Been here for, like, a month!
This week started much better than the last. I think we
expected too much too soon at Nama Simba, firstly as we only spend one day a
week there, so when we’d been at the Samaritan Trust two weeks, we’d only been
at Nama Simba two days, and also it was a new intake of kids. This week we
actually found out names; Honey – Loofa, James – Chi/Ki, Flash – Ayesha, Bea –
Cecelia, even Monster Child - Katherine. There are also others I learnt: Mada,
Vi… and others that I’ve already forgotten. The actual education part of the
nursery school has started now, learning the days of the week and alphabet
letters. Now when we leave the house, there’s less AZUNGU, more hugs and
smiles.
This week at TST has been really eventful too. We started by
just helping with a maths lesson, but then spent the rest of the day teaching
English! Typical Malawian style, we had no time for preparation and had to wing
it. We taught plurals, as the teacher Edwin requested, and then when we ran out
of ideas, included irregular plurals ending in O, CH and S. Edwin said he was
really impressed and that he would definitely be getting us to do more classes
in the future. Well, the very next morning we were teaching again, this time
with Louise assessing a boy who wanted to go back to school, and me helping the
other children with time arithmetic. In the afternoon, Louise felt really sick,
so I had to do a class on my own! Nouns, proper nouns and verbs. It was much
harder than I thought it would be, as Edwin had said I should give the whole
lesson in English (not that I could do much else) and I found it very hard to
describe a noun to someone who’s English wasn’t great. Still, we definitely
felt like we were making an impact and I now know more names! (PS Louise is
feeling much better.)
Yesterday morning, we hung out with Chimwemwe, Maia,
Florence and David, as they tried to teach us some Chichewa. They said that we
were Malawians now, so we need to speak Chichewa 24/7. The older girls tend to
particularly closed off, so it was great just to talk to them and to be
accepted by them. After mpunga for lunch (no nsima L), we had to go to Blantyre to
renew our visas. It only took an hour – rocket speed for Malawi!
This week, we also got our roof and our door fixed, meaning
we got our house absolutely covered in dust and wood from the beams AND now our
rape gate doesn’t close. What’s the opposite of ‘every cloud has a silver
lining’? ‘No good deed goes unpunished’? Or my personal favourite ‘Well, this
is Malawi!’
In addition, since the roof has been fixed, the wind seems to have miraculously disappeared. Which we would be happy about, but the wind tends to
keep the cockroaches away. So all week, the cockroaches have been EVERYWHERE. As
well as in our bedroom for the first time. I have met my nemesis, and it is the
cockroach. One night I couldn’t sleep because we found a massive one the wall
above my bed… ahh, it’s a stress.
Other than that, things have been pretty good. We definitely
feel more settled and like we are making the difference we came out here to
make. TTFN
Quotes
Me: So, where do you live?
Boy who likes to talk to me as we walk home: I live in
Nancholi.
Me: Oh! I have friends in Nancholi.
Boy who likes to talk to me as we walk home: Yes, I know
where they live.
Woman who works at Nama Simba: (pointing to my arms) Don’t
you have a mosquito net?
Me: Oh, yes I do. Those are just freckles.
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