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.