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!