Friday was an extraordinary day! We went through the exam procedure with both morning and afternoon groups. Each candidate sat a 45 minute written test, made a toy and filled in a form saying how it could be used with a child and what the potential learning outcomes of playing with it were, and had a ten-minute interview with either David or me. Of the almost 30 interviews I did, only one student answered the question 'If you were offered a job in Chilomoni Children's Centre, would you accept it?' in the negative, and David did not have any 'Nos' at all! Nearly everyone turned up dressed in their best and some of them were very nervous. We had a last minute panic as Jane was booked to invigilate the written exam and she was not well enough, so we had to borrow a couple of Malawian admin workers from the site office at the last minute, but they did an excellent job so the day was saved! Lindy worked incredibly hard organizing the creativity assessment. We had put together a whole selection of local materials and encouraged the students to bring some stuff themselves as well. Lindy took a photo of each finished toy so that we have a clear idea of what each student made when we come to assess the forms they filled in. We had a lively discussion about a clay chicken made by one of the lads, who covered it with feathers that were obviously from a chicken plucked for the table fairly recently. It looked pretty good and it even had a little battery operated crowing sound that went off when you moved it, but it stunk to high heaven and was enveloped in a cloud of flies! Marty, the architect, argued that it showed considerable creativity, but both Lindy and I had serious doubts about its suitability as a plaything for preschool children! I haven't read the form yet to find out how he intended it to be used. There was a lovely bus made out of biscuit packets with loo roll tubes for wheels, several kites, some balls made from plastic bags, loads of clay models, some more elaborate and more original than others. My favourite piece was a treasure basket made entirely out of paper and packets. There was a mobile with mahogany seeds and balloons hanging from it, also several rather worthy games or activities designed to teach the alphabet or number skills.
The morning group had organized a get together after the exam was over. Hope was MC and called various people to make speeches, after Moses had opened the proceedings with a prayer. Prayer in my classroom, I can hear some of you ask? What is the world coming to? David and I each had to give an impromptu speech. Two students spoke on behalf of the boys and the girls, one of the women sang 'She sailed away on a lovely summer's day, on the back of a crocodile!' which I can remember my mum teaching me when I was about seven! James read two poems he had written, one in English and one in Chichewa. Eventually crates of coke and fanta appeared as if out of nowhere and crisps, nuts and cakes, and Hope insisted that he and I open the dancing. I was a bit worried about this but it turned out to be OK as he seemed to want me to keep spinning under his arm and I can do that from my experience in the Phoenix Fledglings, children's country dance club in the 1960's! I could even teach him how to do double handed spins! This was amazing as my knowledge of any other type of dancing is minimal and I have a rather poor sense of rhythm! The second group was not so organized but several of them insisted that I take them down to the building site and point out the Children's Centre and explain which building was going to contain which part of the services. This was interesting too, in a completely different way. David and I had arranged to take a photo of each class and paid to have a print made for each student as a memento of the course. These were very well received. The afternoon photo is at a very jaunty angle! In order to get us all in it at once we had to ask the school guard, he who is supposed to like the local homebrew a little too much, to take the picture. I don't think he had ever held a camera before and didn't seem to know what to do with it at all, but after several attempts achieved a picture which had us all in it, but leaning over to the left at quite a sharp angle! I found the whole day quite an emotional experience. The students really do all want to be picked for the next course and we cannot possibly have them all.
I decided not to work all weekend to get the marking done as I have worked the last two weekends and felt I really needed a break, particularly since Saturday was the anniversary of Karl's death and hence a sad day for me. The day could not have been more different from the cold November day in Sutton last year. The sun was shining and Zoe and Lindy distracted me by taking me to the craft market to do a bit of Christmas shopping. Zoe made me drive the Land Rover for the first time along the unmade roads from Chilomoni into Blantyre. It was a bit tricky at first and I stalled it a couple of times before I even managed to get it out of the gate, much to the amusement of the guard and sundry small children. The track from the front gate to the road is steep and rocky and I stalled again on the steepest part. I had to put the handbrake on with all the strength I could muster to stop us rolling back down the hill and then I couldn't get it off again! This reminded me of Karl once again, as he often put the handbrake on in my car, so hard that I struggled to let it off again. By the time we had gone about 400 yards up the track I had got the hang of it and we proceeded into Blantyre without further mishap. I enjoyed haggling in the craft market. I had a good teacher in Gemma who has been here for over a year and has a name for driving a hard bargain. Then we met Emma and her two boys for an iced coffee and more shopping in a craft gallery before going on to the supermarket for more prosaic shopping and the material shop to buy fabric to get some handbags made. In the afternoon I had a quiet time reading and thinking and tried to phone Karl's parents but they were out. It was a shame I missed them, it would have been good to talk. I shall have to try again soon. In the evening the group of volunteers who are leaving in a couple of weeks had a barbeque as part of their farewell celebrations.
Today I went with Malcolm to a conservation area not far from Chilomoni for a walk. Our plan was to follow one of the marked trails and walk for a couple of hours, mostly through quite shady woodland. Despite the shade it was very hot, much the hottest day since the rains started and there has been no rain today. We saw one baboon, and one monkey with a very long tail, but it was moving so fast I couldn't have told you what sort of monkey it was. We also managed to lose the trail, and the path we were following petered out all together in the end and we were definitely lost, but all turned out well as we followed our noses and ended up in the car park where we had left the Land Rover more by luck than judgment I fear! I was reminded of several walks in Norfolk and Suffolk when Karl walked me off the edge of the map. He preferred that each time we went out we covered new ground and getting a bit lost was not uncommon. It was definitely scarier today though as I was fretting about the leopards and hyenas that are supposed to be found in the area, although we made a fair amount of noise, I daresay we frightened away everything. Anyhow we saw no more than birds, butterflies and lizards. When we eventually got back to Mitsidi I had a quick swim and then managed to sleep for an hour or so, before going out for a curry with five other volunteers. So I have really had a break this weekend, which has been good for me. Tomorrow we start all over again with two new batches of students….. It is good to be busy!
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