Ngulule

Ngulule = mouthful. We arrived at the school yesterday after an hour drive on unpaved road, quite an adventure. Since this school was slightly smaller, about 110 students, we divided up the volunteers. As team leader with Gina I had to pack extra school supplies and lunch...i.e. a 50 pound cooler of nsima and another cooler of relish. The kids at this school all wore bright blue uniforms. They did not seem very excited to have us there, so it took awhile to get them into our songs and games. We all agreed that the first school had more character. There was also a lack of rugrats, which was nice because we didn't have to be bothered by them as a distraction. In this school we taught standards 5-8, about ages 11-18. Being team leader requires more preparation than a teacher but certainly gives more down time. We have to introduce the volunteers, divide the kids into classes, and lead evaluations back at the house.

I also had to cook last night and my group decided to make veggie chile. It was more difficult than we expected because you can't get canned beans here. We had to soak them and they took forever to cook. Turned out to be an OK meal though. We haven't had a bad meal yet here and it's always a nice surprise to see what people make for dinner. Each group is limited to 4000 kwacha per dinner, the equivalent of $28 for 25 people. Our meals are vegetarian, but it's amazing to see how far kwacha can go here.

On the second day at the school there were a lot more rugrats and younger students who didn't want to go home. To keep them occupied and away from the classrooms I taught them "We Will Rock You" with a stomp stomp clap, but they had a hard time pronouncing the words. These kids will mimic literally anything. Even when we told them the Chichewa words for "home" and "goodbye," they would repeat them over and over. I guess our Chichewa isn't that good. Gina and I ended up sitting inside the Land Rover to read, and all the kids came up to the windows and watched our every move.

This school had a particularly abundant animal population...lots of goats, chickens, and dogs. The dogs remind me of some of the giant chihuahua-looking ones in Oaxaca. Apparently there is a term for these types of dogs - DWD, developing world dog. They are all very skinny. The highlight of our day though was feeding puppies some leftover nsima.

Tomorrow is our last day at the school, then when we get home we are going to pack for our homestay. We'll be staying for two nights. Apparently communication with the families is near impossible, so people don't bother. We stay with one other volunteer in each house. In the villages people go to bed when it gets dark and wake up to do work right when the sun comes up. Guess I'll have to adjust my sleep schedule again, it gets dark fairly early here. (Also since I won't have a computer/phone while we are there, happy birthday Daddy!)

In World Camp news, WC has planned their first reunion. It's going to be in September in Boone, and it's for all the volunteers from the past 7 years from Malawi, Honduras, and India. It'll be exciting to see everyone again!