SPUD and Drum Day

June 2 (Thursday)

So today we decided to teach our friends how to play SPUD. We wrote the rules in English and Chichewa just like last time and we had a little demonstration in each class. The game was pretty easy to teach, but we didn’t realize how boring and monotonous it could be. The first two classes didn’t go as smoothly as it has been because the students were getting a little bored. I think they enjoyed Capture the Flag more because there was more running and less standing around like SPUD. Also, they wouldn’t run very far away because they wanted to be hit with the balls. Maybe this was because they don’t get to play with these kinds of balls often and they wanted to feel and touch them.

So we changed things up a little when we went to Mr. Laibu’s standard 5 class, which is still our favorite class :) We switched around the rules so that it was more competitive and so that everyone got to do a little more running (which is what they really love to do). This class continues to surprise us every day; they have so much fun and play so well with one another. Rebecca, Lindsay J, and I all jumped in and played with them. We used the new rules with the standard 7 students and had a much better time with them than when we did on Tuesday. It’s sometimes hard to get kids that age to get excited about silly playground games like Capture the Flag and SPUD, even kids in Malawi. I’ve definitely learned that middle school students are the same in every country, because they’re teenagers and they have that too-cool-for-school attitude. Some of the older boys were rolling their eyes as we were explaining, but that totally changed when we went outside to play. I was having so much fun with them. I would start counting to three and they would start to run away before I was finished. I would pause at two, waiting for them to cheat and I just gave them a look with a smile and they all laughed so hard. It was a simple student-teacher relationship where we were having fun, even though we couldn’t speak the same language.

There’s something just so awesome about having fun with kids when you can’t communicate with them. It’s really hard to explain, but it’s so freaking cool.

After classes were over, we also had a drum lesson from Innocent! We learned on Jembe drums, which are originally from Gambia. Although they weren’t traditional Malawian drums, we still got to learn how to play in the traditional Malawian style. We learned the two sounds, “Du” and “Ke”, and the proper way to strike the drum on each sound. A bunch of students hung around after school and watched us from outside of the classroom. Every so often they would creep closer and closer into the room, until finally Innocent turns and looks at them and says, “Come, Come,” and they came rolling inside. They sat around us and watched us play. Some even had their own makeshift drums (most were empty buckets) and they were playing along with us. We decided to take a few pictures, because some of the kids were just too darn cute :)

                  

Moni!

    

  

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but almost every day after school we walk from Malemia Primary to Domasi Primary. This is about a 30-minute walk down a long, narrow, dirt road, and our friends always accompany us :) They love to hold our hands and try to talk with us as we walk. Sometimes it can be pretty hard to communicate with all the students, especially the little ones who don’t know much English. So sometimes we just walk without speaking as we hold five or six little hands. Even though some of the walks are silent, this is still one of my favorite parts of the day.