Sworn in and ready to go!

So first, this happened:

Peace Corps official!

We famous!

Then, I finally made it to Blantyre! But a quick recap first...

Last weekend we went to Dedza, which is quite lovely.  We went to Dedza Pottery, home of beautiful ceramic pottery and excellent cheesecake (no idea where that came from).  We hiked up Dedza mountain, which is a fairly strenuous climb but worth the views.

My legs were Dedza by now (ha ha ha I know. My other fave pun here is: Do you wanna take a shortcut or go Lilongwe?) 

Our guide, wearing what looked like dress shoes and slacks the whole way up, in no way looked tired and then pulled out at least 10 glass bottles of soda at the top, despite there only being six of us, because we “need choices!” He seemed to really love his job and told us it was a blessing to have visitors like us come and climb the mountain.  It was a great day, especially after being stuck in a conference room for like 2 weeks straight.

So many plants and wild flowers along the way

We arrived in Blantyre 3 days ago. Our first day here was a little rough. We arrived late so it was too dark to do anything, since every store pretty much closes when it’s dark, which is about 6 pm. Our house initially looked very sad (think the prison/barracks-type vibe) with concrete floors and a nice layer of dust and dirt over everything. Very minimalist. With the exception of a creepy giant crucifix that is so inviting.

Broken arm Jesus (his left arm is not quite intact)

Turns out thoughts of “Why did I just get rid of all my stuff and leave everything to come here?” creep up a lot more easily when you open a closet and find a layer of dead bugs.

But the layers of dirt and bugs have been wiped away and I actually think my room is now pretty cheerful.  I have already found some awesome batik prints by a local artist

My batik wall so far

We had the purchase of the year with 6 woven grass mats for 8,000 kwacha (about $10) total. Pottery Barn’s got nothing on us! 

Feeling better, we also walked to the market on Friday which was a fun experience. So many colorful chitenjes (the 2 meter pieces of fabric with 100 uses: used to make clothing, wrapped around as an apron, headwear, the list goes on), a weird sort of bar area in little shacks with sheets for curtains (one even had pool tables), electronics… somehow we never even found the part with fruits and vegetables.  We were feeling pretty good and then had 2 kids follow us for about a mile and a half asking for money.  Even after I told them no and go away in English and Chichewa. Or at least I think I said that in Chichewa. That could be why they kept following us.  It was both sad and quite frustrating.  I have a feeling there will be more situations in the months to come.  It is hard when you walk out of a market or grocery store here with bags full of food and there is usually someone coming up to you asking for food or money. Not a great feeling.

More to come!