St. Brigid Roman Catholic Church
Journal Entry - August 1, 2004
Hello again from Balaka!!!
The house below is the house of the in-laws of my friend, Justin.
Sr. Evelyn and Sr. Annie giving Agogo Makalande Communion on his 92nd birthday.
Below is a photo of a kid selling mice for lunch. (I haven't tasted this yet.)
13 August '04
We are finishing up the mid-term break now in the school. It's kind of strange, because I remember thinking about how far away the break seemed, and then now it is here and gone. I think I've started each of my updates saying how the time flies. Well, time is actually speeding up. Which means my time to go home (December) will be here before I know it. I'm very eager to go home and see my family and friends, but I'm going to be sad to leave here. I continue to meet so many nice people and get to know the friends that I've made even better. At any rate, here's what's been going on since my last update.
One of our students that had me wondering if there was any hope of her learning the material in the beginning has gotten a 1st class pass on the standardized typing exam, which is quite an achievement. Her confidence has come up remarkably and she's really charging in all of the classes and even making helpful recommendations on how things can be taught better. She gave me a guarantee of getting more than a 90% on my Excel final exam and she pretty much got it with an 89%. I think that it's pretty cool. We will see how all of my students do when they take the exam in September.
I was pleased to learn of another one of my students using what she'd learned in our spreadsheets class to create report card for an elementary school where her mom teaches. I thought that it was cool because she recognized the need and did it on her own. Sounds simple, but at times I've really wondered if I'm getting through to them and then this is one of the ways which shows that they are getting it.
We had the Mother General of the Canossian Sisters visit our school this term. She is the superior of all of the more than 3000 Canossians living and working throughout the world. She spent most of her time in meetings with the sisters, but she also met with the teaching staff at the school to get feedback and to emphasize the importance of teaching. She also met with all of the working staff of the school-the guards, the gardeners, the cleaning ladies, and the cooking staff and voiced her appreciation for all that they do to make the teaching ministry possible. She came to the volunteer house for dinner and to talk with us about the volunteer program. She had many nice things to say to us and remarked at how positive the sisters were about the work that we volunteers are doing. I met with her individually for more than an hour to talk about a scholarship program that we are setting up for the poorest students in the area and to discuss different aspects of the school administration. It was cool to have her show such an interest in what I've been working on.
Many people have been very generous in giving donations to the school (about 3/4 of our operating budget last year came from donations.) It seems like the financial needs to benefit all of the students are never ending. However, getting donated funds that have been specifically given to pay for the school fees of the poorest students to those students consists of a lot of work. There are no rich students coming to the school, but some are much better off than others that can pay the fees with little difficulty, while other families really struggle. There are many in the local community that don't even consider coming here because they can't afford the fees. The donated money isn't enough to pay for everyone's school fees, yet it is a significant amount that can make a difference for some girls who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend. I've been working on a way to assess the families to determine who is the poorest so that the money goes to the most needy. The money will be allocated to ensure that once a student starts attending the school on scholarship, that there will be funds available for all 4 years of her education. In order to have more students receive some financial aid, the money will be given as full, half, and quarter scholarships. If you are interested in donating to the scholarship fund or getting involved in fundraising, you can contact me at zafit@sdnp.org.mw (until December '04) or the sisters at bpf@sdnp.org.mw.
We became aware of one student that was coming to school here that we decided to help immediately with the donated funds that we have. She is the oldest of 5 kids and her father is not around. Her mother and grandmother and the children have a farm. She has been riding an old junker of a bicycle 14 km each way to school, even during the rainy season. She broke her leg when she was a little girl and then it wasn't set properly, so now she has a noticeable limp. We are renting a room for her from one of the cleaning ladies. In spite of missing quite a bit of school due to getting sick and the bicycle being broken, she is doing fairly well in her classes, above average in most of them, I think (we're still pulling all of the grades together from last term.)
We held Sports Day here at the school in which there were long distance races and sprints, push-up and pull-up competitions for individuals and then team competitions in netball, volleyball, cheers, obstacle course and tug of war. It was a fun day to get out of the class room and have some fun competitions. I was on a team with 5 students for the obstacle course and tug-of-war and we finished in first place overall. It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed getting the teachers out of the classroom.
I have been opening the science lab on Saturdays for students to come in and play with the electrical circuits, magnets, and magnifying glasses. I also review lessons and homework that they have trouble understanding. I was inspecting how one girl had connected the wires in the electrical circuit and I told her that it was "pretty good." This saying confused a lot of them and they had trouble pronouncing it themselves (at first it sounded like pre-goo, but now their getting it). Now this has become a fun little response when I ask them how they are doing.
Recall that my friend Arty has given a subscription of Time magazine. Well, we got one with an article in it about the planet Venus passing in front of the sun on June 8. I sent copies of the article to all of the secondary schools in Balaka. There was a graphic showing the planet moving from left to right across the sun from a "10 o'clock" position to "3 o'clock." Well, when we were looking at it through some foil wrapping paper here, we saw it move from "4 o'clock to 11 o'clock" throughout the day. I was confused, until I realized that we are standing at a different angle on the earth, in fact almost upside down, compared to the sun, from the main audience of the magazine in the U.S. I thought that it was pretty cool to not only see and think of the relative size and position of the planet in the solar system, but to see that we are indeed living on a big ball.
On the weekends the students in boarding have some extra time to take a break from the studies. They set up dances for themselves and get to watch a video from time to time. One night they put on a fashion show for the teachers and for each other. It was all pretty silly, but they really enjoyed it when one of the teachers would walk across the stage for something and do a little strut or something along the way. So I donned my afro wig and Elvis glasses and paced around the stage as fashionably as I could. They were literally holding their stomachs and falling out of their chairs with laughter. "Science Teachers Gone Wild." It was a lot of fun, to say the least.
I learned that it's bad luck to throw money. They say that whoever throws even the smallest coin will become poor because they don't show respect for money.
One day I went with my friend Justin to visit his village. We caught the first minibus that we could at 6 AM and headed out of town for about an hour. We got off at one of the bus stops on the road and walked for well over an hour into "the bush" as they call it. We waded across a stream and just kept on going. There wasn't any electricity for miles. It seems like everyone came to see us when we arrived. His mother in law assured me that she hadn't been drinking at all that day and then she started into a traditional song and a dance that was very cool to see. They went to such great efforts to welcome me. They took me to meet the grandparents and they were very happy to see me. They made rice because it was a special occasion. His sisters pounded the rice to break open the husk and then his mother winnowed it to get rid of the husks. Then they carefully looked through the rice to remove any remaining husks or rice that wasn't broken open. Definitely not minute rice, but it was excellent. We had boiled eggs with a very tasty tomato sauce to go with it. We also had pan-roasted peanuts and papaya for desert. While we were eating some boys came by to sell us some fresh roasted mice. We already had a full meal, so we passed (had they come earlier.who knows?) I got to taste the homemade beer, which was pretty good, like a heavy "Heffeweisen" beer. It was white and a little gritty, but tasted OK, even a little like beer. They drink it out of a big gourd that is only used for holding the beer. I also saw a still in operation...simple but effective. It was a big clay pot with a smaller pot on top for a lid. There was a straight brass pipe coming out that passed through a hollowed out log that held cold water. All the seams of the still were sealed with a thick red paste made from tree sap. The end of the pipe had a piece of grass stuck in it that allowed the condensed alcohol to run down into a glass bottle. It smelled like tequila, but I didn't taste it. Maybe next time. After we ate lunch and were heading home, the grandmother of his wife (the one who was singing and dancing earlier) invited us into her house and she had put another big meal in front of us. It would have been rude not to eat it. She sat us down, dished out the food, and then left the room. Afterwards we went and sat in the shade and chatted with her and her daughters. We stayed for quite sometime and then we got a late start back. We were given more peanuts and some sweet potatoes to take with us. Since we were running late, my friend went by his friend's house to borrow a bicycle. He had a 4 year old son that was absolutely scared to death of me. He went into such a panic.crying, screaming, shaking, and clinging to his mom. It was funny, yet I felt sorry for the poor kid and stayed away from him. All of the other kids were very happy to see me. Almost every time I looked around I'd see a big group of them staring at me.then they'd get bashful and hide their eyes with a big smile on their face. Justin's little brother, Rickson, took us out to the road where we could catch a ride. That's right, 3 men on a bike going through the African bush. It was a blast and is sure to be one of my many cherished memories of my time here.
I walk pretty much everywhere, rather than taking one of the bikes that are way too small for me and I only rarely get to use the truck. As I go along, I'm always happy to greet people and talk with them with the simple Chichewa that I can pull together. There is a 3 year old boy that comes running and always gives me a big smile and a wave, even when I'm driving by. I was very sorry to hear that this little boy was playing too close to the fire as his mother was cooking something. He fell into the fire and was badly burned across his upper chest, around his back, and on his right arm. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks. I tried to visit him as much as I could during school, but then more frequently over the break, almost every day. He was finally released and was back to his old self at the beginning of this week. The hospital is really striking.so full of people. The men's ward has all of the beds full, as well as people lying under the beds and in the isles. Almost half of the kids staying there have burns. About another third are there with broken legs, which are held in traction using gauze bandages wrapped around the leg and then the other end tied to a brick that hangs from the end of the bed. They are usually in there for a month. I haven't figured out why the others are there. The relatives of the patients have the responsibility of the cooking and feeding for each patient and end up spending a ton of time there. It's like I visit them as much or more than I visit the patients, especially if the kids are lucky enough to be sleeping.
My old friend Agogo Makalande is slowing down. He hardly goes anywhere now because his legs hurt him. He keeps telling me that the end for him his near and that he is ready to go, but then one of the other volunteers pointed out that he's been saying that for at least 18 months now. I've heard that some people are calling him a wizard because he is so old, which indicates fear and a little mistrust. He turned 92 on 8 August with very little fanfare. I stopped by at 1 PM and he was still waiting for his 2 daughters to arrive. I stopped by again at 4:30 and he was wondering what happened to them. He hadn't gotten a letter or message from them. A couple of the sisters came by to see him and bring him Holy Communion while I was visiting with him. (He hasn't been able to walk to the church, but he went for the first time in a long time this week.) Upon learning how old he is, one man said "92 years is no joke!" Certainly not. I know that some people have sent him postcards and letters via the village chief, but to my knowledge, he hasn't received them. It turns out that he is using the school address c/o Canossian Sisters for his return addresses on the letters that he writes, so if you are inclined to write to him, that's a better address.
I went to the Ambassador's house again for 4th of July, but he wasn't there. The ambassador was sent to Iraq as part of the team to set up the American diplomatic relationships there. (The only thing that I've heard of his replacement here in Malawi is that it is a woman.) They still had a nice get together and barbeque. It was fun to go to the party. I saw some of the Peace Corps volunteers that I've met around the country and met some others for the first time. We sang the national anthem and God Bless America. There were lots of kids playing soccer and volleyball. I had a cheeseburger and a huge hotdog. I left early in order to catch the mini-bus back to Balaka. It was a very smooth trip and my timing was excellent because I did very little waiting for the buses.
As my time grows shorter, I guess I'm turning into more of a tourist. I'm trying to take more photos of my friends and things like that. Well, I was looking in the market for a t-shirt with Chichewa words on it.no luck, until one guy tried to sell me a shirt with "Chicago" on the front.it means, "uh, wild animals that live in the desert, that uh, are very fast and mean, but only found in Malawi." I went along with him for a little while, but then I was able to speak enough Chichewa to give him and his friends a good laugh at trying to pull one over on me. I congratulated him on giving a good effort as a salesman.
We've had a couple of more encounters with wildlife here at the school. One day I had just arrived from town to learn that the gardeners had killed "something" in front of the school. They said it was like a "big snake-lizard thing." The students weren't sure of the name of it, even in Chichewa. I think the final verdict was that it was a Monitor Lizard. It was about 5 feet long and probably weighed 25 lbs (~10 kg). It looked like a regular lizard, only jumbo sized. It had a big long forked tongue. Pretty cool, except that they killed it. The other encounter was with a rabbit. At break time I heard someone yelling that they were chasing a rabbit. I thought, big deal. Then when the bell rang for classes to begin, there were about 50 of our students chasing after the rabbit with all of the construction workers, gardeners, and security guards, throwing rocks at it. I thought that it was ridiculous and I tried to get the students to go to class, but they paid no regard until the rabbit was finally tired out and captured. It was quite a site to see all the girls in their uniforms and the secretary students who are all dolled up out their chasing the rabbit and throwing rocks.
My Chichewa continues to improve pang'ono pang'ono (slowly slowly.) I'm am making progress and I'm able to fool some people in passing that I speak it pretty well and they seem to appreciate it. I've been listening to Chichewa on the radio at night and stuff. I don't know if it helps, but it has been cool to have a couple of dreams in which people were speaking Chichewa. In one of them, I was speaking Chichewa, but I'm sure my grammar still wasn't any good. Another sure sign of getting settled is that I had a dream in which I was driving and after I woke up I realized that I had been driving on the left-hand side of the road.
It has been nice to be on the school break. Still lots of work to do with grading exams, but its nice not to have the schedule to stick to. I've been enjoying having some of my friends and their families over for lunch this week. They've been generous with me on a few occasions to have me for lunch and to have me into their house for visits, so I'm happy to be able to return the favor. I've really enjoyed showing them the photo albums that I brought. They really get a kick out of them, especially the ones with me as a little kid.
This week in the parish they have been holding a steady stream of sacraments, with an average number of recipients at around 700. Last Sunday there was a priest from here in Balaka saying his very 1st Mass and almost 700 children receiving their 1st Communion at the same Mass. There was about the same number of Baptisms this week, and many people are getting their traditional weddings blessed tomorrow (including one of our teachers), and some confirmations on Sunday with the Bishop coming. The big numbers represent the Balaka District, which has almost 30 outstations, or smaller churches served by priests from this parish. They bring everyone into town for these big days.
I think that all of that brings you up to date with me here. Please take note of the new e-mail address, zafit@sdnp.org.mw and drop me a line sometime. This new address comes about because we got a telephone in our house, so we got our own volunteer account. The new number from the US is 011 265 1545 735, but the cell phone number still works (011 265 8861 453) and is probably the best to use if you do happen to give me a call. Oh yes, in case you are wondering, zafit is Chichewa-English...za means "things" and fit is fit. It's slang for "it's all good." They also say zagoodu (things are good), zawello (things are going well), zashaap (things are sharp), etc. The phone line is still hit and miss and we are not yet set up with a permanent computer and modem in the house. I'll still get the e-mails and try to reply as soon as I can, but sometimes it takes longer than other times.
