There was an elephant (ndembo in Yao) at Maldeco, near MCV, on Tuesday. Actually, only its head was at Maldeco. Apparently some park rangers had shot it for some reason, and were transporting the head, when their pickup truck broke down in Maldeco. Unfortunately I did not get to see it, but it still added a little excitement to my day.
The kids were very excited, and some even skipped sports time to try and go see the elephant. The girls that stayed for sports tried to distract their friends on the opposing team by shouting, “NDEMBO!” and pointing every time a car drove by.
At Palm Beach, Daniel (one of the owners) had his shotgun out last night, trying to shoot monkeys that have been stealing mangoes off the trees.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
1A vs 1B
I must start this entry with an apology that my blog has been inactive for so long. Our internet has been down for the past couple of weeks. Luckily, you didn’t miss a whole lot, as nothing in my life has really changed. I’m still living at Palm Beach and working at MCV, and locals still yell azungu everywhere I go. (I confess that after about 10 months of being the center of attention, I look forward to walking down crowded NYC streets with no one noticing.)
The form 2s finished their exams a couple of weeks ago and started a long summer holiday that goes until January. I reorganized my schedule with the form 1s so that I only teach in the morning, and I am available to work with form 2 students in the afternoon. Many are not able to come in for these afternoon classes, as they have moved back to their home villages, and live too far away. (Distances become too far awful quickly when you don’t have cars and subways. Even bicycles only do so much.) A group of about 10 to 12 students still comes everyday at 2:00 to work on math with me. There are even 3 girls from other schools!! (They heard that their friends were going to free summer classes, and wanted to join.) I enjoy working with a small group of kids who really want to be there.
Meanwhile, the form 1s have been busy competing against each other in just about everything. During sports time we’ve been having the “Gracious Olympics.” 1A won volleyball and netball, while 1B won Frisbee and football. The kids definitely enjoyed the competitions, and are demanding we play 1A vs 1B football again on Tuesday.
We have also started having quiz competitions on Saturday that pit four students from 1A versus four students from 1B. I’m impressed by how many of the teachers are willing to come to work on Saturdays in order to run the quizzes for the kids. We pride ourselves in being much better organized than the quiz master for the national quiz show. We’ve had two competitions so far, 1A won the first and 1B won the second. We pick new students every time, and try to balance the teams so that the competition will be close. Actually so far they were both blowouts, but since each class won once, I think it’s okay.
Not much else to report. Now that the internet is back I’ll try to be better with my updates. Hope everyone’s well back in the States, I’ll be home in less than two months!!
The form 2s finished their exams a couple of weeks ago and started a long summer holiday that goes until January. I reorganized my schedule with the form 1s so that I only teach in the morning, and I am available to work with form 2 students in the afternoon. Many are not able to come in for these afternoon classes, as they have moved back to their home villages, and live too far away. (Distances become too far awful quickly when you don’t have cars and subways. Even bicycles only do so much.) A group of about 10 to 12 students still comes everyday at 2:00 to work on math with me. There are even 3 girls from other schools!! (They heard that their friends were going to free summer classes, and wanted to join.) I enjoy working with a small group of kids who really want to be there.
Meanwhile, the form 1s have been busy competing against each other in just about everything. During sports time we’ve been having the “Gracious Olympics.” 1A won volleyball and netball, while 1B won Frisbee and football. The kids definitely enjoyed the competitions, and are demanding we play 1A vs 1B football again on Tuesday.
We have also started having quiz competitions on Saturday that pit four students from 1A versus four students from 1B. I’m impressed by how many of the teachers are willing to come to work on Saturdays in order to run the quizzes for the kids. We pride ourselves in being much better organized than the quiz master for the national quiz show. We’ve had two competitions so far, 1A won the first and 1B won the second. We pick new students every time, and try to balance the teams so that the competition will be close. Actually so far they were both blowouts, but since each class won once, I think it’s okay.
Not much else to report. Now that the internet is back I’ll try to be better with my updates. Hope everyone’s well back in the States, I’ll be home in less than two months!!
Monday, October 01, 2007
Back in Action
After a long hiatus (due to vacation and exams) the Gracious sports teams were back in action Saturday. It was definitely another "Very African" Saturday. We left MCV for Mangochi Boma (the town) in the big truck at 1:30 (an hour late), stopped once along the way to repair the truck, and arrived at the agreed upon ground at 2:00 (the agreed upon time).
Before I could say or do anything all of our students took one look around, decided that no one from Palmland (the other school) was there yet, and took off in twos and threes to walk around town. After a few minutes I met the headmaster of Palmland, and he told me that their sports master and students should be there shortly. Having lived in Africa for 9 months, I knew what he meant by shortly, and I decided to walk to a little grocery store with a couple students to buy some bread.
When we returned to the ground, we found it deserted. We found out from others nearby that the venue had been changed, and that Gracious and Palmland would play at another ground in Mangochi. We walked over to the new ground, and after waiting for another 1/2 hour or so the games eventually got underway. As usual our 2pm game started around 4:15.
The netball game ended at halftime when the referee decided the girls were arguing too much, and she was afraid the teams would start fighting. We lost the shortened game 6 to 4.
Thankfully, the football game lasted the full 90 minutes with no major fights or arguments. Our boys were back to their winning ways with a 2-1 victory. Khenge (Mussa James) our star scored both goals.
Before I could say or do anything all of our students took one look around, decided that no one from Palmland (the other school) was there yet, and took off in twos and threes to walk around town. After a few minutes I met the headmaster of Palmland, and he told me that their sports master and students should be there shortly. Having lived in Africa for 9 months, I knew what he meant by shortly, and I decided to walk to a little grocery store with a couple students to buy some bread.
When we returned to the ground, we found it deserted. We found out from others nearby that the venue had been changed, and that Gracious and Palmland would play at another ground in Mangochi. We walked over to the new ground, and after waiting for another 1/2 hour or so the games eventually got underway. As usual our 2pm game started around 4:15.
The netball game ended at halftime when the referee decided the girls were arguing too much, and she was afraid the teams would start fighting. We lost the shortened game 6 to 4.
Thankfully, the football game lasted the full 90 minutes with no major fights or arguments. Our boys were back to their winning ways with a 2-1 victory. Khenge (Mussa James) our star scored both goals.
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