June 26 and 27

Local Time: 11:45 pm
June 26, 2009

Oh my gosh. What a long day! This morning we went to the Malemia school where I will be teaching for our first day. We sat down with all of the teachers (eight) and discussed all of our goals, and their wishes. I was placed with Gertrude in Standard One and I was so excited! The head teacher or what we call the principal is Ester Majawa. She was a little disconnected, but I think she has bigger and better things to do than sit around and chat with the 5 Radford students.
When I first arrived in Gertrude's class, we started with a song. Then we moved onto English. The children were asked to say "My name is ____" but only when called on and after they stood up. Then Gertrude would say "Clap your hands for him/her" and the whole class would do claps together and at the end would scream "Keep It Up!" It was adorable. Then she would ask them where they live and they would all repeat "I live at ______ Village." All at once, it was a little bit overwhelming with the concrete echoing walls. In English we repeated several things, and my favorite was "It's a duster" talking about the chalkboard eraser. So cute. We sang songs and did the alphabet, with v and w switched around. I looked ridiculous when I said it. The stupid white kid doesn't know the alphabet. Haha!!! We also did math today. Only two problems were accomplished. But thats okay, I loved every minute. (There were 93 students present today.)
The standard one students get out of school at 11, but before they were allowed to go home they must pick up the garbage and put it away, sweep the floors with a very short broom made from the tops of corn stalks. And then they must return to where Gertrude is standing and tell her "Goodbye Madame!" Then they all scatter across the dirt field. I explained to her, that in America the children are not allowed to just leave like that, they must ride the bus or parents pick them up. She was shocked.
The most distrubing part of my day, that I keep thinking about over and over, was I saw a child eat a match box, striker strips and all. Surely that can not be healthy.
After the Radford kids walked about two miles to the Demonstration school to pick up the A&T students, the kids there did some traditional dancing. They were awesome. I stopped carrying my camera today, because it's so heavy on my long walk, but I will make sure to document that next week. After that, the 10 of us walked to the MIE (Malawi Institute of Education) for our class, where we met the Tech students. This will be our daily routune in the classroom. These classes in the afternoons are killing me. It's so warm in the classroom that I can't stay awake. But it's not just me, everyone is so tired by that point it's impossible not to doze.
There were some kids that walked with us from Malemia school, to the Demonstration, and then to MIE and waited for us while we had class, and stayed around until Charles came to pick us up. Jennifer told us it would be like that. Today we came straight back to Annie's after school and took naps. We had a special treat in store for tonight.
After an early dinner, that still takes two hours, and a power outage, which is common, we got ready and loaded up in a truck for Annie's house. Annie invited us into her home tonight for pregaming before she took us to a club. At the club the guys were shocked to see so many girls, especially American girls. They said they were just going to say they met Jessica Simpson since we have a Jess. So funny. Very much like American clubs, lots of dancing, mostly guys dancing instead of girls though, tons of smoking, and drinking. At Annie's house we met the Bishop of the Catholic Church here in Zomba who then later joined us at the club.
We had an awesome time, but these really long days wear me out. Tomorrow we are going to the market in town and are having dresses made! I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Local Time: 7:20 pm
June 27, 2009

Today we got to sleep in a little but yet there were still people late to our meeting. Ugh, I don't deal well with late people. Anyhow, we walked down to the market this morning around ten. It's about a two mile walk down, but seems like a five mile hike up. We went through the market where they sell lots of tomatoes, potatoes, oranges and chickens. Some places had beans and rice, but not many.
Todd got lost on the way there because he wanted to stop in the bike shop to look for an air pump to blow up his soccer balls. Most of the group bought fabric to have dresses, shirts, skirts, and tablecloths made. I shopped at the grocery store to buy a couple of things for the kids in standard one to play with on Monday.
After grabbing some samosas on the way back at Tastey Bites, we, the Radford group met with two Davids to discuss drawing up and painting on the walls of Malemia primary school some pictures of various educational things such as, road signs, shapes, colors, maps, and elephants. They said they would do their work for only $1200 K a day, which relates to about $11.00. I was a little frustrated in this meeting because we only have 5 days to paint in 8 classrooms and we were looking a unrealistic ideas. I think I must be tired and hungry, so I was a little cranky. Sorry to all.