Saturday, April 4, 2009

last mass email..at least for a while...

Hello All,

(the surprise will follow this paragraph...it's like christmas, you have to wait for the good presents!)

So it has been a while since you have heard from me. I apologize for it being so long between emails. I've spent three months at my site in Nambuma loving life, loving teaching, loving my students and my village. Of course there were ups and downs: dealing with corrupt administrators at my school, learning how to light charcoal without losing my eyebrows, learning that I cannot do everything asked of me even if I tried. I found my place in that school to be more of a guidance counselor type. My students spent afternoons on my porch talking about their lives, their families, their incredible stories, and I felt comfortable in that position. The Reverend's family (my neighbours) took care of me: the 9 year old girl, Chisomo, would wake me up at the crack of dawn just so she could give me tomatoes or ask if I wanted to go get water at the borehole...so at 6:00 in the morning you would find me either with a bowl of 20 tomatoes or a bucket of water on my head. I spent time in the city of Lilongwe relaxing with my beautiful friends in Peace Corps and I spent time at my site making incredible friends (including a Minister of Parliment's son...celebrity, eh?).

I love Peace Corps and I love Malawi. So much.

But as of right now, I am home on the Cape. Due to a complicated situation I'm not exactly allowed to discuss, I had to leave Malawi...

Don't worry: I am safe, I am healthy, and I am okay. I arrived in DC last week and home a couple of days ago (my cat got so FAT). It is incredibly surreal to be back home, back in the states, back under these circumstances.

I have many things to figure out including if I want to go back to Peace Corps. I have a year to decide if I want to be reinstated, but due to the circumstances, Iprobably cannot return to Peace Corps Malawi. I'm thinking I'll spend a few weeks bumming around seeing people and maybe end up in NYC or San Francisco with a sister...I'll figure it out eventually, right?

I am sorry I had to send this in an email, but I wanted to let you all know before the phones started ringing.

Sending my love,
Erica