Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000

From: Abigail Stamm

Subject: hi, it's abby

Hello all, I am alive (in case you were wondering). Did you receive my postcard? Those of you who received this directly (Charloote and Craig), please make sure Dad got it.

I'm living in Katsekaminga, Dedza District, in southwest Malawi. I "accidentally" crossed the Mozambique border to visit relatives Sunday, but I'm not sure since the border is not set exactly there. I am writing from the home of some really nice Baptist missionaries living in Dedza. Dad, you can write back. (Please do, so I know you got this and say hello to them. Their names are Lisa and Eric.) Everyone else, snail mail only. I got one letter posted October 18, but most letters take about a month.

I am teaching now at Katsekaminga CDSS (Community Day Secondary School; more later) in Form 1 (9th grade). I am teaching "integrated science," which means "a little of everything." It's just practice now. I don't know where my final site will be. I find out next Wednesday and visit next Saturday.

There are 20 of us in the training group. Two others have already ETed (early termination of service). We are about half male and half female, all in our 20s. Apparently, I'm the last to contact my family. I am sending a more substantial letter next week, with sketches, and I hope you get it by Christmas. I will be leaving Dedza permantly in mid-December. Nothing else to say imminently.

My homestay family is wonderful; a other and three children. Here, there is not a stigma against single mothers. Of course she speaks very little English and my Chichewa isn't that great yet, so communication is often a problem. I don't have electricity so I can't use my computer yet. My eyes have finally begun to adjust to lantern light, but I haven't gotten used to the smell yet. My house is great. I have a thatch roof and mud walls. They "waterproof" the roof with plastic sheets between the layers of thatch. The bad part is the cockroaches, but I am getting used to them and the Peace Corps issue mosquito net keeps them off my bed.

In general, the Peace Corps spoils us during training, but I guess a lot of trainees need that since some have never been out of the states or to the third world. I am the only one in my group who had been to Africa before and I have found people here who speak Kiswahili (and Chichewa, so they still understand when I confuse the two). More later, when I know where my site is.

Love to everyone. Please send this on.

Abby

Abigail Stamm, PCV

PO Box 208

Lilongwe, Malawi

Southern Africa