Updates

Wow, I think I wrote my last post almost a month ago. Time flies. I’ve been here for two months now and it’s seems like I just arrived. 

I’m now living in Salima, which is about 120km east of Lilongwe and 20km from Lake Malawi. It is uncomfortably hot and humid in the town of Salima compare to many places in Malawi, like Mzuzu, Dedza or Lilongwe where it is right cool at night, and even during the day sometimes. I have a hard time sleeping at night, it’s too hot. I moved there about 2 weeks ago now and had been slowly settling in. I’ll love it. I found a place to stay in a village, a few kilometers from the town of Salima, where I’m working (District ater Development and Irrigation Office). I’m moving in sometimes next week, so I’m super excited. It’s a super cute village and I’ll be leaving with a small familly in a 3 bedrooms hut. I actually didn’t see the house, but I met with the mom, she seems great and she’s happy to take me. They don’t speak any English, so it will be a good way for me, or at least a nice incentive to learn Chichewa (now that I was getting better in Tumbuka). I also found a tutor to help me. She is a teacher, she lives 5 minutes from my work and she charges $1,50 (K250) an hour. GREAT!!! I got myself an awesome tanzanian bike last Friday: a cute purple, single speed, with a basket in the front…a sort of old and really authentic cruiser bike! haha. I know. I’m exited to go back to Salima tomorrow and fix the tires, do some maintenance and  bike around my new town, with my new bike…this will be where I’ll be staying for at least the next five months, but probably the rest of the year. I can’t wait to have a day off to bike to the lake for a swim, bring a picnic and a book, and bike back. This will be something I’m planning to do every other weekend…Let’s see how I feel after I do it once (remember I said the bike is old and single speed! so it will be a couple hours to get there), but it will be so woth it. The people I work with seem to be really motivated and clever. They have my age and are using smart phones and like technology a lot. They are extremely busy, but I have a good feeling that it will be a perfect fit for me to work with them. They have to install 40 boreholes over the next year and hopefully I’ll be able to help them with the sitting. About half of the villages in the district don’t have borehole, they share it, and quite a few boreholes have brackish water. It will definitely be interesting to work here, I’ll be learning a lot and hopefully will also be able to help and have a good long tem impact on how they make there decisions. So far, I’ve been going to the field to see how the maintenance/repair of boreholes was done by the district office to help villages; I’ve also been invited to go to a few WASH meeting with UNICEF. I got introduced to a lot of people. Overall, I’m super happy about my new life here and I’m looking forward to get a little bit more settled and know more Chichewa.

Last weekend, for Easter, I went to Nyika Plateau in the north of the country with some friends from Mzuzu. We went camping, saw monkeys, zebras and different types of antelopes. Lovely! It was epic.

Terra, Lisa and Kristina, our new APS just arrived in Lilongwe from Canada and Tanzania this weekend. I came to Lilongwe  on Friday to start processing my working visa and spent the weekend here with them. I went hiking Dedza Montain today with some people who work for UNICEF. It was amazing, plus we stopped for the infamous home made cheesecake (the only place where they even know that cheesecake exist in Malawi) at the pottery shop coffee. I had a fantastic weekend.

My last week in Salima was interesting. I was staying in a small, somehow dodgy guesthouse close to the office. There was no power for five days in the town, and no running water for one and a half day. Hard to get work done. The lack of water made it even harder to sleep at night as I couldn’t take a cold shower before going to bed.  And the lack of electricity made it really complicated to get food. I realized that leaving in a village is not so bad after all, as they don’t depend on running water and electricity.

Anyway, I’m going to bed now, but I wanted to give you guys some news and let you know what was happening in Malawi.

My next post will likely be about my work and how boreholes are installed and how Afridev pumps are working. Stay tune…hopefully there will be power so I can charge my computer and have access to internet. Also, I got my iPhone (thanks Arainn, you have no idea how usefull it is here) set up to receive my emails and tether my computer from almost anywhere. Crazy how internet time and airtime is expensive in Malawi and the networks are not working well most of the time! Ahh

Here is my phone number and address in case someone needs it, if you send me mail, please write the phone number as well, in case there is anything. Also, I don’t have to pay the customs fees for the first six months, so go ahead and send me some birthday gifts (May 31st)!! haha, but no pressure.

Genevieve Parent (+265)992210444

C/O District Council Office

P.O. Box 15, Salima

Malawi