America

Im back.  In America that is.  Not for good, just for fun.  Turns out, not a whole lot has changed and it didn’t really take all that long for me to feel like I never even left.  I guess this has something to do with the fact that I spent significantly more time here than in Malawi.  Don’t fret though I’m still very excited to get back and finish my second year teaching and the like.  If anything this trip has motivated me to bury myself in my work because a year is not a lot of time and when I come back I still have friends and family that love me same as the day I left.  It’s a good feeling and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.  Thanks for making me feel like I still have a home in America.  Now I just have to figure out what I’m gonna do with my life when I get back.  But that’s a whole other conversation.

Food.  That’s the biggest difference between America and Malawi.  Oh there’s the whole electricity thing and running water, and reliable transport (like driving in a car) and having all your friends in the same city (ish).  But I always come back to the food.  It’s just so good here.  I ate 5 meals the other day.  Four of them were at restaurants.  Who does that?  I gained 10 pounds in 3 days.  That’s nuts.

Education is screwed no matter where you live.  It’s just, different.  In Malawi we have overpopulated schools, under qualified teachers and practically no resources.  In America it’s still overpopulated and underfunded.  The only major difference is our resources.  If American students were as motivated as Malawians they wouldn’t need a million teachers and a bunch of fancy buildings.

I walked to the store today.  Walked.  It took me less time than it does to get to my local market.  Let’s compare.

Local Market – Tomatoes, Onions, Beans, Rice, Soy meat, Greens, Bananas, Bread.

American Store – Everything.

On the way home from the store I stopped by a place that allowed me to tell them what I wanted to eat and they gave it to me for a small fee in about 2 minutes.  Did I mention that I could order meat and cheese and cold or hot drinks.  Yes.  It’s fast food.

The most hilarious thing about coming home is realizing all the things that I find interesting or crazy convenient are just normal everyday things to my friends so I don’t really have anybody to get excited with about fast food or wireless internet or working electricity or a flash light that doubles as a candle (i know, right!).  I guess ill have to just wait until I get back to Malawi to brag about the fact that I just spent the whole day cooking breakfast, baking brownies, drinking good coffee, watching normal TV and all the while being on the internet (ok, mostly facebook).  See, not interesting or exciting to you (unless you is someone living in malawi).  Well, for now I’m off, ill probably be back when I’m back at my home (considering the only house I have right now is in Malawi, I mean home in Malawi).