Leaving Malawi, Part II

| September 7, 2009

If I said there aren’t some things I’ll be happy to leave, I’d be lying. Mostly things like stone babies and the way many men feel they own my body because I’m a woman, and being called azungu azungu all the time, and feeling like I live in a fishbowl—the only way to escape it [...]

Leaving Malawi, Part I

| September 3, 2009

I haven´t written about my last weeks in Malawi partly because I still don´t have pics uploaded for some posts I´ve already written, but mostly because I´ve been in a serious state of denial: refusing to say good-bye to people I know I won´t see again; planning multiple trips back to Zomba so I can´t [...]

How Peace Corps is like a coat

| September 2, 2009

I think one of the problems some people have when returning from Peace Corps is a response to the loss of what Peace Corps means for one’s identity. For one thing, Peace Corps goes to great lengths to enculturate us–my mom even asked me, when we were kept incommunicado with the outside world during training, [...]

Just got back from . . .

| May 5, 2009

Last week I had my COS (Close of Service) Conference, We went to Nkhotakota Pottery on Monday and came back to Lilongwe on Friday. The Close of Service conference is about learning what paperwork we have to do, and how to exit our communities gracefully. After all, it’s tough to adjust to a place where [...]