Day 9 of Awesome
As I’ve mentioned numerous times, traveling is never fun. It’s difficult, often time-consuming and
exhausting. I traveled back with a
friend from VSV and I must say, we were just on the same page – it was
excellent! We woke up early, hopped on a
mini bus to the M5 hitching point and got a ride right away. We ate snacks, we chatted up our Malawian
friends and – the best part – we got home just after lunch – unheard of! Just a solid day of sitting in the back of a
truck with the wind in our hair and the sun shining on our faces. Home sweet home!
Awesome Day #10
Girls Group Sundays are some of my favorite days in the village
lately. Although not timely, the girls
do enjoy meeting and chatting about different topics – women’s health, sex,
baking, everything! I let them choose
the topics and we go from there. I like
having arts and crafts, especially.
These girls are incredibly creative.
This week I put on some Girl Talk and we be-bobbed while we made
journals. I bought some inexpensive
notebooks and had the girls decorate the outside with construction paper, pipe
cleaners, pictures cut from magazines and glitter. When more girls came and a lot of the
materials were used up (sometimes they layered the stickers on thick – stickers
upon stickers covered from top to bottom), I decided to recycle some of my
greeting cards from family and friends.
I figured I probably wouldn’t pack them to bring home and the girls
always admire them hanging on my walls, so I cut out the images of kittens and
flowers and hearts and put them on the table for the girls to use. They chose not to use the pretty images, but
glued those pretty card sides down so that the messages were face-up on their
covers. I thought it was an innocent
mistake, but then I realized it’s even more special - six girls have letters written
by my loved ones on the covers of their notebooks for all to see. For some reason, that makes me really happy (I
hope no one minds that I recycled my cards – they went to a good cause)! And the best part, everyone cleaned up the
mess they left behind. My house was
almost spotless when the girls left excitedly with notebooks in hand.
Day 11 of Awesome
I heard women mid-day singing and hooting it up as they walked by my
house. I knew something was up with my
women’s group, so I grabbed my matching Women’s Group chitenje and followed the
sounds. They were meeting outside Ama
Chipalasa’s house under her big mango tree.
I had heard rumors that her husband was transferring and it was only a
matter of days when they would be leaving. The night before she gave me a
drinking glass to remember her and I was filled with so much sadness – “So it’s
true?!” I asked her in Tonga and she said she would miss me very much.
I sat down next to the other women on reed mats as their singing died
down. They passed around a giant bowl
full of mangos soaking in water. Each
woman took a turn in saying good-bye. My
Tonga lacks everything I wanted to say to this woman, so I kept it simple: “I
will miss you so much. You are a good
friend and you made me pretty because you braided my hair.” I handed her a chitenje I bought in the
market. It was teal and green and one of
my favorite designs. I showed her how I
had two – one for her in Malawi and one for me in America. She laughed and slapped my hand hard. Then someone yelled “DJ! Za kuno!” (DJ! Come here!) and music started belting from inside her
house. It was “Chop my Money” the most
played song in Malawi right now. I love
it – it has a great beat – but if I hear that song one more time...
The DJ cranked the song as we danced around Ama Chipalas throwing money at
her (it’s tradition and it looks exactly how I said it – we throw money at
people [usually in a basket] who are celebrating, dying, marrying, leaving,
etc) and passing her gifts of buckets and a chitenje – all purchased by the
women in our group. The music stopped
and we said some more good-byes. Someone
yelled DJ again and the same song started again...on repeat. And we danced some more, each woman singing
the words as she shuffled back and forth with their children bopa’d on their
backs or stomping in the sand next to them.
The best way to go away is to have a party like that one.
Awesome Day #12
Teaching became one of my most favorite things over night. I have my good days and bad days but most
days are really amazing. I walk out of
the classroom feeling great – and truly most students get “it” – the ones who
don’t are struggling with English and with practice they will do better next
term. This day was exceptionally
good. Participation was high, my
students were on-point and paying attention – it was just a nice day. The best part? As I walked out of the classroom thinking, hey, not bad, Teach, one student ran up
to me, shook my hand and said “Thank you so much, madam. We are so lucky to have you as our
teacher. You teach very nice things.” It feels good for a pat on the back!
13th Day of Awesome
I was invited to a birthday party from one of the women in the women’s
group. I had never been to a birthday
party in Malawi – I never knew they celebrated – so I was excited to go. The party was next door to a grocery store. There was a DJ with large speakers and the
room was decorated with toilet paper streamers.
There was a large room filled with chairs and little kids synchronized
dancing. I showed up over an hour late,
yet I was still early. The kids danced
for a while but they seemed bored so I started a game of musical chairs. It was a hit!
When more people arrived, the MC (yes, there was an MC at a 6-year old’s
party in my village) started the festivities.
We sang “Happy Birthday” several times to Shakira and then she stood at
the front of the room with a basket. We
took photos (there were two photographers!) and I was in a lot of the pictures
(I guess because I’m the clown at this party – awkward, but whatever floats your
boat. I will happily play the part of
the token azungu). The MC called out
names of people to go to the front and pass along money and gifts. Music played (Guess what song? “Chop my
Money!”) as people danced to the front and threw money at this little
6-year-old with a purple bow in her hair.
She looked bewildered. This took
almost 2 hours. Then her mother cut the
cake and we passed around cake and mandasi and fantas. Sugar-rushed and sweaty from the lack of
ventilation in the room plus intense dancing, I walked home with my women’s
group friends. We chatted and laughed
and I felt so lucky to be a part of this amazing community.
Day 14 of Awesome
More school stories! In my Form 3
Life Skills class, we are talking about Stress and Anxiety. My students can babble off all the buzz words
they need to know for the exam (Come on, they’ve been learning this stuff since
5th grade!) so I like to throw them an actual skill for life (that’s
what life skills are all about – so important to teach the skills of life)! Pumped from my VSV meeting the week before
where we learned how to meditate, I decided to try it on my class. I explained the process and my students were
skeptical. I began. “Close your eyes, but don’t fall asleep! Keep your head up, good posture and focus on
your breathing. Don’t think of anything
else, just breathing.” My students giggled and chatted amongst
themselves. I made them open their eyes,
shake out the sillies, told them to stop being rude, and they apologized, so we
began again. This time, it was
silent. I let five minutes go by and
then told them to open their eyes slowly.
Some of them gasped “Whoa!” and they looked around the room, stunned at
how peaceful they felt. We talked about
it – one student wondered if it was dangerous – could he suffocate? I said no, as long as you keep on
breathing. He seemed reassured. They all said they would like to try it
again. They were so pleased with the
exercise and I was impressed with how open they were to learning it. I love my job – watching the amazing happen
right before my eyes!
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