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