Road bumps, Exciting News and The End of Teaching (Day 35)

Class Picture.

It almost seemed as if there were forces working against us to be at the Chuwowa School. On Wednesday we were all loaded up on the bus to go when it was discovered that the keys were no where to be found. After searching through the office, a phone call was made to the bus company. Yes, they have extra keys they said, but they were all in a random box. So someone dropped off the box 30 minutes later and another 30 minutes were spent trying to find a matching key. What do you know, it was not the last key that worked. Instead, none of the keys worked. So we tried to get another bus but none were available so we didn’t go to camp. Bummer. The keys were found at about 3 that afternoon. They had fallen behind a stack of supplies. Then this morning, everyone piled in extra earlybecause we were going to try to make up for the lost day with a long day. Well low and behold, the bus had a flat. So again we found ourselves waiting, this time for a tire that arrived about 30 minutes later. Then we were off. About 30 minutes down the road the Land Rover, our other vehicle, pulled off the road and had stalled. Luckily it quickly started up and we were able to end the day and the camp in a fantastic way.

I am sad to say that today was my last day working with the kids. We have one more camp next week. But I will be the team leader and be in charge of scheduling and organization. I am interested in trying out the position, but I will miss working with the kids.

One thing I have learned here is how “dirty” is all relative. Back at home if i spilled something on my clothes, even a small amount I would have considered them dirty. The skirts and t-shirts that we wear to camp follow a different rule. I am only able to do wash on Thursdays, and I have two skirts to wear to camp. So I rotate the washing. After 4-5 days at camp my skirts are filthy. I sit on the groun, in the dirt and wipe my hands on my skirt. The marks on my thighs and my butt become so dark that you can see my fingerprints and cheek marks. Only then, and if it is a Thursday, do my skirts get washed. Each day I return to our house and soap up my hands all the way to my elbows the color of the water that rinses off them is a dark brown as if I had been making mud pies. If I think I am dirty though, it is nothing to most of my students. I am not sure they ever can really get clean, at least not the way I think of clean. The dust is all around and even after they bathe and wash their clothes the dust must dry right on them.

Last night we watched Madonna's video about Malawi. I had watched it once before but it is very interesting and informative. It tells about life and problems, but it also chronicles 6 kids who all live in rural Malawi. I would highly recommend this video you can find it online at www.hulu.com/i-am-because-we-are.

Last night Jesse, one of the founders, had dinner with the VP of Malawi. She is in full support of the World Camp program and feels very strongly about improving education here. She wants to work with Jesse and World Camp in a more direct manner. They talked about having more people come over and volunteer with work though the VP possibly directly in schools or with teachers. It is very exciting that the work we are doing here, and the work that Jesse started about 10 years ago, is making positive changes and that people high up in the government want to see it continued. I am hoping to stay in contact with Jesse and possibly help with projects and I would think about coming back here and working again (of course if Jared wanted to come and could as well).

It is off the the Refugee Camp and lake tomorrow. I will not be back until Sunday.

New Week, New School (day 33)

Kids in class.
Leading morning songs.

This school is in a very different location that the previous three schools we have been to. It is up in the mountainous area of Malawi and is really very beautiful. I can only image what it might have looked like with more trees and during the rainy season where everything is green. Another NGO has been to this school in the past few years. This organization built a new building for the school. This building has metal windows and actually has glass in the office/teacher area. All the other windows in all the schools we have been to have been made from cement bricks with openings in them. The school is also right near the village trading post. The students seem fairly knowledgeable on topics of HIV/AIDS so I know they have received some previous instruction.

It is very interesting how reluctant the teachers at school schools can be and how this is evident in their students and shows the views of the village as a whole. Even though it is important that we talk to these kids about HIV/AIDS I wonder if we should be doing more to work with the adults. I am not sure the students have the power to change many of these things because of the cultural norms set by their elders. I cannot imagine being one of the girls growing up in these rural villages. Women in the US talk about how we are not yet equal to men and on many levels this is true. But the inequality that the woman face here is so different and extreme. Women are expected to do all the cooking, cleaning and housework, which for some of my older family members is also what they experienced. But it is the views on sex and relationships that is so foreign and unfair. The girls in my empowerment openly and unanimously agree that it is the men in the village who get to decided to have sex. For most of these girls a relationship means meeting a boy in the bush and having a quickie. The girls feel as if they have no say in these matters, they cannot even decide to have a condom. So for many of them getting pregnant is inevitable and their dreams do not matter because they do not have the power to make decisions and work towards them. Today in our group we were talking to the girls, ages 14 and 15, about being strong woman. Many of them, even when they were talking to a room full of girls, could not look each other in the eye without being embarrassed. We also noticed that they cannot list characteristics of strong woman. They do not think of women as strong and they have never been told that they can be strong and can have dreams. It reminds me of Greg Mortenson and Three Cups of Tea and how he talks about the struggle to empower and educate woman because when women are in control of their education and wealth it greatly benefits a community because of the decision that women make. No offense to the men who are reading this, but it has been shown that in impoverished places putting a women in charge of the family finances, she tends to make better decisions and the family benefits. A great website to look at is kiva.org. This site gives loans directly to women who are starting their own small businesses.

I cannot believe how quickly this trip is going by. But I am excited to see everyone when I get home. We are going to visit the only Refugee camp in Malawi on Friday. Many of the people have lived in the camp for years. The refugees are from Congo and Rwanda. I am very excited to go and speak to some of these people. I know it will be a completely different experience than the villages.

Home Sweet Home and Outreach (day 30)

Me and my friend Happy, one of the cutest rugrats ever!
Dancing at home stay. I love the intensity of the kids eyes as they watch me.
The teachers we worked with this past week.


Home stay has come and gone. I feel as if my group had a bit of a different experience than most. Although I do not regret doing it, I did not get out of the experience what I hoped for. There were 8 volunteers who got to stay with the chief's parents. This is an honor and it was great to talk to him. The problem was all the azungus in one small area generated a lot of interest. When we arrived we got to see where we were going to sleep and get settled. Our “room” was a families house. Often for volunteer’s home stays people sleep in a different house so the volunteers can have a place to stay. This house was probably 6x8. I cannot imagine it being a house for a family because the three of us barley had room to sleep . After getting settled, we then started to dance with a few of the kids. They taught us some new dances and I had fun interacting with them. But the dancing created a loud commotion and soon there were about 60 villagers, both adults and children watching us. When the dancing ended their chief's father put out 8 chairs and asked us to sit on them. This was the beginning of what felt like a zoo exhibit. For the next hour the villagers stared at us like we were on display. All we need was a sign that said “azungu from America” posted next to us to complete our exhibit. We then went to bed at about 6:30, when the sun went down. I had a very sleepless night and cannot imagine sleeping every night on the hard floor with only a straw mat for comfort. Many of the other volunteers had very different experiences. They got to cook nsima and talk to their families. I am sad I did not get to experience more of the culture with my visit.

On Sat. we did an Outreach program with a Community Based Organization located in a village World Camp had visited during session 1. This village was about 2 hours from Lilongwe. Rachel, the coordinator said that when they visited 8 weeks ago it was the first time most of the children had ever seen white people. It felt extremely remote. The trading post was mostly boarded up as we drove past giving it the desolate feeling of a ghost town. We worked with a group of 40 adults who want to continue AIDS education in their personal villages. We worked with teachers, village chief's and volunteers. Again I was in charge of the condom demonstration. If I thought it was awkward teaching this to other adults last week, this demonstration stepped up the level of discomfort. This time I was working with older men, many who could have been my grandfather. We realized that we did not have to stress the idea of not opening the wrapper with your teeth because most of the participants did not have any. I really like the idea of the outreach programs. This is a new thing that World Camp has begun and a way they are continuing to provide support of communities where they have run camps.

In America we often comment on those parents who plug their children into the TV to keep them entertained and to stop them from crying. Well it is not only an American ideal to have a plan to stop a baby from crying. Here in Malawi the solution to an unhappy baby is as simple as unbuttoning one’s shirt and popping out the breast. The moms here use milk as a sort of pacifier. One cultural difference that we all have struggled with as of late is the fact that we have to wear these calf lengths skirts Although some Malawian women in the city do not do this, those in the village do and it is culturally respectful to do so. We even have an article posted on the information board in our house discussing how miniskirts lead to sexual interests and rape and should be outlawed. It is so foreign not to show my knee because it is too much skin for the men to handle. But what I cannot wrap my head around is how the knee is more sexual than a breast. Here in Malawi we see them everywhere. While we were at home stay one woman was breast feeding two babies at once. Today during out demonstrations every mother we saw had a baby with a breast in its' mouth. It is a very odd cultural difference to get used to. One woman was even shaking our hands with hers hanging out.

Discoveries and Thoughts: I was feeling reflective today.

Parachute Games
Ladies at the Boarhole
Can you find the Azungu?

There are things I never even thought I’d do. Situations in which I could not even imagine.
Today I found myself in a surreal environment where these things became reality. I found myself standing in a dimly lit Malawian classroom surrounded by 8 teachers holding a banana to my crotch and calling it a penis. All in the name of education. My experience continued as I demonstrated how to put on the condom and rubbed the lubricant I all over my face. I blew up the condom and finally ended the demonstration by eating the penis. Hey its Africa, we cannot waste a good banana. I think there were a few things that saved me from ultimate embarrassment. The teachers do not understand my English and thankfully they seemed to be able to laugh along with me as we practiced correct condom procedures. I learned today that not only do the students need instruction on how to use a condom, so do the teachers.

Last week the students talked about how “azungu” are different from black people because we cannot dig a toilet. Tomorrow we are going on a home stay and in preparation I have been thinking about how my “survival” knowledge based on growing up in the States will not help me here. Not surprisingly the villagers in Malawi do not need to use computers, read traffic lights, drive cars or use a dishwasher. But there are so many other things that are culturally not relevant. Tinfoil, no use for that. They haven’t even heard of it. And glue. How to open it, squeeze it, use it, another unnecessary skill. These things seem so foreign to me. In my American brains everyone knows how. But to a Malawian I know so little. I don’t know how to dig a toilet, to harvest corn and make it into nsima, to make a bed mat from straw or cook a chicken plucked from the front yard. As much as I look around and see things that the Malawians do not know, I realize that I know much less. Survival in our world is all about technology and nothing about actually survival. Our basic needs are all at our fingertips. Many Americans refer to this as a third world country. If it ever came down to actually surviving, I know the Malawian villagers would be much more successful than I.

There are things that a 8 year old should do. They should ride bikes. Play in the mud. Do homework and take tests. Eight year olds should go to school, make friends and have fights. I see them playing football and getting hurt, falling down and getting back up again. I hope they believe in magic and Santa. An eight year olds life is full of mystery of excitement and finding their way. They are testing their parents, annoying their teachers and laughing the day away. Eight year olds are plastered in my memory, sitting in my classroom. Their images bring smiles to my lips and sometimes tears to my eyes. I think of all the life they have to live, the endless possibilities. And then the bomb, the breaking of my American thoughts. 50% in our current village are having sex. My stomach drops and I almost want to tell the teacher he is wrong. I want to figure out where the language barrier has gone off track. Maybe there is one student or two, but this cannot be the norm. But this is Malawi and when I assume I tend to be wrong. I am constantly reinventing my ideas of people and situations. The longer I am here, the more I think of my students saying they would like to not have school. That this would be cool. I want to bring my experiences back to help show them a world much different from ours. I want them to see the opportunities they have. I want them to enjoy being 8, and to help them learn how they can impact their world. I would love to make some sort of connection between our schools and here. Where my students can learn about different cultures and can help support those who have less.

Today in a chat with the teachers I told them my favorite food was ice cream. They looked at each other and laughed. Yes, they knew of ice cream they told me. But still they gave me funny looks. Then came the question they all wanted to ask. Is ice cream my typical meal, like nsima which they eat at every meal. I had to say no, but wouldn’t that be great.

Tomorrow night is our home stay in the village. I am excited but nervous. It will be a long day on Friday because we have been told that we will not get much sleep. We will lay on the ground, most likely with the sheep or chickens. We will not be eating with the families ourselves. the water the cook with could make us very sick. But I hope to help them prepare their food and play with their kids.

Teacher Talk (Day 25)

Arriving at school today we immediately knew it was going to be similar to the first school. We pulled up along the bumpy road and there was a roar of “azungu” as a wave of children came rushing towards our bus. But sadly this week I am not working with the kids. My role is that of Teacher Facilitator. This means that each day I will meet with the teachers. We will talk about our curriculum, different teaching methods and their concerns about education. This information is used each session to help develop the ever improving curriculum and to address specific concerns within each school. The idea of the Teacher Facilitator is not to tell the teachers how to do things but to enter into two way discussions were we learn from them and they learn from us. I have been looking forward to this week. I really wanted to get a chance to talk to the teachers and see what they have to say.

Creating an open discussion between two vastly different groups of people is easier said then done. This is my experience from today and it is one I totally understand. When we arrived the teachers were very welcoming and took part in the morning songs. They also seemed to enjoy watching the games we played with the parachute. They laughed and made comments as the kids worked together. Even with their positive attitude it was difficult to enter into and open discussion with them. They expected us to come baring gifts of supplies and fix the school and seemed disappointed when we told them that this was not what we did. I have to remind myself that these teachers are not being rude or ungrateful. They look at us as people who have everything, so of course we can give them what they need.

Because open discussion was difficult on the first day we started by trying to establish relationships with the teachers. We talked about ourselves and our experiences and let them share with us. I found it interesting how similar the teachers were to my American counterparts. I think Malawian teachers need to have a greater love of education because of their challenges. Imagine teaching 60-100 students in one class.

I am encouraged by some of the comments that the teachers made today. They were very interested in alternate sources of energy and want us to find them additional information. They were very impressed when they learned about the young Malawian boy, William, who after reading about wind turbines built one to power electricity for his village (read The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind). I have to do extra research tonight about solar energy and turbines for them. They also were very interested in starting community groups for environmental concerns. They have a community and after school club about AIDS already. From prior reading I have done about other Non Governmental Organizations I have learned that many successful projects have been those that helped to give the tools for education but put the power of taking action into the community. From our talks today the teachers seemed that they were interested in taking action.

Lion King Live (you thought the Lion King on Broadway was good) Day 24

Being on Safari these past 4 days was surreal, a zoo without cages. When we arrived on Friday the owner of our lodge sat us all down and gave us the safety speech. He pointed to our tents perched on a ledge and then across the river. “That's the park,” he said “what’s over there is also here.” He then proceeded to tell us not to have food in our tents, to make sure these seed pods call elephants biscuits were not under the tent and other safety precautions. The whole time I was thinking. “Yeah right. I bet animals hardly ever come over here....”

Boy was I wrong. The elephants were so close they were in our tents, almost.

The next morning everyone was climbing out of their tents. It was still pitch dark, although the lodge grounds were softly lit up at all times. I was reaching in to grab my toothbrush, and there was movement behind me. It was not small movement. Climbing up on the bank was a group of 4 elephants silhouetted against the morning sky. One adult female, 2 juveniles and 1 infant. As we stood outside our tents, they yanked branches and ate oblivious or unconcerned out our presence. This was not the only run in with my elephant friends. The following day another group, this time 5 including a LARGE bull came into camp. We took fabulous pictures from 100 feet away before they decided that the trees we were standing under looked good enough to eat. We have to retreat onto an elevated pool deck where we watched them for another 20 minutes. At times they were close enough to touch. They also stole food from the compartments of a overland vehicle and picked up a couple’s tent. On our last morning there, they came back to stay goodbye. Walking around our tents four over an hour everyone sat in silence watching through their peep holes. It was unreal to see these magnificent creatures and almost live among them for 3 days. Every time I would sit in a hammock and look across to see an elephant eating on the other bank it was a shocking reminder of where I was.

We probably saw 40+ elephants at our campground and only 6 in the park. But we got to experience many other animals on our drives. I took a total of three drives. One morning and two night. The morning was a nice intro. We saw a wide variety of animals and even got 2 sightings of lions during the day. This does not often happen. Our first night drive was fabulous. It as exciting and unreal. We were able to watch a leopard stalk it’s prey from about 50-100 yards. My favorite was coming upon a group of three lions who were resting and playing. They were just like kittens rolling around and biting on each others ears. These magnificent creatures were less then 10 feet from our truck. At times it almost seemed to close for comfort to me. Fred, our driver was not intimidated by the closeness of the lions at all. All of the sudden he said something to the spotlight man, turned off the truck and climbed out. While the spotlight was trained on the lions, keeping track of their location, Fred sauntered to the back of the truck and took a pee break. Amazing.

One thing I learned is that monkeys are not all that cute, and more devious little creatures. One day at lunch one of the the volunteers was making a sandwich. She had left an apple on the table. When she turned around the monkey stole her apple. She took off after that monkey and other came and stole her sandwich. Later that day another monkey stole a punster butter jar. About an hour later there was a loud bang as something fell through the trees, landed on the roof of the lounge building and bounced tot he ground. It was the now empty peanut butter jar.

We also had a great time hanging out at the lodge. We were camping, but it was not roughing it. There was a pool, tons of hammocks, a bar and lounge area and a restaurant. Every night we got to talk to others on safari. I enjoy hearing about people’s travels and experiences. We sat around the fire drinking Zambian beer, telling stories and singing cheesy songs. One night the night guard had to send us off to bed. We also got to hear animal stories from the owner who has had close calls with elephants and hippos. Someone on the trip perfectly described the hippos as sweet potatoes with legs. We were told that they can run 35 km per hours which is really hard to believe. Jaren thinks that it is because they barely move for days, saving up all their energy so when need be, they can explode with speed for a few seconds.

I know why travel in Africa is so difficult. The coordinators were saving the road conditions as a surprise. Once we crossed the border into Zambia the pavement disappeared and a 120 km route tools 4 hours!! The bus bumped and banged. We had to stop a few times to make sure tires had not fallen off.

On the way back we stopped at a textile shop where Zambians make all types of tapestries. These are all handmade using traditional methods. Tomorrow we start teaching at our third school. I am going to be working with the teachers this week. I am very excited about this position. I get to talk to them about different teaching methods like experiments, games and hands on activities. Most of the teachers only use call and response, memorization methods here. We also get to talk about the differences in the education systems and will discuss what the teachers need from the World Camp program. I hope to learn alot from them and am becoming increasingly more interested on global education and how to make education more effective not just in the states but around the world.

The GoGo School and Technology

Cows by the Bathroom
My Class at GOGO

Oh, Lilongwe. I have talked about Malawi time being an hour or to after a stated tome, but there are other technological issues that come up every day. Only 2% of people in Malawi have electricity. Those who do, have learned not to rely on it. About 4 days a week the power goes out. Usually it is only for a few hours, sometimes it can last most of the day. This is one of their effects of deforestation. When there is a storm the runoff moves downed branches and trash and it clogs up the generators. Usually it is not a big deal, but it tends to ruin a big vat of rice or pasta when it sits half cooked in warm water for 2 hours while we wait for the electricity to return. And yes, the internet failures resulted in the tardiness of this blog!!! That and our trip on safari. More on that soon.

Put yourself into this scene. The sun is bright and there is a slight breeze whistling through the trees. Moments before we pull away from the school for the day I realize that I have not used the restroom all day. So I made a quick dash back towards the brick buildings to relieve myself using the lovely hole in the ground. I’ve done this before, and have definitely decided I prefer just going in the woods, but I don’t think the village would appreciate this. The difference this time was I did not bring along a bathroom protector to watch since there are no doors, instead you just walk around a corner. So there I was attempting to hold my breath and not look down the hole when I heard a noise outside the door. I could just imagine one of my students peering around the corner. The kids may not even realize that white people need to use the restroom as well, they seems to think we are from another planet. Nervously I yelled, “hello.” The response of “moo” almost knocked me onto the concrete floor but then I looked up and peered into the eyes of a cow. Yes, a cow was at the bathroom door watching me. I have had some interesting experiences using bathrooms in some crazy places before, but never again will I have a cow be my bathroom buddy.

Speaking of bathrooms. Today the students got to ask us anonymous questions about anything they wanted. With the other schools we have been asked about sex, HIV/AIDS, the environment, America and VERY personal questions. The are so unaccustomed to seeing white people they ask if we are angles, if we have blood and other unimaginable things. Today i was posed the question, “how are white people and black people different?” I told them that besides our skins’ being different colors that we were the same. One kid stood up and asked that if we were the same as black people could we dig a toilet? Molly (my teaching partner) and I looked at each other, laughed and stated that we did not dig toilets but we could learn. I guess this was another difference besides our skin color.

Everyone laughs in the same language. Yesterday after a frustrating session of empowerment we concluded class early. The 10-12 year old girls have been way to shy to talk about their bodies and sex. I still think it is important to provide access to these students because many become sexually active by around 13 but it lent to difficult discussions and many blank stares. To lighten the mood I took the girls outside. For the next half hour we had a ball. The kids were singing the World Camp cheers and songs, teaching me to dance and playing Hippo, Hippo, Lion (World Camps version of Duck, Duck, Goose). I have never seen a group of kids, who’d be in fifth grade in the States, have such fun with this game. Even though our translator was not around, we were able to enjoy the time together. The girls laughed the entire time we played, their laughter ringing out across the field was such a wonderful sound. It was nice to find something we could all enjoy equally together.

New School, New Things (Day 18)

The GoGo School
Hungry Kiddos Watching Us Serve Lunch
Condom Contest

It is funny how different things can be, and also how similar. Here in Malawi things seen to be as different as night and day as they are in the states. When I get past my first glances I realize how similar things really are. I think this is what I am going to take away from this trip. In the United States the location of the school has a huge impact on the materials available. When we arrived on the dusty road, after bumping in the bus and chocking on dirt for well over an hour I was able to witness the differences in schools here in Malawi. The school we are at this week in GoGo village is much smaller. There were a total of 6 classrooms. On the outside the buildings were very similar. But the inside was vastly different. These rooms were full of desks and multiple chalk boards. There were not countless holes in the floors and garbage strewn about. But differences in the school systems also became apparent when we began teaching. Question after question has been meet with blank stares and confused faces. After reviewing a topic a second time the students are still having difficulty connecting the information. It is true that to learn a new concept that most people need to be exposed to it 5-7 times. At times I feel that this school is more frustrating. When I teach a concept, and ask a review question I want them to answer it correctly. But I am happy that I am in this village. These are the places that we can make a bigger difference because these students have no prior knowledge.

Yesterday, while teaching I noticed that a few of our students had written something on their clothes in pen. The writing was either on their pockets, right over their hearts or on the back directly under the collar. At first I didn’t look very closely at what it was but there more I noticed it, the more I wondered. Finally after closer examination I noticed that one of the boys had the name “ Christan Ronaldo” and the number “23” written on the back of his shirt. I think it is great how creative they are in solving problems. They wanted a football jersey and since they could not afford one, they made one themselves. I noticed that other students had drawn Spain’s logo on their shorts and even a crude version of the Adidas symbol.

Speaking of clothes. I wonder when I look around the classroom where the students’ clothes have come from. They have t-shirts that say things like “crack is whack” as well as shirts with popular logos. Some even have people’s last names on them. It makes me wonder about my old clothes that have been donated. Where did they end up? Somewhere is there a child in a impoverished country walking around with a shirt with “Walcott” and the number “21” on the back?

Our empowerment groups is much different this week. The kids are absolutely adorable. But, they are 10-12 years old. They are so EMBARRASSED when talking about their bodies and sex. Mostly they stare at us, brown eyes wide open and unblinking. Some students begin to ask questions but then hide their heads in their heads or explode into giggles with their friends.

The hardest thing about being here is saying no. Last week it was only giving the students in my class a pencil even though there were hordes of children all clamoring to get one. Today it was watching the throngs of students stand around our lunch line. Inching closer the pressed in upon on our line and gave us hopefully smiles. How can it be? Imagine a group of Americans who have everything they need and come barring food telling hundreds of hungry faces below the ages of 6 "NO" we do not have food for you. It breaks me heart to chase these little ones away.

And I Thought I was In Shape(Day 16)

The hike yesterday can be summed up in one word. HARD. For about 2 hours we panted and swore as we attempted to climb to the top of Mt. Nkhoma. Although the hike was strenuous, the view at the top was worth all our pain. We were able to see for miles in all directions and could view some of the villages we will be working at. The area that the mountain was in was also very beautiful. It was much more hilly than Lilongwe and had more trees. I could imagine the area before all the trees were cut down and it would have been even more beautiful.

I cannot wait to start at our new school. More about that on Tuesday. Monday is my cooking day so I will be really busy.

Relaxin’ on Saturday (Day 15)

Well, we lost. The first World Camp football game of the session was quite a mismatch and I was on the loosing end. Even though we tried to split up the Field Staff when the final whistle blew the score was 8-1. It was fun though. I enjoy spending time with the field staff and getting to know them.

This afternoon we got to talk to Michael Kumwinda. He is a Malawian who spent 8 years teaching 5th grade in the United States and is now back in Malawi working with USAID and the Malawi Ministry of Education. He has also worked with the Peace Corps on Education projects. It was really interesting to talk to him about the differences between education in the states and in Malawi and to hear suggestions and insights for teaching students in the rural villages. He said so many things about the students in Malawi that are equally true of my students and also about teachers as well. I think that education on a global scale is very interesting and is something I would like to learn more about. He was discussing how many teachers in Malawi are undereducated themselves and thrown into classrooms without completing an education degree because there is such a shortage of teachers. Many of the teachers have classes of over 60 students and teachers have no say in where they work or how long they stay at a school. It kind of makes me think. In past blogs I’ve talked about my students in the US and how they are unaware of how much they have. But I guess I have to examine myself as well. I know how much I have. But at times it is hard to be thankful. In the moment at school we complain about parents, supplies and attendance. But we have thing that these schools could not even dream of. Pencils will never be a problem for us and hopefully on my difficult days in Chapel Hill I can remember this and use it to improve the education of my students.

This evening we had a cookout. I will say that Malawian s’mores do not rank to those in the United States. The marshmallows, if it can be believed are sweeter than those in the US, and surprisingly this was not becoming of them. Also we had to use coconut biscuits instead of gram crackers. We did find something interesting today while picking up Cokes (made with real sugar and in glass bottles) at the local gas station. Many things are sold in small zip lock bags here in the markets. They sell oil and sugar and salt like that. But to our amazement we found bourbon sold in packets just like ketchup. Talk about a different type of shot.

Time to say Goodbye (Day 14)

At camp we had our final presentations. After camp, during evaluation that we do everyday to make the curriculum more effective, we were asked how they went. I honestly did not know what to say because I had NO IDEA what specifically happened in the presentations. I take it for granted that I am able to understand limited Spanish during meetings and presentations at school. I have never been so clueless as to what was happening. The students though seemed to enjoy the presentations and the teachers were a joy to watch. they laughed and giggled as the kids interpreted them and talked about taboo subjects like sex and HIV.

During the week we had been collecting student pencils at the end of the day reducing loss and saving time sharpening 100 pencils with a 10 cent hand sharpener. Because of a crazy day, we never got to use pencils and our students did not get theirs. I cound’t leave these students without giving them the pencils they have been promised. So after presentations I motioned to me kids to follow me. That was my first mistake. I could hear the thunder of 100 feet and when I glanced back over my shoulder half the camp was following me. I grabbed our bag of pencils and you would have thought that I was passing out gold. Every child within eyesight rushed over to me jumping, pushing and yelling as they tried to ask for and then grab a pencil. Hands were everywhere. Thankfully before I was crushed under the weight of the pencil pushers my Field Assistant Chris came to my rescue. I had to toss the pencils over the kids heads, a hail mary pass, into his outstretched hands. And then safely back on the bus, the pencils distributed to our students, he tried to give them back to me. And back they went high over volunteers heads just beyond awaiting fingers. Some children who followed me to the bus and were banging on the window holding their fingers up and asking for just 1!! Thinking back it was am unimaginable experience reminiscent of video clips of people in war torn areas begging for food. That was how precious these brand new pencils were to these students. Can you imagine kids in American wanting a pencil so bad. My students loose pencils like they are nothing, because they are always available. To these kids a bag of a hundred pencils was just as uncommon and exciting as gold.

I always find that it is hard to say goodbye to my class at the end of the year. With those students I know that I can check back with them in just a few months. I can see how they’ve grown and check in with them about their lives. Today when we wrapped up camp it was an entirely different type of goodbye. I have only known these kids for 4 days, but we have discussed some really personal topics and I have grown attached to them. As we pulled away in the bus I was left with the knowledge that not only would I not be able to see these students ever again but I can never check into their lives. They will go on and grow up, and I will have no knowledge of who they become or if their experiences with me made the same impact on them as they did on me.

Cultural Differences and Having Fun (Day 13)

My favorite pic so far. "Rugrats" spying on our class.
The boys during lunch.
The girls who want my phone number.

We have just completed our third day of camp in the village of Mintundu. This village is about 40 miles from the city of Lilongwe but most of the citizens have never been here. The road is poor. There are few bikes and even fewer cars. The villagers are full of life, fun and happiness. It is interesting how little they have. Most students have worn the same cloths the three days we have seen them. They eat from mismatched bowls, without silverware and go home to small one room brick shacks. But they find enjoyment in the small things in life. Things that many of us take for granted because we are to worried about clothes, furniture and the “stuff” that we do have. Although their lives are filled with hardships the feeling that permeates the people is refreshing.

In our work with the campers this week I have noticed some real cultural differences. The first one is the different ways in which boys interact with each other. It has caught me by surprise to see one of the most popular boys in our class resting his head and arms across one of his male friend’s shoulder as he listens to me teach. I have also seen men walking down the street holding hands and the boys all huddled together, arms and legs linked and touching. It is so different from what I see even with my 3rd graders from home. Even at that age the boys will not show affection towards their friends for fear of being made fun of for being a sissy or maybe even romantically liking a boy. It is true that homosexual relationships are illegal here. So I wonder if the kids are less worried because it is not a topic like it is at home.

The kids and cameras. I know that most of them have never seen a camera, let alone a video recorder. Today though was very entertaining. My co-teacher, Leigh, and I were trying to take pictures of our students during lunch. Lunch is when the field staff (our translators) get a break. So it is often the awkward chance for the students to stare at the “white people” and us to stare back at them. We attempt conversations, but most of the time we cannot fully understand what each other is saying. So today we decided to fill the silences with some photo ops. It was a more difficult task than we thought. A camera is totally foreign to our students so even looking at it is something that they have to be told to do and trying to get them to smile is even harder. Without our helpful translator Leigh took 6 successive shots of myself and 4 other girls without success. We did not get a single picture with all of them looking at the camera.

Tomorrow is the last day with this group of kids. I will be sorry when our bus pulls out of the parking lot. World Camp will not come back to the same village for three years. They work on this rotation so that the students we worked with this year will all have graduated and there will be a completely new group of students to work with. It is interesting teaching so much sex and HIV/AIDS education. I actually think it is easier and less embarrassing for me because they cannot understand what I am saying. Many of the girls in Standard 7, the grade I am working with, have never seen a picture of the female anatomy. They do not understand that there are different holes for both types of waste and a completely different one for having a baby. Imagine “3 holes!!!” They giggled for 5 minutes. It was very funny to watch them put condoms on bananas, but even funnier to have them eat the bananas after we took the condoms off. These kids are mostly malnourished, we cannot waste 250 bananas. We even had races to see who could blow up the condom the biggest. All of these activities help them feel comfortable with sex and establish a feeling that they can talk about these issues and have a say in what happens to them.

When driving back from school today I glimpsed the heartbreaking reality of life here in Malawi. We were traveling on a road lined with different types of small shops all constructed out of a few tree branches and palm fronds roofs. One row of shops contained nothing but wooden coffins, some definitely child sized. I know that children die in the US everyday from tragic accidents but, to see these pint sized coffins for sale along a main roadway made me sad.

Overall everything is going awesome. I am having a great time. I cannot wait to go on a hike this weekend. We are going to hike up a local mountain. The views from the top will be great!!!

A Sea of Smiling Faces (Day 10)

I have never felt so much like a celebrity as I did today. It was overwhelming watching hundreds of little Malawian children flood the fields as they ran across in a sprint to see each and every “azungu” (white person) who had arrived at their school. We joked that we needed to have someone take a picture of all of us in the swarm of children and we could even play “Where’s Waldo” to find the volunteers. Today was an amazing day. I can say that I am honestly exhausted but feeling very content. Camp went really well. The students were all perfectly behaved. They seemed to have a good grasp of the HIV curriculum. Some of their names are very western sounding. We have a student named Gift and a Bertha as well. Others have names I cannot even begin to say or spell. The language is much different from ours and the students openly laugh when I try to pronounce parts of the curriculum. They also giggle and laugh when they all get in a circle and dance and it is my turn. I have never felt at uncoordinated and rhythmically challenged as that moment. We had some interesting questions during “female empowerment.” It is funny how little they know and are told about sex. They thought a man could get pregnant if a woman actually wanted to sleep with him

Today I got to experience drop toilets the Malawian way. All I could think of was in Slum Dog how the kid jumps into the poo pit to get his autograph. I can say is I am happy for plumbing.

We do not have camp tomorrow because it is the Malawian Independence day. There were extra police out and about today making sure that everything stayed calm for celebrations. The police are a lot more “serious” looking than the typical American cop. There are no doughnut breaks for these guys. They were decked out in full camo gear, driving a tank like vehicle and carrying serious guns. Our coordinator Jaren said he heard their guns were not even loaded, that they cops did this more for intimidation. I learned that Malawi was formed by three main tribes that did not want to fall into the fighting that much of Africa was experiencing so they decided to come together peacefully. I think that is a really cool story and is supported by how wonderful the people do seem here.

Sorry no pictures or videos today. It was suggested that we not use cameras until the last day of camp or the little “rugrats” will not leave us alone. I am going to take some in class pictures and maybe a dancing video on Wednesday.

Finally the Countryside (Day 8)

After spending a week in Malawi we finally got to do what I came here for, interact with the kids, and it was a great experience. This morning we awoke and drove about 30 minutes out of Lilongwe. It was an eye opening drive. First off all I was able to see how people live a bit outside of the city. There were lots of small houses, mostly made a brick arranged in small groups. Every few miles there were small shacks selling a variety of items. These include fresh veggies, dried fish, mice on a stick. Eww. They remind me of the scorpion suckers that are sold, but these are not a food just for tourists. During the dry season Malawians slow burn the fields to help stop fires. They actually collect the mice that have been burned, skewer them with a stick and sell them as a snack food. Last session one of the coordinators made a bet and had to eat a mouse. He said the head was the worst!!!

As we drove up to Yossa, an after school program for orphans, the kids chased the bus down the street yelling “white person” in Chechewa. When we arrived, the students that we were supposed to work with had not arrived. They came according to “Malawi Time” which is always WAY later than the time stated. We got to play with the little kids while we waited. There was a small playground with swings, climbing poles and slides. It was a trial in communication to play with them and not use any words. They did know “head, fingers, knees and toes” in English. When the other students arrived we did some songs and dances with the kids. We will be using these when we begin teaching next week. The kids were so excited by their white visitors that the hung on to every World Camp Volunteer’s hands tightly and when we went to a small class, having to leave the little “rugrats” outside, they followed us and literally had to be chased away!! In class it was funny to see the Malawian’s reactions to our demonstrations on condom use. But it definitely paints a picture of the difference in cultures. The people in the room were ages 15 to adults. They were very embarrassed and kept looking back at us with uneasy smiles. I can imagine it was a little like teaching the concepts in a US middle school. It is sad to think that this difference in culture, their unease in talking about sex and HIV, is partly why the disease is so prevalent. It shows how important education is and hopefully the difference we are making.

One thing I noticed on the trip to Yossa was that the sky here looks different than it does in any places I have been to in the States. It is a deeper clear blue that stretches off into the distance and it dotted with huge white puffy clouds. It looks so cool and serene and void of any pollutants that we have. It is funny that the sky looks so clean but the ground is covered with garbage that people just drop on the ground.

For dinner this evening we had a traditional Malawian meal of Nsima and relishes. One relish was made of bean and the other tomatoes and pumpkin greens. Nsima is a corn flower patty that is boiled and used to scoop the relishes. I was not a fan of the pumpkin relish. I cannot imagine eating the same thing everyday for my life but this is what many of our student do.