Third week teaching

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Third week
I taught the Standard 6 class for a couple of sessions, but by the end of the week decided that I'd be better off withdrawing groups. The class teacher kept disappearing off, so that my idea of teaching together with translation of English and Chichewan wasn't getting very far, and every time I talked to him he'd yawn loudly in my face. The Head came in a couple of times when rhe children were straining to be picked to give an answer, so he was pleased. Anyway I offered to take a group to the library on Friday and the class teacher said they had football and netball practice, but perhaps i could take any who wanted to go. He asked who would like to, out of a group who weren't going to practise sport, but would mill about unsupervised instead, and I think he was surprised by the extent of the enthusiasm.
He picked out 10 children, but 12 of them arrived outside the class, so I took them all. We worked on a chart about today's date, with numbers, days and months on it. Using relevant words from the chart, and 'next, before, after' we translated them into Chichewan, and looked up a couple of words in the dictionary. (The library has a set of fabulous dictionaries for English and Southern and East African words, with pictures and simple sentences, developed by the Char Char Trust.) We had to practise the alphabet first, in order to find the words in the dictionary. By the end of the session I said, 'Today is Friday 2nd October. What is tomorrow's date?' and half the hands went up to answer. I think we were all on a high. We sing on the way to and from the library, various action songs that we can use to name actions or body parts.
I also took some Standard 2 in groups of six to colour in some alphabet sheets I brought with me. I'Il then get them laminated so they can be an alphabet frieze. Some of the children have obviously never coloured in before, and I had to keep an eye on how they were colouring,how to put the lids back on the pens, and what colours they were using. I'm all for artistic license but I want the pictures to be recognisable. At the end of each group I read the Very Hungy Caterpillar, translating important words into Chichewan. With only six children they could see the pictures really clearly, and were pretty enraptured.
Thusday
I didn't go into school. In the morning I made a urinal. We"re a bit concerned about the hygiene of our pit loo, as it seems to be generating a load of flies, and we're only having one fire a day and therefore not creating enough ash for covering. (We're using peanut husks or ground up withered leaves we collect from under the trees. It's not a simple case of flushing the loo here; everything feels as if we're really at the coalface in terms of living.) Anyway we decided we need to reduce what goes down into the pit, and as last year the Aidcamp group used a urinal and a separate composting toilet, we decided to follow suit. Using a hoe, I dug a small channel with two planks of wood either side to stand on. I filled the channel with small rocks. At first I was using pieces of broken brick, but then realised rocks would be better as brick would get permeated, whereas rocks wouldn't. A chitenje (length of material that all women wear round their waists) is draped over the branch of a tree which is lashed to the fence one end, with the other resting on a contraption that was Nyomi's attempt at a wind-powered generator. This protects anyone seeing us from the garden gate, and an old cornsack slit open and tied to the bamboo fence prevents anyone in the fields from seeing us through the fence.
In the afternoon i went to the opening of a new school. Heather, Chair of Landirani asked if I'd like to go as Landirani had been involved with developing two of the teachers' houses (schools in the villages often provide houses for the teachers so they will want to work here). None of the Landirani team were available to go, so Chikondi (the librarian) and I went to the school. I took the Landirani truck along the dirt roads across a wide flat area not under cultivation. Chikondi said it became waterlogged in the wet season. A NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) called Love, Support, Unite built the school, and another called Firefly provided the solar panels. The school was a pop-up school i visited three years on my first Aidcsmps trip. It was then a temporary two room affair, made of bamboo rush matting, with about 100 children in each room. The next stage was a two-room brick building that is now falling down, and now they have a bright new six room building with solar panels that will enable evening learning.
The representative of Love, Support, Unite explained the security for the solar panels, which, unlike ours which are on high poles, are set low on the ground. 'There will be barbed wire round them, night watchmen, and an alarm system, which is linked to a dozen or so me members of the community. Firefly, the company who put the solar panels in have made it clear to the community that if the panels are not cared for, they will be taken away and given to someone else.'
The opening was quite a big affair, all the local dignitaries, two female MP's, and singers, dancers and the ubiquitous guhle wankhule.
There was a young man, extremely proficient on the guitar, which I could see as I drew near was made from an old gallon oil tin with half the top cut out, a length of wood, and a few pieces of wire. Eat your heart out Mr Fender. Who needs you?

Bear the dog accompanies any of us to the village, or me across to the school, which makes the children scatter as I approach with Bear in tow. If he's around when I leave, Shelby or Steve hold on to him, but often he's just around in the.vicinity and appears as I cross the road to the school. The other day he followed me to the local market, even though I went on a bicycle taxi.

Chikondi, the librarian, wants to set up a reading group on the library for Secondary school pupils. We plan to read a story written about a boy who used to live in Blantyre, a city in Malawi, but his parents die of AIDS, and he goes to live with his aunt in a village like this one, (thank you Pat of last year's Aidcamp for buying two copies of this book for the library). I'll read the book and Chikondi will ensure everyone understands and will start discussion of the issues. Before we start this book, which will be a serial over several weeks, we'll start with a children's book called Badger's Parting Gift about bereavement, and what we remember learning from those who have died.
We'll maybe get them to write or tell of their experiences the following week. It's a very exciting prospect.

The weather.
It's coming towards rainy season, which means it's getting hotter. The temperature is sometimes in the low thirties, and the breeze that sweeps across this area is most welcome; sometimes it becomes quite strong with occasional small whirlwinds. You can see them coming; a high swirl of dust throwing dry leaves and fine straw in to the air. It doesn't often come through Sam's Village, perhaps the layout of the buildings deflects it, the time it did i heard it before I saw it and turned to see what the noise was and got a faceful of debris.
Shelby says there's often a false rainy season with a little rain before it really sets in. There was some thunder yesterday, but the rain fell elsewhere. I was quite glad of it, there were enough speeches at the school opening, to not want to listen to them in the pouring rain. I saw how it can rain last week on my way to Lilongwe - an absolute deluge. I'd love to see the area in the rains, its described as very green. Here at the moment, the only green area is down by the river at the bottom of the hill between Chigonthi village and the hill up to M'bang'ombe. Here in Sam's Village we irrigate so the crops grow. We can pick from the crops here, we've picked mustard leaves, some spinach-type leaves and parsley. Sometime we'll have aubergine as well.

Our garden, fenced round with bamboo, has a rush mat strung up above the picnic table for shade, and this is where i do most of my preparation. We had strong winds today, and this mat blew over the fence.
Saturday morning Shelby and I took a bicycle taxi to Lumbadzi for shopping. Afterwards,we sat at a table having a drink and watchef the world go by, like I do at home. Only at home there aren't any bullock carts going by.
This afternoon we're going into town to Mabuya Camp as it's Heather Palmer's son, Sam's birthday. Party time! And I'll be able to send this blog.



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