Sunday, April 6, 2008

FROM THE WARM HEART OF AFRICA!!!

WOW words can not describe this place…beautiful scenes and beautiful people! Our group arrived in Lilongwe Feb. 25, after the second longest flight that any person can take in the world ( 17 hours to south Africa, 1 day lay over in Jo’Burg and a 3 hour flight to Lilongwe, Malawi!) Our group of Trainees headed off straight to our training site, Dedza! Our Peace Corp Training is awesome and has exceeded every expectation that I had. For the past 4 weeks each trainee has stayed with a host family in the village. Learning culture, LANGUAGE (Chichewa), and environmental technical skills, each of the trainees have been exposed to some of the expectations for the next two years but we are learning everyday.
Sorry I haven’t written…No technology what so ever! ITS BEEN GREAT! What little technology I did bring from the states has failed me…my watch, my camera and my Ipod…THIS IS WHY I CANN’T HAVE NICE THINGS We get bits and pieces of news from across the world on short wave radio but its nice to be fully immersed in this new culture. Internet is available here but slow and expensive so I don’t know how much blogging I will be able to do.
I do have a cell phone…AWESOME…let me tell you how weird it sounds talking to someone in the states, at night in the village! But never the less its always nice to receive free incoming calls on my phone. I will be leaving my phone on all day Sundays for those of you who want to drop me a line (Skype $0.8/min) give me a call. Sorry if I keep it short but electricity is hard to find some times.
So I receive my site placement and I am extremely excited to pass the news that my house is a 30 min WALK TO THE BEACH! I will be assisting a variety of projects outside Kuti Game Ranch. Protected area management of the surrounding wetlands, ecto-tourism potential, crop diversification, just to name a few. I’m the first Peace Corps volunteer to my village so the potential is endless!! Its hot as hell but come on it’s the beach…I’m going to get myself a wooden canoe, paddle out and spend my free time doing a lot of FISHIN!
Hope all is well back home…I miss the states…but…. I still cann’t believe I live by the lake! I bet everyone is going to come visit now!

LOVE TO ALL
Kirk
Phone: 265 09 120 889