Tough Decisions

This post is long over due. I want to tell you all about the school where I am teaching and living.

I have been teaching at Khwawa CDSS since the beginning of September. This week will mark the 9th week of classes for the 14 week term (2 of which are for exams at the end).

There are three types of government secondary schools in Malawi. To be selected to such a school, students take an exam in Standard 8 (8th grade). Only the top third of students are selected to secondary schools. Of that top 33%, the students are sent to either a National Boarding School, a District Boarding School, and a Community Day Secondary School. Most students are enrolled in a CDSS and it is the cheapest option for students.

Once students are in secondary school, there are two big exams that they have to take. The first is called the JCE (Junior Certificate Exam) and is administered at the end form 2 (the second year). This exam is to see how the students are progressing. The exam is pass/fail and it must be passed to continue in school. The second exam is the MSCE (Malawi Senior Certificate Exam) and is taken at the end of form 4 (4th year). This is the exam that will determine if students can attend university, a trade school, or even get a job.

At our CDSS I am teaching 4 different courses with 23 periods a week. I teach mathematics for form 1, 2, and 3 and Physical Science for form 1. Form 1 and 2 have about 50 students each and form 3 has about 25.   There are nine periods throughout the day starting at 7 am and ending at 1:20 pm. The students stay in their classrooms divided by form and the teachers rotate through the classes.

I'm also the Form Mistress for form 1...which means I'm basically the class teacher. I take their attendance each day and monitor behavior. I'm also in charge of registering each student, knowing their information, and assisting with bursary support if they receive it.

A few weeks into the semester, our headmaster, Mr. Kamwambi came to our staff meeting with information about a new government bursary (scholarships) that is being piloted for form 1 students. As the head teacher I was asked to assist the bursary committee with interviewing the students. About 20 students were noted as being the neediest of their peers and it was my job, along with one of the Malawian teachers, to help them fill out the application. The application was three pages long and full of questions to help the government gauge the neediness of the student. Here are a few of the questions:

• Does your family own any cows? goats? pigs? chickens?
• What is the roof of your house made of? (thatch, metal, tiles)
• What are the outer walls of your house made of? (burnt bricks, unburnt bricks, mud and sticks)
• Is your mother living?
• Is your father living?
• Who takes care of you?
• Does your household own a bicycle? radio? cell phone?
• How many children in your household are attending primary school? secondary school?

After listening to the heart-breaking answers of my students, many of whom I learned are orphans, it was then my job to rank each students by their level of neediness. How was I supposed to do that? How was I supposed to rank my students based on their neediness when ALL of them, including those who weren't interviewed, should be ranked number 1. How could I choose? 

Thankfully, Sami was there to help me. Ranking my students based on their applications was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do this term. It just didn't seem fair to me that I had to rank a person lower because maybe only one of their parents is dead, compared to two; or maybe they have burnt brick walls, where one of their peers is living with walls made of mud and sticks.

This process forced me to really open my eyes to the poverty my students live in every day of their lives. It forced me to understand the lives my students have outside my classroom and the reality they face when they leave the school grounds. Where do they get food? How far do they walk for water? Who is taking care of them?

Nyika and Vwaza

This past weekend Sami and I were invited, along with our neighbor Aaron, to go on a safari with a few other volunteers in the area. How could we pass that up??

There are four Aussie volunteers north of us at two different schools. In addition, there is also a Canadian volunteer here with Determined to Develop for a few months. Two of the Australians have a student whose father works for the National Park Service in Malawi. He offered to take them on a trip for free for up to ten people. All they had to do was split the cost of the gas for the hired car he would get us. As far as the food, all we had to do was bring the supplies and the staff would cook it for us. Score!!

On Friday afternoon, Aaron, Sami, and I packed our bags and set off for the stage at Khwawa. The stage is the bus stop just down the hill from our houses. It's where we pick up public transport or sometimes Matt will pick us up on his way to Maji Zuwa. We were picked up in a safari truck by the 4 Aussies, a Canadian, our guide (who was in posession of a rather large gun), and our driver. It was a 6 hour drive to Nyika National Park and most of it was on bumpy dirt roads. Nyika is the largest park in Malawi and it was also the first. The locals call is the Scotland of Malawi because of the rolling hills and frigid temperatures at night. We arrived late Friday night and stayed in the camping hostel that the park operates.

Saturday morning was safari time! We ate a quick breakfast of instant milk with corn flakes, and bread and peanut butter and headed out in the truck. We trekked through the park for hours and saw tons of wildlife. We saw antelope, zebras, warthogs, giant things with horns that looked like giant deer, and some awesome looking birds. Not only does Nyika have beautiful wildlife, but the scenery is gorgeous as well. In the park is the second largest peak in Malawi and a few protected Juniper Forests. Apparently Tolkien traveled through the area and based some of the settings in the Lord of the Rings books after the landscape of this park and the Zomba Plateau in southern Malawi. Our guide also showed us the fancy cabins and lodges in the parks that I'm sure a lot of international tourists stay in...not a volunteer's budget!

The next morning, Sunday, we packed up our hostel and headed out of Nyika in search of more traditional animals that you think of finding in Africa. Our guide was nice enough to get us into Vwaza Wildlife Reserve and inside the park we also picked up another guide and a random Peace Corps Volunteer who happened to be there that day as well. His name was Stony and he is stationed at the Reserve as part of his service. Inside Vwaza is a giant watering hole, reminiscent of The Lion King scene when Pumba recalls his traumatic experiences there. In fact, we talked a lot about the Lion King on our trip. How could you go on a safari and not sing every song? Anyway, back to Vwaza. Our first animal we met was a herd of elephants. They were heading back from the watering hole and we caught them just in time. The mother of the herd got a little territorial so we had to drive away, luckily enough we ran into a few more herds along the way. Once we finally got to the watering hole, there were TONS of hippos. Get it? Tons? Anyway, they were awesome. It was kind of surreal to see the elephants and hippos. They are such massive creatures and something you only see in movies or on TV. Also at the lake were some impalas and Kudu.

We had an awesome safari and I can't wait to hopefully do it again soon. Sami and I plan to travel to southern Malawi after our term ends in early December. We're hoping to hit up the Zomba Plateau and Liwonde National Park.

I'm headed to Livingstonia this weekend. Sami and I are hiking with a guide starting at our house in Khwawa. It should be about a five hour hike. On Sunday I will be attempting to skype with my church in Farmersville for World Communion Day. Hopefully I will be able write a few more posts on Saturday.