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Back in Malawi!

Sorry for the delay in between posts. Since my last post on November 27^th, I’ve traveled through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and also spent a bit of time at home with my family and friends. The traveling may sound like all fun and games and admittedly I had an unreasonable amount of fun. But getting to know different cultures and meeting people from different African nations was truly a fantastic experience. Africa is such a huge and diverse continent and each new country that I visit seems to amaze me in new and exciting ways. Unfortunately Africa is all too often thought of as one country or one culture, which is so crazy because each country is so extremely different from its neighbor. There are so many different languages, religions, traditions, customs etc, it almost feels like you’re going to a completely new continent every time you go to a new country in Africa.

            While I was at home I was able to regroup and reenergize myself for the next couple of months in Malawi. I absolutely love it here and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but that being said sometimes it is very difficult to go through a typical day here. The work we do is so amazing and rewarding in so many ways and there are some days that I feel so good about everything that is going on, but there are also some days where I just feel completely mentally and emotionally destroyed. Some days you go to work and see the kids living with HIV and you get inspired by their ability to overcome whatever obstacles come their way. Other days you just can’t get over the tragic circumstances that these kids are thrown into from birth. The job and all of the emotional baggage that comes with it is an emotional rollercoaster so having a couple of weeks off at home was really great for me.   

            I thought it was going to be really tough to go into the office on Monday morning after 40 hours in a plane/in an airport but I was actually really happy and excited to get to Baylor. I missed all of our coaches and everyone here a lot while I was away so it was good to see everyone. I bought all 20 of our coaches Red Sox t-shirts to reward them for all of their hard work and also to spread the good word of the Boston Red Sox.

            This week Rachel and I are checking up on all of our coaches and supervising them in their class interventions. The first intervention cycle of 2010 (a 10 week HIV education course that runs through the GRS HIV/AIDS curriculum) started two weeks ago so our coaches have been working hard to maximize the impact that they are making. We’ve starting the planning for the graduation ceremonies that will take place after the 10-week intervention cycle is completed. These graduations are designed to reward the kids for their hard work and commitment to GRS so I’m excited to do everything possible to make these kids happy.

Beyond that, Rachel and I are also continuing to plan half-day VCT events all over Lilongwe. We’re doing our best to expose GRS to new regions and new schools and we’re also trying to incorporate some major Malawian celebrities to attend our events and help us attract large crowds. The Malawi national football team just made a pretty impressive showing for themselves in the African Cup of Nations (basically the African version of the World Cup) and so we’re trying to get some of the national team players to help us spread the GRS curriculum. I’ll keep you updated on any progress that we make.

            Hope you guys have a safe, healthy and happy 2010 full of fun adventures! Feel free to shoot me an email if you want to say hey – erenkmunir@gmail.com