Photo blog!

So I decided that since I'm now in America and can take advantage of all this high speed internet technology and what not to post some pictures of my time in Malawi. So the following is a collection of photographs, and their explanations. I hope. If I can figure out how to include photographs.

So this is a picture of the Peace Corps office in Lilongwe, the capital.

View of the airport runway. This isn't what most other African airports I've been to/through look like, Malawi is just small.

I remember the Jacaranda tree was pretty much the first thing we saw when we landed and I thought, "I've come to Dr. Suess land."

About a week after arriving we moved into a village. This is the one I was living in.

And this is my house. In front is my host mom for my first two months. She was pretty cool.

A view of my homestay village as seen from the top of a local mountain. It was always interesting to me to compare different places as seen from the air. Mozambique has just miles and miles of sheer uninterupted wilderness, Malawi is dirt houses and dirt roads, and South Africa is this incredibly mesh of countryside, farmland, small tin roofs, and suburban cul-de-sacs.

This is my village. I'm just not standing in front of any houses, but I assure you they actually are there.

This is my school. My primary project was to teach here, and I taught English Literature and Physical Science for three school years.

This is what a typical classroom looks like.

In addition to teaching I worked on a few secondary projects in Malawi. The largest-scale was Camp Sky, a two-week academic camp for outstanding students organized by the Malawi education volunteers.

My wildlife club sold school supplies donated by my home church to earn enough money to travel to the local national park where we saw these...

And these. (As well as Kudu, Water Buffalo, Impala, and LOTS of monkeys and baboons)

My sitemate and I also organized a one week camp in Nyika National Park (pictured left) for students in the north.

We taught them a series of Income Generating Activities (here, soapmaking) and the local villagers started coming to observe. Below are the girls with the beehive they built.

We also saw warthogs, the common duiker, bushbucks galore, impala, roan antelope, eland, zebra, hippos and elephants. For most of the students this was their first time seeing these animals. The photograph is a roan antelope.

It was probably the most fun time I had in my entire service.

Some random cultural things: these are the canoes they use on the lake. VERY difficult to balance in.

At night fishermen lash lamps to the backs of the canoes and paddle out to the middle of the lake to spend the night catching fish. When you look out to the horizon all you see are a bunch of glittering lights bobbing on the dark surface, like a reflection of the night sky.

The guli wam kulu are a group of dancers in the southern and central region. It's a secret society whose members cover themselves with pieces of cloths and masks and dance at traditional ceremonies such as the swearing in of chiefs.

The fact that a national insurance company uses this as a sticker is a pretty good indication of how prominent Christianity is in Malawi.

Baobab trees. They are huge. And old.

Oxcarts, they ain't fast, but they'll carry things around.

Graveyards in Malawi are always in a grove of trees. Unless you are burrying someone it's forbidden to enter them, and you can't cut down the trees. The central and southern regions would actually be far more deforested than they already are if not for this cultural norm.

In weddings in Malawi the little kids are dressed up just like a mini bride and groom. SO CUTE!

And of course you dance around and throw money into the air at the reception (the money is then collected and goes to the couple). It's a bit odd at first to just be throwing money around, but it helps them start their life, and it's kind of fun to be dancing in a confetti shower of money.

And then you auction off the cake.

The clothes market in Mzuzu is a square block of closed in stalls. In Lilongwe it's an open air market that you pay 10 kwacha to cross a VERY sketchy bridge to reach. The food market in Mzuzu is similar, but much more open, and pleasant, except for the fish part.

A clothing alternative is to just buy a long bolt of brightly colored died cloth (called a chitenje) and have the local tailor make you a dress, a skirt, or a shirt.

This is the president, Bingu Wa Mutharika, and his wife Calista. He had us over for lunch. It would be amazing if he could run the country as well as he could throw a party.

I found this in a monastery I visited one day. It's a quote from Matthew where Jesus says to the disciples, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me." Although I am not particularly religious, it does happen to be my favorite bible verse. I think it's been a long time however, since I've thought of what I was doing in Malawi as anything besides just living a bit of a different life for a while, and getting to be with a community, new family, and new friends. (But for any conservative congresspeople who happen to be reading this, you will clearly note that Jesus is telling you to raise funding for the Peace Corps.)