I Hope You're Sitting Down

I've got a big announcement for all of you!

I have decided to stay in Malawi a little longer than previously planned. And by a little longer I mean an entire year longer. Khwawa will be my home until August of 2014.

The Malawian secondary school curriculum is set into two halves, each half taking two years. By staying another year, I'm able to take my Form 1 class through their Junior Certificate Exam (JCE). The JCE is the pass/fail exam all students take at the end of their second year. If passed, students move on, if not passed, students either stop going to school or return and redo form 2 at an open or night school. I will also be able to take my Form 3 class through to their Malawi School Certificate Exam (MSCE). The MSCE is scored like golf, the lower the score the better you did on the exam. This score stays with a person their entire career and determines if they can be considered for university for a certificate or degree program. It also determines what kind of job they can get. I'm really excited about this opportunity and I'm interested to be able to see the passing rates of the math section over the next year and a half.

It wasn't easy to make this decision and I went back and forth several times. I miss my family every single day and I'm anxious to be doing the things my peers are doing, like getting big person jobs and starting their careers. It's important that I stay focused on what I'm doing and how this experience is improving my chance at greater things in the future. With that being said, I obviously don't hate it here. I love being in Malawi. It's not all sunshine and rainbows but the good outweighs the bad and that's all I really want. I love walking back from the form 1 classroom and being able to see the lake and Chitimba Point in the background of the school. I hate riding on minibuses but the view is always amazing. I have met a lot of really great people here, Malawians and expats alike, who make it a lot easier to be so far from home.  Life is good.

I'm also incredibly thankful to also be announcing that I will be coming home for a visit at the end of the summer. I will be in America for about a month from July 27th to August 29th. I'm hoping to hit the ground running to be able to see everyone at home and hopefully even a trip to Kent.

Can't wait to see you all! Keep coming back for more updates. I have a few posts in the works and I hope to have those up soon!.

In which I have a freak out about Grad School.

I'm a planner. I have been and always will be.

I came to Malawi with a definite plan for my future but the longer I'm here the more it's changing and it's been driving me nuts! My plan for life after Malawi was simple and involved getting a teaching position when I returned....and that's about it. Come back to America. Teach math. Be happy. Sounds good, right? I think so too. 

But now that I'm here my eyes are starting to open to a few different paths. Every time I'm able to have internet and electricity for a long amount of time I end up researching different grad programs at outrageously fancy schools to which I'm sure I'll never be accepted. I even think I might have to take the GRE! Boo! I lay awake at night thinking about where I want to live, where I want to go to school, and what I want to study. Of course the things at the top of my list to study are Math Education and possibly Curriculum and Leadership  but I'm also looking at a few programs designed for International Education Development. There are a few grad students coming to my area of Malawi this summer to do some work from Teacher's College at Columbia and I'm very excited to pick their brains about their program and life at TC. Do I really see myself living in Manhattan? Or maybe DC while attending American University? I just don't know! 

And maybe instead of grad school applying for the Math for America fellows program? 

So many options. So many questions. Too much to think about!

Oh well, at least I live in the most beautiful place on the planet. I can hear the waves from the lake at night as I'm going to sleep. I work with great people. Life is good.

PS: If anyone has GRE prep material, can you send it this way?