I leave for Malawi in exactly 4 weeks.... I'm freaking out a little bit. Tomorrow I'm going to the travel doctor to get my shots. I still almost can't believe this is really happening. I'm visiting a friend who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi. I'll be gone from June 28-July 24.
I'll be staying in the village of Chikwawa in Southern Malawi. We're also going to visit a friend in Zimbabwe and going over to Zambia to Victoria falls. I'll try to update my blog while I'm there (given that I can find electricity...)
Here's the list of things to be aware of that Brittni sent me:
-Prepare to live by candle light or headlamp after 6pm
-Prepare to go to bed around 10 pm and wake up between 5am-6am usually by kids or roosters.
-Prepare for a lot of strange noises at night which make it hard to sleep
-Prepare to sleep under a net everywhere
-Prepare to cook on wood fire and charcoal stoves in my back courtyard. To make a damn fire in the morning just to get a cup of coffee.
-Prepare for lots of bugs and spiders and dirt and dust and sand. My house, despite spraying for bugs and cleaning it all the damn time is always gross and dirty! ugghh! cement floors and lime plastered walls can't stay clean!
-Prepare for walking out to draw water from the bore hole with me, and carrying 20 L buckets back to my house on your head.
-Prepare for bucket baths out in my back courtyard "bafa"
-Prepare to eat local chicken, guinea fowl, and maybe even goat. In fact, prepare for a lot of these animals coexisting with you while you're here (I do my best to try to keep them out of my yard and house, but they're sneaky)
-Prepare for a LOT of poverty, sick kids and people, inappropriate poor drunkards, and begging, begging, begging. Sally Struthers type shit x100! In fact, prepare to be really annoyed by people calling you mzungu ("whitey") all day every day everywhere!
-Prepare for hitch hiking, crammed mini buses and other insanely unsafe public transportation situations while we're traveling :)
-Prepare for bicycle taxi's
-Prepare for a lot of reggae music and Sean Kingston
-Prepare for sugar cane and nsima and fanta and mandasi
-Prepare to go to bed around 10 pm and wake up between 5am-6am usually by kids or roosters.
-Prepare for a lot of strange noises at night which make it hard to sleep
-Prepare to sleep under a net everywhere
-Prepare to cook on wood fire and charcoal stoves in my back courtyard. To make a damn fire in the morning just to get a cup of coffee.
-Prepare for lots of bugs and spiders and dirt and dust and sand. My house, despite spraying for bugs and cleaning it all the damn time is always gross and dirty! ugghh! cement floors and lime plastered walls can't stay clean!
-Prepare for walking out to draw water from the bore hole with me, and carrying 20 L buckets back to my house on your head.
-Prepare for bucket baths out in my back courtyard "bafa"
-Prepare to eat local chicken, guinea fowl, and maybe even goat. In fact, prepare for a lot of these animals coexisting with you while you're here (I do my best to try to keep them out of my yard and house, but they're sneaky)
-Prepare for a LOT of poverty, sick kids and people, inappropriate poor drunkards, and begging, begging, begging. Sally Struthers type shit x100! In fact, prepare to be really annoyed by people calling you mzungu ("whitey") all day every day everywhere!
-Prepare for hitch hiking, crammed mini buses and other insanely unsafe public transportation situations while we're traveling :)
-Prepare for bicycle taxi's
-Prepare for a lot of reggae music and Sean Kingston
-Prepare for sugar cane and nsima and fanta and mandasi
