The travel to Malawi is a grueling 8,000 mile, 22-hour flight from New York. Add to the trip a crowded plane with a stop in South Africa and the overnight flight is less than enjoyable. Thirty nine joined the Peace Corps gathering in early March at a Philadelphia staging area for a first time adventure to a land that none of us had visited.
In reality the only consolation after a lengthy Peace Corps application process was the real beginning of new and strange journey. For many of us it was the surrealistic feeling of starting a forward motion towards Africa.
We arrived at Lilongwe International and were welcomed by a gauntlet of Peace Corps staff and volunteers yelling and cheering us for our first taste of Malawi. By then it was midday almost a whole twenty four hour later.
The next stop was an hour and half trip south to the training location at Malawi’s forestry college in a rural section of Dedza. The location was is about six miles off the main highway down a rutted dirt road fit only for four wheel drive high riding vehicle.
The training plan called for a week stay at the school to give us a chance to get oriented and catch up of the lost sleep. This was followed by a four week stay at a nearby village with a host family. During that time we were given specialized class in culture, language, health care and environment.
Living with our host families was perhaps the critical introduction to the heart and soul of the Malawi experience. Added to the mix was no running water or electricity. After living in the village we returned to the college for another four weeks because of the potential political impact of the death of the late Malawi president in April.
That final four weeks were spent with more language, culture and health care sessions to prepare us for a two year stay. Our group specializes in either health care or the environment.
Our return to the forestry school gave us a chance to improve our skills. The whole training phase lasted two months followed by the swearing in ceremony by two US senators for the remaining 36 volunteers.
It’s now four months since that sweating in and our group, now thirty four, has started a two week in service training session. During the past months all of us have been working at our assigned location. Some are at clinics, hospitals, community organizations and national parks.
Since our first training sessions and working for months in our communities, we have changed. All our expectations of six months ago now take on a different perspective and are perhaps more realistic.
Early one morning during the first week a small group of us climbed the Dedza Mountains near our training location. It was six month ago that as new comers to Africa we stood on the same mountain top. The view this week hasn’t changed. In every direction it was clear as far as the eye could see.
Even to the west the view into Mozambique is breath taking. But now we were no longer strangers to this wonderful land. Africa has become home. The climb to the top for some strange reason did not seem as difficult or long. Everything had changed.
Much of our in service training included more language classes and sessions about project development as well as more nuances respective to Malawian culture. Sitting in classes for the first time in four months was different because we were no long the strangers to Africa.
We’ve been immersed in Malawi living in our respective communities and villages. We have participated in scores of meetings and worked on projects that will be maintained during the next two year. Four months ago we were fresh faces but we have aged and all of us have realized the challenges of living in a strange country.
It is an easy task to look at the work we are doing or the projects that will carry us during the next two years. What is harder to understand is the depth that each of us has changed. Perhaps the most noticeable change has been the increased level of confidence. This new found self-confidence is laced with more patience that surprises even me.
Maybe a way to define the change is having a better understanding of our selves. Perhaps some of us came here to save Malawi or Africa. In fact the real salvation is us. During the past months we have been tested and retested a thousand times. Each of the tests is prefaced with the question, “Can I really do this and will anything I do here in Malawi really make a difference?”
There seems to be an acquired acceptance of the limited amount we can to in the next two years. The mystery of what is possible is laid bare. Yet I don’t find any much uneasiness about the limits of what any of us can accomplish.
It is not that our expectations or goals have lowered but rather the reality of what is possible has risen to the fore front. I’m finding that many in our group are more resolved with knowing not so much what they can do but rather what they can’t or won’t be able to accomplish. All that enthusiasm has been tailored into more workable practical solutions.
A short while back US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Malawi. Her words to us were about the part we share as Americans working here. We are part of a larger team effort bringing a new sustainable hope to Malawi. It is not so much what any of us will do individually but rather what we accomplish together serving in a foreign country. We bring the change of hope.
The great fortune of our group is simply we are probably the one of the most enthusiastic group of dedicated individuals who’ve made a direct two year commitment to serve their country and to the people of Malawi. In such a strange way we have created an extended family of thirty four members who are marching in harmony to the call of the Peace Corps to be in Malawi.
The group of thirty four is so different with an interesting mix of individuals who have developed a strong sense of loyalty and kindness towards each other. Each of us has seen the other in the best and most challenging of circumstances. Just six months ago no one in the group knew anyone. Their home towns are scattered across America. They represent an interesting mix of ideas as well as experiences.
This week has given the whole group the opportunity to gather together to share the friendship and support we’ve developed over the past six months. Right now there is no other place that each of us needs to be.
What we being to Africa is something new. We bring ourselves with a combined spirit of confidence and enthusiasm that has Malawi allowing us into becoming better persons and better Americans. Our efforts to changed Malawi may fall short of our earlier expectations but all of us have grown. How much more will Malawi and its people teach us about ourselves in the days and years ahead?
No comments:
Post a Comment