Rain!

'After today they will start planting the maize', Chaliza said to me as we sat in the corner of the classroom while the students worked in four groups on activities to do with babies. The rain was thundering so hard on the metal roof that I could barely hear her even though I could see that she had raised her voice by the effort that she put into speaking to me. Fortunately I had finished the lecture input on working with babies just before the rain began. Lindy had crossed the yard with a group of girls to prepare some English and Chichewa songs to sing with very young children. Chaliza, David and I had between us three groups, one looking critically at the contents of a treasure basket that Lindy and I had hastily put together last night from things we had picked up in the grounds at Mitsidi, bits and pieces lying about in our own houses; and household items we 'borrowed' from Charles' kitchen; one group looking at stacking, posting and knocking down activities and trying to find ways of making these from local materials; and one group sitting happily in the book corner selecting books simple enough to be enjoyed by under ones. The cacophony was so great that I was tempted to put my hands over my ears but the Malawians took it in their stride and appeared to work in exactly the same way as usual. Perhaps their heads were closer together than normal as they discussed their tasks, but they did not seem to be put off task at all! When Chaliza and I went down the road to the Beehive site office where we get our lunch I asked her if it would rain today. She looked critically at the gathering clouds which were white and puffy and appeared innocent enough. 'I don't think so,' she said. Two hours later she was eating her words. Rarely have I seen so much water at any one time. I could not see the mountain that dominates the view from our classroom window. The steps up to the door were a waterfall cascading onto the dirt playground. There was so much water it seemed to be flowing in both directions. The friendly school guard took refuge with us in our classroom and stood in the doorway with an enormous squeegee redirecting the invading water back under the door. The school is on a steep hill and the water from the steps flowed across the playground and carved a channel in the dirt driveway as it descended to the road. Vince brought Peter Nkarta to see us this afternoon and although towards the end of the visit the rain lessened enough for us to hear their voices at first I had to resort to typing instructions to the students in a word document and projecting it on to the screen we use for Powerpoint presentations. Vince followed my example and introduced himself and Peter via technology. Fortunately the rain lessened just enough for us to be able to hear them speak. They said nice things about the feedback they have received about the course and the students said that they were enjoying it all which was good to hear.

It is now gone eight o'clock and it has hardly stopped raining. We walked home tonight in a light rain that was warm and quite comfortable. I was not bothered even though I was wet enough to want to take off my wet things and have my first warm shower in the seven weeks I have been here. Normally I cannot be bothered to wait the five minutes it takes for the water to run warm. There is often a power cut on a Wednesday night, but tonight the power was off for only about ten minutes, but in my terrace of houses it might as well be off as it is so reduced that my 100 Watt light bulbs are struggling to produce a quarter of their usual brightness and I have to set the fan on maximum for it to move at all. Despite the rain and a considerable drop in outside temperature it is still very warm in the house, partly because I have had to close the windows to avoid further puddles on the floor. I have been forced to light candles in order to be able to see the keyboard to write this even though the power technically is on!

We heard yesterday that Cheryl who was to be the third member of the child care training team will not be joining us and George has asked us to consider whether we wish her to rush around and find us a new volunteer, or whether with some input from Lindy and some from Chaliza we shall be alright. I think we will, but the implications need to be thought out properly before we make a final decision.

I realize that I have not told you who Chaliza is. She is a Malawian who for the last five years has had a very good job with UNICEF in Lilongwe. Because of cuts she has been forced to leave, but their loss is our gain as she has agreed to work for us for six months to plan the new children's centre, work out policies and procedures and begin some outreach projects. After that time we hope to be able to persuade her to stay on as Children's Centre manager. She is very knowledgeable about Early Childhood Development in Malawi and will be a great support to me and to David in terms of getting our training right for Malawi. Yesterday she sat in on my Child Protection training and it was good to have her reassuring feedback. I sweated blood trying to get that subject right and I can't have done too bad a job because Gift, the child protection worker for Chilomoni, who is doing our course came up to me after the session and said with barely concealed surprise, 'Congratulations, Mariam, you did it right and you have not been trained!' He seemed almost put out! I think he was anticipating that the crazy mzungu would not do the necessary research to make the training sufficiently Malawian. But he was big enough to let me know that he thought it was OK, which made me feel good!