More details, as promised

Here’s a basic timeline of my PC saga so far:

January 2008:  Submitted application.

March 2008:  Nominated.

August 2008:  Finally cleared medically (legal and dental clearance happened months earlier) when the blood tests showed that the iron supplements were working and I wasn’t anemic anymore (who knew?).

September 2008:  For one glorious minute I was invited to serve in Kenya or Lesotho (they didn’t actually say the countries, but I figured it out from the departure dates), but once I told them my mom had recently been diagnosed with cancer I was put on hold until at least March.

March 2009:  Mom is done with chemo and I renew my application and a few weeks later am invited to serve in Malawi!  I happily accept and proceed to hog the computer for the next several days, voraciously looking up information on the country.

If all goes well, I will be out of here in September!  Malawi is holding elections in May, which makes me a little nervous (Africa in general doesn’t have a good track record with smooth elections) but I choose to remain optimistic.  Granted, September is yet another 6 months away, but at least I have something specific to prepare for and anticipate.  Plus, I’ll have PAPA to keep me busy for a couple months, even if I don’t find any other work.

A little more specifically, here’s the info the PC sent me.  Orientation (a.k.a. staging) will be September 23-24 somewhere on the mainland (held in Philadelphia in the past), followed by pre-service training in Malawi from September 26 to December 5.  My two years of service will be from December 6, 2009 to December 5, 2011.  My official job title is Teacher Development Facilitator.  

“What the heck is a Teacher Development Facilitator?” you ask.  Let me clarify a bit.  In the ’90s primary education became free in Malawi, which means that there’s a greater demand now for secondary education.  This need is being met by government-sponsored schools, private schools, and Community Day Secondary Schools.  The first two are pretty well funded, but the CDSSs struggle.  There isn’t adequate space for all the students who attend (50-100 students per class), resources are limited (imagine teaching with only one book for the entire class), and many of the teachers are certified at the primary school level and aren’t quite ready to handle secondary (high school) teaching.  I will work with a cluster of CDSSs doing professional development workshops as well as visiting classes and working with individual teachers.  I’ll probably do some curriculum development and a bunch of other things I haven’t even anticipated yet!

“Sounds interesting.  And what do you know about Malawi, Amy?”  It’s roughly the size of Indiana and contains the 3rd largest lake in Africa, which is a major source of tropical aquarium fish (cichlids).  With about 14 million people packed in its borders, it’s has one of the highest population densities in Africa.  It’s a former British protectorate, and gained independence in the 1960s.  English is an official language, as well as Chichewa, which about half the population speaks.  There are several other languages spoken throughout the country as well.  For now, I’m learning Chichewa, although I may not end up using it very much, depending on where in the country I get placed.  About 10% of the population is HIV positive.  The weather varies between hot and dry, cold and dry, and warm and wet seasons.  I will need to take malaria meds and sleep under a mosquito net.   I will have to wear skirts or dresses to work.  The staple food is nsima, which is sort of a pasty thing made out of maize, from what I can tell.  I’ll also be eating a lot of tomatoes, onions, beans, bananas, and other foods that, thank goodness, I already like.  Yes, there are some cool wild animals like zebras and hippos, but they’re mostly in national parks.  It is unlikely that I’ll have running water or electricity.  I’ll probably do a lot of hitchhiking to travel long distances (apparently this doesn’t have the same “oh my gosh you’ll get picked up by a psycho killer and we’ll never see you again” stigma in Malawi that it does in America, for all the worried mother hens out there…although I admit it makes me a little nervous too).  There’s some great vacation potential around the lake and in the mountains, and not overrun with a bunch of  tourists, like some of Malawi’s neighbors.  Malawi is known as the “Warm Heart of Africa.”

Hopefully that’s enough information to satisfy inquiring minds for right now.  If you have questions, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.  Can you tell I’m just kind of excited about Malawi?  Woo hoo!