We get to meet the children today!! I woke up this morning so anxious. I had no idea what to expect and I really wanted them to like me. Each of the colleges on the trip are assigned to a school. But today, we had an “orientation” to all the schools, which was great for comparison.
We first stopped at Radford’s school, the Malemia Primary School. It was a school built within the past five years in the middle of a village. The school is the smallest of the three and each class had between 50-100 kids in each. The size of the classroom decreases as the grades increase, which makes sense. This school is also the poorest of the three. The Chibale project started by our three universities in 2007 provides money for a feeding program at the Malemia Primary School. The children are dismissed by standard (grade) from youngest to oldest. This was a request made by our professors. Traditionally in the Malawian home, the father eats first, the mother next and the children get whatever is left over. So our professors wanted to set a different standard for the children and say the youngest should get their food first. Interesting, huh? For the feeding program, the children each have a cup (that they have to bring from home if they can) and that’s all they get. If they don’t have a cup, they don’t get any food. They received nsima, which is cooked corn maze. It looks like water down porridge. It was fascinating to watch the children with their nsima. They were sharing with the others they didn’t have cups and they offered to share with us because we didn’t have any. It was so beautiful to see how much these children love.
The next school we visited was our own, the Domasi Government School. This is the oldest school of three. It was started before 1964 when Malawi was under British rule. And because of this, the school looks colonized. It was beautiful. Each classroom was its own separate building. And the size was about the same, 50-100 children. We all felt more comfortable since this was our second school. We all walked around and visited with the children and the teachers. We needed to start figuring out what standard we wanted to teach. Katlin and I went into the fourth standard (again, this means grade) and just started dancing. And the children joined in and chanting “music” in Chichewa. We danced and laughed with the children for 3 minutes but it was hands down, the best three minutes of the trip so far for me. After visiting all the standards, we were assigned standard 6, which from what I could tell was equivalent to 4th or 5th grade. I wanted the babies, but they can’t understand any English and Dr. Kelly said it may be frustrating/hard. I’m excited for to teach them though! Tomorrow we will return for observation and we will officially begin teaching on Monday.
The last stop was Domasi Demenstration school. This is also a government school and the families must pay tuition for their children each year. It is 4,625 kwacha per year, which is $25! This school was the most “modern.” The class size was the same but they had desks and chairs in each room. We were also able to meet the head teachers at the school. They talked about the school’s progress over the past year and gave news that their standard 8 class just took their examinations which determine whether they can enter secondary school or not. This year 40 students out of 65 passed and will continue their education ( equivalent to our high school). Dr. Kelly said when our universities started this study aboard program in 2006, about 14 students at this school went on to Secondary school. WOW! It really shows how much this program is making a difference, one step at a time.
Thanks for reading!
Anna Tobia
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