Christmas in the Village

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Gwangwa CDSS!

This year I decided to spend my holiday in my village with my sitemates and neighbors. Of course Malawians celebrate Christmas, but it's not nearly as extravagant or exciting as it is in America. Regardless, I had a really nice time and enjoyed good food and good company throughout the day.

On Christmas morning, I listened to Christmas music on my ipod while the neighborhood kids played in my backyard. I also made pancakes and coffee for breakfast and enjoyed the sunshine out on my back porch. Later in the morning, I delivered some childrens books, which had been donated to Malawi, to the other teachers in the area. I felt a little silly and like a Santa Claus impersonator going from house to house with my bag of books, but I know that the kids and their parents certainly appreciated it.

In the afternoon, my sitemates Chris and Erin Murphy came over for a delicious Christmas meal. We cooked bean burgers, mashed potatoes and indulged ourselves with peanut m and ms and delicious brownies which Erin had made. It was so nice to have company and to have great friends to share the day with.

That evening, after the Murphys had left, I went over to my headteacher's home to drink fantas (soft-drinks) and continue enjoying the holiday. I found Mrs. Kangulu and two of the children at home and attempted to teach Prisca, my baby sister, the concept of "Cheers". It was a wonderful way to end a great day.

Today I am in Mzuzu, the largest city in Northern Malawi, preparing for a New Year's trip to Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. I'm so excited for a vacation and will definitely keep you updated with pictures from my adventure!

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday!

Love and Good Thoughts,

Kelly Susan (Mrs. Kangulu), Prisca and me.

Prica posing for a snap!
Mike, the Kangulu's second son, and Prisca playing.
Mike and Prisca, this time with a Fanta.
Yum!

Cheers!

These are the Chaseas, my wonderful neighbors. They have three young daughters and a niece who stays with them. Occasionally my cat, Mbirizi, is a part of their family too when I'm out of town. Very glad they moved in this year!
Gule wam kulu chasing kids on Christmas.
Me and Mr. Six, the crazy old man who is usually drunk and completely harmelss. He's a favorite member of our community, well liked by students and teachers.
My favorite tree along the walk to my house.

My wonderful sitemates, Chris and Erin Murphy. They live about 8km away at a nearby school.
Coloring at Madam Kelly's house on Christmas morning.
Inside my house, notice my Christmas decorations which are scraps of old wrapping paper leftover from gifts my aunts sent me two years ago.
Mbirizi guarding the tin of homemade Christmas cookies my mom sent.

A really cool bug I found on Christmas Eve.

The Rains Have Come

Last night I awoke to one of my favorite sounds, rain pouring on my tin roof. There is nothing quite like it and it makes me feel calm and at ease throughout the night. My kitten, Mbirizi, didn’t like it as much but I think she’s becoming used to it and anyhow found comfort by cozying up in one of my blankets.

Since the rains have come, people have started making ridges in their fields and even planting their crops for the season. In fact, Mr. Kasiya’s maize has already sprouted. I’m getting a bit of a late start with my own garden, but am planning on taking time to plant and prepare my land once school is over next week.

I have found three places where my roof leaks, which is an improvement from last year. Also, I’m having some boys from school build me a new fence in order to stand up against the strong winds and force of the rain.

This morning since it was cool, rainy and above all else a Saturday, I woke up, ate a mango (I love mangoes) and laid back down to read in bed. I’m currently reading A People’s History of the United States, so I could have spent all day reading if not for the 8am visitor I received. I heard “Hello Madam. Hello Madam,” the call of one of my neighbor’s children. Reluctantly, I woke up and preparing to pass out a coloring book and bag of crayons, opened the door. Instead of wanting to play or color the little girl was telling me she wanted to start a fire. I didn’t really understand what she was asking from me, but I decided finally she was asking for matches in order to start a fire. I assumed that perhaps the matches at her house were left out in the rain the night before. So, I handed her a lighter and told her to give it to her mother.

As she left, I wondered whether or not she had ever seen a lighter or knew how to use one. After all, she certainly appeared to be surprised when I handed it to her. So, I wrapped a chitenje (cloth) around my waist to cover my pajama pants and went two houses down to see what was going on.

At the Mpandagouta home, I found five of my little neighbor friends trying to use the lighter. I realized then that their moms and dads were out, probably at their fields planting. They’d probably been there since the first break of daylight, maybe since 430am. The kids were hungry and trying to cook porridge. So I started their fire and went back about ten minutes later just to ensure that they were cooking their breakfast.

I love the rainy season, but I am reminded that its novelty will soon ware off. Life is harder when water and mud are everywhere. It is more difficult to travel, to cook and to stay healthy especially form waterborne and mosquito carried diseases.

However, despite these trials we are all very thankful that the rains have come and hope they will continue to water the fields. Those kids would not have had maize flour to make their porridge this morning, if not for the rains which watered their family’s fields at this time last year.

Here are a few photos which I’ve taken this week of Mbirizi, the boys fixing my fence, my neighbors and the girls who help me with housework.

Love and Good Thoughts.
Kelly

Goats. One the main reasons I need a new fence.
Emmanuel, a Form Four student helping to fix my fence.

Happy, also a Form Four.
Rabson (behind) and Yotamu. Rabson is the HeadBoy and reminds me a lot of my brother Bobby.

My tree, which according to Yotamu, there is a large green poisonous snake living in. Yikes.
Using pieces of my tree for the fence.
Look how fierce Mbirizi is! Look out mice!
Just kidding, most of the time she looks like this.

Neighbor kids behind my house in my yet to be planted fields.
Near my house. An oxcart carries firewood.

Harris, opne of my neighbors, climbing the tree behind my field. It has these strange little fruits, which do not taste great, but the kids chew on them like gum. Ellen.

Sharon and the twins.
This is Delia and Mtisunge, both Form Four students. Delia's parents could not afford school fees this term so she asked me for assistance. I pay her school and boarding fees (~$60) each term and in exchange she comes over with her best friend, Mtisunge to help me with housework. Here they are washing my clothes.

Updates

November already! Hard to believe! Here are a few mid-month updates:

School: Things are moving along as usual, we have about two more weeks of teaching this term, followed by a week of examinations. This term I have been teaching all four levels of Biology and Physical Science and have introduced Computer Studies to the upper-level courses as well. This is not to say I'm teaching 150 kids how to use a computer, but I am teaching them the basics, history of and uses of a computer so that I an give them an exam at the end of the term and determine who actually gets to do practical work. As usual, my students are working just as hard as I am, which makes it hard to complain about my work load. Tomorrow we have a football and netball match in Ntchisi Boma, it should be the final one of the term, I'll try to take some pictures!

Home: I have a new addition to my cozy little house, I was given a small kitten in order to combat my compounding rat problem. She's soooo tiny and quite adorable. I've never had a cat before, but I sure do love Mbirizi. Her name is a Chichewa word that can be translated into Champion.


Teacher Housing Project: Things are under way for this project which aims to bring two new teachers two Gwangwa by providing them with housing. Local leaders are continuing to bring their contributions and all of the bricks have been collected. I'm trying to raise funds for this project from back home and have recently started sending letters to local businesses and organizations back in my home town and surrounding area. If you have any ideas about where letters can be sent or would like to make a donation to the project, please email me or go to the link below. All donations are made to the US Peace Corps and are completely tax deductible. Updates to follow!!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=614-223

Pictures

Terence, Bryan and I welcoming Jen and Kris's friends at the airport!
The students I brought to Camp Sky, at the Malawi Parliament Building: Telinah, Rosemary and Ackson. Campers and counsellors at Camp GLOW

Singing and dancing with the girls, following Camp GLOW's motto "I'm gonna stand! I'm gonna soar! We are women hear us roar!!"
Camp GLOW included lots of classroom and outdoor activities.

So much singing and dancing!!

Gwangwa Housing Project

One of the biggest problems at my school is having very few teachers. It’s really unfortunate that my kids don’t get the educations they want and deserve simply because of a lack of someone to teach them. Currently, we are 8 teachers against nearly 400 students. What’s more is that two of my teachers are learning at Domasi Teacher’s Training College in Zomba which is wonderful for them to become better teachers, but not helpful to our current students who miss them periodically as they go for classes and exams throughout the year. For instance, they’ll be leaving at the beginning of next week and will not return until next term. That’s ten weeks of having only 6 teachers at Gwangwa!

In response to this problem, my community has come up with a pretty good solution. The same group of local chiefs, parents, PTA members and teachers who worked on our kitchen project have proposed that we undergo a large construction project to build housing for at least two new teachers and their families. The idea is to build nice, strong, attractive homes in order to entice teachers to come live in the village and work at Gwangwa. The problem is that most people graduating from teaching college would rather live somewhere with electricitly and running water than in the middle of nowhere without. We are confident, however, that once these houses are built the ministry of education will answer our prayers and send the teachers we so desperately need.

We have already started work on the house. The foundation has been built and bricks have as well been collected. The funds for this came from donations by local leaders including chiefs and village headmen as well as contributions by the parents of nearly all students. A portion of the money obtained from school fees has been used as well. We are working to get this project done, but still need a lot more help.

I have decided to raise a portion of the project costs from people back home. It’s a pretty big goal, but I hope that we’ll be able to find the help we need. If you are interested in personally donating or know of a group or organization who would be interested in raising funds please check out the link below.

All donations will be processed through Peace Corps and are tax-deductible.
Please contact me if you’d like more information on the project including letters or flyers or if you are interested in learning more about anything I am working on in Malawi.
I will keep you posted as the project continues!

Back to School

Believe it or not, I have just started my third year teaching at Gwangwa CDSS. I’m looking forward to another interesting, at times challenging and definitely always rewarding third school year. My course load this term includes all four forms of Physical Science (freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior) as well as Form Two and Four Biology (sophomore and senior). In the afternoons I am also going to be teaching computer studies to our best and brightest Form Twos, Threes and Fours. Though three weeks into the year, we haven’t started this yet as we are working out some kinks with our generator and I am focusing on more computer training for my fellow teachers. We’ll be starting student computer lessons in October and I cannot wait.

My other responsibilities remain the same, being in charge of the laboratory, assisting my friend Mr. Kasiya with the library and computer lab, serving as boarding matron, sportsmistress and running Debate, Science and Girls Clubs. I’m stoked about starting science club up again, last year’s crazy shortened school year forced me to forget about it more often than not. What’s really cool is that it’s been at the request of my Form Fours who loved it as Form Twos, that we start it back up again.

Here’s to another year!

Camps, Camps and More Camps

Maybe it’s an exaggeration, but I feel as if I’m always preparing for or coming back from some kind of camp for secondary school kids. This is must be because these camps have provided for some of my most rewarding and memorable experiences in Malawi. I love being a part of something that makes such a noticeable difference in the lives of kids here. The school year ended the first week in August and just started back up again on September 6th. In that four week span, I definitely kept myself busy, especially by working at both Camp GLOW and Camp Sky.

This was my first experience with Camp GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, a female empowerment camp put on by volunteers in countries throughout the world. I had sent students to this same camp last year and after noticing what a huge impact it had on them, I really wanted to help and share in the experience during this year’s camp. Nearly sixty or so Malawian high school aged girls were brought to a conference center, coincidentally at my closest major trading center, for a week where they were encouraged to stand up for themselves, their bodies and their futures. This included tons of guest speakers, influential Malawian women including the Malawian Vice President, Joyce Banda and a wide variety of other inspiring role models for the girls. They also attended a variety of classes and activities including those related to sexual health, the environment, self-esteem, women’s history, small business skills, community action, etc. I participated in the camp as a counsellor which meant that I along with my Malawian counterpart, a young nurse, were in charge of a group of about 11 girls for the week. The best part for me about this was our evening “pillow talk” sessions where we created a safe space for these girls to talk and express their feelings about the day’s lessons and whatever else was on their minds. Or course I also spent a lot of time singing and dancing and working with other counsellors to keep the girls energetic throughout the day and co-facilitated a few classes as well including Peer Education, Small Business Skills and Public Speaking.


Camp GLOW was a powerful experience for campers and counsellors alike. Here are a few pictures from the week!

Just a few days after Camp GLOW, it was time to travel a bit further north to Kasungu District for this year’s Camp Sky. I was really glad to be involved with the camp again this year and also really proud of all of the first year volunteers who worked hard to plan a very successful camp. The students had a great time and not only benefited from the lessons they received in the classroom but from extra-curricular activities as well. For my part, most of my work revolved around biology including teaching classes on plants and photosynthesis, helping with a goat dissection, teaching dichotomous keys and assisting in the sustainable agriculture class where the students learned about planting trees, permaculture and composting. Other than that I was of course busy lending a hand wherever I could, talking to students from schools throughout the country during meals and of course dancing at the disco on the last night. The core classes of Sky focused on math, physical science, biology and English. This year’s extracurricular activities, however, were even broader than last year’s and definitely enjoyed by students and teachers. The activities included: drama, sewing, agriculture, cooking, mud-stove making, business training, sports, poetry and many others as well as a field trip to the airport and Malawi Parliament.

My students benefited greatly from this year’s camp. Telinah, the girl whom I brought, has been so much louder, more confident and eager to participate in class since her experience. Ackson, the boy, wants me to “practice gender equality madam” and start a boy’s club to compliment our Gwangwa Girl’s Club here at school. A third student, Rosemary, participated as Junior Counselor; as always she did a great job motivating her friends and learned so much from her interactions with other students and teachers at camp. The camp has a second component called Teach Sky, at which Malawian teachers from CDSS’s come for training as well. This year I sent Mr. Gama, one of the teachers from my school and he has not stopped raving about all that he learned. He’s also passed on a lot of the materials and knowledge to our fellow teachers which means the camp is reaching even more people than anticipated.

Here are some pictures from Camp Sky 2010!