Happy 4th of July!

We are all looking forward to the weekend and excited that we don’t have to plan a lesson until Tuesday. Although the week went by fast, we are all exhausted and looking forward to a break.

This morning we walked into the classroom as they were working on inequalities. I sat at a table I had never really sat with before so I didn’t know the kids very well. I actually knew these problems and felt comfortable teaching them. They just had to write if the statement was true or false. However my table had some difficulty understanding and got the majority of the problems wrong. Only about 2-3 children had trouble the other 2 caught on quickly. I don’t know how much help I am to them because they really didn’t understand most of what I was saying. I kept it very basic and just stuck to “this number is bigger/ smaller” and that seemed to work best. After we finished the 13 problems, I made up more problems and continued working with my table until time was up.

We told them we were going to continue our mathematics lesson by giving them their own rulers to measure things. I only had 60 rulers and I know he has 72 students so we purposively brought the rulers on Friday because we know a lot of students are absent on Friday. I felt bad but it was the best option. We still didn’t know if 60 would be enough so we quickly counted and thankfully he had 58 students today. It worked out perfectly. We passed out the rulers and told students to measure 5 things and write down the measurements. We even told them they could go outside. We had to get them started by showing them things to measure like the chalk board, the legs of the table, the windows, their arms and feet etc. Before we knew it, there were kids all over the place standing on tables and hanging outside the windows! It was very funny but they were enjoying themselves so we let them continue. Outside they measured the steps, leaves and grass perimeter. After we gathered everyone back inside, we had a couple students stand up and share the measurements they found. I was very impressed with how well they counted the measurements in their head when they were measuring a long distance with only a 30 cm ruler.

You would expect them to be grateful for anything we give them and I know they are, but I am surprised how picky they are about the color of things we give them. I always let them pick their color of the ruler, paper and stickers and they care about what color they get.

Krista had a poster of the butterfly cycle so we wanted that to be the main lesson. I wanted to do an activity/craft with the poster so we came up with paper fan butterflies connected with pipe cleaners. It was great because it was so simple and didn’t need any tape, glue etc. So after she explained the caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly process we passed out supplies.

We told them to color the construction paper first to make a pattern since every butterfly is unique and one table just starred at me. So I got a construction paper and did swirls, stripes, and zig zags to show them to draw on their butterfly. They quickly caught on and spent a lot of time drawing on their butterflies. They all could fold their construction paper and add the pipe cleaners by themselves. They were very proud of their paper butterflies! After they finished we reviewed the butterfly cycle one more time using their own butterflies and they got a kick out of it.

That was basically all we had planned for the day and it was after their break time but we asked Macdonald if we could still go outside. He is fine with anything we ask and it actually worked out better because there weren’t as many kids outside so we could play a game with just our class. First they showed us their version of the Hokey Pokey. They say, “you shake shake shake, you shake your whole body” instead of “shake it all about and do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around” and they say “That’s about it” instead of “that’s what its all about”. It so interesting how they alter it because that shows what a language barrier we have that they interpret our words differently. I think their version is adorable. I got it on video!

Krista taught them Sharks and Minnows. I played along with them and started off as a Minnow with the rest of the class. I ran across that field so many times- I was sweating. They eventually caught me and everyone laughed. Some of those boys are quick runners! It was a blast, I felt like I was in elementary school again. I was playing just like a kid. I have more fun just playing with them and I find it so much easier to connect with them by playing games instead of working with them at a desk. I had a great time!!

Something about walking back and hanging out with these kids and seeing them interact with each other and I have no idea whats going on.. it makes me feel like they are the coolest kids and I want to be in their group so I can understand them better. They are always laughing about something and I want to be in on the laugh. Somehow I get the idea that most of the time they are laughing at me! I want to fit in with them!

Our class brought us more gifts. They brought papya (but they call is “paw paw”), tomatoes, and eggs. Dr. Kelly said eggs are a real novelty because of the protein. I saw a little boy who drew a picture of a car earlier in the day and I commented that he drew a very pretty picture. At the end of the day, he brought me another picture of a car and gave it to me and at the bottom it said, “drawing by Grant”! I love these kids!!! We briefly told them it was our independence day and Macdonald told us they call their independence day “Republic Day”. I told Macdonald we went to Teddy’s village and garden yesterday and he said they are good friends and that the class we are teaching now is Teddy’s old class because he taught them in standard 5. I know this is silly but I was a little sad to leave our kids because we wouldn’t see them until Tuesday. I love hanging out with them.

Lauren and Sarah’s teacher invited them to visit her family and village so after class they went to Gertrude’s. We decided to postpone our chapter discussion for another day and just ate our lunch and chatted. Lauren and Sarah got back and they saw a black mambo! Yikes, that’s the 2nd most venomous snake in the world. Gertrude thought it was funny that Lauren and Sarah were scared of the snake. They said Gertrude introduced them to their entire family and even prepared lunch. Lauren and Sarah had a hard time convincing them they were still full from breakfast and didn’t want to eat lunch. The food was all food that would have made them sick for sure so they had to make something up even though they were starving.

At 2pm all the VT students were meeting with the school maintenance committee to brainstorm ideas for a service project. The committee consists of the school deputy, the principal, a MIE representative and other MIE officials. MIE is supposed to work with the school and help support it however, they aren’t very active. Part of our tuition for this trip included money to sponsor a day student at MIE and part of the money is also used to help fix some of the school buildings. Each year they take on a different project to improve the school environment. Last year they left enough money to fix all the window panes and Dr. Kelly was pleased to come this year and see that they were all completed. The community also raised money of their own to fix some of the flower beds around the buildings. It's really neat that they have a group of locals who are proactive in improving the school. I know its our money, but I’m still really glad Dr. Kelly takes the time to have us be involved in the project by inviting us to the meetings and asking us what we would like to see done.

We all met in a classroom and some of the members didn’t speak English so we had a translator. Even though we couldn’t understand them, I still felt like I was involved in the conversation. The meeting was just like home- peoples cell phones were going off and they had to leave the room! Ha We talked about fixing holes in the floors and ceiling, putting locks on the doors, painting and sealing the blackboards, painting the walls with educational information, and putting signs on the doors. It would be really great if we had an artist come on this trip in the future because painting is the best way to decorate the walls in the classrooms. There is one teacher who is artistic and Dr.Kelly got him paint one year and he painted his classroom. The walls were filled with diagrams of composition of soil, structure of a tooth, parts of a ridger, map of Malawi, map of Africa, musical instruments, lungs of a person, blood flow to the heart, human Skelton, and the meaning of HIV/AIDS. This was a standard 7 classroom.

We walked through a couple of classrooms so everyone would see the miserable conditions these students and teachers faced each day. One adult pointed out a tree that grows next to a classroom and their seeds have sticky stuff inside them and they used it as glue for school only when it’s in season. How cool!

The committee said how grateful they are for our assistance and when our group left last year he didn’t think we would come back and remember them. They wanted to add to the list of things that need to be improved but Dr. Kelly explained to them she can’t do everything and we must only take it one step at a time. We don’t come in and fix it all at once. He ended by telling us a phrase they often say, “A friend in need is a friend indeed” and thanked us for being their friends.

I noticed that most of the girls had short hair but I never really thought much about it. Patti figured out that it’s a tradition for girls to have their hair short and they can only grow their hair out once they are grown women.

We stopped in town to quickly drop off the film I took of my class. Liz had told us a place she went and was happy with so we trusted her. The worker spoke perfect English and I felt confident dropping the film off.

We stopped by the seamstress to get out final alterations. They made some quick adjustments while we waited then we got to take it home! A custom dress only cost 1750 kwacha. I got a very American dress because I want to wear it at home and not feel silly. I showed some of the other people in our group my dress when I got back to Annie’s Lodge and some Malawians were standing there with them. The Malawians asked where the bottom part was because most women dresses go to their ankles and I explained to them that in America we wear shorter dressed. He wanted me to go try it on and show him. Creap! I left asap. It’s a very homemade dress because its not necessarily even or measured perfectly. I still like it and hopefully it will be fun to wear!

Krista’s mom called the night before but we were already in bed so we told her to call today at 6pm Malawian time. Krista was at the reception at 6pm waiting for the phone call. Since I have not had Internet in almost a week, I was really anxious to talk to my parents so Krista was going to pass along the message for her mom to call my mom and let her know I wanted her to call me. Krista was really excited after talking to her parents and wished she had told them all kinds of details she remembered after she hung up.

Peter was planning a poker night for us but since we had to hike a mountain tomorrow we told him to start early. Dr. Kelly said he usually doesn’t plan this many parties for us so he must really like our group or is super bored here. None of us knew how to play poker but we were willing to learn. We gathered around 7pm and all sat at the table expecting to see chips and cards but instead we saw drinks and a DJ. We quickly learned “poker night” was just an excuse to get us all together because Peter wanted to party. He didn’t even have cards or poker chips! Haha I always skip dinner whenever Peter is hosting a party because I know he will buy us snacks.

A receptionist came to get me because my mom was calling- hooray!! I would have been okay not talking to them on the phone if I had internet but since I don’t have the internet I was getting upset that I hadn’t talked to them. Nothing was wrong but I’m just a kid and missed them lots! Thank you Mrs. Patrick for calling my mom!!!! Well I didn’t intend to talk to my mom and dad for a long time but Krista said I talked to them for almost 30 minutes! I was so glad to hear their voices and I just rambled on about everything I could think of. They managed to squeeze a couple questions in and I told them all about our class and what we have been teaching. They told me it's been rainy at home- the weather in Malawi is great! They asked me what Malawians do on their Independence day and I didn’t know. So I asked the receptionists sitting right by the phone and they said they have traditional dancing and then play a huge game of football and this year they are playing against Kenya.

As much as I didn’t want to, I said I better hang up. They don’t have call waiting so I didn’t want to take up the phone line for very long. They promised me they would call again on July 13th. I went back to the party and I was so happy! It doesn’t make me homesick, it comforts me. Krista and I both got to talk to our parents so we were really thrilled because we had both been talking about how we’ve wanted to talk to our parents for the last couple of days.

Well, we all had a great time at the party and danced the night away. It’s basically just our group, Peter and a hand full of Canadians. I’ve noticed that the majority of white people we see are Canadians. Most of them are here for months or even years at a time. Actually we left by 11pm since we had to get up early. Pathetic!