Labour day

The sun has been shining today, the sky was clear and blue. It has not rained for about three weeks, so I think it can safely be said that the rainy season is over. Everything is still fairly green and lush but tinges of gold and russet are creeping in to the landscape and it will not be long before there is a lot of bare terracotta earth. The hedgerows are bright gold with sunflowers. Every morning there is more brown and yellow and less green, but the change is pang'ono, pang'ono, bit by bit.

It is less than six weeks now until I must leave it all behind and fly back to England. There I shall be with family again. I shall pick up relationships with good friends. I shall begin to try to sell my house. I shall pick up my dissertation again and start to look for a job. Such big changes, and so much to miss! I shall miss the students I have been working with for 18 months. I shall miss their enthusiasm for learning. I shall miss the misunderstandings which arise from coming from such very different cultures and the laughter, frustration, irritation and delight that come from sorting them out. I shall miss the view from my khonde of Sanjika mountain where I watch the daily changes in crops, colour and movement of people as I take my breakfast , usually in the sunshine. I shall miss the constantly changing population at Mitsidi where living and working together with the same people leads to intensified relationships which can be positive or negative, but which rarely have the opportunity to develop beyond six months. I shall miss the speedy change from dark to light early in the morning and from light to dark around six pm. I shall miss the children in the Children's Centre and the singing that comes through the ceiling of the office each morning as each class goes through their morning welcome routine. The babies sing 'Moni Blessings, mwadzuka, bwanje….', once through for each child in the class, and now that there are 14 of them it takes a while! I hear 'Good day, good day to you…..', we get the Malawian National Anthem, and 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' seems to be a favourite with every class! I am sure there is not another nursery in the world with quite the same combination of music and sounds. I shall miss the formal politeness of Malawian greetings and the slow pace of life that means that everyone has time to smile at and shake hands with all their colleagues. I shall miss power cuts. I know I shall notice how cold the water is in British taps. I shall miss hot sun, and torrential, tropical rain. I have grown to like some Malawian foods that are not common at home, things like okra and pumpkin, lots of green leafy vegetables, chambo and chips. I have to admit that I will not really miss nsima. I have been quite unable to persuade myself to enjoy it.

Diddy and Dereck had a party today to celebrate moving into their new house in Fargo, one of the smarter parts of Chilomoni. They had gone to a lot of trouble. Charles was recruited to manage the barbeque and we all made salads and bread and so on to contribute to the feast. There was a good mixture of people, volunteers, workers from all parts of Beehive, members of Dereck's family and friends from the Liquor Garden and other places. The music was loud, cheerful and African. Diddy gave us a guided tour of their home and we admired the bright curtains and other touches that made it their own. It was good to be with so many people enjoying themselves together, but after a few hours I was overcome by a feeling of, I'm not sure what? Loss? Sadness? Panic? It felt as if in an impossibly short time this would all be a part of my history. Today it was real and vibrant, but in six weeks it will be the other side of the world. I left earlier than most and walked back alone to Mitsidi, only about 20 minutes away. One of my students caught up with me and walked part of the way with me. Her kindness and support was so lovely.

Today was Labour day and therefore a Bank Holiday. David said that he cannot get used to midweek public holidays, and I know what he means. It feels odd to have a day off on a Tuesday. David, Kirren and I went in to the CC this morning despite the holiday. We wanted to have a good look at the number of assessments we have managed to get the students through, and the number we have left, and to work out the best way to get as many people as possible through their Diplomas as we can in the time available. When we planned it last year we had no idea that we would have to be managing the centre as well, and certainly no idea how much time the running of the centre would take. We knew that we had not managed to keep up with our target number of 6 assessments per day each to get them all through by the end of May. We have truly done our best, and I do not think we could have done more without more people. It is with some reluctance on my part that we have decided to reduce the total number of practical tasks that each student has to complete to gain the Diploma. This was a suggestion of Vince's a couple of months ago, and I resisted it at first, feeling that this part of the course should cover the same range of subjects as the theoretical part. However we must be pragmatic and if we stick to plan A it is doubtful whether more than a handful will complete before we go home, or indeed by the time Kirren is due to finish. So we have come up with plan B! We have rejigged the assessment timetables and reduced the number of optional tasks the students need to do to 7. They still have to do all 8 of the compulsory tasks. This helps also with another thing that has been concerning me. It feels as though a significant minority of the students is more concerned with passing their practical tasks than with the quality of care that the children receive. In our feedback we have found it necessary to remind students that activities should be based upon the observed needs of children and not simply on the need to pass an assessment on a particular topic. The pressure of time has taken its toll on us all I suppose. Any way this difficulty also will be eased by reducing the volume of the whole process and I do believe that taking the pressure off a bit will have a good effect upon the children. This has to be a good thing. It is both refreshing and a huge responsibility to have this degree of control over a qualification. I guess that all new courses must be piloted, tweaked and adapted before the final version is arrived at. I have just never been involved in the process before. I still feel that we have made a good course and given the students enough opportunity to practice their skills and build on the theory they have learned. The children in the CC will be experiencing a quality of early years' education that has previously just not been available to families without money, and that is probably achievement enough for me!