Well I certainly had a lot of blogging to catch up on! It’s been a very busy month with a visit from my cousins, end of term exams, term break, our week and a half long inter- service training, and a trip to Kande Beach.
Hopefully the posts and pictures I’ve added will serve to fill you in!
As for me, I better get back to site and start preparing for Term Two come Monday!
Love and Good Thoughts,
Kelly
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Field Trip to Mua Mission
On the last day of IST, we took a field rip to Mua Mission which is a cultural center and museum located in Dedza. It was probably one of the coolest places I’ve been since arriving in Malawi. It’s definitely a must-see on my list of places to take any future visitors.
Here’s the link for more information.
http://www.kungoni.org/
Also check out some of the pictures I’ve posted. It’s a really beautiful place with lots of interesting historical and cultural artifacts and information.
Here’s the link for more information.
http://www.kungoni.org/
Also check out some of the pictures I’ve posted. It’s a really beautiful place with lots of interesting historical and cultural artifacts and information.
Inter-Service Training (IST)
It was back to the college in Dedza for my group for about ten days this month for our language intensive and inter-service trainings. It was really nice to be able to see everyone from my group that I’d been missing for the past three months and to hear about all of the different experiences we’ve been having. It’s really true that each volunteer has an incredibly unique Peace Corps service. Though we have similar assignments and are working toward the same goals, we each face different challenges and deal with our situations in very different ways. As I said it was really great to share our experiences as well as to get new ideas from one another.
The first few days of training were completely focused on language. We were divided into small groups and assigned a trainer similar to as we had done in PST. I was in a group with Kelly O., Tim O. and Bryan which really worked out well for all of us.
After a few days of Chichewa basi (Chichewa that’s all), we began or inter-service training which was really helpful to all of us in a lot of ways. Each day we participated in sessions focusing on a variety of topics including evaluating and improving our teaching as well as creating opportunities for secondary projects in our schools and communities. We also began discussing our plans for CAMP SKY, an annual camp that is held after Term Three by PC Malawi Education volunteers for about 100 Malawian students. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this in future posts as we get further into the planning and fundraising efforts. Probably the most beneficial sessions in my opinion were those focused on secondary projects, specifically on how to raise funds and how to best initiate and manage projects in our schools and communities. I think I’ll be well prepared for returning to site to get things really going on a few key projects I’ve been thinking about for my school and I’ll keep you informed.
We also spent our Easter Sunday at the college, which was very low key and for me centered around eating Easter candy that had been sent to me in various packages. Thanks! :)
Similar to PST, as a group we spent a lot of our time playing cards, games, gorging ourselves on delicious college food, going on hikes and walks, listening to music at Ed’s Bar and just relaxing.
I’ve posted a few random pictures of us at the college as well.
The first few days of training were completely focused on language. We were divided into small groups and assigned a trainer similar to as we had done in PST. I was in a group with Kelly O., Tim O. and Bryan which really worked out well for all of us.
After a few days of Chichewa basi (Chichewa that’s all), we began or inter-service training which was really helpful to all of us in a lot of ways. Each day we participated in sessions focusing on a variety of topics including evaluating and improving our teaching as well as creating opportunities for secondary projects in our schools and communities. We also began discussing our plans for CAMP SKY, an annual camp that is held after Term Three by PC Malawi Education volunteers for about 100 Malawian students. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this in future posts as we get further into the planning and fundraising efforts. Probably the most beneficial sessions in my opinion were those focused on secondary projects, specifically on how to raise funds and how to best initiate and manage projects in our schools and communities. I think I’ll be well prepared for returning to site to get things really going on a few key projects I’ve been thinking about for my school and I’ll keep you informed.
We also spent our Easter Sunday at the college, which was very low key and for me centered around eating Easter candy that had been sent to me in various packages. Thanks! :)
Similar to PST, as a group we spent a lot of our time playing cards, games, gorging ourselves on delicious college food, going on hikes and walks, listening to music at Ed’s Bar and just relaxing.
I’ve posted a few random pictures of us at the college as well.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Visiting my Student's Homes
I love the weekends. I can spend my time however I please, marking assignments, cleaning my house, listening to my ipod, reading, cooking, being at the school with my students, walking to the market with my neighbors, anything I want. Lately, I've been spending my Sundays visiting the homes of some of my favorite students.
A few weekends ago I made the two hour walk to the home of one of my Form Two's. Her name is Holiness Banda and when she invited me to meet her grandmother and sister, I was delighted to come. We spent the morning walking and chatting, arriving at her home around 10 am. I was warmly welcomed, there are so many nice things I can say about the hospitality of Malawians, especially Malawian women, they are so good to their guests. I met everyone in Holiness's family, all of her neighbors and friends and had a great day enjoying good food and conversation. We were caught in the rain on the way back, but all in all had a wonderful day. I've posted a few pictures of my visit!
The following weekend I was invited to the home of one of two of my Form Three's, Rosemary and Samuel Nkhoma. They're both incredibly bright students and I was glad to be able to praise them in front of their parents. They live very close to the school, as both of their parents are primary school teachers in our village, so there wasn't much of a walk to get there. After a very warm welcome and lunch, Rosemary and her father took me to see their garden. We walked through the maize, beans, fruit trees and other growing vegetables and had a wonderful afternoon. I ended up leaving with armfuls of fresh corn, sugarcane and yummy lemons and guavas, like I said above, nothing beats the hospitality and warmness of Malawian families !
A few weekends ago I made the two hour walk to the home of one of my Form Two's. Her name is Holiness Banda and when she invited me to meet her grandmother and sister, I was delighted to come. We spent the morning walking and chatting, arriving at her home around 10 am. I was warmly welcomed, there are so many nice things I can say about the hospitality of Malawians, especially Malawian women, they are so good to their guests. I met everyone in Holiness's family, all of her neighbors and friends and had a great day enjoying good food and conversation. We were caught in the rain on the way back, but all in all had a wonderful day. I've posted a few pictures of my visit!
The following weekend I was invited to the home of one of two of my Form Three's, Rosemary and Samuel Nkhoma. They're both incredibly bright students and I was glad to be able to praise them in front of their parents. They live very close to the school, as both of their parents are primary school teachers in our village, so there wasn't much of a walk to get there. After a very warm welcome and lunch, Rosemary and her father took me to see their garden. We walked through the maize, beans, fruit trees and other growing vegetables and had a wonderful afternoon. I ended up leaving with armfuls of fresh corn, sugarcane and yummy lemons and guavas, like I said above, nothing beats the hospitality and warmness of Malawian families !
Term One is Coming to an End?!?
I cannot believe that we are already in our 10th week of school! I've been teaching in Malawi for 10 weeks!
Unbelievable!
The 13th and 14th weeks of school are generally reserved for final exams, so really we've only got a a few more periods left to go. I thought it may be interesting to fill you in on some of the things we've been working on this term.
Things may have started out slow, but as my students and I became more familiar with each other it seems that all in all we've accomplished quite a bit!
PHYSICAL SCIENCE FORM ONE: My most challenging course. It's not the material that's the problem, but as I've mentioned before the language barrier between me and these very new students has been quite the obstacle for all of us over the past ten weeks. I'm happy to say that my students are now understanding me much better than they were before. I make sure to teach them the material as slowly and simply as possible and am starting to see the results in their assignments. We've gotten through a few units in this course mostly dealing with the process of formulating scientific investigations including lots of work with hypotheses, variables, taking measurements with various instruments and performing simple calculations and conversions using scientific notation. It was all very new material to my students, but I do think they're getting it. We'll be ending the term by continuing with a unit on forces.
BIOLOGY FORM TWO: My Form Twos, there are sooooo many of them! And they all want extra assignments all the time! Extra assignments? I know, I couldn't believe it either. We've gotten through quite a bit of material this term as it's been extremely necessary to catch up on things they failed to cover in Form One. Form 2s and 4s will be writing their exams at the end of the year, so its essential that I cover everything on their course syllabi. We began the year talking about nutrition and deficiency diseases which I personally found to be a very interesting topic to teach, especially as it hits so close to home for nearly all of my students. We continued with digestion and although I'm still answering questions in the library about the process of absorption in the small intestine, we're now working on ecosystems and the environment. Last week we all pretended to be ecologists and went out surveying the environment surrounding Gwangwa. In groups, my students took count of different animals and plants and made note of other observations about their environment. We'll be using this information over the next week to finish up this unit and discuss environmental problems and potential solutions.
ENGLISH FORM THREE: I'm not a trained teacher, especially when it comes to English, but I love teaching English to my Form 3s. They're way behind and often quiet in class, but they're so willing to work to improve their skills. I've spent a lot of time working on simple grammatical concepts, reading comprehension and essay writing. Last week, upon finishing a short story and comprehension questions, my students wrote their own short stories to read in front of the class. Some of my students are so creative! Each story was a joy to read! I'm slowly but surely beginning to see their writing progress.
BIOLOGY FORM THREE: We haven't covered too much in this course, but I'm happy to say that the time we've spent has been worth it as many of my students are really getting the material. Mostly we've learned about food making in green plants, photosynthesis, translocation, transpiration, etc. We've found some time to use the lab as well in order for me to demonstrate simple experiments dealing with photosynthesis as well as osmosis and diffusion. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use my lab and its resources with my students, it's been difficult as materials are sometimes scarce and my students have never been exposed to a lab before.
LIFE SKILLS FORMS ONE-FOUR: I really enjoy my Life Skills courses. In the past weeks I've discussed a wide range of topics with each of my classes including the importance of self-esteem, positive and negative values, interpersonal relationships, teenage pregnancies, sex, abortion and many others. Basically I'm teaching my kids how to problem solve, how to think about their own lives and the choices they can make. Last week in Forms Three and Four we had some great debates on teenage pregnancy and abortion. It's so interesting for me to hear my students discuss these kind of issues with one another.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE FORM FOUR: Can't say I've covered much at all in this course as I just picked it up last week. The Form Fours have never had physical science before but it's such an important subject that my site mate, Mike and I have decided to work together to cover all of the Form 3 and Form 4 material with them this year. I'll be teaching the chemistry portion of the course as he works with them on the physics. It's a lot of physical science, very often throughout the week but my students are eager and excited to learn the material.
Unbelievable!
The 13th and 14th weeks of school are generally reserved for final exams, so really we've only got a a few more periods left to go. I thought it may be interesting to fill you in on some of the things we've been working on this term.
Things may have started out slow, but as my students and I became more familiar with each other it seems that all in all we've accomplished quite a bit!
PHYSICAL SCIENCE FORM ONE: My most challenging course. It's not the material that's the problem, but as I've mentioned before the language barrier between me and these very new students has been quite the obstacle for all of us over the past ten weeks. I'm happy to say that my students are now understanding me much better than they were before. I make sure to teach them the material as slowly and simply as possible and am starting to see the results in their assignments. We've gotten through a few units in this course mostly dealing with the process of formulating scientific investigations including lots of work with hypotheses, variables, taking measurements with various instruments and performing simple calculations and conversions using scientific notation. It was all very new material to my students, but I do think they're getting it. We'll be ending the term by continuing with a unit on forces.
BIOLOGY FORM TWO: My Form Twos, there are sooooo many of them! And they all want extra assignments all the time! Extra assignments? I know, I couldn't believe it either. We've gotten through quite a bit of material this term as it's been extremely necessary to catch up on things they failed to cover in Form One. Form 2s and 4s will be writing their exams at the end of the year, so its essential that I cover everything on their course syllabi. We began the year talking about nutrition and deficiency diseases which I personally found to be a very interesting topic to teach, especially as it hits so close to home for nearly all of my students. We continued with digestion and although I'm still answering questions in the library about the process of absorption in the small intestine, we're now working on ecosystems and the environment. Last week we all pretended to be ecologists and went out surveying the environment surrounding Gwangwa. In groups, my students took count of different animals and plants and made note of other observations about their environment. We'll be using this information over the next week to finish up this unit and discuss environmental problems and potential solutions.
ENGLISH FORM THREE: I'm not a trained teacher, especially when it comes to English, but I love teaching English to my Form 3s. They're way behind and often quiet in class, but they're so willing to work to improve their skills. I've spent a lot of time working on simple grammatical concepts, reading comprehension and essay writing. Last week, upon finishing a short story and comprehension questions, my students wrote their own short stories to read in front of the class. Some of my students are so creative! Each story was a joy to read! I'm slowly but surely beginning to see their writing progress.
BIOLOGY FORM THREE: We haven't covered too much in this course, but I'm happy to say that the time we've spent has been worth it as many of my students are really getting the material. Mostly we've learned about food making in green plants, photosynthesis, translocation, transpiration, etc. We've found some time to use the lab as well in order for me to demonstrate simple experiments dealing with photosynthesis as well as osmosis and diffusion. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use my lab and its resources with my students, it's been difficult as materials are sometimes scarce and my students have never been exposed to a lab before.
LIFE SKILLS FORMS ONE-FOUR: I really enjoy my Life Skills courses. In the past weeks I've discussed a wide range of topics with each of my classes including the importance of self-esteem, positive and negative values, interpersonal relationships, teenage pregnancies, sex, abortion and many others. Basically I'm teaching my kids how to problem solve, how to think about their own lives and the choices they can make. Last week in Forms Three and Four we had some great debates on teenage pregnancy and abortion. It's so interesting for me to hear my students discuss these kind of issues with one another.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE FORM FOUR: Can't say I've covered much at all in this course as I just picked it up last week. The Form Fours have never had physical science before but it's such an important subject that my site mate, Mike and I have decided to work together to cover all of the Form 3 and Form 4 material with them this year. I'll be teaching the chemistry portion of the course as he works with them on the physics. It's a lot of physical science, very often throughout the week but my students are eager and excited to learn the material.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Last Weekend at Gwangwa
My students had the absolute best time last weekend! I was so happy for them. Our Saturday couldn’t possibly have been any better.
We started out the afternoon with football (soccer) and netball matches against Ntchisi Secondary School, a government boarding school at the Boma. They should probably have better teams than we do, but my students played so well, we ended up winning both games! Well, actually the netball game ended in a draw, but according to my girls this means that both teams won... they were so happy, how could I argue? The boys played great too and ended up winning their match two to one.
I wish I would have taken pictures Saturday at the game, so you could see how excited they all were. Many dressed up to show their supports and some cheered the ENTIRE time, running in circles around the fields. It was so much fun. Next time, I'll be sure to take pictures.
After the games, my students celebrated with a school dance!
Yes, high school dances are just as awkward and fun in Malawi as they are in America. There are those who sit along the wall as well as those who dance the entire time no matter what song is playing. We had a great time dancing and talking and listening to music. It was such good experience for my students to have, but exhausting! The dance lasted until 3am!! I couldn't handle this and left around 2am as they were still going strong!
I've included a few photos from the dance! Sorry if they're a bit dusty and hard to see, hopefully you'll still be able to get a sense of the great time my kids had!
We started out the afternoon with football (soccer) and netball matches against Ntchisi Secondary School, a government boarding school at the Boma. They should probably have better teams than we do, but my students played so well, we ended up winning both games! Well, actually the netball game ended in a draw, but according to my girls this means that both teams won... they were so happy, how could I argue? The boys played great too and ended up winning their match two to one.
I wish I would have taken pictures Saturday at the game, so you could see how excited they all were. Many dressed up to show their supports and some cheered the ENTIRE time, running in circles around the fields. It was so much fun. Next time, I'll be sure to take pictures.
After the games, my students celebrated with a school dance!
Yes, high school dances are just as awkward and fun in Malawi as they are in America. There are those who sit along the wall as well as those who dance the entire time no matter what song is playing. We had a great time dancing and talking and listening to music. It was such good experience for my students to have, but exhausting! The dance lasted until 3am!! I couldn't handle this and left around 2am as they were still going strong!
I've included a few photos from the dance! Sorry if they're a bit dusty and hard to see, hopefully you'll still be able to get a sense of the great time my kids had!
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