Blogs from Central, Malawi, Africa - page 4

Sunday11th Shelby and i had spent Saturday night at Mabuya, and Sunday morning we went to the chitenje market to buy material. Julie, who works in the Landirani office, does tailoring and on Saturday at the golf course I discussed patterns with her. I'm going to have a dress and pantsuit made and maybe a pair of trousers too. I love the material, and I hope when I get home i still love it, and will wear it. We got a minibus, then hitched to the airport, and called our local bicycle taxi riders to collect us. The guy who gave us a lift asked me if I went to church, and what I believed (I suppose it was because it was a Sunday) and he got a bit of a diatribe from me on my ... read more

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 ... read more

First week teaching. Friday 18th September This week I've been observing in three classes of English lessons in Standards 6, 7 and 8 (age 11ish upwards). The curriculum is very formal, (think 1950's) complicated text with comprehension and grammar exercises, many of them unrelated to the text and all of them seemingly above the comprehension of most of the children, or learners. One poor man was desperately following the standard 6 textbook instructions and trying to get the children to understand and hear the difference between import (verb) and import (noun), refuse ('say no' and 'rubbish') - though he pronounced them the same) as he did desert ('place' and 'abandon'). The teacher's book added an example of a waiter asking a customer to choose a 'desert'. Next day the lesson was on the difference between can ... read more

Sunday 13th September I spent the weekend at Mabuya camp in Lilongwe. I needed to do some shopping and I wanted to be nearer civilisation. Yesterday morning, shopping done, with a heavy rucksack and two bags I set off for the local hotel, where I could get a drink and get a taxi back to camp. This hotel, the Kiboko, is one I have had a drink at every time I've been to the shopping centre: in 2012, 2014, and about four times this year. It's about 300 yards from the shopping centre, admittedly round two corners, but still very local. There I was, carrying 10 litres of water, saucepan, vacuum flask and general provisions, feeling the way one does when one has spent half the night in the loo, and couldn't find the hotel. I ... read more

Shortly after our arrival in Lilongwe, we had dinner with our team. We are both a diverse and surprisingly similar group. We are 9 women and 6 men, ranging in age from mid 20's to mid 70's. Our Habitat connections are varied: Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) staff, affiliate leadership (executive staff and board), affiliate employees and one person new to Habitat. We all share a desire to learn, impact and advocate for housing solutions in Malawi. Our first day was intended to acclimate to and experience the culture in Malawi. We bused 3 hours to the Kungoni cultural center. There we learned about the anthropology (birth, puberty, marriage and death rituals) of the three main tribes. The Ngoni, Yao, and the Chewa. We enjoyed a buffet of local food in an open air restaurant. So ... read more