Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

English is the language of a people who have probably earned their reputation for perfidy and hypocrisy because their language itself is so flexible, so often lightheaded with statements which appear to mean one thing one year and quite a different thing the next
–Paul Scott

I don’t know what’s more difficult, life or the English language.
–Jonathan Ames

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that despite all the progress that has been made in the past 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.
–Dave Barry

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

A lot of the reason that the amount of my blog posts has decreased over the past year is because I’ve become accustomed to most things here. Things which would have shocked me upon first arriving do not shock me anymore and it seems trivial to write about them. It is difficult to imagine how people in the US who have never left would react to similar situations. Sometimes I immediately think “this is Malawi” but often, a few days after a given situation, I reflect and think, “wait, that never would have happened in the states.” I have tried my best to think of some situations like this and present a collection of short anecdotes about them here, things that showcase both the good, the bad, and the in-between of Malawi, which all countries have.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

“I couldn’t poop in a hole in the ground.”—friend from home

“You don’t have electricity? So then how do you cook?”—Another friend from home

“I couldn’t live like you do, without anything.”—Government worker in Lilongwe

“This country is very poor with a lot of corruption. We cannot be like the United States.”—Malawian from my village

“Kodi tingatukuke bwanji opanda mphamvu zodalirika?” (”How can we develop without dependable electricity?”)—Sign near Mzimba turn-off.

“You mean there is also poverty in the United States? We were never told these things.”—My Chichewa tutor.

“Insanity is going to work for a power company every day and making schedules for when the power will not work.”—Popular anonymous quote shared by Malawians on WhatsApp

There was a lunar eclipse here a few nights ago. I wrote this poem after watching it with my neighbor.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

In 1959, in the lead-up to independence, Malawi (then Nyasaland) declared a State of Emergency, due to ongoing conflicts associated with the independence struggle.

“A striking event took place during the State of Emergency. On 6 March 1959, the Provincial Commissioner sent a message to the missionaries at Livingstonia indicating that a Nyassa Railways launch, the Ncheni, would be anchored off Chitimba at 0530 the next morning and that any missionaries who wished to be evacuated and preserved from the presumed dangers of living in the midst of an African population would be taken to Nkhata Bay. When the missionaries’ governing body met, it was decided that no one wished to be evacuated and the community would stick together.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

In 1994, Kamuzu was ousted out the government, Bakili Muluzi was elected president, and attempted to have Kamuzu arrested for murder during his administration. Kamuzu died not long after, unable to see the radical changes his country was about to make.

As with many countries following the end of the Cold War, Malawi began to implement many democratic programs. And it did so full throttle. Perhaps the most impactful thing it did was implement FPE—Free Primary Education for all. Not only was this a drastic change, it was a sudden one, complicated by problems that in hindsight, many Malawians say should have been obvious.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

Girls. The answer is pretty simple. There’s this saying which exists elsewhere but I’ve heard it far more often in Malawi: if you educate a boy, you educate that boy. But if you educate a girl, you educate a nation. Which is true. You do. Unfortunately, in much of the developing world, this does not happen.

The literacy rate here is partial evidence of this:

Males: 70%
Females: 54%

There are a variety of obstacles standing in the way of girls’ education along with other things girls may not have the ability to do. These problems are unfortunately not unique to Malawi.

Disclaimer: The views represented in this blog are entirely my own and do not represent the views of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

It is 6:50am. I tie my shoes and head out the door at the time I normally do. As soon as I step outside, I see the grey skies and realize I forgot my umbrella. It hasn’t stopped raining for 6 days. The rains are a much-needed relief after so many concerns about drought, but their noise upon a tin roof makes it difficult to sleep at night, and the mud they create makes it extremely difficult for students to get to school, and thus causes attendance to go down heavily. I go back in and grab my umbrella and set my large backpack by the door, so that I can easily get to it when I come back after school and prepare to board a minibus to spend the weekend in Lilongwe. Several friends will be there that I haven’t seen for a while.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

“Why do we want people from Haiti here?”—President Trump at an immigration meeting on January 11^th, before going on to call Haiti, El Salvador and all of Africa “shithole countries” and claim that we should bring in immigrants from more countries like Norway.

It’s not really relevant that he is now denying he ever said this because plenty of people are still defending it as is, with the harsh language he claims he never used. Furthermore, this is a man who has denied repeatedly saying things we have video and audio evidence of him saying. I’m not yet prepared to believe his story. Also, both Trump’s and the media’s inordinate amount of attention on the word “shithole” distracts from the real problems inherent within the statement and the description—the American relationship with other countries (not to mention what the UN says “cannot be called anything other than racism.”). Regardless of whether he used the word “shithole,” the sentiment behind the statement is clearly the stance of he and those who support him.

Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Peace Corps or the United States Government.

First, a word on language. For such a small country, Malawi has a pretty diverse amount of languages. There are about 10 or 11 total if we don’t count Chitipa, Malawi’s northernmost district. Due to a variety of geographical and other factors, Chitipa alone has upwards of twenty languages. The main language used in Malawi is Chichewa, which is native to the Central Region (Malawi has 3 regions: Northern, Central, and Southern).

(Side note: The Chi- at the beginning of most words in Chichewa is a prefix meant to denote something big. Thus most languages in Malawi are denoted by placing a chi- in front of the name of that tribe. Thus Chichewa is the language of the Chewa people and Chitumbuka is the language of the Tumbuka people and so on).