180 Days of Awesome

I received a text from my dear friend Shelly as I was getting ready for bed last night:  “Join me in 180 Days of Awesome!”  Intrigued and always trusting Shelly for a good time, I immediately said yes.  Shelly has the best ideas in the world.  The plan is to record something awesome every single day for the rest of our service (which is approximately 180 days, as we have about 6 months left).  Of course I’m in!  Once you get to that point in your service when you switch from counting how many months you’ve been in country to counting how many months you have left in country, you start to feel the looming presence of the end.  I feel a mixture of excitement and nostalgia and after talking to current RPCVs, I realize I need to treasure these last six months.  So, like the roller coaster that is Peace Corps, sometimes you’re flying high with your hands in the air and sometimes you’re leaning over puking chunks of nsima (thanks for the imagery, Shell), I’ve decided to take on this challenge and go out with my arms waving in the air, a dopey grin on my face and joy in my heart (and very few chunks of nsima on my chin).

Now, we discussed this last night, but I’ve decided to start documenting my 180 starting with this weekend, will you be okay with this?  I hope it’s not considered cheating.  In my defense, we officially hit our 21 months in country on Saturday.  Okay, here goes... 

Day 1 of Awesome

I just returned from a week of sickness in Lilongwe.  It’s time for a real recovery.  I head over to see my best friend, Ama Chimbutu.  It’s crazy that we’re so close - she doesn’t speak English and I struggle through my Chitonga – but somehow I walk away from every conversation we’ve ever had feeling like we spoke entirely in English.  She’s patient and says things in a way that I will understand –using a lot of flailing hand gestures and body movements while also speaking in roundabout ways.  We immediately hug and chat for an hour.  I invite her to the market and she says she doesn’t need anything.  I insist.  She tells me to bathe (because I do need reminders for that quite often) and she puts on her nice clothes.  I invite Ama Chipalasa, as well, who runs to change into her nice clothes.  The three of us walk down the narrow path practically arm-in-arm.  I feel like we’re in a parade.  We greet everyone and Ama Chimbutu announces to every passer-by that I invited her and Ama Chipalasa to the market.  It doesn’t seem that exciting to me.  The market is 300 meters from the hospital where we live and I don’t need to buy anything anyway.  We immediately walk to the bend-over clothing section – where huge piles of hand-me-downs line the street.  It’s like shopping with my friends back home – we try on shirts and dresses and model them and validate everything about the item of clothing.  I tell Ama Chimbutu to only buy a dress if you look good when you dance.  So that’s what we did – tried on every single ugly dress and danced to the outrageously loud music that was bumping from the speakers down the road.  It was magical – dancing, cheering and acting so silly!  We didn’t have a care in the world.  Ama Chimbutu fell in love with a nice-looking dress – and she truly looked great in it – so I bought it for her.  She was ecstatic.  I tried on a few shirts and Ama Chimbutu insisted that my future husband will love me and hug me if I wear this quite cute blue number.  Sold.  We picked up some freezies to cool off on our walk home.  It’s amazing how women can bond in such a way that language doesn’t have to be an issue.

Awesome Day #2

Ama Chipalasa was impressed with how nice my hair was yesterday when I washed it that she asked me if I would let her braid it.  Of course!  She pulled out a hair pick and went straight to work.  She divided a few sections and painstakingly braided the tiniest braids in neat little rows all the way down my head.  Her one-year old tot cried every time Ama turned her attention to me, so she left her breast out of her shirt so the baby could eat whenever she wanted.  The daughters of the Chipalasas and Chimbutus were hanging around so I gave them my camera to play with.  There were plenty of close-up faces and ridiculous glamour shots and goofy poses that make me laugh for days.  At the end of my hair braiding (a mere two hours later) I was told that Ada Phiri will think I’m so beautiful.  Again, sold.

Day 3 of Awesome 

Girls Club meets every Sunday at 2 pm at my house.  This is a well-known fact, but why-oh-why are girls not showing up!?  At this meeting, two girls showed.  Disappointed, but not wanting to waste a session, we talked about how we can get more girls to come to our meetings.  We made posters to advertise Girls Club at school, while rocking out to some Girl Talk.  The creative genius in Malawi kills me!

Poster 1:  “Come on girls and ride that pony, especially if it’s a big, fat one!  Come to Anya Chirwa’s house to learn more about yourself and have fun!”

Poster 2:  “Sir, how can I learn more about women’s health and other things about girls?” “Well, student, I do not know!  I am just a man.  You should talk to Madam Anya Chirwa about such matters on Sunday at 2 pm”

Poster 3:  “What is stopping you from coming to Girls Club?  Do you know that we learn so many things?  Come on Sunday and find out for yourself!”

I hope these posters work.

Awesome Day # 4

I meandered over to Ama Chipalasa’s just as the sun started creeping behind the hills.  We sat on her porch in silence, eating mangos from her tree and commenting on the kids playing in the yard.  They drew hopscotch in the sand with a stone and played for hours.  They squealed with laughter and at some points became extremely rowdy, but Ama Chipalasa just laughed at their silly behavior.  The sun created a yellow hue in the air and it started to cool down.  I leaned my head back and savored my mango, as little girls laughed and cheered and called out to me.  Yes, this is what I will miss the most...lazy, hot afternoons on the porch basking in the amber light of a sunset.