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. 

6-8-16

After a very sleepless night, we were ready for some happiness and fun. We had a scrumptious breakfast and jumped back on our van for another ride. Although this was technically the same drive we had made the previous afternoon, it was completely different in every way. Every time you enter the park, something will be completely new and something entirely changes from the time before. It’s so freaking cool. Since it was early in the morning, most of the animals were starting to wake up from their homes and make their way to the water. To do this, many packs of animals have to cross the road we drive on. Within the first 20 minutes of our drive, we ran into some friends :) I thought yesterday was about as close that we would come to elephants, but boy was I wrong. We were probably less than 10 yards away from them at some points during our drive. It was so amazing.

Something I forgot to mention – our van had some problems starting that morning, so we had to push it from behind to get it moving. A few times in the park it would suddenly shut down, and we would jump out and all push it. One of times it decided to stop running was when we were feet away from a pack of elephants. Our driver and Sammy slowly creeped out of the van and started to push it away from the elephants. It was pretty exhilarating. If those elephants got provoked right then and there, we would have been toast if they charged. But we were fine :) and it was secretly kind of fun to be in a little danger for a quick 60 seconds. I really can’t describe how cool it was to get so close to these giant animals. We also saw all sorts of other animal friends on our drive, including king buffalos, and we learned a lot about the Baobab trees as well. These things are enormous and thousands of years old. The circumference of the trunks supposedly determines its age; every one-meter is equivalent to 100 years. This was such a cool drive, we learned and saw so much.

We went back to camp for lunch and some relaxation. Later we took a 15-minute walk to the nearby river (which we had no idea was so close to our campsite), and we went on an afternoon boat ride down the Shire River. This was probably my favorite safari adventure of the whole trip. Our tour guide, Henry, was awesome and told us so many facts about our hippo friends. In the water, there are literally hippos everywhere. Sometimes they can be shy, so you’ll just see a little head popping out of the water. But when we would get close, they would quickly sink back under and disappear. They were so cute and they would bob their heads up and out of the water during the entire trip. They reminded me of the little moles in the Whack-a-Mole game. They’re just so funny because they’re just so big and cute. They also have the best snort I’ve ever heard. They all will snort and call out to each other in groups sometimes, and it sounds like a bunch of laughing pigs. We had so much fun learning about them and loving their enormous bodies.

When we approached the grassy banks of the water, we were able to see some hippos on land. They’re so big and they can move so fast, it’s unbelievable. It was really cool to approach the banks of the river because we could get really close to these animals, and they wouldn’t run away like they did in the water. They would just hang and chill, and eat some grass while they watched us. We also saw some elephants grazing along the river and we got an entirely new view of these majestic creatures. Every time we see these things I think there’s no way we can get as close to them as we did last time. But yet again, I was proven wrong and we got within ten feet of a couple of these babies. It was the coolest thing. We were able to see so much more from a different view, I loved it.

We also got to see some beautiful birds, including the Jesus bird that walks on water, and some cute water bucks on our voyage down the Shire. All of us were mainly excited about the elephants and hippos though. However, Sammy said he really wanted to see some crocodiles so Henry made sure we would. We didn’t get too close, but we got to see 3 crocodiles! Although this wasn’t very many, I thought it was the perfect amount. Apparently crocodiles kill a couple fishermen every month here, so I was perfectly happy just seeing a few.
This boat ride was so beautiful and so amazing. We saw so many incredible things; my words really don’t do this gorgeous country justice.

In the evening, we hung out on the lookouts until the sun set and then mingled a little in bar area. A new group of students had rolled in, and they were so much fun to talk to. They were high school students and they attend this amazing boarding school in Arizona. It sounds incredible. They get to go on so many cool trips around the world and they have a totally unique experience that other high school kids could only dream about. They were really mature for their age and I was pretty impressed. We had another amazing dinner and we felt very content by the end of the meal.

After dinner, our group went up on one of the lookouts to look at the stars. We’ve seen some pretty awesome stars in Zomba, but nothing campares to the stars in Liwonde. I wish I had a camera strong enough to capture what these stars looked like. They are completely breathtaking and there is an incomprehensible amount of stars in the sky. We all sat staring in silence for 30 minutes, and loving our African night. All my worries about anything and everything were completely gone after those 30 minutes. I loved this so much. There’s really nothing like this back home. You can see a beautiful starry night in a lot of places, but not like this. Gazing up at the stars just feels like a remedy for your entire life; you feel completely rejuvenated. I’m never going to forget this night and these truly beautiful stars.

Afterwards most people went to bed, but Lauren and I decided to stay up a little later. My plan was to stay up really late so I would be exhausted by the time I went to sleep, that way I could just pass out and forget about the spiders :) We started hanging out and talking with another employee by the bar/hangout room. His name was Charles and he was awesome. He told us all about his life and how he wanted to be a math teacher as well! He also really wanted to know what kind of music we listened to. So we played him a bunch of different songs and he played a bunch for us. After awhile, Lauren stepped out to use the bathroom and returned quickly because she said she could hear the hippos nearby! So Charles took us up to one of the lookout spots and we looked around with flashlights and saw a bunch of hippos!! It was so cool because they were completely inside our campsite. We hung out on top for a while and listened to the hippos snort and laugh. We had so much fun.

By the time we went back to our cabin, I was completely exhausted and I passed out immediately. My plan had worked :) Although I didn’t get a ton of sleep, it was still worth it.

Friday Adventures

    6/10/16
          Back to school today! We all got a good nights sleep to recover from the amazing safari and were ready to go back and see the kids! We were once again greeted by all the children as our bus pulled up to the office! I think it's safe to say we were all very excited to see the children's smiling faces again. Everyone also seemed very excited that Jennifer had finally arrived! Today we planned to have some fun with a huge parachute. We played several different games; such as having different groups run and dance under the risen parachute, or having some rubber balls in the middle of the parachute and popping them as high as we could in the air! The kids were laughing hysterically with huge smiles on their faces the whole time. We had to leave the school a little early today because we were invited to a local church, named Malika Church. The choir sang several songs, dancing to every single one of them. They all had such bright and happy faces the entire time as well; the energy was so uplifting and the concert was simply amazing. They even followed us out of the church, singing a goodbye song as they waved farewell! We had to walk a little ways to get back to our bus, but we were joined by lots of local children (which always makes the walks so much more fun).
           We made it back to the lodge by late afternoon and kept on moving. Since tonight was one of the last nights that the North Carolina group will be here, Annie's Lodge threw a goodbye party for them, which we all attended. It was great getting to make more connections and friendships with the girls and are sad to see them leave so soon! We had so much fun though eating some tasty samoosas and dancing the night away with all of our friends!

6-9-16

6-9-16

A little behind on my blogs, but it has been a tiring past couple days. We started Thursday morning by waking up at 5 again for a walking safari around camp. Our guide lead us around the outskirts of camp, down through the river, and out into the camp. He identified different kinds of flowers, birds, and trees. We did not see any large animals, but learned more about the surrounding woodlands. We learned that the impala flower is deadly to all living animals except for the impala. The oils from the flower can begin killing a person in minutes.
After our walking safari we settled down in the lookout towers to rest and soak up the sunshine while we waited for Ashley, Jessica, and Penny to finish their water tour. Once we were all loaded up we headed back to Zomba with a couple stops along the way. We first stopped at a market of venders selling wood carvings of every imaginable kind. The prices were higher than at the wall were we normally shop, so we worked on our haggling skills. One vender would not lower his prices so I walked away, only to hear him yelling after me that he would lower them. Once we thought we were done shopping we all loaded up onto the bus. This was when the real fun began. The venders started bringing their items to the window and doors offering MUCH lower prices. We all ended up buying even more stuff for cheaper than they were offering as we first walked around. Lauren ended up trading her watch for something, and Lindsey Jordan was offered a carving in trade for her shoes on her feet. It was a crazy experience that I was able to capture on video.

We then headed back towards Zomba. We stopped by Government Primary school for the dedication and ceremony honor Pat Kelly for donating her building. There were adorable speeches, poems, and skits put on in her honor. My favorite was the song entitled "Pat Kelly the great". There was one traditional dance that involved a young boy climbing to the top of a pole that had been erected in the middle of the circle. The students were so excited and proud to honor Pat for all she has done for their school and for the building she had built.

By the time we got back to Annie's we were all very tired and quickly called it an early night and went to bed.

6-7-16

Moni families and friends!

Today (Tuesday) was day one of our African Safari adventure. We headed off in Stan the Van, dropped our North Carolina friends off at school, and made our short journey down the road to Liwonde Safari Camp. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were beyond ready for this incredible opportunity (and break from our busy days here in Malawi).

One thing that surprised me was how many houses there were so close to the camp. Houses and small villages popped up here and there down all the roads, even right outside where we are staying. We drove into the camp, checked in with our new friends who work here, and settled into our living arrangements. Our group is staying in one of the dormitories. The building is a long thatched roof structure with about 10 beds lining the walls (and mosquito nets of course). We took a tour of the grounds which includes a kitchen and eating area, another dorm, a few raised tents (where Patti and Jennifer stay), a beautiful self-serve bar filled with games, books, and built-in couches, and two amazing watchtowers with comfortable seating for everyone! I was hooked instantly (and I think everyone else was as well). Our wonderful guardian, Sammy, even decided to stay with us! We were all very excited to see Jennifer as well, who joined us on the trip. We will all be sad to see Patti leave us though!

We did not have an outing originally planned for today. However, we arranged it so we could have a driving safari so we wouldn't have to wait until tomorrow. We all had to pay a little extra, but we knew it would be worth it. After a delicious lunch, we got ready and headed to the open Jeep with our safari guide, Paul, in hope of seeing beautiful creatures and scenery. It was about a 5-10 minute drive back down the road to the entrance of the camp. While we were waiting to sign off on the official entry paperwork, we saw our first animal - yellow baboons. There was a whole family of them right inside the gate and they were so cute! As Paul drove us through the first part of the camp, we saw all the beautiful plant species including my personal favorite tree, the Baobab tree (look it up, they're awesome).

Our next animal sighting was a group of Impalas, which are apparently everywhere in the camp because we saw so many today! They remind me of antelopes/deer. They typically hang in groups of mostly females and one male. However, sometimes you see a group of young males (buckshots, I believe) traveling together. They practice fighting as young males in hopes of attracting the ladies later on in life. The next animals we saw were the water bucks (named appropriately because they are almost always near water). However, we saw them on land as well and I am convinced that they should be called land bucks some of the time too. They are really big animals! We saw a large group of them and then also several smaller groups as well. We also saw a few kudus. I don't know as much about them, so I won't pretend I am an expert. However, they are beautiful animals. We also got to see warthogs (pumbaas for all you Disney fans). We saw a few by themselves, but they seemed to be more attached to other groups of animals for some reason. I was very excited to see those! On our way back through the park to the exit, we saw elephants! Personally, this is what I was the most excited about. They were down near the water still, making their way back up to the woodlands for nightfall. Still at a decent distance, but we drove up to get somewhat closer to them. There were at least 20 of them lined up against the background of the setting sun over the beautiful African mountains. We took so many pictures, but I doubt any of them will really do justice to the real thing. They were breathtaking! We sat there for a while just staring and taking in the awesomeness, but then sadly had to drive away to make it back to camp before nightfall. I think it is safe to say that we were all delightfully satisfied with our first safari outing.

We came back to another delicious dinner! It's probably the best food I have had on the trip so far. We watched it cook on the outdoor kitchen as well. It was nice to have the whole group together and catch Jennifer up on our travels so far.

After dinner was the real adventure. We headed back to our dormitory to discover a decent amount of fairly large spiders lining our walls and even some of our beds. We attempted to kill off some of these creatures, but eventually enlisted Sammy's help as well. I am not a big fan of spiders, especially at night when they could crawl across my face. Unfortunately, two of our group members are deathly afraid, so we needed to find a solution. Eventually, our squeals and screams attracted Patti and Jennifer to our dorm. Our moms helped to spray the beds with even more Deet, shake out the blankets, and tuck us into our mosquito nets. Once I was in the net, I felt much safer and was ready to brave the night. However, I do not think any of us got much sleep at all. We were promised that the room would be sprayed and bombed the next day in hopes of killing off the rest of our eight legged friends.

We are all looking forward to what adventures lay ahead of us tomorrow...and maybe also getting rid of our creepy crawly roommates.

Emily

6-6-16

6-6-16
We went down for breakfast and expected to eat the avocado I was bringing down, but instead a little monkey stole it right off the table! During school we went around to each classroom and asked our same LEA questions, but this time it was for Spud. After school we got some more practice in on the drums. We stopped in town for a short but on the way back to the lodge today for some water and other goodies. We had dinner inside tonight, because it was kind of chilly. We all got dessert tonight which was a lemon flavored cake that they had just made for us due to the request! We spend the rest of the night packing up for the safari adventure we will begin ‪tomorrow‬!!
Julie

June 5th

 June 5th 

Today was a beautiful Sunday here in Malawi. We enjoyed breakfast here at Annie's. After breakfast, we had the opportunity to go to Annie's Church. We took a bus to church and Annie road along with us. Her church is Catholic  and is located in the village she grew up in. This was a wonderful experience. In this church, the men set on one side and the women sat on the other side. Many of the children set up front and the choir was also in front of the men. There was a lot of singing and dancing during the service. The sounds/voices were breathtaking. The service was in Chichewa but the Priest briefly explained in English what the service was going to be about for us. At the end of the service, one of the men from the church welcomed us and gave a brief speech. Dr. Talbot then gave a speech about who we were and our purpose here in Malawi. Annie also gave an inspirational speech. When church was released, the majority of the members came and shook our hands and greeted us. This was such a wonderful feeling. The people of this community were so thankful and welcoming. 

We left church and walked through the village to the main road. The views were astonishing. Several of the children from the church even walked with us. They just grinned and were so happy to be with us. As we waited on our bus at the main road, Annie treated us with some bananas that she bought on the outside of the village. These bananas were very sweet and delicious. 

We returned to Annie's lodge and regrouped, then went into town. In town, we all enjoyed delicious pizza at Tasty Bites. We ended our afternoon in town with some shopping at the wall. The rest of our evening will be spent  preparing for the week. 

Saturday!

The morning started off very relaxing. We were able to sleep in a little and enjoy our breakfast on the beautiful patio like normal! Today we were invited to attend a conference about entrepreneurship right here at Annie's Lodge, with Annie as the main guest speaker. At the conference we heard so many wonderful people talk about their own businesses and plans for their lives. Some of our own medical students even shared about the devices they are working on for the hospitals here in Malawi. Our very own Professor Pat Kelly also shared about her own business of renovating houses and re-selling them for double the price when she would move. All of the speakers, especially Annie were so kind and inspirational. They were all so passionate about their businesses and futures, and reminded us students how much we really love our professions of education. The conference was truly amazing!
We all were able to eat together and enjoy each other's company as we once again devoured more delicious food for lunch. We then took a little break to relax and take a power nap before we headed to a birthday party! Annie's daughter, Catherine, was having a party here at the lodge to celebrate her birthday and we were so kindly invited to attend! We danced the night away! We were fortunate enough to met so many kind and sweet people. We realized very quickly how wonderful dancers all the guests were and how much they loved to really get into their dancing. Everyone was so kind to grab our hands and try to teach us their moves. I don't think we ever got up to par with their standard of dancing, but we had so much fun trying anyway. We danced and talked with many new people for most of the night until it was finally time to say goodbye. They gave us hugs as we wished each other for the absolute best in the future. Annie was so kind to host us again gave us another magnificent day in Malawi.

6-3-16

6-3-16

TGIF :) first full week of school is under our belt. It has been the most amazing week ever. Today was sort of a "fun Friday" in the schools. The classrooms actually had more coverage than we thought they were going to be because the student teachers did not attend the conference so there were more teachers than we had originally thought. We broke up into groups of two instead of threes so we could tackle more classes. We learned that school would be letting out at 11am because there was a girls netball game at 1pm. We later learned the game wasn't until 3pm. The wonderful world of school in Malawi :)
Our goal for the classes today was for them to copy the rules for our games in their books. For standards 4 and above, we had them copy it in English. The younger standards copied the rules in Chichewa. Once they had finished copying, we headed to the yard to play. Today for the first time I had a chance to work the standard 7 children. Once they finished copying a few students opted out of playing to stay in the classroom talking with me. The students inside with me started to show off their skills by reading the rules in Chichewa to me. They then proceeded to tell me it was my turn to read the rules in Chichewa. They went word for word through the whole sheet pronouncing the words and laughing at my attempt. By the end of it, I was surrounded by 10-15 standard 7 students, many of which were laying over my back to see the words. :)

The girls then told me they were going to teach me to play netball, which is the girls equivalent of basketball. We picture it as like being like water polo but on land. They (sort of) patiently taught me the rules of the game, but still laughing and yelled at me when I passed the ball to the wrong team. At one point, the student who deemed and called herself my best friend, came over end tied up the other side of my long skirt so it was knee length so i could run better. The same student found me after the game and untied my skirt. While I was playing netball, the other members of our group were engaged with the children in other games and songs. It was awesome to look around and see all the students happily playing with each other and 6 balls. :)

Innocent then lead us in another drumming lesson. He taught us three more beats. The father beat, that is slow and allowed for others to speak. Then there was the mother beat that was quicker because the women never stops talking. The final beat the children and it was the quickest because children are always into things. :)

After school we headed to watch what we thought was going to be a netball match, but ended up us hanging out by the field with other children from the demonstration school.
Once the bus picked us up we headed to visit Sammy's Mosque. Sammy is this wonderfully amazing man they for years has been taking care of the students traveling here with our group. We don't pay him for his services, but he looks out for us downtown, makes sure we know where we are going, knows everyone in town and is able to find anything we need. There we were met by a teacher there who taught us about the muslin culture and religion. It was amazing how wonderful and accepting both of these men are towards us and how they just wanted to share with us and proudly show us around their Mosque. I wish everyone could have this wonderful experience to open their eyes and mind.

The day then ended by a nice group dinner with friends swapping stories. :)