homeschool

For two weeks on Wednesdays I’ve helped with homeschooling for the Veitch’s. with the fuel situation as it has been the missionary kids no longer go into town on Wednesdays…their teachers send them home some of the work to keep up…and with mom in Canada and dad had to invigilate exams at school they asked for a hand…4 boys of 4 ages…but for a morning it went pretty well. Amanda also came to help…so we sounded out words, measured out rice into different containers, did spelling words, math problems, history lessons…the older boys worked on their own mostly. And would take breaks and walk around the house terrorizing those of us working…and then they found water guns…so I confiscated those until all homework was done…pouting ensued but they also agreed that things wouldn’t get done otherwise. Dad came home—we had lunch—and then we had a big water fight…good fun and a good way to end the morning. Then I went to help with some computer problems (not that I know much as many of you know)…felt good to get home and get into dry clothes…

free

I don’t know what it is…getting things for free is great in all cultures…but begging is usually looked down on or something embarrassing that you don’t want others to know. But here getting things and asking for things is cultural. And they yell it out at the top of their lungs—give me…give me…
At school all of the kids are on a half scholarship (which could be seen that no one is)…but there are some who are fully sponsored. It is hard to sustain because when someone is fully sponsored others believe they should be too. why them and not me? No such thing as discretion.
I have been to a couple of meetings where they have begun to talk about sustainability and how to become self-reliant because they are realizing that NGOs and donations and volunteers may leave and they should take care of themselves…(especially in this political climate), but that moves very slowly and doesn’t seem to be a wide spread sentiment.

school teachers

Two of our teachers have been placed in a government school. I think that the training that they get is paid for by the government and then they are bonded to teach for some amount of time in a government school but then they don’t get placed for ages…our first grade teacher was placed somewhere way down south and she turned it down and so I think she is now waiting for another placement. Our second grade teacher has been placed in dedza and she has agreed to finish this term (one more week). Prayers are appreciated and/or if you know anyone who wants to come out to be a volunteer teacher or support person. There were interviews last week but we only had one candidate—she is good but we possibly have 2 openings…we might get to keep the first grade teacher who is once again waiting on placement.

birthday

Friday was my birthday. Thanks for all the well wishes and greetings. Emails and facebook messages from all over the world, texts from US, England, Luxembourg (and Malawi), and calls from US, Canada nd England. It was a great day. It happened to coincide with the last day of term at school so everyone was in a pretty good mood. (not that they aren’t usually—esp on a Friday). It was a short day at school as well. And I’ll have to admit it felt like I was just biding my time until 10 when the kids left…there was no power at school so I was at a bit of a standstill. Went to the market and bought sweets to give to the kids…I normally don’t do this as they ask for too much already but I figure once a year is ok. I went into each classroom where they sang me happy birthday and then I gave sweets. The kids were so cute. After the kids left we had a teachers meeting to bid farewell to Sandra and Magrate (see next post). We were supposed to have cake but it never arrived and the network was down so we couldn’t check on it…luckily there were enough sweets for the teachers too. They gave me a beautiful chitenji that I wrapped around myself immediately and wore on the walk home.
Spent the afternoon baking first in the cottage then at Ute’s. and then for my party. The Jones’ were gracious enough to host…soup and bread and cake…I brought cake and bread (with help from many others) and it was a great gathering. It always feels like such a production to organize one of these get-togethers but they are really enjoyable and actually not that much work…but I was quite happy to crawl into bed that night.

game of telephone

Just before I moved out of Barbara’s house the power went out…only at the house, not all over nkhoma which would be normal power sharing. So I called Escom (power company) to report the fault…Hi there is no power at my house in nkhoma. “I will check if it is power sharing” I have—it is only my house “ok. Which house?” nagy, n-a-g-y. “N-a-d-y” no n-a-g-y “n-a-d” no. (I couldn’t for anything come up with a word that started with g) a-b-c-d-e-f-g “oh d” no. (I recited the alphabet again…and we finally got to the right letter. I tell you what…sometimes we think that they do this on purpose just to see how far we will go…sometime between midnight and 4am the power was restored to the house…i was quite sad that it wasn’t an all over power cut as they were having some kind of party/revival at William Murray with a sound system that they turn up to full power with yelling and singing and preaching and it went on all night…when I woke at 4 I thought someone had a radio on my porch (I’d forgotten about the party) and couldn’t figure out why there would be someone on the porch…then it registered that it was preaching from the school…

mountain

Once going up the mountain once it reminds you of what you should be doing…so up again on Sunday. Had a two dog escort and Shadow really lives up to her name…she would follow right behind me and step on the back of my flipflops…then she would race ahead and come back long enough to step on my shoes again before racing off…Ute and Taonga were way ahead so I missed most of the conversations on the way up but I was ok with that. Beautiful green all around…above the mountain hut we found more of the tall grass to swim through but then we were up above…and you couldn’t quite see where you were putting your foot but at least your face was mostly free from lashings…we watched the clouds come in and we did get a little wet on the way down but it wasn’t too bad. Taonga was quite impressed that I did the climb in flipflops but I can’t imagine putting my feet into shoes for the climb even with the wet steps…wet on the way up (dew on the long grass) and wet on the way down (rain)…
And then just 5 min from home Shadow banished herself from inside the house by finding something really smelly to roll in…ewww!

accustomed

There are things that you think you will never get used to…and things you think you will get used to…and sometimes you are right and sometimes you aren’t. while living in Barbara’s house the first time I never noticed that you could hear the hospital…this time you would hear it if you listened…and sadly it is mostly the screams of children as the pediatric ward is the closest. Last week I was sitting on the porch watching the full moon and listening…it took a while but as I was listening I heard the dogs, the bugs and then underneath (or over) it all I could hear the sound of the pediatric ward. It is (sadly yet a relief) easy enough to block out…(you do know that they are getting care)
Last year I was up early all the time. Now I’m still up early though often not quite as early…and living in Barbara’s house the rooms were much darker and it made it much harder to get up early…but then I moved back into the cottage and it was early mornings once again…(probably also comes with living so close to William Murray boys school—they are up early). It gives the impression of the day being longer, more time to do things though I don’t necessarily think that more gets done.
It often takes new eyes, new perspectives to bring back to mind the things that are around each day…the same happens at home. You get used to what is around and no longer see the beauty and novelty of your surroundings. That is one of the great things about having new people coming in and out of nkhoma…it helps keep your eyes open to the wonders of the creation that are always all around.