For our first few meals in Malawi, Caleb, Carissa, and I enjoyed some very delicious PB&J sandwiches, Nutella, and Oreos. But, as of last night –after figuring out the whole money/marketplace situation a bit better— we have started to step up our culinary game. Together, we actually cooked a full-fledge meal of chicken and rice, and have big plans for ourselves for the remainder of the summer.

        

This morning, Caleb, Carissa, and I went to a small little café down the road for a delicious brunch, and even ran into Shannon, the BTB Associate here in Malawi, with a few of her housemates while we were there. We then went over to the local market place and bought a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

We have the weekend off to hang out and prepare for our first week of work. Our CURE house is incredibly peaceful, and the weather is wonderfully cool and mosquito-free. Our housemates are from all over the world, with some taking off to go home right as we’re getting settled, and with others staying here well longer than the 9 weeks that we will be here. While Caleb and Carissa work on their medical school applications, I am having a good time going through all of my old instrumentation exams and writing up a summary the key take-aways from the class. I am not 100% sure what to expect when I start at the Poly on Monday morning, but I am excited to meet the faculty (and hopefully even some students) to start sharing our background and experiences with one another.