FOOD!
Food was pretty awesome! I only ate half my plate (dude, I gotta eat more) and half my desserts. What a bummer. There was a whole pig laid out on a platter but I didn't get to take a picture. Sorry. The day at the ambassador's was pretty awesome. The nicest house in all of Malawi... and probably one I'll never own even in the states. Anyway, I played some pool (I sucked as usual), grubbed, and played some rough n tumble. OMG. These boys are freakin huge... 6 feet tall, 200-pounders, larger-than-average homo sapiens. One of my teammates told me, "Just stand there and look cute. They won't hit you cuz, you know, you're small." Dude, he was so wrong. These guys were like bodyslamming me! Anyway, but it was still good to let out some energy... especially after all that grubbing.
Ambassador's House
Here are some pictures of the beautiful house that I'll never own in this lifetime.
-The chair on the left is a Chief Chair.
-There's a beautiful grand piano that I so love, a volunteer playing his violin, and some volunteers dancing.
:)
Folks
Anyway, I'm in a picture with probably the cutest baby in all of Malawi (he's my neighbor)... Too bad you can't actually see his face! haha He's staring at me because he thinks I'm an alien. Well, now he doesn't. haha The women keep trying to get me to breastfeed him. No way jose.
(I'm standing in the assembly hall where the president comes every year to celebrate Chilembwe holiday. My house is right behind. You can probably even see my papaya tree.)
My site periodically receives visitors from the states, because sponsors from the National Baptist Convention want to assist the mission. The most recent were 3 men from Chicago: a retired English professor, a preacher, and a... I'm not quite sure what he was. (I think they're from Alpine Church... apparently the pastor of their church is Barack Obama's spiritual advisor.) The preacher was my age and he wanted American food so bad, so he tipped the driver to take us and my site mate to the nicest restaurant in town for a good ol' American meal. He's a funny guy. He said that his grandfather (a former congressman) never looked at the menu, so when we arrived at the restaurant, he asked to talk to the chef and encouraged him to cook real American food. haha (I captured the moment because I thought it was so funny.) The meal was pretty sweet. The best and probably only burger I'll have in Malawi. :P
These are my site mates (other Peace Corps Volunteers). Eric (on the right) is an Education volunteer who lives 5 minutes from my house. He always makes me cook the chickens. Linda (on the left) is another health volunteer from my group. The one in the middle... that's Mini-Me. :P Look below for another picture.
We were a little traumatized.
Mua Mission
During training, we went to a cultural museum called Mua Mission. It was gorgeous, probably the most beautiful places I've seen in Malawi. I was absolutely blessed to learn some historical and cultural issues... because unfortunately, most Malawians (the younger generations at least) don't really know the culture and history of Malawi anymore. Now I'm on a quest to find an elder and learn as much as I can to preserve as much history about Malawi as I can.
OK, that's it for today! I'll come back again tomorrow! I'll be in town until Monday...
