June 26th- Visiting the schools!

The workers at Annies Lodge said the power will be out at 5:30am but the water should still be warm until about 7am. So I woke up at 6:15am and had still had warm water but the pressure was nonexistent. Katie had warned us about that so I was prepared. I’ll stop talking about the showers now, my mom said it’s boring.

Breakfast is included and since we spend the afternoon at school, we usually pack a lunch by making a sandwich at breakfast and bringing some of our own snacks. Dr. Kelly told us to bring sandwich bags to pack our lunch. The bread loafs aren’t the traditional size, they are a little bit longer so they don’t exactly fit in a sandwich bag. I’d suggest bringing one size above a sandwich bag to take your lunch. Its not a big deal because it smooches but its just something we thought of today. Along with everything else in the world, the cost of living in Malawi has gone up and I would suggest bringing closer to $500 food and spending money.

Today we were going to visit each of the schools and introduce ourselves then we will take a lunch break and talk about what we observed. We will spend the afternoon in town getting water and exchanging more money.

Charles came to pick us up and he was all dressed up! Apparently he had a meeting later in the day. I greeted him and he asked me if I slept well by saying “ did you have nice dreams.” I thought that was precious! I got on the bus and sat by Jennifer/Dr.Jones and she told me that Charles was disappointed that the majority of our group was girls (only one man) because he usually gets the men’s clothing. I was thinking it would be nice to bring men’s clothes since the majority of us leave only women’s clothing.

On the bus we talked about how we noticed no one complains. They are very grateful and in conversation you won’t find them complaining about anything. Yet another thing we can learn from them.

Our first stop was Malemia primary school. This school is in a village and it’s where Jeans mom lives. It was a little crazy today but I’m hoping to go back to find her mother and meet her! Jennifer said that the children will swarm up the bus when we pull up. The bus never comes down this road except when we come each year so it was a big deal. I don’t think I was prepared how significant this experience would be. The kids were on break playing outside and ran to the bus. They were clapping and chanting “white teacher” in Chichewa. One by one we got off and they stood in a line and reached out to touch each of us. I felt like the President of the United States. Its very similar to one of his rallies where he walks down the row and just touches and reaching out to squeeze peoples hand. They just keep coming and reaching for you to touch their hand. Some of the older ones will shake your hand. The emotion takes over and it took everything in me to hold back my tears. It’s not sad so I don’t really know why its so emotional but all of us were fighting back tears. Their faces would light up when you looked into their eyes instead of just touching their hand. I told one of the girls that I liked the flowers on her dress and she got so shy and blushed and even covered her face with her workbook. It was a little overwhelming and I got caught up in the crowd of the children when I needed to walk into a classroom, so a teacher came over to clear space for us to walk by. I’m not joking, I felt like we were in a famous band or something. We needed security to escort us and they wanted to touch us and be around us. I had no idea the experience would be like that. I wasn’t prepared but it was by far the best moment of the trip. The interaction with the children was great.

The children were outside peaking in as we introduced ourselves and the teachers from the school spoke briefly. Each and every teacher we introduced ourselves to throughout the entire day was so glad to see us, welcomed us to Malawi, and was looking forward to working with us. A common phrase is “you are most welcome”. I would sometimes say “Thank you for having us” and they would say “ you are most welcome” I thought they were saying “your welcome” but I slowly learned that they were “welcoming” us to their country. I talked to Ester who teaches standard 8 and has 54 students in her classroom. She told me her favorite subject to teach is social studies.

They actually took us on a tour to every classroom at Malemia. As we walked from classroom to classroom we would be swarmed again. The older children would clear the way from the little kids so we could get through. Towards the end their recess was over so they cleared into their classrooms. The deputy teacher took us around to each classroom and would explain what they are learning. He would give a brief explanation of each classroom and the teacher introduced themselves. They are so proper and the classes would talk in unison by saying “Good morning madam and sirs” “ How are you today madam and sirs?” And 18 of us would randomly say “fine thanks.” We need to work on our responses. They have been trained on how to greet us in English, but we don’t think they really know what they are saying. They just repeat it. Some of the older classes would even stand and welcome us. The younger classes the deputy would introduce us in Chichewa. When he told them we would be coming to teach tomorrow, the classes would clap. They were completely silent but if you made eye contact with one, they always smiled and gave a little wave back. At the village school they do not have uniforms but most of the older classrooms had desks. As we would walk by, we could hear them reciting things from other classrooms. The students from Radford will be working with this school. The deputy told us how many students were in some of the grades. 116 in standard 1, 112 in standard 2A, 120 in standard 2B, 90 in standard 4, 126 in standard 5, and 42 in standard 6.

A lot of the students were absent today. They explained to us when its this cold, a lot of students don’t come. To them, this weather is freezing. Many of the children also have jobs and market responsibilities.

Next we were off to the second school, Domasi Demonstration School. North Carolina A & T works with this school. I was adjusting well to my celebrity status! My checks hurt so bad from smiling so much. We were very careful to wipe out hands after touching everyone. It was gross. The wipes would be yellow after we wiped our hands. We didn’t go on a tour but the entire school stopped so the teachers could come in and introduce themselves to us. Apparently that type of thing is very common. Introductions and relationships are more important than time. The students waited outside patiently. We are continued to be “most welcomed”.

We noticed the demonstration school’s students uniforms are newer and cleaner. Overall the students hygiene looked better and some students even had backpacks. We learned that it costs money to send their children to this school. It costs 40 Kwacha a month. The money is used to clean the schools. At the other schools the girls are required to clean the school. Its very unsanitary and to be able to send your child to a school and not have to clean is a big deal. Boys attend this school too, ones that come from wealthier families.


I absolutely loved watching Liz, Dr. Kelly and Jennifer reunite with the teachers they had worked with from previous trips. It was obvious they remembered each other and they said, “by seeing the old and new faces that they knew good things would be coming.” The professors knew the teachers names and gave huge hugs! The connections our advisors have made with the people all over Malawi still amazes me. I am with some of the most kind hearted people that are truly changing the world one village at a time! They are also a wealth of information and I just try to take in as much as I can from them.

This is Patty’s first trip and she’s a professor at Radford. She has 2 sons who are a little older than us but we told her today that shes so comforting because she has all the answers to our questions we would ask our mom. Safely questions, medical questions etc. We told her she was our mom because we just adore her and she said she has always wanted daughters!

They followed us everywhere and we couldn’t communicate verbally with the smaller kids but I tried to teach them high 5’s. They all tried it and thought it was so funny. Anything new I would teach them they would just laugh but always tried it. They are probably laughing at me!

Our last visit was to the Demasi Government School. That is where VT will be teaching. It’s a beautiful school! I am so excited to be there! Most of the classrooms do not have desks yet a uniform is required.

We knew we wanted to be able to communicate with our classroom and the girls from last year suggested teaching standard 5, 6, or 7. Since we get to pick, Krista and I chose standard 6. I don’t think they are at the same level at our 6th grade, but I’ll have to let you know when I find out.

Dr. Kelly found out some great news. Apparently there is a huge dance competition in July but the schools have to be picked to participate. The competition will be after we leave but the 3 schools that we are working with have teams and today they happen to be practicing their dances and if they did well, they would move on to another level. So it was just perfect timing that we were already there! We were going to eat some lunch and talk briefly and then head to the field to watch the dancing. We had planned to reflect more, but this was a great opportunity. Jennifer said they had only seen the big competition but they had never seen the smaller village ones. This was a huge treat for us all! I couldn’t wait.

We sat down to have lunch in a classroom that we have rented for the month at Malawi Institute of Education. As we ate we talked about how important it is to not make them so exotic. They are not any different than us and they have potential just like any of us when we were that age. Liz suggested trying to avoid “them” or “those kids” because we have to remember they are individuals. Just because one kid can’t multiply doesn’t mean all of them can’t. Almost everyone on this trip is planning on being a teacher so they combined what we are observing in Malawi and how it will relate to their careers as educators. I felt a little out of place because I have no indention of being a teacher but I could relate to the discussion because I have been in a classroom most of my life.

In Malawi there is no such thing as a substitute teacher. Teachers make $30 a month. After primary school (1-8) then comes secondary school (1-4) which is similar to our high school and after secondary school students move on to a university. There is no free secondary school. Of the 13 million in Malawi, only 3,000 are college students. VT, Radford and NC are sponsoring bright Malawians to go to college in Malawi. They are paying for tuition but the individuals are responsible for room and board. It costs $1,000 a year for tuition in Malawi. The students who have been selected to be sponsored are so pleased and proud to be in school.

The numbers show that if you continue to go to school and don’t drop out you are statistically less likely to have HIV/AIDS. We are teaching by being there and showing them how important it is to be in school and in the long run we will be saving lives.

Brian is the only black male in the group from NC A & T and he talked about how someone asked him where his family is originally from. His family tried to trace it back but its unknown. He knew he was an outcast from our group because he doesn’t look like us but then he knew he was an outcast because he couldn’t associate with the Africans either. Being an African American is an outcast on both sides for him because he doesn’t know his native country. Although we are on the same trip, my experience will be completely different than Brians.

Brian also reminded us that this trip is not about “having fun with the kids” its about learning something. He said we can learn something from a fool so don’t get so cocky that we think we are teaching, we can be taught as well. We can learn from them and how much they value relationships. Brian is 27 and has a world more of knowledge then us silly little undergraduates. He has been a great mentor.

We talked about the word allophilia which is “positive attitudes for a group that is not one’s own—is a term derived from Greek words meaning “liking or love of the other.”

After our short reflection and discussion it was time to head to the dance competition. We walked across a soccer field to get there and the referee blew his whistle to stop the game because he said this was his first time to talk to white people! Haha He shook our hands! He spoke perfect English. As we walked by a man with a camera was taking a picture of us walking by. We also walked along side a little girl. We asked if she was going to dance and she showed us her costume she was carrying in her hand. We got excited and told her we would watch for her!

The smell in the classrooms/crowded areas is very distinct. Outside in fresh air is better but it’s going to be very hard to get used to it.

We made it to the field and school children were all around hanging out until the dancing began. Another reason to always carry around your video camera because you never know what we will run into! I was really excited because this was something they have been planning and were going to do today as a typical event. Most of the time we will only see traditional dancing being performed just for us. So I thought it was really cool to know they would be doing this anyway. They welcomed us and were pleased we wanted to watch. One of the Malawian teachers even went up to a VT student, Amber and told her that if we knew the moves we were welcome to join in! haha As we waited for it to begin, we interacted with some of the children. Many of them knew English and I talked to a boy who was in Standard 6 who knew how to multiply 8 x 2 and divide 16 by 2. But 8 x 8 he said was too hard for him.

It was amazing! Some of the different schools had costumes and their dance had different themes. I knew one of them was pretending to be the military because they had hats, whistles and a sash. Most of the groups had drummers and the beat of the music was just so much fun! I got video footage of almost all the dances. We came back later tonight and some girls already uploaded it onto their computer so we listened and watched all night long. We are afraid anyone we show this so won’t be as impressed with it. The way those little girls move their bodies is way too cool! It was fun to watch the teachers watch the performances because they would laugh at some of their students performing. It all looked the same to us but I’m sure if you knew all the students performing it meant something different. When we would hoot and holler at the end the kids thought that was sooo funny. They laughed at us for sure!

We left before it was over because we had to catch the bus to head back to town around 3pm. We stopped in town for some bottled water and also went to the bank to exchange money. Dr. Kelly said the bank usually runs out of money at the end of our trip because we use it all up. We also walked around a little and saw where we can buy fabric to get our dresses handmade by a seamstress. Its to hard to figure out what I want! This weekend is going to be very low key so we will have time to walk around town and get out bearing more. We were getting ready to walk up the big hill but we ran into Charles buying something in town and he was nice enough to drive us up the hill!

We ate right away because it just takes so long you have to start early. We figured out how to connect to the Internet and spent the rest of the night online and watching our African dance videos!

It was a great day! I am in love with the people and land of Malawi!