Volunteers had their first day of work Thursday. Everyone was excited to get up early and prepare for the walk to the school. We planned to leave at 7 in order to arrive at the school by 7:45. The walk was great! All the children in the village loved seeing the new group of volunteers and the volunteers were all wide eyed and happy to finally get to see Malawi up close and personal. We have a small group this year so at a school of 4,000 students our teachers are spread very thin. The plan was to have a tour of the school and the let each of our teachers pick a classroom that they wanted to observe. The tour was fun and was led by the principal who is named Aron. He enjoyed walking the volunteers in to each classroom and then asking the students to “choose” which teacher they wanted. It was funny to watch the children scream and point at the volunteers. In each class the choice seemed to be different and each volunteer had a chance to “feel the love”. After the tour each of our teachers chose a classroom and got busy observing. Some didn’t get much of a chance to watch before the Malawian teacher called them up to start teaching 🙂 nothing like being thrown into the deep end of the pool on the first day!
I left with our one volunteer who isn’t a teacher and took him to the orphan community to show him where he would be volunteering while he is here. I gave him a quick tour and showed him what projects With Change In Mind had already completed there and also what we had planned for this summer. I was also able to share with him that we are currently supporting the meal program for all of the children who are under 5 in that community as well as the salaries for the staff. He was thrilled to be able to participate in such a neat community based project. After the tour we headed back to the school, I wanted to check in on all the teachers and make sure they were settling in alright. As we walked out of Adziwa I saw one of the orphans who I have gotten to know over the years. Her name is Tamweka. She is 7 years old and at the time I was walking I knew she should have been in school. She was crouched outside her house staring off into space. I called her name and when she turned to look at Greg and I I could tell she wasn’t feeling well. I took her by the hand and walked with her to main center to ask one of the employees if they knew she was sick. I was told she had been sick for a few weeks and had been taken to the malaria clinic for a test which had come back negative. Clearly she was sick from something and we needed to figure it out. It was getting late in the day so there wasn’t much I could do other than give her some water and tell Chimwemwe to make sure she drank all of it and that she tried to eat dinner. I planned to check on her again Friday morning and if things hadn’t improved i would take her into town to the hospital.
Greg and I headed back to the school. Everyone was doing great so I sat in the back of the classroom where Shannon was teaching. She seemed to be the most worried about what she would teach so I wanted to be there supporting her for this first day.
I had a great couple of hours with her and the class. I got up a few times and “taught” with Shannon. I’m not a teacher but I do know how to get a class of 200 Malawian kids excited 🙂
School was over at around noon and the volunteers and I headed home. We all couldn’t believe that it was only noon because it had seemed like a long day! When your in the middle of a group of 4,000 kids for 5 hours it can wear you out!
Back at the village we ate lunch and talked about our impressions of the school and what the teachers had planned for Friday.
After lunch I headed up the hill to find some internet so I could post a blog. The volunteers had their language lesson and then a bit of downtime before dinner. When I arrived back I immediately started greeting all the volunteers in Chichewa because I wanted to see what they had learned during the lesson with Sai. All of them were caught off guard, but quickly started saying words they did know and reaching for their “cheat sheets”. It was funny and we all had some laughs while we worked on perfecting our greetings.
Then it was time for volleyball! The staff here on the farm had decided to put a game together so we all went down to the court to either watch or play. Most of the gang participated and even though some were worried about being “good enough” quickly they realized that it’s all just good fun around here. Nothing is taken to seriously and everyone just had a good time letting off some steam.
Our evening activity was to be our Malawian culture lesson. Our guest speaker Francewell arrived and we all sat and learned about the various tribes in Malawi as well as the geography of the country and a bit of history. Then we all ate together and over dinner continued asking Francewell questions. After dinner Francewell did the last half of his talk and all the volunteers seemed to really enjoy that. He spoke about the life of a Malawian from birth through to marriage. It’s always interesting to hear about all the traditions here in Malawi and it gives all of us a better understanding of some of the things we see and experience while we are here. It was getting late and a bit cold so once Francewell was done we all huddled around a fire and continued laughing and talking. Friday we would need to be up early again so off to bed we went.
Everyone seems to be enjoying this experience. Most are already talking about coming back next year and it’s clear Malawi has stolen their hearts 🙂