another football photo

football

So we’ve made the switch to playing football (soccer) instead of Frisbee on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is all boys (the girls play netball on another field, not really sure how that game works). Everyone wanted me to pick a team. This was somewhat difficult, since I still have trouble with names, but I was able to pick a team of 22 kids which everyone seems to be okay with. I’m hoping to run practices, and help the kids improve (even though they’re all better than me). Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to do anything but scrimmage without many balls. We finally got three new balls, but the one needle to our pump broke today. A couple of the kids have cleats, but almost everyone plays barefoot, (which amazes me since I always found kicking a ball barefoot hurt). We plan to play other schools on Saturdays eventually. (The kids of course want to begin playing games immediately). They also say we need jerseys, but somehow I think a school with 56 kids in a class and no books has more pressing needs. I think I might right a letter to Adidas or something anyways. And if anyone knows a high school that’s getting rid of old jerseys…

The pictures above are from the field where we play. Since Gracious doesn’t have its own field we walk to the field of a Muslim School. They let us play in return for donating balls and slashing the grass on the field. Yes, there are goats on the field, and no, the giant ant hill does not count as an extra defender.

Don’t worry, I still play lots of Frisbee, and may try to start up Ultimate on Mondays after school.

cow, pig, train

So I heard before I came here, and may have told some of you, that the educational standards/level of students in Malawi were the same as the USA. Turns out that wasn't exactly accurate, which makes a little more sense. Of course the kids in Malawi are just as smart as the kids in America, but they aren't any smarter either. Considering the typical kid here went to a primary school where there are 120 kids in a class, it's not shocking to learn that most of them are very far behind in their math skills, (and from what I've heard other subjects as well). Never mind having kids who don't know their times tables, I have kids who don't understand the concept of multiplication!!

I dealt with many low level students in NYC, but nothing like this. Their low math skills are of course compounded by the fact that they have a rather weak grasp of the English language.

For example, the following happened today when I tried to introduce my kids to the concept of sets:

On the board: cow, pig, rhino, lion, train
Me: Which one of these things does not belong?
one student raises hand: cow!

It wasn't until I taught the same lesson to a later class that I realized nobody understood the word train!!
I'm learning from this and trying to ask kids whether they know certain words before moving on with my lessons.

I'm determined to raise the level of all these kids, and will be adding a mandatory class during lunch time in coming weeks(don't worry, they'll still have 40 min to eat). This will allow me to break them down into smaller sizes (form 2 is still over 50 kids) for atleast 1 period a week.

Students are only required to get above a 40% on national exams, but I'm certainly expecting to get my students well above that. As we've all heard a thousand times, high expectations are the first step to a successful school, so that's what we're hoping to do at Gracious.

pictures

I added some pictures to last weeks Thengo blog entry, including the first published photo of me with my hair chopped. I also realized that posting large pictures takes a long time, but no longer than posting small pics, so that is what I will do from now on. I do try to put pics up as often as possible, but it takes a looooong time, so sometimes you'll just have to deal with my fascinating stories.

A Typical Day

I’ve had a few sound requests that I post a blog entry about a typical day of my life here in Africa. Here goes…

I typically wake up around 6:00am. (Actually, first I wake up repeatedly during the night thanks to dogs, roosters, etc.) I then eat breakfast with the Sibales and the two other Americans staying with us. We don’t really all sit down together or anything, but people come and go from the table. Breakfast consists of white toast with margarine (4 pieces for me), tea, and of course Malaria prophylaxis. We then pile into the car, Nick, Paul, Myself, Sibale, three Sibale girls, two students who live nearby, and a few others who pile into the back of the pickup truck, to make the ½ hour trip to MCV. The route is over both dirt roads with huge puddles (you really need a truck or SUV) and a long paved road with lots of potholes.

I take attendance for the 1B class at 7:25, and classes start at 7:30. The students stay in the same room all day, and have 9 40-minute classes. They get a break from 9:30 to 10:00, and a break for lunch from 12:00 to 1:30. I eat nsima (maize meal) with various meats and vegetables on the side. For the students, lunch is provided for a small fee at MCV, generally consisting of either nsima and beans or porridge. The sponsored orphans get lunch for free (MCV pays their school fees as well). I will post the exact number of orphans/regular students later when our numbers begin to stabilize, but about half of the students are orphans. School ends at 3:30. I run sports from 3:30 till 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which has changed from frisbee to football (soccer) and netball, but more on that later.

We then pile back into the truck around 5:00 and head back to Nyumba wa Sibale. We eat dinner (which still consists of mpunga (rice) nyama (meat) and masamba (vegetables) pretty much every night. And of course, there's always nsima). I can't say we do a whole lot else at night, I typically do a little planning reading and then go to bed early. The girls normally are told to go study.

Hope that wasn't boring, my life here definitely isn't.

Marching for the Donation

This picture is from a small ceremony that was held on Tuesday after school. The students and staff had a ceremony to honor fundraisers from Alaska (chiefly Tom and Ruth Nighswander) who had raised the money necessary to start the MCV Vocational School. The school choir wrote their own songs, and sang a song "Marching for the Donation" to thank the Alaskans. They also learned and sang the Alaskan state song. The kids sound amazing, especially since they have had no formal training. Sibale was also kind enough to publicly thank me for all the money I raised (which is really a recognition of the generosity of all of you). He pointed out that I raised well over one million Kwacha! I like the sound of that!

The Malawian Landscape

This picture is what you typically see as you drive or walk around Malawi. villages (85% of the population live in rural areas) with hills in the background.

Learning how to teach again

Not a whole lot new to report on life in Malawi. We’re beginning to get in to the swing of things at school. It’s an interesting challenge as a teacher to try to figure out daily routines like collecting HW, giving quizzes etc. in a new culture, (and to an extremely large class). For example, I certainly don’t have time to check 50 kids hw during class, but it is also difficult to just collect their work, since they only have one tiny notebook to do all their math work in. Tomorrow I’m going to try a system where the students put their books in a box first thing in the morning, and I give them back later in the day.

The language barrier also makes things difficult. Although all the teaching is done in English (even by the Malawian teachers) kids often struggle to understand what you are saying. The other day I couldn’t get my students to understand how to pass work to the front of their row! Which makes me wonder, how are they learn anything when I’m teaching?!

Despite all these difficulties, I think my students seem to be learning, and I’m definitely enjoying myself. Some of the students sing everyday in an outdoor hallway during lunch (you can watch them in the video). They are amazing. As far as I know they’re still celebrating the new bathrooms. Although, it’s more likely they just enjoy singing. 

It’s still raining a lot here. But never all day, it will be sunny and hot out one minute, then pouring the next. I went to church with the Sibale girls Saturday, (being 7th day Adventists they go to church on Saturday). The singing was nice, but the long sermon in Chichewa bored the heck out of me, since I only understand about one word in 50. So much for not having a lot to report!

First major breakthrough

I successfully engineered a schedule in which we split form 1 into two classes. This required every teacher to teach more, and I even had to ask a couple teachers to take on an additional subject. Impressively the teachers were willing to take on the extra work, and today I taught Maths to two classes of 30 students instead of one class of 60. These classes will keep growing, but we will cap at 40 students per class. Sadly my Form 2 class still has 54 students, but we don’t have the money to hire more teachers right now. When all is said and done, Gracious hopes to have class sizes around 40. This is certainly large by American standards, but is fairly small for Malawi, while providing enough Kwacha (Malawian $) in school fees to be more sustainable. I was amazed at how small a class of 30 felt today, after teaching 60 the day before.

Also of note on the new schedule, is that I no longer teach Social Studies. Not so much because I’m lazy, but because it doesn’t make sense for an American to be teaching Malawians about their culture!!

I’m glad to be teaching only Math again; and this leaves me more time to do things like make schedules, and help Gracious and MCV in other ways.

Thengo (the bush)

Nick and I went for a hike this last weekend with Gerald and Chimwemwe. (Two Malawians, Gerald left for college this week, and Chimwemwe is a student at the MCV vocational school). It was definitely fun, but very tiring. I think the cultural definitions of hiking, paths, and the phrase “just around the corner differ.” After bush whacking, scrambling over rocks, and swatting away Tsetse Flies (don’t worry no Sleeping sickness yet) for about 2 hours, I was still wondering where this “path” that Gerald talked about was. I was constantly falling behind the others, and most of the time Gerald was just a sound in the distance. To quote Nick (who kept up much better than I did, but was still no match for the Malawians): “Gerald, I think you’re really a monkey!”


Pictures above: Gerald, Chimwemwe, and I “just around the corner” from the beach at Nkopola lodge where we ended our hike. Nick & Gerald walking along an isolated beach that we hiked to.

Not exactly Road Runner

Just a quick warning that I may sometimes dissapear from my blog for awhile because of internet difficulties. This week the phonelines were down for a few days, and I know sometimes it may last a few weeks. But don't worry, I'll always return.

The first week of school

All in all the first week of school went pretty well. Changes in the schedule keep occuring, and I actually asked the headmaster if he would allow me to create the new schedule this weekend. The Malawian curriculum is especially difficult because students have to take 11 subjects!! (Way too many in my opinion, since it doesn't allow teachers and students to concentrate on any one thing). The form 1 class is now 53 kids, so I'm going to see if I can make splitting the class in two work with the schedule.

Communicating and working with other staff members at Gracious can be challenging, since we have to over come cultural as well as linguistic difficulties, but I'm sure I'll make it work. Patience, patience, patience.

No school on Monday because of Chilembwe Day (Sp?). I really should be going hiking today with Nick and Gerald.

running

mzungu running by Malawian market place creates a great deal of excitement. (especially if he is shirtless)

Mr. Brady's at it again

Teaching has gone great so far, and today I got some outstanding news! I won't be teaching English anymore. We got a new teacher, Mr. Nkhunja, who will be teaching English and helping me with Social Studies, leaving me free to teach form 2 math along with Mrs. Manduwi. (I of course am thrilled with this, since I actually am a math teacher in the US) Both classes form 1 and form 2 are around 45-50 students now. And yes, all those students are in one class at one time. (I thought 33 in NYC was bad!) The students are well behaved, despite having to take lots and lots of notes, since there are no books for them to study from.

I am also the sports master, (very cool title) and we played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday. The kids had lots of fun, and were quite good for never having played before. We will play every Tuesday and Thursday. We don't have much of a field to play on, but it's still better than the black top of NYC. I think the kids are very excited about it; several asked me if we were playing today.

One more funny tidbit: A bunch of kids were singing in Chewa during one of their breaks, (they're really great singers). I asked another staff member why/what they were singing. She said that they were singing a song of joy because Mr. Sibale had built 2 bathrooms for the school!! Needless to say, the kids here are well behaved, but still no how to have fun.

First day of school

School started today, and I think things went pretty well in both my English and Maths class. I only had form 1s today and they are currently quite shy, but seem very nice. There are 27 in the class right now, but it may grow as large as 50 by the end of the week!! This should get interesting, especially when we don't have anywhere near enough books. Soc. Studies without books to read and no way to do research should be fun.
Names are also a challenge, seeing as now I don't just have to learn them, I have to learn how to pronounce them!
All in all things started well, certainly better than my first day of teaching in NYC, when I accidentally thought my student Shaniqua was a boy!!

How many people fit in the back of a pick up truck?

23. Or at least that's when the truck stopped picking people up when Nick (another Amer. volunteer) and I hitched a ride back to Mangochi from Nkopola lodge. To be fair one of the passengers was a baby.

Both Nick and I thought the same thing everytime we picked up a passenger: This has to be it, we can't possibly fit more people, but sure enough we kept pulling over. People are crammed everywhich way onto the truck, and we even had to move someone's basket onto the roof (where another passenger held it in place).

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this commute, is that it wasn't out of the ordinary at all. That's how most people get around. I'm sure I will enclose a picture at some point.

Also of note from this trip was that we swam in Lake Malawi, it's wonderfully warm. And a monkey stole my package of cookies from my backpack!!

Resort

Above is a picture of a beautiful resort just down the road from Mangochi. (I visited this one for about ½ hour while Sibale was in a meeting nearby.) It is one of many around. This one costs about $100 a night and has a pool, bar, restaurant, etc. I plan on vacationing there some weekends. The resorts aren’t separated from the villages at all, and as I walked along the beach several young Malawian kids grab your hands and shout & laugh. It is very cute, but sad at the same time, since they say Ndalama, ndalama! (money, money!) To which I say Pepani. (sorry.) But this blog entry shouldn’t depress you, it should make you want to come visit!! Lots of great spots to relax as well as volunteer.

madesiki (desks)

Since I know many of the people reading this blog were kind enough to donate to MCV and Gracious for desks, I thought I’d give you a little preview of what your money would be doing. The Carpentry (&welding) program at MCV will be using the money to build the two different types of desks above. The wooden desk with a medal frame sits two students. The other desk is medal and sits one student, as well as a storage space for books. The desks are well made, and should last for years to come. The donations will be used to pay for the materials as well as paying the MCV carpenters & welders (all Malawian) who make it. And of course the desks will be used at Gracious Secondary School as well as the Vocational School. The other picture above shows both schools. As you can see, the school is quite large, and so the additional desks (they have a classroom or two full now) will be an expensive and lengthy operation. Everyone here is very grateful to have the funds thanks to your generous donations. I can’t wait to show pictures later in the year when the desks are complete!

Right now I’m still busy learning the syllabuses and preparing lessons for the start of school on Monday. I hope to go for a hike tomorrow with Gerald, maybe even see some wildlife. So far I’ve seen a couple hippos and monkeys while I’ve been out and about.

Nthawi Ya Mvula (Rainy Season)

So I was slightly wrong about what the weather would be like when I got here. Actually I told several people how it was going to be the hot/dry season when I arrived. (And I swear there are some out there guilty of giving me this information)

Instead there has been some rain almost every day, making it slightly cooler. But don't worry, it's still quite hot, especially compared to back home.

The Mvula (rain) will last until March, when the hot/dry season should start again.

Change of Plans

We had our staff meeting for Gracious today. We are a little short on staff. Right now, there is only the headmaster (who also teaches), three other teachers, a secretary (who is leaving for college in February), and another American, Paul Simons (but he will be assisting teachers, not teaching).

There are a lot of subjects to teach, and not a lot of people to teach them.

As a result, I will be teaching Maths (Form 1 & 2), English (Form 1), and Social Studies (Form 1 & 2)

The Soc. Studies and English should be interesting. I know this must be quite a shock to some of my former colleauges, and especially to my former students! But, I'm sure I will do my best and succeed. I'm happy not to be teaching science. (Trying to do labs in a school with little equipment scares me.)

Mzungu!!

The various responses of African children upon seeing a Mzungu (white person)

1. They shout out “How are you?!” repeatedly (Just like the Constant Gardner, occasionally they
will substitute “hello”)
2. They shout out Mzungu!! and laugh
3. They just stare at you (this is also the reaction of many adults)

For more interesting results, combine mzungu and children with frisbee

Mailing Address

Since I know there are hundreds of people out there that would like to send me fan mail:
(You don’t even have to mess with scary zip codes)

Conor Brady c/o
Malawi Children’s Village
Private Bag 21
Mangochi, Malawi

Gerald

My first day at MCV, I spent much of my time just walking and talking with a couple older boys at MCV. Both of them had amazing stories. Their stories are the type of things you’re used to reading about in brochures and newsletters for organizations. It was really amazing to hear their stories first hand. I recounted one true, typical Malawian story below. Luckily this story has a happier ending because of MCV.

Gerald was a very good student in Primary school (which is provided free in Malawi by the government) and was selected for Secondary School because he did well on his exit exam. Then his father died, and everything changed. His family did not have enough money to send him to Secondary school, and so he spent two years sitting around his house and village. He began to lose hope, and thought that he was too old, and would never be able to go to Secondary School. He was then introduced to MCV by Ken Montgomery (an American, MCV board member). MCV offered to pay Gerald’s school fees. He did very well in school once again, and upon the completion of form 4, sat for an exam to get into a government college. Over 4,000 people sat for the exam, and only 150 were chosen to attend one of the few free government colleges. Gerald was selected! He will be starting college in a couple weeks where he plans to study education. Life is still not easy for Gerald however. His brother-in-law recently died forcing his sister to move back home with her three young children. Gerald now lives at home with 7+ people (I forget the exact number). This is in a typical small village home with no electricity or running water.

Chakudya (food)

Because Sibale is very well off by Malawian standards, (they have electricity, water, and even a TV) I get to eat a “large variety of food.”

Breakfast: bread with butter, and tea.

Lunch and dinner: rice or nsima (maize porridge type stuff)
vegetables (they appear to be like spinach & onions)
meat (either chicken or beef)
Since it is Mango season we often eat Mangos for dessert

All the food is prepared by Sibale’s girls, and they never seem to eat at the same time. Actually I haven’t been able to figure out when the older girls eat at all!! The older girls also do a lot of washing, and taking care of little Thandi as well.

Like I said, Sibale is much wealthier than the typical Malawian. Most people’s diet consists of Breakfast: Nsima
Lunch: Nsima
Dinner: Nsima
(That’s assuming that they have enough to eat three times a day, obviously this not always the case)

Sibale has been to America several times, and tells me he is always amazed that people can get any kind of fruit they want even when it is not in season.

I have heard that there is a lot of fish eaten in Malawi, so perhaps I will be adding to my variety in the future.

Waiting

School doesn’t start until January 8th. Until then I’m just getting used to the slower pace of life in Africa. I had heard that things were slowed down here, but it’s still quite a shock coming from over stimulated America. Combine the slower pace of Africa with a holiday… let’s just say I spend a lot of time reading and playing with Sibale’s youngest girl, Thandi. She is actually an orphan from Sibale’s extended family, and can speak about as much English as I can Chewa. (Which is very sad considering she’s only 2½ , but I’m trying to learn more everyday.) A typical conversation in English with Thandi:

Thandi: How are you? (every little kid knows at least this much English, and they love to say it)
Me: I’m fine, how are you?
Thandi: How are you?
Me: I’m fine. How are you?
Thandi: How are you?
Me: I’m fine.
Thandi: I’m fine!!
(you get the picture)
We also have similar conversations in Chewa. But most of the time we just throw things back and forth and I understand nothing of what she says unless one of the older girls is around to tell me.

There are 6 girls, Thandi, Temwa, Chisomo, Nane, Sekille, & Nancy. It took me 3 days to get the names down. When all their friends come over to play, I’m hopelessly lost again.