I received an e-mail yesterday and they went on their Safari. Hopefully we'll get the extraordinary details soon.
The first two days of teaching went so well. The students seem to understand more and more, and they're happy to welcome us into their classroom.
We spent the past two days in the first 30 minutes working on their English lessons. Sometimes its really hard to tell if they really understand our lessons or if they just say "yes" to everything because that's the way they have been taught. Most of what they're currently learning deals with word choice and sentence agreement. I've found that if you can repeatedly quiz them, they start to see the pattern with the correct answers. I'll point to one student
and say, "He say or he says," and they answer. Then I'll point to a group of students and say, "They says or they say." and they answer. It really works with all the word choices they have, and they seem to understand it! Lexi and I try to praise them for correct answers so they will know they answered correctly and did a good job.
Yesterday we did a lesson on the water cycle. We taught them hand motions for each step: precipitation, collection, evaporation and condensation. By the end of the day, they could recite it with the hand motions I used as examples. Lexi also brought paper-like examples of the water cycle so the students were able to see color and see the water moving through each step. They really enjoyed the hands on lessons and showed extreme interest.
Today we taught our students about the world, i.e., types of maps, the continents, the revolution of the Earth and some of the facts about certain continents. They had fund finding Malawi and using the blow-up globes we brought them. We distributed each table a map, globe, or continent puzzle. Again, "hands on" is so critical to this level of learning. Macdonald Sherrif (Cher-eef)their Malawian teacher, commented, "They will be champions in Standard 8!" Remember, they are Standard 6 and do not learn the geography we taught until Standard 8. For a country with such a high dropout rate for primary school, most students only learn about Afri-central and not other areas of the world.
Each day, we spend break time outside with the students. Macdonald asked us to take them to the field away from the play yard. This was a great idea because there are literally hundreds of students playing, running and fighting with one another. There is too much commotion to play an organized game in the area. Yesterday, we played Frisbee and it was interesting to see how they naturally segregate themselves. All the girls came to one side and the boys went to the other. They loved the Frisbee! I made up games to play as we went along to show them different ways to use it. Then, we decided to play netball using the frisbee. It's a game similar to basketball or soccer where girls throw the ball to each other and then into a goal. They seemed to have a blast!!
Today, Lexi asked one of the students to get a drum from the class to take to break time outside. They love to sing and dance with the drum! One boy started to make a beat, and they all joined in to dance. It was so much fun to dance with it! They don't need ipods, television or CD's. They have fun being creative with what they have and they're so good at it. Later, I just started making a beat with my hands, and the girls instantly started to sing song that matched a beat. They have beautiful voices and the fact they can create dances and songs on a whim says a lot about their creativity and intelligence. Some people are so quick to judge them for their lack of education or knowledge, but their simple use of music in creative ways is a testament to the intelligence they innately possess. The students never cease to impress me.
Macdonald and I chat a great deal while we're outside. He's very interested in learning about our country. It's funny now because the first day of teaching, I told the students "sushi" was one of my favorite foods. Today he asked me if I was unhappy because Malawi does not have sushi. I explained to him " of course not" and let him know how much I loved Malawi. Malawians always seem so surprised that we like it here! It's incredible, and we have very few complaints.
Macdonald and I started to discuss politics. I asked if he likes his country's government? He likes the multi-party system, but didn't elaborate. He asked me the same and I replied "yes". It made me realize that I'd never been asked that before. In the U.S. we discuss political parties and issues in the government, but at my age, do we ever reflect on the overall quality of our government? We have the best government in the world. Here, the government will not take care of you if you are dying of AIDS or starving. Our government offers welfare even if we are still making the bare minimum. Medical aid is available in the U.S. I've never felt more like a democrat wanting my government to provide programming for me if I need it. They pay very minimum taxes here because there's just no way to collect them. There's a 17.5% tax for food, but other than government-issued paychecks, it's hard to collect. Without these taxes, there is really no cash flow for the government to institute significant programs. I actually like the concept of taxes now. I'm not preaching that I love our everything about our government, but I've never been prouder to be an American with a highly functioning government. I know we need some reform in the U.S, but when the main issues for this election are changing our fuel situation and global warming, I'm thankful our vote for president doesn't determine if we'll get medical assistance or transportation laws changed that make drunk driving illegal. We live in the best country in the world.
I also explained to Macdonald about Barack Obama as a candidate for the Democratic Party. I told him that he is the first black person to be in the race for president. Macdonald asked me if we do not like black people in our country and it was hard for me to find the words to explain our long history of oppressing blacks in our country. How could I tell him that some people in the U.S. are still very racist and hateful toward black people? All in all I just explained that the U.S. has more white people running the country and we have yet to have a black president. I'm not sure if he fully understood, but I suspect that he believes that people in the U.S. may be against black people, but I really hope not.
I really enjoy the conversations and Macdonald he always tells us how much his students enjoy our lessons. He's so grateful and this makes it all worthwhile.
The school system is interesting. At any one time, random students will be out of class watching our class or out playing, but their is no control. (In comparison, I suppose it's like skipping class or not having a signed hall pass.) With so many students, the average of 70 per class, there's not enough teachers to control them. Alicia's class at Malemia has about 170! They sit in about 10 rows, on laps, against the wall or anywhere they will fit. And, we think we're over crowded!
We've really made friends with "Gift" a student in our class. He speaks English so well and is so incredibly friendly. There are so few articulate students and we can already pin point their strengths from their participation in class.
We met for our class discussion at MIE at 12, and we spent the first hour discussing a chapter on "hate speech" in our book. A Democracy of Chameleons. At first, I didn't like this text. The reason was probably due to our lack of previous knowledge of Malawian culture - everything is difficult to read. At least when we read other history texts, we have some prior knowledge or pre-requesite to assist in reading. Now, I don't feel the book is as hard to comprehend because we've constructed so much knowledge of Malawi during our time here. I know we're not experts, but I really feel like I know worlds more than I did before. The chapter on hate speech was very interesting. It discussed a lot of how Malawi's constitution is similar to the United States with our civil liberties. I was really unaware of this, but I think we're able to express more of our rights freely.
We also met three students being sponsored by Virginia Tech, Radford, & NC A&T. In Malawi there are limited spaces for college. At the Domasi Teacher's College, there are 30 spots. They accept more men than women because it's what their sleeping arrangements are able to accommodate. College attendance is almost limited because the government pays for it. If you don't make the cut for higher education it's also because of limited space. Our three colleges decided to sponsor these students to become teacher educators through "day school". Rather than paying for their entire education (tuition, fees, housing, etc.), we are paying for tuition. The goal is to not only pay for their tuition, but also to start to change some of the culture of Malawi. Many students drop out of school because they know there's no money for higher education later. The intention is to teach them to help pay and work your way through school, then more people would take the initiative to pursue higher education.
We learned a lot about their background in education and plans for the future. Towina, Virginia Tech sponsored student, has been a teacher and has three children. She's focusing on Science, so Dr. Kelly thought sponsoring science would correlate well with VT. The sponsored students shared their joy of this wonderful opportunity and very grateful for what they have been given; but, they did list a number of areas their needs are unmet. It was hard for us to listen to their needs, although some were valid. We explained we can't do any more than tuition and the money comes from private funds, individual donors, Dr. Barber, Dr. Kelly and Dr. Jones and with help of some of our fees for this trip. The students did not totally understand the purpose of the sponsorship which is to give funds for tuition to students who otherwise would not be able to attend school with the intention that they will work to meet their other needs. It was hard for Dr. Kelly to explain to the, and I'm sure it was hard for the to understand this.
Charles picked us up at 3 and we headed to town. I dropped off some postcards at the post office and then headed for the bus. Some days, Charles waits for about 20 minutes for us in town to do a water run, but other days he just drops us off. This day, there were a lot of vendors waiting and trying to make deals for those of us sitting on the bus. I actually like talking to them on the bus because if you want to talk and make a deal, you open the window. If you don't want to talk or deal, you can just ignore them. Sarah, Mandy, Dr. Jones and I were very interested in these carved figurines of Mary and baby Jesus. So Sarah and I talked to Steve, the vendor. At first he wanted l,500 Kwacha for two. We said too much and ignored him. Sarah was very good at talking him down, and he finally settled for 2,000 Kwacha. What a deal! We were definitely happy after that.
I've had vegetable soup and rice for dinner the past two nights and really enjoyed it. It's similar to cream of mushroom and anything with vegetables is amazing right now. I haven't had a salad in two weeks, and I'm dying for some greens. We can't eat any uncooked vegetables here - it's just not safe.
Everyone's Internet access is going out, and it's starting to get frustrating. We went down to see Cameron to ask when Peter will be back to help us out. Within the hour, Peter stopped by our room. It's always a pleasure to see him around; he takes such good care of us all! He surprised each of us with a bottle of Amarulla which is similar to Baileys at home. It's made from the Marulla fruit found in Southern Africa. Elephants eat the fruit and actually become intoxicated. It's very popular here. Peter also told us he'd fix the Internet by tomorrow. Good news all around.
Goodnight from Malawi.....
1 comment:
It sounds like you are having an amazing time, I can't wait to hear all about it when you get home! Love you girl...be safe!!!
Love,
Natalie
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