clare in malawi

Term ended in Malawian schools on Friday with a closing ceremony which also became a farewell to Global Teachers. At Mlozi school. there were songs, dancing, acrobatics and poetry, much especially composed for the occasion – it was all very moving. I have been given gifts, letters, drawings, carvings and many other things by pupils and teachers. Thanks goodness for the 45kg baggage allowance – the maize pounder alone takes up most of my large rucksack!

Malawian schools face many challenges that are simply unimaginable in Scotland and it is hard not to feel that one has barely scratched the surface. Mlozi school was founded in 1957 and the buildings are now in a poor state even by Malawian standards. One class has no classroom at all and another has not teacher. Of course, there is no such thing as supply – indeed even the teachers that are there are often called away from school to meeting, usually at very short notice. And then there is the paperwork….we have seen nothing like it. A letter home to parents was a revelation as each one had to be individually hand written, but most paperwork is form-filling required repetitively and extensively by the authorities.

Although the weather has mostly been hot as far as I have been concerned, the local people have found it cold. This last week, there have been a couple of days which even I found pretty cold and the wind whistled through classrooms which all lack windows and doors. The children shivered in their thin clothing. However, the warmth of the welcome has never been in doubt – this truly is the warm heart of Africa. Although I shared very little language with most of the children, we did well with sign language and shared many laughs. Some of the seniors, who had better English, became very chatty during my stay. I was also adopted by the two 3-year-old daughters of two of the teachers who followed me about the school, often sitting beside me in classes.

Outside school, many people have befriended me and invited me to their homes. Last weekend was very busy. On Friday, in this predominantly Moslem area, I was taken to the mosque by a female member of the PTA – an interesting experience, although I found it difficult to keep up with all the moves and some of the girls from school thought it was pretty funny. Hanging onto all the various bits of clothing I had been attired in to stop them falling off was also a challenge. On Saturday, about 10 of us climbed the local “mountain” behind the school and sat on top chewing sugar cane. The views were superb and I could have stayed forever but my friends found it too cold. This was the only occasion in 3 weeks when I wore trousers and even then with a chitenji – the wrap-around cloth that African women wear (my chitenji has been a constant source of frustration to me and amusement to my colleagues and friends as I have never got the hang of putting it on properly and it was forever falling off at inconvenient moments. I hasten to add that is worn over not instead of a skirt).

On Sunday, I went with some of the teachers and their families to the local CCAP Presbyterian Church about a 40 minute walk away. This was a lovely traditional mud and thatch church perched on top of a hill and with lots of beautiful unaccompanied singing. Interestingly, although women are not segregated as they are at the mosque, the men sit on one side and the women on the other.

Now all the Global Teachers have come back to Dedza and we have 2 days to prepare for the in-service training courses we will be delivering to teachers from Tuesday to Friday. It’s a busy life!!