Another Year, Another Windy Season

Here in Malawi, just like the rest of the world, there are seasons.  As best as my memory can recall, in North America there are 4 advertized seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.  In Malawi we don’t have quite such dramatic changes, but we still have seasons.  Currently we are entering the cool dry season, followed by the hot dry season which changes to the hot rainy season. 

Those are seasons in a nutshell, but what about the seasons in between the seasons, the obscure seasons that are extremely localized and specific?

What do I mean?

Well for example, in Colorado, March tends to be a useless month.  It is warming up (a little) and the snow is melting, thus, mud season. 
How about Malawi?

For starters we have the different fruit seasons, currently we are in what is probably my favorite fruit season, guava and avocado season.  FYI, Malawi avocados are way better than American avocados. Depending on what part of the country you are in there are seasons you don’t get elsewhere.  Fruits like Masuku come into season in October but you can’t get the really nice big ones in Nkhotakota, you have to go South for that.  Through the whole country you get mangos from about November until about January.  Again, it depends on the region, the last week of March I was in Dedza and I had a mango, weird. 

Then there are seasons no one mentions but are kind of implied.  Everyone knows that this time of year is the cool season but my first year here no one bothered to tell me that is doubled as the windy season.  From now until maybe August it will be windy, lots of windy.  At first I thought the windy season was great, it was cooler, no more rain, clothes were drying in one day on the line, and then I went for a bike ride. Biking in the wind sucks.  A lot. There are a few hills on the ride in to Nkhotakota and while they were bad at first I’ve gotten used to them but biking up them in a head wind really adds a certain special something.  Kind of like a shooting pain in my legs, that kind of special something.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it would actually work with me, you know a little tail wind would be great, but this place does the opposite of a tail wind.  Whenever I bike it is in a head wind. 

At first I thought, “ok, headwind on the way in but tail wind on the way home!” nope. Whenever I bike, anywhere I bike, it is in a headwind.  The laws of nature will actively conspire against me to see to it that I bike in a head wind.  Someone should call NASA, they may be interested in this.  It may be affecting ocean currents as well so call NOAA while you’re at it. 

And the unfair part is that I will adjust to biking in the wind and then the wind will stop.  Then it will be time to bike in the heat, exactly when you actually want the wind.  Go figure.

Also, now is the start of elephant season.  I believe we touched on this last year, the elephants situation here.  Well they’re back.  Two nights ago to be specific, a herd came out and ate a few maize fields. Because this time of the year is when maize is ready to be harvested the elephants come out and make a meal of a few fields in a night.  So I’ll let you know how things progress with the elephants this year. 

Other than all that I would like to announce that my group has hit the one year mark.  That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’ve survived intact in Africa for a whole year.  The old group has left, they are all back in the states and the new health/environment group swears in on May 2^nd so welcome to them and we’ll miss you to the old group! This time next year I’ll be seeing you all back in the States and wishing good luck to the group replacing mine.  

Pre-service Training, Take Two

That's right, it's March and once again my stalwart powers of procrastination have paid in dividens and you have not had a blog post in a while. Some people count this as good fortune.

When we last met, the new health/environment group had not yet arrived. They have since arrived and are currently starting week three of their homestay.  I was there for week two of training as one of the resource volunteers of the week. And I really have to say I think the new group is pretty solid. They are doing well in language from what I saw and they are dealing with the changes in training well. Which I guess is to be expected because they don't know what the old system was.

Now, this is my second time in homestay. Truthfully, homestay is better the second time around. The food, you appreciate the food. Last time the food was about as exciting as getting a flu shot, but at least my arm didn't hurt after dinner. You don't appreciate the food at all, it is rice, greens and chicken or soya pieces. This time around it was rice, greens, chicken or soya pieces! WOOH! Reliable protein every night that I didn't have to cook! It was amazing!

Also, people heat your bafa water for you each morning. I don't have to heat my own water! The first time around you are thinking, "I am squatting next to a bucket dumping water on my head with a cup. When do bow and arrow making classes start?"
This time around you're thinking, "I can adjust the water temperature just by adding a scoop of hot or a schoop of cold! Oh the luxury! Bring me the head of a goat! I crave the head of a goat!"

And you are in a position of power, granted it is not much power, but you can leave when you want, talk to people and it doesn't matter because you are not under the oppressive thumb of the training day.

All in all I recommend living in a country for a year before going to training. It helped me! Hopefully picture will come soon, be patient please.