Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000

From: Abigail Stamm

Subject: moni banja ndi anzanga moni nonse.

My e-mail access is sporradic, so I have no idea when I'll write again.

Dad, I did get your notes long ago.

I know my site now; it's really hot there. I'm in the valley north of the Zomba plateau and just south of Lake Malawi. My village is called Ulongwe, in Machinga District. It's about halfway between Zomba and Mangochi. I am due west of Liwonde National Park, so I plan to visit in January, when I have some free time and need to get away from my site.

I am the first azungu (white person) to my knowledge to live at my site, so everywhere I am followed by children chanting, "azungu, azungu, give me one tambala." It's annoying, especially as I am not in the habit of giving strangers anything, for any reason. A tambala, by the way, is one hundredth of a kwacha and the exchange rate now is about 80 kwacha to the dollar. My house is nice. It has a large verandah in front, windows on all four sides, and a gazebo thing and fence in back. It is one room, a very large room, which I found slightly strange, but very well lit. I also have electricity, but no running water. I will not immediately be able to use my computer though. There is no way yet to store it safely in my house, so I will keep it at the Peace Corps Headquarters until I can remedy that. Then, eventually, I would like to start sending longer messages, if less frequent.

My school, however, does not have electricity or running water. It has about 300 students total, just under 1/3 female. It has 11 teachers total. Two others are female. They also have random science equipment, but no lab.

I've got microscopes! About 10 or so, but no slides. I've got beakers and other glassware and heating stands and mesh, but no bunsen burners. I've got lots of chemicals too. When I get a chance, I will send a list to any chemists willing to help me figure out what I can do with them. I will be teaching Integrated (general) Science and Biology, as far as I know. I will also be running the English Club, which does exist, but its patron is leaving in a month to go to seminary. I am the only self-proclaimed writer among the teachers. The bad part: I'll have no one to share writing ideas with. But I can work with the students, so anyone with any fun writing activities or useful books for students who want to learn how to write newspaper articles, short stories, competition essays, and poems, please tell me. I don't have much and the club has even less. I will also be helping in the meager library. Last, there is an anti-AIDS club there that is active and I am going to try to help with it. They educate the community and primary schools, write and perform plays and songs, and learn about condoms and abstinence. The condom campaign here is huge and many girls are afraid to say no to sex or don't even realize they can. I had never knowingly known anyone with HIV or AIDS until I came to Malawi. My amayi asked me to go with her to visit her cousin in the hospital. He had tuberculosis, she said, and had been sick for a long time, in and out of the hospital. I visited him a few times, and again after he got well enough to return home. At his house, he told me all about the Mozambique civil war and the refugees who fled to Malawi. He also told me his life story, trouble with finding education and jobs that paid well or provided housing. It was really interesting. I returned to Katsekaminga on Sunday and my amayi told me he had died exactly one week before. I still haven't quite recovered from that.

To keep you posted on my own health, last Sunday I got very sick and the best possible diagnosis was food poisoning. I was brought to Lilongwe on Monday and spent the night at the Peace Corps approved hospital with Kit, a fellow trainee. The power went out around dinner time and the generator died too, so we ate by the light of my maglite. About two hours later the power came back on. I was really glad we didn't need it. Tuesday I moved to the transit house and stayed there recovering and learning my way around Lilongwe Area 3 until Thanksgiving, which was spent at the Ambassador's house (the same one who visited my homestay). The turkeys were imported from Brazil and as it was Rob's birthday (he's another trainee), we turned one of the pumpkin pies into a "birthday cake".

That's all for now. Below are my two addresses. Use either one. My phone number at my site is 542-642 and I will be there from about 7:30 am to 2:00 pm or later when school is in session. (That's Malawi time, which GMT +1.

School will definitely be in session starting February, but may start sometime in January.)

Abigail Stamm, PCV Madam Stamm

PO Box 208 c/o Ulongwe CDSS

Lilongwe, Malawi PO Box 43

Southern Africa Ulongwe, Balaka, Malawi

I will move to my site sometime after December 15, when I am officially sworn in as a volunteer. I am ready for training to end tomorrow, personally. It's boring.

I got my grandparents' letter in record time, 11 days, and have written back.

That's all for now. Zikomo kwambiri.

Love to all,

Abby