Monday, February 28, 2011

Happy 1 year anniversary of arriving in Malawi! And welcome to Malawi for the new folks!

That's right.  One year in Malawi.  And that means what?  Only 13.5 months to go!!!  Ok... I'm not really counting down the months... or days... but its kind of nice to realize that in another year I'll be back home annoying family and friends for the first time in 2 years!

Currently still on Med hold till Wednesday.  Advantages: good medical care, Evelyn's hug, free internet, hanging out with people I never see!  Disadvantages: missing out on meetings back at site, Lilongwe's expensive... and there are so many tempting places to eat, no personal space.

Particularly of concern is that this week I was demonstrating how to construct fuel efficient mud stoves for two of my groups.  Now I'm not going to be able to do this till next week... maybe... if I have time.  Argh.  I miss site so much!  But, my skin rash thingy, while no longer septic, is spreading.  So, leaving now is not a good plan.  Currently sporting a blue circle around it to see if the prednasone helps or if it gets worse.  Max will take a look tomorrow...  I absolutely love the med staff here.  They are amazing and really look out for us...

Yesterday, to break up the monotony of just working at my computer for 8 hours, went with a bunch of volunteers to see the arrival of the new environment and health trainees!  It was awesome.  We have 45 new volunteers total.  We've been following their pre-arrival funness on Facebook and I can't wait to actually chat with everyone in a few weeks (like 2).  A good sign: plane arrived on time, and no luggage was lost!  Current volunteers were on best behavior unlike when I arrived, so overall a success I think.  We did the introductions and pictures and off they went to Dedza to hopefully get a good night's sleep!

So... going to spend the next few days working on a Food Security Taskforce assignment with Jackie and then getting started on Tilipo updates and revisions with Chloe.  At least I won't be bored!  If any folks want to Skype, I'll be able to if the internet here cooperates.  FB message me or email me to let me know.

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