Every Peace Corps Volunteer has a story to tell about their service. Read stories from Volunteers about what it's like to live and serve in Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa.
With a facility catchment population of over 24,000 spread out among 100 villages, promoting healthy behaviors that prevent disease can be a challenge in Volunteer Jane’s community.
I sat at the airport preparing to leave the U.S.A. for Malawi, and all I could think was that I couldn’t believe I had actually made it. I would soon be a Peace Corps Volunteer.
When Anna Mansfield moved from Idaho to a rural Malawian village to serve in the Peace Corps, she looked for ways to use her skills to benefit the grassroots work already happening in her community.
At a recent Peace Corps training, we were told that “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” This saying really struck me in its deep connection to my service.
“Will you help us?” That is the question that
accompanies most of the conversations that I have every day, but as a decided
idealist, I try my best to always say yes. Life in Malawi can be a challenge,
but more often than not it is a rewarding country to live and work in.
My
abodesits in a little nook
within the confines of my school’s campus, protected by tall walls made of
brick and shaded by the canopy of fruit frees: mango, papaya, and banana. You
can sprawl out on my front porch, close your eyes, and hear nearly everything.
As I climb
in the tuk-tuk (a small motorized covered almost-tricycle-like thing—you know
what, just google it, this is a bad description), I ask the driver “how much?”
in Chichewa. He answers and then I get in. Then the familiar question comes:
“How long have you been in Malawi?” “Chaka chimodzi,” I answer. One year.
So why did someone with a degree in writing not immediately start writing about this, the experience of a lifetime, Peace Corps, the Olympics of international volunteering in the US? Doesn’t every writer dream of having something like this to inspire them?
On a day exactly like all the other days endlessly chained together during pre-service training – a literal lifetime ago – I found myself innocuously sitting in the grass near the football grounds in our training village.