School Visit

Last week, when I was at my home stay in Malawi, I had the privilege to take a walk to visit the school where one of the villagers is a teacher.

It was an especially fun connection since members of the current team had helped Y, the teacher, get the training he needed to be a teacher. During the short time that I stayed in the village it was my impression that Y was one of the most ambitious members of the village. He seemed to have high aspirations for the future which is something that I don’t believe is very common. I also got the impression that Y previously did not have this sort of hard work ethic when my current teammates were still living in this village.

The day that I was there he was teaching 3 different grades at the same time.

This is the classroom where he was alternating teaching Standard 1 and Standard 5. Both grades are taught in the same classroom and the students just face opposite directions. Assignments are given to occupy students when Y switched the class he was teaching. I am not very confident that the assignments were completed as the students seemed very distracted and unmotivated, especially at the lower grades.

There are not enough classrooms for all of the students so Standard 3 was outside. They were learning multiplication by 3. All of the students had a pile of rocks that they used for counting.

Physical Education

Large Standard 2 class

At the end of my school visit I tripped in a hole. I was not hurt bad, just a few scrapes on my leg. It has actually been a fun story to tell all my neighbors. When they notice my scab I am really dramatic at reenacting my fall as I try to explain what happened--laughter always erupts.