First week

I arrived in Malawi on Saturday at lunchtime. Already it seems a long time ago. There are a lot of things to do and a a lot of changes to get used to. The journey was long but uneventful. It started with a farewell at Norwich bus station where Keith dropped me off with my two heavy suitcases (one was entirely occupied by books and teaching materials). Once my bags were stowed and we had had a last goodbye hug I got on the bus. When I looked around he had disappeared! Eventually I spotted him in his dark red trousers leaning on a traffic light post and peering at the tinted windows of the bus. I was tucked in behind the driver and he couldn’t see me but I was waving madly. ‘Is that your fella?’ said an African voice? We got into conversation which lasted all the way up the Newmarket Road. He was very interested to find I was bound for Malawi and wanted to know all about the project and why I was going. The journey to Heathrow took over 5 hours and stopped to pick up passengers at many points on the way. Anyway , eventually I arrived and still in plenty of time to catch the plane. I was disappointed that on neither plane did i have a window seat so I was able to see very little, so no watching the sun rise or set, and no wonderful views of the Sahara or Kilimanjaro! My goodness! How Addis Ababa Airport has changed! I remember it as very small with only one terminal. We arrived at Terminal 2 and it took me about ten minutes to walk to the right departure gate. The Blantyre plane was a 737 which seemed very small in comparison to the other. I didn’t get a lot of sleep on either. At Blantyre I filled in a health declaration amongst a gaggle of visitors yawning and borrowing pens off each other, got my passport stamped and was allowed through. I found my luggage easily, fought off a gaggle of people jostling to push my trolley and emerged into rather watery sunshine. Bhavna was waiting outside to greet me and we were into the car and off towards Chilomoni. We stopped to buy plants for the garden on the way and I was reminded that I will need to brush up my bargaining skills! I spent the rest of the day settling in to Mitsidi again. It has changed a lot but it is still a fine old house with a garden with many trees including lemon, guava and avocado. 7 days later. How time flies! What a busy week I have had! I have had no time to blog if I wanted to keep up to date with notes and reports concerning what I have been up to. Eight weeks is such a short time to get everything done, or even everything started I fear! I am supposed to: Conduct a Training needs assessment for the Children’s Centre. Discuss with senior staff how these needs might be met. Support them to make short, medium and long term plans to meet those needs. Review the curriculum for the Diploma in ECD being taught at John Paul II College in Chilomoni. Make sure all requirements of the Malawian curriculum are met. Fortunately I think the ECD Lecturer, who has a strong background in Community Development, which I lack, has already done this. Include all those aspects of the UK curriculum which encourage creativity, open mindedness, curiosity, persistence, encouragement to question and to explore. Get the curriculum accredited with an appropriate body so that the qualification will be recognised throughout Malawi. This also is in progress. There is an existing committee to explore this, and they have already decided to go for accreditation with The Catholic University of Malawi. Apparently they have been given a list of things to do and criteria that must be met. I was promised to be sent this by email but as yet nothing! This will be a week ago tomorrow. I must chase it up. I have had several meetings, met many people and spent two fascinating days on the floor of the Children’s Centre (CC) one in the baby room, Doves, and one in the Toddlers (Ducks). Mother Teresa Daycare is an excellent nursery by Malawian standards and is gaining good reputation , not only in Chilomoni, but also across Blantyre. Parents are very keen for their little ones to come to a centre which has such high staff ratios and where they hope their babies will learn English very quickly. When I talk to staff about the help and training they need there is usually an instant response that they do not have sufficient resources. In the baby room this was immediately apparent. When I arrived children were at Free Play while other children were still arriving. At the puzzle table there was not one complete puzzle. There were base boards and there were pieces, but very few seemed to fit together. Care Givers were chatting positively to the children, one followed a child’s interest in a monkey piece and started a monkey song to the child’s delight. Further exploration showed that no construction toy had more than about a dozen pieces, there were a few battered vehicles, the home corner had dolls but few clothes and not many kitchen bits and pieces. ‘Oh dear, what is going on here?’ I thought. The next day I went to Ducks, for 2-3 year olds. In this room there were more toys and they were better stored, on the whole like was stored with like and there were a lot of pieces in most sets. A conversation with the Centre Manager revealed that when new resources arrive, or are purchased, they are distributed evenly between all the rooms. Why therefore are there such big differences between the two rooms now? I wonder what I shall find in Guinea Fowl and Eagles Rooms next week? Do babies break more toys than Toddlers? Not likely, but possible. Is one less likely to lose pieces of sets and puzzles if Care Givers are encouraged to put them away like with like. Probably. Is there something else going on? Do we need to make an appeal for more good quality resources? Maybe, but over the years many have been sent. Where are they? Who is in charge of resources across the whole Centre? The Practice Leader. What does she think about all this. I shall have to find answers to all of these questions and more?