The mixed feelings planted in me made me wonder if I should start my journey as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer or not, but surprisingly it is now over two months since I have stayed in my community. I arrived at my site in Chisamba village which is located in Lilongwe district, the central region of Malawi on the 23rd of September 2023.  On the way to my site, I had mixed feelings, I was excited, sad, and nervous at the same time. The exciting part came since I was looking forward to how much fun I would have whilst living in a rural community since I have never fully lived in a hard-to-reach area and ‘‘I could imagine how it feels interacting with new people’’. On the one hand, I felt excited about the new adventure, but on the other hand, I was also nervous at the prospect of living with people whose behavior, culture, and beliefs differed from mine. Initially, this thought discouraged me. Little did I know that these seemingly strange people would become my friends and family, and now I find joy in their company. 

As a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, the first three months of my service are for integration whereby you focus on building relationships with the community through interacting with them and learning their culture.  So far so good, my integration process is going so well. It’s amusing how I once deemed myself fluent in Chichewa, confidently declaring an end to communication obstacles with the people in my community. However, I was proven wrong within the first two weeks, as I encountered difficulties in communicating with the community members in Chichewa. This is in the sense that people in my community are fluent in Chichewa, so they speak too fast and they, sometimes, use deep Chichewa words which I have never heard before. Quite interesting, I am now, at least, into their lane and able to communicate well with the community members.