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here i write my last blog post from Malawi (and probably my last blog post).  i leave Lilongwe tomorrow, the 2nd of August, at 1:05 pm and get back to the US at 8:45 am on the 3rd of August.  i am certainly not ready to leave.  most people reading this know that i have always wanted to move back to Africa sometime in the future, and this journey has only reinforced that desire and made me desire it even sooner.

i may have only spent 10 weeks in Malawi, but i feel right at home here, certainly more-so than in Wake Forest, but then again i have probably spent more time here than there!  and as i have said on here before, “the worst day in Africa is better than any day in Richmond, Virginia.”  of course i say this with no offense to any of my lovely friends that go to school with me there, after all, it is you that i created this blog for! but yes, i have absolutely loved this country.  its climate is incredible, its views (outside the city) are wonderful, and its people are beautiful, friendly, and so very interesting.  as i have been here i have learned a lot about the country, African culture, physical therapy, special education, children, working for an NGO, a Christian NGO, being a Christian in an NGO, language barriers (increased knowledge here) and myself.  of course it will take a lot of reflection to bring out the best of what i have learned and it is more than i would ever post here.  but i would like to write about one thing i have learned about myself and also why i have loved Malawi.

i have learned that i am a lot more independent than i thought (thanks Katy Fort for pointing that out).  since i have been here (and especially after my hosts left) i have had to do so many things on my own…and i loved it.  i road the minibuses everywhere (only white person i have ever seen on one), i shopped on my own, ate on my own, cooked on my own, found interesting things to do on my own, i have been on my own and i have been in a crowd on my own (you won’t understand that until you are the one different person in a crowd)  i walked hours and hours this summer in the African sun with the African people.  i have been a single white person in a crowd of at least 4000 African football fans.  i have supported a friend in a pool tournament in a bar in a little village as the only white person in that village.  i have sat on the workers side of the gift/souvenir street venders and played bao, rather than being the prey of the hungry lions (as Charles put it) on the buying side of the market.  i have been a rare volunteer where i work, because i never turned down what Mai Davie offered me to eat or drink.  she was very thankful for this act of mere good manners because of a good African upbringing by a wonderful set of parents, and of course because i like their food. i have been more African than i have ever been before, and i liked it.   i have loved this summer because i have eaten what the Malawians eat, i have walked where the Malawians walk, ridden the minibuses they ride, played the games they play, gotten dirty from their countries dirt, smiled because they have smiled,  laughed with them and because of them as well as celebrated their victories and worried because of their tough times.  i have been more African than i have ever been before, and i loved it.

Malawi becomes the fourth African nation i have lived in, despite its ephemerality.

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