My After School Coloring Circle

Upon returning home from school each day, I'm greeted by a dozen or so of the other teachers' children waiting at my door. They're all wonderfully mannered and eagerly waiting to color, play, learn, sing songs and dance with Miss Kelly.

Their ages range widely from 1 and a half (Arnold) to 12 (Harisi). I give them each a piece of paper and spread out crayons to be shared on a mat outside my house or inside if it's raining. We draw pictures of ourselves, objects outside in the yard, etc. The younger children practice writing their names, numbers, and ABCs from templates I've written, while the older ones copy the simple English sentences I give them.

They're terribly sweet and want to help me practice my Chichewa as much as I want to help them practice their English! They stay until it begins to get dark and refuse to leave until I've checked each of their papers with my red pen and have written "VERY GOOD" at the top.

Sometimes they offer to sweep my house, fetch my water, and bring me vegetables and leaves from their gardens. In return, I like to treat them with small candies that either I've bought in town or have received from home like Life Savers, Jolly Ranchers, etc.

I've uploaded a few pictures of them, so you can get a better idea of how I spend my late afternoons.

Responsibilities at School

The Malawian school year's officially started. I've begun teaching and all of my other responsibilities at the school. I'm most definitely going to be busy this year, but if you know me, you know I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's what I'm teaching:

Physical Science - Form 1
Biology - Form 2
Biology - Form 3
English - Form 3
Life Skills - Forms 1-4

The other responsibilities I've been given:

• Librarian - I have the keys to the library and keep record of what books are taken by teachers and students. I'm also cleaning it up and keeping it open for students to read and study 3 days a week after school.
• Laboratory Master - I have the keys to the lab and need to figure out how to best organize and use it.
• Sports Master- Along with one of the other teachers, I'm running netball (girls) and football (boys soccer) games two days a week after school.
• Boarding Master - Again one of two teachers, in charge of making sure the girls who are staying in the empty classroom buildings at the school are doing well and finding access to the things they need.
• I'm on a few school committees as well such as those which make the timetable, schedule, etc.

More Pictures

Pictures of My House and School!

My Box of Letters

I spent last night reading everyone's Christmas letters. I just had to write again to say how much I truly loved them.

Best Christmas present I've ever received.

In the note on top my mom wrote "I was trying to think of what you'd want for Christmas and the only thing I could come up with was us!!! (who wouldn't)"

I can't think of a truer statement.

Merry Christmas and lots of love!

Merry Christmas from Malawi!

Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe it's December, let alone Christmas time already! This year's gone by so quickly and my time here is going by even faster.

I'm in Lilongwe for the day to meet with some friends from my training group for the holidays. Tomorrow morning we'll be heading to Senga Bay to spend Christmas camping on the beach!

I was able to pick up my mail today and received the box of letters my mom gathered from everyone in my family. I was so absolutely overwhelmed and so happy! I can't even describe it! It's so nice to hear from everyone at home, I love and miss you all. Thanks for thinking of me!

And thank you to everyone who's been sending me emails, letters, packages, etc. I know it's a pain that they take so long to get here and even longer for me to respond, but every letter or good thought from home that comes my way means the world!

Enjoy the holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love and Good Thoughts!

Kelly

A Few Reactions toward Me in My First Few Days

• Small children who scream, cry, and run away in fear upon seeing me
• Small children who are so incredibly happy to see me that the follow me, reach for my hands, and smile from ear to ear especially when I ask them their names
• A handful of people who upon my greeting them and asking how they are say “I am not well, I am hungry” or “Please give me food, I have nothing”
• People who tell me I should stay for more than two years and that Malawi is now my home
• A woman who asked if I was here to take pictures
• Many smiling, welcoming faces, when in Chichewa I introduce myself and say that I will be teaching here for the next two years
  

Gwangwa CDSS

I've been able to spend a few hours here and there looking through the materials and resources at my school. As I said before, my school's been completely renovated over the last two years with money from the African Development Fund. There are two new classroom buildings (two classrooms per building), two old classroom buildings, a library, a laboratory, and staffroom, and bathrooms (still pit latrines, I'm not that lucky) all enclosed by a very large brick fence.

The school grounds are fairly expansive; there are trees, shrubs, and some grasses dispersed throughout.

Each of the new classrooms have about 50 desks and chairs as well as two chalkboards in the front of the room. However, there are over twice as many students as desks in Forms One and Two, so I'll see how that works out come January when school is in session.

Attached to the the staff room, where I'll have my own spot and table, there is an office for the head teacher which also has a Dell computer and printer/copier machine.

The entire school has solar panels atop each building providing power for the computer and fortunately for me, to be able to charge my own phone, laptop, etc. There are a few water taps throughout the grounds so students can drink, wash their hands, etc. The water is pumped from a large storage tank also enclosed by the brick fence.

The area of my school which I've been spending the most time in so far is the building which holds the library and lab. I've been sorting through the books in the library; they're mostly assorted donated books and texts of all kinds. There are a ton of good resources to be found here for both students and teachers. I'm hoping that by organizing the space I'll be able to make it more accessible and encourage it's use. There's a study/reading room attached to it as well and I've been told that occasionally this space is used by students after school. I'm hoping to encourage much more of this when I begin teaching.

It's interesting the sorts of book that are housed within my library; some are great, some are very random. There's a decent set of texts (25 or so) for each of the major subjects but there are also sets of French books, books for using computers, for using Microsoft 2000, a set of teacher's edition Junior High algebra books, technical drawing, telescopes and astronomy, an entire set of the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and a few old but really great old novels like those by Steinbeck, Tolstoy, etc.

I feel similarly about my school's lab in that there's a ton of potential for it use. For now, it's not used at all and many of the chemicals and materials that came with it are still in their boxes, some opened, some not. There's a ton to sort through; chemicals, glassware, an autoclave, skeletons, batteries, models, all kinds of good resources for teaching and learning.

For now, I'll continue sorting through these two areas and soon after Christmas will start planning for the upcoming school year. I suppose I should say a bit about the school schedule.

In Malawi both primary and secondary school years are divided into three terms each lasting somewhere between 13 and 15 weeks depending on the year. This year the tentative schedule is as follows:

Term 1: January5th - April 3rd
Term 2: April 27th - July 24th
Term 3: August 17th - November 20th

So I'll have three sizable breaks throughout the year to relax, work on other projects and hopefully do some traveling throughout the country and continent.