Sorry this took so long...

Local Time: 8:00 pm
June 28, 2009
Day Eight

Tonight we celebrated Dr. Liz and Todd's birthdays. We had a fabulous meal provided by Annie's Lodge that consisted of boiled potatoes, rice, green beans, and curry chicken. We also had cake that tasted a lot like coffee. Most of us enjoyed the sweet, but not me. We gave both of them cards that were signed by everyone, but Todd had signed his own card "Happy 22nd, Todd. Love, Todd." So much for surprising him. We did, however, manage to surprise Dr. Liz with silk flowers (looked like funeral flowers to me) and a nice card.
Now Beth and I are waiting for the Fifa World Cup to start! GO USA! Someone let me know who wins, because I know I won't make it through it all. It's past my bed time. I feel so old going to bed at 8:00 pm. But everyone that knows me, knows I need 10 hours of sleep. =) Love you guys!

PS. Trace or anyone from swimteam, tell all the kids I miss them and good luck at their meets, I love hearing the updates on how we did! I've been thinking about you guys on Tuesdays and Saturdays!

Yay! Mom and Dad called today!

Local Time: 1:30 pm / 8:00 pm
June 29, 2009
Day Nine

Today is Dr. Liz's 60th Birthday, so as soon as we got on the bus this morning we sang very loud, and not very in tune. Not that I would know anything about that. =) After we were loaded we took three suitcases full of bookbags to the Mwanje Primary school for the Standard Seven students. They were sent by us from the National Social Studies Committe in or around Blacksburg, I'm not real sure. The kids and staff sang and danced around for us. I took over 100 pictures of the village on the way there and then of everyone at the school.
Charles took us from Mwanje to Malemia round ten. The Standard One students had already had English and Math, so Getrude was teaching Chichwea when I finally got into the classroom. As the lesson continued, even though the students were staring at me and not listening to Getrude, I saw a little girl crying. She was not causing any commotion, she was not shaking, she was not making a single sound. I only saw tears streaming from her eyes. I stopped Getrude and asked what was wrong, the little girl told her someone stole her cup for the porridge. She was so worried she wouldn't get to eat anything, and who knows when the next time she would eat. Not to worry, the cup was found, but I seriously got tears in my eyes when I saw how sad she was. Soon after I was settled in, it was time for the students to get the porridge.
The students sprinted out the doorway, pushing and shoving with their kupus (cups) in hand across the dirt "playground", more like a field in my opinion. About the size of the dirt at the grandstand in the park. They formed two neat lines in front of to village ladies pouring the porridge. After the children scattered about the field and had their porridge with their dirty little fingers. Then Getrude called them back into the classroom.
It took so long for the 88 present children to finally decide to come into class, since the teachers only call for them, and do not force them into the room. She told the students we were going to be learning Expressive Arts next. I was so excited because I had no idea what this was. It took the better part of 15 minutes for them to get their partners and bukus (books) handed out. They do not keep the text books at home because they "forget" and do not bring them back to class. This lengthy proccess really stressed me out because they just kept getting louder and louder in the tiny concrete classroom that echos.
Finally when they calmed down we talked about household items and school items. The household items were a water cooling pot, a cooking pot, brooms, plates, cups and spoons. The school items were blackboard, chair, and books. The lesson told only lasted about 5 minutes and was taught in Chichwea. The children all stood up, returned the books and said "Goodbye Madame" and went home for the day.
The Radford Students met with the eight teachers to discuss painting the walls and they us try the porridge, but added extra sugar for us. It had a very bland taste without the added sweets, and has a consistancy of runny grits. It's made from maize flour, (which it's supposed to be peanut flour for the extra protein, but isn't due to lack of money) sugar, milk and water, served boiling hot. It was time for us to walk to the MIE school and journal/have class. But we had to make a "quick" stop before so some of us could have dressed made at a local (teacher) tailor. This took what felt like forever. And by the time we were finally leaving there were twenty children from all around, and all ages. They asked "what's your name" and when you answered, they would giggle and run away.
One of the boys, Jarrod, that follows us from Malemia to MIE, (who isn't supposed to) told all the other kids not to talk to me in English and it hurt my feelings. Later on the walk he told me to give him a weapon and I explained that we were no longer friends and to leave me alone, just as he had told the others. I started to get irritated again today when my group was not thinking realistically, but then listened to some music and felt much better.
When Charles picked us up again, he took us into town where I stopped at the teacher store to pick up some things on the list Getrude gave me. I bought pens, poster paper, glue, tape, sicssors, markers, and a rule all for $15.00. She is going to be so happy when I deliever it tomorrow! When we finally got back to the lodge this afternoon, 5 of us went to the local tailor to have skirts and tablecloths made. When we came back for dinner around 6, there was another power outage. It gets old for sure because the internet doesn't work for several hours after it comes back on.


HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK: (And it's only Monday) I SAW A MONKEYYYYYYYYYYYYY! So close to our room!!! I'm going to catch it this week and start to raise it so that it behaves when I bring her home!

Local Time: 9:30 am/1:30 pm
June 30, 2009
Day Ten

The bus was late today because of a fuel shortage in Malawi. The staff at the schools get very angry when we're late. They think that Americans should never be late, which is fascinating to me because they have no concept of time here whatsoever. I gave Getrude her school supplies that I had purchased yesterday and she was crying. I feel very happy about spending my money that way.
When it was time for my lesson this morning, we organized all of the children in a circle around the room. I held up the index cards with the captial and lowercase of each letter that I made last night. The kids only could recognize letters A-G. I was very disappointed. Even though they can sing the alphabet song, they can not put the letters in the correct order, not from recognization or from memorization.
After my twenty minute or so lesson, we started the math. She showed a counter made from sticks and string and did three math problems on the board. 3 + 1, 2 + 1, and 2 + 2. Of the seventy seven kids present about ten recieved check marks on their paper. The next lesson was Chichewa. They were learning about the vowels, A E I O U, all which sound different than ours. Ana was baby, atate was father, and agogo was grandparents.
Today was the first day at school that I experiencedd bad behavior. They did not listen to Getrude and were kicking, hitting, with and without their bags, and also pinching. They were very rowdy and so loud. That concrete room echos so bad it's unexplainable.
When it was time to go, three of the smaller, younger children stayed to sweep the room, which looked like a tornado zone, with very small handheld brooms. The other children yelled "Goodbye Madame" and ran home. I was thankful to see them leave today. Since the Standard One students go home much earlier than the others, I stayed in the office with Getrude and Esther. They offered me hot tea and seemed a little offended when I could not accept due to the containimated water. After my explaination they seemed at ease. There was no porridge today, therefore there was a low attendace rate across all of the standards.
On the walk over to MIE we stopped to buy oranges for 5 K each. When we get to MIE we always buy cold drinks first thing to go with our packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They are only 50 K each, wonderful, because at Annie's Lodge they are 180 K each. They serve coke, fanta orange, pineapple, passion fruit and sprite in bottles. But if you keep the bottles they hunt you down and make you pay a deposit fee of 40 - 80 K depending on where you are.
Today after Tech's long discussion on corruption in Africa, none of which I listened to because my Ipod was just too loud =) Charles picked us up. He took us to "the wall" where the vendors set up, and we picked up David and David, the two boys who are going to help us paint on the walls at Malemia. Next we went to the hardware store to purchase supplies. Tonight we are having a family style dinner with rice, boiled potatoes (my favorite thing here), green beans, and some sort of chicken.
I saw a kid eating a shard of glass today and it scared me so much. I also got very upset today when my group wouldn't listen to me that it would be much more efficent and a better quailty if we painted the blackboards with a roller brush instead of six tiny paint brushes. We bought 6. Ugh. I'll let you know how it turns out! Love you!

Local Time: 9:30 am/ 4:10 pm
July 1, 2009
Day Eleven

Today David and Chichimwa came with us to school to help paint the walls. After we picked them up at the wall, and got settled into class Getrude asked me to teach a lesson. I was almost completely unprepared except for the nine pieces of colored construction paper in my bag. The children and I went over the different colors, but they had a very hard time recognizing the blue sheet. Then it was a break time for the Standard One students.
David and Chichimwa started painting letters of the catorgies that Getrude had picked out. They were Mathematics, English, Chichwa and Expressive Arts. I was jealous because I thought that since it was my teacher, I would be able to paint. But after the letters were done, I was allowed to paint the shapes we had talked about in different colors. =)
Today was a porridge day so there was a high attendence rate across the board. We had 89 students in Standard One, and we even got a new student from the police station, whatever that means. The ladies that were supposed to make the porridge today were very late so it wasn't ready until almost 1. The Standard One students had to stay late, but they didn't get any extra work done, thats for sure.
Ann thinks that whenever there is down time, anywhere, no matter what the setting, she should sing. So she gathered all of the students on their breaks and started singing in Chichwa. Todd and a couple of the other students from Tech walked over from the government school, so they could pick up Beth for an interview she had set up. After we had our lunch in the teacher's office, Todd and I worked on Standards Two, Three and Four walls. We painted a mouth, a clock, more shapes, and a dog. It took longer than we expected but turned out very nice.
The weather is ridiculous here, I've never seen so many thunderheads in my life combined and it never storm. Or even rain, for that matter. It was so cold today, I wore pants under my skirt, of course, I looked silly, but I didn't care because I was still cold. The internet still doesn't work here, so by the time you finally read this it will be old news. Sorry about that.

Local Time 10:00 am/ 6:40 pm
July 2, 2009
Day Twelve

We picked up David and Chichemwa again this morning to take them to school. We went straight to our classrooms this morning. When I arrived, Getrude had just finished her math lesson. I read a Mercer Mayer book for their English lesson. Then I reviewed the colors with them from yesterday. But before we could move on we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" about 100 times. I asked them to write the word red in their books. Out of the 50 children in class today, I gave out about 40 check marks. I was so pleased, but so baffled that when they were asked to write their ABCs the other day there were so many unrecognizable shapes. Some kids write it three or four times to get as many check marks as possible.
Thursday is a market day, and there was no food at school, therefore super low attendence. After our English lesson, Getrude did Chichewa. Today's words were fisi, fulu, and fulufute which mean hiena, tortise, and black ants. Since it is so cold outside, the children do not want a break to go out and play so they got to leave at 10:45.
We left Malemia early to meet the others at MIE so we could walk through the "bush" or we call it the sticks, to go to a speical church. There was a children's choir set to preform for us their best songs. The study aboard students have been going there for years, and give a very generous offering each time, about 18,000 K. Last year, they bought choir robes and showed them off today. The ages ranged from around 6 to about 40. Mostly kids though. The smallest, prettiest girl was just adorable, I kept saying "I want her." After they were done singing, the man in charge told us she was an orphan. Maybe I will pull a Madonna and bring her back with my monkey. On the way back through the bush, walking down the dirt path, Jess got ran over by a bike. No one was 100 % sure what the biker said, but we all know it was very ugly. He was so pissed!
Ann, Pat, Beth, Todd and I went to the internet cafe when Charles picked us up, but the internet is so freaking slow everywhere. They say it's because it's cloudy and they can't get a good satillite signal, but we are all soooo put off by it that we have almost given up. DeAnna's church sent money for her to do something good here, and she decided to buy 300 blankets and make ponchos for the little ones at Malemia because they are so cold. So tonight, all 18 of us have been enlisted to help cut fleece.

Local Time: 9:30 am
July 3, 2009
Day Thirteen

Ohmygosh. As soon as I got to school today Getrude told me she had a meeting and left. For about twenty minutes the children were well behaved, cooporating, and listening. We reviewed our colors, and read another book. Then it went completely down hill. They started writing in their notebooks the word blue, but as soon as they were finished, they started to line up to be graded. Total chaos.The attendence was 98 today because of the porridge being offered. I freaked out and stood in the only chair in the classroom and started yelling "Quiet!" Tenience, the Standard Two teacher came over to help me. But only for a minute.
My kids got quiet while she was there, but then as soon as she left, they were running around, kicking, and screaming agian. There were so many older kids gathered around my door watching me scream. I slammed the door, that doesn't quite fit the frame, shut. I calmly put on my bookbag, opened the door, and walked outside.Ughhh. What do you know, they all followed me like little ducks. Every single one of them.
I decided to give them another chance, and tried to organize a game of "Duck, Duck, Goose." That didn't go so well either. David, one of the painters told them all to sit in a circle, so they were sitting in the dirt, I felt so bad for making them. But since the game didn't work out, I just did a serious of hand motions and they would copy. Then we did claps, and numbers. However, they are first graders so that didn't keep their attention very long.
Needless to say, I was in tears. I asked one of the teachers for the time, and it was only Ten. I still had an hour of teaching 98 non-English speaking, hungry first graders. Finally, the Standard Two kids came outside and I thought that would help distract my kids too. Nope. The Standard Two kids were way too cool to play with Standard One. Thank God the porridge was ready early today.
They lined up for porridge and went home early. It took me a while to calm down after being so worked up, but I started painting blackboards so that really helped. Carolyn helped by just talking and keeping my mind off it. It was very nice. We (the 5 Radford students) painted all 8 standards. It only took us three hours, Dr. Ann said that it would take her an hour and a half for each one. Thankfully it didn't. Beth brought tiny little latex gloves for us to wear while we painted with oil base paint, but I love them so much I wore them all afternoon, even while I wrote this entry. I've never had ones so small that fit my hands.
This afternoon I got off at "the wall" where the vendors are and walked to Tasty Bites for dinner. We had Kentucky Chick, which was their special. It was no KFC but it was pretty good for Africa. When we got back to Annie's Lodge the internet was working, and I thought my day was turning around... no such luck. I signed on with my one-time use, 30 minute internet card. Two minutes later, Todd did too. Apparently it only works for one person at a time and kicked me off. I was so angry. I do believe I'll just go to bed and pray that tomorrow is better.

Local Time: 6:15 pm
July 4, 2009
Day Fourteen

It was so nice to sleep in today. After most of the row, (the five rooms of pairs) stayed out drinking, I slept soundly in my bed. I was completely well rested, and ready to shop this morning. When Beth and I finally got some people together, we walked down to the market. Jess and Kacey bought some oranges and sweet potatoes and I went to the grocery store to buy more chips. They are not anything close to my Grandma Utt chips, but they are chips none the less. I filled my backpack with snack size bags and went to the internet cafe.
I can't post any of my blogs at the cafe, because Dr. Pat told us that if we put our external memory cards in their computers, we chance getting a lot of viruses. I don't really want to ruin my computer yet, so I haven't tried it. It was so nice to hear from everyone and see that you are still okay and functioning without me. =)
On our way back to Annie's we stopped at the wall to make some very important purchases. I haven't really been buying much because I want to wait to Lilondwe because we were told they have much nicer things. But it's still so much fun to look at the nice wood carvings. Angela, Beth, Todd and I went to Tasty Bites for lunch, had some beef samosas, and thought we saw Dave Chapelle. Not him, but still fun to pretend.
I finally organized my room after a week of complete disaster and feel much better now. It's almost time for dinner, but it will be another early night because we have to get up early to hike Mt. Malunje tomorrow. Hopefully it warms up and is nice. It's been very cloudy and cold, and sprinkling here the last few days. I don't want it to be like the last hike I went on.
Tonight we played spades. Learning to play at the GOP must have been bad, because Todd and Beth swore me and Carla were so mean when we played. It ended in a tie, we both won a set. But it did get a little ugly. Thank goodness Beth and I went to bed, both knowing it was a game. I'm glad she's my roommate.

Local Time: 8:30 pm
July 5, 2009
Day Fifteen

This morning we woke up early again, and headed to Mount Malunje. The drive out was an experience within itself. I threw up three times before we even left Zomba. Jeff was smoking outside the bus door before we left, I got really hot, emptied my sandwich bag into my backpack and threw up in the plastic bag. It wasn't til the third time that anyone noticed, so I must have been doing pretty good. Mom, I had been thinking about you, and you just make me sick. =) I slept on most of the way out hoping to feel better before we hiked.
When we got to the mountian, the scenery was absolutely amazing. I took lots of pictures. It was like being in the Blue Ridge Mountains all over again. We stopped and picked up a guide at the bottom, and then went to stop for a bathroom break at a nearby house. They had a huge turkey in the yard, and a little bitty orange kitten. There were vendors waiting with cedar items before we could even start our hike. A lot of people bought hiking sticks to use, but forgot to think of how they will be getting them home.
As we started up the mountain, it was beautiful, I forgot I was even in Africa. It was a nice hike, not to hard, but definately not flat. We made it to the waterfall and had lunch. Well everyone else had lunch, but I wasn't feeling well enough to eat the heavy peanut butter sandwich I brought. We played on the rocks and took tons of pictures of each other, and Beth, Jeff, and Moses even got in the water. No worries Dad, I already have one parasite, and I think that's enough for right now, so I didn't get in. I did put my hands in the water and it was freezing! Just like the outdoor pool, I almost felt at home.
On our hike down Charles tried to convince me to drive the bus home so that he could sit back and have a nap since he was tired from hiking so far. I don't know if 18 people could handle my driving skills. =) We hiked back down and by the time we reached the bottom we had six kids following us. All barefoot. They were sweet until we started to leave, then they started begging for pens, and wipes, and food. Anything they could say in English. At the bottom we stopped at the vendors to buy some cedar things. Some people bought boxes, some bought little drums, and other bought picture frames. Pat made us all get back on the bus so that we would get better deals. We did get a little better deals but not much, so most of us left with nothing.
On the ride home, I enjoyed looking at the tea plantations, and the different towns. I convinced Pat to ask Charles if we could stop along side the road to take pictures of the rats on a stick they sell as a snack. We stopped and had to pay 50 K to take a picture, but you will all die when you see them. It was so worth it!
When we got back to Annie's we were all so hungry, we were welcomed with another family style meal with lots of vegetables. We all enjoy these so much because we sit at one table and the food comes so much faster, and it's only 1000 K. But we had a treat tonight. Peter, Annie's son, threw us party. He even brought his friends from Lilongwe with turntables and disco lights. They gave out free liquor and lots of the group danced the night away. I was just the photographer since I've been taking antibotics but enjoyed myself anyways. A couple girls got a little too friendly, but thank goodness they all made it home safely. Todd knocked out one of our windows trying to wake me up because there was a lizard in his room and he was not sleeping in there. He stayed inbetween mine and Beth's bed.