The Volunteers: Gaby

Gaby is one of the elders of the volunteer community not because she is the oldest, but since she has been here for over a year already.  She welcomed us when we arrived, showed around the school, and taught us the ins and outs of manuvering the town of Balaka.  She is pretty good at bargaining with local street vendors and traveling art salesmen.  So much so that sometimes I feel sorry for them, but she taught us the typical prices so we don't get overcharged.  Her job at the school is working the office on the secondary side so she registers students, collects school fees, and manages the textbooks.  We also get several students knocking on our door each night looking for "Miss Gaby".  She is originally from Poland so English is her second language.  It can be trick figuring out what she is trying to say sometimes since it is choppy, and she'll throw in a word or two of Chichewa from time to time.  She still manages to be surprised when sometimes we can't figure out what the hell she is actually saying.  I'm getting used to her personal language and should be good at translating broken English when this whole thing is over.  Back in Poland, she was very involved in the Church when she became interested in missionary work.  She found the VOICA program because they have a group in Poland of volunteers and supporters that meet occasionally to discuss ways of helping the mission.  Her dream is to be a missionary in South America which she still wants to do after her term of serviced here even though she'd have to learn another language and it might be with a different program.  She will leave in November and is looking forward to going home.  She is making a list in her head of all the things she wants her mom to cook when she gets back.