Fears and Failures

I haven't posted a blog in awhile. I have been doing most of my communicating on Facebook because it is easier to load with our internet service.

I will try to catch you up on all happenings!

First, I tried a frightening version of jump rope where they go so extremely fast!

I'll let you guess how that went!

Nursery has been going great! The students have accepted the routine and I barely need to give verbal directions! But it's nice to have Augustine there when I get the stare. 

They have learned six letters, days of the week, months of the year, shapes and several songs like Old McDonald and If You're Happy and You Know It! The most amazing feat is getting them to all sit down at the same time and stay seated, which they can do now!

A couple day a week there is another volunteer that comes in and takes the 2-3 year olds and does fine motor activities with them. This has been SO important!

Not many pictures from Nursery because I am spinning my wheels while I'm there! But here I taught the kids Duck Duck Goose, but I put a twist in it. They say the days of the week and the kid that gets Sunday is the goose.

We had a power outage the other day. The volunteers had a nice romantic mean together:)

We strolled to a neighboring village and made some new friends!

I threw an American style BBQ for someone's birthday!

I went to a school assembly where they announced to the village who passed on to the next standard and who failed! But first they entertained us with fun songs and dances!

On the weekend we went to Liwande National Park. My goal was to see a monkey, Crocodile, hippo, elephant and rhino.

Monkey...check!

Pumba (pig) Not on my list, but...check!

Elephants...MAJOR check!

Beautiful sunset...BONUS check!

The one meal we had was cooked in the dark, since that is when we returned to our campsite. It gets dark at about 6:00 PM. We slept in tents by the water. We heard the hippos laughing all night. They sound like Jabba the Hutt. It was kind of hilarious, but I didn't sleep much. We had to be up at 5 am for the rhino tracking!

Tracking rhino...took 3 hours (We didn't start until 7 am. I should have known that we wouldn't actually start at 5. You have to sit for at least an hour before doing anything here.) We finally found 2 rhinos, but they were about 75 yards away and they immediately sensed our presence and darted into the brush. I didn't have enough time to get my camera out...big bummer that still bugs me when I think about it...but I DID see 2 of them!

More pumba...We also saw a lot of impala and birds...

The crocodiles are just menacing. This one was literally 3 feet from me, but there was a major incline, so I was safe.

We had to view the hippos from a distance because our guide wanted to spend time looking at the birds...who cares about birds? I wanted to see the hippos...but, CHECK!

Ellie and I had a fabulous time in the wild. 

School ended last week for primary students. We had a hope that the nursery kids would continue to show up, but they have not :( So I have created a project to clean and update the nursery! On Tuesday I swept all of the cobwebs, dirt and hives out! Tomorrow I will scrub the walls and go to Mangochi to get the supplies needed to install hooks for backpacks, paint to add the days of the week and months of the year to the walls and bars to block the windows so that they can start storing nursery supplies in the nursery without them disappearing.

I am also trying to get supplies to build dry erase frames. Every classroom has chalk boards right now and there is chalk dust everywhere, all the time! I suggested that we make dry erase frames for teachers that would like to try using dry erase boards. Pens cost just as much as chalk and last so much longer! We're going to try it out in nursery and see how it goes...unfortunately, I will not be around to see.

And NOW you are caught up on what I have been up to for the past 2 weeks! The time has flown and I will most definitely miss the people of Malawi when I leave! I am trying to make the most of my last few productive days here!

The Reality of Culture

WARNING - This is a head post. Some of its content may unintentionally be off putting, but stick with it! None of it is intended to be hurtful or disrespectful.

This weekend we have stayed close to home, but this evening we drove to a lodge to have dinner. During dinner our conversation turned to the culture of Nkope. Augustine, who happens to be the only Malawian in the group was explaining that women in the village are afraid to speak up to their husbands about getting checked for HIV. The women are required by law to be checked before they give birth, but there is no law requiring men be checked.

One of the volunteers was appalled at the notion and declared "The women need to be empowered to say something!" The conversation continued on with everyone trying to convince the volunteer that no outside source is going to convince a woman to act in a way that conflicts with her culture.

I am a very vocal person, but I sat back and observed this exchange. The initial volunteer was adamant that we could do something to empower women and their rights .he rest argued that the change must come from within.

Finally, the topic died down and they began to discuss their biggest surprises of their experience in Nkope. A lot of the responses were fairly surface level things, such as how the schools run, the traditions of the village etc. I wasn't really thinking about my own response as I listened to each person talk about their experience.

When it cam my turn to share I paused for a bit. And then I shared my biggest ahah of my time in Nkope thus far:

The world is a big place. I never realized how big it really is. The culture of Malawi is and was beyond shocking to me, it was baffling. Then I realized that there are thousands of cultures that differ just as much, if not more than mine.

There are things that I wish I could take home with me and pass on to my community, but I know that it wouldn't fit the culture that I live in. I know that the people of Nkope have such a great understanding of community. They are never in their houses. They are always outside their houses, around bonfires, talking, telling stories and appreciating each other to the fullest. They know that they need to cherish the people around them, because they rely on them each day.

These are things that I admire, but because of the busy nature of my culture and the family isolation that I see in my world, it is not reasonable to think that I could somehow bring that home with me. The same thing relates to things that I think I bring to Nkope.

I don't like how children and women are looked at as less.

I don't like how little education seems to be valued.

I am disturbed by the lack of commitment to being on time for anything.

But there is nothing that I'm going to do to change that. These are constructs that this culture has built and it is a part of who they are. Until the people as a whole decide that they want something different, it will not change. And that is not a bad thing. The people in Nkope are happy people. They walk down to a beautiful lake every morning and bathe and do their washing as the sun comes up. During their lunch break they can come back to that same lake for a quick swim and fishing. They eat porridge for lunch and Nsima for lunch almost every day, and they like it! They say it makes them strong!

Until the people of Nkope decide that its important for women to have more of a voice in the home, it will remain as it is. Until laws are passed that say a man must be tested for HIV, then they will continue to refuse (These are obviously generalizations). That is the reality of culture! Nobody likes to see people dying when there's something that can be done about it and we can continue to provide resources and education on the issue, but we are not going to empower the women of Nkope to rise up and take a more aggressive approach in the home and that is OK.

I've got news for you. We do things that are killing us and our brains every day.

We over eat. We live sedentary life styles.

We watch hours of television.

We eat too much fast food.

We play violent video games and watch violent and vulgar movies.


These things are not good for us, but we all want the right to do them. None of the things listed above are an issue in Nkope, should they send a team of people to America to change the way we live our lives? Or should the community of people recognize the issues and address them as a culture (Again, generalizing!)

Most of the people that I am working with are quite young. Half of them are under the age of 23. I think they really want to believe that they are changing the world, which in a small but meaningful way they are. But I told them that I don't think we're here to change the world. I think we're here to change our thinking about the world and how it works. And the way that people work. I told them that I think they should look at ways that they have changed because of this experience.

Anyway, on the 30 minute drive back to Nkope I thought about how significant those words are to me and I decided I wanted to share them. My friends and family are the most important thing to me and in no way do I devalue my life at home with these thoughts. It is simply a way for me to face the hard truth about culture and that is that it is as much a part of a person as their DNA. I love you all and cannot wait to see you again!

Routine?

I am a creature of habit and routine. I crave predictability. That desire will go unquenched in this journey. Every day brings new surprises and challenges. A few days ago I was told that I would not be needed at the primary school, because the children are taking exams. The volunteer coordinator said she would figure something out for me. I told her that I would be willing to help out in the nursery that I had heard about. She told me that I could do that for a day to check it out.

“Check it out” meant teach it, which I did not understand. I showed up on Tuesday morning and they said “OK, teach something!” Luckily I had learned from previous experiences here and I brought some supplies (magnetic letters, dry erase board etc.)

The nursery is much like the other classrooms in the village. It is an empty room with a chalk board on one wall. The difference in the nursery is that a volunteer has painted letters and numbers on the wall. It actually looks quite nice.

The children in the nursery are approximately 2-5 years old. The teacher is a mother from the village that does not get paid to teach. Her name is Rosy. She is very sweet and gentle. She speaks some english and is helpful at times with translating.

Luckily, my partner in crime, Augustine, is always with me. He has been my translator, comedy relief and guide to safety since I’ve been here! He has truly been a life saver, quite literally! He also leads the morning calendar routine in the nursery.

The first day I taught Old McDonald and we learned the letter “s”. I also taught them how to say “Good morning, how are you?”  We also took some time using the parachute. It was fun, but it quickly turned into mayhem, which I allowed since they do so much sitting. 

On day 2 we took some tooth brushes with us. We had taken them the day before, but the water pump had been broken so we couldn't use them. This day we took a large container of water with us. 

We continued working on Old McDonald. They are only able to sing the "EIEIO" part, and sometimes they try to make the animal noises with me. One of the nursery kids is the child of the program director, so he lives in the volunteer house. Every day he sees me now he comes up and quietly sings "EIEIO!" Its adorable:)

I taught them the letter M and we did teeth brushing. I really thought that this was going to be a challenge for me, since the thought of looking in anyone's mouth makes me nauseous. But it was actually quite enjoyable. I spent time with each child and I learned the word "Lavula" which means "spit". I left that day knowing that I wanted to come back. The children are noisy and crazy, but they are enjoyable!

On Wednesday night I had to boil all of the toothbrushes because we had not labeled them with each child's name and we had to use them on Thursday. So, I spent my evening heating water and boiling toothbrushes. You might call THAT a first!

On Thursday we returned to the nursery and all of the kids were standing out on the dirt road. The door was locked and no one was there. We unlocked the door and let all of the children in.

Keep in mind that these little babies walk to school by themselves and go home by themselves. Some of them even wander out during the day. I explained the process for dismissing children in the US to Augustine and his response was "WOW!"

We got the children settled and realized that Rosy was not coming today. I sat them in a circle and taught them Duck, Duck, Goose. They picked up on it quite quickly, but like a lot of things it didn't take long for it to spin out of control. So we switched gears and I taught them "If You're Happy and You Know It". They LOVED that! Then I taught them the letter R.

Then I pulled out my iPad. I showed it to the students and told them that I was going to read them a story, but if they stood up I would have to put it away. I read them Little Red Riding Hood. In the book the pictures move and its very bright. Augustine commented that he had never seen all of the children sitting at once! He is always chasing one of them down. But they were transfixed on the story the whole time.

Finally I took the children one at a time to brush their teeth. Since there was only two of us I was on my own with the tooth brushing.

I am quite amazed at how clean their teeth are, mostly. Augustine tells me that a lot of them chew on sugar cane, which is good for their teeth. Their parents clean their teeth every morning, but with soap. Most of the kids really enjoy the tooth brush. 

And some do not!

To be clear, this little girl let me brush her teeth, but she cried the entire time.

At my weekly briefing today I told the volunteer coordinator that I wouldn't mind staying in the nursery for the rest of my time here. There is a lot of good that can be done there. I told her that there is potential if there is some consistency in the classroom. She mentioned that she has been thinking about creating a volunteer position that just works in the nursery and I told her I thought that was a good idea.

It is very hard to explain how I feel about being here. I love the work that I am doing. A lot of the setting makes me very uncomfortable and I certainly miss the comforts of home. I miss eating meat! 

But I know that what we are doing here makes a difference. Since my arrival I have witnessed substantial differences in how misbehavior is dealt with in our library times. I have been able to show a level of expectations that just hasn't existed. 

The students respond well to it and we having record numbers of kids at our library times. The past week we have seen between 80 and 100 kids at each session. When I first arrived there were between 20 and 30. I don't take full credit for that, but I feel like I am a part of something that is using me and my skills, which is nice.

On Monday, all but one of my teammates are going home. This makes me a bit nervous for my remaining two weeks. There is a lot of work for 6 of us to do. I can't imagine doing it with 2! But I hear that its been done with one person before.

It sounds like the volunteer coordinator is going to keep me at the nursery for now, which pleases me. I really enjoy that work in the morning. 

The pas 2 weeks have flown by. I am trying to live in each moment, because I know that this experience only happens once in a lifetime if you're lucky!

Home Away From Home

I was asked to talk about where I am staying while in Nkope.


Nkope Mission is a village found near Monkey Bay on the southern tip of Lake Malawi

The volunteer house is situated right up against the lake. This is the view from the back porch:

                                      

This is the entrance to the backyard:

Here is a sitting area, right inside the backdoor. This is a great place to sit and plan.

This is the view from the front of the house. This house is completely self sufficient. It has its own water processing, sewage etc. There is a garden that grows all of the vegetables we eat. (I have had meat for 1 meal since I've been here...and that was a quarter piece of steak like substance...I'm not sure it was beef.) The project manager and volunteer coordinator live on the property, but in different quarters. The property is completely gated in and there are two guards on duty. There is a gardener, a cook, a housekeeper and a dog named Scrappy!

This is the view from the front porch, looking out toward the garden and the front gate. When you walk down that long dirt road you come to a gate. On the other side of the gate is the village of Nkope. I teach at Nkope Hill Primary School, which is about 1/4 of a mile walk. 

I have had to change my lifestyle quite a bit here. We eat for survival, not for recreation. The food comes in very small portions and there is very little protein, that I am willing to eat:) I brought some protein bars and I have been supplementing my diet with those. Its a very communal life style and it is difficult to find alone time, though the group I am currently with is quite enjoyable. Luxuries such as hot water, electricity and even just water are unpredictable. I feel well taken care of, though. We are the privileged few. No other home has as many luxuries as we do. Everyone else drinks their water straight from the river...The same river they bathe in and wash their dishes in.

That is just a glimpse into my life in Nkope.

Private Tears

WARNING - The following post takes a break from the normal day to day documentation of my trip. Enter at your own risk...


As some of you may know, I am a pretty emotional person. My principal jokes that she is more of a man than I am! Luckily, the group that I am working with in Africa does not know this about me. I am able to come across as a pretty level headed person. On the inside, I am a hurricane! My eyes water from joy, awe, excitement, sadness, brokenness and compassion for the people, sights, sounds and experiences in my daily life here. And I have only been here for 1 week!

This weekend we went to the Kuti Wildlife Reserve, which is about 2 1/2 hours from Nkope Village, where I am living. We headed out on Friday at about 1:30 in the afternoon. After all eight of us squeezed into our minibus, along with tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, food and a spare "tire", we started rolling down the pitted dirt roads of Malawi.

Could not get a picture that wasn't blurry, due to those fun Malawi roads!

The beginning of the trip started with jovial conversations and selfies (mostly just me), but as time moved on, the van grew quieter as people retreated to their books, journals and thoughts. Mine, almost like clock work, turned to reflection.


Several people joked that I would come home with a group of kids in tow. At the time I found it amusing. Now, I see the reality in the feeling. I had no idea how much I would look into the eyes of each individual person I encounter here. I had no idea how uniquely I would see each of them. Before I left, the images I made had no faces. Now they do.  They are kind, excited, hopeful, shy, funny, sneaky, friendly, scared, apprehensive and proud.

Their lives are COMPLETELY different from mine, but we share so many feelings and desires. I don't feel sorry for them, like I thought I would. I am in awe of their life style. Their work ethic, the way they value community, their resourcefulness and their pride for who they are.

As I'm having these thoughts, driving down the rough dirt rode, I come to realize that my face is covered in tears. I look around, self-conciously, to realize that no one is even aware of my private tear moment. I am relieved, but I also find it a bit humorous.

My point is that I am so blessed to have this opportunity to change my paradigm entirely. I might have some incidental impact on the people of Nkope, but they most definitely will change me and my small thinking. Our world is so large and there are so many things that we just don't understand. We pretend to be in control and have all of the answers, but we do not.

Rubber, Meet Road!

On Tuesday, I sat through a rigorous orientation, in the harshest of conditions! 

I took a tour of the village I would be working in and I participated in my first “library” time. This is a time after school that students come to the school library and the volunteers do an activity, play a sport and have a read aloud.

On Tuesday, the kids drew self-portraits, played “futbol” and had a chapter book read aloud. I observed the children draw the self-portraits and I played futbol with the kids. They are very tough and fast! They all play barefoot, and they are running over rocks and bricks, not brick floors, actual piles of bricks. You find piles of bricks almost everywhere you go. I am still trying to fully understand why. Most of their structures are built with bricks or mud. (Was that a rabbit trail?) (Since typing this, I have found out that they actually produce bricks to sell and that is why there are piles of them everywhere.)

After a kid scored a goal with his head during futbol, I told him that he was mighty and he said “My name is Mada!” I greeted him. He said “What is your name?” I said “Oh, its easy: Wayne!” He says “Ohhh…easy Wayne!” Then another boy said “Easy Wayne?” I said “No, Wayne.” The second boy says “Ween?” It took several minutes, but I finally got them to understand that my name was Wayne. (Though, Mada still thinks it’s hilarious to call me “Ween”!) Later on in the same game I used my head to hit the ball and he pointed at his head and yelled “MIGHTY!” Needless to say, I already love Mada!

On Wednesday, I met the students that I will be teaching. I observed the classroom for the morning. The children that I will be teaching are “standard 6”, which is the equivalent of 6^th grade, I think… Children do not move on to the next standard until they pass the assessment for that standard. There is a 23 year old in my class. Standard 6 is the first year that the students are taught in English. They understand little to no English.

There are 3 teachers that share the load for each classroom, but only two taught on this particular day. Class size has a whole new meaning here. There are approx. 90 students in my particular class. This is actually one of the smaller classes. The average class size is over 100. The children sit on the floor. There is nothing in the room except for a blackboard.

Before going to class, the students met in the church for “assembly” time. The students sing together and then a person speaks for about 15 minutes. I am assuming it was some sort of Christian message, though I am not positive. My evidence is that he would yell “hallelujah?” and everyone would reply “Amen!”

After the assembly, the students go to their classes. My class sat down at around 8:00 am. We stayed in class until 10:30. The children sat the entire time, on a cement floor. Since there are 90 kids in such a small room, it is very jam-packed.

The teacher started class of by talking about a special guest. He said “He will talk very fast! So, you MUST pay close attention!” I had no idea that he was talking about me. I also had no idea that I would be talking on this particular day. My translator told me that I was to go in front of the class and introduce myself…

For those of you that know me, I’m not really a spur of the moment kind of guy. I stood up and walked to the chalkboard and said “My name is Wayne.” And I wrote it on the board. I then said, “I am a teacher in the United States of America! I teach 6 year olds!” I then wrote “6 year olds” on the board. Everyone began to laugh hysterically. This is not what you want to happen during your first time talking to a class…

I stood there confused for a moment. The teacher said something to the class in Chichiwa and they all responded “Ohhhh!” Then they proceeded to clap. I was very confused. The translator explained that the class had thought that I was telling them that I was 6 years old and that the teacher had explained that I TAUGHT 6 year olds. I laughed and wrote “39” on the board and pointed to myself. They all laughed and gave me thumbs up. I have a feeling that this will not be the only time that happens.

At 10:30 the students go out for a nsima break. This is a porridge made from crushed maze. It has very little flavor, but has a lot of protein. The students show up to school with a spoon and a fork, just for the nsima break!

I headed back to the volunteer house to read some of the curriculum books for the subjects I will be teaching. I’ll get into that later. Then we have a two-hour lunch. Meals so far have been pretty good, but they have mostly been vegetarian meals. Four of the eight volunteers are Vegetarians, so I guess that means we all areJ The energy bars that I brought with me have been very useful.

After lunch we went back to the school for another day of “library”. I taught the students how to make paper airplanes. There were probably 30 students. Everyone was pretty impressed that I was able to get almost all of them to create a properly functioning airplane. The ensuing craziness outside was hilarious! The children LOVED it! I believe that people attending the PTA meeting next door did not appreciate it as much as I did!

I asked the kids which person thought that theirs would go the furthest. Only one kid raised his hand…So the whole time he just kept yelling “NUMBER 1!” as he threw his plane.

Kids are kids, no matter where you go! They get excited about the same things! They act crazy. They karate chop and kick each other constantly. But, when it is time to learn they are very well trained to stop and pay attention.

*I have videos, but they won't load right now:( I will continue trying to post the videos.