The start of my voyage....no more America

Hello everyone!
This will be my last post for the next 8 weeks since I am going to be in training in the bush and won't have access to any phones or internet. I leave tomorrow and am very anxious and nervous. One thing I am very nervous about is this fly called something like the pootsi fly and it lays eggs in your clothes when you hang them up to dry and then you have to iron ALL of your clothes or the larvae crawl into your skin and lay more eggs or something like that. They create boils under your skin and the only way to get rid of them is to put some topical cream on it to suffocate them and tweeze them out. GROSS!!!!!!!!! How do some places have such awful bugs?

So, during staging, you learn about how to keep yourself safe from petty theft, HIV/AIDS, gastrointestinal problems, and other random stuff you can get out in the bush! PC also focuses a lot on integrating into your village to make your life easier. Staging was in beautiful Philadelphia, with 85 degree weather and lots of humidity. since i got in a day early with 5 other people, I was able to the tourist thing and see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the Ben Franklin area. since I had been there before, I was able to play tour guide.

It was really hard to leave my parents, PAUL, my family, and my friends. I felt nauseated all day on the plane ride here.

I thought that since it takes about a month for letters to get to and from Malawi, you might want to know what I will be doing for the next 8 weeks... I will be doing a lot of language training for Chichewa and cross-cultural. We will be living in a village with a host family, where we will learn about living the simple life and how to make meals on three stone cooking, wash clothes by hand, and being a Malawian. Here's the rundown of week by week besides all of that:
Week 1: Intro to culture and language, and health issues of Malawi
2: Extension approach and community assessment tools
3: Disease prevention, Community Health and HIV/AIDS
4: Food security, nutrition and human body, and field visit
5: Promote interventions for support and adoption of healthy lifestyles
6: Site visit-field orientation trip
7: working effectively with community groups, sustainable livelihoods, and networking with other agencies
8: field and office visits, and briefing on PC/Malawi
For the first week I am there, I will be living at the Malawi College of Forestry in Dedza, about 1 hour from Lilongwe, the capital. We will be just doing language and culture...
I think I am ready for this adventure!! Like PC says, "Life is calling, how far will you go?" Write me lots of letters since that's all I will have from home to remind me of how weird my situation is! I miss you guys lots!!! I will try to get on as soon as I can find some internet in 8 weeks!