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.