Off the Beaten Track!!
Posted
by
Kelly
on 02 Nov 2010
Week 4. Part A.
Our second week in Blantyre and we were heading off the beaten track. All of this weeks schools are located out in the villages, along dirt tracks that are pretty hair raising as they follow the contours of the hills! Thankfully we have our truck and our excellent driver, Douglas! One day the track we were following was so steep it looked impossible, I asked Douglas, “Are you scared?” and he just shook his head, smiled and carried on driving!
We were passing through real Malawian life everyday, seeing people hoeing their fields, pumping water, doing their laundry or carrying buckets of water, bundles of sticks or bags of flour on their heads. Rural life in Malwai is very hard and most people survive by doing some small form of agriculture. There is massive unemployment and no homes have running water or electricity. This life will become harder when the rains come as it will wash away the tracks and roads they use and turn everything into mud but it will also bring relief for their fields after months of no rain and everyone is just waiting for the first rains so they can begin planting their maize. The women here are incredibly strong, carrying a bucket of water on their head, a child on their bag and a bag of something in their arms. They are also the ones you see hoeing the fields, again usually with a baby on the back!
Monday’s school was Chipwepwete and it was only standards 1 to 6. Any children who want to continue their education them have to make the long walk to the schools located along the tarmac road, this is common place in Malawi. The teachers and pupils greeted us warmly. Here they have just over 400 learners. They have 6 classes but only 4 teachers and 3 classrooms. One class takes place under a thatched shelter, one under a large tree and one in a nearby thatched church. The whole community was so pleased to see us. Here we taught (for the first time) standards 5 and 6. The children’s English wasn’t amazing but they were so keen to try and the teachers were a huge help here, joining in and making everything along with the kids. Most of the learners didn’t know how to use the scissors or glues and they were shy at first about taking the materials but they soon got over that and there were smiles all around! We finished by congregating in the thatched shelter for some singing and reading with anyone who wanted to join in!
On Tuesday we made another journey out into the bush! This road was steeper and the track just seemed to cling to the side of the hills. The journey was incredibly rural so we were more than surprised when we arrived and found a brand new school, with great classrooms and enough desks! Not what we expected, but the headteacher explained that it had been funded by an EUprogramme a couple of years ago. So they have enough classrooms, there are 6 and this school is only standards 1 to 5 but there are 400 pupils, 5 classes but only 3 teachers and no resources. So although it may look perfect, it is far from being a reality. The welcome that we got from the 3 teachers here was so warm, they don’t get many visitors up this way! They joined in absolutely every activity that we were doing and as we did lessons with standards 4 and 5 their translations were sometimes required, especially with standard 4. But however low the level of English was the children all had such fun and so did the volunteers. We came away with a really good feeling after todays sessions. The setting of the school was breathtaking, the welcome so genuine and the kids so eager to learn, although the sad reality is that many may stop their schooling after standard 5 and if they want to continue they must face the long and steep journey to the nearest senior primary school.
The evenings at Fisherman’s rest are very peaceful and very dark. It is an excellent place to watch the sunset and to star gaze in the evening, there are no major sources of light pollution so the stars are very bright. Luckily the breeze that comes off the mountain helps to keep it a bit cooler, although the thermometer in the truck has been slowly rising since we arrived and we are now in the high30’s everyday!
Continued in next Blog.