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.