Well helloeee! It’s been a long time, I know, but no fears: I’m alive, well, and haaaapppy 
I have a brilliant host family here. I have an agogo (grandmother) rather than parents, but ME OH MY, do I have an agogo!!! She’s amazing 
. She cracks a load of jokes that I can’t understand cos they’re in Chichewa (prompting me to work extra hard to pick up the language, which I’m beginning to have some real success with), and she’s really grounded to earth. She’s also a lovely lovely person. An example:
On the first night, I arrived at my home in the pitch black, rain peltering down and no electricity to welcome me in. I was tired and apprehensive, but still was quickly informed that I’d be doing the cooking for the family since I’m the only girl in the house (she lives with her son and grandson). I was a little overwhelmed by all this, though also glad I’d be able to help out. Over a week later, I have yet to cook a meal. I always wake up early, and go to the cooking area ready to help, and they always say, “Oooh, today it’s not possible. Tomorrow you can cook though. Yes, tomorrow you’ll cook for all of us”. And I get a little scared because of my limited cooking skills, but also am pacified because I can relax, without feeling I’m skipping chores.
Of course, at first, I believed her, but after a week of “tomorrows” I’m learnign that my cooking role is going to be very limited. he he he. Instead, I’m insisting on plucking maize at every spare opportunity, and helping wash up etc, both of which worry her no end because she thinks my “azungo” (white person”) hands are too soft for suchmanual work. I tell her they’re not, but to be honest they are starting to hurt! I’m hoping to get some nice working calouses 
I’ll be careful, don’t worry.
My counterpart is also really nice. He’s called Wanangwa. Yes, I’m paired with a boy, and he with a girl, basically because in the group we were the only two happy to be with someone of the opposite gender. It’s worked out pretty well though cos we have some great conversations, and he’s very good at looking after me. He also has a sense of humour. Note the absence of a positive modifying adjective in that sentence. Ha ha ha. But yeah, I’m happy with my counterpart, and all in all my home situation is excellent.
Work. More good news, eh?! I’m working at an ECD (early childhood development centre), which is basically a preschool. And this preschool is basically a room. I’m not even exagerating. In listing the resources we have, I usually mention the keys for the door, because aside from a small table that’s too high for the kids in one corner, and 4 chairs we’ve recently been borrowing from the primary school next door, that is IT. No paper. No pens. No toys. No sand pit. No water bucket for washing hands. It doesn’t even have its own toilet. And the teachers have very kind hearts, and some are good with the kdis, but none have ever been trained and they presently seem to just get the kids to sing songs or recite the calender etc. The kdis are basically repeating what they hear, as ask them any questions about content and they have no clue.
But we’ve got lots of exciting plans for them, and have already been running some great sessions. We’re recycling waste to make toys (plastic bottles, waste paper, cloth from the tailors etc) and are going to go round lcoal shops asking for anything they can spare, even cardboard boxes etc. And we’re also going to send a proposal to Unicef, who should help us out with toys etc.
I say we very ambiguously. I mean Ruth and I. Ruth is my volutner placement counterpart. She must be the best work counterpart possible. And loko- I know that by now you must be thinking that my enthusiastic nature has made me delirious, but the fact is that I’ve simply been very lucky. Other people are having a much harder time, and I’m feeling rather jammy. So as I was saying, Ruth is amazing. She has so much energy with the children, and she plans great activities for them, and also hm. She’s always pose when I do things with them. She’s always positive and fair-minded, and is also very bright, so we have great conversations, and if something’s troubling me, she’s just the perfect person to speak to. My strengths at the moment lie more in planning the sessions and thinking of materials to use and activities to try, whereas Ruth really shines in the execution. In that way, we form a great term, and if we can both learn to develop the other’s skills we’ll benefit so much from this placement, it’ll be awesome!
I think I’ll leave it at that for now. I have lots more to tell: about the… well, I’ll bullet point for you:
Religion (No God?! What?! Why?! Oh, but God is great! How peculiar!)
Spiritual beliefs (esp Mulange mountain and mystical bananas)
Percetions of white people (esp when they’re eating sugar cane as well as the locals, he he he)
The weather, which is not too but three hot.
Community culture- which lives up to all expectations and is just lovely.
All the wonderful people I’ve met.
Food (Nsima with strictly vegetarian relish, much to agogo’s concern)
And oh, a load of other things! But for now, much much love and my very best wishes,
Sally
xxx
