Home again

It is amazing how little time it takes to be completely absorbed back into home relationships and routines. Part of my mind and heart are still in Malawi of course, but already life seems very normal here. Less exciting and stimulating perhaps, but this is home. I have been busy writing up some of what I have been doing so that any new volunteers will be able to build on what I have done rather then simply starting again from the beginning, but I am by no means working full time on Malawi in the way I have been for the last couple of months. 

I mentioned that there was a Farewell Lunch for me the day before I left. I wore the dress that Selena made for me from glorious chitenge fabric that I bought in the market at Limbe. This drew a number of comments including “ Ah!!! But you are an African woman now!” This party was a true celebration and I was very moved by the strength of feeling expressed in the speeches. I presented the CC staff with certificates for each of the training sessions they had attended. It is extraordinary how much these pieces of paper mean to folk who are keen to learn but have so little access to training opportunities. Bhavna gently told me off for wasting print and paper by providing a separate certificate for each course, she said that I should have made one certificate with all the trainings listed on it and just ticked the one’s attended for each student. She is probably right but I cannot help but be glad that I helped to meet the need for recognition that these pieces of paper seemed to provide. 

I should have known that there would be speeches and that I would be expected to make one myself in reply and done a little preparation, but I did not. My response was impromptu but heartfelt. Also well received. The occasions in my life when people have written poems about me are few indeed, but this week there have been two. 

The first by Felecia Gwetse was read out during the formal part of the proceedings. It refers to the games I slotted in to the trainings and surprised me by it’s sensitivity to some of the reasons why I included some of these activities amongst more traditional approaches:

 A Farewell to Marian 

 In a room where laughter soared 

And games brought joy we all loved, 

 We stand to bid you a cheer 

 For Marian, who made it all so dear. 

 Back to back game I remember 

We’d support each other with a partner’s strength 

We’d find our way to stand. 

 In those moments, we learned to play with children. 

 ‘My name is Felecia’,with pride ‘and I am flexible’,

 ‘My name is Doreen and I am darling to many’ 

 We would say with hearts open wide 

 And in the game of ‘Robots’ we felt a bond that truly shone. 

 Line up game, and so many games 

You led with grace and playful style, 

 Made us smile, 

 Your humble heart, your childlike play, guided us through. 

 Thank you Marian for all you’ve done 

In every game we had such fun 

 We’ll carry forward all you’ve taught. 

 In our hearts your lessons shine. 

 Thank you Felecia, what a tribute! `I had to choke back the tears to speak and respond to that one. 

 The second poem was commissioned by Keith from a roadside busker set up with a table and an old fashioned typewriter in Gentleman’s Walk in Norwich: 

 For Mari, from Keith 

 When the wind blows you back home 

 and your feet walk this little English 

 street again, and the world is in 

 some way a little better for your work 

 and the house is just a little quieter 

 dinner for one and the kettle is only half 

 full - but now it is being filled 

 again, sharing all the little warmth 

 it has to give on your return. 

 Nathan Rodney Jones 

My other news is that my application to Book Aid for Early Years textbooks for Mother Teresa Children’s Centre and the ECD students at JP II has been successful, so in the fullness of time, up to 1000 books will arrive via Lilongwe Airport for Beehive to collect from a local book distributor and take back to Chilomoni. New, up to date textbooks from which our ECD students will learn so much to equip them to continue the task of increasing the life chances of at least a few local children. Hoorah! The four hours of time I spent putting together that application are surely some of the best spent hours of my life! Thank you to all the lovely Norwich-based Early Years people who donated their old textbooks to start off the Beehive ECD library collection. The 100 books you donated will soon be joined by ten times as many new books.

On the way home

Nearly a whole week since I wrote anything. Mainly it has been a week of goodbye’s. I cannot believe how being in Chilomoni for only eight weeks can have made me feel as though I belong here in the way that it has. At the moment it is about 6.00pm on Friday and I am in the air somewhere over central Africa on the way home. We stopped at Beira for about an hour and are due at Addis Ababa shortly before 9.00pm. Then it’s a four hour wait for the connection to Heathrow. We had a meal at 4.00pm and now all the lights have been dimmed and windows covered. We are expected to be asleep, but it’s 5.45pm. I don’t understand aircraft routines! Last Sunday we had a visit to Game Haven, a lodge attached to a small game park, as a final trip out of Blantyre for me. We had a fairly ordinary meal at an outdoor table in the shade of a khonde. The place was packed with well-to-do Malawians enjoying the first weekend of the school holidays with a Sunday dinner, a few drinks, a swim in the pool and, for a few, a trip round the Game Park. The game trips were more of a tourist thing. We planned to drive ourselves around the park but unfortunately discovered we had a puncture and so were told our car was not in a fit condition. It proved to be just as well that we transferred to a safari truck as the track was nearly as steep, rough and stony as last week’s Zomba plateau roads and the car probably wouldn’t have made it even without the puncture. Our vehicle had me and Bhavna, our 3 engineers, a large German family, a couple of Americans and a few others. I was delighted to be ordered to the front seat by the driver. I was fairly obviously the oldest person present and therefore was offered the best view. We saw many zebra, wildebeest, eland, impala, a single giraffe, weaver bird’s nests but no weaver birds, heron, an unidentified bird of prey and a mongoose. On our return the boys changed the wheel and we returned to Blantyre getting back just before dark. Monday was a day of tidying up odds and ends, I wrote a list of games for my last training event on Wednesday, I put together a list of Action Points for the Practice Leader which needed a bit of careful planning as basically she needs to completely change the priorities she gives to the different parts of her job. Basically I wanted to kick start her into actually leading practice by appearing in the rooms about ten times as often as she has done up to now. I had a long conversation with the Daycare Manager and fixed to have another one with the Outreach Manager on Wednesday. I dropped in on the Director of the whole of Mary Queen of Peace and reminded him that he had said he would write me a few notes about his visit to the daycare last week. I have drifted into the habit of sticking my head around his office door about once a week to update him about what I have been up to. On Tuesday I went with the Extended Schools team to observe their work during the school holidays. This was over the road from the CC in St James’ Catholic Primary School which was where David and I had our classroom fourteen years ago, so it was a trip down memory lane. The door to the library where we taught was locked and the curtains were drawn but I found a few windows where there were gaps between the drapes and the room looked exactly the same as the day we first arrived in 2010. I doubt it has been decorated during that time, the tall wooden library shelves are still there with probably the same books on them, it was a bit dismal and sad. It doesn’t look like the school use it much. The Extended Schools team are providing top up lessons for children during the school holidays for Standards 1-4 of primary school in the mornings and Standards 5-8 in the afternoons. They are open to any children in the surrounding area whatever primary school they normally attend. I saw English, Chichewa, Maths and Health classes. Standard 1 were writing the letter Aa and the part of the class I saw was a bit unimaginative but I thoroughly enjoyed the health class which was about how to look after your body and was greatly enlivened by a game based on the old game of ‘O’Grady says do this’ where you are supposed to do what the leader does, not what he says. The mimes of tooth brushing, bathing, hair brushing etc were a joy to behold. These classes are intended to help those who are struggling with classes, stop children forgetting what they have learned in the eight-week holidays and give a bit of structure to the day for the children who do not get taken away to visit relatives or have a holiday. Wednesday began with the meeting with the Outreach Team. I continue to be astonished by the breadth of work that the Outreach Team do. I learned of even more activities than those i have previously seen and described. When I get home and start to write about it all I may well blog again to let you know more. I did two classes of games for Care Givers to use with children. This time the classes were in the garden. I tried to offer alternatives relevant to all the Domains of the 2017 ECD curriculum. We laughed, we sang, we played ball games, we danced, we celebrated the fun we have had together over the last eight weeks and we said goodbye. I fought back the tears! This day I also had my meeting with the Practice Leader and rather to my surprise she seemed receptive to the suggestions I had made for her to help her to support the Room Leaders and Care Givers to meet their own tasks that I distributed a few weeks ago. That was supposed to be my last day in the CC but I had not found the time to go and observe a child with special needs who had caught my eye so I said I would drop in for an hour at some point during Thursday. As it turned out I was treated to a surprise lunch party so I ended up being at the centre for four hours, but it was never going to take me a whole day to pack anyway!

Training, beginning to tie up the ends and a leisurely Saturday

Wednesday Wednesday is training day. I followed the plan I outlined a couple of entries back. I did think that asking people to think about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats might unleash all sorts of cans of worms and, of course, I was right! However mostly they were worms that I had met before, or at least suspected the existence of, so the experience was only slightly terrifying. Unfortunately with both groups we spent so long talking about strengths and weaknesses we did not have enough time to give opportunities and threats the full attention they deserve but we did at least address them a little. I am currently halfway through putting all 12 of the SWOT analyses, 1 from each group of 3-6 students, together to try and express a collective opinion about what is good about MTCC, what is weak, what we could do to move towards positive change, and what we could do to counteract the effects of perceived threats. My greatest comfort is that the list of strengths is a lot longer than any of the other individual lists. I spent quite a lot of the time available trying to convey my overall high opinion of what all of the different teams are achieving at the moment. When people start to look at faults they often forget to look also at what is going well. I also want them to recognise that putting things right is something they can do for themselves and that sitting back moaning and expecting a mzungu to sort it for them is not the best longterm solution! Watch this space for further analysis of action points arising from all the info on the flip chart sheets that I have yet to go through. Thursday I have received a lot of information from many different members of the CC team that they feel a bit isolated from the rest of the other members of the Mary Queen of Peace group. We are all human and we all need a bit of recognition and praise when we do things well. If our team leader appears to take little interest in what we are doing we get discouraged and the level of grumbling in corners is raised. This generally leads to negative effects. A bit of this has been going on for a while I think. I resolved that I would encourage two visits, one out into the community to see the work of the family support and extended schools teams, and one to see the changes suggested by my action points for each team in the Daycare, and for the Centre as a whole. Thursday was to have been the outreach trip, and we have arranged it once before and had to postpone it because our visitor’s plans were changed. Oh dear, a vital meeting with another department came up at the last minute and it was postponed again and I have only a week of working days left before I must return to the UK. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this gave me another day to tackle that old knotty problem of the Resource Room! Off I went to find the Practice Leader only to find that she has taken two days of leave. It is now a fortnight since I asked her to label the shelves and book boxes so that anyone going in to the room would know instantly where to find whatever they were looking for. I went to the Resource Room. It looked exactly as we left it two weeks ago except that a few extra unsorted items had found their way in and lay on the floor in disconsolate heaps. My heart sank. I knew she had started to make labels for the book boxes about ten days ago, and so I went on a search and soon found a tray of bright yellow, neatly laminated labels. Hoorah! For me the priority is to get a system going whereby Room Leaders can come at a fixed time at least once a week to exchange resources to make the most of their weekly planning. Therefore I left the labels where they were and made another set, pink this time, to label the shelves where the boxes of toys, craft materials etc are kept. It took me about two and a half hours to do the job, and some boxes will have to be moved in order to make all the labels tell the truth, but a little progress has been made! Friday The day of the Day Care visit. This happened. The visitor arrived on the dot of 9 o’clock and we went up to the office and had an illuminating conversation about finance pathways from Krizevac via Beehive to Mary Queen of Peace and eventually to MTCC. Then we proceeded to the Day Care. We were joined by the Day Care Manager who had made some preparations of her own for this visit, although I was not aware of these until I started walking around the rooms. We started with the youngest children and worked our way upwards. Each room was, clean, fairly tidy, given that children were playing, and the quality of activities on display was excellent. I have been bumping on about sand and water play on every possible occasion since I arrived, and today there was water play in every room. The babies room had coloured the water green, the Ducks were having a lovely splashy time pouring and filling and emptying, the Guinea Fowl were helping to clean the plastic bricks and thoroughly enjoying it. By the time we reached Eagles it was snack time and they were all eating bananas, but there was evidence that water had been out here too. Every class was using both indoor and outdoor areas, toys were sorted, puzzles mostly had all their pieces, noticeboards had been revamped and it was clear that a start had been made on making the indoor environment more number and language rich. Ducks and Guineas had made changes to their sleep areas and what is more all four Room Leaders were able to tell the big boss exactly why all these changes would increase the learning opportunities for the children. I was very proud and was able to be full of genuine praise for the way everyone had taken on board what I had said. Strikingly the noise level in each room was reduced compared to the days when I first visited, rooms had been subtly rearranged to increase play space in the more popular areas and, because the resources were more sorted and better cared for, the children were more deeply engaged in what they were doing. The Day Care Manager and I pointed out the outstanding maintenance issues, some of which have remained unattended to for as long as two years. We had a conversation on top of the wooden play structure which has seen better days, about kerb appeal and how much more attractive the nursery might be to fee-paying parents if it was mended and painted in bright colours which would immediately demonstrate that this was a well-equipped place for children to learn even at times when there were no children in the playground and garden. Mission accomplished! On the way out I asked him what he had learned about what we do? ‘Not much’ he said; but he is going to write a brief report about what he saw and what he thinks about it. I await the result with interest. One of my three remaining days next week will be devoted to that trip with the Outreach teams. In the afternoon I talked with the Day Care Manager about other outstanding changes we can make to raise standards a little more and we discussed the possibility of rewriting the Job Description of the Practice Leader so that her role is described more clearly and gives an indication of roughly how much of her time each week should be allocated to each part of the job. No fundamental changes but the language of the job description is quite flowery and would benefit from clarification. I finished the afternoon by making these adaptations. In the evening we finally made it to the Ethiopian Restaurant, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We moved on to the Amaryllis Hotel roof terrace and enjoyed hot chocolate in the cool of the evening whilst looking out over the lights of Blantyre. The roof terrace has a swimming pool which Joe and I were so busy admiring we almost walked into it! This hotel is not as posh as the Ku Chawe in Zomba, but quite posh enough to provide a sharp contrast to the streets of Chilomoni. Saturday So far Saturday has been a typical volunteers day. I visited the tailor who is making clothes for me, for Jack, and for all my grandchildren. Bhavna and I set out to catch the minibus to Blantyre but ended up getting a shared taxi at 600K each. We went back to the Amaryllis because there was a dress I took a fancy to in the window of the hotel shop the night before, but sadly the shop was still closed. We wandered about buying a few last minute bits and pieces and ended up in Vege Delight for spiced Indian tea and Dhosas. Exactly the way we began my first weekend in Malawi which simultaneously seems like yesterday and a long time ago! Back home by taxi too as Bhavna is only prepared to travel by minibus if she can get the front seat! Tonight we go out to eat again with Julianne and Leslie, for me this will be the last time this trip.

Launch of Early Childhood Development (ECD) Books. Association of ECD in Malawi

Today the Daycare Manager and I were invited to attend the launch of the first ECD textbooks written for the Malawian ECD Curriculum. They are published by Dzuka, a branch of the Times Group. The whole event was covered live on Times TV. So far there are ten text books out and ready, three for Maths, three for Language and three workbooks, for English, Language and Maths, and the first of three books dealing with the Environment. There will be three for Environment but only one of these is actually available at the moment. The other two will not be long. Other subjects are being planned e.g. Geography. They cover the age groups 3-4. 4-5 and 5-6 years. We sat under a thin white canopy which filtered the sun a little but it was hot. The programme included prayers, speakers, demonstrations by Care Givers and children of how the books can be used and what children can learn from them. It was pointed out that the potential for making the most difference is with the small rural CBCCs which currently have few or no resources. However there is no budget for distributing the books to such users. Approaches have been made to various NGOs for help and funding for distribution, but it appears there are no concrete plans as yet. The books are well presented children’s workbooks linked to the Malawian ECD curriculum. However when I asked how they were linked to the curriculum, whether to the Early Learning and Development Standards or to something else, the man from the publisher was unable to tell me. They have shiny covers and colour pictures and would be a fabulous addition to poorly supplied schools. However they are 6800MK each (£2.72). This is quite a lot for Malawi. They are intended to be used by individual children, so a school the size of ours with, I think it is, 167 children would need 167x 10 books each year at 6,800 MK equals 11,356,000MK which is roughly £4500.00. This is totally unrealistic for us and relatively speaking we are a wealthy school. However there may well be some very useful teaching material in there and we are privileged to have access to a photocopier, so one complete set would probably be a sensible purchase. We were presented with 4 booklets today, all beautifully wrapped in gold paper with a silver bow. I was pleased to note that the children who were involved in the activities also received a wrapped book each, blue for boys and pink for girls! We heard speeches from the Chief Commercial Manager of Times Group, the Publishing Manager of Dzuka, a couple of Care Givers, The Executive Director of the Association of ECD in Malawi and the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Gender in Malawi. After his speech he cut a ribbon across the front of the bookcase displaying the textbooks. We all sang and cheered and then snacks and fizzy drinks were served to all. I have never enjoyed a Sobo Cocopina more ! It was very hot. We left quite soon as we had to go to DAPP and pick up a bale of clothes for the sponsored children. This was quite a red-letter day for the Daycare Manager who has been waiting for the money to be able to do this for a couple of months and some of our little ones are badly in need of clothes. She was very happy when she staggered out of the shop with the bale. The Driver helped her of course! Then it was back to the CC for a couple of interviews with senior staff. I am still in search of information for my training review and talking individually to staff is proving to be quite illuminating, and I have only had three such chats so far. I am looking forward to more!

The Weekend, writing the last training session, and planning the last 8 working days before I set off for home.

Saturday On Saturday morning it was get up and out early to walk the Way of the Rosary with the Catholic children of Chilomoni. They do this every Saturday in the month except one, when they attend Mass. The children are led by Chris, who has taken this role for the last 24 years. The way of the Rosary leads around a peak of the mountain. There are 14 stations and the prayers are mostly to Mary. During the whole walk of about 5 Km the children repeat 150 Hail Marys. At each station one of the older children does a reading and there are prayers. The walk is beautiful. The path is steep and it goes much more up and down than the Way of the Cross which feels like a fairly steady climb. My step counter revealed that the number of flights climbed on this day is quite a few more than on the day I climbed up to the cross. Children present ranged from small toddlers who were often carried by brothers and sisters, to adolescents up to about 18 years. All took the occasion very seriously and participated in the prayers and chants. The first part of the walk took us to the back of the mountain with respect to Chilomoni. This side is much more sparsely populated and the views were stunning. It was a clear, bright day. There were flowers and butterflies to distract me and although it was a bit hazy you could see for miles. We paused at each station. At most there was some shade from small trees but again it was noticeable that many trees have been cut and the regeneration cannot keep place with the removal. After the last station children were offered a drink of water from a 5 litre container that some of the older children had taken turns to carry. There was only one cup and children formed a long queue for a turn to drink. I noticed that perhaps a quarter had brought their own water bottles, as had I. It struck me that the day before I had heard members of the Outreach team revising with parents about how to reduce cross infection with a variety of infectious conditions and that had included not sharing cups, spoons, towels etc, and here we were using the same cup for at least 40 children. We all walked back along the Chilomoni side of the mountain, breaking into small groups and chatting as we went. Many children wanted to talk to the mzungu and I had many similar conversations, I think more dictated by their knowledge of questions in English than by their curiosity. ‘What is your name?’ ‘Where do you come from?’ etc Everyone was friendly and when I stumbled or slipped on the stony path I was never short of a kind offer of a steadying hand. Everyone had shoes, which was definitely not the case 12 years ago, but most of the girls had flip flops, crocs or ballerina slippers which are not the best mountain-climbing footwear! The boys also had crocs but there were quite a few with trainers which were much more suitable for protecting the feet. After our return to the shrine the children were offered food and there was to be singing but I wasn’t able to stay as Bhavna was there to collect me. It was our job to meet up with the three engineers who have arrived for a six-month voluntary stint and show them various shops and venues around town that might be of interest to them while they are in Malawi. We picked them up from Blantyre Sports club, where they were enjoying watching a sporting event, and took them off for lunch at a pizza restaurant, and for a whistle-stop tour of the facilities of Blantyre. Sunday The plan for Sunday was for the five of us to go for a day out at Zomba but unfortunately Bhavna wasn’t feeling well so it was me and three young men who set off at 8.00am to find our way to Zomba and the plateau which is about 2000m above sea level. Fortunately for me and my aching muscles this mountain is accessible by road! It took a couple of hours to get to Zomba. We discovered some of the problems of using sat nav to find your way about in Malawi. Google maps does not give you any information about the quality of the roads it directs you along. When we got near the mountain it directed us up a very narrow dirt road. We had an automatic car with not incredibly high clearance and it soon became clear that it was not really up to the job. Finding a suitable place to turn round was not as easy at it sounds, but we made the right decision to turn back because we knew that there was a tarmacked road from Zomba town to the plateau and it looked like this narrow turn off was a short cut in terms of distance but not of time. Once arrived at the plateau we made a beeline for the Ku Chawe hotel which has lovely gardens, beautiful views, Mzuzu coffee, and a menu whose snacks include Welsh rarebit and steak sandwiches. At hour later, feeling fortified we set out to explore. We started with the curio sellers. Zomba is also famous for finding a variety of minerals and stones and selling them to tourists, so we had a good look at these as well. I am going home in less than two weeks so I took the opportunity to buy a few presents. The boys bought a beautifully hand-made, round games table with Bawo on one side and Chess on the other t the bargain price of 1000,000K (approx £40). The area around Zomba is greener and lusher than the area around Blantyre. We were higher up so it was cooler and the views were terrific. We first retraced our steps a short distance down the mountain to a reservoir and walked along the dam and part of the way around the edge. The reservoir is surrounded by trees. We didn’t have time to do a complete circuit and also see other sights, so turned back the way we had come and returned to the car. We set off to follow the circular track around the plateau in an effort to find Chingwe’s hole. This is a mysterious hole in the ground, close to a viewpoint, which is reputed to have been used historically to dispose of ‘unwanted people’ variously described as criminals, lepers, the mentally disturbed, who were thrown down the hole dead or alive. Very unpleasant, but we were not able to make it as the car again proved unequal to the task. This time finding a turning point was even more difficult but we managed, engineering is a very practical vocation, and returned to the hotel where we picked up a guide and asked him where we could go that it would be possible to reach in the car we had available. He suggested a couple of waterfalls and possibly The Emperor’s view point, so we negotiated a fee and off we went. We started with William’s Falls, a flight of relatively shallow falls with a pool at the bottom deep enough to swim in. I enjoyed dangling my feet in the water but one of the lads stripped to his underwear and had a proper swim. The falls were in woodland, the sun filtered through the leaves, the water was freezing. We inspected the track to the viewpoint but again felt that we shouldn’t risk damaging someone else’s car, so went to see Mandela falls which turned out to be at the far end of the reservoir from the dam. We purchased raspberries and Cape gooseberries from the roadside fruit sellers, dropped the guide off at the hotel and set off for home, making it back about half an hour before sunset. Monday Today has been a useful but not very exciting day. I have been struggling to put together my last formal training session for the CC staff. The Centre Manager wanted me to help the staff to have the confidence to take responsibility for improving the quality of what we provide for the children for themselves, to understand how to work productively as a team and to focus upon making positive change rather than complaining about everything that is less than perfect but doing nothing about it. I found settling upon an approach very difficult but finally settled upon a presentation called Mother Teresa Children’s Centre: A Centre of Excellence? I shall start by asking them to consider what it means to be a centre of excellence; to work with the other members of their team who are at the same training session to consider what it means to be a team; what their team is expected to do; how they divide the work; what it is we have to provide if we are to be a truly excellent children’s centre,;what our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are; how we can move forward to make things better, and what help we need to that? Let’s hope I can pull it off! I’ll let you know how it went after Wednesday! Having made the decision the whole thing was written in three hours, much to my surprise! The rest of the day I spent planning the next week, starting to talk to at least all the senior staff individually, and writing lists of questions to ask the managers, the ECD lecturer and the Head of the whole Mary Queen of Peace complex before I go home.

Another Day with the Outreach Team

Garden Project visits We visited three garden projects this morning. Two in Likhubula and one in Mulangozi, both outlying villages on the edge of Chilomoni. The CC Outreach team are involved with these projects which are shared with Ministry of Agriculture. They are part of the work of the Parenting Groups. Local parents are helped to find locally available land for gardens which they work on a voluntary basis and share any profits. The project was kick started by the provision of seeds and tools but in future years these should come out of the profits when veg are sold, before they are shared. There are enough seeds for families to have some to use in their own back yards. These veg are for the use of the family for their own meals. They were growing many leafy green veg but also aubergines, amaranth, pumpkin. I took lots of photos. Water is a problem. The third garden was next to the river but carrying cans from the river is a problem for those who are further away and parents get dispirited because it is a long job that must be done every day. Therefore some drop out, thereby increasing the load for those that remain. The Outreach Manager was with us today and he pointed out that a portable solar pump would be really useful. They could transport it around several projects each week and it would ease the pressure of watering. Most of the volunteers were women. I hope this is because their husbands are working elsewhere. Parent’s Group The Outreach Team of MTCC run three Parenting Groups each week in different locations in Chilomoni. This afternoon I visited the group in Likhubula, the same group who are involved in the first garden I saw this morning. We arrived at about 1.45pm and sat in the shade of a mango tree waiting for the parents to arrive. By about ten past two there were about 8-10 parents and we moved into a classroom. They are nearing the end of this course and next week there is to be an exam. Those who can will write the answers and those who cannot will be asked them verbally and the caregiver will write the answers for them. Today is revision day. They reminisced a bit first about the session two weeks ago when they learned how to make biscuits. Since the whole session was in Chichewa I remain in ignorance about how it is possible to make biscuits over a charcoal stove. The lady who taught the others has since started her own micro business making and selling biscuits and apparently it has begun very well. Then we got down to serious revision which turned out to be health related. For this part I had an interpreter so I learned quite a bit about the symptoms and treatment of Pinkeye, Mumps and Scabies. I was called away at this point because the bike club had arrived and they were keen to show me their prowess. Bike Club We walked about a quarter of a mile to a fairly quiet section of tarmacked road. This was the best surface they could find for practicing tricks. A responsible adult was dispatched a few yards up each of the four roads at a crossroads to stop any traffic and the demonstration of their talent began. I was treated to a quite spectacular display. They raced, they rode bikes backwards, they spun in circles, they cycled with their legs over the handlebars and then the two star riders jumped over first two, then three and eventually five of their friends lying in the road. At this point my heart was in my mouth! What are we doing taking responsibility for a club doing an activity with this amount of risk with very little safety equipment at all, never mind jumping over healthy young boys lying in the road, when they could jump over something inanimate and get the same experience without taking the risk of a nasty accident. All the boys had helmets, although one or two had to be reminded to wear them, but the only other protective equipment I saw was one pair of knee pads. Apparently there is also a girl’s team but today they had come straight from school and the girls were in their school dresses so they were not allowed to ride for safety reasons, much to their disgust. The members of the club obviously love what they do and practice hard.

Another day with the Outreach Team

Morning I was asked to be ready for 9.00am to go to court with the Child Protection Officer from the Outreach Team to observe a case and support the family. This was a defilement case. I asked the CPO what is the difference between defilement and rape? Apparently if the child is under-age it is defilement, over-18 and it is rape. Penalties are higher for defilement. A 13 year old was abused by a family friend who visited the house. She told no-one but school picked up that something was wrong and that is the route of referral to MTCC and the Child Protection Officer. This happened 8 months ago and the child is now pregnant. A case has been brought against the perpetrator. The child and her mother have testified in court and a judge has decided that there is a case for the accused to answer. He is on remand in a local prison. Today is the day for him to appear in court. I went to MTCC reception to meet the team and wait for transport to court at 8.50am. The CPO joined me after about half an hour and explained the case, and about 20 mins after that transport arrived. On this occasion it was a small bus which had just completed its daily run to bring pupils to the Primary and Secondary Schools. We shared it with a Primary School child and his mother. The child had been running along the outside of a building and had run full tilt into the sharp corner of an open window and had a small but jagged head wound. We dropped them off at Chilomoni Clinic on the way. There was also another Beehive staff member on a separate job and a driver. We arrived around 10.00am to find the child, her father and a sleeping younger sister perched on the wall outside. They had gone to considerable effort to get there, travelling some distance from their village to Blantyre, with all three of them on a motorbike. This would have been a significant expense for them. We joined them on the wall and waited, watching others going in and out of court, including 6 young men handcuffed together in pairs. After nearly an hour the prosecuting policeman came to the CPO and informed him that the Lady Magistrate was not able to be present so the court sitting was cancelled, so we should all go home. We will be informed of the next date. What a disappointment for everyone but especially difficult for the child. Afternoon We visited the Feeding Centre at St James’ church in the centre of Chilomoni. This is the church that Beehive built for the local people as one of its first projects. The feeding centre has been running for 24 years and one man has been volunteering and run it for all of that time. It used to be only three days a week but since Beehive has been running it, I think about 4 years, it happens every school day. Children of the poorest families are recommended to the Centre. Currently they have 55 children who they are feeding for 5 days a week. Today 52 attended. Children come from a number of local schools and range in age from 6 years to 18 years. Today the meal was nsima, cabbage and small local fish. We arrived as the children were helping with the clearing and washing up. Chores finished, they welcomed us. There were prayers, singing and dancing. The children lined up in four groups, boys and girls separately, and Primary and Secondary pupils separately. I was there with two CC staff members. They led a session with all 52 children together which talked about good and bad behaviour. The children were divided into groups of ten, ages and genders mixed this time, and each group had a sheet of flip chart paper and a pen. They had to list five good and five bad behaviours. A spokesperson was selected from each group to present what they had written. Four out of 5 spokespeople were boys. There were fewer boys present than girls. The staff drew out the learning points for the children. The lesson was mostly in Chichewa so I didn’t follow it all in detail but they did translate the main points for my benefit. Then I was invited to lead some games. Help! I could have done with a bit of warning for this but fortunately I have played games at recent staff training events so I mostly picked things I had done in the last few weeks. We played Spiral and Knots and although at first they moved too quickly and kept breaking hands, they got the hang of it really quickly and worked together cooperatively. Then we played ‘Round and Round the Village’ which is a singing game. This was brave of me because I am among the world’s worst singers, but fortunately one staff member picked it up quickly and supported me. One has to skip and dance as well as sing, so very quickly I was breathless, hot and very red in the face! They loved it though. It is an old game. I remember playing it in about 1960 and it was old-fashioned then. It doesn’t go down very well in the UK today but, as I have said before, in Malawi they are inhibited by different things, and singing and dancing is no problem.

Extracts from notes taken on a day in the community with members of the Outreach part of the Children's Centre

CBCC in Sigregge. Brick hut, walls and one side open. Metal Roof. Care Giver said he has been concerned about the safety of the hut for children since some damage was done at the time of Cyclone Freddie. 67 children registered. 25 Boys. 42 Girls, Approx 40 present today. Porridge supplied by Beehive through Seibo. Cooked over charcoal outdoors. Takes one and a half hours minimum to cook. Children were indoors when we arrived. Permission given to take photos. James was speaking to volunteer teachers about their planning. Some homemade resources and blackboard and chalk but little else. One other two children arrived with pens and notebooks but not many. We all went outside and formed a circle for songs and games. Brief discussion of the weather. Video taken of games. Photos of homemade resources. Photos of the azungu stirring the porridge. After perhaps 30 mins we left. CBCC Mwai. Slightly more substantial brick hut. 40 children registered. 22 children present. 40 Registered. Some homemade resources on the wall. one small box of wooden bricks.Words chalked on the brick. We arrived at porridge time. Also through Beehive and Seibo. There were only 18 plates and 16 spoons so some children had to wait their turn. Videos of the azungu serving porridge. Children eating etc. Again James spoke to teachers. No time for games at this visit. Nzeru Private Nursery School. 38 children registered. 25 present. Very old (?1950s) fixed playground equipment. More substantial brick building. Nursery class at far end. Homecorner separated off with zitenge hanging on strings. A couple of Primary children had wandered in from the next room and were hiding behind it. Walls painted with alphabet, numbers, etc. Photos taken but v. few resources. James spoke to teachers while 2 CGs and I talked to the children very informally. A SEND child was very interested in the azungu, touching hands and arms and when I bent down, my face. Played Peepbo from behind my hands. Round and round the garden etc We had to leave to get the car back for 11.00am so no formal games or activities here. Afternoon. Home visits 1. A child in Dove’s Room has not attended for over a week. We have heard from another parent that the child is sick. This is a visit to check that everything is ok and that the child has seen a medical practitioner and find out whether she is receiving treatment. The mother is young. The child is 11months. She has had sickness. Last sick on Sunday. It is Tuesday afternoon. At first Mum said she had taken the child to the clinic and the doctor had not prescribed any medication but following further questions it became clear that she had not attended the hospital in this episode of sickness but 3 months ago and she had been giving the same medication (zinc sulphate) that was prescribed last time. The Caregiver used this as an learning opportunity explaining that it was not necessarily the same condition, requiring the same treatment this time; that courses of medication should be completed; about correct storage of medicines and keeping them clean, that medicines have expiry dates etc. Mum was encouraged to take the child to hospital again today and confirm with the doctor whether further treatment is necessary and when it is safe for the baby to return to nursery. This is a sponsored child living in a rented house at 4000K per month. Very basic, next door to a bar, very close to other houses, beaten earth floor. We sat outside in the sun. The child was present and crawling about and taking an interest in her surroundings. 2. We travelled across to the far side of Chilomomi and Ntukwa in search of a family comprising mother and 11 children who came to the notice of the CC a couple of years ago after the death of the father, when Mum was expecting no. 11. Several of the children were malnourished and the CC introduced them to a feeding programme where they were fed and monitored. Their condition improved so they were discharged but now there are signs of malnutrition again. We did not have a specific address but enquiries found a neighbour who knew the house and we were led there. The Mother’s firstborn, a young woman with 2 children of her own who lived nearby, came to the house and joined her 14 year-old sister who was in charge of the younger ones while her mum was out looking for piece work about 5Km away. Apparently the 14 year old had gone with her mum but there was no luck finding work. Someone had taken pity on them and given them 500K, about 25p, and Mum had sent the child to buy sweet potatoes to take home and cook for the children. She was building a fire to do this as we arrived. A Beehive worker told me that 500K worth of sweet potatoes would not realistically feed more than 3 people. The caregivers asked questions, is everyone well, do the children go to school, do the younger ones go to a CBCC, are they fed there etc. All children attend school or CBCC except the 14 year-old who used to stay with a relative in Zomba and attend school there. She was registered at school in Zomba but in order to reregister in another school she needs a transfer code from the old one. The family has no access to a phone, the relatives in Zomba have no phone so they have not been able to contact the school and get the code. Therefore the 14-year-old cannot attend school or be fed at school. The family was given a 5Kg sack of likuni phala. I also gave them 5000K (approx £2.50) which is enough to buy about 10 Kg of maize. The Outreach worker told me that they used to have more access to food and clothing to help such families than they do now. These children 10 girls and 2 boys have dresses or shirts and shorts but no underwear and no shoes. They literally do not know where their next meal is coming from and this makes them very vulnerable. We talk a lot about supporting the poorest of the poor and it requires investment to bring such families to a level where they can take over themselves and maintain a standard of living where they have enough to eat to maintain a healthy body and enough clothes, for warmth, protection from sun, rain and rough ground, dignity and safety. These are the people who Beehive exists to support. To raise the standard of living of the people who live in the shadow of the cross on the top of the mountain is the purpose of all the Beehive businesses and enterprises. The profits the organisation makes have from the beginning been designated not for personal gain but for the benefit of the community of Chilomoni. Let none of us who are employed or volunteer here forget that this is what Beehive is all about.

Writing and Delivering Training about the updated Malawian ECD Curriculum

Monday was a fairly uneventful day. I continued my struggle to understand and explain the structure of the new (2017) Malawian ECD Curriculum but fortunately the penny dropped and I was able to see how it all fits together and which would be the right markers to anchor our system for recording children’s progress to. It is my opinion that the Early Learning Development Standards and the Indicators of development at different ages with respect to each ELDS are the way to go. I put together a,rather uninteresting, presentation to explain how the curriculum is constructed, how it relates to the previous version to which the CC is still working, and to define all the different parts of the curriculum. There are 6 Domains of learning. Domains are subdivided into Sub-domains and then Aspects. Each Aspect has from 1-3 ELDSs associated with it and each age group, Under 2s, 3-4s and 5 year-olds, has a number of Indicators which tell Care Givers how the children are progressing. In addition to this there are 7 Themes which run through the whole curriculum, and 8 Objectives of the curriculum which are the same as the `Themes with the addition of Physical Development, which is also a Domain! There are also Aims of the curriculum. Now do you see why I have been confused and almost literally tearing my hair out! All I have to do now is invent some more indicators to ensure that we maintain the enrichment to the Malawian Curriculum that I introduced 12 years ago and the job will be done! That will keep me busy once I get home on 3 August! If we are to introduce the new record system in September; it makes sense to change at the beginning of the academic year, I will have to get a wriggle on! As I was making a PowerPoint presentation out of all this I realised that we I would have to liven up the training somehow to prevent everyone from falling asleep, so I introduced six games, one for each Domain. On Wednesday I delivered the training to the usual two groups of students and having played each game I invited the participants to tell me what the children would be learning as they played each game. We played ‘ In God’s beautiful world you can find….’ after the manner of ‘My Aunt went to Paris and she bought….’ for the Moral and Spiritual domain; Pass the Face’ for Social and Emotional; ‘Ladders’ for Cognition and General Knowledge; ‘Robots’ for Approaches to Learning; ‘Chinese Whispers’ for Language and Communication and ‘Little finger to eyelash’ for Physical Development. In my experience the average Malawian is much more willing to play games than the average Brit and much more uninhibited; this leads to much laughter and enjoyment and we all learn better if we are happy and entertained. I also offered lollipops in the middle of the confusing and potentially boring bits. There is nothing like a bit of sugar for keeping one awake and aiding concentration!!! The observant amongst you will have noticed that I have missed out Tuesday! That is because Monday and Wednesday were related to each other, as are Tuesday and Thursday, so you will have to wait for the next entry to learn about Tuesday.

The Porter’s race, The Waterfall, Meeting Mike the guide and his family.

The Porter’s race is a gruelling fourteen and a half mile race in a circuit that goes most of the way up Mulanje mountain and down again in a big sweeping curve. The Mulanje Porters are the guys who go up the mountain leading large and small groups of tourists whilst carrying all their gear for them. When I went up to Hope’s Rest, a CCAP Hut just before a steep rocky climb to the summit many of them did this barefoot, carrying one pack on their back and another on their front. They are very strong and resilient and were specially supportive of me as a 57 year old woman who was not particularly fit! Jeff has done a lot of long distance running and has been in training for this since January. He was going to do it with Vince, his long term friend but Vince had to return to the UK for family reasons and so he was bravely continuing alone. We drove from Blantyre to Mulanje in a couple of hours. The road was the same as my trip to the Catholic University at first, going through Limbe and Bangwe before we passed the turn for the university and followed the sign for Mulanje. It was sunny but hazy. We could see blue mountains in the distance and we watched the vegetation get greener and the housing get more wide-spaced as we motored along. After a while Mulanje became visible in the distance and gradually became more distinct as we got nearer. The haze lifted and by the time we were close the colours of the mountain were bright in the late afternoon sunshine. Of course this meant that we did not see the weather conditions that give this mountain its alternative name of ‘The Island in the sky’. This illusion happens when the top of the mountain is in sunshine and the bottom is cloaked in clouds when it truly looks liken island floating above the clouds. I have been fortunate enough to see this once in four visits, but not this time. In Mulanje town we passed the famous pizza restaurant I visited 12 years ago and turned left to follow the base of the mountain through the tea estates towards Likubula where we were booked into a CCAP Lodge, posh enough to be booked in dollars! The tea bushes manage to look dark green underneath but bright yellowish green where the sun is reflected off the shiny leaves at the top. The colour combination is startlingly bright. The backdrop of the mountain with the browns and greys of rock and the greens of quite dense woods at the bottom of the slopes was stunning, and all was bathed in the glow of the late afternoon sun. We checked into our lodge which is in the National Park and spreads for several hundred yards down the right hand side of a mud road that sets off up the mountain. Reception and the dining area are at the top of the hill and we had chalets quite a bit further down so there was a bit of a climb to work up an appetite for each meal. There were two different schools from the UK staying in the lodge, one of which had visited Beehive earlier in the week. It was definitely an azungu place. I saw more white people in an hour over supper than I have seen in the entire 5 weeks I have been in Malawi. Jeff got up very early to go and register for the race. Bhavna and I left the house at the more civilised hour of 7 o’clock and were just in time to see him set off in a field of less than a hundred runners. To cut a long story short the first runners, who were all Porters, were back down the mountain having run the full course in just under 2 hours. Jeff took his time. He said much of the course was very difficult to run at all and very rough underfoot, but it was well way-marked with huge chalked arrows and he never felt lost although he was alone with the mountain for much of the time. He made it safely back down again having covered the whole course, tired, achy but satisfied and having enjoyed every minute on the mountain. I take my hat off to him! Bhavna and I wandered about around the start of the race people-watching and admiring the Malawian ability to have fun without spending much money. A festival was to happen later in the day and people were setting up stalls selling all manner of snacks and other items. There were to be beer tents and a stage for free music, apparently funded by the government. Malawi TV was present albeit on a small scale compared to the British equivalent at a festival but there was one small van full of equipment and a team of staff. We went back up to the lodge for breakfast and planned to walk up to the waterfall and be back at the bottom in time to see Jeff return. He said he thought he would be 4-5 hours. After breakfast we decided it would be prudent to get a guide. We have both been up to the waterfall before but not for a while and although the way is fairly direct there are a few turns and we did not fancy being lost on the mountain. We had lingered over breakfast and the sun was rather high in the sky by the time we left at about 10,00am. Mike the guide led us up the steep road above the lodge. It was rough underfoot and we climbed steadily. The views were beautiful, every shade of green you can imagine, clear blue sky, bright sunlight, the brown of tree trunks, terracotta soil and a few bright flowers, but not that many. We saw birds, lizards and butterflies, all the varieties I saw the week before on the Way of the Cross but several others besides, including a large black one with bright blue patches on the wings. There were a few vervet monkeys at the bottom near the lodge but we didn’t see any more on the climb. We had warned Mike that we would be slow. He was very considerate, walking in front and showing us the way. He knew when we had stopped without turning round, he must have been listening to our footsteps, and paused and waited for us to be ready to begin again. We finally reached the waterfall after about an hour and a half. Most people say it takes about an hour. When we arrived there were about thirty people there including a Moslem woman of about my age who I had a little chat with. We congratulated ourselves about making it in the heat! Some lads were swimming and diving off a huge rock into the pool at the base of the waterfall which Mike told us is 65 metres deep. We sat with our feet in the water which was utterly delightful after the walk up in the heat. Bhavna got right into the water fully clothed. It was so hot she was soon dry again. We made the return journey down the far side of the river. On the way we saw several people, men and women, with large bundles of sticks on their heads, heading determinedly down the mountain. Mike got chattier on the way down and by the time we got back to our chalet we were quite friendly. We paid him his money and went for a rest and a shower. After an hour or so we ventured out again to follow the sound of the music to the festival a few hundred yards down the road at the place where the race had started By this time Jeff was back and was resting in an armchair on his khonde, tired but happy he had made it round the whole course. It took him almost 7 hours. At the festival we encountered Mike again in a clean white T-shirt enjoying the entertainment. He found us a good place to watch the music and we got chatting again. To cut a long story short Bhavna asked him if he lived in a local village and he said ‘Ten minutes away’ in response to which Bhavna asked him if we could visit his home and he said, ‘Yes, let’s go,’ so we did! I asked if he was married and had children and he was, and had a seven year-old boy called Winston and a baby girl. We had only walked about a hundred yards further when he stopped where a group of women were selling homemade snacks and drinks by the side of the path and introduced us to them. We walked on through the festival crowds and off between small fields, mostly growing pigeon peas, but also maize and vegetables. It took us at least half an hour to to reach his home which he showed us with pride. It was very small, dark and bare. A mat and cushions were the only furniture in the living area. There was a bedroom barely bigger than a single mattress where he and his wife slept with the baby and the little boy slept in a room that was hardly more than a cupboard. Outside there were two brick cubicles for cooking and washing and round the back a latrine. We did not stop for long but took a few photos and turned back as the sun was by now quite low on the horizon. The mountain was bathed in a warm orange glow. He walked us all the way back. I gave him a little money and said “Buy a new dress for your wife’ and his face lit up. ‘I will do that’ he said. Next morning we saw him briefly again and he said his wife had gone shopping. He was looking for more work as a guide. I did a bit of tourist shopping at the curios stalls and then it was time to head back to Blantyre, via the pizza place of course! Monday was a working day. I spent it at Mitsidi trying to make sense of the Government of Malawi syllabus for ECD. I think I got there in the end and have put together a training to teach the CC workers how they can use it to help with their teaching and also to prepare them for the fact that we will have to change our assessment system for children’s progress that I wrote to fit with the 2003 syllabus. The ‘new’ one is 2017 but the Children’s Centre is still using it as there is very little printed material available on the new one. This will be along job which will have to wait until I get home. I hope we shall be able to start using it in September so that we will not have to make the change half way through the academic year.

Clearing out the Resources Room, Special Needs Group and we set off to conquer Mulanje (well Jeff is to do the conquering!)

Thursday was clear out the Resources Room day and it was quite a job! The ECD tutor managed to gather a dozen ECD student volunteers to help us. We all donned zitenge and some put on masks and plastic aprons against the dust as well. The Practice Leader was a star. Two nights ago she sat up all night at the hospital with a friend who was giving birth, she was at work on Wednesday and she made a magnificent job of supervising everyone to bring all the resources that were not actually on shelves (and there were loads of them) out onto the terrace at the back of the CC and sort out what we were going to keep, what we were going to sell and what was real rubbish and needed to be got rid of. I did not always agree with her but I tried hard not to veto too many decisions, stepping in only if something was truly unsuitable or if she wished to dispose of some thing that children could really benefit from. We managed pretty well I think. Once the floor was clear we fetched mops and buckets and cloths and washed down the floor and shelves. To do the shelves we had to clear them of boxes of resources, sort the resources into sensible categories and relabel them with clear indications of what was inside. I cannot guarantee that this has been done as thoroughly as I would like, but it is all much cleaner and tidier than it was. By lunchtime everyone was pretty tired, it was physically quite demanding work. Beehive was providing a free lunch so I took them all to the kitchen and Hall where the children from the school eat and they all settled down to vast plates of nsima, fish and tomato sauce and I went beck up to the office for my vegetarian lunch which today was vegetables in tomato sauce with rice. Once sated the students stoically returned to help us sort and return to the shelves all the stuff that had been stacked on the ground outside. Of course there was not enough space on the shelves despite the big piles for binning and selling, and my idea of sorting is rather more exacting than that of the average Malawian, but again we managed a fairly acceptable compromise. I struggled to make them understand why it is not best for children’s learning if you put all the plastic construction materials of every conceivable type into the same box. I insisted however and we now have separate containers for Duplo, Lego, Megablocks, Waffles, Sticklebricks etc. Phew! We were forced to abandon the idea of sorting all the boxes of books into subject areas on the same day. We shall have to raise another set of volunteers for that job. The exhausted Practice Leader failed to make it into work on Friday morning and I cannot say I am surprised. She looked exhausted by the end of the day and on top of a missing night I think she deserved a good rest. Friday started with a delightful visit to the SEND group run by the Outreach team in the other half of the CC from the daycare. This group was led by another ex-student of mine and I could not have been more proud. She led a team of 4 other Caregivers in a parent and child group for children with special needs that was well thought out, well presented and clearly appreciated by mothers and children alike. They followed a similar format to that used in the daycare, starting with Circle Time in the garden and then moving indoors to a room set out for free flow play and ending up with porridge and banana for everyone before they set off for home. The Circle time was a delight. My student led with confidence and clarity, she slipped smoothly from Chichewa to English ensuring everyone understood everything. She called all the children and mothers by name, she was enthusiastic and sensitive, inviting the mothers to lead prayer and songs. She followed the usual format looking at today’s weather, asking which day of the week it was and then talking about what they all did on a Friday. I was happy to hear the song ‘Hello Mr Sun’ that Lindy taught the students 12 years ago. The mothers asked to lead, mostly sang in Chichewa and everyone joined in with gusto. Then it was story time. My heart sank as the Caregiver leading got out the Children’s Bible, opened it at a page with a lot of writing and a dull black and white picture and said we were going to hear a story about Joshua and the fall of Jericho. These are SEND children with a tendency to short attention span, I thought. But I need not have worried. This Caregiver was also excellent. She produced a large bag of props and told the story extempore. The walls of Jericho were a Batman castle turned backwards so the logos didn’t show and it made a very effective grey walled city. Joshua was a small blue knitted teddy who led a band of followers of bears of different colours. The story was told in Chichewa so of course I did not get all the details but first the teddies took turns to put wooden blocks on top of one another and then individual children were invited to come forward and put blocks on top to build quite a substantial tower. Children were assisted appropriately according to their needs and everyone’s achievements were celebrated enthusiastically. When the walls finally tumbled down everyone was very happy! After this we all moved indoors. The room was set up with labelled learning areas (I’m not sure if they always do this or whether the labels were for my benefit). Each area had toys and equipment suitable for the area. There was the best painting activity I have seen since I arrived, with plenty of paint and the children choosing their own colours and following their own messy ideas without hindrance but with help if they needed it. There was sensory play with shredded paper which was thoroughly enjoyed by one of the older boys. A Tuff tray was filled with sand, stuck with leaves and twigs to make it forest-like and with many small toys and animals lurking within to be discovered and played with, also a tray of water on the side where I saw splashing going on, plastic animals having a swim and so on. There were books, home corner, problem-solving and construction areas too. My only regret was that mums once sat down were reluctant to move about and so children tended to spend most of the session in the two or three areas they could reach next to where their mum was sitting. However I reflected that the relationships and support networks set up by this group were just as important as the educational opportunities created for the children. The CGs were quietly busy, talking to parents, encouraging and supporting children in their play, observing, meeting small needs of both children and parents. One CG had been given the job of videoing the session which he carried out conscientiously. He was observant and I often spotted something interesting going on only to find that he was already there, recording it. I do hope that I will be able to have a copy of that video. It would be a great teaching aid and also a good fundraiser I think. After playtime came snack time. This was a pretty substantial snack. There was a large plate of likuni phala (fortified porridge of maize and soya) for each mother and child, too much for the small children and enthusiastically finished up by the mums, followed by a banana. These children had a wide range of disabilities; Down’s, Cerebral Palsy, learning delays and disabilities, autism, but all were able to eat and enjoy the porridge. After snack, families began to leave for the walk home. There are 48 families registered for the group at the moment but my student tells me that many live a very long walk away and some choose to make the considerable effort only once a fortnight. I think there were about 27 children at today’s session. After all had gone home the group leader and I met and talked through the session and I gave her a box full of SEND resources I have collected over the years. Now and Next boards, materials for making visual timetables, sleep passes, Green and Red words information, reminders for positive management of challenging behaviour and a couple of little books, one on sleep and one on behaviour to support parent’s of children with disabilities. She was delighted, even though it was not much; it all fitted neatly in a box not much bigger than a shoe box. This afternoon Bhavna, Jeff and I set off for Mulange. Jeff is to run in the Porter’s Race tomorrow and Bhavna and I are along for the ride. We are staying in a lodge at Likubula at the base of the mountain. Jeff will be doing a 14 and a half mile circuit, climbing about 6000 feet in the process. Rather him than me but he has been training hard. Bhavna and I will be doing well if we make it to the waterfall which is at about 1400 feet.

Bank Holiday, finalising the curriculum, training day and preparation for an onslaught on the resources room.

Monday was a quiet day. It was a Bank Holiday for Independence Day. I spent the morning blogging about the Way of the Cross in the shade on the khonde. Bhavna and I went for lunch at the home of an Indian businessman who I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. He had a very pleasant house with a beautiful garden containing some lovely mature trees. We met his sister and sat on the khonde overlooking the swimming pool, talking business and politics, both Malawian and British. Indoors we were served delicious vegetarian food, all home made. It was very civilised. On Tuesday it was back to work. I went up to JP II College to talk to the ECD trainer about my additions to the curriculum for ECD Diploma students. I answered her questions and reassured her about her ability to teach, or find others to teach different parts of the curriculum and to my delight we agreed that the curriculum is ready to send off to TEVETA in the first stage of being considered for accreditation. This is a major success and she has agreed to send it off by Friday. Hoorah! I then wandered along the corridor to find the registrar who is spearheading the preparations to affiliate with the Catholic University and pass on the news that we are able to start this process before we have absolutely met all the requirements listed in the guidance for the procedure. Rather to my surprise this also went well and he promised me that he would send me the draft letter by Wednesday afternoon. I decided to walk back to the children’s centre and set off down the road back into central Chilomoni. I know the main roads of the township quite well but I do not know the maze of tracks and narrow pathways that make up the central part between the bigger roads. I didn’t want to get lost off the beaten track so I set off to walk the longer way that I was confident I knew. I had only gone a few yards when who should I spy coming up the hill towards me but the Daycare Manager who directed me down a narrow, sloping path and over a rickety bridge into the aforesaid maze. She stopped a passing seven year old and spoke to him rapidly in Chichewa and then said goodbye, turned back to resume her own journey and left me in the care of the little boy. He did a good job and after a few twists and turns I spotted a direction sign for the Children’s Centre and realised I knew exactly where I was. I groped about in my backpack to find a small reward for the child and came up with a bag of peanuts which he accepted with a big smile. I set off for the last couple of hundred yards to find the Room Leader of the Duck’s Room walking towards me. The Daycare Manager had phoned ahead to say that I was on my way and if I was lost they were to find me! Such is the way I am looked after here! Everyone is very kind. Wednesday is training day again. This week I was talking about Play. I chose to talk about play because on my observation days in the rooms I felt that I saw more adult led sessions than opportunities for children to explore materials and consolidate their learning through child initiated activities, I wanted to make caregivers think about how they can influence children’s play and learning by the way they set up the rooms for the free flow play that appears on their timetables three times a day. We tried to define exactly what free flow play is, both definitions, we revised Tina Bruce and the 12 features of free flow play, we defined adult-led, adult-initiated and child-initiated play, we talked about Loris Malaguzzi whose famous quotation is displayed on the wall in the CC but which no-one could remember, and we planned room layouts to encourage child- initiated activities. I sincerely hope that some of it will rub off onto the way the caregivers operate in the rooms from now on! PS Loris Malaguzzi said: ‘Tell me something and I will forget, Teach me and I will remember, Involve me and I will learn.’ I repeated the workshop in the afternoon for the second set of students. I gave both groups a bit of a lecture about caring for the resources we have, cleaning them after use and storing them so that you can see what is in each box and access it easily. Tomorrow is the day set aside for sorting out the resources room once and for all. We have borrowed 12 Early Years students from JP II to help us pull out everything and clean and sort everything that is worth keeping. The Practice Leader has made a host of bright yellow labels for all the sorted toys. She spent this afternoon locating buckets and cleaning cloths, mats to keep toys clean on the packed earth surface outside the resources room, and anything else she can think of to make the job go smoothly. So think of us tomorrow attempting to make oder out of chaos and rediscovering good resources that have been trapped behind the broken and worn out. Fingers crossed we shall be able to do it all in a day!

The Way of the Cross on Michiri Mountain

Bhavna and I had made arrangements to go to Zomba this weekend and I had really been looking forward to it. However it was not to be, firstly because of the bus breakdown that delayed my friend which made us decide not to go until Sunday morning. What with one thing and another, work on the house that Bhavna is overseeing, other work, (Bhavna spends even more of her evenings and weekends working than I do), we decided that we would go up the Way of the Cross on Sunday morning, work in the afternoon, and save Zomba for another weekend. When the morning came other things came up for Bhavna so that she had to go elsewhere, but I declined the offer to go with her and got her to drop me off at the bottom of the mountain. I have only 4 weeks left and so many places to see and old memories to update and I was determined not to miss out again on something I really wanted to do. I packed my rucksack with snacks and bottles of water. Picked up my binoculars, put on my walking shoes and got in the car, Bhavna sent me back for my hat - wise woman - and we were on our way. The bottom of the trail for the Way of the Cross felt very familiar. The entrance arch has a newly painted sign but the start was much as I remembered it. Vince had given me a pamphlet explaining each station so each time I reached one I stopped and read the explanations, meditations and prayers. There are 15 beautiful bronze (or are they copper??) plaques depicting the images of Christ on his journey from Golgotha to Resurrection. Or at least there should be, but no. 9 is missing. I wonder what happened to it? However I am leaping forward. The path from stations 1-3 is relatively flat. There are points on the path where the cross on the top is clearly visible, but tiny in the distance. The path was mainly packed earth with stones and a few embedded rocks, but relatively easy walking. The stations gave me goals for rest stops and at most of them I was able to find a comfortable rock in a patch of shade. This broke up the climb into manageable chunks for an overweight 69 year-old, which was most helpful. I set off at about 10.00am reflecting that I could have chosen a better time of day as I was likely to be up at the top at about noon. Mad dogs and Englishmen came to mind. For Malawi of course it was not hot, only about 24 degrees, but that is definitely quite hot enough for me! I remembered that when I first came up here in 2010 with Malcolm somewhere about half way up the path crossed a track big enough for cars. I remember this because we turned the wrong way along it and failed to find the rest of the Way, we had to turn and go back before we found it. As I passed station after station there was no sign of the track and eventually by station 12 I realised that I must have missed it altogether which you certainly could not have done 14 years ago. I resolved to look carefully for the place on the way down but again I failed to find it. I guess this shows how much can change in a few years. Thanking of change it was really striking how many fewer trees there were altogether. I remember there was much more shade on the way up when I was here before, especially for the last few stations which were in woodland including some quite big trees. Malcolm and I went up there one Good Friday and sat by the path bout 50 yards below the Cross and watched hundreds of worshippers emerging from the woods in family groups, choirs, elderly people, children clergy, mothers with tiny babies. Today one would be able to see them from much further away. Round about station 6, perched on my rock in the shade, I was passed by two men in black trousers and T-shirts with two dogs. I assumed that they were going up to pray but by the time I reached station 11, again concealed close to the plaque in the shade, they passed by on the way down. The first was carrying three 8 foot trees on his shoulder. The second had only one. ‘That’s not fair’ I thought, but he cut into the bushes, I heard a few swift strokes and a minor crash with much rustling of leaves, and he emerged with his second tree, strapped it to the first and heaving it on his back disappeared down the path at a rate of knots. The whole thing took only about 30 seconds. I wondered if they had marked their target trees on the way up. There is a huge dilemma here. Malcolm used to call such people ‘The tree-stealers” and certainly there has been a quite devastating removal of trees in the last few years. Most stumps are re-sprouting in the manner of trees that have been coppiced, but the new branches are only about eight feet high and I feel confident that they will be removed before they have a chance to replace the larger trees I remember from such a short time ago. Were the men I saw charcoal burners trying to make a living in the traditional way? Were they simply householders seeking to make their own charcoal for domestic use? The population is increasing at a terrific rate. There are not far short of half as many people again since I was last here. Around 50 percent of the population of Malawi is under 15 years old…… As I gradually climbed the path got steeper and rockier. I took my time and climbed steadily. There were very few people about. I probably passed fewer than 20 people in total both going up and coming down. There was a stillness about the atmosphere despite the fact that the sounds of Sunday in Chilomoni rose from the township in the blue haze below me; music from loudspeakers, singing from church services, shouts of traders. Closer to, there was rustling of leaves in the light breeze, birdsong, the scuttling of the odd lizard, murmured prayer from passing walkers. The sound of worshippers singing as they followed the Way of the Rosary on the next mountain drifted across the valley between. Finally I reached the top. For half an hour I was alone with my memories, the bird life, the views and the sunshine. I sat in a tiny patch of shade with my back against the plinth of the cross and took it all in. Grateful for the opportunity to be in this extraordinary place again, to have a role for which others are grateful and which makes me feel I have something to offer, for the chance to make relationships with people whose lives and backgrounds are so different from my own. Eight weeks is such a short time. On the way down I put the pamphlet in my bag and focussed on birds, lizards, butterflies and other insects, trees and keeping my feet on the steep rocky paths. The going was easier, it must have been because I didn’t stop more than once to sit in the shade, but it required concentration not to lose my balance. I took photos of flowers, saw unidentified butterflies, some white with orange patches but bigger than our orange tip, small yellow, larger pale yellow with black wing tips, brown, and one a strident orange with a speckled black pattern. There were loads of bees, some like our honey bees and some dark, almost an inch long, also a couple of dragon flies and a grasshopper of subdued brown which showed bright red when it flew, or was it jumped’ away from my approaching footsteps. Also lizards that mostly moved too fast to photograph. As for the birds, i have so much to learn. I saw a medium sized black bird with a magnificent, trailing orange tail, small finches with black heads, bulbils, something superficially like a large pied wagtail but with a curved beak and distinctive wavy white lines on its black wings, and I heard the squeaky wheelbarrow bird at the top of the mountain. I need a better bird book. And so to the bottom and a walk back through Chilomoni and so to Mitsidi and my temporary home, where I crashed out in my room for a couple of hours doing nothing more strenuous that WhatsApp calling family. Now, there is a difference from last time! So much easier and cheaper to keep in touch with home. It was my turn to cook again so I went to town, made bread rolls and scones, beetroot pasta and tomato and mozzarella salad, avocado with lemon dressing. I shall miss the avocados from the garden.

A Reunion

Saturday - I was up early, excited about seeing my friend again and I was ready long before it was time to leave. We met at a restaurant in Blantyre which has an excellent play area and we spent nearly three hours there, playing with the children Amell and Joshua, having lunch and talking, talking, talking. Bhavna was a star, keeping Amell amused with paper crafts and games and taking him to the play apparatus, while their mum and I caught up on the last twelve years and compared notes on the changes to the Malawian ECD curriculum, tales of training and trainers at Beehive and elsewhere, what had happened in our private lives and so on. It was a great relief to me that she shares almost exactly my view on the 2017 Curriculum and Learning and Development Standards documentation. I said I felt that though they both came from the same government department they read as though they were written by separate teams and although both are coherent in their own right, they have not been designed to work together. The result of this is that my friend made the same decision as Mother Teresa Children’s Centre and continued to work with the earlier version of the Malawian Curriculum as annotated by me in 2012. This is all very flattering but leaves me with a dilemma. Do we change what we are doing and move to recording children’s progress against the 2017 curriculum, for which we would have to write our own system for measuring the progress of individual children and invent our own measures; or do we use the earlier ones? We will have to do that for children under-3 as the 2017 document asserts that the best place for under-3s is with mothers and no longer describes a curriculum for them. Do we devise a system which correlates with the Malawian Learning and Development Standards, which would be easier as the documentation includes a useful table of standards for 0-2’s, 3-4s and 4-5s? Tempting, but children don’t start Standard 1 of Primary school until they are 6 so the needs of the last year of Eagle’s class would need to be considered. Or do we continue using the old system, which I sweated blood over 12 years ago and which both my friend and MTCC are still using. I did think it would be a legal requirement to update, but it looks like it is only a recommendation. I really am not sure what to do. Perhaps I should visit a few of the private schools with better reputations and see what they do? Dinner took ages to arrive but the time passed quickly. As you can see we found plenty to talk about. When it finally arrived we all tucked in with gusto, especially Amell whose children’s chicken and chips disappeared very quickly.. I had my second chambo of the trip, also with chips, but this time a whole fish which I managed to fillet as I ate with reasonable success. Amell had had his eye on an ice cream from the moment he arrived so we bought him a swirl of strawberry and vanilla. He had a pause in the middle of it to have a ride on the train which circled part of the garden and then half ate and half drank the rest in the car as we gave the family a lift back to Limbe where they were staying. I was so proud of my student. For the last five years she has worked for an NGO the other side of Lilongwe who work with families of refugees, mostly but not exclusively from Congo. She deals with about 400 pre-school children in a number of schools and is involved with training the staff as well as working with the children. Apparently no previous incumbent of the job has lasted more than a year and her outcomes are very good. Some of the previous people had ECD degrees but my friend puts down her success to the practical nature of her training, with placements in the children’s centre giving opportunities to put what she had learned into practice. She also is one amazing woman and I am glad that her employers value her. I said that if I come to Malawi again next year, which I may well do, I would love to come and visit her project and see what she has done. I was sad to drop her off in Limbe but so, so happy to have had to opportunity to see her again. I hope her journey home tomorrow is smoother than the outward bound trip. As we were in Limbe Bhavna took me to see a Beehive social enterprise which cleans recyclable bags for the Illovo Sugar Factory, thus reducing by about 80 percent the amount of plastic the factory contributes to our growing plastic disposal problem. It was interesting to see how this is done. Then we were off to Shoprite and Blantyre market for the usual shopping trip and watch Bhavna skilfully haggling down the price of fruit and vegetables and insisting that they cut open the water melons and prove they are good inside. I am sure the stallholders would have got at least half as much money again if I had been in charge of the purse! And so back to Mitsidi as dusk began to fall. Today we have two new residents at Mitsidi, an American fried of Vince’s and a Zimbabwean man who may well do some work for Beehive on our farm.

Friday - This was a red letter day for me because one of my students from last time was coming all the way from the other side of Lilongwe especially to visit me. As a student she was a hard worker and also had excellent relationships both with colleagues and children. After i came home she worked at Mother Teresa for a year or so before moving on to work for another NGO. Currently she is working with the children of refugees, mostly from the Congo. I arranged the afternoon off and went into Beehive in the morning with one target in mind. Circulate the minutes of the CUNIMA meeting, talk to the head of Mary Queen of Peace and get him on side about speeding up the application for affiliation, inform the committee, make an appointment with the registrar etc etc. Having done this I spent an hour or so with the Practice Leader finding out more about how she does her job, and checking up on progress with the dreaded resources room. Then I set off for Mitsidi to spend an afternoon with my ex-student. Sadly I had been home only about half an hour when I received a message to say the bus had broken down the far side of Lungu and she was stranded, waiting for a replacement bus. To cut a long story short she arrived about 5.30pm and to my astonishment she had two little children with her. I had no idea she had children, both boys, one nearly 4 and one 8 months. The poor woman had been travelling all day and was exhausted and hungry. She had only half an hour before she had to leave for a relative’s home and get the children to bed. She was so happy to see me, and I her. She was smiling all over her face and I was not far from tears, she was so positive about what the Beehive Training had done for her and grateful to David and to me. We made an arrangement to meet again in the morning and I cannot wait.

Wednesday - I spent the whole day delivering CPD training on sleep. In some ways it was cheating because it didn’t take too long to prepare as I have delivered sleep training so many times with both Sleep East and Contact. However it was different in some ways because of differences in cultural expectations. Most strikingly I found myself involved in a discussion about whether certain sleep problems, notably night terrors, might be the result of witchcraft. I tried to assure them that night terrors would be the result of physiological differences and that most children grow out of them by the time they are six, but not everyone was convinced! It was tiring delivering the same training twice in one day but bits of it were fun. I revived a game of Sleep Bingo that Joy and I invented about five years ago and it went down really well. I bought about 60 lollipops as ‘prizes’, although I made sure that everyone got one, and the last part of the course I taught a whole class of staff members busily sucking and with little sticks wobbling about in their mouths while they made notes on their handouts! We started the session with the name game involving introducing yourself with an adjective that starts with the same initial letter as your name, as in ‘I am Marian and I am Marvellous. Adjectives have to be positive but they do not have to be true! The next person introduces themself in the same way and then has to introduce the previous person also and so on around the circle in the manner of ‘My aunt went to market and she bought…’. We had some amusing adjectives such as ‘My name is Godfrey and I grow fast!’ but everyone entered into the spirit of the thing and helped out those of us who got stuck, and there was a lot of laughter. Thursday - Today was taken up with a visit to the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) with whom we hope to affiliate to deliver a properly accredited Diploma in ECD rather than our own Beehive Diploma as has been the case so far. As is common in Malawi this is a long and bureaucratic procedure. There have been a couple of previous meetings with the Catholic University and a committee has been set up at JP II to deal with a substantial document listing all the ways in which a satellite college of CUNIMA has to conform to the standards of the University. This is largely to do with governance and facilities which thankfully we have agreed are not something I need to be involved in, but I have read the entire document anyway in order to search for any references to the ECD courses we might provide, which are my concern. It is an impressive document which our registrar has colour-coded into green for ‘we meet the standard’, yellow for ‘nearly there’ and red for ‘we have a way to go’. Apparently it is gradually changing from red to yellow towards fully green. However it is nowhere near fully green yet. There are minutes of the meetings of the committee but apart from telling you that the meeting took place they are singularly uninformative! Full of such phrases as ‘the issues were discussed and the work was allocated to individuals’. Hmm? What are the tasks? Who is supposed to be doing what? Thank goodness governance etc is not my responsibility! There were no references to specific courses in the whole document, so no mention of ECD but the major problem for us is official accreditation of our course so that the qualification will be recognised across Malawi. Several people told me that they thought this would be automatic once we are part of the Catholic Uni but I couldn’t understand how this could be the case. What if our syllabus was rubbish?? ( it isn't, of course!). Hence scrutiny of the document. It transpires that we need to get the course accredited by the National Council for Higher Education. A pre-requisite for this is to get it accredited by TEVETA (Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training in Malawi). Then I had my biggest stroke of luck so far. It appears that our ECD Trainer does work for TEVETA as an assessor of ECD courses, so she has all the info available and is pretty confident we meet all the expectations. She and I will be meeting next week to get this on the road. Hoorah! As for the application to CUNIMA we learned from our meeting with the Director of Academic Affairs that we don’t have to wait until our document is entirely green before we apply for affiliation, they will come and inspect after we apply and give us advice about the prioritisation of any red or yellow items. He recommended we get on with it asap, so since we got back I have been on a mission to get the application in.

Wildlife, Hobbits, Diploma Curriculum, Action points to improve practice and the Baby Room window is repaired.

Saturday. No zebra, giraffe or lion but one elephant, largely obscured by bushes, loads of impala, nyala, waterbuck, kudu, some hippos, warthog, lots of baboons and a selection of birds including vultures, several varieties of dove, bulbil, weaver birds and several other colourful but unidentified passerines. We drove around the reserve ourselves and were quite pleased with the numbers and variety of what we saw. My personal favourites were the baboon families with babies clinging to the long fur of their parents as they ran and swung themselves from tree to tree. There were some very nice hides which made splendid places to sit and contemplate the wonders of the natural world. Unfortunately they were also a good place to get out your picnic and bottle of wine and start to party. Where this was happening there was not much wildlife about! We had a very nice lunch of chambo and chips in the restaurant of a lodge and I spent far too much on souvenir Malawi t-shirts for my grandchildren, but I liked them and I don’t have time to spend a lot of money during the week. I am working so hard! The drives to and from Majete took about an hour and a half. On the way I noticed how much the villages around Blantyre have run into each other since I was here last. one now has to drive quite some distance from the centre of Blantyre before the patches of green between villages become significant in size. Eventually we made it to open countryside, some cultivated and some not. Then the road started to descend and we began to go down the mountain. The views were terrific and the temperature rose as we got closer to sea level and at the bottom of the escarpment it was much warmer than in Blantyre. By my standards the weather has been much better in Blantyre over the last week or so, reaching about 24 degrees some days, but to most Malawians it is still cold and in the morning people are still wearing woolly hats and winter coats to go to work. We stretched out our time at the reserve for as long as we could, leaving as dusk fell, having watched the sun set in a glorious golden blaze and popped in to the lodge again to see if the elephant had come out from behind his bush. Apparently he had, but we were too late and he had disappeared completely now. What a shame! We were the last day visitors to leave the reserve and set off in near darkness to take the road back up to Blantyre. Stopping only to buy a bottle of wine to accompany the left over rice and beans that were waiting to be warmed up for our supper. Sunday. Sunday was a quieter, more domestic day. We did our usual weekend market trip and went to Shoprite for azungu luxuries, especially cheese! I did a mountain of washing for the CC of all the grubby fabric things we had discovered in the resource room. After lunch I did a bit of work and later Bhavna and I went for coffee in a treehouse cafe in a suburb of Blantyre. It was quite an experience. I kept expecting hobbits and gnomes to appear around the corner! Monday. Hoorah! The Daycare Manager was back, feeling a lot better although not fully recovered I fear. She still has a nasty cough, but she refused to go home and rest when I suggested it. We spent the morning catching up with what I have done for the last week and she was pleased with the progress I had made with windows and nappies, although we are not yet completely there with either project. I gave her my lists of action points for improving practice for each room, and for the whole centre, for her approval and updated her on the next 2 CPD trainings on Sleep and Play. At the beginning of the afternoon I saw the ECD lecturer and we discussed the curriculum for Diploma students. This conversation led to a big job for me to insert all the aspects of my curriculum from 12 years ago that did not originate from Malawian documentation into her curriculum which includes all things Malawian updated with the 2017 changes. I spent all afternoon until suppertime cross referencing everything in my curriculum to hers and then writing new items to cover everything that is not already in there. After supper and catching up on the events of the day we retired to bed quite early. I think we were all pretty tired and it was only Monday! Tuesday. And so to today. I was back to the curriculum by 7.15 this morning typing in all my additions in a contrasting colour so that when the ECD trainer checks it all she will immediately be able to see what is the original document and what are my additions. I finally threw down my pen, so to speak, at 11.30am to discover I was starving and went to make halloumi, tomatoes and toast for lunch. Now all I have to do to the curriculum is type up all the cross references to where items have gone to within the ECD trainers curriculum so that if anyone ever questions how rigorous the process was we can prove that it is all there. Phew! Then I walked to the CC through an area known as Zambia because it is where all the immigrant Zambian tinsmiths live. I was accompanied by the noise of craftsmen hammering sheets of metal into buckets, baths and pots. This afternoon I received the Daycare Manager’s approval to pass the action points on to the Room Leaders and then visited them all and talked them through what they have to do. I urged them to share it all with their Caregivers and then come back and ask any questions they may have. We are going to have a meeting with Room Leaders, Practice Leader, Daycare Manager and me to work out how best to tackle the action points for the whole centre but that will have to be next week as tomorrow is Sleep Training Day, on Thursday we are off to visit the Catholic University of Malawi and on Friday the Daycare Manager and I have an appointment with Bhavna to discuss all things financial. Busy! Busy! Oh.... and the broken window in the baby room is finally repaired!! And so the weekend will come round again. Bhavna and I have plans to disappear on a jolly trip to Zomba as we have a long weekend due to Monday being a Bank Holiday. Hoorah!!