Lilongwe/immigration (encore)

A weekend in Nkhoma…well kind of. into Lilongwe to try immigration one last time (hopefully). Going to apply for the 6 month Temporary Residence Permit. We had the paperwork before going in and it came with a checklist: application (in duplicate), 2 passport photos, proof of adequate means, proof of continuing travel, covering letter from sponsor/applicant, and 30,000 malawian kwacha. So during the week Dorothy and I work on getting our covering letter from the synod…not sure who to talk to but we finally get the secretary of someone who might be the right person…the right person is of course out of the office until Friday. (this was Wednesday) ok. Then we decide it is more likely to happen if we have the letter printed out and they just have to sign it or put it on letterhead…no having to figure out the wording, etc. so I type up a draft and we have to work on getting it printed…only takes two trips to get that done. We go to the office Thursday morning and find that he won’t be in until later. So we leave our copies and come back late afternoon. Still not in but she can leave it on his desk and we can pick it up at his house later that night (if I knew where that was). She points it out and I go about 7:30 and knock on the door. I get to talk to his wife who tells me that he still isn’t back but if I come back at 8:30 Saturday morning he will be able to help. (I was hoping to get into Lilongwe and immigration early so that we would have time to figure things out when there were more requirements that we didn’t know about but ok. So Dorothy and I head back Saturday morning a little before 8:30 (not to rush anyone). He is home! So we walk down to the office where he decides to actually type up new letters for us as ours were addressed To Whom it May Concern and not the Head Immigration Officer…takes time as he continues to talk to whoever else comes into the office. Then he can’t find the correct POBox for immigration in Blantyre so we wait for that. But finally we get our letters and leave for Lilongwe around 9:30. have to stop and get passport pics made as I didn’t bring extras and then to immigration where we surprisingly breezed through (of course I suppose they won’t hassle much for 30000MK). The catch is that it does have to go through Blantyre and so now I just have a receipt that I gave them the money and I have to wait for them to send me something back to actually have my permit—but supposedly my receipt is just as good until I get the actual.

crisis nursery

shadrack and mishack

emmanuel

third term

And we’re back in school for the third term. I was expecting complete chaos for Monday morning as the kids have been out for two weeks and have probably forgotten what they are supposed to do in school. As well as the fact that the NC group had been working at the school—moving things around, painting the walls with numbers, letters and sayings, we had shapes put on the floor in the semi-circle that we use for group time. My room looks great! There were some teachers in that group and they moved my centers around some and I think they work much better now.

The shapes on the floor are used so that hopefully the kids will stop sitting right on top of each other. They don’t understand (or refuse to listen) when I tell them to move over, to not touch their neighbor, etc so now they pick out a foam shape and match it to the one painted on the floor and put their mat down on top of it. they were very quick to pick up on choosing shapes that are next to each other to sit by their friends…the only problem is that sometimes kid A wants to sit next to kid B who doesn’t feel the same way and the shape swapping takes ages. Then I pick them up one by one and have them tell me what the color and shape is…red diamond, square blue (reminder to put the color first), yellow rectangle, green circle (and all the variations there of)

Wednesday we had a volunteer from the hospital come to talk about burn safety. Most of the burn victims that they get in the hospital are children who have gotten too close to the cooking fires and so they are trying to start the education early about staying away from fires. Tracey came in with a coloring book about Precious and Manny who were out collecting firewood for the cooking fire and who meet Luca the magic rabbit who talks to them about fire safety. Only parents should touch fire. You should build a “magic” circle of rocks around the firepit so you don’t get too close. What to do if you get burned or catch fire (stop drop roll, pour on cold water and go to the hospital) and other tips. The coloring book is narrated in English and Chichewa so tracey read the English and Lawrence read in Chichewa. It was amazing how well the kids sat for the story! They even answered questions after (so it is that they don’t get the English I use since we don’t translate often in class). They each got a coloring book to take home and some of them brought it back the next day completely colored in.

crisis nursery

I went into Lilongwe on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to check out the Ministry of Hope’s Crisis Nursery. Hester (from South Africa, here for 3 weeks to teach classes at the Theological Institute) and I arrived Tuesday and got a quick tour of the facility and some explanation. There were three rooms one for the really tiny infants (6), small ones (7) and the bigger babies (7-walking and eating real foods). 20 babies there. 15 caregivers with 4 on a shift at a time as well as a nurse and a clinical officer. We stayed all morning holding and feeding the little ones. Wednesday I went back and did the same and then helped to sort some medications for the mobile clinic (but sadly didn’t get any more information on the clinic than that they use ibuprofen). Thursday when we got there the power was out…not a problem as the building is pretty well lit from windows but that meant that meals were late in coming out of the kitchen…it was by far the loudest day as the babies were quite cranky that their food was late. But we did get them all fed and down for naps before we left with our ears ringing.

baobab

up periscope

fish eagle