Today was a very exciting day here in Malawi. It was our first day in the schools. Our school is called Malemia and is located in Domasi. When we arrived the children chased the bus and were chanting and singing. Everyone on the bus was filled with tears of joy and amazement. After getting off the bus, we went into the office to meet the Assistant Head Director, Innocent. Innocent welcomed us and then gave us a tour of the school. We went around to each classroom and met the students and teachers. The classes are not called grades but instead called standards. After introducing ourselves and meeting each class, we went back around and read our book that we created on Shutterfly. The book we created had pictures of our homes and our families so the children could see where we were from. The students struggled saying some of our names but they really like Emily because it is a common name in their culture. Students began to break for lunch, so we did not make it to a couple of the classrooms. When the students left we went out into the "yard" and played with the students who stayed. We played games, sang, and danced. The children's faces were lit up with excitement and joy. Eventually, we brought out our cameras to take pictures with them. We were immediately swarmed by the students because they were fascinated with our cameras. They loved to get their picture taken and then see the picture on the screen. After taking many pictures, we decided to put our cameras up and enjoyed more singing, dancing, and playing. Around 1 o'clock, we left and headed to Domasi Demonstration School where our friends from North Carolina are working. At Domasi Deomonstration, we listened to a lecture that a North Carolina Professor was given the teachers on using the mother tongue. We also were able to get in some planning time for tomorrow. This evening we went into town and got supplies for school. We are enjoying our evening with dinner at Annie's and finishing up some planning for tomorrow.
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