Mphunzitsi!

June 26, 2008:

Today was filled with probably one of the most incredible moments of my life. As we approached the first school, children from hundreds of yards away came running towards our bus shouting “mphunzitsi” and “muzungu” which mean teacher and white person. We continued towards the school, and there were hundreds of children crowding around the door of the bus jumping, clapping, yelling and smiling with some of the most beautiful beaming smiles I’ve ever seen. They were excited to greet us, and they all want to shake our hands. We greeted them in return and were delighted in their excitement. I almost felt I had presidential popularity. The students make you feel like royalty with their welcoming faces and kind greetings. The teachers and head master greeted us and showed us to many of the classrooms. In each of the classrooms, the children stood to greet us. They’ve memorized basic English greetings:

The Class: “Good morning madam and sirs, how are you?”
Us: “We’re fine. How are you?”
The Class: “Fine. Thank you madam.”

Sometimes we would go in and say good morning first or how are you, but they would respond with the memorized words they knew in sequence. Their language acquisition is much different from ours. Instead of learning different words and phrases and what they mean, they learn to memorize phrases in response to prompts from teachers. This explains a lot of their difficulties in learning English. Many are never able to master it.


In a single day, I’ve come to the realization that key to survival for the majority of the people here is education. Statistics have shown that those who receive a full education or stay in school the longest have far less diseases and avert the chances of HIV/AIDS. English is the key. English. Our native language is the key to their success. Basically, if you cannot pass the English examination, you cannot move on. If you cannot communicate, you will not get a decent job.

We also visited two other schools. We visited the Domasi Demonstration School where Brian and Nikki will be doing their graduate research and some teaching. Again, the children came running to greet us. Their smiles and cheering was so heartwarming. The government uses this school for teachers from the Malawi Institute of Education. Here, they are able to fill “student teacher” requirements. This school was dramatically different from the first school we visited (Malemia). Many of these students had warmer clothes, shoes and were cleaner. We learned that many of the students are children of teachers, and their parents pay 40 Kwacha a month, so that the girls will not have to clean the toilets.

That’s something I have not mentioned. The girls at each school are required to regularly clean the toilets. Most have no sanitary gloves, and they spend hours on their hands and knees scrubbing. This also contributes to the dropout rate for girls because they’d rather stay home than be forced to clean in such conditions.

Following our trip to the Demonstration School, we finally made it to our group’s (Virginia Tech) school- the Domasi Government School. I was so excited! The children were again so welcoming, but this school already felt like home. The head teacher was eager to greet us, and she welcomed us to her school. We got a quick tour of a few of the classrooms, and the teachers were so friendly. We decided to work mostly in pairs- Lexi and I in Standard 6, Lauren and Sarah in Standard 3, Heidi and Amber in Standard 7, and Brittany is working alone. We thanked the head teacher for her welcoming and told her we’d be ready to teach tomorrow.

We headed to the college, just a few hundred feet away, for our first “class” time. Typically, we’ll congregate as an individual school group at our school locations (Malemia, Demonstration, and Domasi) for about an hour and then the Radford and NC A&T groups will walk to our classroom at MIE. Today, we met as whole group the entire time period. We didn’t do a lot of discussing, but a few really valid points were brought up. Brian, our grad student from NC A&T, really made us all think. So often in our trip, we’ve been generalizing the children we meet as “them” and how “they” reacted, but he reminded us that each is an individual just as we are. He also wanted us to realize that this trip is not or should not be intended to be about how much we can get out of it, but about what we can do and learn with those we meet. He challenged us to cultivate the relationships of those we meet and those within our group. He really made complete sense. The things we can learn from each other are ultimately the greatest lessons. I also didn’t intend on learning from the students I meet, but I really think we learn a lot from them.

We all had nothing but positive things to discuss with one another. Overall, this experience has been incredible. Dr. Barber commented on the validity of biophilia, our affinity to Africa. I agree. Besides home and Virginia Tech, I’ve never felt so drawn to a place. The welcoming attitude of the people and beautiful surroundings just make you fall in love with the country. How could you not? I really could visit here again for a while. Maybe I’ll be able to…

After both a physically and emotionally draining day, Charles drove us back to the center of town in Zomba. We needed to get some water and start to get acclimated to our stomping grounds for the next three weeks. It reminded me somewhat of Zomba. We exchanged some USD for Kwacha, but I still haven’t spent my first 14,800 Kwacha ($100). We weren’t surprised to see vendors approaching us right away even before everyone was out of the money exchange store. Dr. Kelly was right in advising us to buy little or nothing in Lilongwe because they have all of the same items at cheaper costs in Zomba. The only issue is that we’re still new in town, and they think we don’t understand Kwacha yet… oh and that we’re rich. For example, this Noah’s ark today was over 8,000 Kwacha aka over 60 American dollars. It should sell for about $15- $20 after some strong negotiations. Dr. Kelly also explained that if one of us buys a hot item at a certain price, none of us will ever be able to get it any lower. So, the plan is to look through the vendors items each days and in the stores and wait until our last few days to talk down prices, barter and most of all BARGAIN. I can’t wait.

Dr. K pointed out the Internet café, the fabric shop where we can buy beautiful Malawian fabric to have clothes made before we leave, the food market and other places. We stopped in a cheaper grocery store to pick up fresh water. We do have fresh water at Annie’s Lodge, but it is not drinkable. Well, it is if you want to deal with certain side effects… no details necessary. Did you know that you could buy single bottles of beer and single shots of liquor at the checkout in the grocery store? The actually package single shots and put them where you’d normally see mints/gum. I’ve seen some signs trying to prevent people from drinking and driving, but I’m sure this does not exactly help the problem.

As we left the store, I saw the first signs of severe malnutrition. Men with nothing more than skin on their bones and legs skinnier than our arms sat outside the door begging for food. It’s heartbreaking because it’s just too difficult to hand out money to these people. We’ve learned that if you give one Kwacha or even a Tambala (coin that is half a kwacha) to one person, you must give it to the other fifty that’ll swarm around you. Surprisingly enough, I expected more to beg because Malawians are known for their warm hearts but habitual begging. Most people are friendly and content sitting in the street visiting with friends and greeting those passing by.

The fabric store is overwhelming! There are so many choices of fabric to choose from, and knowing my indecisions in the past, this may take a few visits to decide. As soon as we decide, we can buy fabric in increments of 4 meters (plenty for a full outfit) and order whatever type of outfit we’d like. Any suggests? I’m thinking some kind of dress. Peter throws a big party for us on the last night, and we’ll get to wear our new outfits to that.

It was going on 4:45, and we were exhausted! We were going to buy post cards on the way back to Annie’s Lodge (about a mile or so uphill), but we ran into Charles when he was buying some goods. So, Dr. K convinced him to drive us back to Annie’s, and he was glad to do it. We all cheered; we were that exhausted. How are we going to walk back other days with that water? It gets heavy, but I guess we’ll tone up a little.

It was only about 5 when we got back, and the sun was well on its way to setting, so we headed into the dining room to order dinner. Now, Annie’s Lodge dinners are actually very good, but we learned after one night that the cooking takes a very long time. We’re talking an hour or more, but we enjoyed each other’s company waiting for dinner. Oh, and Peter’s grand entrance… He brought us each a Malawi map and told us he’s setting up a movie night tomorrow night. Should be a fun time…

Want to hear some juicy Malawian gossip? Well, to make a long story short, Peter is Annie’s son. She’s a former member of Malawian Parliament, and his father was British. They lived in London for years (hence the knee-bending adorable accent) until Peter’s father died and they moved back to Malawi. Peter basically runs the lodge for Annie, and to everyone’s knowledge, until last year, was happily married to a beautiful European woman and a father of two. So, at the party last year, Dr. Jones told the students that they’d get to meet Peter’s beautiful blonde wife. A little while later, this beautiful blonde woman walks, so the girls go up to her and say it’s so nice to meet Peter’s wife. She responds by saying she’s his girlfriend. They’re confused, but they make small talk and then go dance. Then, another blonde woman walked in, but they decided to wait to talk to her. So in passing they asked, “Oh, how do you know Peter?” She said, “I’m his girlfriend.” Now, they’re really confused. A little later, another blonde woman walks in, and Dr. Jones says that she is his wife. To sum it up, he has two girlfriends, a wife and two children. They all know about one another and are all in agreement with the arrangement. Apparently, it’s an old school Malawian way, but all of these women and Peter are European and Canadian, so it seems strange. No one knows why it’s working out like this, but it sure makes for great gossip!

Dinner was great! We each had different things. They love to serve “chips” (French fries) with a lot. Lots of encima, rice, and vegetables are always served. I had chicken with chips and vegetables. Apparently, the vegetable curry is excellent. We devoured our food tonight!

After dinner, we headed back to the room, and Lexi and I talked about some initial plans for tomorrow’s first lesson. We’re so excited for our first day of teaching! I took a shower to get the day’s dirt and grime off me, and we’ve all been journaling for a couple hours.

I’m not sure how this trip could get any better, but I just know some wonderful surprises are in store for us- the kind of wonderful experiences that we’ll remember for a lifetime.