All of us were up with the sun this morning. Ate our eggs and toast, collected our sporting equipment donations and off we went! We arrived at the school just as all the students were rolling in. You can imagine with 4000 students they can never all arrive at once. There seems to be constant slow trickle during the first hour of the day. Certainly there were more students present today because word had traveled that teachers from America were visiting!
All the teachers took initiative and found the classrooms which they wanted to begin teaching in. I went around and made sure that everyone had found a classroom and a teacher and that they were all set for the morning. I ended up in standard 1 with Charlotte. These are children about 6 years old. A very large class, but they are just so cute! Charlotte was doing a great job practicing letters and singing with them. Then she decided to take some small groups to the library in order to work one on one. The teacher chose 10 students who she felt were in need of additional help. We lined them up and asked them to hold hands as we would walk in a line together from the classroom to the library. Seemed simple enough….by the time we arrived at the library we had a line of over 50 children and had to then figure out who actually belonged and who didn’t. I think we managed, but neither of really could be sure. Charlotte then worked on letter recognition with them and we traded out the group for another set of 10 to do the same. I left her to her work and headed out to my other project up the road.
The orphan community we have been supporting for the past year is just a short walk down the same road the school is on. I wanted to speak with the man in charge (James) and also seek out one of my special friends named Tamwega. I found James and learned that Tamwega was in school until 12:30. I will catch up with her Monday. James and I had a nice meeting talking about funding details and current needs as well as how the gardens were growing and pump had been working. I find these face to face meetings to be quite helpful and I’m glad that at least once a year I can connect with everyone there. I then headed back to the school.
I decided to organize a quick meeting with all the teachers from the school as well as our volunteers so that we could all be on the same page come Monday. Next week we will be at the school for Monday through Friday so I felt this was important. I was able to get the meeting approved and set and an agenda was created 🙂 nothing informal here.
Some of the volunteers began showing up in the library and asking for lunch so slowly they all sat and talked and had a good bite to eat. Some also were ready for a bathroom break or just a break from all the attention from the children. Several teachers have said they feel like the Beatles when they are out walking the school grounds. All the children want their attention and constantly want to know what they are up to. This means that behind every volunteer there are usually no less than 100 children running and grabbing for their hands to hold 😉
The teacher meeting went well and I feel we made a strong plan for next weeks school days. I think both the Malawian teachers and the volunteers are excited to come back Monday and spend an entire week.
The plan was at 12:30 to begin sports with some of the older grades. The group was set to do that so I walked back to the village on my own to meet with Scott and also to ask a question to Maureen. The walk is about 3 mikes and the sun was warm today! By the time I reached the farms driveway I was a sweaty mess and wishing a car would pass to give me a lift up the dirt driveway. The driveway is about a mile long and all up hill. Just as I was huffing and puffing sure enough a car stopped and I was able to get a lift the rest of the way. My lucky day 😉
I had a nice diet coke on the outdoor porch and got my meetings taken care of. Scott and I walked back down to the village together hoping to meet up with group. Once back we found they had not yet arrived and I realized I had failed to do one last thing on the website. So needing internet And asked if I could take Scott’s car back up. Lucky for me he needed to fill the tank with fuel so he gave me a ride there and back.
We are all now back in the village and packing up for our lake trip tomorrow morning. After the lake the group will spend 2 nights in the national park on safari. They are all exited for this adventure and I can tell most are filled with anticipation.
Tonight we have a cultural presentation planned that I always really enjoy. Francewell will be here to have dinner with us and teach us all about Malawian customs and traditions. I’m sure many questions will be answered and the group will enjoy all he has to share.
All in all another beautiful day in Malawi. Hope you are enjoying keeping up with us. I don’t know if tomorrow I will have a computer so you may not hear from me until Sunday. I will for sure have lots to say by then. I’ll continue to type each day, but may not be able to post until Sunday.
Lots of love and everyone is doing wonderfully!