My two daughters!

Meet Beatrice and Memory, my two new housemates! They moved in on inauguration day, in the evening after we attempted to watch the speech. My Headmaster's (school principal) house has solar electricity and unfortunately, there was not enough sun to power more than 15 minutes of the broadcast. I only heard Barack get introduced and waited until weeks later to download the speech here in Lilongwe. Anyway, at 7pm we moved in ate dinner at 8:30. Already my lifestyle of bed at 6:30 with fruit for dinner was changed. We put up their mosquito nets and then they cooked a meal of nsima and eggs. I went to bed 2hours later than normal at 9:30.

Many Peace Corps volunteers have boarders, mostly women volunteers hosting girls, as a way to accomplish many things at once. First, it allows the girls a chance to speak English outside of school. Second, as teachers, we are there to support their studies. Third, the girls help out around the house a lot cooking all my food, getting my water, and everything else! They are so amazing! They are like robots! They woke up and went right to work without even a yawn or stretch, Memory started making a fire and Beatrice started sweeping! It is Malawian culture for the children to do these chores but I still help.

We've already had a lot of cross-cultural exchange. Day 2 I realized, "I'm going to have people to play Yatzee with!" They had the hang of it in a day and love to play on their own now. It's funny to hear them speaking in Chichewa and say, "Ndikufuna kupanga Yatzee"- I want to make a yatzee! I also have taught them Phase 10-the card and dice versions.

We pray at all of our meals, we walk to school together, we share recipes-they are so happy to add "spices" like pepper, garlic salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla! I'm loving every second and their prescence has made me feel more connected to the village and to my school. Recently my landlord's grandson became ill and all members, excluding him, were at the hospital. He was home alone and therefore, I knew he wasn't eating. No women to cook for him AND he has to maintain all of his gardens. So my girls cooked extra and we are feeding him until his wife returns. Normally, I would feel shy to do so because my nsima may not be up to Malawian standards yet. So having them there is so wonderful!

They must study 2 hours a day and I have already looked over different assignments. On Saturdays I open the library for 3 hours and they are there. So they have a lot more study time than they would normally. They walk only 3minutes to school as compared to 45 min or 20 as they would have had to.

I am paying for the food and school fees and they bring food when they can. This is the best thing I have done yet! They are referred to as "Madam's Daughter's" at school and I'm proud!