Life since January 2011

Well let's start where I left off. Term two started in January. I missed the first two weeks because of traveling to England and France for the holidays and a mandatory training for Peace Corps. When I returned in week 3 of school it seemed that I hadn't missed much. Many of the teachers were out opening bank accounts for the Ministry of Education's new initiative to pay all teachers electronically. All government employees were switched to this scheme so nurses, agriculture workers, etc were busy opening bank accounts (think: longer lines than usual.... a normal trip to the bank was 1-4 hours long). In theory, it was a good plan but in a country with such intermittent electricity, lack of proper identification for most citizens and the distances between banks it didn't turn out so well. For me however it was back into the classroom and daily routine. Things went very well overall school wise minus some financial problems. Apart from all of my fellow teacher not being paid, yet thankfully still showing up everyday we were battling other money issues at the school.  A new plan to root out correuption, all schools were required to deposit all the school fees paid by the students into a central bank account which would then be monitored and dolled out to schools accordingly. I think it's fairly obvious what happened next. Since there was nothing I could do about this I chalked it up to another frustrating thing that happened in Malawi and focused on getting the students ready for national exams!

The biggest project I had happening in term 2 of school was a sewing workshop at Vanessa's site in Mchinji. A women's orphan care group had many non-functioning sewing machines that were in serious need of parts and maintenance and the group didn't know how to sew. Vanessa worked with the group to figure out a plan for using the machines to make school uniforms for her students to buy, therefore generating income for the women's group and giving the women valuable skills. The project went well overall with a lot of late hours and early mornings getting patterns and instructions ready for the workshop. Overall it was great to spend time with the women and two other great volunteers. We also had an education specialist from Peace Corps Washington DC come check out the work we were doing and talk to about teaching in Malawi. Of course, this being Malawi there were frustrating aspects but overall it was rewarding.

The most memorable aspect of that project however wasn't the actual workshop but rather my travel to the workshop. As usual, I taught my lessons in the morning and waited for the rain to stop so I could begin my travel to Vanessa's village. During rainy season it can be quite a challenge to get in and out of my village which is 8km on a dirt road. I also live in very mountainous region of Malawi and my house it at the very top of one of the peaks. Generally pick up trucks pass through the village in the mornings going into Lilongwe and I can generally hitch a ride with them. I waited for a few hours hoping an open truck would pass but with the rain and the poor roads nothing came in the two hours I waited. Eventually I found a bike that was willing to take me the 8km to the M1 despite the rain and we started off. So here I was.... A Malawian man pedaling furiously down this dirt road which has turned to mud, me on the back with my backpack on and an umbrella over us both. In Malawi, I always travel with a chitenje (a big piece of cloth worn by all women to protect their clothes) and it was quickly splattered with mud. Also, my umbrella kept turning inside out because of the wind and rain and I eventually abandoned it. I usually have a lot of confidence in the bikes I hire to take me places since they don't want to get hurt or damage their bikes (their only means of making money) but on this particular day I started to worry. The rain had been pretty intense and the road was getting very dangerous as we sped down the steep hills covered with slick mud. When the bikes tires started losing traction and slipping off the bumps I knew there was no chance of staying even remotely clean or dry. After a few close calls where the bike driver did a great job keeping us on the bike the inevitable happened and we fell over into a ditch. There we were trapped under his bike, in a puddle at the edge of a maize field. He was embarressed and helped me up and apologized profusely. Knowing he had done the best he could I wasn't mad and we got back on the proverbial horse and took off again and within seconds found ourselves again on the road under the bike covered in mud. At this point almost every inch of my clothes, skin, backpack and hair were covered in mud and my leather sandles weren't staying on with all the slippery mud. Deciding not to tempt fate again we started walking, barefoot and covered in mud. Essentially I was paying this kind man to slip through mud and walk next to me in the fruitless hope the sun would come out and we could remount the bike. We got about 2 km down the road when we heard a truck barreling down the scary road so I quickly paid the bike taxi for his efforts and flagged down the truck. I spend a lot of time traveling by open vehicle and usually find a spot nestled in with the village ladies. When I first arrived the close nature of these trip were a little starnge as you essentiall sit on someones lap or pressed up against someone else, leaning on them for support. After a few trips I can to find comfort in the closeness of the rides and the feeling that I was being accepted as one of them! This time however, I was ushered to the front of the truck's bed where I held on for dear life while standing with all the men. Maybe it was because of the mud covering my clothes or the rain but they wouldn't let me sit. After some scary turns where I nearly crushed the very small man in front of me, the car stopped at the small river close to the main road that we usually just pass over. Here some of the men started jumping out of the car and told me I needed to wash some of the mud off before we could continue. Yes, I was so dirty Malawian men told me I needed to bathe in a river because I was getting the open truck dirty even though it was still raining. Truthfully I wasn't the only one going to bathe in the river but still it was a rather pathetic moment. Anyway, I rinsed the mud off my legs, clothes, hair, shoes and face and jumped back in the car for the rest of he journey to Lilongwe. It was certainly not my finest moment and I was very thankful to get to Vanessa's house later that day where she had a hot bath ready for me. Also she has an amazing house keeper, Rose, who took my disgusting clothes away from me and returned them a day later sparkling clean!

After term 2 ended in April I went up to Dar es Salaam with 3 friends, Amy, Vanessa and Irene. We planned to take the bus but luckily our boss was driving to Dar around the same time so we went with him for the same price as the bus in much less crowded and comfortable transport (although one person had to sit in the trunk of his small SUV with the luggage the whole way). We made good time and crossed into Tanzania in the early afternoon. There we were shown the huge difference between Malawi (a country with very little tourism or homegrown revenue) and Tanzania (where tourism is a huge part of the economy thanks to Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park and Zanzibar). The actual crossing of the border was a pretty good example of the vast difference. After finally getting someones attention on the Malawi side and convincing them to do their job of stamping our passports, we walked across the most obnoxious bridge in the world (Imagine lots of men shouting Lady! Azungu! Change money! Good price! Taxi! Hello Mammy!) we got to the Tanzania side where the efficient agent processed our visas and we were officially in Tanzania. Unfortunately we then discovered a flat tire on the car which our boss changed. Us women decided to be culturally appropriate and let him change it while we sat chatting on the side of the road and the African men watching the white man work. One man helped and even refused payment for his help saying "Welcome to Africa!" which prompted all the spectators to put out their hands expecting payment for watching.

We broke the long journey to Dar into two days and spent one night in Mbeya close to the Malawi-Tanzania border. We stumbled into an incredibly strange hotel after 15 straight hours in the car. None of the stairs were equal heights and although the bed was incredible wide (at least a king and a half) it wasn't quite long enough to accommodate our heights (well ok. My height. Sorry, Amy!)

At the hotel restaurant we had some issues with our very drunk waiter who liked to stand way too close and didn't seem very familiar with food services. Everything we ordered caused confusion. For example, someone ordered a coke and he asked in absolute serious "hot or cold coke?" How many people have asked for their coke to be heated up for them? It's possible he meant cold or room temperature but it was stifling hot despite the late hour so I can't imagine many people want a room temperature soda! Other odd interactions included Vanessa ordering fried chicken and him asking "beef?" He also didn't understand why we weren't wiling to pay a bill with random and ridiculous prices on it. Many times he told us "Ah ok just pay!" Of course this whole evening caused us to laugh nonstop but clearly illustrates the need for service and hospitality training in Africa.

We finally arrived in Dar late at night, tired, sweaty and hungry. We weren't able to find our hotel so our boss dropped us at one of the few restaurants open late on a Sunday night where we ate and then found a taxi to take us the rest of the way. The next morning we braved the Tanzanian heat and headed to find coffee, ferry tickets to Zanzibar and a guide book (in that order). Finding all of those easily, we explored Dar for a little and then went off to the ferry. The ride was nice and luckily no one got seasick which might have been hard since we were in the very luxurious first class section we'd upgraded ourselves to for a whopping $5!

The ferry ride was a nice short hour and a half and we were all in vacation spirit chatting and laughing! About halfway through the journey a young woman who was dressed in a very extravagent fashion came into the cabin, chatted up the cabin attendant and sat right next to Vanessa and I despite half the cabin being empty. Now in Africa, prostitutes are not subtle. From the clothes to the fancy cell phones to her chatting so opening with the cabin attendent it was pretty obvious this woman/girl was a prostitute. So Vanessa and I were talking and listening to music minding our own business when out of the corner of our eyes we both see our new friend (who had ignored us up until this moment) pull out her fancy phone and snapped a picture of us before quickly facing forward and continuing to ignore us. We were speechless. We tried our hardest to hold the laughter in but eventually we just collapsed into giggles. The young woman did a great job of keeping a straight face and pretending she hadn't done anything and eventually left. Oh to be white in Africa. Oh wait! I am! She probably shows her friends the picture of her new white friends all the time!

So we arrived on Zanzibar and eventually found our way through the twisting narrow alleyways of Stone Town with the help of a nice stranger. Our hotel was in a great location close to everything (ok ok. Stone Town is tiny and everything is close to everything). We'd asked for a room at the top to catch some breeze so we made our way up the increasingly steep steps to our rooms. The final flight of starts was essentially a ladder with a hand rail! Not the kind of "stairs" to go up or down after a few drinks or carrying very heavy packs. Famished we asked the receptionist for a restaurant and she directed us to one "right around the corner". Well we got hopelessly lost walking for ages until we finally stumbled upon an Italian restaurant. Yes, our first meal in Zanzibar was pasta! A few days later after getting our bearings of the town we found the place she had directed us to and it really was just around the corner! Somehow we'd gotten none of the instructions right but we did get to see a lot of the city which was beautiful! Our time in Stone Town was spent exploring, eating, drinking and eating. It was some of the best food I have ever eaten, I might add and all totally affordable even on a Peace Corps budget! One of the days we went on a spice tour where we got to see how lots of amazing spices are grown and harvested. On that day we also checked out the natural caves that were used to hide slaves before boarding ships. Another day we went out on a small boat to prison island (which was never actually a prison) where we hung out with some amazing 100 year old tortoises from the Seychelles and snorkeled!

After exhausting the sights of Stone Town we headed to the beach to relax even further! Also it was Vanessa's birthday so we were ready to celebrate. We stayed an a small little beachfront hotel which was very nice. It was one of the few that was open despite being the off-season. It was nice and included in our rooms was an hour massage and a free drink! My kinda hotel!

Unfortunately the fun had to end eventually and we were quickly thrown back into Peace Corps life as we took a public bus from Tanzania to Malawi. A trip I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart or anyone really. The first day we sat on the hot crowded bus traveling for 15 hours with dozens and dozens of our closest friends. Unfortunately Vanessa was very sick and the other people on the bus were awful awful people. They were so rude to us and each other. They refused to let anyone open a window and when we were digging our bags out of the back of the bus at our destination someone threw the bag I was reaching for farther away from me! We were all glad to get back to Malawi after the bus from hell until we remembered we still had the bridge from hell ahead of us. We got out of the taxi that dropped us at the border (after 4 hours of traveling and it was only 8am) and immediately people started yelling horrible things at us. It was one occasion where I wished I didn't understand the local language. While we were trying to walk away from the belligerent drunks a bike literally ran into Amy! We were shocked! His front tire was resting on top of her foot when he stopped! Not the way to get 4 very bitter travelers into a better mood. At some point some man was calling out to us "hello nice people" in an effort to sell us something, change money for us or maybe just rob us. Irene immediately turns to him and says "You obviously don't know us! We are not nice people." In general we are nice people! But on this particular journey we were fed up! It was very true at this point in the ordeal. The rest of the journey was similarly frustrating including me threatening to punch a man in the face if he didn't stop talking to me and having to tackle people to get onto the bus after our first bus broke down. The cherry on the cake was when we finally arrived in Lilongwe at 10pm. We were exhausted and just wanted to be home. As soon as the bus arrived the door was immediately swarmed by aggressive taxi drivers wanting to find customers. Amy stopped at the top of the stairs and told them "We want to go to [this address], we want to pay k500, and we want only 1 taxi! 1 taxi! And I choose YOU!" Anyone who has met Amy would know that this type of outburst or shouting is very uncharacteristic which made it even funnier! We piled out of the bus and into the chosen man's taxi only to get to the bottom of the hill outside of Irene's house only to find the car did not have enough gas to make it up! Our driver assured us we shouldn't worry (a very common thing is for Malawians to suggest "Don't worry!" even when worrying is justified). We were all delirious from lack of sleep, water and food that we just about died of laughter. Our driver got us home though by driving backwards up the hill but we were all thankful to have a break from traveling.

Soon after the Tanzanian adventure the new school term started and I met my new sitemates! My previous sitemate had finished his service in April and I was given two new ones at two villages both about 6km away from me. It was wonderful to be able to share my knowledge and experiences with people who were fresh out of training and they quickly became great friends! It's been so nice having really fun people nearby and has helped pass the last few months quickly. We have a lovely tradition of sitemate Sunday where we rotate whose house we'll go to and just have a nice get-together and chat while the rest of Malawi is in church!

Other fun things that have been happening are a last minute safari to Zambia with a friend's family and a short trip down to Blantyre to meet up with Victor and students from The Kings Academy. I was very fortunate to get great travel down to Blantyre (a rarity for sure!). It was fast and crowded but I was allowed to sit on the engine compartment so I didn't have to stand the whole 3 hours down! Sometimes the white person card works in my advantage! After getting great transport I was reminded that nothing is perfect in Malawi as I couldn't get a ahold of anyone once I got to the turn off. Thankfully there was a road block so I asked the police to direct men to the orphanage. Thinking they'd know where it was located was a fine guess except there are three orphanages in the proximity of the road block I had been dropped at. Luckily the police were friendly and we just chatted while I tried to figure out how to get to this mysterious orphanage. The police devised a plan where I would write a letter to Victor, send it on a bike taxi and wait for a reply. If we found the right orphanage, the police would let me wander off into the village. It was pretty cute that they were so worried for me and I couldn't convince them that wandering into villages was pretty much my life in Malawi! Eventually I got a hold of someone with Victor and they came and picked me up. It was nice to see people from California and a little strange to here them talk about places I know in America. I stayed with them for a few days and was able to help out at the orphanage. It was fun chatting with the young Malawians at the center and meeting the American students.

More recently, the new education volunteers arrived in Malawi. After a few days at the training site they went out to different volunteer's sites to shadow them. Two came to my site and stayed with me for a few days. They got a chance to see what life in the village is like and observe some of my lessons. It was nice to have visitors and share my experiences in Malawi with them. However, it was slightly weird to know that soon one of the new trainees will be replacing me! How did two years fly so quickly?

From Aug-January (because I suck at this blog thing)

Well it's been awhile (sorry family) and much has happened in the warm heart of Africa. Staring where I left off...

Camp Sky was amazing and one of those experiences I will probably bore innumerable people with. Working with such motivated and talented students with a bunch of incredible volunteers really gave me a burst of energy for year 2 of teaching. It's a shame that everyday and in every class learning in Malawi can't be full of interactive lessons and creative lessons. Aww if only....

Soon after camp sky I headed down to Blantyre with a friend to check out the only "real" city in Malawi. It was a fun trip including a sketchy hotel but some great food. We also got to check out a movie at the only movie theater in the country. Unfortunately they only have 2 options per day which were likely not considered new or blockbusters in America. Well, the movie (To Save a Life) was not what we expected (judging solely on the movie poster... but u know why they say about judging a movie by the poser.... Hmmm or is that wrong?) Regardless it was the best movie I'd seen all year, which isn't saying much.

Soon after it was back to Kalumbu for the start of the new school year. Thankfully I "moved up" as form teacher with my form 3s as they became form 4s meaning I had the same students for another year. They're a great group of about 50 students who have a really wonderful mix of personalities. They're used to my teaching and discipline style and we always have great open discussions about their and my concerns about the school and their academic performance. Realistically, I've pretty much just scared those kids straight so it's much easier to work with them. They always like to "complain" that madam is so strict which is "criticism" I'd much rather have than being lazy (their usual complaint about all the other teachers).

As I mentioned before, our small staff of 6 got even smaller with the wonderful retirement of our old head-teacher (generally a useless man!). I thought I would be the only one rejoicing his departure since no one had ever mentioned having problems with him, it seems the majority of the staff was equally glad to see him gone. In typical Malawian fashion the minute he was gone the flood gates of complaints about him opened. One thing Malawians hate is complaining and upsetting he status quo. They will often start complaints by saying "I'm not complaining but...." It was mildly reassuring to know I wasn't insane in thinking that man was a crook and a terrible head-teacher. Unfortunately that doesn't negate the hours of stress he caused me. And his departure did leave our pitiful staff of 6 down to 5.

Lucky for us (and frustrating I'm sure for the students) the Malawi National Examination Board took their sweet time in releasing results for the first and 3rd year students. This left our schools nice and small with only form 2 and 4 during the waiting-for-exam-results-and-new-teachers time. Once the results were out (2 months after school started) we had been given an awesome new head-teacher who AMAZINGLY is qualified to teach secondary school (ie. he has more than a high school diploma) and another great teacher who is taking over physical science (physics and chemistry) from me. It has been a huge relief to know that the Physical Science which I started in my first year will be continued after I leave!

Term 1 of school went very well despite the slow results of the exams. Some drastic changes to my classes and teaching style meant that the average scores and comprehension for my students was much more acceptable than before (not great or even good but aceptable) The addition of the new teachers helped lighten my teaching load so that I was able to work more on revamping our library and getting the after school adult eduction program going again. I can now proudly say we record what books students borrow and when!!! Amazing I know! Although I still have a lot of work to do in library I can't help but feel it is as futile as pouring water into a leaky bucket. Everytime I am absent from the library records fall apart and the organization I strive for is a distant memory. But alas I will continue with my efforts hoping that something sticks.

I had some really memorable days in term 1 that remind me why I love Malawi so much. One includes my neighbor asking me to teach her to bake a cake for her husband's birthday. After a bit of miscommunication about exactly who was cooking this cake and where, she came over and we baked a chocolate cake on my charcoal stove. While we were waiting for the cake to bake she started doing the dishes and proceeds to scrub (with coarse gravel) all my pots, pans, plates etc. Apparently my dish washing abilities don't match Malawian standards but I now have sparking clean dishes. Women here have a strange fascination with making all their pots and pans look brand new by scrubbing all the black soot off the outside of them! It makes no sense to me as the layer of soot will be there again tomorrow when I put it back on the open fire but oh well. As usual I spent a lot of time with the children between the ages of 2 and 14 who live near me. My mom very generously sends lots of things for the kids to play with which makes my house a very popular place for them to hang out. It's nice being able to entertain them but everything about living in Malawi is frankly exhausting. I frequently don't have the time, energy or patience to play with kids in Chichewa after a long day of teaching, cooking over an open fire, bathing with a bucket etc.. When I do find the energy for it we jump rope, color, do somersaults or play catch which is always so much fun. Lately they have be one obsessed with my jigsaw puzzles. The amazement on their faces when I explained that all the little pieces form one complete picture was priceless. We continue to struggle with the idea that the image continues beyond the edges of the piece but we're making progress. Two of the kids I regularly hang out with have gotten the concept really well and are becoming experts. I will certainly leave the puzzles for them to continue playing with when I go! Who knows maybe I have discovered geniuses among the millions of children here?

Anyways racing ahead to the more recent past.... Christmas time arrived and my family came to visit! After a rather ridiculous travel day in which I went way south to meet them on the road from the airport they missed their flights and ended up at the airport closest to my house a day later! Obviously it wasn't their fault they missed their flight but it did make for a long day of traveling for me. I arrived at the super nice hotel alone in my scruffy Peace Corps volunteer uniform (Chaco's, Malawian skirt and blouse, a hiking-pack and dripping sweat from a long journey). A nice family realized I was a Peace Corps volunteer and gave me a ride the last few miles which was so appreciated! The first night was a bit weird since I am not used to being a tourist in this country but it was nice to sit by the lake and enjoy a nice meal. Luckily I am well accustomed to awkwardness in Malawi so the 8 waiters hovering around me didn't bother me too much. It's just like having an audience for everything I do in my village. Like being a celebrity right? Anyways, the next day I waited for my family to arrive. After about 4 hours of being totally uncomfortable at the hotel I decided I would venture back into the real Malawi and set off to the nearest market. It was a nice little adventure and it helped passed the time until the family came.

Their visit to Malawi was nice. It was great to veg out by the lake and read some books while soaking up the sun. They weren't too impressed with the service but by my incredibly low standards it was great! Then it was off to my site for a very very very very brief look around the village. Before I left, I explained to my neighbors and the village that they were coming for a few days before we headed to Lilongwe and then the UK and they were shocked and couldn't understand why they didn't want to spend their whole vacation in the village. I tried to nicely explain to them that it wasn't exactly my family's style to rough it. Anyways I think their few hours there was more than enough but it was great to be able to show them around. I don't think they were too envious of my working conditions since my school is pretty much crap but hey... I love it. Anyways then it was off to another fancy place in Lilongwe and then the UK and France. It was awesome to see the whole family plus all their assorted offspring yet totally overwhelming. England was wonderfully snowy and filled with family while Paris was great and reunited me with my love of shopping and I even got to see Harry Potter with French subtitles! What more could u ask for?

Then it was back to Malawi! I seriously looked like a maniac the entire flights (all 14 hours) because I was smiling the whole time. I was ecstatic until I realized that between my luggage and the 4 packages I received before I left for my trip (Thanks mom, Melissa and Janine) I was going to have quite a time getting to the junky old school bus that takes me home. Well I spent lots of money getting a taxi (3 times the total cost of my entire trip getting home for just the trip from my friends house to the bus depot) and managed to make it comfortably home with help from some students. Then it was off to Dedza for a week of Mid-service training (yep that's right i am over midway). After all the globetrotting I was sooooo thankful to get home and just be in my house and relax. Of course, like all things in Malawi it didn't last....

This week I have been trying fruitlessly to finish the national exam registration (which is stupidly done on the computer despite most Malawian schools not having electricity, computers or anyone proficient with computers!) It has been a very inefficient system of me spending hours and money coming to Lilongwe, correcting mistakes and printing out countless copies only to be told the next day that there is another mistake and I will need to go again! Of course it would have been nice to just do it all once and be done but hey then I would have missed out on some quality time squished in terrible Malawian public transportation... oh life!

Until next time (which no lie probably won't be terribly soon)

Well it has certainly been awhile since my last update, which is just a testament to how hectic life has been lately.

So I have successfully completed a full year of teaching now. The school terms progressed with some good days and some bad days with the students and many infuriating days with the rest of the staff. Although I enjoyed feeling more connected with the other teachers, our conversations usually turned to our common frustration with the lack of progress from the school administration. Largely our concerns were centered on financial misdealings that were evident in the poor maintenance of school blocks, lack of new textbooks, absence of all teaching resources (pens, paper, chalk, etc). There were days when the tension ran so high I anticipated a coup d’état! The boiling point happened in mid-June when I went to the electricity supply company to investigate the status of our school being connected to the grid (a project fund raised by the previous volunteer at my site). It turned out we had no electricity because the money left with the school for the connection fee mysteriously didn't make it into the correct hands. Hmm. After some very heated discussions the money "reappeared" and the electricity was paid off. Hopefully we will eventually be connected to the grid and utilize the computers my family generously donated to help my school! Awww that'll be the day.... Luckily the Traditional Authority (similar to a mayor or county representative) is wonderful and is really excited about working with me on all future endeavors. Always good to have friends in high places!

Despite the frustrations, I really enjoyed the company of the other staff members and truly think they are doing the best they can with a very difficult situation. We had a moment of hope, as a staff, in late March when two additional teachers were assigned to our school in response to months of pleading with the Ministry of Education to supplement our tiny staff of 6. Well, as it turned out, those two teachers, a married couple, had been assigned to our school as punishment for "misconduct" at their previous school. Hmm. Luckily (maybe?), they refused to come because they are used to living in urban areas and the charms of a rural village devoid of electricity could not entice them. So the year closed with the same 6 teachers that we started with. Some (great) news came at the end of term 3 (July/Aug) when the headmaster was granted retirement. This was wonderful news to the staff, students and especially me. My dislike for the lazy and mostly absent headmaster grew worse with every passing day he either didn't show up or showed up but taught nothing. The students basically had no instruction in Biology, Bible Knowledge, or Social Studies all year because of his apathy towards the job and his incompetence as a project manager. Now we are hoping that the Ministry will assign us a new headmaster before the new school year starts on September 6. Even if they don't, I think the dynamics of the school are going to shift dramatically with either a new administrator or more leadership given to the semi-competent (yet often drunk) deputy headteacher. In other staffing news, one of the other wonderfully kind but rather lazy teachers is leaving us to go live with wife number 3. It seems like such an American family dynamic to have all these ex-wives and the children spending weekends with one parent and weeks with another. Hmm. Not sure if we should be proud of that American export.

Currently the Education 2009 volunteers and I are running Camp Sky, a 10-day summer-camp/school for students from various schools all over Malawi. Each volunteer chooses two of their best and brightest students (1 boy, 1 girl) and brought them to Kasungu Teacher Training College for 10 days of Math, Science, and English classes, as well as classes like Orienteering, Sewing, Solar Engineering, Business, Cooking, Agriculture, etc. Then of course there is the fun aspect which involved trivia nights, salsa dancing, movie night, and a carnival as well as two field trips (hiking and a day in Lilongwe). It has been wonderful teaching very very bright students who are very interested in staying in school and succeeding. My responsibilities include teaching one “stream” (class) of Math, teaching sewing, teaching solar engineering, and being a dorm “amayi” (meaning mother or Resident Advisor) to ten of the female campers. Being a dorm amayi has been great but I never thought I would have to give so many instructions on how to use a sit-down toilet (most of them have never used one since they have pit-latrines at their homes and schools). Yesterday we went on the field trip to Lilongwe and the students were taken to Parliament, World Bank (although the speaker didn't work out so they only saw the outside of the building... it's still Malawi!) and the airport. We started off from Kasungu early in the morning with bus-fulls of happy singing kids. They were able to see the chambers in Parliament and ask lots of great questions (including one girl who asked where the toilets were but was told there were toilets all over the place for the ministers. We never did find out if she really needed to know...). After the World Bank speaker rescheduled for an inconvenient time we took the students to the airport where almost all of them saw an airplane on the ground for the first time! Our timing worked out perfectly and within twenty minutes we were able to see two commercial planes take off and a military plane land. It was so wonderful to see the excitement in their faces when they saw the huge hunk of metal lift off the runway and I had to resist the nerdy temptation to explain in too much detail how an airplane worked. Overall it was a wonderful (yet exhausting) day that I am sure the students will remember forever!

Amusing Malawi

Well, greetings. Long time no write. Sorry bout that but it's been ahile since I have been ion Lilongwe. Lately I have been typing, giving and

marking end of term exams. I have also been spending a lot of time with the little cuties (sometimes) in the picture. They are some of the millions of childrens who live near me and like to stand at my gate shouting "Tibwere" (we should come). They're cute for most of the time but one day I was so busy and stressed when they asked to come in I told them they could only come if they wanted to wash dishes. Suprisingly they did and all my dishes got washed. Feeling guilty I gave them each a tootsie roll and now everyday they want to wash dishes/get candy! Sometimes they seek out dishes to wash just to earn a candy! HA!

-So the other picture is of a Malawi military man who was directing traffic as the important people went to the airport after President Bingu's oh-so-important wedding. The very high tech walkie-talkie made me laugh hysterically to myself.

-Another amusing day involved wakling 2 hours each way to the funeral of my head master's father. Since I am a woman I had to walk with the women (leaving 2 hours before the men) and that meant walking with the other teacher's wives. Although they're all nice, they don't speak English and my Chichewa skills broke down around hour 1 and then they just talked about me. Throughout the whole walk there I had the joy of carrying our lunch under my arm.... two live chickens. Unfortunately I chatted with the chickens as they tried to escape my grip and that made their death shortly after arriving a little sad. Needless to say I did not eat any chicken that day.

Some ways in which I am very different from the girl who lived in Los Angeles:

-I wash ants out of my Ziploc bags and hang them on the line to dry

-Harvesting and roasting peanuts is a pleasent way to pass the day

-It no longer bothers me when people say "Good Morning" at 5PM

-I ration my phone use so that I can minimize trips to the shop where I charge it

-Sleeping in means waking up at 6:30 and a late night is staying up past 8PM

-I always shake the curtain and tap the floor of my pit latrine to 1. get the goats to come runnin out and 2. make sure the termite haven't destroyed the floor so I won't fall in

-I don't mind stopping at random people's houses asking for water while I am biking

-A "real" meal means actually cooking rice and maybe some vegetables

Anyways hope eveyone is well. Love and miss you! Jaimie

Frustrations

Greetings from Kalumbu Malawi

Well here I sit after living in the quaint little village of Kalumbu for 3 months. I have officially finished teaching my first term and surprisingly some of my students did very well on their end of term exams. Don’t know if that is a reflection on my teaching or the simplicity of the exam but it was nice to think they just might know something more than they did 3 months. The end of term was rather stressful even though I was not actually taking the exams. I spent so many hours reviewing material all the while being rather ill with what I now think was strep throat! Who’d have though my first illness in Malawi would be something I could easily catch in America? However there was also a lot of stress due to the inefficiency of the school and Malawi in general.

First of all, since our school lacks electricity and a computer, our exams are hand written and then sent with the headmaster to town. This might seem inconvenient but since he is always going to Lilongwe anyways, spending at most 3 days a week at school and the other days supposedly in Lilongwe, it wasn’t that difficult. Some teachers however took the exam deadlines as mere suggestions so that most exams were submitted very late to the printer. Those exams that did manage to get typed and printed before the end of term were full of typos so that the first ten minutes of every exam was spent dictating corrections to the students. Then there was the sporadic arrival of these exams so that some days students sat at school all day with no exam because the printer managed to finish four for the form 4, but none for the form 1s! It was very frustrating and even now half of the exams have not and will not be written by the students! Thankfully mine were submitted, typed, and printed in reasonable time and I was able to give and correct all my exams before the end of term.

The inefficiencies at the school are becoming more and more frustrating as I see that many of the problems are a result of laziness by the teachers, administration, and students. At a staff meeting we talked about how useful a computer would be for the school with exams as well as registering students for their national exams. As it happened this year, I had spent 3 Fridays in a row going into the district education office to type, correct, print, and submit the nearly 300 names to write national exams this year. Being the only staff member who can work a computer certainly has it’s downsides. Anyways, everyone has agreed that a computer would be beneficial for the school and my very, very generous family has sent the school a small laptop. Well, rather than simply giving the school the computer which is sitting in my living room, I have told them they need to send a letter to donors in America stating why the school would benefit from a computer. Seems simple enough right? Well, the terrible deputy head suggested I write the letter and he will “proofread it.” Furious, I refused to write it but offered to send the letter when it was finished. Well three weeks later and still no letter. When I asked about it this week, the headmaster had the nerve to ask if they could also ask for a new administration office in the letter! Nearly yelling I told him that no, a computer is one thing but a new school block for his personal office was too large of a request. Strangely he didn’t mention a new building to replace the one that collapsed last week. Luckily it collapsed at night so no one was hurt, and it was a rarely used room that isn’t essential to the day to day workings of the school.

I have unfortunately been becoming less and less naïve about the happenings at the school. During the two week school holiday the teachers decided to teach summer less and charge MK500 (about $3.50) for the two week session. I didn’t think much of it and promised to teach my lessons when I returned from our in service training in Dedza. Later I found out that the government has declared it illegal to charge for summer sessions. Unfortunately I discovered this too late to confront the administrators about their illegal activity but it seems that those students who were able to come up with the money during “hungry season” were taught a fair amount during the sessions. I wish the teachers were as dedicated during the normal sessions but I guess cash in the pocket speaks louder to them than the hope of a paycheck. I was somewhat glad to not be present for their “pay day” of the illegal fees because I would have had a hard time not yelling. I have also heard rumors of some ill-practices of the male staff members with the female students, as well as the actions of some of the female students with local business men and truck drivers! Then I was heard rumors that some of the male students have a certain affinity for drugs and alcohol! Although I am not as surprised about that one as I can often smell the distinct scent of marijuana lofting from one of my neighbors houses (where 3 of my students live) in the evenings so I knew it was readily available in the village but I would have liked to continue thinking my students areimmune to the temptation. Sometimes I think ignorance is bliss here.

Despite the innumerable challenges and frustrations here, I really am incredibly happy. I enjoy teaching most days, although I spend a lot of time on discipline. I have realized I will never be able to teach in America after my experience here. There is no way some of the things we say and do to the students here would be tolerated or even legal in America. For example, there are days when the deputy takes a big stick and chases late students hitting their rear ends whenever he gets close enough, students are publicly humiliated during assembly, or they are told they are going to fail because they are lazy. Since I am the form mistress for form 3, I was given the duty of disciplining 4 late students. Not knowing what was appropriate punishment I consulted the other teachers and we decided they would scrub the toilets (pit-latrines). Unfortunately, knowing these particular students I couldn’t trust them to do the work properly or even at all and was left the unpleasant task of checking their work, which meant venturing into the disgusting student latrines. Ah, Malawi. Anyways I love my neighbors, although I feel as though I never have enough time to chat. Yesterday I managed to finish my laundry early and went over to sit with the ladies. They were busy sewing tobacco leaves together and hanging them to dry, so I helped. I can safely say I never thought I would learn to dry tobacco to sell at auction but hey! When in Rome! It was fun and it was nice to joke with them for a while. Unfortunately they chose that time to inform me that I am fat. I try to remind myself that it’s a compliment here, but that now twice in 24 hours and I am beginning to worry! They also think I should marry one of the few other white people they have met because he is also fat. Obviously a match made in heaven, right? They promised me that if we marry we will have fat babies together! It was fun joking with them about it but I quickly found my Chichewa vocabulary doesn’t extend to explaining why I do not want to marry this guy and have a big family with him by next year! Oh lord. I also really enjoy spending time with the teachers-in-training who are staying at the primary school for a year. I met them the first day they arrived and I think they were very surprised to find a white person in this little village so far from anything else! Regardless they have become some of my closest friends, since they are female, teachers, unmarried, and just as much visitors in the village as me (albeit Malawian...). I spent a great afternoon with them one day watching the primary school kids playing soccer while weaving a woman’s hair! Another useful skill I have learned in Malawi! Ha!

In respect to my house, I have been having lots of trouble with my roof. It leaks worse than I thought was possible even in Malawi. Luckily rain on a metal roof with no ceiling is very very loud so when it rains in the night I wake up and set up the 7 buckets that are necessary to catch the worst of the leaks. Not knowing what to buy to fix the problem or how to fix it without a ladder I spoke with the headmaster. He has promised to fix it for me since I am his “guest” but as a student told me “that one likes to build castles in the sky.” I am quite sure that the roof will still be leaking the day I move out. Oh well part of the charm I suppose. In terms of bugs and creatures so far there hasn’t been anything too exciting. I did find a very large spider (about palm sized and very hairy) hiding under my shoe but he quickly was reintroduced to the sole of my shoe and didn’t cause any trouble. I spent a rather memorable few minutes chasing a small grey mouse around my kitchen (about 5ft by 5ft), and many afternoons chasing chickens out of my yard. The chickens really love my tomato and watermelon garden and don’t move very quickly when I run at them swearing. Maybe they don’t know English swears? I have also been trying to keep the frogs out of my house since they seem to always hop their way in when I leave the door open. Luckily they’re fairly easy to remove since they’re so lazy but I’d rather they stay outside. The worst of my problems now is cockroaches who have taken over my house. They tend to pop out of my bag at school or my clothes when I am taking laundry out or run across my papers when I am working. Although I feel like I kill dozens a day the population seems to be holding steady! Maybe one day my house will be cockroach free! Oh a girl can dream can’t she! Ha!

I did have a strange and possibly animal related incident a few weeks ago when Amy and Vanessa, two other education volunteers who arrived in Malawi with me, were visiting. We were baking cinnamon bread one night to eat the next morning for breakfast. Since it was getting late, the cake was almost done, and the coals were dying, we left the pan on the fire and went to bed. The next morning we found the cover of the pot had been moved and there were large tongue or spoon marks in the top of half the cake. The gate was still tied when we woke up but the lip was balance on a very small ledge in my outdoor kitchen! We never did determine if it was an animal or person who came into my yard that night, ate a few bites of the cake and then left without taking the pot or cake with it! Very strange! Maybe Malawians don’t like our cake?

In another rather scary incident, I was leaving school one day and walking through the trading center when a truck full of Malawians soldiers were unloading and dispersing into the village. Although they were very friendly greeting me as they passed, they had very very very large guns! Terrified I started asking people what was happening but no one seemed to know. As they were heading into the maize fields with their large guns I found one of my neighbors and asked him what they were doing. Strangely he told he “they’re here for the goats!” Well a few days later I found out that they were in fact not here for the goats but rather doing a training exercise where another group had hidden something and the training group needed to retrieve it. Of course this being Malawi (ie. very inefficient), the soldiers were looking for something that had been hidden in Kalumba village, yet my village is Kalumbu! Supposedly they had to walk the 30km to the correct village to retrieve the item. Wonder if they lose points for being the in the wrong village?

Well I think I have sufficiently bored everyone with my day-to-day life in Malawi! I hope everyone is well at home and please keep sending me letters! I love knowing what’s happening with you all! Peace and Love xxx

January Update....

Dear friends and family,

Greetings from Malawi. I hope that the holiday season has been joyous for all. Christmas and New Years were very enjoyable here, albeit very different from the norm. It was strange to be away from family for my favorite holiday but with the help of friends, we were able to make the best of it. Eleven of us headed to the house of a volunteer in Nkhotakota on the lakeshore for our three days of approved leave. It was nice to reconnect after our first few weeks at our sites and I am sure the children in her village got a kick out of twelve ‘azungu’ (white people) wandering around. They were got a great deal of joy watching us do normal tasks like brush our teeth and cook dinner. Some days it feels like I live in a zoo. Regardless it turned out to be a great visit filled with lots of laughter, walking, and rain! We even had a fun “white elephant” gift exchange with what items we could find around our homes, in care packages, or at the local markets. It made some fierce competition for the “best” gifts but we all enoyed.

In other news, school has been going well but continuing to be very challenging. Not only am I challenged by the large class (about 140 students in form 2), language (the range of ability in English is very vast), and lack of resources (only one of my over 200 students has a copy of the book, and two have calculators), I have become increasingly frustrated with the education system as a whole. Classes are often not held when they should be, or cancelled all together for things like manual labor or sports! Considering the school year is so short this year (running from Dec 7 to Aug 6, with national exams beginning in June) it seems incredibly irresponsible to be missing class for sports! Also frustrating is the increasing absence of many of the teachers. They will often leave after a few minutes at school saying they need to go to town (Lilongwe) or to run errands. As I am the only person at my school who has ever used a computer I have been given the task of typing all the school records for the upcoming national exams. Although this task isn’t exactly challenging, waiting for the lists from various committees and hierarchies at the school and traveling back and forth to Lilongwe during the school hours (as we have no electricity or computer at school) has been frustrating. It’s difficult to set a good example to the other teachers and students about being on time and consistent in attendance when I have to be gone for a simple task! Another strange aspect of the Malawian education system is the dependence on students to do things like making tea for teachers, planting flowers, going to the store for units (phone minute), or even cementing the staff room! I can’t imagine how American students would react to being told they need to clean a teachers desk or run errands for them! Although I don’t take full advantage of the students willingness to run my errands, I do enjoy when the students fight over getting to erase the board for me or carrying my bag to school!

As far as life in Malawi is going, it is nothing like my life in America but it’s getting easier everyday. I am able to get my charcoal burner going in a few minutes, wake at 5am with no problem, bake a decent loaf of bread using two fires, sweep and mop my house everyday with some ease, and have come to accept my very cold bucket baths every morning.
After struggling with trips to the boar hole which included a long walk of greeting people and making small talk, waiting for my turn to pump water, pumping water for about 20 minutes, and then making my way uphill to my house with 20L of water on my head, I have decided to have some help with it. The two hours I used to spend at the boar hole everyday will be much better spent lesson planning, making friends with neighbors, and cooking. I have hired a senior from the school to help me three days in exchange for paying her school fees. Although the fees are only MK2250 (about $15), the girl is an orphan and has struggled to pay for a few years. It has been strange having someone help me around the house but I think overtime I will get more used to the assistance.

I have also begun supporting another orphan with boarding and school fees in exchange for 5 hours of Chichewa lessons per week, and he will maintain my garden and fields. I had high hopes of being able to maintain my garden alone but after one day of strenuous work trying to weed, I realize it makes more sense to help a student with fees and avoid being sun burnt and sore everyday! I have sort of inherited him from the previous volunteer who seemed to have taken him in as a son. Although I was skeptical of taking over where she left off with him, he has been working incredibly hard working and his Chichewa lessons are very well planned and interesting. He also has come to think of me as his mother and calles me Mum when we talk. Never thought I would have a 16year old Malawian son! It is difficult to see so much suffering and not simply open my wallet to him, I think he realizes he will have to work hard to maintain the support I am able to give him. It helps that he is incredibly grateful for the support and motivated to finish school. It has been difficult to help these students without the other students knowing I am helping them. Jealousy runs rampant here, and any sign of help can lead others to blame witchcraft or bring harm to the person. It’s difficult to not laugh when Malawians tell me they are ill because they have fallen victim to witchcraft, when malnutrition, dysentery, malaria, or cholera are the likely culprit.

I think that about sums up the last few weeks here in Malawi. Although it isn’t easy, I am enjoying my time here immensely although there are lot of ups and downs. The amazing beauty of the land and the people makes it much easier to get through the difficult times! Please keep your news and letters coming! It’s really wonderful to hear from you all!

With all my love,
Jaimie

Seasons greetings all!

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holdiay season in their own way. I thought I would send a quick update about life so far in Kalumbu Malawi!

With training over and done it feels like I am actually working now but still enjoying everything about life in Africa. Swearing in was wonderful if not sad since I had to say goodbyt to my host family since I won't see them for awhile.

I moved to my house in Kalumbu about 2 weeks ago and have been spending a lot of time setting up my home, classes, and life. I have really wonderful neighbors and the fellow teachers (there's only 5 teachers btw) are fabulous. They're all very motivated and work exceptionally hard which is really wonderful to see. With so few teachers, so many students, and the new school calender that was only recently released (making this school year from from Dec-Aug!) there are plenty of challeneges that we face everyday but having a really hard working staff makes it far more bearable.

My classes on the other hand have been incredibly challenging. There are 130 students so-far in my form 2 class and more come everyday there re no spaces for us to walk in the classroom and we have had to remove the desks to make room for the students. It is also incredibly challenging to have students who are learning english as a second language, many of whom really don't know enough to understand anything I am saying in a room with so many other stuents. Some days I feel like I am just wasting my breathe but get motivated by a student who is really understanding. My other classes are really great and a much more managable size. I am also the form teacher for form 3 which I'm sure will pose all sorts of other challenges and inspiration.

In other news I have been traveling this week to visit friends for Christmas. We were given 3 days of special leave (since we're not meant to leave site for the first three months) to visit one another for the holiday which is very much appreciated. I traveled on the worst hitch to Lilongwe (we had a slowly deflating tire that the driver tried to inflate with a bike pump every few km). It took a few hours to go the 30km to the city where I had to sit in the back of a pickup with 16 new friends. Arriving in Llw I had to make the long trek to the post office where I was ecstatic to find a few wonderful although heavy packages that went on top of my head for the rest of the 5 hour trip! We arrived Thursday to Jesi's house which was wonderful. We had quite the evening trying to cook smoe pasta (much more difficult than we thought since none of us are used to cooking for 12 over an open fire and after quite a bit of celebrating tyhe holiday...) After cooking for hours we had some burnt spaggheti which formed a giant ball with "alfredo" type sauce. It wasn't exactly edible but our standards have certainly lowered after the wine and being in Malawi. Also the adventure of walking 12k to pick up the last 2 travellers in the middle of the night made us more fammished. All in all x-mas eve was hilarious and wonderful.

Yesterday we headed to a nice beach lodge for breakfast and lunch. Should have been an easy walk up to the road but involved getting absolutely drenched, hitching in the back of a pickup (ie second shower of the day) and then walking another 4k to the lodge. We were all soaked when we arrived but throughout our 5 hours there and 2 meals we dried out. After more adventure getting home on the back of a flat bed truck we were all exhausted. Christmas dinner was some delicous guac homemade tortillas and chilli followed by a fun white-elephant gift exchange. More details of our crazy Christmas can be found on Elisabeth's blog (http://www.elisabethbenoit.blogspot.com/). She has included a great timeline of the madness that should help paint a picture of our wonderful weekend.

I am heading back to site soon where I have a week off from school for the holiday which will be nice. I will use the time to explore, bake bread, do laundry, and lesson plan! Hope all is well with everyone back home. Please continue sending letter's. They're really wonderful and I love hearing what everyone is up to at home!

Much love from Africa!