep dive we had to sit on the bottom and solve a math problem to prove we could think correctly at that depth. it took me a while to remember what 9 times 7 was. jenn grew up on the ocean so she tried to teach us to surf but it is difficult.
back in malawi we had thanksgiving again at the ambassador's house- no turkey this year for the meat eaters, instead there were 2 huge roasted pigs. plenty of vegetarian stuff though. the house is very crowded but luckily i got a bed- i didn't want to set up my tent because i thought it might rain

camp glow

I just returned yesterday from camp GLOW. I think on the whole it went well, but there were definetly challenges. I coordinated two days, and during those days I was running around all day trying to make sure my speakers had arrived, that suppplies were out and in the right places, etc.
I also taught yoga one day and was the driver (driving in malawi is challenging, and not only because I was driving a stick shift with my left hand).
We had about 60 girls at the camp (high school age), most of them from small villages all over Malawi. For a lot of them it had been the first time they'd been away from their villages so I imagine it could have been challenging and scary for them. The camp took place in Kamuzu academy, a NICE private school. The campus was huge and was almost like a university campus. It had a pool, track, basketball courts, etc. It also had showers and toilets, which were a challenge for some of the girls. We hadn't realized that some of them had never used them before and wouldn't know how. On the second day we received an anonymous note is our "question box" saying that they didn't know how to use them- clearly they were too embarrassed to ask. So we then tried to teach them how to use them.
I have some pictures of camp that I'm in the process of uploading, and then other PCVs have photos they are also putting up

already july is over. it's strange to me that it's supposed to be winter here, but it feels perpetually like spring or summer with occasional cold days. i suppose it's the bright sunshine that tricks me. the nights are colder though, especially in my tent in lilongwe.
i'm officially a second year volunteer, the new health group swore in two days ago. i have a new site mate, she replaces the one from my group that ETed (early terminated) last month. so far she seems great.
i've been thinking a lot recently about returning home next year. originally i wanted to fly directly back to the states but i've been thinking about traveling through asia on my way back. apparently pc buys you an expensive ticket back home and you can cash it in and buy your own ticket- usually it works out to be cheaper. so i'll see...
i started a women's group, and they wanted to start a piggery for a small business. i just got approved to buy three pigs!
still waiting on the proposal i turned in for the shelter we're trying to build at the health center.
a teacher at the school i teach at just called me- he won a scholarship for a small college in wisconsin for three years- he's leaving mid-august. he's freaking out- i'm going to chat with him about america when i go back to site next week. i don't think he has any idea about where he's going- i told him it was cold there and there'll be a lot of snow and he seemed surprised.

i dropped the parentals off at the airport this afternoon for their very long travel back home. i flew to meet them in s africa and we went to umhlanga rocks outside durban first. it was a huge change from malawi and it seemed almost like being back in america. i got to eat sushi twice, have americanos and a mcdonalds breakfast burger. there is a giant mall there and it was really disorienting and had so much stuff. i just randomly picked a pair of jeans and discovered later that it had permanent wrinkles built into it. oh well.
then it was off to the game park, where we saw warthogs, giraffes, zebras, white rhinos, elephants and the tail of a lion. we went on a walk with a guard with a gun and got close to animals without a car.
then we went to st lucia which is a really beautiful seaside town. we went on a boat safari and saw many hippos and crocs.
now i'll be in lwe until sun as i have a meeting for camp GLOW then.