Namwili/Chisomo

So far, teaching has been a rewarding experience for me. When kids comprehend what you are teaching, combined with the importance of the subject matters you are teaching them, it feels like a huge success. Namwili school was a huge downer. Not only did the kids not participate, but they were not absorbing anything. The curriculum is set up to be interactive and most activities are reinforced with note taking or quick review. Even in the past when some schools have been less knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, they still comprehend what is being taught. During a review on the first day the kids at Namwili thought that T-cells kill HIV and continued to repeat that answer even after another classmate gave a correct answer. I tried to keep patience at this school but it was extremely difficult. Luckily other classes were having similar problems too. It was ironic because the teachers at the school were friendly, outgoing, and more progressive than other schools, but the kids were totally backwards. My class was a mix of standards 6 and 7, ages 11 to 15. Maybe teaching was more challenging because we had to cram three days of teaching into two and the day seemed never-ending, but I felt like this was a poor end to our 6 camps. Everyone kept in mind though that this was the last time we’d be singing, doing games and teaching, so we tried to keep up the enthusiasm.

After teaching we had some delicious pasta salad for dinner, then followed the village chief across the street to the village. Pairs were dropped off at various houses. I stayed with Simone but we were in close vicinity to Korey and Gina. Our family was very sweet and welcoming, but not quite the same as my first family. English in the village was very scarce and people would keep talking to us in Chichewa…not getting the point as they were receiving blank stares from us. We had a lot of fun though, especially dancing. The village kids were really cute and imitated us as we danced to a local radio station. Some older ladies were very eager to introduce themselves and led us to the well to pump. My homestay mother and father were both 23 with a 3 year old daughter, Sabina. We met the 19 year old sister of the mother who had 2 children of her own. We taught them some dance moves, like the chicken dance, which they really seemed to enjoy. We also sang whatever we could come up with, from the Sound of Music to Baby Got Back. Since communication was more of a challenge we were kind of forced to be active instead of enduring awkward silence. Our host mother offered us nsima which we had to refuse…it was more difficult than I imagined because they were so hospitable. Since our host father knew some English, we compared words in English and Chichewa. Simone and I slept in a small concrete room with a grass roof.

Since it gets dark at around 6:30, we all felt more tired than usual and couldn’t really see much outside since it was overcast. We ended up going to bed at 8:30 after listening to some Chichewa news on the radio. Even though this family didn’t have the charm of the first family I stayed with, my feelings in the village were still the same. It’s amazing to see their sense of community when everyone congregates together, which in America is such a rarity. I also repeated in my head a few times “wow, I’m really in the middle of an African village.” With no electricity, feeling the silence and tranquility of the village is something rare to experience. It is so soothing and relaxing to be in the middle of nature, especially when these people have no sense of stress or obligation.

The next morning our family woke up at 5:00 on the dot but we decided to sleep in before it was time to go to school. I was not especially looking forward to day 2, but again realized that this was the last time we would be teaching together and tried to keep up the energy. Surprisingly the kids did pretty well during our review board game, so I felt a little better. During presentations, the headmaster made a really nice speech to us, saying how he felt that our work was very valuable and how we should come back next summer to follow up. He also decided to accept our condom donation publicly, which was a first. A good number of villagers showed up for presentations, but not in the crowds like our first homestay school. After presentations some girls did a traditional circle dance, which was very similar to what we watched in the yard of our first homestay, i.e. it went on forever. Then we played a game of football which we tied and ate canned food from our solar ovens.

Back in the village that night we danced and sang more. The villagers joked with us about how we should take their babies back to the US, which I would have done in a heartbeat. There are so many babies in the villages! Soon enough it was time for bed, but you could see fairly well outside from the light of the moon. In the morning we had to leave early, but exchanged addresses and said our farewells. As much as I enjoyed homestay, I couldn’t wait to rush into the shower at home before the hot water ran out.

Back at the house we were all exhausted but were preparing lunch for our translators, since it was the last time we would be seeing most of them. Saying goodbye really signified that we were…done…scary thought. That night we went out to a nightclub, which was an interesting and hilarious experience. It’s fun when we get to have little outings around town. I’d say I could get around central Lilongwe if I had to by now, and when I get home I am not going to be used to driving on the right side of the road.

Today we went to the Chisomo community center, which houses city kids who are homeless or come from bad homes. We planned some activities for the kids, like lunch, arts and crafts, relays, and a piñata. These kids were really different from village kids, in that they were very receptive to us and less shy. There were about 40 kids total, which was good number, and most were boys. It was so fun to take a break from teaching and really have a good time with them, whether it was dancing or talking. I helped man the arts and crafts station, and the kids made pictures and necklaces out of wire and buttons. There were some memorable little boys around age 10 but who could pass for 5, extremely sweet and always holding someone’s hand. One boy even offered to share his nsima with me. They loved getting pictures taken and dancing with us. We stayed for about 6 hours. Overall our planning went well since we didn’t know what to expect. Tomorrow we will try to do the same thing at an orphanage, except there will be close to 250 kids as young as 2.

After we visit the orphanage, we are going back to Lake Malawi for a few days for final relaxation/bonding time, then it will be time to go home. I can’t believe that these 5 weeks have passed so quickly. When I get home I will miss the constant companionship I have here…I doubt there will be any other instance in my life where I get to live in a house with 22 other people. I will certainly miss random conversations and inside jokes and learning from these people who are all so different but so amazing. The World Camp house is a second home for me.