Hello all and happy Thanksgiving!! I cannot believe that the holiday season is starting already. We are in Lilongwe now because tomorrow the US Ambassador is hosting all the PCVs at his house for Thanksgiving dinner. It does not seem like the end of november. It is hot here and getting hotter every day, and we are entering the rainy season, so it is now starting to get humid as well. Yuck! Although today we got to spend a little more time in Lilongwe for the 1st time and we found an actual grocery store. They had a Christmas tree up and were selling Christmas decorations. It was like walking back into the States for a few minutes. Of course we couldn't afford anything in there. It was the equivilent of about $12 for a stick of deodorant! Although I did splurge on a chocolate bar for 500 kwacha (a little over $3).
So anyway, training is still going well. We have finished up our homestay and are stationed back at the Malawi College of Forestry (for the most part) for the time being. The most exciting news so far-- we learned our sites!!! Last week we had site announcements and then Saturday thru today we went to visit our sites. We are going to be teaching at Kacheche Community Day Seconday School, which is near Rhumphi, just north of Mzuzu. We love our site! Our headmaster (principal) just took over at the school halfway through last year and is already doing a lot of great things with the school. We are in a river vally which means that we can grow crops even in the dry season, although it also means lots of mosquitoes. We definitly have our work cut out for us though. I will be teaching forms 1 and 3 biology (instead of grades 9-12 it is forms 1-4), form 3 math, and form 1 physical science (ps). The school previously did not have a ps teacher and so did not offer that class, even though it is required for students to go on to any type of post-secondayr education or training. So, even though I will be teaching only the form 1 class, I will be doing intensive after school ps clubs to catch up other students who are interested. Also, Zeb is teaching not only english, but form 1 math and forms 1 and 2 life skills! It looks like we are going to focus a lot on teaching rather than any type of secondary projects (atleast for this first year), but that is what the school and the students really need. It will be hard but we are excited. The other teachers seem pretty good so far too. They previously had 5 teachers at the school, and in addition to Zeb and I they are hiring another, which will make a total of 8. AND, there will be 4 women teachers (including the deputy headmaster) and 4 men, which is very exciting here! Over all we are quite pleased wtih our site. We have been raving about it since we returned to Lilongwe this afternoon.
Well, once again I am in quite a hurry, so I will have to cut it short again. We have so little free time as trainees! That will change soon though (Dec 9!!). I also apologize for the lack of pictures. I have not had the camera with me both times I've gotten to use the computer. In a couple of weeks though we'll have a chance to write more and post pictures. I can't wait to show you all what Malawi looks like!! So in closing I will say have a great Thanksgiving, stay warm and safe on the roads, and take care!
Yewo Chomene ndipo tiwononenge!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Mid-Training Update
Monile Nonse! (hello all)
Well we've been in training for the last month but got a quick break in the city, so I'll give a quick update while I can.
We are still in our "homestay" part of training where we live in a village with a family and learn all of the basics of rural Malawian life. We are staying in the village of Kasina. It is a small village with no running water or electricity. Our family gets water from a boar hole about 300 meters from our house, cooks over a fire, lives in mud-walled and thatched-roofed house, and uses outdoor chimbuzi's (pit latrine). We eat a lot of Nsima, usually with boiled greens and either chicken, goat, beans, or soy pieces, but sometimes we have rice instead of sima. The food isn't very exciting for the most part, but we did try cow intestines (gross) and flying termites (not too bad) after the first rain last week. Our host mother cooks for us and takes very good care of us, but it is difficult to live with other people and sometimes feel like we're in the way, so we are very much looking forward to moving out of homestay.
We have been teaching at the local secondary school since the second week of homesty. Zeb's teaching form 1 (9th grade) english with about 70 students and I'm doing form 3 (11th) biology with only about 40 students. We teach in the mornings, and afternoons are taken up with language class. We ended up being put in the Chitumbuka language class. The bad side to this is that I had already been studying Chichewa prior to leaving the US, but the really bad part is that our homestay village speaks Chichewa. So, we go to language class to try to learn one language, then go home and try to communicate (usually unsuccessfully) with our host family in a different language. Plus, Chitumbuka has many different dialects, so different Chitumbuka teachers use different vocab and pronunciations. I like to compare it to going to Italy to learn Spanish from a Spaniard to prepare to live in Mexico. Frustrating. The upside is that it means we will be going to the north part of Malawi (we find out exactly where in 2 weeks) which is wehre there are mountains (ie cooler temps) and the lake. For us that makes it well worth all the stress.
Despite the heat and frustrations with language, I love Malawi. It is a beautiful country and the people are very nice. We hitch-hiked forthe first time last week and met some friendly locals who gave us a ride for free. We are very much looking forward to moving to our site and settling in and start teaching at our school.
I hope this finds everyone well.
Well we've been in training for the last month but got a quick break in the city, so I'll give a quick update while I can.
We are still in our "homestay" part of training where we live in a village with a family and learn all of the basics of rural Malawian life. We are staying in the village of Kasina. It is a small village with no running water or electricity. Our family gets water from a boar hole about 300 meters from our house, cooks over a fire, lives in mud-walled and thatched-roofed house, and uses outdoor chimbuzi's (pit latrine). We eat a lot of Nsima, usually with boiled greens and either chicken, goat, beans, or soy pieces, but sometimes we have rice instead of sima. The food isn't very exciting for the most part, but we did try cow intestines (gross) and flying termites (not too bad) after the first rain last week. Our host mother cooks for us and takes very good care of us, but it is difficult to live with other people and sometimes feel like we're in the way, so we are very much looking forward to moving out of homestay.
We have been teaching at the local secondary school since the second week of homesty. Zeb's teaching form 1 (9th grade) english with about 70 students and I'm doing form 3 (11th) biology with only about 40 students. We teach in the mornings, and afternoons are taken up with language class. We ended up being put in the Chitumbuka language class. The bad side to this is that I had already been studying Chichewa prior to leaving the US, but the really bad part is that our homestay village speaks Chichewa. So, we go to language class to try to learn one language, then go home and try to communicate (usually unsuccessfully) with our host family in a different language. Plus, Chitumbuka has many different dialects, so different Chitumbuka teachers use different vocab and pronunciations. I like to compare it to going to Italy to learn Spanish from a Spaniard to prepare to live in Mexico. Frustrating. The upside is that it means we will be going to the north part of Malawi (we find out exactly where in 2 weeks) which is wehre there are mountains (ie cooler temps) and the lake. For us that makes it well worth all the stress.
Despite the heat and frustrations with language, I love Malawi. It is a beautiful country and the people are very nice. We hitch-hiked forthe first time last week and met some friendly locals who gave us a ride for free. We are very much looking forward to moving to our site and settling in and start teaching at our school.
I hope this finds everyone well.
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