Last week teaching

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Last week teaching
Friday I came back from town squashed in the
Landirani van with loads of shredded paper from the local secondary school. We got the briquette maker last week. I'm intending to make some briquettes with the Standard 7’s and get them to write it up. It all fits with the Sam's Village sustainability aspect. Apparently the kids may not be interested in the deforestation problem, but may be caught by the free fuel aspect. They can all have a free briquette, but after I'm gone someone else will have to carry on supervising the kids.

We had à big spider in the chim (loo). Not just in the shack, but actually in the box. He ran down when I lifted the lid, but there's always the worry that he’ll run back up. It doesn't aid one's natural rhythms. Shelby squirted him with Doom.

Sam, Heather's son was digging a dam with some of the workers. We're on a slight hill here and when the rains come the rain will run down the road bypassing the area and down to the river where there will be plenty of water anyway. Sam's idea is to divert some of the water into a pit where earth for ramming was dug. Hopefully the water in this pit can be used to grow bamboo which can be used as a building material. He showed me an A-frame level he'd made. A rock tied to string hangs from the A-frame and a notch is made in the centre of the bar across the middle of the A, (you find the level point by turning the frame until the string hangs by the notch whichever way it hangs). Then they could be sure they were digging a level channel into the pit. It took four of them pretty much all day, and they’d only dug half of it.

The book club on Saturday seemed very successful; there were about ten secondary school kids. This week we only read in English as Chikondi thought their English was good enough for them to understand and reading it in Chichewa may slow down their understanding. So I read it in English and Chikondi fielded any questions as we went along. One girl asked for the meaning of, ‘to no avail’, but everyone seemed to understand everything else. We gave them questions after, and got them to sequence the main events that we'd written on whiteboard cards. Chapter 1 took one hour, and as everyone was an hour late, we left chapter 2 until next week. The Malawian way is often to be late, and Chikondi pointed out that most people don't have a watch and tell the time by the position of the sun, which is not terribly accurate.
The group seemed happy with what we did and said they'd come back next week. We're going to get them debating next week. The chapter has several potential debating points, whether strikes should happen, or the strikers should be taught a lesson; rich Africans deserve the money they’ve made more than workers in a factory or in the fields; workers should stand together regardless of the region they are from, rather than with a boss who may be from the same region. (Regionality - (is there such a word?) seems very important here; every time there's an election, the incoming president sacks everyone and employs new people from their own region. Apart from having a new workforce who haven't a clue how to govern, this costs the country because they have to pay people off because of broken contracts.)

It is hot season now, just before the real rainy season starts, though it was really cold one day last week. Maybe the effect of climate change. The sky looked like an English sky, solid with cloud, and I wore two layers with sleeves. Shelby had three, and a scarf. The two little patches of rain we’ve already had have made a difference to the verdure; everything looks greener.

Sunday morning we, with Shelby's friend Amy went down to the tea shop for breakfast - tea and a scone (a small loaf) which is dipped into to the tea. We take peanut butter (home made by one of the groups Shelby works with). Internally I'm comparng it with Sunday breakfast at my local cafe. The locals are friendlier here, and the view is better, but I'm looking forward to bacon and eggs when I get home. Through the open door I can see the horizon, blue sky, goats wandering up the street, the occasional bullock cart. As we leave the tea shop the local chief greets us and wants to be introduced to Amy. Children call out ’Jennie’, and ‘Napiri’ (Shelby's Malawian name as they all struggle with her name). They can all say Jennie, though often they call me Jen, as they leave off an ‘ee’ sound at the end of words, while adding them to others. It feels strange; people in the UK do call me Jen, but only those who know me really well. Here i get people I've met once or twice calling me Jen.
Saturday and Sunday afternoon I made lots of briquettes from paper. The builders had soaked loads of paper, and it's not supposed to soak too long or it gets smelly, so I ended up making about 50 of them.
Amy and Shelby went off to run a course with secondary girls about washable home made sanitary towels. They are both in the health section of Peace Corps; I've met several of these volunteers and I'm full of admiration that so many twenty somethings come here for two years, live with a family, learn the language and immerse themselves in the local community, then live alone and work out what projects to do. I could never have done it at that age; I'm not sure I could do it now, without the support of the Landirani team, and Shelby herself.
Monday and Tuesday I'm with the Standard 7’s again. A large group of 16 practise reading extracts from the Sam's Village booklet, before reading it to Standards 6, 7 and 8. Then other groups make briquettes, draw the apparatus, and describe the process, in English and Chichewa.
George, the site foreman, has been away for 11 days. He was going to get wood for the boards to go up in the classrooms, as well as wood that the builders need. He's up in the north getting the wood, and It's raining so he can't get it yet. I'm a bit worried because if he doesn't come back soon I will have gone, and I'd like to help get the boards up and the ABC charts.
I’ve given my old laptop to Chikondi, he's playing with it at the moment and finding all sorts of things that I didn't know were on it.

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