Mice on a Stick

Aside from the fact that we are still missing our bag, we are settling in very well to life in Malawi. We have two housemates from Spain, Pedro and Alvero. I do no think that we could have asked for two nicer people. Since our last entry we have experienced many different things in our neighborhood. Yesterday, Thursday was market day, which takes place in front of Chezi. We were in the thick of it. We were expecting a market of only locally grown and cooked food items as well as some basic materials, but it was huge and there was quite the variety, including some canal street fakes and boiled mice on a stick.

Yesterday we spent the whole day at the school observing classes in preparation for teaching and the kids know their stuff. We were really impressed with their level of knowledge, despite the difficult conditions. St. Matthias, the public school we will be teaching at is one of the nicest and best funded schools in the area and even still it is grossly shorthanded and supplies are hard to come by. Some of the kids were using only scrap paper and or small chalkboard to write on and many of them were shivering because it was so cold.

At the break I was asked to help hand out the porridge that they provide daily for all of the students. This is a feeding program funded by a Scottish NGO and is a big draw for many of the students. I was standing over the hugest pot you have ever seen pouring the food into the children’s cups while the men just stood by and watched, because Malawian men rarely participate in household chores including cooking.

Today was Independence Day in Malawi, a National holiday celebrating 23 years of independence. There was no celebration so we spent all morning playing with the toddlers and infants. It was fun, but communication is forever a problem. Also, the caregivers are not particularly motivated or involved. To a certain extent it is a cultural thing, once children are finished breast-feeding the older sibling looks after the child, not the mother. In general children are left to their own devices and we have seen many young children off on their own lighting cornhusks on fire to keep warm on the cold mornings.