and the adventure began...

The road to the cottages is dirt and sand so there is no stopping along the way or the truck would get stuck. So we barrel along and as the roads are not marked we think we are lost for a while but don’t feel like stopping to turn around and try again. No worries we made it to the main road just at a different point from where we turned off that morning. Stopped in the market to get fish from the lake and on we went. There are many police blocks on the Salima road (and Malawi roads in general) that you slow down and go through, sometimes you are waved through, sometimes you are asked for your driver’s license or they check your car insurance. About 5:30 (dusk) we are driving along and see a sign for a police block. Start to slow down (take foot of gas) and suddenly there is the police block. Step on brakes and nothing happens and so we barrel right through. Oh my goodness. (so glad I wasn’t driving) just like the movies when someone drives on the sidewalk and scatters the fruit news stand. The truck in front of us slows down and pulls across in front of us (not good if our brakes still weren’t working, but the jolt seemed to have gotten them working again). We stop and it is a police truck—they file out of the back with their machine guns. Why didn’t you stop? Didn’t you see the police barrier? Where are you going? Where did you come from? You have a flat tire. Can we check your brakes? We tried to stop—no brakes, yes we saw the barrier (as we went through it), home to nkhoma, senga bay, the brakes are working now (as we stopped before hitting you), sorry, sorry, sorry. I can’t believe this. Of course we have gathered a huge crowd and then the woman officer begins to arm her gun and scare off the people hanging around. She then explained that there has been lots of crime there. Getting the spare tire off proves to be difficult as the jack pieces don’t all fit together correctly, but we (they) finally succeed. Change the tire and the police say ‘you know what these things happen and everyone is ok. You can go. And we are leaving.’ We can go?! Ok! Thank you thank you thank you. And sorry sorry sorry. The police leave and we let the car down off the jack. As the tire hits the pavement all we heard was hsssss. It was flat. Supposedly not too far to a gas station (where there would be lights) so we pile in and on and go—very slowly. 20 minutes and there is no way. We shredded the spare. So we pull over and wait. In the meantime we had been calling anyone we knew in Lilongwe to see if they had a spare that would fit. Two of Reinette’s friends come out but none of the spares they could get their hands on would fit. So we call Reinette’s husband to drive from Nkhoma (+1hour) with a spare. Success! And so we continue on our way back to Nkhoma arriving about 11:15pm…giving thanks that it was not jail we were sleeping in.

thursday

Back to the lake for the day. Since I’m on holiday and haven’t figured out what to do or how to get out of town yet I went in with Reinette and James and some workers to do some work at the CCAP (Presbyterian church here) houses at the lake. In the truck with 9 people (3 in each seat and 3 in the back) and lots of furniture off we go. Call along the way so that the caretaker is aware that we are coming and yet when we arrive (3 hours later) he is not there. The houses he is supposed to take care of are in a state and really need to be cleaned and aired out. I don’t know how people would stay there other than it is right on the lake and a very pretty spot. Had nsima and relish for lunch (nsima is a kind of paste made from maize flour—thicker than mashed potatos that you eat with your hands). The relish was made of cabbage and tomatoes. The mzungus were served first and on plates and the Malawians sat around the bowls and ate communally. It was a good meal and quite filling. There were 2 types of nsima-one had been pounded to a very fine flour and the other not. Most prefer the pounded one but I thought that it didn’t have any taste at all. 3 of the workers had never been to the lake before so after lunch we finished up our cleaning and had some time in the water. About 4:30 we had to pack up and head home.

tuesday

So I’m on vacation…no plans (never really been all that good at planning—something I think I might want to work on). Since I was awake early (5:30) and up (6:30) I decided to go into hospital with Rhona- see what she does, maybe see if I can do anything (that sounds funny to anyone who knows how weak my stomach is). Morning report is the changeover from the night staff—new admissions, surgeries, problems…seemed pretty routine today (though I didn’t catch most of what they were saying). Then asked about any issues that needed to be brought up—why the goundstaff got new uniforms and the nurses didn’t, there will be 100K taken out of each paycheck each month for employee well-being but without a meeting for discussion or anything…and the list goes on. Then Rhona had a patient who went to surgery but didn’t have a blood donor and she needed blood. So we had to find a donor which wasn’t too hard but quite time consuming. Ward rounds to check on all her patients. Seemed pretty routine as the patients had been there for a couple of days. Getting through the interpreter (nurse) is interesting as you have no idea if they are actually translating what is being said (and sometimes they don’t). I didn’t see anything too bad (good for me) and yet in the middle of the check of the 5th patient I started getting very warm, dizzy and light-headed, so I excused myself to sit outside in the fresh air so that I wouldn’t fall over in the middle of the hospital. Recovered but decided that might be enough of the hospital for the day. So I left for a while but then had to go back to talk with Rebecca for a bit—on my way back I passed Rhona and Alistair headed up to the Guest House with a chicken that Alistair had just been given by a patient. The look on his face was priceless as he carried around a live rooster in a plastic bag.

weekend rain

So many plans and then the rains came. Saturday was to go to the waterfall. ‘Which?’ you might ask. The one at the end of the road and through the village. I don’t know any more than that. But we woke up and it was raining. And not just raining but proper downpour. All morning. But we had a stream of visitors come by (good thing Rhona had made brownies). That afternoon the rain stopped so we borrowed (rented) a truck and decided to go to Lilongwe for lunch…which turned into dinner as we didn’t leave until about 2:30. 7 of us ‘in’ the truck…a stop by the supermarket, open air market, and then Mammamia’s for pizza. And it was good pizza! (probably helped that we hadn’t really had any other food other than brownies/cake for the morning). The drive back was the most exciting as of course we put all of our shopping in the back seat of the truck and 5 of us rode in the truckbed. It was dark which is a time that we try not to be driving (I don’t really trust everyone to have lights on their cars here or to not walk in the middle of the road) and it was kind of chilly (not for those of you actually experiencing winter but hey). In the middle of one of the round-abouts there was a tent mosque going up which we found intriguing…who would use a round-about mosque? And it wasn’t there when we came into town. Home safe and sound and not too terribly cold.

food

I’m sure you are all worried about me not getting enough to eat. Don’t be. Granted we eat lots of carbs- but our one vegetarian has left and one of the med students who arrived is an avid carnivore thus for his stay at least so are the rest of us. We also do very well on the dessert front. Cake is an almost everyday occurrence—chocolate, banana, mango, brownies, doughnuts, so many varieties. Key lime pie was a high light of last week as the guest house has a lime tree. We just got bananas from our own garden. This week the plan is banoffee pie (banana and toffee). So from Lilongwe we asked that the person going in pick up double cream (uk resident ordering). I got a text back asking what that was and responded with heavy cream or whipping cream but it turns out that my text never sent…when we got our shopping back we were missing a few things—chicken and fruit juice but it turned out to be at the shoppers house. We also had some extras—one of which was a pot of Nivea. We couldn’t figure out who in the house had ordered the lotion and then realized that we didn’t remember seeing any cream. Sure enough we looked at the Nivea and it was firming cream. Good for a laugh if not for dessert.

friday

Short day. There had been a teachers meeting on Tuesday in which the other teachers said that at the end of term we usually have a program and the kids get out early as their parents come to the program and then take the kids home. But there had been no planning as the calendar had been all messed up and so that was nixed for this end of term. At 9:45 I let the kids out for break and at 10 parents started arriving to pick up their kids…by 10:15 I had no kids left. Hmm. We had a little work time of moving things around and cleaning out to give us more room in the classes. 2 week break—here I come!

thursday

A good day. Had tips about keeping my voice down and the kids follow that example. It is amazing how well that works…not fool proof but great. Also to keep things the same. Introduce new things slowly even if it is something as simple as a high five after they do something right. Keep it simple. I left with such a good feeling. Good days are coming. Then it was pointed out to me that it could be that it was the next to last day before end of term…the other teachers thought that might have something to do with it. I don’t know that it has set in that I have 2 weeks of no school.

rain

Rainy season has begun in earnest this week. Tuesday and Wednesday it rained all morning. Things shut down here in the rain. I think at the public schools at least many do not come in the rain. At Ebenezer they just arrive slower. There is no electricity at the school which has its advantages and disadvantages. There are power cuts here often and I think that it would be very distracting in class to have lights on and then suddenly off with no warning. The windows are all along the sides of the room so on sunny days there is plenty of light. On rainy days (often when power cuts occur) it is dark inside. But we go on. This week we have transformed the room into learning centers (as previously mentioned) and the kids seem to enjoy it and are doing pretty well with the change. With the rain though we weren’t able to send them out for their break/recess time and that is a problem. There is only so much you can do in one room and there is nowhere else to take them for a change of scenery…the noise level just kept getting higher and higher…and all the noise just bounces off the concrete floors, walls and ceiling. Dorothy and I couldn’t really hear a thing by the end of Tuesday. Wednesday was better but then more rain through half of break so they had to come in early and I lost Dorothy because the first grade teacher didn’t feel well. Chaos reigned for the last hour.

the lake

Back to the lake. We rented a truck and 6 of us headed back to Senga Bay. (I say back but I was the only one from the first trip). The truck had a double cab but fitting all 6 of us in would have been cozy so in the African fashion we put 4 of us in the bed. Nice ride, sunny though we could see rains coming. Bartus lost his sunglasses off his head and we couldn’t find one of the lenses when we retrieved them. He then lost his hat which we went back to get and then tied it to him. We were quite the spectacle driving along-everyone looking at the truck full of muzungus (white people) (which you also hear as you walk or drive anywhere—“muzungu, muzungu!” Moved into our rooms, had lunch and to the water. Warm as bath water but still felt so good. Stayed in entirely too long but didn’t get too bad a sunburn-thanks factor 50…dinner of some of the toughest beef I’ve ever had and then there was no dessert. We tried the restaurant next door but they didn’t have dessert either. A walk on the beach under the stars and then to our rooms which were so hot and stuffy that no one got much sleep at all. And we were up and out of our rooms by about 5:30am. Happy Valentine’s! Watched a man boxing on the beach first with his daughter and then with his wife. We thought it was an interesting way to spend Valentine’s. It began to sprinkle and everyone scattered. Then the man was up next to us pointing at the water…Crocodile! In the lake right where we were swimming yesterday! Everyone was out of the water and crowded on the shore to watch. The boxer went to his car and got his shotgun—one shot and the croc went under for a while but didn’t actually leave. No swimming for us today so we packed up and moved out. Stopping of course by the Salima wood market where Alistair took an inordinate amount of time going through the shops and the rest of us looked bought what we thought we wanted and then sat in the shade and waited. I watched a man finish making a drum and then bought it and then watched him finish another. We told Alistair that the ice cream shop in Lilongwe might be closed if he took too much longer and we were in the truck and on our way quickly with that possibility. On the outskirts of Lilongwe I was given the wheel—left side driving, gear shift on the wrong side and a huge smile on my face…I love driving in different places, the challenges are so different—here it is avoiding all the foot and bike traffic on the roads as there are no sidewalks and the potholes could swallow the truck much less the bikes people are riding.

pics

kids hiding after yelling and pointing at the muzungus


the top (standing-gerwin, sitting-rhona, jessi, alistair, on top of the pillar-bartus)



climbing Nkhoma mountain

sunset at monkey bay

fish eagle swooping in

trip to the lake for water

school

This week (now that it is Friday) seems to have flown by. Yesterday afternoon I couldn’t see how the week could possibly have another day in it. Amazing how perspective changes with sleep and the knowledge that tomorrow I won’t have to teach. Monday night I was not feeling well…and my stomach seems to have taken the rest of the week off. I’ve still been eating but breakfast has been hard to swallow (until this morning when we were able to have banana muffins as we finally had gotten bananas to make them with). It has felt a lot like being apprehensive in the mornings—every morning but there wasn’t really anything to feel nervous about…after a month I should be able to do this at least to some extent. (haha)

Breakthrough on Wednesday—at least that is what it felt like. I went outside during the break (snack and recess time) and was surrounded by students. Just sitting right next to me. My kids, while they don’t understand what I tell them do respond to touch. Not always instantaneously but there is a change—I think it calms them (and me).

Thursday afternoon Dorothy (principal/director/housemate) and I went to my classroom and moved everything around to make it into centers…probably not the most ideal time—something completely new on Friday just before a weekend but I figure we might as well get started. Now we have legos, art, reading, play dough, felt board, puzzle, and worksheet stations all around the room. We’ll see how it works out.

Friday was a busy day. Got the kids into the centers idea and it seems to work. Still lots of repetition of rules (keep that toy in the center it belongs to, stop hitting, share, etc) and again Friday might not be the day to start but who knows maybe Monday will be all the better for it since they will have had time to think about (do they think about it when they aren’t there?) it really wore a few of my boys out…too much playing I guess as they went out for break and lay in my lap or on the concrete in the shade for most of break. Or maybe it is just the end of what was a long week. Either way I was wishing I had my camera.

some village housing



a shot of the lake at senga bay that we're not "supposed" to swim in

mini-bus experience #2

Back from Blantyre we decided that the express (not that fast and much more expensive) was not worth it so we opted for the local bus. A couple more stops than the other but over all I think it was just as fast…and more entertaining to watch…people getting on and off (more on than off) for the 6 hour trip to Lilongwe, many of them standing in the aisle. (not an enviable position) As we drove through villages we would stop near the market and any conceivable thing that you might want to buy would make its way to the windows to be sold through. I watched one man buy 5 bags of potatoes and 12 cabbages at one stop (no idea where he put it on the bus). Chips (potato wedges), tomatoes, mangos, drinks, fried dough, grilled maize, and if you didn’t see what you wanted if you told someone outside they would find it for you. As we didn’t need to go all the way to Lilongwe to get back to nkhoma we were let off at the turn off to get a mini-bus. The people around us were very helpful in letting us know when our stop was up which was nice as we were in the back of the bus and couldn’t see (and probably wouldn’t have recognized) the side of the road we were to get out at. Climbed over the whole bus of people and debarked.

Mini-bus going from Kampata to Nkhoma has no police checks to go through, therefore, they are in the worst possible shape. Got in and this one had doors that barely shut—even the front doors were rigged. And it wouldn’t start. Shocking. Well, not really. So the plan was to do the rolling start and in reverse as that was the downhill angle. Worrisome for us that was toward the M1 (Malawi highway 1). I wasn’t crazy about this idea, but didn’t have any say in the matter. Luckily there was not much traffic but the reverse rolling start was not working. So then we started going forward on the M1 and I was afraid we’d get to the next village back the way we came before we got the van started. But finally success. So we did a U-turn, picked some more people up and were on out way. There was very hot exhaust coming in from the front, I thought my skirt might catch fire but it didn’t. the guy in the front seat (no longer driving) starting drinking gin and turned to offer me and Rhona some. We declined but he continued making what I can only assume were offers for things we would have absolutely no interest in…finally we made it in one piece to the Nkhoma hospital. Whew. And then home to meet our new housemate, Dorothy, who has come to be director/principal/ librarian of Ebenezer school. In her seventies she so far has seemed to be a fireball full of ideas and energy.

blantyre

Saturday morning and we were getting up at 5:30 to rent a land rover and go to Majete Game Reserve about an hour and a half outside of Blantyre. Nice drive really. Got to the reserve and were paying to get in…citizen price-500 Kwacha, residents price- 1200 Kwacha, tourist price- 2800 Kwacha. Julia said that we were all here as volunteer workers for 6 months (averaged out it was true) and could we get the resident price. No problem! Yeah for negotiations. Within 3 minutes of entering the park we saw a herd of zebras. Then some impala. Not bad. Stopped at an overlook of the waterfall coming from the dam—impressive. Continue on and around a corner—an elephant! We back up slowly and then we see the rest of the family come to the water hole. Spraying mud on themselves—they take turns at the water. There were 2 baby elephants as well. And then we saw the bull. He was enormous! We were taking pictures like crazy and then I heard someone ask where’d the bull go? And then we saw him—coming toward us—so we left—got the car moving and went on. That was too cool. Next stop was Mvuu spot (mvuu is Chichewa for hippo) and sure enough in the middle of the river were a group of hippos. We heard them roar and watched them yawn. Other wildlife we saw: hartebeest, impala, nyala, turtle, impala, buffalo, baboons, impala, waterbuck and warthog. In the afternoon we went to the dry side of the park—no longer sure why as the animals of course were all near the water. The elephants were seen again as we were on our way back to the gate. As did a fleeting impression of zebra (they don’t stick around long). The elephants were about 8 yards away from us when we jumped in the car to leave…that’s a little too close for comfort

mini bus

Friday I took my first mini-bus (public transport). Rhona has a friend who is working at a hospital in Blantyre so we went to visit. She got a ride into town early that morning to do her visa extension and join the medical council. I taught and then caught the bus in to meet her by 4:30 for the express bus to blantyre. the minibus—vans with 4 bench seats that can carry more people than you can imagine (think clown car). there is no set timetable, they leave when they are full…so as I went down at 1:30 (keep in mind Lilongwe is an hour away) and was the only one on a bus for Lilongwe we waited for over an hour. I was given the front seat. We moved from the market up to the hospital which I took for a good sign, but then the driver did a U-turn and went back “to pick up someone in the market” where we sit for another 15 min…back to the hospital and finally we’re off. There are also no set stops for the bus, they will stop to pick up or drop off anywhere along the route so we were continually slowing to see if there was interest in someone coming aboard. To save gas he turned the car off to slow down or anytime he was going to stop to pick someone up. The third time the motor didn’t turn over—just clicks. Oh dear. There is a guy who tries to rustle up business for the bus and takes the money once it is moving and he had to move the passengers around to get to the battery behind the driver, wiggle some wires, and magic! It started. Down the road a bit farther and repeat the experience. Down the road even a bit farther and that was the end of my ride in that bus. It was not going to start again. What to do what to do. The driver took care of me and put me on another mini-bus. Thanks. I get bundled on and as soon as we get started I feel a scratching on my shirt and hear my name!? the preschool teacher from my school was on going to Lilongwe! And a good thing—when we got to Lilongwe, the end of the line was the bus station—I have no idea where that is with regards to where I needed to be. It is now 4:20. Pauline takes me to the next bus I need to get to Shoprite which is where I’ll know where I am and how to get to the next bus (leaving at 4:30). Get to Shoprite and have 5 blocks to go…I have to run…which is not done here. No one is on time or in a hurry, except for this bus company who prides themselves on punctuality, service,…get many laughs and comments (“you must be tardy”) as I try to run around the corner and up the street…there is not enough air…a car pulls up and offers a ride the last 2 blocks and I make it only because Rhona has been standing in front of the bus that is still inching forward demanding that they wait for me. 7 minutes late. (not bad when it was advertised that the bus to Blantyre would take 4 hours and yet it took about 5 and a half—how’s that for punctuality)

another week

So it took 4 days to get over being sore. That is horrendous. Didn’t think I was that out of shape. And then on the other hand I guess I’m not too surprised. Evidently keeping up with 5 year olds for 5 hours and walking to the market are not enough exercise to keep fit. The week was a good one. Felt like I was getting my feet under me. Got a new chalk board. Oh the perks of being me. But it was very needed. The kids couldn’t see what I had written on the old board as it was so rough that the eraser didn’t really work. And this board moves up and down so that I can lower it and have the kids write on it. Friday I brought out the dolls that have been loving made and sent over to help the kids learn colors. Each kid got one as they came into class and we played matching games and all sorts. Then we drew our dolls and colored them in giving the faces and clothes. Our other favorite activity is facial expressions. I have some cutouts of different faces-happy face, sad face, angry face, confused face, thinking face. They love the pictures and acting them out. Chapel time was at 11:30. all the kids gathered in my room and recited bible verses (they know quite a few) and songs. I thought it was very adorable and something we would need to work on throughout the week as my kids didn’t know the verses quite as well as the others (excuse: I didn’t know what verses to work on as we need to do the ones they know before going on to new ones)…lots of jumping around during the singing which was fun to watch.