Malawi, the adventure begins...

I’m in Philadelphia!! I am now without a phone, but have high-speed internet (yay!) and feel spoiled in such a huge room with such a huge bed. There’s 2 queen sized beds in the room, and I really thought that there would be 4 ppl in the room, packed together to build character (…guess not). For those of you who are wondering what exactly I’m going to be up to over the next few weeks.. here’s the down-low.

While in Philly we have one day of briefings, ice breakers, etc. The medical stuff is bright and early in the morning at 7.. how I’m going to wake up for that I have no idea. Hopefully adrenaline. The next day we leave for Malawi at 2am in the morning. I’ll just stay up for that one. I have a feeling a bunch of people will. 

I’ve met only a couple of environment folks so far. They’re both from California.They are also awesome. One guy and I already have multiple secret handshakes down. Whether these three things are correlated or not I’m not sure about yet. 

What else… once I get to the country who knows what happens. Somehow we are getting from the capital, Lilongwe, to a high altitude alpine forest where we’ll be staying for the next 2 months (I believe). We’re in dorms for the first week and then later living with homestays, and all the while undergoing training, most of which is in language. After that if all goes well and we aren’t evacuated from the country because of terrorist threats (which happened to some people in our group), we will be assigned a project and have a job, and be able to get 50% discounts on Chaco sandals.

I am super excited, happy to be with such fun people on this journey, and a little nervous as well. I still don’t know how I’m going to wake up at 7am tomorrow. Better sleep now.

I am feeling the loss of my phone, and missing being in touch with all of you already, but I am thinking of you and hope to hear from you.  

Moni! Hello!

Here begins the chronicle of my adventures as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi. I will try to keep everyone posted as frequently as possible. Not sure yet exactly what the internet situation is going to be like, so cross your fingers and hope it exists.

It still hasn’t hit me that I’m leaving so soon. But I am excited, so excited. I can’t wait to learn Chichewa, the local language- I’m going to try and title each entry with a word in Chichewa, so you can learn it with me! Haha. Bet you’re excited about that. 

At any rate, here it goes, keep in touch! You can send me letters at the following address:

Shira Stites, PCV
c/o Peace Corps Malawi
PO Box 208
Lilongwe, Malawi
AFRICA 

Just be aware that it may take 4-6 weeks in transit, and number each one you send to me, in case they get lost!