My first real post!

Wow, where do I even begin... I just finished homestay in the village and was incredibly ready and yet saddened to leave. During homestay, I lived in a small rural village in Dedza with a wonderful and loving family. The experience was amazing: living in a mud hut with a grass roof, bathing outside, and cooking over fire. The village is in the mountains and is absolutely beautiful. As much as I loved my time with my family, I am ready to move on to my site. Right now I'm in Lilongwe on my way to visit my site for one week just to check it out. For the next two years I will be staying in Mitundu. Mitundu is a boma (trading center) and my house is quite close to the market- in other words, it will be very diferent from homestay! I'll be working as an advisor for a community based organization (CBO) there. I'm replacing another volunteer and I'll be moving right into her old house. I got a chance to talk to her before she left and she did some great work with the CBO and it sounds like her house is awesome: I have electricity!! Also, being so close to Lilongwe (only 45 minutes away) keeps me close to USAID where I think I'll want to pick a program to evaluate for my field paper. So tomorrow I head off to Mitundu to check it all out- I can't wait. Although, today was pretty amazing; I ate pizza, that's right, pizza! I also took a real shower with hot water and will be sleeping in doors in a bed tonight, which is pretty sweet! All in all, I am truly having the best ime of my life here in Malawi! I love receiving your letters- keep 'em commin'! And if you have a chance, I'd REALLY love a package! Books are good, cheese is better, sausage- even better! I hope to be able to send out some emails soon to individuals but in the meantime, keep checking out this blog. Also, I have a cell phone and my number is on my facebook profile, only viewable by my "friends". I get phone calls and texts for free and there are some pretty great calling cards out there for Africa... Give us a ring! I love you all and I miss you!