Monday July 14- Painting the Blackboards

Today Tenison brought us 2 avocados each. He told us they wouldn’t be ripe for another 4-5 days so he wanted us to take them home to our husbands (we didn’t explain to him we don’t have husbands). We greatly appreciated the gesture and took them but we gave 2 to Macdonald and 2 to Charles because we know we can’t bring fresh food back with us.

This morning Lauren and I went to the seamstress to pick up our outfits and Lauren had fleas on her ankle and the seamstress helped wipe them off. As we left and sat to wait for the bus, we realized they were all over her legs and mine too. Two other girls had gone to the seamstress this morning and they were all over their legs as well. The seamstress has dogs so we assume that’s how we got them. The entire group got ourselves worked up about the fleas. We joked and said we will all be at the vets when we go home and now the attack of the fleas comes up in conversation all day long.

Patti and Jennifer left early this morning to walk to town to set up the bank account for the feeding program. Their plan was to be at the bank when it opened and then one of the teachers who is going to have access to the account will drive them to school once they are finished. They thought they would be there no later than 10am, but believe it or not they were at the bank the entire day. We saw them around 4pm and they had just finished. As with most things in Malawi, everything just takes a lot of time. Plus, they needed paperwork so they left and came back but they said the majority of the time they were just waiting. When they left to get paperwork they took a little boy to the hospital to get his eyes fitted for a new pair of glasses!

For the past few days the group has been brainstorming ideas on what to call our program we do here. The feeding program, the uniforms, scholarships and all the serves we provide to the schools and children. While it’s the study abroad tuition that pays for some of it as well as individual donors, we wanted to be able to have a name for it for our bank account title and for collecting donations. So our group came up with Malawi Chibale Project. Chibale means friendship/togetherness in Chichewa. Patti talked to one of her favorite venders and he arranged for an artists to come and paint a sketch of the logo we had come up with. We saw it tonight at dinner and it turned out beautifully. We love that it was made by a Malawian instead of a computer graphic design program. We are going to scan the picture in and use it for stationery, t-shirts and for the future website! It’s a picture of 3 hands holding each other to form a triangle and each hand represents the 3 different schools and inside the triangle is a woman serving a little boy some porridge.

At school we were only going to be with our kids for an hour because at 10:30am we were going to start painting the blackboards. Each year our tuition goes towards a school renovation project and this year we were going to paint the blackboards. Dr. Kelly got all the supplies, so today we just had to go around to each lower level classroom and paint the chalkboards. The upper levels chalkboards were in pretty good shape. We were disappointed that we couldn’t spend more time with our kids but they came and watched us so we got to hang out with some of them!

We brought the pictures we took of them and wanted the students to glue them on construction paper and decorate the border to take home with them. The kids were thrilled we were giving them each a picture. We had Macdonald look at the pictures and call each student up because we had no idea how we would pass them out since we only know about 10 kids names. They had a great time gluing and coloring and were so proud of their work!

I noticed lots of rulers, pencils and butterflies on the student’s desk. They continue to bring the supplies we gave them each day!

We took class photos and group shots on the disposable because we knew students were going to be absent. There were about 3 students who didn’t have pictures of themselves, but they were satisfied with group pictures. With the extra group photos, we took clothespins and hung them up on the string in the classroom.

That project took the entire time so we didn’t have time for any real lesson. I feel so bad, we were with them for a whole week and these past 2 weeks we were barely in the classroom. We hated to leave our class, but we told them to come by and wave as we were painting next door.

The younger grades got out of school at 10:30am so that’s why we could start in their classrooms. Somehow everyone was off running errands and I was in the first classroom watching the supplies and none of the younger students that had gotten out of school left for home. They were watching me waiting for me to entertain them I guess? So I smiled and since I knew they wouldn’t understand anything I said, I used my body. I touched my toes, reached up for the sky, spread my arms and flew, jumped and turned around as they copied my every move. The kids were all in standard 1 and loving every minute of it since they didn’t have a VT student in their classroom this year. Then I had them spread out in a circle and showed them the hokey pokey as I screamed the words by myself to hundreds of kids. Ha. No one was around to see that! That faded quickly and I had to be quick and think of something else to show them so I asked an older kid to bring me a stick to do the limbo! I felt like a one man circus as their eyes just glared at me to see what I would do next.

I have noticed that particularly the younger kids are very rough with each other. They were literally stepping on each other to get through the limbo crowd. It was impossible to organize anything so I just let the kids be free. Normally I would expect a straight line, please & thank you and for everyone to take turns but that just doesn’t happen around here! The older kids listen to what your telling the younger kids and they push and yell at them to make them do what you asked. Part of me wants to tell them to be kind and polite but then again they are the translators and if it wasn’t for the older kids it would be a complete mess.

Finally, I ran into the rest of the group so we could start the project. First we had to wash down each board with a wet rag to clean off any dirt. Once they dried, we simply painted the boards black. The boards were in pretty bad shape, so just a fresh coat of paint completely changes the entire room! Thankfully Dr. Kelly got the kind that doesn’t need a seal or 2nd coat, so it was very easy. We got gloves, newspaper and a bucket of paint and went to a room. I was prepared for a long explanation of the proper way to paint and detailed instructions (because I am used to my dad’s perfection in projects) but in this case there was no directions except to just paint.

We had quite an audience during the entire 3 hours. The little kids wondered off but then the older kids were getting out of school and wanted to see what we were up too. Some of the kids were so helpful that we put them to work! They would get water for us and help carry supplies. Some of the kids even put Lauren and Sarah’s hair behind their ear for them since they had gloves on. Precious!

Quite a few of our students came over to watch and hang out. As we were cleaning up most of the kids had left and only a few were left watching us. The girls were cleaning the steps and I went outside to talk with the kids. It looked like it was going to rain, and I asked the kids and they assured me it was going to rain today. They all waved bye and I heard my name being yelled from far away, and it was one of my students on the other side of the field yelling my name and blowing me a kiss goodbye!

The freshly painted chalkboards really make a big difference in the classroom. The teachers were given strict instructions to wait until Wednesday to use them so they have enough time to dry.

We all met at MIE and since today was our last day in town, we got Charles to pick us up early. We went to town to get water to last us for the rest of the tip, exchange $, grocery store for souvenirs, and the vendors. I tried to be sneaky and take pictures of some of the stores but sometimes people have fits so I didn’t get very many. On our way back up the hill, we stopped at Tasty Bites to get some of our last somosas (cheese ones and we like them better than the beef) and we found almost the entire group having a little snack before dinner. It started raining as we walked up the hill, but thankfully it wasn’t a heavy rain so we didn’t melt.

Since tonight is our last night at Annie’s we all decided to eat together at 5:30pm. It wasn’t 5 minutes after we all ordered that the power went out. We knew dinner would take even longer than it normally does so we sat back and relaxed. We realized that on the first night at Annie’s we had dinner together without power too. So our first night and last night were both candlelight dinners, how appropriate. At the teacher's farewell party tomorrow night we are suppose to sing an American song. Apparently they asked the group last year and everyone was unprepared so this year we need to practice “God Bless America”. We practiced at dinner and scared some strangers off. We feel way too comfortable at Annie’s Lodge and basically take over any room we are in. I ordered Vegetable curry again tonight. No joke, I’ve probably gotten it 10 times and its so good I might even miss it when I’m home.

The power came on right as we finished dinner. Perfect timing! So Krista and I went to our room to start organizing gifts for some of our favorite Malawians. Lauren and Sarah came to visit and help us decide who got what gifts. (Lauren assured us she is now flea free!) We made piles for Charles, Cameron, Tenison and Macdonald.

Tonight I got back from dinner and went to the bathroom. As I was pulling the toilet paper off the role, a spider was in-between the toilet paper and it flew onto my leg. I didn’t scream, but I quickly got it off me. GROSS!

I bought 30 minute Internet cards since I can’t get logged onto the universal and my account has expired. I’m sick of fighting it and just gave in and bought some.