Highlights from Nicole and Jen’s Visit!

I could write pages and pages and pages on what it was like to have visitors come, but I’ll spare you the details and just share a few highlights from the week.

Also, here’s the link to my cousin Nicole’s snappish page where she’s posted about 200 pictures and videos from their trip!

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/570827917Hrsxdv?vhost=good-times

My Head Teacher’s Family – My head teacher’s family as I’ve said before basically take care of me as if I’m one of their own. Mrs. Kangulu, my head teacher’s wife, has often told me that I am one of her children which is a comfort when you live so far away from everyone at home. The Kangulu’s were so happy to welcome my family to Malawi, in fact they even accompanied me to the airport to pick up the girls. It was really cool for me to bring them with especially as they’d never been to the airport before or had a chance to see a plane land. They invited us to dinner on their first day in country and served us rice and chicken, both of which are reserved for very special occasions in Malawi; chicken for the welcoming of visitors and rice generally only for Christmas.

At school – Despite their jet-lag, the girls woke up bright and early in order to accompany me to school Monday morning. Over the course of the day we visited each of the four classes, spent time with the other teachers in the staffroom and attended Debate Club.

Our first class of the day was Form 3 English. I had previously given my students an assignment to prepare some sort of dance, song, poem, or speech about Malawi which they could perform for our visitors. If you take a look at the link with Nicole’s pictures you can view some of their presentations. I was so proud of them! We heard many songs and learned quite a few new dances. In addition, we heard poetry, speeches and a beautiful reading from the bible which was used by one of my students to explain that we are all brothers and sisters no matter how far away we may live from one another and no matter what kind of lives we live. It was a really cool experience for both my cousins and my students. After their performances, Nicole, Jen and I showed them a bit of American culture too as we recited the Pledge of Allegiance, taught them the Hokey Pokey and the Electric Slide. We ended the period by allowing the students to ask the girls questions about America and American culture. Most questions began something like this “In Malawi we……., what do you do in America?” They learned a lot. Nicole and Jen learned a lot. I couldn’t have been happier.

We proceeded to each of the other classrooms in the same manner throughout the day and though I hadn’t asked any other classes to prepare anything I was equally impressed with all of my students and their eagerness to welcome my family. Basically we spent the day singing, dancing, disrupting other classes (oops), taking pictures, receiving hugs, and asking questions.

Every Monday we have Debate Club after school for about an hour and a half. I love after school clubs and activities and was really glad that we had something going on for Nicole and Jen to watch and even participate in. We try to keep Debate Club as student run as possible. I choose a student to be the chairperson each week and basically allow them to run the day’s meeting and debate. The students vote on a topic the week before and then have the week to think about points to use for the following Monday. They split themselves into teams of proposers and opposers and after some discussion hold the debate in front of the rest of the group. This week’s Debate Club topic had to do with alcohol and drug use of school secondary school aged kids. Nicole participated taking the position that students should not dabble in drugs or alcohol. Each time she raised a point my students listened to her with wide eyes and open ears. It was really great for them to work alongside her and get to show off their skills.

Liwonde National Park – Well, they wanted to experience the real Malawi that I experience, so for our trip to Liwonde we did a combination of hitchhiking and traveling on mini buses. The hitching down south into Liwonde actually went really smoothly. We had traveled to Lilongwe from my site the day before and were picked up in Lilongwe by a car after waiting for only twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately they were only going as far as Dedza, so we had to wait there for our next ride. After two more rides, we finally made it into Liwonde town and happened to meet the Chinguni Hills safari car, the vehicle of the place at which we were staying.

I had chosen Chinguni Hills upon the recommendation of some current volunteers and I’m definitely glad I did. It was very affordable and absolutely gorgeous. The staff was completely Malawian and extremely friendly. The food was amazing and the safaris were really cool. We were practically the only ones there, as it’s off season for safaris right now, so it felt as if we had the whole place to ourselves. We chose to do the boat safari, sunset and night safari drives. We saw hippos, crocodiles, a variety of birds, baboons, warthogs, kudu, antelope and lots of really interesting vegetation. Unfortunately we didn’t see any elephants on account of the grasses being so high and dense due to the rains. I’d definitely recommend Chinguni to anyone visiting Malawi. Check out the pictures for yourself!

After two days of relaxing, safari-ing and enjoying good food we took the safari vehicle out of the park and rode a minibus back to Lilongwe. Relatively speaking, it was a really nice minibus and not too long of a ride, but I’m sure long enough for Nicole and Jen to have an understanding of the difficulties of traveling in countries like Malawi.