The Blog is Back - Malawi Edition

May, 2024

It’s been over four years since my last blog post in January, 2020. To be honest, I'm not sure why I stopped writing in the first place, a lot of life-changing experiences and adventures have taken place in these past four years, yet I never put pen back to paper. Life got busy, I got busy, pulled in many directions, but the journeys did continue and this morning I woke up feeling the need to reflect on this time and where I have come. Today I dusted off my cobwebs and will start the process of putting some of these experiences out into the world again. 

Where am I writing this from? Blantyre, Malawi, where I somehow live now…. who would have thought? Certainly not me. Back to the "Warm Heart of Africa", where I wrote my last blog post from in January 2020.  But this time around is different and I am also different, so buckle your seatbelts friends…. after my four year hibernation, the blog is backkk. 

After my internship in Rwanda and travels across East Africa in 2019, I returned to Israel and was offered a life-changing job at Innovation: Africa, an organization that uses solar and water technology to electrify schools and medical centers and to pump clean water in villages across 6 African countries. I became the Deputy Country Director for two of their major operations in Uganda and Malawi and today I am the Country Director for the organization's bustling operation in Malawi. I did not imagine that one month after leaving Africa I would be back on a plane for my first work trip, but hey, life is full of surprises and I'm glad I took the leap. 

(Some fond memories from the past few years in the field)

Between now and then the world and specifically my world, has changed a lot. The Covid-19 pandemic took us by storm and we all had to find a new normal, quarantine, face masks, being far from our families, remote work, and not to mention sitting on our behinds for 14 hours a day, was not easy. In these years, we’ve had changes in governments, changes in homes, changes in relationships, new technologies, artificial intelligence advancements, dare I even say, the TikTok revolution? (not proud of that one), wars and conflict persisting around us. These were also the years where I met my life partner, learnt to make sacrifices and fit another person into my independent life, as well as the year that I turned 30, became a professional in my field and challenged my career in many ways. 

Last year, Gabe and I decided to make a big life change. Freshly married, we agreed that we wanted to experience more of the world together. We packed our bags, said goodbye to our first apartment together and more importantly, said goodbye to our god awful landlord together (don’t miss that man for a single second) and moved our lives to Malawi to be closer to my work and to pursue new opportunities for Gabe. 

(On the flight to Malawi)

For me, after working in Malawi for so many years it has become a warm and familiar place. However, to our friends and family, we were moving to a place that most of them did not know on the map. On the invitation to our goodbye party in Tel Aviv, we had to circle and put an arrow to the country of Malawi so people would understand where we were actually going 😂 all of this to say, it was a big move and I will forever be grateful that I have a partner who is willing and eager to test his boundaries and take these life opportunities with both hands.

So here we are. The last 9 months in Malawi have felt like a fierce but friendly rollercoaster. Many slow and steady climbs, inching to the top of a peak, holding your breath, thinking you have understood something and have reached a new height, to in the next second be thrown headfirst, spun upside down five times and left holding your head in your hands wondering, what… just…. happened? Thrilling and exciting to experience life in such a different way but at the same time harsh and challenging to understand some of the difficult realities of why things are the way they are. 

After years of working in Malawi I am beginning to see things differently. We have been welcomed, surprised, pushed, pushed back, cheated, humbled, embraced and tested ten times over. It has been one of the most challenging life transitions that I have ever made, and honestly, looking back on it I'm not sure why I ever expected it to be easy. But for all that it has been, good and difficult, I am still whole heartily glad that I did it. As MTV "Diary" in the 2000’s would say (yes, I just quoted MTV), “you think you know, but you have no idea….”

I thought I knew, but turns out I had no idea and I am learning something each day.

More observations to follow in next months MTV Malawi Edition….but for now, thanks for reading and following this journey! 

#blogisback