We begin again tomorrow

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!

First courses finish tomorrow!

It feels surprising that already we have reached the end of the first set of introductory child care courses. They are only a brief three week course but it feels as though we have packed a lot into them and it has been a very intense three weeks. We feel as though we know the students quite well and they have certainly both worked hard and played hard. They have obviously been revising too because both David and I have asked questions about previous lectures this week and many of them know the answers. Vince and Peter visited again today to see the morning group of students. It appears to be the Malawian way to be fairly enthusiastic and effusive in praise. Peter gave a long speech about how much better our course is than any other child care course in Malawi, but I am not sure that he has much evidence on which to base his assertions. Please do not misunderstand me, we have worked hard to make this course as good as we can with the planning time available to us but I have studied the Malawian Early Childhood Development Training Manual in detail and I suspect that Peter has not, because our course has not imparted as much information in three weeks as that manual instructs one to deliver in two! Our course is undoubtedly more digestible and much more fun, but it is not as comprehensive. I do not know how anyone can take all that in, in two weeks. I have discussed this with Chaliza and she says that too much is tackled in one day as people are desperate for training and try to fit in as much as possible. She says that at the end of a day students on the Malawian courses are exhausted and suffering from information overload, but look, she said to me, your session is finished and most of your students are still here writing up notes and asking questions. It is good to leave them wanting more, then they will definitely come back tomorrow! Several students got up and made quite formal speeches thanking Beehive for putting on the course and saying how much it had meant to them to be able to attend. It is amazing the lengths people have gone to to make sure they could come. Several have taken three weeks leave from work to be able to come. Frank, who is a guard at Mitsidi, is one of these and he has already asked if he can do night shifts for six months so that he can attend the Intermediate Course if he is selected. One guy who works for the bus company in Lilongwe has been staying with a relative in Blantyre for the three weeks to be able to attend. Others travel by three separate minibuses each day, each way in order to attend the course for two and a half hours. Others walk significant distances. Everyone wants to be accepted for the next course but there are only 60 places. It is going to be incredibly difficult to decide who will go forward. Tomorrow is Assessment Day. There will be three 45 minute sessions in the usual two and a half hour period. The class will be divided into three groups and will rotate around three activities. There will be a written exam. I have written ten questions of which the students will be expected to answer six. I have worked out a marking scheme so David and Lindy and I can share the work of marking and have some hope of being consistent! There will be a creativity test which will involve making a toy and filling in a form to say which age group of children it is intended for, how they would introduce the toy to a child, and what they would expect the child to learn from it. Finally each candidate will have a brief interview, either with me, or with David. We shall ask each person the same four questions. The whole course is a bit like an extended selection process for the Intermediate course and the chance of a job in the Children's Centre. I cannot bear the thought that some of them will probably pass the course, but not make it into the top 60. Vince told them all that even if they don't make it the certificate they get will be a passport to other jobs with children, or other jobs of different kinds with Beehive. I wish I shared his confidence! I do hope that he is right!

I have just paused in my blogging to pick up my can of Doom for only the second time since I have been here to bring death to insects that have invaded my house! The first time was to the biggest cockroach I have ever seen! This time it is for a large number of flying ants which have appeared from nowhere and are swarming round my table lamp and the ceiling light. There is now a lot less activity in the pools of light but I have a very tickly throat and am coughing a fair bit. I wonder what is in that stuff, it can't be good for me. Just spotted another cockroach and Doomed that too!! I have used the old-fashioned and kinder method of trapping things in a glass with a postcard and putting them outside the door quite a bit, but tonight there are just too many. I hope it is not because the rains have started, but I fear that it is! I suppose now I shall have to get out the dustpan and brush and dispose of the corpses before I go to bed! Anyway, it is time I did, busy day tomorrow! Night night.

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!

Guards, gates, walls and fences

When I first arrived in Malawi I was really struck by all the walls and fences that there are around buildings not only in Blantyre, but also in the poorer township of Chilomoni where the Beehive Projects are based. Our administration office is on Chilomoni High St, but you cannot see the single story building from the road as it lurks behind a high brick wall and a substantial metal gate. The building is guarded 24 hours a day by guards in green trousers and white shirts who jump to attention when anyone arrives and click their heels together smartly and salute, especially if the visitor is Peter Nkarta who is our Malawian Managing Director. He likes everything to be smart and run smoothly, and expects the guards to call him 'Sir'. David particularly objects to being called 'Sir' and is working hard to persuade the guards not to spring to their feet when we arrive and to call us by our first names. We are gradually making some headway on this, but it is an uphill battle. The guard at the admin office during the day is called Peter too. He is a cheerful soul with a smile like the sun coming out on a dull day. One cannot fail to be cheered by his 'Good morning Madam!' and I cannot bring myself to tell him off for his mode of address on a daily basis, so if I am not with David I just smile and return the greeting. I have just about managed the complicated three-stage handshake that most of the young Malawian men seem to use. Our students also struggle to remember to call us by our First names, but they are getting used to it. David corrects them every time, but I am happy to answer to anything so long as it is not rude. I certainly would not choose to be called madam, but as several students have explained, 'This is our culture, it is what we expect,' so who am I to object?

Most private houses are behind walls and anyone with any money has guards. There are at least four guards at Mitsidi at any one time. It is quite a large plot of land with a dozen small houses and a large one. There are two big metal gates at the top and bottom of the property. It is part of the guard's job to open the gates and let visitors in and out, whether they arrive on foot or by car. The guards are supposed to be spread out around the grounds but in practice they are often all four chatting together right in the middle. When a car arrives and hoots at the gate one of them will run towards the appropriate gate and draw up the bolts and swing it open to let the car in. The walls around Mitsidi are hardly intruder proof, there is one wall of Hydroform blocks which is pretty robust, but the fence along the road is simply woven straw panels, the third side is the river and the fourth is not fenced at all but can be freely approached through rather scrubby bushes. The other day while we were having breakfast a rather shabby looking woman appeared out of the bushes and there was no guard to be seen anywhere! I have decided that the most boring job in the world must be to be a night guard for a smallish household that only merits one guard. Twelve hour shifts in the hours of darkness, with no one to talk to and nothing to do but open the gate when the householder comes home or let the occasional visitor in. How one would avoid sleeping on the job I have no idea!

I think that most fences are more about privacy than about security. The smaller, poorer houses tend to be fenced either with straw panels or with makeshift screens made of old cardboard boxes or cement bags. Just after David arrived we were walking home from work and we heard loud clanging sounds coming from behind a house. David said 'I wonder what on earth is going on there?' and quick as a flash he was through the gap in the cement bag fence and round the side of the house. I followed with some trepidation and I was followed by at least three women and a couple of children who poured out of the house to see what the crazy mzungu intruders were up to. We were met by two or three men who did not appear to have a word of English. David asked what they were doing and before long we were being treated to a demonstration of how to make a tin bath. The original cacophony having been caused by a man beating the flat piece of tin that was to form the curved side of the bath into shape with a large hammer. We were at the bucket makers!

We are slowly making friends with the guard at the school where our classrooms are. I don't think he has ever told us his name. At first it seemed as though he had very little English, but I think he just thinks we should try harder to communicate with him in Chichewa. Now that we return his morning greeting in the way that he has taught us he has become more communicative and I have learned that he is 68 years old and has been working for Beehive right from the beginning of the time the project has been in Chilomoni when they were building the way of the cross. The headmaster says he is getting old and that he likes a drink too much!

The Mount Soche Hotel where we go for a swim in a pool that is perfectly circular and always a clear sparkling blue, unlike our own pool which is often rather green and murky with too much dust, has a barrier rather reminiscent of a level crossing barrier that is lifted as we drive in. The guard then gives the driver a card which has to be returned upon leaving to the guard at the exit barrier. I can only think that this is to discourage car theft from the hotel car park which is right on the main road in the centre of Blantyre. There are more guards standing in the entrance who greet us very politely as we go in to buy a beer or a bottle of Fanta at a price that is probably about a quarter of their daily rate of pay. Yet the annual fee for membership of the swimming club is about £32 per annum. How much cheaper is that than a sports club in the UK? I cannot get my head around the vast disparity between the economic systems of the two lands. Malawi is so much a place of contrasts. It is possible to live very cheaply but many things that we take for granted are impossibly expensive to local people.

Introductory Course Week 2

David began on Monday morning with a presentation on Communication, Language and Literacy. On Tuesday it was my turn with Problem Solving and Supporting Children to Develop Thinking Skills. On Wednesday we made them do presentations to us. Working in pairs they had to describe an activity to do with pre-school children, say what age group it was suitable for and tell us what they thought children would learn from it and how it would support their development. This was interesting from many points of view. David and I learned quite a bit about making toys and equipment from local resources. Quite a number of them made props from clay. One pair made an archery set including a homemade bow and arrow that worked pretty well and targets that managed to teach colour, shape, tall and short and nos 1-4! There was a marvelous imaginary play set up for 2-3 year olds around playing house with some lovely little clay people and all sorts of other bits and pieces including a bicycle made from sticks and crown caps, and a car made from a match box. Crown caps in different colours featured a lot. My favourite piece was an abacus made with alternating green and red caps on a piece of string in a cardboard frame. There was another abacus made with homemade clay balls on a piece of string supported by a curved stick. I only had my little camera with me so the quality of my photos is not great but you can get the ideas. Many of the activities were rather formal and led from the front of the class. We have a way to go before our students will fully understand what a difference it makes to have UK staff ratios and therefore the ability to plan for individual children and enough staff available so that children have room to move around and for several different activities to be going on at the same time. We keep describing it, but until they actually see it for themselves I am not sure that it is going to sink in! On Thursday David tacked the 'observe, plan, do, review' cycle and on Friday I looked at Play and how children learn through play. David had them all writing a retrospective plan for the activities they presented the day before, which was interesting but slightly limited because without having any group of children to observe in the first place it was difficult for them to understand how the whole process starts. I got each group of four or five students to describe a group of children playing and then go through Tina Bruce's twelve features of play and say which of the features they could see in the play episode they had described and then say what the children were learning following on from each feature they identified. I've never taken that approach before and I was pleased by how well it worked. Yet again we learned new Chichewa games and activities. We had boys playing with homemade clay lorries and tanks, a game which was very like hopscotch but with a court of a different shape, a game with something in common with 'Piggy in the Middle' and another that was 'Keepy uppy' really, played in a circle. I guess across the world children invent the same games to amuse themselves over and over again. I worked out an assessment system with a maximum of 12 points for each presentation, and David and Lindy and I each assessed the presentations separately and then added the scores to give a maximum of 36 to each pair of students. There is a weakness here in that the work done was not always equally distributed between the partners, but we did our best! We each took a slightly different view, Lindy concentrated on what she thought the activity would be like for the children on the receiving end. David and I focused more on the student's awareness of what the children might be learning as they did the activity. I was a bit more generous with the points than David was, but there were not many presentations about which we did not broadly agree. We have been playing a lot of different games with the students because we want them to experience for themselves the process of learning through play. We have done table top activities such as painting and playdough but we are so short of resources until our container gets here that this has been a bit restricted. I managed to make playdough from nsima flour, I brought the food colouring and cream of tartar with me. It worked well! David and I come from quite different places as far as games are concerned and the result has been rather a rich mixture, with him providing a lot of high energy, competitive stuff and me drawing on my history of involvement with New Games UK and playing more cooperative and generally, but not always quieter games. We have played a few name games which have helped me to remember more of the student's names but I am still struggling with some of the more unfamiliar ones. After the session on Play I decided to play a drama game called 'The Line' where groups take it in turns to draw an imaginary line across the room and then mime what sort of line it is. I began by drawing a line from wall to wall at a height just above my head and miming hanging out the washing. This was quickly guessed and a whole succession of innovative ideas followed from the morning group who quickly caught on to the idea and mimed scenes including walking along the white line in the middle of the road to prove you are not drunk, a river, a particular type of Malawian trap for catching animals, a net used by fishermen on Lake Malawi and so on. In the afternoon the group is younger on average and more excitable, certainly more competitive, and the game quickly disintegrated into a shouting match about who may or may not have been cheating and which was the best team. How differently different groups of students approach the same session! We managed to calm them down through playing quieter games and talked to them about what happened and how we could all learn from it, so the play session was not wasted! In the afternoon we had the first rain to fall while we were teaching. It became quite impossible to hear ourselves against the rain drumming at top volume on the metal roof. I do hope it is not going to rain like that every afternoon now, as if it does the afternoon group will be at a considerable disadvantage. I tried to pass round the way to play the new game from person to person rather like Chinese Whispers, but they didn't really catch on, perhaps that is not a familiar game here.

This has been another busy weekend as far as lesson preparation is concerned. David is working on care of basic needs and professional partnerships this week and I have Child Protection and care of babies to think about. The final session will be an assessment. I have done loads of research and thinking about the Child Protection presentation because I am acutely aware that it must be appropriate for Malawi, and also because one of the afternoon students is a Child Protection Worker and therefore I have to get it right! I am used to thinking of four main categories of child abuse; physical, emotional, sexual and neglect, but the Malawian Early Childhood Development Basic Training Manual adds Child Labour, Child Trafficking, Harmful Cultural Practices and Stigma and Discrimination to that list. Fortunately this is only an introductory course so I have been able to keep things simple. We shall be looking at 'What are child rights?', 'What is child abuse? ', and keeping the appropriate action when a care giver suspects there may be child abuse to discussing the situation with the line manager and taking advice from the local Child Protection Worker who will act as an intermediary with the District Social Work Office, tribal chief or Police as appropriate. I hope it turns out OK! I have also written an exam this weekend and devised various forms etc to keep assessment records. I still have to do the working with babies session, but compared to Child Protection that should be a piece of cake so I am not too worried about that! I hope I don't live to eat my words!!

Yesterday I went into Blantyre and investigated a couple of fabric shops. I bought a couple of chitenges which are now brightening up my room. We finished up in the café that does the iced coffee, which was very nice and then wandered on to the food court for lunch. I had a chicken salad which was fresh and herby. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Eating out here is not very varied. Basically you can have beef, chicken, or chambo with chips, rice or nsima, sometimes there are vegetables. It is definitely not great for vegetarians! Despite my decision to eat meat while I am here I am not sure that I shall continue to do so when I come home. It's OK, but although I quite like the chicken I am not particularly enjoying the beef, although I must say Charles makes great gravy!! David came home early on Friday to find Charles and Stanley butchering a pig on the khonde. Jane says it was not a pretty sight, lots of fat everywhere. I think I am glad that I did not encounter the pig until it was turned into roast ribs for supper! Today has been a lazy day, finishing my presentation, making mango tartlets for pudding tonight, (Yes, mango again I'm afraid!) and writing the blog. I want to thank all of you who have been calling me on the phone. It really makes my day to talk to someone from home, and although I have arranged cheap calls from Malawi to England now it is still about five times more expensive than it is in the other direction. I really don't understand why that is, but there you are, it's a funny old world!

Malawia!

I feel that I have rather wasted this weekend. I planned to spend one day working and the other having a nice time doing something interesting, but unfortunately I chose to work first and then had such trouble concentrating that I got very little done and then felt unable to go out and have fun the second day also. I have had, if not the galloping gut rot today, at least the trotting variety and it has been extremely hot with little breeze. Therefore I have been rather uncomfortable. Nevertheless I got through a bit more work than yesterday but not really enough to feel prepared for the next week. On Monday nights we almost invariably have a power cut so at least my Tuesday lecture should be written by now, but unfortunately there is about a quarter of it to go. When one feels poorly and things do not go well it is so easy to let everything else that is not going well rush in and get into a downward spiral; I am afraid I have done a bit of that this weekend. Amongst the volunteers it is called 'Malawia' and apparently it happens to us all at one point or another. So this weekend was my turn. I hope it doesn't come around too often.

I have learned from Jane's mum who was here on a visit a few weeks ago the cooling technique of wringing out a flannel in cold water and placing it across the back of the neck. It certainly works even if it doesn't look particularly attractive! Jane says her mum used to put a wet cloth over her head and then put her sunhat on the top of it so she looked a bit like a French legionary. I don't think I shall go that far, but the principle is a good one!

Zoe has cooked a proper Sunday roast with two chickens, roast potatoes, and about four sorts of veg and David has made Yorkshire puddings. It's hardly the weather for it, but it still seems appealing. I seem to have fallen into the role of pudding chef and as yet again all we seem to have is mangoes, this time I have made a mango cake, using an apple cake recipe that is tried and trusted and just substituting the apples with mangoes. It looks alright and I don't see why it shouldn't taste good too.

The last two days of the course last week went well. The visitor from UNICEF didn't stay as long as I'd hoped or ask as many questions as I would have liked but she seemed interested and I think she will remember the visit. I would have liked her to talk to the students and get heir feedback on the course but she showed no signs of interest in doing that. She arrived in a huge shiny white car and Vince made her walk all round Chilomoni in the heat to see all the different parts of the project. She didn't seem to mind!

On Friday David did a presentation on Cognitive Development and learning key concepts, followed by a selection of activities at which the students were supposed to make up things to do with the equipment and say what concepts the children would be learning. This was quite a hard task for some of them. They definitely need a bit more practice at it. I think many of them and particularly the men, will really have to learn how to get down on the floor and play with children. I am becoming more and more aware of how different what we are training them to do is from what happens in local reception classes. We will have to challenge quite a lot of local assumptions.

The Colours of Malawi

The colours of Malawi have changed subtly during the five weeks I have been here. I suppose that basically they are the same: the strongest are shades of green and brown. The countryside seems very dry to me but there must be some water about somewhere as there are many shades of green. The grass at Mitsidi is bright because it is watered, but there are many shades also in the leaves and fruits of the trees, from the bluish eucalyptus to the dark skins of ripening papaya, gradually turning to yellow in the sun. When I arrived the most striking shade was the purple of the Jacaranda blossom which manages to be both bright and misty at the same time. How can that be? Over the weeks they have gradually faded as the leaves have sneaked in after the blossoms, and the blossoms fallen, transferring the purple from the canopy to carpet the ground in a widening circle beneath each tree. Just before the purple finally paled away the flame trees began to glow, at first softly in the distance and gradually more and more vividly until now they are astonishing splashes of a colour that is too deep for orange to be an adequate descriptor, but red is not right either. I suspect that when one day soon I actually stop the car and get the camera out to record the blooms in close up, I may find that in reality the individual blossoms are part yellow and part red, and that is why from a distance I really cannot feel sure what colour they are. Anyway they speak to me in a way that I cannot recall a plant doing before and make me feel warm and excited and absolutely satisfy that thirst for colour and vibrancy that I sometimes feel when surrounded by tasteful monochrome beige or grey! The intensity is surprising and because it is a tree the patches of colour are significant in size and cannot be missed. Other things are also redder than they were. The view from our table on the khonde across the valley to the hill the other side of the stream is gradually blushing, not as you might expect from leaves turning in colour before they drop off for the winter, but for completely the opposite reason; new leaves are growing and the young leaves are tinged with red which gradually is taken over by fresh spring green as they stretch out their fingers and turn themselves towards the sun.

The sun is getting almost, but not quite, imperceptibly hotter every day. After the two consecutive days when it rained a couple of weeks ago, there has been no more, although it has clouded over threateningly on many occasions. I have begun to learn what it is like to sweat copiously which is not something I am really familiar with, being almost the most unsporty person on the face of the earth. I am sorry Dave but I am going to talk bodily functions, so skip this bit if you cannot handle it! I am drinking far more water than I have ever done in my life but I am peeing far less. I have to put a lot more salt on my food than I normally do and am indulging my liking for crisps, as I have woken several times in the night with horrible cramp in my legs which leaves a dull nagging ache lasting all day. The salt and crisp regime seems to be working which is good news indeed! I could talk for ages about the state of everyone's bowels and the effect of drinking unboiled water, but out of deference to the sensibilities of my dear brother suffice it to say that I have decided that it is prudent to buy bottled water or boil everything that passes my lips. Also that the advent of a perfectly formed poo is gradually moving from being a rarity towards being an everyday occurrence!

Introductory course, days 2 and 3

Day 2 was about good memories of childhood and about our hopes and aspirations for our children. For their homework I asked the students to bring in something the next day which reminded them of their own childhood and to show it to the class and explain the memory. It was fascinating because so many of the students brought toys they had made out of local materials. At least three of the girls brought either lumps of clay or beautiful little babies that they had fashioned out of clay and they described caring for and feeding these babies and strapping them to their backs with scraps of fabric just as their mothers carried younger brothers and sisters. One young man whose father had been in the army made a tank out of clay and cocktail sticks, another made a rotor blade from a torn leaf mounted on a stick and described running through the streets of Chilomoni pretending to be an aeroplane. A young woman who was the youngest of four sisters brought a tin can which had been washed and the label carefully removed and described how her sisters had supported her to cook by herself from a very young age using such tins and making real food by herself alongside the work that they were doing, always with her own small pan. Some talked about story-telling and singing in their own families. The afternoon group brought more ready-made toys than the morning group, but many of these were well worn and obviously well-loved, probably because toys are not nearly so plentiful here as they are at home. David and I have kept our eyes open on the walk to and from work and we have noticed children playing with sticks and stones and clay. Little girls with tins and wet mud are busy cooking nsima, there is the occasional boy with a car made out of wire. Bowling tyres along the road, controlling them with two sticks is a popular sport with boys aged about ten, and they will use anything that will roll, the other day I saw a boy bowling the hoop out of an old mosquito net. Groups of girls gather under the trees to play what I used to call American skipping. We used to make ropes out of linked rubber bands, or beg a length of knicker elastic from our mum's workboxes, but here the ropes are made from strips cut from plastic carrier bags, there seems to be just enough stretch in them to make the game work. Little girls seem to spend a lot of time practicing carrying things on their heads, like their mothers and you will see quite small children balancing tins and small buckets containing water, sometimes steadying them with one hand, but often balancing very well as they pass along the road. Boys make balls out of whatever they can, rolled up paper, clay. If any of you are coming to Africa and wish to bring a gift for local children you could do worse than fill your suitcase with uninflated footballs and bring a pump!

There were differences between the expectations of our students for their children and those of students in the UK at different stages of their progress through formal education, but also strong similarities. In the UK there is usually a strong theme around wishing children will be happy, but that seems less of an issue in Malawi, and yet people do seem to be happier generally here, despite the extreme poverty. There is a much stronger desire in Malawi than in the UK that children should turn out to be 'God-fearing' and the desire that children should not get involved in a peer group that will lead them into drink, drugs and early sexual experimentation is strong in both countries. In Malawi there is a strong emphasis on being a good citizen and contributing to the development of the country. The government's strapline that early years children are the future leaders of Malawi is obviously well known and welcomed. At least among our students progress of the country towards being able to provide a better life for its citizens is seen as a highly desirable outcome. For my own interest rather than anything else, after the students had produced their own lists of aspirations for their children I told them about the five outcomes of the Every Child Matters legislation in the UK, and just as has happened in similar classes at home I have not found an aspiration for children that does not fit within at least one of the five outcomes –happy, healthy, safe, make a positive contribution to society and achieve economic independence. In my humble opinion if the Tories throw it out it will not be because it is not a useful way of assessing how successful individual services for children are, it will be because spending money on services for Early Years is lower down their list of priorities than it should be!

The two groups are very different from each other. In the morning the presentations take longer because the students tend to ask more philosophical questions. The second group seems to be more practical and more able to extract the learning opportunities from the games we play and understand why we have chosen the games to fit the theme of the session.

Today we planned that David would take primary responsibility for the session which was to be on Physical Development, but unfortunately he woke up with a bad case of the dreaded D and Vs and it would not have been wise, or possibly even possible for him to have led the very active session he had planned. Therefore we agreed that we would swap the timetable around and I would present my almost planned session on Social, Emotional and Behavioural Development. This had the personal advantage for me that I get a free evening tonight as I would undoubtedly have spent time tinkering with the plans today and actually it went fine, indeed I think it was the best session so far. Funny old world, perhaps from this I should learn to have more confidence in my abilities to improvise and make myself a little more leisure time! I played a lot of games today, choosing them to encourage building relationships, taking turns, cooperating together and was proud of the student's abilities to understand and describe what they had been doing. They entered into playing with great enthusiasm, I think partly because there is a good mix of ages in the group and roughly equal numbers of men and women. We are developing a tradition of beginning each session by reading the group a story as if they were a group of three year olds. Can one have a tradition after three days? The students appear to enjoy it and are entering into the spirit of the exercise and responding to questions with gusto. David is a particularly talented reader of stories and has them all doing actions etc. It is a joy to take part. One never stops learning! Later we plan for some of the students to read the stories.

Yesterday two things happened which caused me concern. At the end of the afternoon session I became aware that I had a potential problem. Two students at opposite ends of the classroom appeared to be having a heated discussion. I sat down and paid great attention to what was going on, but could not work out what it was about. One of the girls spoke quietly to me as she walked past, 'You do not understand what it is they are saying, do you?' she said. I asked her to explain but she was cautious so I decided to take the bull by the horns. I stood up and said, ' I can see that there is a problem, but I do not know what the problem is. If you will continue the discussion in English so I can understand, perhaps I will be able to help.' It transpired that several students are really struggling to come to the course as it is three minibus rides away from their homes and this is a significant cost, particularly to those who are not working. They wanted to know if Beehive was able to help with travel costs. Fortunately Vince had prepared me for this one and so I was able to be very clear in my answer. I said that Beehive was unable to help with travel costs because there is no budget for this. I said I would take their comments back to Vince but I was not hopeful that he would change his mind. I told them that Beehive was providing good quality training for free, paying for materials and equipment and for hiring the room, and that David and I were working for nothing. I said that Beehive would like to be able to help but there was not enough money for everything. I wrote my mobile phone number on the board and said if anyone felt they had to stop coming to the course because they had no money for fares they should telephone me first. It is over 24 hours now and I have had no such calls.

The other thing is that I was approached by one of the younger girls who had said that she had asked her workplace if she could have the time off to attend this course and they had refused her request, so she had resigned on the spot and come to the second session. I think she was appalled by the enormity of what she had done. She said that if she does not make it on to the intermediate course and eventually get a job in the Children's Centre all her friends will laugh at her for what she has done. I told her that her action showed me how much she wants to do the job, and now she must work hard and do well in the exam and take part in the activities enthusiastically and make sure that she is selected. I told her I could not make any promises but that I hoped her brave decision would eventually turn out well for her, and then I went home and worried about her until Gloria's more pressing problems took over my worry space! I am sure that you will all be glad to know that Gloria is home from hospital and well on the way to recovery. I am astonished by how important a simple three week course with a potential for further training is to these people. They have invested a huge amount of faith that we will provide a valuable, worthwhile course. It is quite a responsibility!

One more thing. Today I looked up the blog statistics and discovered that I have had hits from eight different countries, and over 800 hits altogether. How amazing is that! Please leave me comments so I know who you are and what you think.

A snake bite and a visit to hospital

Let me first hasten to reassure you that it was not me that was bitten by a snake! I have had an incredibly busy day with some interesting aspects of the course which I shall undoubtedly discuss on a future occasion, but it is now almost 11.00pm and I must be at the classroom by 7.30 in the morning so time is limited for writing now. Therefore I will concentrate on the events of this evening. The two Davids and Marty and I were sitting at the table after dinner, drinking tea and idly wondering whether to play bridge or to retire early when we realized that Charles, our housekeeper and cook had returned to the house despite having said goodnight half an hour before and was hovering at the end of the khonde. He had a problem he said that Stanley's (the gardener's) son had been bitten by a snake and that Stanley was away and they needed help. I asked if he needed a lift to hospital and he said 'Yes'. David, not the one who works with me, but the other one who is going home on Saturday after a year in Malawi, offered to drive and I said I would go for moral support. We rushed back to our houses to pick up keys and money etc and brought the car round to Stanley's house. Charles' English must be a bit more limited than I realized because the victim was Stanley's 15 year old daughter Gloria. Her foot was rather swollen and very painful. No one had seen what kind of snake it was so we got her and her mum, Fanny and Charles in the car, and at least another three sympathetic friends and relations in the pick-up bit at the back and sped off to the nearest hospital which is private and run by the Seventh Day Adventists. This was my third visit here as I have been to visit and to pick up Jack previously. Before one can see a doctor one has to sign a form giving the name of the person who agrees to foot the bill. It costs K2900 just to have a consultation; any treatment is on top of that. As we didn't know what kind of snake it was and thus how poisonous I signed the form and handed over the consultation fee. Gloria was seen within about ten minutes and fortunately showed no sign of systemic effects although the foot continued to swell and to hurt quite a bit. She found it very difficult to put the foot to the floor and so Fanny swung her on to her back as if she were a much smaller child and carried her to the consultation room. The Malawian women carry all sorts of loads and seem to be very strong. The doctor explained that he did not think she was in danger but that he thought she should be kept in hospital overnight for observation in case there were further effects and he said she would need pain killers. He then said that in order for her to stay we would have to pay a deposit of K50,000 in case she needed treatment in the night and that the cost of an overnight stay if no treatment were needed was K17,000. Charles put his foot down, he said it was far too much money, and anyway, David and I did not have nearly that much between us, so the doctor wrote a note to Queens, the public hospital and we all piled in the car again. By this time Derek and Stella, other Malawian neighbours from Mitsidi, had arrived so we made quite a formidable force as we trooped into the hospital, this time with Gloria on Stella's back. David left the car mostly obscuring a notice which said 'Ambulances only'. I suggested that perhaps we should move it, but he said, 'let's get her seen by a doctor first', so we left it where it was. The doctor in the A and E clinic read the note and sent us straight off to the ward. He saw Stella preparing to carry Gloria again and produced a folding wheelchair as if out of nowhere. Charles appeared to know where to go and we set off along what seemed like miles of dingy corridors. The top halves of the walls were painted white and the bottom halves light blue but the illumination was only an occasional 40W light bulb so it was pretty dismal. Finally we arrived in ward 5B which contained about 30 beds, very close together, there cannot have been more than about two feet between them. Each bed had a mattress and almost all were occupied by women. I think it must have been a surgical ward as there were several patients with crutches and others with bandages on various bits of their bodies. We were directed to wait in the corridor. Twenty minutes later we were still in the corridor and the lights went out. For a few moments we were in pitch darkness, the only thing I could see was Fanny's necklace which must have been made of 'glow in the dark' beads. After a while a nurse brought candles. It was at least half an hour before the lights came on again. Long before then David got fed up with waiting and went to see whether an mzungu throwing his weight about would persuade them to fetch a doctor any more quickly. First of all he told them that it was just as well it had not been one of the really poisonous snakes because if it had been Gloria would have been dead by now! At this point the nurse received a phone call asking them to get us to move the car in case an ambulance came. David said that he would move the car as soon as Gloria had seen a doctor. Shortly afterwards there was another phone call from some official who insisted that David move the car. He said he would as soon as the doctor arrived. The official said that he did not have the doctor's phone no. All the Malawian's were hugely amused by David's performance, both our own party and sundry others waiting for treatment. Gloria was moved into a side ward, but when the lights came on again it became apparent that the light in the side ward was not working so the candle in there remained lighted. David eventually gave up and he and Derek went off to move the car. They were gone ages and before they came back a young woman in a Carlsberg T shirt arrived, she popped into the nurses' room and came out with a stethoscope. Hoorah, it was a doctor at last. She examined Gloria by candlelight and allocated her a bed. We saw her settled and Fanny stayed with her. She will be observed tonight, see a doctor at 7.00am and the consultant's round at 9.00am and if all is well will be home by lunchtime. So let's hope they have a comfortable night. I'm not sure that will be even remotely possible in that crowded ward, but there you are! Stella popped back to the side ward where she had seen a pillow and came back with it to raise Gloria's bitten foot, and Fanny covered her daughter with a chitenge and they settled down for the night. My heart was with Fanny throughout. It is always difficult to see someone in pain, but when it is your child it is so much harder to bear. Fanny put a brave face on things, but on several occasions she lowered her head in her hands and I am pretty sure she was praying for relief for her daughter. Gloria finally got painkillers about three and a half hours after the bite happened. The NHS may have its shortcomings, in fact I know from experience that it does, but it certainly also has its advantages. I am very glad that if I am ill in Malawi I shall be able to afford the Seventh Day Adventist hospital and to claim the cost back from my insurance. How lucky am I?

First Teaching Day

Here I am at twenty past four on the first day of our introductory courses. I am sitting on my sofa in my own little house at Mitsidi and I am absolutely shattered, but I feel happy because the day went pretty well. The morning and afternoon groups were different from each other, as they so often are and although we followed the same plan the sessions felt different, although both went OK. We introduced ourselves to our students and did a bit of admin, such as checking contact nos and making sure that they all really has their MSCE certificates. One chap turned up on the off chance that there was a place and as about four of the morning students didn't show up at all we let him stay and he took an active part. I said he could come again tomorrow. At least he is keen, and it is Malawi so it appears we can do as we think best at the time. I'm not sure what I really think about this but at the moment David and I have decided to go with the flow and see what happens. We are discussing all such decisions and so far have not found it difficult to agree. I did a couple of short presentations, one on the content of the course and the assessment process, and one on what you might expect a Children's Centre to look like. This was illustrated by pictures of children playing in a Norwich Children's Centre. I am sure it will not be quite the same but it was the best I could do at the time!

We got the students to make name cards, partly to make it easier for us to learn their names and for them to get to know each other and partly to see how they got on with a creative task. Most of our materials are still in transit. Probably stuck on the docks in Durban where there has been a strike, but fortunately each of us brought a few things in our luggage so we managed to muster a few pots of glue, four pairs of scissors, half a sheet of A4 paper per student, felt pens, wax crayons and glitter. I made a name card myself with MARIAN in big purple spotty letters and decorated with a big, bright African sun and some flowers and of course, being me I had to have a bit of sparkle, so I put gold glitter all over the sun. I was wearing a purple skirt and blouse with little gold bits on the blouse, so it rang true when I said that what this name card says about me is that I like purple and a bit of sparkle, I have just come to Africa where the sun is so hot, which is so different from my home in November when it is cold and wet. I said I loved flowers and like to grow them at home and that the fact that I made my letters spotty tells them that I am a little bit lazy as it is so much quicker to fill an area with spots, rather than colour it in properly! David also made a card with cut out letters which showed a different approach. They were soon working away and chatting and getting to know each other as they worked. Some students were a bit slow to get going, I think they must have less opportunity to do this sort of thing due to the lack of materials and different educational approach, but when I got the glitter pots out there was a rush to use them. They are I think the best value item I have ever bought. Twelve tiny pots for 99p in The Range at Long Water Lane! They were certainly marveled at today and there is still loads left for another time.

While they were working we asked them to think about the things that were most necessary for children. Next each student had to get up and show the name card, say what it said about them, say why they wished to work with children and say what they thought were the most important things that children need. Everyone made a contribution. Some people spoke passionately about the role of children as future leaders of Malawi. Many of them identified themselves as Christians and talked of the importance of religion, this is very different from the average Early Years student in the UK.

I wrote down all the important issues raised on scraps of paper and then in groups the students arranged them in long lines in the order of importance. This exercise sparked some healthy debate. There were some surprises. One group put 'Land to grow food' right down at the unimportant end. When I questioned this they were all agreed that it is important for the parents to have land to grow food, but not important for the children. This was a way of looking at the question that I had not thought of and it underlined to me the importance of being clear in the way I explain things to students! Another group put nsima at the unimportant end. This also I questioned as it is the staple foodstuff of the area, but I was told that this is not the best and most nutritious diet and therefore it is not important. I guess that's fair enough. David had a lively debate about the position of 'fun' in the list of necessities, all groups had it near the bottom and he had to struggle to persuade them to move it further towards the middle. I am not sure whether this would happen with a group of students in the UK. Perhaps Maureen and Laura you coud try it out some time and let me know!

David wrapped the session up with a brief presentation on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and for the morning session that was all we had time for. In the afternoon we played a couple of name games: 'The space on my right is free and I want… to come and sit with me', and 'I sit in the grass with my friend'. Everyone was soon running about and laughing and by the end I had learned perhaps a quarter of the names, which is a start. I find it much easier to remember the European style names than the Chichewa ones. The European style names tend to be a bit old fashioned to my ears, we have a Florence, a Mildred, several Joseph's, Esther, Victor, Benard and George. These are not too difficult but I am struggling a bit more with Numawethi, Chifundo, Chimwemwe and Chicco. I expect I shall get there in the end! I will probably remember Chimwemwe as the plumber is also called Chimwemwe and mercifully he did put the toilets in working order, so he is up there among my favourite people at the moment. Apparently Chimwemwe means 'happiness' which seems appropriate in the circumstances!

So much to think about, and I am very tired despite sleeping relatively well last night. I hope I shall have enough energy to get through to the end of the week.

I have been delighted that some of you are beginning to comment upon what I have written, some directly on the blog and others by email. Knowing that you are reading and enjoying my ramblings will certainly encourage me to keep on writing, so if you want more let me know what you think. Becky I hope you enjoy making mango crumble, perhaps I shall have started a trend on the dinner tables of UK! I hope it is better than mine was as it was a bit dry. Perhaps I should have cooked the mangos a bit first to create a bit more juice… I must say that cutting up and dicing seven mangos took quite a while. The flip side to not having to cook very often is that when you do you are cooking for 14!

Away Day for Volunteers

On Friday we attended an Away Day for volunteers held in a lodge the other side of Limbe, called Game Haven. It was like a fairly smart hotel set in a large area of grounds with a few animals roaming around, we saw sable and another, smaller antelope. I think the idea was largely to say thankyou to the seven volunteers who have been here for about a year and who are to return home before Christmas. In the morning there were a few brief introductory speeches from Vince, from Peter, The Managing Director of Beehive and from someone from Blantyre City Council, and there was a nice compilation of photographs taken over the last year showing the volunteers in their various roles working alongside local people on all the various Beehive projects. Then we had a visit from staff at Dedza Pottery who gave us four tiles each and lots of colours of tile paint. We were asked to paint something representative of ourselves and our time and role at Beehive. The Pottery people suggested that hand or foot prints with names written beside them might be appropriate. The difference between the approach of the Malawians and the UK volunteers was striking! All but Johani of the Malawians did a hand or footprint but none of the volunteers, even those who described themselves as completely out of their comfort zone, followed the examples given! Some did simple depictions of their name, perhaps with a symbol indicating their role, e.g. a fish for fish-farming, but others painted pictures. David based his around the three letters ECD for Early Childhood Development and I did two quotations, one Emily Dickinson 'Dwell in Possibility' which was on one of the good luck cards I received before I left home (thank you John!) and the other pure Marian Pearson! A few flowers and a rising sun, and there you are!! It is interesting to consider the difference between the two groups in the light of the instruction to us to train our Early Years workers to provide an environment that will encourage young children to become creative problem solvers.

We had a good lunch and then played some team games involving transferring water about, which meant many of us got extremely wet! The afternoon session I found really difficult. It involved us discussing in groups things that had gone really well and things that would have been 'even better if..'. This was taken very seriously by the groups. My group had a discussion that was thoughtful and constructive. The intention was really to build on the good things and look at areas that had caused difficulty in the past and work towards improved communication and planning and more focused targeting of resources. I did the feedback to the whole group and tried to be positive and not personal throughout. This would have been a good exercise if after the groups had fed back the leaders had just said 'Well, you raised a lot of interesting points there and we shall look at them and see what we can incorporate into the way that we all work together', and then gone away and done that. I know that the managing group will have to consider other issues that might not have equal importance for the volunteers and workers, but they did ask for our opinion. There was a long and defensive session where each point was pulled apart and many were publically discounted without any proper understanding of the issues raised. It is not easy for people to bring up issues which trouble them in a public way, but in my group both volunteers and Malawians took that risk and had it flung back in their faces, I think it was a shame. I am new to the project and I know that some volunteers think that I read the session in a way that was not really intended, but I was disappointed and as it was the last session it cast rather a cloud over what was otherwise an enjoyable and positive day.

Saturday

Saturday was a nice relaxed day. I went to the Mount Soche Hotel and sat by the pool with my laptop to plan a lecture on Social and Emotional Development in the Early Years. Just as my battery began to give out, Jane, Claudie and Zoe arrived so we had a lazy time swimming, sunbathing and chatting. The Mount Soche does a barbeque lunch on a Saturday so we had chicken kebabs with loads of rice, salads and veg. Very nice! We were gradually joined by the other volunteers as they finished their errands and shopping. We returned to Mitsidi about 3.00pm and I had a rather disastrous attempt at making a lemon cake. I might have to buy some scales!

In the evening we went to the Blantyre Sports and Social club for the annual fireworks display. It was probably the best fireworks display I have ever seen and lasted for about 30 minutes. The sky was filled with bursts of colour and sparkle over and over again. It kept building up to a crescendo and we would say 'That must be the end…' but it never was! We joined in with the 'OOOhs' and 'Ahhhs' with great gusto and a good time was had by all. There was a Kung Fu display from a group of lads, and one girl, from a local orphanage. They were brilliant, full of talent and energy and in very good time with one another. We thoroughly enjoyed their show. Probably the best bits of the night for me were the journeys to and from the Sports Club. Most of us went in the Blue Hilux and it was girls in the back both ways with the wind in our hair. Marty was driving and on the way, instead of driving up the unmade and very bumpy public road he swung right up a little connecting track to the President's road. We were immediately stopped by a guard with a gun who was definitely not amused and told Marty that next time he must use the public road, but he let us through even though he did not crack his face into a smile at any point during the brief exchange. Marty drove up that smooth and deserted road like the proverbial bat out of hell, and Jane, Zoe and I standing in the back clung on for our lives! I could feel the wind tearing at my dangly earrings and I thought that by the end I would either have lost them or would have forked ear lobes, but no damage was done and I arrived at the sports club slightly shaken but just about in one piece! On the way back Zoe and Jane sang all the way home and I joined in where I knew the words. Comparatively speaking Marty's driving was a model of decorum but on one very dark stretch of relatively unpopulated road he did slow down to a crawl and turn the head lights off for a few seconds in order to shut the singers up I think, but he was only momentarily successful!

And so home, to a cup of tea and a piece of 'sticky failure lemon cake' which if nothing else, did taste of lemons! And so to bed….

Sunday

Today has been a quiet day which I spent entirely at Mitsidi. I am fretting a little about the imminent start of our course and spent most of the day titivating power point presentations and getting things ready for tomorrow. Also boring things like the washing and ironing. Food has been good today! Marty cooked a great brunch of gammon, sausage, beans, tomatoes, scrambled egg and toast with juice, tea and coffee. We sat over it talking for quite a long time on the khonde, which is one of the coolest places at Mitsidi. This evening a consortium of about five people made an excellent supper of chicken pie with loads of veg and mashed potato. My contribution was mango crumble and custard. Good plain English cooking with an African twist!

Community-based Early Childhood Development Centre near Lunzu

I suppose it is inevitable that the time has come when I want to write about something that happened today, but I have not written about a previous event to which it is relevant. I never intended that this should be an exhaustive, chronological account either of my doings in Malawi, or of the development of our course, but I have come to realize that the blog may become very useful to me later when I come to write up my MA dissertation on the development of our Introductory Child Care Course. I believe I mentioned that we had met Eunice of the APPGM (Association of Pre-school Playgroups of Malawi). One of the things we asked her was if she would show us examples of very good pre-school practice in Malawi, the sort of thing that she would wish the care givers who attend her organisation's training programmes to emulate. She promised to show us one City and one Rural project. A few days ago she took us to an SOS children's village which I assumed was the rural option as we travelled out of Blantyre, but I now know it must have been within the city limits as today's trip was truly rural! The nursery setting we saw was the nearest thing to a UK nursery that we have visited in Malawi, although of course it was not a carbon copy by any means. There were three classes with about 20 children in each class and two teachers. Children were grouped according to age with 2-3's, 3-4's and 4-5's in separate rooms. They all wore smart blue and white checked gingham uniforms. It was immediately apparent that the children were very confident and used to visitors. This was the only place so far where it was not permitted for us to take photographs of setting or children. There were many homemade resources, but also many bought resources. There were half a dozen bright plastic tables in each room with table-top activities including plastic construction sets, paper and pencils for drawing, imported inset puzzles and so on. Each room had large wooden building blocks and other items that you might expect to see in a UK nursery, but also homemade alphabet and number charts similar to those we have seen elsewhere. There was medium and short-term planning documentation displayed on the walls and a simplified version on a parent's notice board. Half the children come from the adjacent SOS village which accommodates orphans, mostly the children of people who have died of Aids. The other half are from local families. The children bring in snacks from home at break time and there were all the problems of keeping track of and appropriately storing 60 lunch boxes that so many of us are familiar with at home, only complicated by the much hotter climate! I asked about record keeping for individual children and was told that records are kept for parent's evenings which happen once a term, but that records are not made on a daily basis. I asked too about relationships and communication between nursery and home, but apart from saying if there is a serious concern about a child's development or behaviour they would ask the parents to come in for a meeting, it did not seem to be something that happened very much. This may be partly because children are independent in terms of travelling to school at a much younger age and it is not uncommon for little brothers and sisters to be dropped off at nursery by their five year old big brothers and sisters. The children were very ready to engage in play with David and with me. He soon had a group of four and five year olds engaged in trying to build really tall towers of blocks, while I amused an ever increasing gaggle of children by playing round and round the garden over and over again. They seemed to love the anticipation and the tickles and they came back again and again for another turn! I came away feeling that perhaps the knowledge I have gained from working with British children will be sufficiently transferrable to the Malawian situation after all! I have been having serious doubts about my fitness to do the job and worrying that there is just not enough time to learn how to make our training culturally appropriate before we have to start teaching next Monday. Really we have no alternative but to 'suck it and see' but I have been fretting rather about how good a plan this really is. David has the confidence and enthusiasm of youth and an admirable attitude that if we make mistakes we must just learn from them and do it differently next time! He is right of course and we must 'feel the fear and do it anyway'! Nevertheless George says of other aspects of the project that she is 'head of worry' and I am afraid that this role is rather more natural to me than is comfortable. Vince has said several times that whatever we offer will be much better training than anything else our students might have access to, but I am constantly fearing that it will not be good enough and certainly not African enough, but we have no choice but to get on with it and if necessary pick up the pieces afterwards!

Anyway 900 words ago I sat down to write about the astonishing, moving and humbling day we have had today at the Chinansungwi group of Community-based Child Care Centres (CBCCs). David and I have been joined for the last couple of days by Lindy who is Jan's wife and who is newly arrived and looking for a role within the Beehive projects. She is an Early Years teacher and a music specialist, so very interested in the school and in our training project. We picked up our guides from the APPM and set off out of Blantyre up the Lilongwe road. Shortly after Lunzu we turned left onto a dirt road and into rural Malawi. The soil here was redder than in Blantyre, the terrain hilly, but not mountainous and the aspect open, we could see for quite a long way. Around Chilomoni there is scrub land with small bushes and every spare patch is prepared at the moment ready for maize plants to go in once the rains start, but here it is wilder and the bushes and small trees are larger and seemed greener. We drove at least a couple of miles off the main road and eventually arrived at the main CBCC of the group where we were welcomed by the Director of the project. We were ushered into a meeting room with tables arranged in a rectangle with chairs around the edge of the room. All the teachers and staff of the project came in to meet us while the children played outside. The meeting was formal and began with a prayer in Chichewa led by one of the care givers. Several care givers brought their young babies in to the meeting with them. The Director then introduced everyone by name and said their role in the project and we were asked to tell everyone what our role was and why we had come to see them and what we hoped to learn. He translated some of what we said in to Chichewa, but I felt that on the whole we were understood. He was a very articulate man, although I sometimes found his accent difficult to understand. He spoke passionately about the history and development of the project which had clearly had a profound effect upon his own life as well as the lives of probably everyone in the local community. The project began on 10.10.1998 under a tree in the village. It began with 12 orphans who had lost both parents and the community worked together to provide clothes, food etc for these 12 children. It was a project which involved the chiefs, party and church leaders and the whole community. By 1999 the project had grown to include 74 children, not only orphans but other vulnerable children in their community who may have had parents, but maybe no house for shelter, no blankets or money for school. At this point there was involvement from a government social welfare officer but I was not able to understand the precise nature of this involvement. By 2000 there were 120 children involved in the project in one centre called Cedrick CBCC. Children were travelling from other villages and so other centres were opened one by one until today there are 15 centres in an affiliated group which together serve 5420 children. In total the cost has been K1.5 million, which if my calculations are correct is about £7500.00. Was there ever better value for money? The walls of office and meeting room were covered with hand written posters giving statistics of various times and aspects of the project. Today's figures are as follows:

Beneficiaries:

1-2 years    507

3-5 years    1067

6-18 years    963

19-25 years    436

26-64 years     women        1021

26-64 years    men        849

65+ years     497

Community leaders and care givers have been trained to give their skills to the community, to care for the children. Although there have been funds provided in the past there is currently no income for the project and it has been sustained by the local community members giving their time for the last two years. The chiefs have given land which is farmed by the local community, they grow maize for nsima, soya beans and vegetables from which the children and volunteers are fed each day. The Director proudly showed us the food store where at the end of the dry season there were still sacks of flour and beans to see the project through until the next maize harvest. If orphans are not fed at CBCC and school they do not eat. The local people give their time and work to the project for the benefit of the whole community. This work means that the village now supports the following activities despite the fact that they are currently receiving no financial donations at all.

1. Orphans and vulnerable children project 3-5 years
   
2. After-school club 6-8 years, children come to the centre after primary school is finished, they play games and build for their future. They are fed from the community garden, but there are no fees.
   
3. On Saturdays and Sundays the children come to the centre between 8.00am and 4.00pm. They get their lunch
   
4. There is home-based care for 45 people living with HIV/Aids provided by what the Director described as positive people.
   
5. There is an Elder care project for vulnerable people aged 65+
   
6. Widows are supported
   
7. Young people aged 19-25 come to the centre to use and borrow books to continue their studies. The Director says this project helps to keep them from too much involvement in drink, smoking and sex!
   
8. Parenting education for pregnant women, prenatal care and new born care for children from birth to two years.
   

The project now serves 21 villages within a radius of about 7 Km.

 

There is a growth monitoring programme which feeds and weighs babies.

 

I am conscious that this account is rambling a bit and jumping from point to point but I am working through my notes in the order in which the director spoke. You will have to forgive repetitions and slight inconsistencies. I am using his words, where my notes allow for this. I am sure that there are points when I did not fully catch his meaning, but I have done my best. He told us that for two years the project had a UK donor, a very good man called Mr Philip who gave between K15 and 16 million over this period. Mr Philip's money built the project offices, purchased a vehicle which they now struggle to find the money to run, opened a private clinic in Lunzu which gives free medicines and opened a feeding programme. From 2008 there has been no funding but the volunteers manage to sustain the projects through sheer dedication and hard work. The key aims for the CBCCs in each community are to raise living standards for children and to reduce discrimination between children within the same community.

 

At this point in the meeting David asked the question that we have been asking many of the local people we have visited to explain the work we will be doing in Chilomoni, 'What do you think is the most important thing for children in Malawi?' The Director was very clear, he said 'It is food. The food is to advocate the children to come to the centre. When they are there our aim is to improve the education.' He went on to say that the village comes together when the children are safe. Then the adults can get on with other things. School is now special. This motivates children to go on with their education.

 

Members of the school committees go round the houses of children who are not attending school and find out why they are not attending. They see that children do go to school. If they do not this is reported to the heads of villages. The same is done for the 3-5s and CBCCs. Parents are supported and all 21 villages work together.

 

The original 12 orphans are now at secondary school in Forms 1 and 2. They still live in the village and the villagers pay their school fees.

 

The director wound up the meeting by listing a number of challenges faced by the project:

1. Training – 8 volunteers work in the office but they are untrained. 240 volunteers cook for the children in all the centres. They work Monday to Friday for no financial reward and they have no training to do the job.
   
2. There are 40 positive people supporting the home-based care. It is a challenge he said, that we ask too much of people. We would like a small fund to assist people to open small businesses so they can support their families.
   
3. It is a challenge to keep the vehicle on the road. Money is needed for fuel, for services and for tyres.
   
4. It is a challenge that the clinic in Lunzu is too far away for some children.. Sick children die on the road on the way to the clinic. They dream that they may one day have a clinic in the village on land that has been donated by the chiefs to the project.
   

Here the meeting ended and we were shown around the CBCC. In the nursery room children were in four groups, one group in the music corner with drums and other instruments. Lindy was instantly on her knees getting involved with the music making. A group of children were playing with homemade dolls. Some had them strapped to their backs with strips of material in the same way that their parents carry babies strapped to their backs in bright chitenges. A group was building with big blocks and making towers and here David was soon on the floor building and laughing with the children. I went to the group who were painting with paints made by their parents and teachers from local materials from plants and brick dust and soot. Pictures were displayed at child height on the walls. There was free flow to a huge outdoor play area with many swings and climbing frames. The highlight for me was a roundabout which was also a pump, as the children made the roundabout turn, water was raised which supplied a drinking fountain and also an irrigation system for the garden. There is a building which has walls, but as yet no roof. It is intended to be a chicken house, but since the funding dried up they cannot afford to roof it and at the moment therefore have no chickens to supplement the food that is grown in the garden.

 

I could write so much more, but I am tired and tomorrow is another working day! Never in my life have I been so aware of how much good work can be done with a little money. One example that really struck home for me today is that the project has been given a computer, but it is of absolutely no use to them whatever as they have no electricity supply. The quotation from ESCOM to lay cables is several million kwatcha as the village is so far from a town with a power supply, but a solar system would be only K500.000. So if any of you has a spare £2500 just let me know. I can think of a very good use for it! Electricity has the potential to make many positive changes to this amazing community.

 

I am beginning to have a greater understanding of the Malawian Government's Early Childhood Development Principle no.1.

    'Development is holistic.'

It has been a privilege to make this visit today and I think we have made another step towards an understanding of the context in which our Early Years training in Chilomoni is situated!! And yes, I am still scared, but also excited!

Weekend away

Now I really feel that I have come to Africa! We have had a trip down to the south of Malawi. The original plan was to visit a game reserve called Mvambi where there are the only lions in Malawi. These are two cubs aged 10 and 11 months. They are kept in an enclosure and are obviously very used to people. The South African family who run the reserve were very friendly and welcoming and showed us their family pets, a cerval called Felix, who was a beautiful little spotted cat with enormous ears and a dik-dik whose slender legs looked so fragile I was afraid they would break! It was so hot! We estimate about 42 degrees and I was struggling somewhat. I did feel distinctly wobbly some of the time. Seven of us travelled together in a Toyota Hilux which seats five in comfort inside the car and extras in the pick-up bit at the back. The volunteers who have been in Africa for a while have it all organized and we had a mattress in the back to make it more comfortable. To begin with the three women travelled in the back with the wind in our hair and plenty of laughter, song and girly chat!! The sun was very strong and after an hour or so I could feel that I was beginning to burn and had to cover up with a couple of big wraps. Apparently I looked like a disembodied head, crowned with Karl's Panama hat emerging from a heap of fabric. Jane said I looked as though I didn't have any limbs at all! On the way we had a blow out and had to stop to change the wheel. Although we stopped apparently in the middle of nowhere, it seemed only a few moments before we had attracted a crowd of onlookers all eager to give advice and lend a hand. It was just as well because the jack was damaged and would not lift the car high enough. The car had to be lifted by hand and large stones wedged under the jack, but there were plenty of willing hands and the job was soon done. My heart was in my mouth as the car was lifted with Sam lying underneath it giving directions. I was anxious that he was going to be squashed if they slipped and dropped it, but he assured me that there was enough clearance. Anyway, the operation was done without mishap and the wheel changed and we were on our way again within about half an hour. We distributed K50 notes to the helpful adults and chocolate biscuits and apples to the children, and set off again.

After seeing the lions we were hot and hungry so set off in search of the recommended motel in Bangula. The accommodation was basic and the menu predictable. There was nsima, rice, chips, chicken, eggs, meat and vegetables, but upon enquiring what sort of vegetables we were told that actually today there were no vegetables! We settled on chicken and chips, but even that was complicated! Despite being told that there were only two pieces of chicken and adjusting the order to include a couple of portions of beef, which turned out to be goat, we ended up with four portions of chicken!!

Some of us went off in the car to the river to find out about boat trips for the next day. There was plenty of action down by the river. We saw about 200 cows swimming across from the best grazing area to the shelter where they spent the night. Women were doing the washing, men operated a ferry service, there were children running about all over the place. This is the place where the railway used to cross the river Shire, but apparently some years ago there was an unusual amount of rain and the bridge was washed away. You can see a length of track hanging over the river on the opposite bank, but there is not much evidence of bridge now.

We returned to the motel for more chips, this time with egg and cabbage salad and altogether too many Greens and too much Malawi gin than was good for us, but it was fun! The locals were friendly and we made the acquaintance of a local detective and his young cousin who was called Harris. Harris was well greened up and very talkative and somewhat lacking in inhibitions, but he was a good singer and mostly charming, although he did disgrace himself by running off with and consuming Jane's egg and chips, much to her disgust!

The plan was to get up early and be on the river by eight, but we didn't quite make that! We ordered eggs and bread for breakfast, but apparently they had anticipated our order and the usual breakfast is guess what? … bread, eggs and chips! …and they had already cooked the chips. We washed it down with mugs of smoky tea.

I loved the boat trip, although I was a bit concerned as the balers in both boats had to work quite hard! Apparently there are crocodiles in the river, but we didn't see any. There were many unfamiliar and beautiful flowers and birds. I will try and put some pictures on Facebook.

On the drive back to Blantyre we stopped twice, Once at Nyala Game reserve and once at a lodge called Fisherman's Rest for excellent coffee and cake.

The Game Reserve was my favourite part of the weekend. We saw Sable, Buffalo, Impala, Kudu, Giraffe, Zebra, some unidentified monkeys and lots of birds. It was exciting to stand up in the back of the pick-up with the camera. We got very close to some of the animals particularly the zebra. We stopped in a picnic area for lunch and the occupants of another car asked us if there were any tigers!! They seemed quite put out that for big cats they would have to travel an hour and half further south and then it was just two lion cubs in an enclosure.

It was a good weekend, rounded off nicely by a phone call from Dave, 'Ona and Annie who passed the phone around the family in true Jones style!

Meeting the Chiefs

Friday

This morning David and I went into Blantyre on the minibus from the bottom of our road. We waited beside the road and got into conversation with a young man who was also waiting. I found some dried fruits under the tree where we were sheltering from the sun which was pretty hot even at 8.00am. I asked which kind of tree it was and the young man apologized for not knowing the name in English and then said 'We call it Mahogany!' Anyway Maureen would have been proud of us because we collected a lot of the fruits and put them in a heap at the side of the road to pick them up and bring them back for children to play with! The trouble was we came home a different way. I hope they will still be there when we go back for them! The bus was fairly full but we wedged ourselves in with the rest of humanity and lurched into town!

After doing our errands in town which included buying some nice bumpy balls in the K99 Shop to play name games with our students at their first session, we repaired to the Mount Soche hotel for ice cold drinks and a good broadband connection to continue planning our course. Then it was back to the bus stop for another minibus to Chilomoni.

This afternoon we were privileged to be taken to visit the two chiefs of Chilomoni, escorted by George and Gift, the two child protection workers for the area. The two visits were very different. We decided that it would be prudent to go and see them because caring for children is such an important issue and we wanted them to know what it is we are planning to do, so that if we do inadvertently upset anyone the local leaders will at least know who we are and that our intentions are good! The first chief was a lady, a grandmother, at least my age and possibly older, it's not easy to tell. Gift had to interpret as she spoke no English and we no Chichewa. The house was low and dark, simply furnished and apart from a television that continued to play throughout the interview, although the sound was turned down, there was little evidence of Western influence. We took a gift of tea, sugar, salt and bread. We asked advice of Malawian staff members to find out what would be appropriate. The exchange was brief and quite formal, but we did manage to ask her what she thought were the most important things about bringing up children. This may have got a bit lost in translation, because now I can't remember what her answer was. She offered us water to drink which was very welcome as the day was extremely hot.

The second chief lived in a house tucked away behind the market. It was surrounded by its own garden and was brighter and with much more evidence of wealth. We sat in easy chairs. The chief was a man dressed smartly in business clothes and perhaps about 40 years of age, again it was difficult to tell. He spoke excellent English and David and I were able to speak for ourselves and understand everything that went on. Again we asked the chief what he felt was most important about raising children. He was a bit lost for words, but after a few moments his sister came in and it turned out that she is a teacher, and has young children herself and she was very helpful in her comments. She seemed to be saying that the children have many things to learn and that there must be time to teach them, also that the teachers should ensure that the children understood and did not simply learn by rote and repeat without understanding. We told her about the staff ratios we hope to have in the new Children's Centre and she seemed to be impressed and truly to understand the significance of the difference that this could make. I think we were very fortunate that she was visiting her brother when we called. On the way out we met the chief's two little girls who were beautifully dressed and well-groomed.

Next week George and Gift are to take us to see the TA chief ( Traditional Authority), who is responsible for the whole of Blantyre. Mary says we must be careful to take him a gift that is perhaps a little more that the gift we took to the local chiefs, she suggested maybe adding washing powder to the four items we gave to the others.