I am SO crap at blogging! Can't believe it's August already and my last blog was April!
I'm ignoring the fact that we've had May and June and going straight into a photo diary of July, it's been such a hectic month I've kind of forgotten anything that went before.
July started with an open day at one of the schools in my district, Biwi primary school. The idea is to raise awareness of the project and gives a chance for the learners to show off their achievements. Lots of singing and dancing, drama and demonstration sessions in the learning centre.
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| Standard 7 learners performance - I don't know what they were singing but it looked good! |
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| Yesani (our project manager) doing a great job of thanking everyone and generally selling the project |
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| Standard 2 learners demonstrating a oneclass session with cardboard ipads and headsets |
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| Sithembile, the fantastic learning centre coordinator, demonstrating a real oneclass session for the parents |
A great way to start the month followed by a few days of routine school monitoring, office stuff and a little bit of chitenje shopping in the market with the engineers.
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| Mama Africa! Modelling my new chitenje |
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| Posing with Sophie and Danielle (project engineers) in my back garden |
Then on the road to the south to train lecturers at Blantyre Teacher training College and hold an awareness meeting in Liwonde. We are training lecturers at 5 TTCs so that they can train their student teachers before they go on teaching practice. Blantyre was my first lecturer training.
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| Going through Ncheu on the way to Blantyre. This road forms the border to Mozambique, on the left Malawi, on the right Mozambique! This is cool for someone who comes from a country of no land borders. |
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| I think this is the school where we did the training, I'm not totally sure but if it wasn't it would have been very much like this! You can see the learning centre on the left under the tree. |
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| Group photo of all the lecturers and Yesani in the learning centre |
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| It was a five hour drive to Blantyre and then we went straight into training so I was very happy when we got to the place we were staying and this was my room. What an awesome bed!! |
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| We have had a few problems with security so the next morning we went round all the Unlocking Talent schools in Blantyre to deliver alarm locks for the cabinets. This is Yesani demonstrating how they work, they sound a bit like a rape alarm, quite loud. |
After completing the training in the afternoon we left Blantyre the next day for Liwonde. 17 iPads were stolen from one of the schools in Liwonde which was a blow to the project because previously theft had only been solar panels or batteries. If stolen iPads could be unlocked and sold on we would have a big security problem so we wanted to do everything we could to recover them. Someone must have known something about the theft so we were holding an awareness meeting with all the important members of the community to encourage them to support us. I say 'we', awareness meetings are held in Chichewa so basically Yesani does all the work and I just sit there and smile like a numpty - I'm good at that!
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| The reception committee at Liwonde school - I got told off for attracting too much attention - that's what you get for traveling with a mzungu! |
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| Liwonde town, this photo got taken because Regina and I spent a long time sat outside the bank looking at this view waiting to be rescued because the car wouldn't start! That's another story! |
Back home for a few days, long enough to see a football match (I did take photos but they weren't good), drink a few Kuche Kuches with Sean (nobody wants to see photos of that) and then off again. This time north with Chisomo (very clever technical person of the project) to Karonga for more lecturer training for me and technical training of learning centre coordinators and government people for him.
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| Karonga TTC lecturers observing a oneclass session in action |
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| Happy to be finished, time for a little photo shoot on the beach |
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| Such a poser! |
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| Even bigger poser! |
The journey from Karonga to Lilongwe is a long one, about 8 hours drive (car - bus much longer) but if you set out on a shopping tour of Malawi it can be even longer. It took us 12 hours to get back on the scenic route, arriving with rice, charcoal, fish, tomatoes all from the best places to buy them, so I'm told. Needless to say I didn't buy anything but it was a lot of fun with my very own personal tour guide!
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| The view driving up from Karonga on the coast through the mountains |
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| Chisomo buying charcoal by the side of the road. Mats of maize drying in the sun, I asked Chisomo what the gravel was for and he looked at me like I'd lost the plot and said that's maize! |
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| Further along the road I think this is where we stopped to give someone some shoes - like you do! |
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| Near Salima, getting dark by now but we have to get some fish. This photo is a bit crap because I was trying to be inconspicuous! You can't get a good price for fish if you have a mzungu in the car - my bad again ;) |
Back in Lilongwe Saturday night in time for Sophie's pie day on Sunday. I really should have taken pie photos but I didn't. It was a special treat for all those from the UK who are quite partial to pie and don't have an oven, very much appreciated.
Back to work on Monday and time to pay some attention to my own district. First with a district steering committee and then lecturer training at Lilongwe teacher training college.
The district steering committee is made up of learning centre coordinators, Head teachers, PEAs (Primary Education Advisors), someone from the district council and the DEM (District Education Manager). The purpose is to encourage ownership of the project by the schools, district education office and ultimately the Ministry of Education.
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| One of the head teachers presenting the outcome of a group discussion on challenges and solutions in Lilongwe Urban. |
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| A rare photo of me doing some work! Training the Lilongwe TTC lecturers, Miriam is the other volunteer in the centre and the other Mzungu on the left is a German spy!!!! |
Ha ha obviously she is not really a spy but she was a bit odd, she's a volunteer from GIZ who is based in the TTC and wanted to see what the training was all about.
To finish up the month of July we have a little bit of Lilongwe nightlife, out with the young people (and Mike!) not acting my age at all - well there's a surprise ;)
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| Group selfie of course, from left, Mike, Sophie and Matt |
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| Great live music |
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| And we started the month with some dancing so why not finish with some! |
Well that was a mammoth mission! Hope that covers me for a while!
Thanks for reading and lots of love to everyone xxx
