Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Hope Matilda Mawerenga

It’s been a minute, let’s catch up.

There are several things I like and dislike about my site. Today I’ll take you through them, in no particular order.

One thing I like about my adopted home in Northern Malawi is that my house is close to the borehole. I don’t have to go very far to draw water. Easy access to water is very important!

Another thing I like about my site is the cool chief I work with. Yes, cool. The chief gives my site-mates and I lifts to ‘the town’ and is super generous to give us free goat meat (bless the Ngoni in him).

I obviously also like that I have access to a nice basketball court. I have so much passion for basketball and I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t play for even one month. Even though the rains hinder my students and my play time, we make most of the sunny days worth it. Yes, I try to keep fit.

I love the weather right now. It’s not too hot anymore and it’s just right. However, I suspect when it starts to get cold in Malawi, it will be super cold here. So, I will love the rain for now because it also helps me sleep.

I like that I now have a place to watch international football matches. The struggle of reading commentaries online is over!!! If you’re a football fan (read Manchester United fan) like me then you understand it’s a need.

So many likes, now here are my dislikes.

I said I love living very close to the borehole, remember that. When it rains heavily people are unable to draw water, so they go when the rain eases or stops. Sometimes that’s at 11:00pm. Imagine trying to get some shut-eye with borehole noises that keep going on and on into the late hours of the night. I don’t know how safe drawing water is at 11:00pm, but I guess the need is bigger. We all need water.

I like some vegetables (obviously not a dislike, hang on). My site rarely has vegetables. Why? How? I think I’ll just grow some.

I don’t like how lonely it sometimes gets here.
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I know all these are a part of life – we can’t like everything – but I will do something about them when I can. I don’t think I can stop people from drawing water at crazy hours of the night, but maybe I can buy some ear muffs? And I’ll definitely be trying to grow some veggies soon.