Lazy Sunday

Saturday was our last day at the school. We finished up by playing a review game with the kids and using our solar ovens. They actually worked! If they had stayed out in the sun longer the water might have boiled, but it was certainly hot enough for tea. Another sad point of the lesson was our unit on how to care for someone with HIV/AIDS. The kids created an abstract character who had AIDS and we mentioned that making a will and saying goodbye to friends and family were important. To culminate our three days at the school we give all of the students red AIDS ribbons. We explain that it is a global symbol in the fight against AIDS. When they receive them they recite “I will help fight against HIV/AIDS.”

At the end of camp we had our presentations. They were all in Chichewa, so I wasn’t really sure what was being said but most of the classes did songs. My class’s skit and song went well…I recorded a video of it. Only a few parents showed up, but the village chief did. Apparently he was really drunk and we weren’t supposed to let him speak in front of everybody. The teachers who came for all three days were given World Camp certificates, and we also left condoms with the teachers.

When everyone got up to leave all of my students gave me hugs (of which I was slightly surprised because boys do not usually hug girls here) and A LOT asked to be pen pals…I have a lot of writing to do. While we were waiting for everyone to pack up we did some singing and dancing in a circle. Hip-hop culture is very reminiscent of the dancing here, i.e. a lot of grinding movement. I can see where it got its roots. They also sang a song which I thought was in Chichewa, but then realized it was in English, and then realized that the kids didn’t exactly know what they were saying. AIDS is said like “aids-ee” here, and the lyrics were “Aids-ee, Aids-ee, Aids-ee, it’s a keel-ah.” Based on the way it was sung, the other volunteers agreed that it was just treated as a normal song and the kids didn’t know what it meant. Music and dance are definitely a big part of the culture here.

It was sad saying goodbye to the school but I think we all walked away with an idea of the success there and that we had done good in the community. Since Sunday is our free day, we spent the rest of the night relaxing. We ended up going out to a casino, which was really fun. I spent 500 kwacha on blackjack, (140 kwacha = $1), but I didn’t win. At least I can say I gambled for the first time! There is a large middle eastern/east asian community here, they seem to run a lot of the businesses. Anyway, a lot of them were at the casino. It was also someone’s birthday at midnight, so we watched movies till pretty late.

In the morning some people went to church, I took the opportunity to sleep in. Since I am cooking with a group on Monday, we went to the vegetable market and then to Shoprite, the most “western” grocery here. It’s a short walk from the house. Shoprite is very enjoyable because they play the best of what you’d hear on Delilah, a lot of great tacky love song singalongs. Not everything is necessarily cheaper here though. Cereal is expensive. Veggies though are very cheap. They have the biggest avocados here you’ve ever seen. The size of a small watermelon. When we got back from shopping the group got to go on a city tour in the Land Rovers. We drove through one of the main markets, where we will get to go to in a few weeks. One of the main industries here is coffin production; we passed a lot of coffin dealers (yet another source of deforestation). I have also been noticing a lot of funeral-parlor like places in town and on the way to the school. It’s a sad reality. We also got to see a lot of government ministries and the Lilongwe hospital and UNC clinic!

Lilongwe is a very beautiful city. Today was a lot of fun and very relaxing, a lot of us watched more movies and went out for ice cream. Sunday is also our comment night, where we read funny quotes and whatever people submit into a comment box. Afterwards we decided as a group that for our last project, we want to visit a refugee camp 2 hours away. This is personally what I wanted to do as opposed to working with kids in the city, but the refugee camp is supposed to be more challenging because a lot of languages are spoken and the refugees are older.

World Camp recently purchased a massive vehicle, I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s currently sitting in the driveway area and being worked on. Nickname: The Steroid. It’s painted on the front. Apparently the program director, Baker, bought it so that everyone and all our school materials could fit in one vehicle. Right now about 12 people can fit into one Land Rover because you can enter from the back and the seats are shaped like a U. The steroid might be fixed in time to take it on safari, which is a week from today! I can’t believe it. It looks like it’s meant for tourists, I’ll just have to put up a pic later. Some other news in the house…we had a power outage the other night while I was in the shower, apparently this happens often.

Tomorrow the group is dividing and visiting two smaller schools. I am going to be one of the team leaders. Should be exciting!

Random fact: According to a Malawi guide book, Hastings Banda banned the song “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel because the lyrics corresponded to issues in his current love life.