Goodbye altered moods and increased anxiety... Hello sunburns and antibiotic resistance...

So... Peace Corps policy requires all volunteers to take medications that keep us from getting malaria.  Good policy for sure.  Malaria, as I've observed from people in my village, just sucks.  And has the potential to kill you or put you on dialysis for the rest of your life.  So definitely not complaining.  Since arriving in Malawi, I've been on Mephlaquine, the cheapest and easiest medication available.  Once a week you take it, and then no worries.  However... side effects are numerous, generally fall into the mental health altering category, and sometimes sneak up on you without warning See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefloquine  for more info.  For example, you think everything is fine and dandy... and then your bike tire won't separate from the tube and suddenly its the end of the world and your trying to hold back tears while explaining to your counterpart that, yes, everything is in fact ok when you actually want to curl up in the fetal position or tear out grass from the ground while contemplating calling your boss to say you're leaving.  True story.  Anyways... after that little episode, it was suggested by my amazing and very patient site mate that I should call and get my medicine switched.  Turns out, its ridiculously easy to do, and starting next week, I'll be joining the crowd of volunteers in my group switching to Doxycycline.  Doxy has much fewer scary side effects.  My main concern now is that sun sensistivity increases.  Not a good thing for someone who consistently forgets to apply sunscreen on a daily basis, is currently living in a sub tropical country in the middle of its "summer", and has no hat.  Also a concern... doxy is an antibiotic.  And increases frequency of yeast infections... So... while definitly more manageable, is still just the lesser of two evils.  But at least I won't get malaria (for which I'm super thankful!  Thank you PC!)

On happier notes... things are moving along at site.  The mushrooms my women's group "planted" are coming along slowly, but doing well!  And the PB group, which is also the natural resource management committee, are taking a break from peanut butter to build a tree nursery.  The structure was completed last week and this past week, they've been filling pots and started getting seeds planted.  Also, had a really good meeting with the chair of my village's Development Committee, and have some really cool ideas that I want to start working on.  For instance, a large scale irrigation system for the community so they can still farm during the dry season (which is right now... and let me tell you... in addition to being dry... its HOT!! Days usually in the upper 90s but still humid, and nights, I'm lucky if it fall to the low 80s... and I have a iron sheet roof... and my water is never cool... its grossly warm... and I sweat... a lot... and while its certainly not chickwawa (district aka devil's asshole b/c so freaking hot)... it still sucks...).  The village directly north of me has one already... and its the most BEAUTIFUL thing ever.  Lush, healthy green maize EVERYWHERE... near the system that is... so super excited to start finding out about that...

Today, I am older than dirt. Well... not really :)

So lots of excitement the last few weeks!  First of all, saw ELEPHANTS at Liwonde!!!  It was spectacular.  Its completely different than being at the zoo.  The game count consisted of 2 days at Liwonde.  One day was a transect walk.  Quite simply, walking about 13k across the park, which is basically the bush... Of course we went with some protection.  2 scouts with the park accompanied us (Amy and I) brandishing some very impressive semi-automatic rifles.  And they were ridiculously casual with where they were pointing them at times... But thankfully, no accidents.  On the transect walk we saw a rather impressive elephant skeleton torn apart by hyenas.  The skull was HUGE!  As for live animals, we saw impala, sable, bushbuck, waterbuck, bushpig, hartbeast, and warthogs (just like Pumba!).  Plus a ton of monkeys and baboons were hanging outside the youth hostel we stayed at.  The other day of the game count was a hide/blind... Literally parked it on a 10 ft termite mound on the Shire River flood plain with a little shelter built over it for shade and sat there for 4 hours.  The last 2 hours we watched elephants going for water!  It was awesome!  There was nothing between us and them but grass and space.  It was cool b/c they had a "scout" who kept going ahead and checking things out.  Then she'd wait for the rest to catch up and off she went again.  There were two groups we watch, one with 10ish members and the other with 13-14.  All different ages.  Also saw some water buffalo too. 

In other news, Sara Lane from Ntchisi came to Amy's so I crashed there for a few days.  It was a really nice visit, just hanging out and chatting.  Best of all, Sara made Amy and I a birthday cake!!!  Not a small thing when you only have a kerosene stove at your disposal!  And it was absolutely delicious!! 

Also, my women's mushroom group started mushroom farming Thursday!  I'm really excited, but also a little nervous.  It's really time consuming and also a little tricky to get a good harvest since there are so many ways to contaminate or loose the mushrooms.  but... keeping my fingers tied.

Last but not least... its my birthday!  27 today!  Traditional midnight birthday call from Caitlin and Jan was amazing.  Also hanging out with Amy is great.  Best site mate EVER!  She shared ranch packets and candy in honor of the day.  Well... times up.  Miss you all...

Bri is ridiculously tired...

Currently hanging out in Lilongwe.  Just finished IST... the training we are supposed to get after 3 months living at site, but in fact got after 4.5 months.  I'm absolutely exhausted.  It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone that came to country in Feb.  Some people I'd not seen in a couple months... so... good to catch up.  Honestly don't remember much of what we did the first week, except a bunch of stuff in the classroom... a little bit of medical stuff.  And on Saturday met 2 RPCV that finished thier service and just decided to stay in Malawi and work on nutrition and food security.  They do a lot with permagardening/permaculture, and composting toilets... some really neat stuff.  Also went to thier house today.  Its BEAUTIFUL!  and is kind of inspiring.  Hopefully will get a project going related to that.

This past week has been interesting.  Each of us picked a member of the community we are in to attend some workshops with us as our counterparts.  I picked Alex, the forestry extension worker I'm "officially" assigned to attend.  This probably wasn't the best choice seeing as he's come to this portion of IST with the 2 previous volunteers... but... seeing as i'm passive aggressive and non-confrontational... it just sort of worked out that way.  Really think I should have brought a woman though.  Only 2 of the counterparts were women.  Additionally, we had a little tension thru the week between counterparts and volunteers based on women's empowerment/development issues that occured in group discussions.  Back in the US, I never really thought about those issuse.  In fact, I avoided them b/c I think most feminists take themselves WAY too seriously.  But here... wow... new focus.  The environment girls in the south (including me) are going to get GAD (Gender & Development committee) started in the south... and probably as a part of that get at least one camp started for girls...

Learned a bunch of cool things otherwise... Jam making... another way to make PB... some oil pressing info.  Went to Ed's way too often... Kicked Tom and Sam's ass in pool with Amy... 3x.  Read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss and thought of Erin :)  Read the letters from Kim, Becky, and Jess... and realized I really need to write back (Sorry... working on it!!!!!!).. Was elected to be the south's VSV rep... which is volunteers supporting volunteers.  Really excited about that.  Realized I'm going to be 27 in 2 weeks... and sold all but 2 of my peanut butter... to answer comments... I eat PB almost everyday... after 4.5 months... no problem... in 2 years... I dunno... could get interesting.  But, just found out you can make jam with BANANAS!!  so... perfect combo might make things ok :) 

Peanut... peanut butter and Jel-... i mean bread... b/c jelly is expensive

So, survived Mulanje if anyone was wondering.  Its a really, really, REALLY tall mountain!  The most physically challenging thing I've EVER done.  Decided that its ok to be the last person as long as you make it up!  Anyways... its absolutely beautiful.  The way we went up is this really cool forest.  Its on the rainer side of the mountain, so super green and very picteresque.  There were some areas at the beginning of the trail where encroachers had cleared land to farm... lots of PINEAPPLES!  which grow from a bush!  It sucks, but with the huge increase in population over the last few decades, plus the tea companies buying more community land, space for farming is limited... One of those situations where its hard to be mad at people for encroaching on forest reserve land when its how they can grow food and get money for thier families... Anyways... top of the plateau was completely different.  Lots of super grassy open areas and a few smaller forested places.  And the infamous MULANGE CEDAR!  Its beautiful in a really wierd way.  They are very unique looking trees.  And the wood smells great. 

The past couple of weeks have been super busy with actual work.  I'm "financing" mushroom farming for my women's mushroom group.  They have only been able to get one batch of spawn to produce mushrooms under the previous volunteer, Jenni.  But, everyone assures me they have the technique down and if it does work, the condition is that they pay me back (if they make a profit), and they have to put aside the same amount of money for the next batch.  Theoretically, they should be able to do both and make a few thousand kwatcha.  If not, I'm only out ~$30. 

I've also been scrambling to get supplies together for a few tree nurseries in my area.  Two village Natural Resource Management Commmittees (VNRMC) have started construction.  And, last but not least... the Phwera peanut butter group has made a shit ton of peanut butter!!!!  They are such a fun group.  The chairwoman is AWESOME and kind of intimidates me.  I don't think she likes me much at times... or she's just annoyed that I don't speak Chichewa well yet.  Dunno... either way, she is really cool and also is on the VNRMC for the my village and under my TA.  So, she rocks. 

Off to Mzuzu and then the lake.  Mel, a PCV, has a tradefair going on Saturday... so I'm selling the PB.  A lot of it.  When i told Phwera I'd sell it for them, they were excited and said they'd make a ton.  Did not anticipate how much that would be.  They sent me with 69 bottles (typical batch is 18).  And my box is falling apart.  Literally being held together with duct tape.  But I've sold a bunch already (which is good b/c the box is also slowly getting lighter)!  Maybe I should have gone into business!  :) And for the record.  Jelly is actually pretty expensive here.  So just peanut butter sandwiches. :)

Coming soon: A kitten!!!!

Got back to my house from Blantyre on Sunday to discover that I now have a resident RAT!  Not cool... Had a really bad experience from homestay in Dedza during training where a rat decided to hang out in my room at night... and then go through my backpack... for about a week.  And on top of that had a probably Mefloquine induced dream of it crawling on my while sleeping... So, in short, I was not excited to discover that my peanuts were half eaten or to wake up at 2am to the sound of bottles falling from shelves and something rummaging through my trash... Need to get something to take care of that... And for future rat problems, thankfully Amayi Rose, one of my friends in Maliera (my village), has 2 kittens for sale!!!  So, I'll be buying one for K350.  Which amounts to a little less than US$2.  And will say good bye to Mr. Rat...

Also, super excited because Sunday I'll be climbing Mulanje for the first time!  Also kind of scared.  This mountain is HUGE!!!  I'm used to little mountains... The Appalachians and the mountains of the Allegheny Plateau near me are babies compared to Mulanje... So, to say I'm a bit intimidated is an understatement.  Also, Amy (my site mate with a lot more climbing experience) scared me because she was going on about how everything I own clothes-wise is not appropriate for this... I guess we'll see.  I'll be on the top for only 3 days, so I'll survive.  That is if I make it to the top in the first place... :)

Anyways... things are picking up work wise... Trying to get information on an oil press for the peanut butter group by me... and getting materials together for a tree nursery... and getting some boreholes (where we get water) back to working condition... So... yup...

Oh my god... I have a blog!!

Oh yeah... that's right... I've joined the dark side.  Actually, the more I thought about it, and the more I realized the mass emails I told random people I'd send out was never going to happen, the more this seemed like a good idea.  So... let the blogging begin...

Thank you Mary Clare for the fabulous URL.  And for just being fabulous in general.

So... For those of you who have not heard... I'm currently living in Malawi (that's in southern Africa) and working as a Peace Corps volunteer... I live in Mulanje district, pretty much at the Mozambique border.  My official job is a community based natural resource management extension worker... or something like that...  I forget... I'll clarify in the future as I figure this thing out.  Anyways...