Tima

Hello! I’m desperately trying to upload some photos for you all. This server is just plugging along.

In the meantime, I’ll tell you some good news. At the start of last year, we were sponsoring a girl named Tima. She became pregnant and was kicked out of school. We tried to advocate on her behalf, but the school was adamant that she stay away for one year, as punishment for becoming pregnant. (The father, of course, had no such punishment.) We thought this was the end of Tima’s schooling.

We were surprised last week when Tima found us and said that she was ready to return to school. Her relatives will care for the baby during the day while she is at school. We always knew Tima was very strong-willed, but still we are surprised at her ability to overcome culture and ideas about mothers, and do what she feels is best for her and her baby. We are happy to support her during this time.

Well, it looks like the server is unwilling. And the internet place is just about ready to lock up for the day. I promise photos are coming. It’s just a matter of when.

Tsalani bwino. Stay well!

Moving Right Along

Sorry for the lack of photos. The server is moving incredibly slowly, AND this internet joint is run by Italians who have all of their websites set to read in Italian. It's possible that I pushed the wrong buttons to upload my photos... I'll try again soon. In the meantime, here's what we've been up to:

Life here in Malawi is good. We moved into a new Volunteer House about a week ago. We enjoy being closer to town and the market etc. We were hoping our new home would be rat-free, but Dustin learned the hard way that it isn’t.

Our new house is much closer to our partner Margaret’s home. This means we can finally have her and other friends over for dinner. (Living on the other side of town made it impossible to entertain, as Malawians don’t like walking much at night – due to crime and witchcraft.) Margaret came over the other night and we showed her a video we made of Portland. She enjoyed seeing the sights.

Program-wise things are going well. The kids are loving the new library books we brought. There is one book in particular that features lively drawings of African animals, which just drives the kids wild. As our staff has recognized more of the children’s needs, the youth centre has shifted from being just about themes and creative learning activities, to all sorts of educational activities. Kids are learning to write their names and read in both Chichewa and English. They are practicing conversational English and gaining new confidence in the language. (This is important here as secondary school is conducted almost entirely in English).

We’ve had some parent meetings, and are happy to have so much community support for the youth centre. Parents have raved about how much more kids are learning through our program than even through the schools. (Though we appreciate the compliment, it’s frightening how poor the schools are.) We discussed with them some of the challenges of the educational system and the types of skills they desire to see their children possess. Some of their complaints about primary school? Large class sizes. Kids just play the whole time. Teachers who don’t care. Teachers who don’t show up or show up drunk. Poor teaching of math and language studies. And a lack of focus on trade skills.

We are working closely with our staff to incorporate parents' requests into our lessons and activities. One grandmother approached us about our library and how she wanted her children to be able to check books out. Thus, Dustin has been training our youth leader Grace to be a volunteer librarian. She in turn is training the students on proper book handling, rules etc. We're very proud about this new development! Our first pilot group of book borrowers begins this week.

That's all for now. We'll try to write more soon. Take care.