Reading at Mbame primary school

Earlier in the week we read to the children at Mbame school.

Similar to what I did last year, we get the children into groups and they sit with one of the volunteers. Then the children go up to the book shelves and choose a book that they would like to read.

In their groups they read their books out loud page by page in English and the volunteers help the children out where they need to.

Colours (Chichewa)

Black - Kuda
Grey - Gray
Yellow - Chikasu
Orange - Ndimwi
Brown - Brown
White - Yera
Blue - Kamtambo
Green - Abiriwiri
Purple - Purple

Days of the week (Chichewa)

Days of the week:

Monday - Lolemba
Tuesday - Lachiwiri
Wednesday - Lachitatu
Thursday - Lachinayi
Friday - Lachisanu
Saturday - Loweluka
Sunday - Lamulungu

Day 8 chichewa

Today's focus is classroom chichewa:

Mathematics - Masamu
English - Chingerezi
Classroom - M'kalasi
Library - Lowerenga
Book - Buku
Books - Mabuku
Student - Whophunzira
Students - Ophunzira
Photograph - Chithunzi
Photographs - Zithunzi

Reading at Mbame

As for most of us, it is the school holidays so you typically wouldn't expect the average child to come to school. In Malawi, this is not the case. Most children come to school as Phala is present. Phala is a fortified  mixture of maize, soya and sugar perfect for growing children. This meal is provided if a child attends school therefore many kids arrive for this meal, which essentially could be their only meal of the day.
After this, I engaged the children in some reading. So I selected a selection of books and sat down to read with the kids.
They enjoyed listening and engaging my terrible animal voices! But I felt a huge sense of accomplishment  in making these kids smile and happy!
Alongside this other activities I participated in whilst we were at Mbame were, checking functioning of boreholes, teaching IT, Playing and Cooking. I could write a book or two of my few days in Malawi so far it's been that amazing!

Boreholes

Boreholes are an integral part of life in Malawi and are often the primary water supply for a village. Maintaining and testing boreholes in the local area is a major focus of Fisherman's Rest. A broken borehole often means that people will have to walk (up to several miles) to the next village along just to  get some water to drink - something that we take for granted at home. 

The past 2 days, while at Mbame School, have been used to send small groups cycling to boreholes in the surrounding areas to check their status - whether they are working, how well they are working and if not, why not?

Tracey, Liz, Hannah and Olivia ready to set off!

The boreholes are tested by counting how many strokes are required to fill a 20L bucket - between 55 and 70 strokes is about average, anything other that and there is usually a problem with the borehole. 

David and Becky Pumping the Borehole

Of the 16 boreholes that we managed to survey over two days, 13 were fully functioning, two were functioning but have issues and one is out of action. 

 

 A Borehole with a Broken Seal 

David and Stevie with the Broken Borehole at St Vincent

Money is raised by the local community to pay to repair broken boreholes - this often costs as little as £10.

It's all very well providing villages with boreholes and helping to maintain them, but the quality of water being pumped from these boreholes is something that may not be considered. There is the potential for contamination of ground water and the presence of pathogens is something that needs to be identified. Over the coming weeks I will post about a water monitoring project that we plan to focus on.   

World happiness

The children in Malawi are so happy, often I speak about my time in Malawi of the 2014 summer and nobody quite believes me about just how happy the children are there. Their desire to learn is something I have never come across before, something I often find frustrating with the UK education system.

I believe, if the world could have their happiness, then the world be a considerably better place, at worst it would be a nicer place to live; something to think about.

Chadzunda produce market

In light of the girls making their amazing salad last night for dinner, we decided to go back and buy more vegetables for another amazing salad.

Malawi markets are amazing, filled with beautiful materials, fresh veg, little hardware stores amongst hundreds of other stalls selling their local delights.

Chipembere

This historic tree, located on the school grounds at Mbame primary school, is said to have been the resting place of the late Dr David Livingstone.

- Livingstone played a vital role in the abolition of slavery in Malawi and trees like his one are national treasures.

- On this important site, a church has been built next to the ground where the tree stands proud, to remember the work of the great Dr David Livingstone

Day 5 chichewa

Today we learnt about people, and how to address people in first, second and third person:

I or me - Ine
You - Iwe
Them - Iwo
Us - Ife
We- Tikupita
Father - Bambo
Mother - Amayi
Girl  - Ntsikana
Boy - Mnyamata
Person - Munthu
My friend - Mzanga
Kids - Ana
Child - Mwana
People - Anthu

Dietician delight

The girls holding the their homemade English salad in true Malawi fashion after teaching the kitchen staff new salad recipes

Liz, Hannah, Maimoona, Hina (left to right respectively)

Donations

Donations have  been a huge part of the work that we've been able to do and will continue to do during our time in Malawi. 

A thank you to Dan who provided me with lots of kit for the water monitoring project that I will be beginning next week. 

Thank you to my mother for donating some Surgihoney, which will be given to a local clinic and the first aid kits that we'll use while we're here. The first aid kits will also be donated to local clinics when we leave. 

Finally, a huge thank you to all of those at the Sunday School at High Street Baptist Church who raised £50 that will be used to repair boreholes and to buy long-sleeved tops for children with albinism. 

Fisherman's Rest

Fisherman's Rest is a family run lodge that works within it's local community to improve the lives of local people through the huge range of projects they run, including Project My Girl. 

It is also the beautiful setting that we are fortunate enough to be staying at during most of our time here in Malawi. The lodge is set in a 50 acre nature reserve, home to a range of animals.

The Main Lodge

The Communal Area

The Tea Rooms 

Fisherman's Rest has a range of accommodation from the lodge to the team rooms and A-frame huts, as well as it's newly built village, deep in the nature reserve. 

The Incredible View of the Shire Valley From FR

For more information on Fisherman's Rest and the opportunities and projects that they provide, check out their website: http://www.fishermansrest.net/site/

Mbame primary school

Today we all visited our second school of the week; Mbame primary school.

We started our library project here today, which consists of indexing and recording 1700 individual books and cross matching them with the pre-existing database.

The point of this project is so Fisherman's Rest can link all of the nearby schools together on one massive library database, making it easier to link all nearby schools with appropriate books and giving some standardisation to all of the school libraries.

All of these things will eventually prove beneficial for the local children when it comes down to their education, because having a solid school library will aid the learning and development of these children.

Day 4 - animal chichewa

Another morning with Team DASH learning Chichewa, the native language of the Chew tribe.

One of today's language topics was learning the popular animals (nyama) in Malawi:

Lion - mkango
Zebra - mbidzi
Crocodile - ng'ona
Dog - galu
Bird - mbalame
Snake - njoka
Lizard - buluzi
Elephant - njobvu
Buffalo - njati
Hippopotamus - mvuwu
Cat - mphaka
Chicken - nkhuku
Frog - Chule
Spider - kangaude