St. Brigid Roman Catholic Church
Journal Entry - May 10, 2004
Hello again from Balaka!!!
Here is a photo of me and some of my friends and another picture of all of the volunteers and with the sister in charge of the volunteers. I'm with Doreen, Mercy, and Seally, my friends that live near Agogo Makalande.
Below is the is whole gang: Gabbi and Sr. Evelyn are in the front row, then Jenny, Katie, Justyna, and me in the back row.
01 May '04
Well hello! Long time, no update! Sorry about that, but the time's flying and there have been lots of things taking my attention.so here's what's been going on.
We've started the 2nd term of the school year after the Easter break. We have Form 1 and Form 2 (9th and 10th grade), 1st and 2nd year secretary, and 2nd year accounting classes going in the school. The number of students that we had on campus has doubled compared to last year. There are about 60 students boarding in the hostel. We've also added 4 Malawian teachers to the faculty who are working out great! They're carrying a big work load and bring a lot of energy to the school and everyone is happy to have them here. The rapid growth is expected to continue until we max out at about 400 students in secondary and 80 in the technical college, with 120 in the boarding.
Last year, 20 out of 67 students failed to get greater than 35% in more than 5 of their classes (a very low bar) and were not promoted into Form 2. Only 4 of those students decided to come back to school here and attend Form 1. Three of the students who failed are now ranked 12, 18 and 34 out of 55 students this year, even though we implemented a more stringent entrance exam to make sure that they are more likely to pass. This is a big change in their effort in school and in their performance and it looks like they are heading in a very different direction than last year.
I am teaching Form 1 Physical Science, which is my only repeat from last year. I feel like I've been doing a much better job the second time around and that feels good. Other classes include Excel for the 2nd year college students and a separate class for the teachers on Saturdays. I have also been teaching a review of the business math class for the accounting students who will be taking their qualification exams in June. This 2nd term I continue my previous classes and add 2 MS Word classes, so the heat gets turned up a couple of notches.
During my "free time" on weekday evenings I have Chichewa lessons twice a week and the other nights I monitor study hall for the hostel students to answer their questions. I really enjoy this time with the students because it isn't a formal class room and the students are there because they want to study and they ask more questions than during class. It's the best opportunity to get the 1 on 1 interaction and to see their progress over the term.
I really need to pass along a great big THANK YOU! to St. Brigid's parish, who collected and processed donations for our school and worked around several big difficulties in order to get the funds to us. (And of course, THANKS to the donors themselves!) It is clear that many people have made very significant sacrifices in order to help our school, and others have put forth significant fund raising efforts, like the 3-on-3 basketball tournament last year that was put on by the Saturday morning hoops gang.
As soon as this check arrived, the mother superior made some calls to get a hand-pump well installed. Within 2 weeks of getting the hand pump installed, we had lightning strike our transformer, which also fried our electric water pump. We were without power for 3 weeks and we would have had to close the hostel and school without the water. So the timing was excellent! The main priority for the money is to figure out how to set up a scholarship program to benefit the students in the local community who can't afford to the school fees. Everyone tells us that they can't afford the fees and it has been noted that the really, really poor people don't even think to ask for money for school fees. So we are trying to work out a plan for local groups to nominate suitable candidates for the tuition wavers and scholarships, then do some sort of assessment, and then get more of the local poor students into our school. There is still a lot of investigation to do on this to make it effective. Anyway, we are very grateful to the generosity given to our school.
We were without power for 3 weeks, but we were preparing to be without for an unknown amount of time, maybe up to a few months. When they came to fix the transformer after the lightning strike, they found that thieves had drained all of the oil out of the transformer, so it was unable to be repaired. This has been a regular occurrence all over Malawi, which is why there were no other transformers or oil available within Malawi when ours went out. It is estimated that they get $40 worth of oil and cause about $40,000 worth of damage. Some other sections of town had been without power for over 6 months, so we were settling in for the long haul. A lot of strings were pulled and we got more good timing to have a new shipment of transformers arrive and have our school be put near the top of the list. Even here in Africa, we find that we take power and water for granted, only to be reminded how much everything slows down without either of them.
Life hasn't been all work...there were some Italian volunteers that came to work at the mission on the other side of town, upgrading the computer center there. They took a break from their work over Christmas and invited us on a road trip up through Malawi along the lake. It was a fun adventure to have over the holidays before school started again. I also got to play some tough 1 on 1 hoops with Pietro. He's just a tad shorter than me and has played some semi-pro hoops in Italy. We finished tied up at 1 game apiece and then we played with some of the local talent. It was really good to get back out on the court again. Just recently Jenny was looking through some old photos of when we first arrived in Malawi and you can see Pietro coming down the stairs of the plane at the same time as Jenny & Justyna. We didn't meet until a year later. It was fun to notice the coincidence.
My sister Margaret paid a visit over Easter. We went all over Malawi. We stayed in a few of the game parks, went on a few safaris, and stayed in really nice hotels with lots of great food. It was a first class trip the whole way and we didn't have any problems, except a bridge getting washed out that added about 200 km of driving to one day. My favorite part of the trip was taking her around Balaka and introducing her to some of my friends. They were so welcoming and took us right into their homes and plopped babies right down on her lap. Others saw us again on our way out of town about a week later and came to wish her well on her journey. You couldn't ask for a better welcome for her.
One of my little friends, Mercy, learned a new version of patty cake from Margaret. She's just starting to have her two front teeth grow back in, but she looks like she's only 3 or 4 years old. I walk by their house on my way home from visiting my old friend Agogo Makalande. She always comes running out to greet me and then waves and shouts good-bye until I disappear down the trail, about 200 yards away. I was walking home on a rainy day and I didn't hear her saying good-bye for long because of the rain hitting my umbrella. When I got to the last place where I can turn and see the kids waving I had a thought that I should turn around, but I didn't think that she would be there standing in the rain all of that time. But sure enough, there she was, waving to me all by herself there in the rain. It was such a sight. I don't think that I will ever forget that image. One of my sister's comments was that it's going to be very hard for me to leave this place, and I'm sure that she's right.
There are so many little things that I enjoy. One day I got caught in a heavy downpour and I ducked under the awning of a building. While waiting it out, I let some little kids hold my umbrella. Well, you should have seen their delight in standing out in the rain under the umbrella with out getting wet. Umbrellas are pretty common here, but I guess these kids didn't have the opportunity to use one in the heavy rain. On a side note, I've also seen people walking down the road using big banana leaves for shelter.
We had the fan in one of the PC's stop working. Upon closer inspection by Pietro, the computer expert, it turned out that a little lizard was running around in there and had caused the fan to jam. Not a "bug" nor a gremlin, but a lizard!
The roof of the school is made of green sheet metal. Naturally, there were a lot of scraps when building a big complex. A cool surprise was finding that one of the guards is a tinsmith and he made a whole selection of pots and pans and pales out of the green sheet metal scraps. They all looked great and it was a great use of the scraps.
I picked up on a beauty secret from the girls in the hostel. It turns out that brake fluid is good for clearing up some kind of blemish on their faces. I know what that stuff does to paint, but the girls said that it's good for their complexion and that it is safe because it's been used like that for a long time. Not FDA approval, but I guess they know more about it than I do.
I've started taking bicycle taxis around town when I'm in a big hurry. It's about 10 or 15 cents per kilometer and the drivers are always thankful to have the business. It's a handy way to travel, as well as a novelty. I even used one on the last leg of my trip to the airport to meet my sister, after a couple of legs of mini-bus rides.
My Chichewa is still coming along slowly. I've had more occasions to use it and I'm finding that I'm much more comfortable running around town and chatting with people in the market. That makes it a lot more fun and productive.
My good friend Agogo Makalande is still plugging along at 92. He can't walk very far because he says he "walks like he's drunk." He's very upbeat about life and I really enjoy visiting him whenever I can. The neighbor kids always come running to greet me and then we go over together to see him. If you would like to write a letter to my friend and wish him well, you can write to him at the following address. He would be really excited to hear from people on the other side of the world, but I doubt that he will be able to write back to you.
Agogo Alexander Makalande
c/o Village Headman
Mphonda Village
Balaka, Malawi
or c/o Canossian Sisters
P.O. Box 312
Balaka, Malawi
I've become friends with another young man that lives right next to Agogo. He is about 25 years old and has a little girl named Kumbukani, which means memory. He works nights as a security guard at the development site for a new market and bus depot. He specifically asked me if I could get a "pen friend" for him, so I told him that I would ask if any of my friends would like to have a pen friend. He's a really nice guy and he would be thrilled as well to hear from someone in America. He is very likely to respond with requests for money, but you wouldn't have to send him any, just write to him and share interests in life. If you can spare a little money, then he'll greatly appreciate it and you'll probably find that you get a bunch of new pen friends very soon after that. His address is:
Justin Mulodzeni
Nsanza F.P. School
P.A. Bwanje
Ntcheu, Malawi
Malawi has their big elections on May 18th. I'm not going to go into the politics, but the electoral commission reported that they have 6.5 million voters registered for the upcoming elections, but the problem is that the last census information indicates that there are only 5.5 million people eligible to vote in the country. I don't know how they can justify still holding the elections, but it looks like they're going ahead with it.
We've started making our flight arrangements for going home. We are going to be leaving for Rome in early December for a retreat and then we'll be heading our separate ways. I'm going to try to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Ireland and England before going back. I expect to get to San Diego in mid-December and then go to my parents' place for Christmas.
We've heard from a couple of potential volunteers who may be coming to Balaka next year with the VOICA program. It is exciting to hear of them and to think about what an exciting time this is for them at this stage of their adventure. We are likely to meet them in passing and that will be fun.
Well, that's it for now. Thank you for checking in on what I've been up to. I've been surprised so often with notes, cards, and letters from home and I really appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. Thank you! Time is getting pretty short and I look forward to getting back together with everyone when I return.
