The term started kind of rough. It took me a while to get my footing but once I got my balance I could feel improvement with each passing week. I had been taught to be a teacher in the 21st century. Yet I found myself in a dirt floor classroom with open air windows and the occasional chicken pecking at the ground. I had learned to be a teacher in a place where SmartBoards hang on walls and sets of calculators sit on shelves. The adjustment hasn't been easy, and is no way near complete, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it.
There are days here where I've felt like I've lived in Malawi my whole life. I don't embarrass myself greeting anyone in Tumbuka and my lessons go as planned. These are usually the days when I can catch a minibus to the market within 5 minutes without being crammed into the person next to me or a student offers to fill our water buckets at the bore hole. I would say the best example of a day like this was when I taught my first lesson under a mango tree. My form 2 class struggled with behavior at the beginning of the term. They are a tough bunch but after a few weeks it had improved. To reward them I decided to have a little fun (and by fun, I mean 'math teacher fun') and hold class outside. It was a beautiful day and I could tell the kids were getting a little stir crazy. I gathered them all under the mango tree and we did this lesson. It was a hit! Everyone loved it and I could tell they had improved their skills of reducing fractions and adding positive and negative numbers. Who wouldn't have fun when solving tangled ropes with math? It felt completely natural to be teaching outside, using only a chalk-board and rope as my materials. It was a day in Khwawa that I will not soon forget.
Conversely, I also have days where I wonder what I'm doing here. These are the days when I'm over charged for tomatoes at the market or the minibus fare from my village because I'm a mzungu (white person) or the days when I find children in my garbage pit combing through rotten food and empty boxes in their bare feet. I have days where I walk into class and after 20 minutes of struggle I realize students aren't paying attention to constructing a parallelogram because only 4 out of 50 of the kids have a straight edge, compass, or protractor.
But what is life without the bad days to make you truly appreciate all the happy times? Overall, my first term at Khwawa was pretty amazing. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunities I've had so far and I'm looking forward to the next two terms!
