I’m really surprised I haven’t messed up and put my toothbrush under the sink. If I forget, I always catch myself before I do it! I had brought 3 extra tooth brushes anticipating I would forget and need a new one, but I’ve been pretty good at remembering all the rules and its definitely paying off!
No one has heard from Liz yet to find out if she has made it back home. We are all hoping to hear from her soon.
I honestly can’t remember what I’ve talked about in the blog and what I’ve missed and I don’t have time to scroll through and look but I do remember mentioning the feeding program but I’ll briefly recap…
Malemia is a village school and the children are extremely malnourished, much more so than the Government or Demonstration School. So a feeding program was set up last year to provide a cup of porridge to the children and the money was able to be stretched to provide food for each child twice a week for 7 months. This year the advisors were able to get enough money for each child (over 1000) to have a cup of porridge every day for over a year. The village women make the food and they start at 6am and it cooks for 4 hours. So today everyone in our group was going to Malemia to celebrate the beginning of the second round of the feeding program! We’ve heard a lot about it and so it was great to be able to go there and actually see it in action. It’s also a great way to keep kids in school because they are more likely to come to school if they know they will be fed. The advisors have been working hard on starting the program since we got here so we are glad it was able to start before we left!!
Throughout the day I was just playing with the kids and not really taking in what was happening and how significant today is, but now that I’m sitting back and writing about today, I’m realizing what an impact this will make on the children. We are coming to Malawi and helping the country by going to the villages and setting up a feeding program. That is the only way to be sure these kids will be fed. Donating money doesn’t do a bit of good because it never makes it to the villages. I love that our advisors see what needs to be done and make it happen.
So today the plan was to go to Malemia and observe the feeding program and depending on how long that would take, we would walk back to our school and spend about 30 minutes with our class. It turned out that the feeding program took a long time (as many things do in Malawi) so we weren’t able to visit our class. It actually was okay because after two days of safari none of us were in the mood to plan a lesson.
Remember I talked about Eplison who graduated from VT and went to Freedom Gardens with us? Well his roommate at Tech, Endalopia (spell?), is from Zomba and we picked him up this morning so he could come along with us today. We thought he would be a great translator and we wanted to make sure we had someone who was staying here to overlook the program throughout the year. Apparently he’s the youngest of 60 children (different mothers of course).
As we arrived we saw children outside holding their cups. They were told to bring them today. We got off the bus and saw the ladies of the village cooking the porridge in a huge kettle over a fire. It consists of maize, sugar, salt, water and milk. Right when I got off the bus I ran into Jean’s brother! This town really is so small!! He was walking with a group of men to do something with the chiefs of the village, but we briefly said hello!
Apparently Vandy, Patti and Mandy had gotten drums made and today they were ready so the drum maker got dressed up in a suit to present the drums. One of the teachers, Innocent, has been giving drum lessons to some of the Radford girls and had arranged for the drum maker to make the drums. I was really impressed and asked if Innocent could give me some lessons since I had just got a drum. I didn’t realize he would take me up on it so quickly because he pulled out the drums and chairs and was ready to give lessons right away! Patti, Brittany, Nikki, Brian and I all sat down for some lessons under the tree. I was ecstatic!
He first explained the two positions to hit the drum, on the edge which he calls “kay kay” and in the middle using an arched hand which he calls “doo doo” and he would make up rhythms “kay kay doo kay kay doo” Since I have no music ability whatsoever, it is amazing that I was even interested. I prefer learning the Malawian way because I can mess up and no one cares. He would play beats and as long as I had someone to follow I got the hang if it quickly. He taught us how to make a beat and then wait for a response from another drummer. It was a lot of fun!
One by one the classes were being called over to get their porridge and then they could come over and eat their porridge and listen to us play. Before we knew it, the entire school was surrounding us dancing and singing! Some slowly left and before we knew it, it was just Brittany, Innocent, two Malemia students and me playing a beat for 1000 dancing students! The two Malemia students sitting next to me helped me keep up with the beat. The songs never end and you would think your hands would get tired but I could have gone on forever!
Finally, I decided I needed a break and I thanked Innocent for teaching me! He said to come again for another lesson. He’s a great teacher, I just might have to. By the time I finished playing the drums, the feeding program was basically done. I had been playing the drums during the entire time 1000 students waited in line to get food. Learning how to play the drums from a Malawian and then being able to play as children danced was a dream come true! I wanted to do that since I saw the school dance competition on the first day we were in Zomba.
Now I got to mingle around with the students. Hundreds of students come up and ask “what is your name” and I tell them and they repeat it. For the most part that is the extent of the conversation. Sometimes they can tell me their name and their standard, but not always. I think that’s the only English the younger ones know. At Malemia they don’t speak Chichewa, their language is Yao. Everyone wanted their picture taken. I was really taken away with how pushy the children are. They don’t behave like this at our school. After hearing stories from the Radford girls about how rowdy their classes are, I had assumed the village school wasn’t as structured as I am used too at the Governmentt school. I noticed girls had sticks in their ears like it was suppose to be an earring. I hadn’t noticed that anywhere else. We are wondering if it’s a specific village that does it. Just think how infected their ears are- they probably pick the little sticks up from the ground.
It was time to go so we started our walk to MIE. It’s quite a hike but I enjoyed the walk because we had plenty of company. First I had a group of 4th graders walk me ½ way and I attempted to have a conversation with them. They just kept asking me for a pencil but I honestly didn’t have one otherwise I would have given it to them. A young man walked up to me and told me the kids didn’t speak English and then continued to have a conversation with me. He was very interested in why I was here and asked a lot of questions. At that point I couldn’t see any people from my group in front of me so I had a minor panic attack because I wasn’t sure if he was going to scare me or if he was just being friendly. The street was crowded and we saw a truck with a band in it playing music! How cool! It was almost like a parade in Malawi. I turned and finally ran into Sarah and Krista and thankfully the scary guy left.
Two boys from the Demonstration school came up to walk next to me. They spoke very good English and I quickly learned they were asking for money. They are both in form 3 (same as a junior in high school) and one wanted to be a lawyer and the other wanted to be a journalist. They were familiar with VA and even VA Tech and they even knew our colors were maroon and orange! They really wanted come to VA Tech and I knew they wanted me to pay for them and that was the only reason they were walking. Either way it was still good company and I enjoyed talking to them.
We walked passed the Government school and it was past noon so we didn’t have time to go to our class but we saw a group of teachers outside. The entire school was out and the teachers were leaving for the day. I thought the upper grades don’t get out until 1pm? Maybe they leave early on Fridays? All of us were confused. I apologized to Macdonald for not being able to come today. I don’t think he understood why we didn’t come but we told him we will be there for sure on Monday. He was off to play some football! Hahaha Go Macdonald!!!
I made it back with the rest of the group and we sat outside while the advisors had a meeting to arrange some things and Endalopia was there to help. We ate, chatted, wrote in our journal and enjoyed the afternoon. They needed to arrange the specifics of how to get a bank account set up to supply the money for the feeding program and also some other projects they have set up. Alicia has a student who is in her class and it’s obvious he can’t see because he has to go up to the board to read anything. He already has glasses but he needs new glasses and a new prescription. Alicia has agreed to get them and it only costs 5,000 Kwacha. So Endalopia helped arrange the eye dr appointment for Monday. Malemia is also working with Radford to arrange for 10 girls who are at risk of dropping out to become pen pals with girls at home to encourage them to stay in school. The girls in Vandy’s class don’t have uniforms or they don’t fit so they have arranged a seamstress to come and measure the girls for new uniforms. Our final project that was discussed at the meeting is to arrange for each school to sponsor a student to go to secondary school. Secondary school costs money and we would like to sponsor a bright student who would otherwise not be able to go to school because of the cost.
Teddy stopped by to say hello. We chatted and exchanged email addresses. He plans to come to the teachers dinner on Tuesday night!
After the meeting, we quickly discussed some details about the rest of our trip. Believe it or not, we are on the last stretch of this trip. Our farewell party at Annie’s is tomorrow night.
Everyone had lots of errands to do in town. We left early at 2:30pm today so we would have time to get everything done. First we picked up our photos and I was thrilled that they came out so well!!! I’m really excited to be able to give each student a picture of themselves!!! Next we stopped by the fabric store, the vendors and then ended at Tasty Bites of course. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this but I was really surprised to see reusable environmental shopping bags sold at the grocery store. Dad, I know you’re a big fan of them and I almost got you one but I didn’t think you would want one that said, “Shoprite”
Another thing we all noticed was how few pregnant women we see here. We decided we see lots but the wraps the women wear covers it up so we can’t tell. Plus women don’t get as large as they do in America.
As we were waiting for our samosas Sarah told us how emotional today was for her. She said she saw a girl covering her face and she went up to see what was wrong and she was very upset and crying. Sarah figured out that it was because she didn’t have a cup so she didn’t think she would be able to eat. I know Sarah made sure she found a cup for her.
We enjoyed our samosas and ran into the Canadians at Tasty Bites. It really does feel like home because we see the same people we know everywhere we go. The same waiters at Tasty Bites each day and at Annie’s. I hate the thought of leaving all of our friends.
Even though today was a simple day I am exhausted and glad that it’s the weekend. My Internet finally worked last night but since the 14 days were up, it expired last night. It stinks because it only really worked for about 4 of the 14 days. So I talked with Obottie at the front desk and he is calling the company to see if we can get an extension. He will let us know what they say in the morning.
Cameron called just to ask about our trip. We told him all about the animals we saw and told him we got chief chairs! Dr. Kelly said Cameron's brother and uncles would not give us a good deal so don’t even try searching for them. He told me to “greet Krista on my behalf” so I gave the phone to her and they chatted.
Remember one night Peter gave us the universal password but we found out only one person at a time can use it? Well, I always check it randomly and for the first time tonight it worked! Since I’m having trouble getting my card extended, I’m going to be selfish and use the universal code until I’m finished with all my emails and blog updates. Hopefully it won’t sign me off.
Tonight "Blood Diamond" was on and I watched parts of it but only got hooked at the end. Krista and I picked up on comments that mentioned “hand sanitizer and malaria medicine” and even commented on the neat African fabric. The pictures of the market look just like the ones we have seen. When we hear or see of things relating to Africa, we will now pick up on things I’m sure we would missed before this trip.
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