My Malawi internship plans are finally starting to fall into place! On Monday I met with the other three students I will be working with and the organization helping to arrange the placement. We decided on Monday, April 29th - Friday, June 21st as our 8 weeks we want to do our research. We also found out we will be living in the southern city of Blantyre rather than a more rural location. I am ever so eager to get all my plans sorted out and even more eager to start my work in Malawi!
This evening I had my first of three Chichewa language courses. I have never been amazing at languages and well, Chichewa is no different! I wish I could say that I am now fluent (or even have hope of ever becoming fluent!) but I would be lying. It certainly is a difficult language and not one where you are able to pick up on words that are similar in English. The class was very entertaining however, as you can imagine with a bunch of Europeans and North Americans trying to speak this funny, foreign African language. The class was mostly made up of masters students like myself about to do field work in Malawi, but also a trio of elderly church choir friends about to set out on missionary charity work. The classes are taught by a fantastic husband and wife duo; a Malawian banker by day/singer by night and a British school teacher. They made a great team between her educational games and his made up songs!
Here is a bit of what I learned this evening:
Dzina langa ndi Emily. Ndimachokera ku United States. Ndine mwana wu sukulu ku University of Edinburgh komanso ndimagwira ntchito ku A Self-Help Assistance Programme.
Chances are you can guess what I am saying by the English words that don't seem to fit at the end of each sentence!
