Monday morning we all go up early and quickly got organized and ready to start week #2 at the school. We had our breakfast, gathered our backpacks, went to the bathroom, sprayed our bug spray and gathered for the walk. Just as we all came together to begin our walk Scott came over to us and said “it’s a holiday! No school today”. It felt like the air had been let out of the group…all of us ready and excited and now no place to go and nothing to do. We quickly made a plan (all while trying to figure out what holiday it was). We decided we would visit the small Kindergarden here on site since the teachers had not been there yet. We could have a tour and let the teachers work with the 30 little ones who attend Kumbali Kindergarden. Everyone was excited to know they could work one on one instead of one on 200 😉 it would be a nice change of pace. We also decided that after spending a few hours there we would go into town so everyone could shop for curios and experience the big city of Lilongwe. Scott and I organized a bus that would pick everyone up around 11.
I had to go to a meeting at Adziwa which is where my next group will be working so I left the group and made a plan to meet them later. After my meeting a friend drove me into town to a local restaurant where I could wait for the bus to pick me up on its way into the city with the rest of the group.  The plan worked out (unusually) so we all headed to the local wood carvers market to shop.
We stopped at more “upscale” row of shops so the volunteers could have an idea of what the fancy stuff would cost and then planned to take them where the tourists usually go. This way they could decide which things they wanted to buy. We told them not to buy anything at the fist places just to look and if after the wood carvers market they wanted to go back and pick up something we could swing back by there. After the first stop we drove and parked the bus in a parking lot near the market. This way we could eat our packed lunches without being bombarded by the vendors. Once we were done eating we could just all walk into the market instead of pulling up in the bus. When you pull up to the wood carvers market where the vendors are in a bus it tends to cause quite a scene. I think it was a good choice to try and avoid that 🙂
Most of us ate and then wandered over in small groups. They had been given strict instructions to stay together and be safe crossing the busy roads. It gets a little crazy on the streets inside the city. We also had a short tutorial about bargaining in Lilongwe. Everyone seemed to enjoy shopping and choosing gifts for their friends and family and also tokens to take home that would remind them of their journey here.
We wanted to be sure to leave by 3 since we were picking up the head master of the school we had been working with on our way back. We had invited him and the minister of Lilongwe urban schools for dinner. We picked up Aaron (the head master) and headed back to Kumbali Village. We had some time before Dr. Magretta arrived (the woman who is in charge of all Lilongwe urban schools) so some took showers while others just relaxed and played card games. A few of the volunteers have learned how to play a local game called Bao so they sat and played that as well. Dr. Magretta had sent word that she would be a little late so it wasn’t until 6:45 that we actually had all of our guests and began our dinner. Dr. Magretta had prepared a power point presentation for the teachers so they could learn more about the schools in this area. Such great information was shared I think the TFA members gained some good knowledge and also got clarity on some things had wondered about while they had been working at the school in Kauma. All in all a busy day! It felt good that despite the curve ball thrown at us in the morning we were able to adjust things and in the end have a great full day.
We still aren’t sure what the “holiday” was, but it’s been a running joke trying to figure it out. The principal said it was midterm break…which makes no sense because kids get out of school in July. One person told us it was Fathers Day….which makes nonsense because we had never known that to be celebrated before in Malawi. Not unusual for things like this to pop up so for us it was just another interesting day in Malawi.
Nobody can believe we only have 3 full days left working at the school. People are already starting to talk about the flights home. Crazy how fast 12 days goes by!!

Erin