Friday June 17th---Until We Meet Again 

Today was a very sad and emotional day, as it was our last day at Malemia Primary. When we arrived we went into an empty classroom to finish preparing the sports kits that we were going to give to each standard. Later there was going to be a school assembly where we would present them. At this school assembly, Innocent wanted us to play the drums for the students to show that we had come to Malawi and learned something. After we prepared the sports kits, we had a quick practice to make sure we were still on top of our drumming skills.

Around 11:15, the school assembly began. All of the students and teachers gathered around this large tree in the school yard. The students were so happy to see us and kept getting closer and closer to us. Eventually everyone got settled and we began. There were several drum performances, dances, and speeches that the students had put together for us. This was a very special moment and the tears began to fall. The students were so thankful for our time that we have spent with them and expressed how they would miss us. The Head Teacher (Esther), said a few words and then turned the program to us. Dr. Jennifer Jones Powell gave a speech and expressed how much we have enjoyed our time at Malemia and that we would very much miss them. A few members of our group, gave a brief speech to explain that we have learned so much during our time at this school and how we cannot wait to take what we have learned back home to our schools. After the speeches, we presented each standard with a sports kits. The teachers came up to receive the gifts and were so thankful. As they made their way to us they sang and included their students. 

Once we finished handing out the sports kits, the teachers presented us each with chitenjes (wraps). Some of the teachers helped us tie them on. After this special moment, the students went back to class and we had a small celebration with the teachers. We were able to get a cake made at Tasty Bites in town. The school provided the sodas. So we were able to eat delicious chocolate cake and drink sodas for our last bit of time at school. We gave each of the teachers a Radford University t-shirt and gave a sports kit for the office along with binders for teachers to use as needed. In return, Innocent gave each of us bracelets with Malawi on them. He told us this was a way for us to remember our time here. As the celebration began to wrap up we got pictures with the teachers and some last minute pictures with the students. When we got on the bus many of the students chased the bus all the way to the main road. They waved and were repeating a phrase. Wellington (our bus driver) informed us that the children were saying we will follow you to the airport. Of course this made even more tears come. As our time was ending at Malemia, we will never forget the special memories made here. We have all learned so much and we hope to meet our wonderful friends again someday. 

As this is our last day in Zomba, we went into town to do any last minute shopping. We are spending our last night in Zomba at Annie's finishing up packing and hanging out with our friends that we have met here at the lodge. 

6-16-16

       Today we were on a mission to finish all the painting at the school! We had conquered a majority of the alphabets yesterday, so today we were determined to finish the rest of the alphabets and paint all the chalkboards! We slowly went to one classroom at a time as the kids started getting out of school. We did this for awhile, and then we realized that school basically let out for everyone. Half the group went around and finished all the chalkboards, while the other half went and finished the alphabets. We worked really well as a team and got the job done in no time. We were really happy with the outcome and are hoping the teachers will feel the same way when they see the final project tomorrow! We had a little time after all the painting was done and there were still several kids wondering about, so we, of course, started playing and talking with them!  Unfortunately, our bus came a little later and we had to go. We said goodbye to the kids and for the last time we said "see you tomorrow". We have really come to bond with a majority of these kids and love every second we get to spend with them!
       After school we went to town to pick up some necessities and do some last minute souvenir shopping at "The Wall".  We went back to the lodge to pack some things up and clean up for dinner. We decided to try a little Italian restaurant, named Casa Rossa, up the hill from our lodge to celebrate one of our last nights in Zomba. Dinner was delicious and so much fun! Everyone gets along great with each other so there never is a dull moment in conversation! Everyone was laughing and having a great time riding back on the bus when all of a sudden we saw a group of people chopping at something on the side of the road. We all jumped from our seats to see what was happening and there was a GINORMOUS crocodile laying there (dead of course)! The people were sawing off legs, bones, meat, etc. We stopped the bus for a minute and jumped off to see the animal up close and personal. Everyone around the crocodile was very nice and let us take some pictures as well! Basically we were all in shock but it seemed normal to everyone else around us! It was definitely not how we thought the night was going to end, but it was quite an adventure! So overall today was an interesting and great day☺️

6-15-16

6-15-16

Today was another simple relaxing day. Sammy joined back up with our group after accompanying the NC group to the airport for the past couple days. We were all very excited to have him back with us. Today was going to be our chalkboard painting day for the classrooms. Since the stores were not open by the time we heed to school, Sammy promised to buy the paint and meet us at school. Unfortunately there was a slight miscommunication and he did not arrive at school until 12:30. But this gave us time to plan, wash the boards again, and play with our younger friends once they were let out for the day.
Once Sammy joined us with paint we began painting. The teachers had asked if we would paint the alphabet in standards 1-4 and the numbers in 1-2. We tackled these today because it took some time to get the letters outline so we could paint over the pencil marks. We used blue, red, yellow, and green. These colors REALLY popped in all the classrooms and looked great when we were done. As always we had kiddos hanging out watching us and talking to us.

Once we got back to Zomba we took a quick tour of the "indoor" market that the locals shop at. We had been warned that it was slightly overwhelming because there was so much in such a small space. Going in I was slightly concerned about getting overwhelmed by it all, but it was a lot better than I thought it would be. It was a good thing we had Sammy leading the way, but it was actually really cool to see how it was organized and everything everyone had to sell.

We settled back in at Annie's for a quiet night and dinner with friends.

Monday, June 13

Moni!

This morning we had a new driver because Wellington left us to take the North Carolina group on their last adventures. He drives pretty fast, so we made good time to school this morning even though we left late. Today, we had a ton of kids greeting is changing "alendo"! It was a great welcome on a cloudy Monday morning. Before we started the activities, we observed a class participating in a lesson outside. They were all practicing their numbers while holding hands and galloping around in a circle. Abby asked the teacher if they were exercising or just keeping warm and the teacher said she just wanted the children to stay warm! It was pretty chilly today. I thought that was such a smart idea!
We decided that we would have the children play a familiar game today - soccer! Classes of all ages absolutely loved it! From standard one to standard seven there were smiles all over their faces. We did a lot more watching today and just let the kids make the game their own. It was not a traditional soccer game however because we had up to 25 people on some of the teams. To me, it seemed like way more of the students (especially the girls) were involved in today's activities. It was such a fun Monday for all! Tomorrow, we are going to do LEA with soccer, but with different questions since it is a game that they are already familiar with!
We left around 12 today to head over to Government School to meet Pat and Sandra. They have been working on a project to create reusable pads for young girls in the hopes that it will encourage them to stay in school. They are called Petal Pads! We have heard all about the project during our trip, and we were very excited to have the opportunity to be a part of it. Today, we learned how the pattern is set up, how to sew it (overwhelming for people like me who have never picked up a sewing needle), and then got the chance to teach the girls how to make them. We each had a group of 8-9 girls in standards 6 and 7 that we worked with. The girls were amazing! Luckily, my group knew how to sew, so I didn't have to rely too heavily on other people to assist me. According to the rest of the group, all of the girls were awesome and did a phenomenal job with the sewing! I was so impressed with my group! I can't wait to go back tomorrow to finish up the pads. Each girl will receive three pad covers that they sewed themselves and 13 reusable pads that go inside of the covers. I think we all feel so lucky to have been included in this experience!
After that, we all had a nice, quick trip to town before settling back in at Annie's for dinner and bed!

Sunday, June 12

We went to town and tried to buy fabric but the place was closed. Most stuff was closed since it is ‪Sunday morning‬. We stopped by the wall, and walked back to the lodge. We got to hang out and relax for a little bit before the fundraiser. The fundraiser was set up to help raise money for the families and now orphans of fallen law enforcement. We were told we would be auctioned off at the fundraiser event this afternoon to help raise money. This was interesting and we that it was funny. We got there early to help with dances. Wildly gave us a few beers and they gave us some rice and meat for lunch. We danced with kids for about an hour and a half waiting on people to show up. It was suppose to start ‪at 12:30‬ or 1 and it finally started ‪at 2:30-3‬. We have gotten use to the Malawian way with time.

It was a mock wedding and the ladies danced in and the couple followed. The little girl that was on our laps earlier had grabbed a little boys hands and they started dancing in behind the couple until someone went to get them. It was so cute! The talking part was hard to understand what was going on because someone would say something over the microphone and all of the upper class women would go dance and throw money on the ground as donations. This happened so many times and I found out at the end that different regions or districts were going up to donate money and celebrate. Annie and the commissioner went up early time.

They had food bowls that they were selling for 10k and apples for 15k that Annie bought. Then w e played musical chairs with women and men in the upper class party. I came in third before a lady almost yanked the chair out from under me! Lol It was a fun time! We ended up cutting all of the food into small pieces, that should of been smaller, to hand out to all the children that had attended. These children had come from nearby villages or the city of Zomba. There were so many kids and not enough small pieces of food. They were trying to keep kids in a line for us to hand out pieces but those lines turned into a mob really quick. It was a very overwhelming and emotional situation. These young kids were scrambling and shoving us over to try and get ‪1/5th‬ of a banana or a few crumbs from a muffin. All you can see is desperation in their eyes from them being hungry. As our baskets were coming to the end we still had hundreds of little hands surrounding us that didn't get any food. After getting back to my seat thinking about that made my heart hurt for them. So many kids walked away empty handed. We felt like we were in two different worlds because the people that were under the tents were all upper class and the people surrounding were poor. As the rich bunch threw money on the ground, the kids were scrambling to get any crumb of food they could get. This puts a lot into perspective.

They did have dancing and one of the men dancers pulled Jennifer from her seat to dance with him. The sun was starting to set and we didn't know how much longer it would last. But you could see the crowd was starting to get smaller and smaller because they didn't want to walk home in the dark. People would start running because they knew exactly how long it would take them to get home before it got dark. Then it started raining pretty hard which is a little uncommon during this time because it's their dry season. We stayed under the tents and the people who weren't under tents started to run home. We soon after got in the car and went back to the lodge.

When we returned, we gathered down at the restaurant for dinner to discuss what had happened today. We learned that many different people had thanked us in their speeches and the commissioner thanked us all for the clothes we had brought to donate. It was a very emotionally exhausting day.

Julie

June 14 (Tuesday)

Today we found out that the observers from the government were gone, so we were able to visit all of our classes! It was great to see our standard 2b kids again! We did the LEAs with our classes and then let them play soccer (or “football”) for the rest of the time. It’s just so much fun playing and hanging out with them. After awhile, somehow we always attract a group of students towards us. We all try our best to communicate with one another, normally with questions or just pointing and saying stuff in English and Chichewa. The typical questions are always, “What is your name?” and, “How old are you?” Whenever they say their names, I always try to repeat it back because most are really hard to pronounce and remember. Today this one boy was trying to tell me his name, but I just couldn’t get it right. It was over six syllables and I could not understand any of the sounds he was making. I asked him to write his name in the dirt (which we do all the time) and it helped a lot! I clearly wasn’t correctly pronouncing the “nsmid-…” at the beginning of his name… my bad ;)

The rest of the day was great! We went to M.I.E. and continued our sewing lessons with the girls. It’s a lot of fun hanging with them and teaching them how to sew. When I helped one girl out for a little while, some of others would get impatient and would try to get my attention. They kept saying, “Madam, I am finished!” or, “More thread, Madam!” It was cracking me up, because it reminded me of them impatient teenagers I’ve taught back in America. Teenage girls are the same in every country and in every culture. Maybe the girls back at home get frustrated about waiting for the new iPhone to come out, but the girls here get just as annoyed waiting for me to cut more thread for them. It’s pretty funny :) But they’re a great group of girls, and I’m so happy I’m able to teach them something that will actually make an impact on their lives.

Rebecca and I started packing a little today, so that’s a little sad :(

Only three more days left in Zomba :(

Saturday June 11

Saturday June 11 

Today we had the opportunity to visit Chifundo Chatu Orphanage. The orphanage was located in a village outside of the city of Zomba. Once we got into the village our bus ride became very interesting. The road leading to Chifundo Chatu was rocky, narrow, and steep in places. At one point, we reached an old wooden bridge that we were not sure we would be able to cross. However, our amazing driver Willington made it across with all of us cringing. When we arrived, we were greeted by the director of the Orphanage. He welcomed us and thanked us for sending maize. The director also told us what the orphanage still needed; for example, blankets and clothes. After the greeting, he showed us around. In the back, their was a chicken coop in the process of being built. As we were being showed around, the children followed us. Some of them were shy and just smiled at us, while others shook/held our hands and asked us our names. During our tour, we were able to see how they provided the children with water. There were a few women hard at work pumping water into buckets. The water coming out of the pump seemed very clear. After our tour, we took our seats outside. The children put on two small skits, there was some singing and dancing, and the Director also gave a speech. This organization then provided us sodas and some sweet bread, which was delicious. We had a little time to hang out with the children, which we all throughly enjoyed. It was very emotional for us to leave Chifundo Chatu. Our group enjoyed getting to know about this organization and was happy to be able to play with the children. This afternoon we ran some quick errands in town and then settled back here at Annie's to do some planning for this upcoming week in the school.