June 27th- Delivering Backpacks

Yesterday was great, and I didn’t think it could get any better then the swarm of children! Little did I know the experiences were just beginning.

As I was walking back to the room, Amber ran into me and told me the monkey stole her banana! I laughed and thought she was joking because she was so calm. As we walked back to the room, sure enough the monkey was sitting on the roof eating Amber’s banana. The night before we thought we heard cats fighting/ being killed outside our room but the maids said that noise was the monkeys. They are adorable- I want to see more! I don’t know if Ambers a fan of them…

I brought a random roll of masking tape. I thought how hard it must be for the Malawians to know our names, so I used the masking tape and permanent marker to make a name tag. I passed it around the bus and let others make name tags if they wanted. I think it helped but we had to be sure to take it off before we went to the market. The masking tape has turned out to be very convenient for lots of different purposes.

While we are in the schools we are required to wear skirts or dresses and cover our shoulders. Outside of the schools we can wear pants but we cannot show our knees. Apparently knees are considered sexy here.

The workers at Annie’s have these really cool Zebra t-shirts and Annie said she would order some and we could buy them from her! They will be the perfect souvenir.

Today was going to be our first day in the classrooms teaching. We were going to be late to our schools because first we were going to stop by Mwanje Primary School to donate the backpacks we brought in our luggage. The international group of the National Council of Social Studies has adopted that school and we will continue to bring supplies each year. It was going to be a group event because we wanted to be sure to get pictures of the donation for the business’s newsletter.

This was going to be a complete surprise because the school had no idea we were coming. Just like the other schools, buses never come down the road. We pulled up and at first they didn’t know what was going on but shortly the kids ran up to us. The teachers came out to welcome us without even knowing our purpose. We all went into the office and Dr. Kelly explained what we were doing here and what we had brought. The lady wanted to go to the classrooms first and tell all the teachers why we were here. As she went to the 8th grade classrooms across the field, we could hear the scream of excitement! I thought this was going to be a very emotional experience and for sure I’d cry. Little did I know that it was going to be a workout! No crying, we started sweating!

We walked into the 8th grade class and Dr. Kelly explained that they had been adopted and we brought backpacks for them! She showed them how to write their names on the name tags and also suggested writing their name on the backpack itself since they all look similar. Then the fun began! We started unwrapping backpacks, and passing out the pens and nametags. A handful of the other teachers came in to the room to watch and one of them even brought a drum! The lady who had been taking us around started singing and leading the dancing! Everyone stood up and we started going at it! Thankfully I got some of it on video tape but after a while I wanted to join in without holding a camcorder. Each day just keeps getting better and better! It was a celebration and their way of showing their appreciation. They stopped everything that was going on to greet us and dance with us. One of the songs they sang that helped them learn English was called “Professor for you and me”. I think the dancing could have gone on forever but we were already running behind schedule. We took a group picture of us with standard 8 and you could see how happy and proud the kids were of their backpacks! I don’t think they ever had worn a backpack because so many of the kids straps were twisted. Sarah and I went around to show them how to keep them straight.

Next we went to standard 7 and we had enough backpacks for all the students to get one. We intentionally gave them to the older kids because we wanted the younger kids to see that if you work hard and stay in school there are rewards. There were a couple extra but we know a lot of students were absent. What an awful day to miss school. Hopefully there is enough for all the absent kids to get a backpack. As I passed out the backpacks to the 7th graders, apparently blue was a hit. Most kids wanted a blue backpack instead of a red one. Thankfully we had enough of each color.

In standard 7 there was a little boy that I danced with during the singing and he couldn’t stop smiling. After the music stopped I went up to him and he told me “Today I am happy.”

Dancing with the class was such an adrenaline rush. Nothing else can compare to energy level in that room. They were excited to be getting gifts but I think we were more excited to be there and be apart of the exchange. I sure do want to learn how to dance like them!! I’m going to try and see if the little girls in our class will teach Krista and I. We will probably make a foul out of ourselves, but it will be fun to try. I’d also like the kids to try and teach us how to balance things on our heads. I have no doubt I won’t be any good at either one but I think it will be fun for the kids to teach us something!

The entire backpack experience reminded me exactly of Oprah’s Christmas Kindness DVD. I brought it and some of the girls have watched it on their computers, its very similar to what we are doing but of course Oprah out does us by a thousand.

We were running behind schedule so we hopped on the bus as they sang and waved goodbye to us. We dropped Radford off at Malemia, NC off at the demonstration school and we got off at the Govt school. There are two standard 6 classes and we didn’t care which one we taught so we let the head teacher assign us. A teacher was absent today in one of the classrooms. The head teacher suggested that we worked with the classroom that had a teacher. Our teachers name is Mcdonald Shriff. Our class has 72 students. He has been teaching for 4 years and remembers VT students coming each year but he never had the opportunity to work with one of us. He was very excited and sat down with us and wanted to learn all about Krista and I.

He told us that when we come from 9am-12noon each day that he knows that is our time to teach and they would do their curriculum in the morning before we come. He said we are welcome to teach anything we would like. Krista said her favorite subjects are English and math and we was thrilled with those.

Although I appreciate his flexibility, I really don’t want them to stop everything they are doing and let us teach. First of all we are not teachers so we really don’t know what we are doing, and it’s important for me that we have a partnership with the teacher and work together. I’d like it if some days we could listen to him teach and sit in groups to work with the children. I don’t want them to think that when Americans come they know everything and expect us to stop everything and listen. We don’t know everything they need to learn, we want to work with Macdonald to find out what would be helpful to them, what he might be having trouble with or they could use extra assistance in.

Once the children came in we introduced ourselves and started by showing them our “me book”. A lot of students were absent because they were at the Mosque. The typical excuses are Mosque, Market day or b/c it’s too cold. Our classroom had benches and tables- they were separated into groups. Their subjects were hanging down from the ceiling on paper and string; Chichewa, bible knowledge, life skills, expressive arts, agriculture, science & technology, mathematics, English and social & environmental science.

Krista’s book talked about her favorite food which is Sushi. She explained it to them and the teacher thought it was imported but she told them that the Japanese in America teach them how to make it in America. We think they understood but I don’t think they had ever heard of Japan or Australia when we asked them. The teacher was asking a lot of the questions and he was probably able to learn more from our books then the students. They understood that we went to a university in America and we explained to them that we cheer for the Hokies but our football is different because we throw the ball instead of kicking it. They were familiar with Malawi’s National Parks and I explained to them that America has national parks and I enjoy visiting them. I think the biggest hit was hearing about snow. The teacher didn’t know very much about it. We explained that it’s white and comes from the sky when its cold and lands on the ground, piles up and you can slide down it. That was very interesting for them.

We asked the children if they had any questions for us and one child asked what type of animals were in America. What a great question! We barked like a dog, oinked like a big, and hopped like a bunny. They laughed at us! We then asked them to teach us what type of animals Malawi has. Many of them raised their hand and waited patiently to be called on. Most of them repeated what another classmate already said. Finally we asked them to introduce themselves by telling us their name and their village. Each student stood up and spoke when it was their turn. Of course I can’t understand any of the names but I just smiled! We ended by asking them what they would like us to teach them/ and what their favorite subject is. The teacher seemed very pleased with our presentation and asked us to come next door to the other standard 6 class to present since they didn’t have a teacher.

In that classroom a student asked what village we lived in and we explained to him that in America we have neighborhoods. The teacher didn’t know that. I was glad we were able to reach more than one classroom. We were thinking we would love to be able to use our lessons for both classrooms. We might split up or spend ½ the time in each. I was really surprised how little the teacher knew about many of the things we talked about. I shouldn’t assume that just because they are teachers that they know everything.

As I left I told them we would be back to teach more but I asked them if they could teach me some Chichewa when I come back and they got really excited! Krista mentioned a few words she knew in Chichewa and their faces lit up!

We left our classroom and met everyone at MIE. We wrote in our journal and Dr. Kelly asked us to write about our ideas for our final paper. After being in the classroom we should write down a rough draft of our future plans on what to teach.

I’m tentatively planning on my paper being about how this trip is a good thing for both cultures because we both are able to learn so much from teach other. I want to talk about the opposing view points people have about coming to help poor countries and after coming here I am 100% sure that it’s a positive experience for both cultures. Why shouldn’t we be able to interact, we are part of the same planet and have so much to learn from each other. It doesn’t do anyone any good if we ignore each other…

My first instinct I have for future planning of teaching is to keep it simple. Repeat things a lot and just make sure they are hearing lots of English. I also noticed they would say “yes” even if they had no idea what I was saying. So I want to try and avoid those type of questions. Krista suggested teaching weather and animals on Monday. Sounds like a plan to me.

It’s very difficult to get through to them; most things are over their head. The simplest things to teach them are songs and dances. I thought it might be fun to have all the other classes who have VT students have a presentation or competition of something we taught them in English. Either a dance, skit, and/or song. These kids love to perform.

The whole group came together to have a group discussion after the powerful backpack celebration this morning:

An advisor said she felt blessed by being in their presence today because they are such amazingly grateful and genuine people. And it got her thinking; do people feel blessed by her presence?

Body,Mind & Spirit: We talked about filling the body with nutrients, and the mind with knowledge and today the celebration filled the spirit part.

We talked about how spontaneous the bookbag celebration was, that’s a “powerful cultural value” that they spent that much time to thank us. We talked about how we all feel drawn to this place. Lauren said how she cried when she left home but now she’s going to cry when we leave here. All of us feel the same way and it hasn’t even been a week.

We noticed how all the children want you to reach out and touch their hand and give them eye contact to say “I notice you”. After you have done that for them, they put down their hand because they are content with that response. They don’t ask for anything more then a simple interaction. Some of the kids even bowed as they shook our hands.

Even with the hundreds of children, they still manage to respect your private space so you don’t feel uncomfortable. Most of us thought American kids wouldn’t respect that boundary.

We are so impressed with how well this trip is planned. The advisors have planned it out perfectly. They have done it so many times they know what works and what doesn’t work.

We briefly talked about how there is not a family that has not been affected by AIDS. Somehow they know someone who is sick or died from this disease. The statistics say 1 in 5 people have AIDS but Peter said its closer to 1 in 3 people.

After our discussion we went to town to get some water. Peter was planning a movie night for us and said he would have snacks so I came back to the lodge and decide I’d take a short nap and skip dinner. He was inviting some of his Canadian friends to come to movie night. There was a ton of food so I’m glad I skipped dinner. We also had free drinks all night! We didn’t realize it was such a party, we thought it was movie night but that was just the excuse to get us together.

I met a man that Peter was talking to and Peter kept calling him “Uncle” so naturally I thought it was Peter’s uncle. “Uncle” clarified and told me Peter calls him uncle but he’s really Annie’s boyfriend. The group enjoys talking about “uncle” like he’s our uncle!