National Day of Education featuring The Bookbus!!
Posted
by
Kelly
on 05 Nov 2010
Week 4. Part B
Wednesday was a school holiday as it was National Day of Education and we were invited by the other PEA in the area, Mr Wilson, to the celebrations in his district at Madziabango Primary School. We were told to arrive at 10am and that there would 9 schools attending and each school would be presenting some kind of dance or song. Little did we know that we were going to be star attraction! When we arrived we were told to park the bus behind the VIP area and then were given seats amongst the head teachers, chiefs and other important people!
Things started surprisingly promptly at only 10.15! There were some very long speeches and then something was said in Chichewa and the only 2 words I understood were Bookbus and M’zungu! Then Douglas told us you have to get up and perform!! Now there were several thousand kids there, from preschool to secondary school and they were all staring at these M’zungus! Now talk about being thrown in the deep end!! We did a quick appraisal of the situation and decided that the only thing we could “perform” at such short notice was the banana song and that we did…but to our biggest audience yet and they were tough! A few joined in but most just stared at these crazy beings in yellow!!! I have to say it’s up there with the most embarrassing moments of my life! Then just as we sat down, there was some disco music played and we were pulled up by teachers and made to dance!! After a while some kids joined in and then it wasn’t quite so embarrassing! And just then when I thought it was over I had to make a speech!! More embarrassment, but after the banana song I could do anything!! Thanks to Catherine and Arno for all their support in this matter!!
After that we were left to watch all the schools performing and it was great, especially when we saw the kids from yesterday’s school singing. They all gave us big smiles and waves! After all the acts, more dancing, we were slowly becoming experts, and more speeches, we invited to be in the official photos, most of which we were asked to take with our cameras! Then we were invited to a classroom where we were all given the biggest chunk of bread ever and a fizzy drink. This was a real honour and it was obvious that people were pleased to have us there. Mr Wilson then wanted to show us his office and on the way there he said to me. “There are National Day of Education celebrations going on all over the country right now, but here at mone we have something special that no one else has and that is you and your Bookbus!” He was really proud that we were there in his district. So, after many more photos, everyone seemed to want to be snapped with a m’zungu and a lot more dancing, but in the middle of a crowd of kids it’s fine, it was time to leave. We gave some teachers a lift up the mountain and then we invited the 2 teachers from Masuku school for lunch, although I had to warn them that it would be a M’zungu lunch and not traditional N’shima!!
We spent the entire afternoon chatting about the differences between Malawi and the UK. There were so interested to hear about our lives. They couldn’t believe that every home has running water and electricity and the concept of the underground shocked them but the one thing they wouldn’t believe until we showed them in a book was that the Channel Tunnel actually existed! In turn they told us about different traditions in Malawi, the importance of religion and learning English and the absolute steadfast belief in witchcraft.
Thursday saw another remote school but this one was standards 1 to 8 and we were accompanied by Mr Wilson. We taught standards 8, 7 and 6 and once again we were warmly welcomed, encouraged and joined by the teachers. We witnessed grade 2 listening to a radio teaching programme which apparently most schools in the area use. Mr Wilson strode around our lessons with a clipboard asking both us and the students many questions. We taught from books about hair around the world, how to tell the time, how animals work (Did you know? The snow leopard can jump 14metres-it’s a fact!!) and the ever popular How to catch a Star. We found places on maps, played team find the flag games, made clocks, masks and star pictures! We also visited standard 1 which was being taught in a grass shelter and were sitting on small stones to stop them sitting in the dirt. On our journey back MR Wilson told us how impressed he was with our teaching methods and that we should continue the good work in his district!
Friday and our final day of teaching for a while, we went to Nankhufti Primary School. The setting was beautiful and the road, nothing more than a track with lots of steep slopes. The same old story as the whole week at the school, 6 standards and only 4 classrooms and 4 teacher, engaging and willing pupils and interested and dedicated teachers. The classrooms here only have dirt floors and no proper blackboards but the children are bright and want to learn so much. We did all our lessons with standards 5 and 6 and we had much fun, especially when Arno and Douglas showcased the TV they had made with their standard 6 pupils. During the last lesson Catherine and I were shocked to hear some children singing the banana song, now the only place they could have heard that was at the day of education, so it proves that someone had been listeneing!! They insisted on having a rendition before we left..one last time couldn’t hurt!
So after 4 amazing weeks, the Bookbus is taking a break. We have seen and experienced so much! We have read with thousands of kids and met so many inspiring and dedicated teachers, we have seen wild game, a beautiful lake, live music, rural Malawi, bustling markets and schools fit to bursting. Everyone has taken something away with them from their experience with the Bookbus, whether it be the pupils, the teachers, the volunteers or myself. And I hope that the good work we have begun in Malawi can continue.