Another good day in Malawi

Life as a PCV is full of ups and downs. It is easy to complain about how hard it is to be here, living in less than ideal conditions, thousands of miles away from my loved ones. If everyday was difficult, I don't know how long I would last here. Thankfully, there are good days here too, and they keep me motivated and feeling like what I am doing here is worthwhile.

This blog post is about one of those good days. This particular day happened last year when I was still teaching Biology (and I forgot to post it), but it's also a good representation of what it's like for me as an Education Volunteer in Malawi.

I arrived at school a little before 7:30 and started preparing for my first lesson. I had a double period of Physical Science to teach. We are learning about the three states of matter. I brought in a lot of materials to use for demonstrations, like a jar, a cup of water, a box of matches, a bottle filled with beans and a stick of incense. The incense was to demonstrate how gas molecules move freely and do not have a fixed shape or volume. When I lit the incense, the class got really excited. When I was finished with the demo, I asked if I should put it out, but they said no because they liked the smell. At the end of class, they asked if I could bring incense to our next class too!

Later in Biology class we were finishing up our unit on respiration. I went over the four adaptations of respiratory systems for their functions, and then asked the students to work in groups and tell me how each adaptation applied to the specific respiratory systems of humans, fish and insects. I have tried activities like this before, and they have not gone well, but today the students all worked quickly and efficiently to complete the activity. After class, I saw students going up to copy the diagrams and make sure they copied down the answers to the activity. That made me feel good.

I noticed that a few of the students were milling around outside about half an hour later, and I asked if there was a teacher in their class. They said no because the teacher had just given them notes to copy, and they were finished. I had a couple videos about respiration in fish, so I took the students in groups of 10 to another classroom to watch the video on my laptop. Afterwards, they thanked me for showing them the video.

I didn't have anymore classes to teach after that, but I decided to take advantage of the free time to work in the library. I am the Co-Librarian, and we just received a large shipment of books that needed to be arranged. While I was there, a few students dropped by to chat, teachers came in to borrow books for their classes, and I talked with a teacher about how she can use the new books for her subjects.

By 2:45pm I was ready to head home. I said goodbye to the teachers and then headed over to the market to buy some bread and potatoes. On the way I greeted a lot of people, as you do in Malawi. When I got to my house, the neighbor kids asked if they could draw with me. I said no because I was tired. And I was. But after I went inside, changed clothes, made a quick lunch and read the news a bit, I decided to invite the kids over. We sat on my porch, drawing with crayons, reading my Chichewa book, and listening to Yusef (one of the kids) singing.

Some of my "iwes" aka the neighbor kids that keep my home life busy and interesting

Then we went to check on the garden (Note: the photo above is more recent, so the garden looks a lot different than when I originally wrote this blog post). I let the kids pick a few cucumbers and radishes, much to their delight. You would think it was candy-- they were so excited! They helped me weed a little bit, and we put the weeds into the compost pile. Then I grabbed the leftover sugarcane I had bought yesterday to share with them. I wasn't sure how to break it, but no worries-- the 9-year old used a machete. (I spent the whole time fretting she would cut her fingers off, even though the children wield knives when they are three years old here). As we sat munching sugarcane, I was just overcome with this sense of contentment.

Scottish Invasion

Yesterday we had some special visitors at my school. A group from our partner school in Scotland spent the day with us.

Scotland and Malawi have a close partnership. There are so many schools and aid organizations from Scotland in Malawi. On my site visit last August I met a Scottish couple in the Boma that was raising funds to build a girls hostile. A couple weeks ago I met three university students from Scotland that were teaching Expressive Arts at the local primary school for six weeks. (Now all their students know the words to that song "And I would walk a thousand miles." A group of kids came up to me and started singing it, and were delighted when I joined in. It was pretty funny.)

Our partner school (which is not affiliated with the PC) is a Catholic high school in Scotland. They provided funds to build a laboratory at my school, provided books and science materials and sent sports equipment like footballs. They also fund a program at my school called Girls Go for Health which provides support for girls to stay in school, including free menstrual pads, tampons and ibuprofen.

We had about 25 visitors from the school, mostly female students. When their bus arrived, it created quite a stir at my school. So many azungus in one place!

First things first-- gotta take snaps. Cameras and photos are universally loved by teenagers, no matter what side of the world they are from.

The visitors observed classes in the morning. In my Form 3 Bio class we were finishing up our unit on Reproduction. The topic was problems of the reproductive system, which include sterility, maternal death and sexually-transmitted infections. Fun topic for a day we are having visitors, right? After my lecture I had the students work in their groups to answer questions about  STIs. The Scottish students assisted them.

After that, classes were suspended for the rest of the day so that everyone could play sports. There was football, netball, races and even volleyball. All equipment was provided by the Scottish partner school.

Below you can see some of the girls playing netball. Netball is like basketball except you don't dribble the ball. Also it is almost exclusively played by females.

In Malawi you always feed your guests, so our visitors were treated to a traditional meal of nsima with ndiwo (side dish). The ndiwo was some kind of local leafy green cooked with tomatoes and onions, maybe rape? I don't eat much nsima now that I cook for myself, so I always enjoy it when I have it. We also had Coca-cola and biscuits (cookies). Yum!

After that it was time for our visitors to be going. It was a really nice day and my students enjoyed spending time with the foreign students.

Fun fact-- did you know that the National Animal of Scotland is the unicorn?

Camp Sky Part One

Malawian students + PCVs = Camp Sky!

Camp Sky was an amazing week! 72 students from all across Malawi came
to learn about math, english and science to prepare for their Malawi School Certificate Exam (MSCE).  There were also 8 Junior Counselors who had attended camp last year and were selected to come back and assist the new campers. Then add about 20 PCV Teachers/Counselors and you have the Camp Sky team.

This year the camp was held at Kamuzu Academy in the Kasungu District in the Central Region of Malawi. The school was closed for Easter Break so they let us use their wonderful facilities for Camp Sky. The campus had brick buildings, manicured lawns, a huge library, computer labs, science laboratories, a pool, a cafeteria and a football field. They even had a beautiful lake in the center of the campus.  It looked like a university in America.

I was a Teacher Counselor at the camp. I taught lessons during the day, and in the evenings I acted as a Camp Counselor for a group of 9 students, along with my PCV Co-Counselor Devyn and a Junior Counselor named Sinoss. Here is a photo of my group, the Bald Eagles.

I taught Biology from 7:30 to 12:00 each day with my PCV co-teachers Kade and Steph. We covered Genetics and Evolution. It was wonderful to be able to teach such small classes. We taught the students in groups of 18, so the teacher:student ratio was 1:6. We were able to provide individual student assistance and answer lots of questions. I also really enjoyed the co-teaching. It was fun to bounce ideas off each other and I received a lot of good ideas and feedback from them. Plus it was nice to have help with passing things out, erasing the chalkboard, and getting prepped for class. I wish I could teach with them all the time.

After lunch the students attended science and computer labs. I assisted in the Biology and Physical Science labs. For Biology the students were given a different ecosystem (dryland, forest or
lakeshore) and asked to come up with a bird that would be adapted for that environment based on the resources available in the habitat. Then they had to present it to the class.  Here is a group presenting their bird for the dryland habitat.

And one of their birds too:

In Physical Science lab the students did a titration.  They added NaOH to an aqueous solution of HCl with phenolphthalein indicator included. Here is one group after completing their titration.  It was only a very light pink-- a perfect titration!

More Camp Sky to come in part two...

Going to Camp

Every year the Malawi Education PCVs organize Camp Sky, a weeklong camp for the Form 4 (12th grade) students to give them an extra boost in English, Mathematics, Biology and Physical Science in preparation for the National exams. Unlike their normal classes, the students selected for this camp will be learning in classes of 20 students, and they will have materials to do lab practicals for the science classes. There are classes during the day, and then group activities like songs, skits and games in the evenings.

Two students from my school were chosen to attend the camp this year! They are both very excited to get to take part. Their selection was based on their JCE scores, their answers to the application questions and a letter of recommendation from their teacher.

The camp is taught by PCVs. I applied to be a teacher and... I was selected! I will be teaching Biology, specifically evolution and genetics. We will have a lab practical involving DNA and we will organize a Forensics activity as well.

The camp is primarily paid for through donations by friends and family of PCVs. We are still short on funds for the camp though. If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation, feel so free!

Here is the link to read about the camp and to make a donation

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=15-614-001

Thanks!

The Circulatory System

We have been covering the Circulatory System in my Form 3 Biology class. Luckily I already covered this during Model School in PST, so I am able to build off those lesson plans.

Biology involves a lot of diagrams. We do have flip chart paper at school, but there isn't very much so I try to use it sparingly. I haven't used any for the blood and blood vessels topics, but I decided I needed one for the heart.

The sky darkened and it started pouring right when I started, then the power went out. But I'm a PCV in Malawi so I don't let a few obstacles like light and power get in my way...

I did two diagrams-- one of blood movement in the body, and the other of the structure of the heart.

Here are a couple of my students using the microscope to look at a cross-section of an artery as part of today's lecture. You can see the other diagram on the wall, and a diagram of a capillary I drew on the board during my lecture.

Tomorrow the heart! We will be covering the chambers of the heart as well as blood movement through the heart. Hopefully we have time for a group activity I have planned too.