July 2, (Wednesday) Malika Church

The mornings here are incredible as we usually have perfect weather.  Sometimes it's overcast, but it never rains.  Even if it appears it will rain, the clouds clear and the sun shines for the remainder of the day.

There are other Americans here now at Annie's Lodge, and our first reaction is the food going to taker longer to prepare!  We've gotten used to the lengthy dinner, but any longer and we may get hostile.  It's actually enabled us to get better acquainted   while waiting for dinner. 

Today our focus in class was on the body and when we entered the classroom, Macdonald was conducting a lesson on self-esteem.  It seemed the class was in much discussion.  As we listened, we realized the students were reading off the board.  The points were very valid and we're hoping they got a lot out of it, but we don't really know how much they actually knew. 

Lexi and I started off with stretches.  We wanted them to learn the importance of this before playing sports.  They really enjoyed them.  We taught them "head, shoulders, knees & toes". They loved it!!  It's so wonderful to see their faces light up when they learn something new.  Then we taught them all the bones from the Cranium down to the Phalanges.  The best part of our lesson was the "Hokey Pokey" when we went outside.  FYI...VT does the HP at all the  football games. It took a little while for them to catch on, but they love to see us move around in so many different ways.

We also went over to the other Standard 6 class to teach them the same lesson.  The other teacher is not as involved as Macdonald, but he seems to appreciate our teaching.

Two of our students brought us nuts today.  There was a lesson in English the day before that included the term "groundnuts" and we had never heard that term.  Macdonald asked them to bring in the nuts and we had our pictures taken with them.  It made me feel like a real teacher!

We headed over to MIE at 12.  Instead of having our regular class, we visited Malika Church, a Catholic Church in the center of Malika Village.  Being Catholic, I was so excited to see if there would be similarities in our traditions at home.  It took about 40 minutes to walk there, and two choir members met us to lead the way.  We passed the Domasi prison on the way and Dr. Kelly pointed out the water reserves and gardens they tend to.  It was a very long walk, but the scenery is never a disappointment in all of Malawi.  Along the way, we seemed to pick up some children.  They were so inquisitive as to where we were going and followed us all the way there. I met a boy named "Patrick", and I was still wearing my name tag "Krista Patrick".  I tore off the "Patrick" part and gave it to him.  He was so happy!

We passed through a few villages on the way with beautiful views, fields, villages and mountains surrounding in the distance to Malika.  It's never boring to take a walk here!

The choir performed several incredible pieces.  The females in the choir wore chitingis(sp) around their waist (wrap skirts) that had Catholic insignia on them.  Dancers also performed during some of the pieces.  I got a lot of it on tape, and I can't wait to share the video of the dancing when I get home.  All of the singing and dancing is so spirited-it makes you want to move along with them.   Despite the fact that most of the songs were in Chichewa, I felt like I could understand what they were saying from their enthusiasm and "acting" from the dancing.  The "MC" for the performance did a  great job of explaining some of the meanings behind the dances and like all Malawians, truly welcomed us with open arms.  Our three professors made generous donations to the church before we left, and of course they were very grateful.

The children that had followed us stayed too.  They sat around us and joined in on the excitement as we did.  There was such a sense of a community here.  Malika village women also joined the crowd to listen to the singing and added their own applause of "noisemaking".  It's impossible to replicate the sound -we tried.  It was almost like a bird call.

The walk back to MIE for the bus was exhausting!  It wasn't too bad on the way to Makika, but the sun had come out, and it made us overheated.  We headed to the teachers' commons room at MIE for water.  They actually have a bar there!  We just wanted cold water, but teachers are able to order beer during the day.  We were quite surprised.  I was so happy just to have a cold bottle of water.  We've been drinking bottled water since we got here, but it's never cold because we can't have ice.  It was probably the best water I've ever had.  I'm so dramatic.

Charles drove us back to town, but most of us were just too tired to stay in town, then walk back.  I headed back to Annie's for the night.  We stopped at the Tailor's house, which is next to Annie's to see if our dresses were ready.  Most of them were finished, but we have to go back tomorrow for alterations.  We were sooooo excited to see how they turned out!!

Dinner was pretty amazing and we've come to realize what we eat isn't that incredible, but to us it's the most glorious food we've ever seen.  I tried the chicken curry with rice and green beans, and it was delicious.  When you see the pictures of the food at home, it probably won't seem that appealing.  Just know we're eating decent food now.  Typical courses include chicken/fish/beef/with rice/potatoes.

The Internet still isn't working, but hopefully Peter will fix it soon.  We're all having withdrawal!  No other complaints though.  I can't believe we've been here almost two weeks!

GOOD NIGHT FROM MALAWI, Krista

Please note:  I am still transferring from e-mail to her blog.  Will continue to bring you up to date daily, even though the dates do conflict.     

July 2, (Wednesday) Malika Church

Something happened to tonight's blog entitled "Malika Church".  I lost is somewhere and will try and re-post tomorrow.

Brenda

June 30 and July 1 (Monday & Tuesday): School Days

On behalf of Krista, here goes....

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.....

 

June 29, 2008; Sundays in Zomba

Today is our first Sunday in Zomba, so we attended a local church. It was an earlier morning than usual. In fact, I woke up at the crack of dawn, literally. I meant to wake up at 6:00, but I woke up at 5:00 to the sound of a rooster right outside our room. Needless to say, I wasn't happy, so I stayed in be another hour. Lexi and I got ready despite the fact that we had no warm water - I really needed a shower! We headed to breakfast and then off to a Presbyterian Church not too far down the hill. But not without seeing lots of monkeys!! These black faced monkeys really like to come out early in the morning, and we were finally able to see them instead of just hearing them on our roof each morning. They jump from tree to tree, run across the road, stop and look at you, play with each other and aren't afraid of people. I swear if I had a banana in my hand, one would run right up to me and take it. The zoo will never be the same again.

We've come to realize Malawian time is "adjustable". When someone says the service is @ 800, it could be about a half an hour to an hour in either direction. It's the same with arrival and departure times. Culturally, Americans are very different (which is not hard to explain), but here there is no need to stress about time. What a relief! We'd be so much less stressed in our day-to-day lives if time weren't an issue.

We arrived at church about 8:15, but the first service (completely in Chichewa) started at 6:30 and had not ended. We conversed outside while waiting for the English service at 8:30. Most people get dressed up for church, (similar to the U.S.), and they carry their hymnal books with them. None are offered in the church. There was really no break between services. As the first service ended, the song being played was the cue for our entrance, and it continued until everyone entered.

Besides the music, much of the service was exactly the same as other Christian faith services at home. A few in our group commented that the lyrics from some of the music were also similar. About a third of the way, the pastor called upon our group and others present that were visiting for the first time. He asked us to come to the front and introduce ourselves to the congregation. There were two other women from the United States visiting too. They were young, like us, and had come from Pennsylvania on a mission trip. Dr. Jones introduced our group and explained the reason for our trip. The congregation was very welcoming (most welcoming: as Malawians say) and the pastor invited us to tea following the service.

One of the most interesting parts, was the announcements and the timing. In the U.S., they come at the end of the service, but a women read them aloud about the middle - which about a half were upcoming weddings. Instead of announcing and wishing them well, she said "If anyone knows if John has another wife, or Sarah has another husband, please come forward before they wed on Weds, July 5. A whole new interpretation to "speak now or forever hold your peace."

In lieu of passing baskets around for collections, the announcer calls us each "district" to place our offering in the basket at the alter. (We were called at the end and I'm glad we had something to donate.) It seems it was expected and I guess this way they know who is giving and who is not. Overall, we realized the caliber of people attending and their average home life is drastically differently from the majority of the people we've encountered in the streets and within our schools. Their dress, demeanor, appearance, and eloquence (even in slight ways) separate them from the typical Malawian. While I don't want to generalize the general population, this is what we observed.

The choir women prepared us tea in various mugs belonging to the church, and we sat in a small building adjacent to the church to enjoy, teach and visit with them. If you've never tried Chambe tea, it's excellent! It's a Malawian tea that is not exported. I'll definitely try to bring some home. While visiting with some of the church members, we met a man who works at Chancellor College in Zomba. I commented on his lapel pin because I knew one of the flags it had was Malawian, but I was unaware of the other. He explained that it's a Scottish flag from a man he worked with who taught him technology for teaching the blind. He now teaches other teachers at Chancellor College who can teach children in secondary school who are blind. They have speciality programs that incorporate software to help these children learn. His work seemed incredible, and his hospitality on behalf of his church was so inviting.

Following church, we headed for Tasty Bites, a favorite restaurant of past study abroad students and a good place in town to eat for about half the price of Annie's. It's not as tasty as Annie's, but apparently their chocolate cake is to die for! We ordered one for Heidi and Liz's birthday (today and tomorrow), so we'll get to try it really soon. (dessert is rare) I predict we'll spend many afternoons after school eating there. We headed home with a scrumptious cake. We're beginning to get used to walking up the hill, as I'm sure we'll have some pretty toned calves before it's all over!

Once we arrived at Annie's, Lexi and I asked Cameron (front desk) to see if we could switch rooms. He's so sweet and willing to take care of everything we need. A room opened up next to Brian and a little ways up the hill on the Annie's Lodge property. It was quite a hike, but Lexi and I thought the exercise would be worth it. Cameron showed us the room with just one bed. We took one look at the view from the porch, and decided that sharing a bed would not be that bad. We also have more space up there, and the bathroom is nicer. It's like we're in a whole new place in Zomba! He asked for us to visit him if we had any spare time at the front desk. Many people that work here are bored during the day when there are few guests around, so they really enjoy the company. 

Cameron and Henry (who also works here) helped us pack and lug all of our things up the hill to our new room. They were so helpful! Especially when we have over 200 pounds of things. The three trips exhausted us, but we were excited to finally unpack. We were expected to meet @ 2:00 and thought Dr. Kelly would come and get us since were are only a few doors down from her. Needless to say, we rested and it was 3:00 when Amber knocked on our door wondering where we were? Oh well, we needed the rest. It was only an introduction, but we'll catch up. Just sitting down there for 30 minutes of what was left of the meeting, I realized how much we can learn from Dr. Kelly's knowledge and experience. She really knows her stuff!!

I'm watching the sunset form our porch over Zomba, Lake Chilwa and even farther in the distance of Malawi. This view is second to none of I've ever seen. With little pollution in the air, you can see for miles and the colors of the sky are exquisite. I didn't realize how far we could see in the distance from Annie's Lodge until we moved rooms today.

I headed down to dinner a little while ago. Alicia and I ordered at 5:50; Dr. Barber and Jones joined us a few minutes later. The power went out and we had dinner about 7:30 followed by Liz's birthday cake we surprised her with. It's also Heidi's 21st birthday tomorrow, and she's so excited!! We had them put her name on the cake too. What a great way to remember your birthday in Malawi.

Cameron, just dropped off towels for us. He's such an adorable friend. We always like to say hi to him now, and he makes sure we get taken care of. He just ran all the way up here to just give us fresh towels. The showers up here are so much better and we're very happy about that. Can't wait to see the view in the morning.

Lexi and I are busy planning for tomorrow! We're very excited about our first real day of teaching.

Malawi Update

Our Day at Mulanje!

"Moni" from Malawi! All is well. The internet has been down for several days now. The server is back up, but some of our access cards are not working. Peter gave Lexi and I each an hour, so I wanted to add a quick update! 

We had an incredible week in Zomba (more updates to come later). It was exhausting and it flew by, but each of us is working hard to try and get through to our students. It's already a challenge to teach, but with a language barrier, it's much harder than you can imagine. We've enjoyed teaching science lessons like the water cycle and the life cycle of butterflies, helping with English proficiency, and assisting the children with their math lessons. They're really a joy to be around, and with a class of 70, there's never a dull moment. Even with our language and culture barrier, it seems we can do no wrong. The children even bring us gifts each day! Their teacher, Macdonald (who we adore) has asked them to bring traditional Malawian foods for us to try. It's really special because the children are bringing things from home that they could indeed use themselves. We've been given nuts, eggs, sugar cane, casava, and tomatoes. While we wish we could enjoy all of these items (especially the chicken eggs), we just don't want to risk anything. We've re-gifted all of these items to our bus driver, Charles and Tennison, our housekeeper. They're both so kind and generous, and we know their families will enjoy these items. 

Today, we left at 8:00 sharp to travel 2.5 hours to Mt. Mulanje, the third tallest mountain in Africa. We were all tired after a fun "poker" night (there was never poker, it was just an excuse for Peter to throw us a little get together), and it was a long drive. We passed lots of little towns along the way (including Blantyre, another happening spot in Malawi). We also saw some very wealthy areas with beautiful homes similar to home. 

Charles took us a special way where we could see a lot of the tea plantations of Malawi. The tea crops went on for miles with rolling hills of lush green in every direction. It was beautiful and truly a different site than the dry brush of most of Malawi. Dr. Kelly said that the majority of the plantations are owned by British tea companies who export the tea to Britain. This is yet another example of the continuing British presence in Malawi despite their independence. We took a lot of pictures along the way, but Dr. Kelly said if we were to pull over it's apparently illegal because of child labor laws for the children working on the plantations. It's really sad to hear to things like that. We didn't see too many people working, but those that we did see were hard at work. 

A lot of the buildings along the way were surrounded by bricks with sharp pieces of glass on the perimeter rather than barbed wire. I thought this was a great idea rather than buying expensive materials. 

About an hour out, we started to see Mulanje in the distance. At first, it didn't seem that tall at all. But as we got closer, it was massive. It's truly incredible to see it up close. It was a little hazy at first, but the trees surrounding it were beautiful. It took us about 30  minutes from the main road to get to where we could begin our hike. The roads were not very smooth. Apparently, they've been working on the same construction project for the past year, but Dr. Kelly said it looked exactly the same as last year. Throughout the day, we saw lots of girls carrying piles and piles of sticks and wood down the hill, and it looked exhausting. They spend all day gathering wood for fire for the night.

About half way down the road, we saw a group of men blocking our path. Apparently the main road was out from that point, but they were also offering a guide service. You really need a guide up the mountain (even though we were just going up to the falls). A man named Samuel got on the bus to be our guide. At first we were leery of this stranger (you just never know), but he did a terrific job for us, and knew everything!

A little ways up the road before the hike, vendors were selling walking sticks for the trip. They were hand carved, but most of us decided it was too much of a hassle to take with us!

The hike started off pretty fast-paced, so Dr. Barber decided not to head up. At first, I didn't blame her! Let me just say that today's hike was the most physically exhausting experience of my life. Mom and Dad, you thought the Cascades in Virginia were a hike? Try hiking Mulanje ( and we didn't even go to the top!) We were all a little dramatic about it, but it was more like climbing than hiking. It took a little over an hour to get up the waterfall, but we saw so many beautiful views along the way. I took a lot of pictures to remember it! The altitude also made it challenging. Today was also one of the hottest days we've had. Samuel pointed out a lot of interesting sites on the way up.

After about an hour, we made it! The falls were beautiful, and it was well worth the hike! We rested and enjoyed our lunch which by then we really needed. We climbed out on a few rocks to take pictures and video, and it was really a perfect day. The water was ice cold! Brian actually dropped his tuna pack in, but Samuel jumped in to get it for him! It was so nice, especially when the water was freezing. After our rest and enjoyment at the falls, we headed back. Samuel told us about the annual race to the top that although it takes 1.5 days to slowly hike up to the very top (with resting), it took him 3.5 hours last year! It was incredible! Apparently, it's next weekend, but he said he'd never do it again! I'd probably die before I'd make it up there!

The way down was much easier! We enjoyed this part! We stopped at a beautiful lodge on the way down for restrooms and cold sodas. What a beautiful place to live and work! Charles was there waiting!

We had fun bargaining with the vendors for some great Cedar products before we left. I found some very nice things!

The trip back was somewhat long but very scenic- more to update later! Sorry this was so quick! 

2 more weeks in Malawi!

All Is Going Well, Except Internet Is Down

It's Krista's Mom (Brenda) and I'm writing on her behalf.  She wants to assure you that she and all her fellow "mphuzitsi) are amazing!  (Sounds like her doesn't it.)  The internet is down, and she hasn't been able to update.  Annie's Lodge is working on trying to correct this important means of communication.

We called  to her on Thursday, July 3.   I had trouble getting through on the pre-paid international card, therefore I dialed direct from our landline.  When you call, they ask you to call back in 5 minutes so they can get her.  It was around 11:00 p.m. their time.  When I called back, the lodge receptionist said she was sleeping and to call back tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. their time which would be 12 noon our time.  

I then immediately called verizon to see how much the 2-3 minutes cost me.  (Tom was tapping his foot a lot while I was dialing).  Anyway, it was $3.91 per minute.  I asked about an international plan and they put me on a $4.00 per month and .50 cents per minute.  (Tom's blood pressure went back to almost normal after that.)

So, on to what you've all been waiting for!!!  

We called the next day and she was right near the phone.  She sounded "amazing"....she's rubbing off.  So clear as though she was right in the room. We were so glad to talk with her and hear of her updated "verbal blog".

She and Lexi have a class of 70 students each day.  They travel about 30 minutes each day and arrive at school at 9:30 p.m.  The children are so happy each day to see them.  They are teaching games, math and some science.  (Please read Lexi's blog updated by her mom too for the lessons they teach daily.)  

Once they return from school, they walk into town, shop, eat and socialize.  She has found the food of choice have been chips (potatoes like fries), vegetables and curried chicken.  So far she has not gotten ill from the food or water as she drinks bottled.  She and others selected fabric from the fabric shop and had outfits made.  They were to pick them up this week.  She promised to bring me some material  to have a skirt made.  Other things purchased have been some pottery which she had mailed  home.  I have been checking her VISA to assure charges haven't been compromised.

Once they are back from town, always before dark @5:30, she orders her dinner.  It  takes a while for preparation, but is very good.  I think she's eating a lot of chicken and vegetables.  Her evening consists of watching some television in the commons room with the others and doing lesson plans for the next day.  There's 5 television stations available in english which consists of english speaking, various older american movies and a soccer channel.    Each american teacher works closely with the African teacher and I imagine they have had to re-group while planning    with the language difference and customs.  Lexi and she have standard 6th grade, in which they able to communicate better  because they are middle school age.  

After planning, she is tired and retreats for bed at 9:00 p.m.  The evenings are chilly in the 50's.  She said they have lots of blankets to keep warm. Daily, and  part of their wake up call, includes monkeys from the mountain trees making a scratching noise on the roof of their room.  It seems their room is in the back of Annie's Lodge and closest to the mountains.  

They are hiking in the mountains today, Saturday, July 5.  It's about 45 minutes to a waterfall.  Monday is their Independence Day and it's a school holiday.  No fireworks though.    My guess is they will sleep in and go to town for their daily shopping and exercise.  

She feels very safe and find the people of Malawi helpful and friendly.  She is very intrigued with all she sees.  She can't believe her wonderful experience will end in two weeks.  

She is hopeful the internet will be up soon, and she and others will be able to update you all very soon. Comments and questions are welcomed.  She wants to thank everyone for thinking of her and was so pleased her friends and family friends are reading her blog and can't wait for the updates; and, a hello to everyone. 

Sincerely,

Brenda Patrick