Celebrating 100 Days In Malawi

Zikutheka? (How's it going?)

Yesterday officially marked four weeks that I've been living at my new site...and just a few days prior to that, I realized that I had been in Malawi for 100 days! For as long as individual days can sometimes feel, the weeks have been flying by shamelessly.

I've been gradually meeting more folks and groups around my community, attending events and workshops (i.e. goat-husbandry clinics) with my counterpart, dealing with a minor bed bug infestation (#gross), cooking over a charcoal cookstove semi-successfully (just don't ask the neighbor kids about the "rice" I shared with them a couple weeks ago), and I've even started a lil' backyard garden! More info to come about all of these endeavors, but I've got something fun for y'all today 😊

In addition to blogging about my experiences, I also keep a daily journal to document each day's activities/feelings/ponderings /you-name-it. I've kept this a habit since studying abroad in 2022, and it's a practice in reflection that I've found to be grounding and beneficial for my mental health. Plus it's just cool to be able to look back and have a record of each day of my life!?! Around the new year, a friend inspired me to start titling my journal entries; now, coming up with a clever, silly, contemplative or completely random title has become something I look forward to each day! I've also stolen many one-liners from my friends to serve as titles - cue me declaring "THAT'S GOING IN THE JOURNAL"

To celebrate being in-country for 100 days, I thought it would be neat to share some of my favorite journal titles during that time - a highlight reel, as it were. In full transparency, some of the toughest and most challenging days of my life have been within these past several months; at the same time, I've also had some really rewarding, beautiful, and once-in-a-lifetime kind of days whilst here. Hopefully, the following list can serve as a reflection of that, and I think it will provide some good chuckles, too 😄 They are listed in-order, from my first few days in Malawi, up until now. Enjoy!!

• "I'm going on an adventure!"
• What am I doing
• Attempting nsima
• Nyenyezi means stars
• "I will teach you how to sit on your hoes"
• Spidergirl learns how to wash her clothes
• "Required by Washington"
• We are Peas Corn
• Solstice hoe-down
• Work the vert
• Amayi pep-talks me
• TUMMY HURTS
• tummy hurts pt.2
• Nsima x2
• Taco tuesday...takes on a new meaning
• Distance is for the bold
• No teeth in my heart
• Amayi is proud of me ❤️
• Impacted goat meat
• Mock LPI and noticing my nail dirt
• Minibus mischief
• Amuna anga
• Ummm we're here?
• Stay strong, homeslice
• Chicken feathers
• Ball Atreides
• I love them more than I feel sad to miss them
• "We are not together, your mind is on the batata"
• Dimba la pa khomo
• Breaking through the afternoon siesta fog
• "The only good Bob in this world is Ross, and he's the exception not the rule"
• The One Where the Malawians Smoke us in Football
• Cha cha, nonse
• I Got Enough Sleep
• "Like finding saltines on a lifeboat"
• "Do you think there's time to tinkle?"
• I AM A UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER
• kum'mwera
• mental health chair(s)
• I saw a Bob Marley chitenge
• Bit rough, innit?
• On the business of goats
• Asking for help
• Vision-boarding
• Zomba town and hating Chris Brown
• Melancholic solitude
• Bye bye, piggie
• Bad Mbuzi, pt.5 (or something like that)
• BEANS, BABY
• nkonono, or snoring
• Grinding Flour for (Tame) Mphala
• Walkin', Talkin', (not) Balkin'

Aaand that's all for now, folks! Thanks again for following along, and I'll chat at ya later 😄

Katy