Well all my faithful friends, allies, and enemies, the time is long overdue for a blog update. I honestly don’t even know where to begin so much has happened since my last blog. Well, I guess I will just have to try. I have been at site for about a month and a half now. It is a very big house with an indoor bafa (shower room) which is quite a luxury to be able to take a bucket bath indoors every morning. I have a very nice pit latrine as well that collects all the fecal matter in a very deep hole like it was intended. Man I cant believe these people think Malawi is underdeveloped.
Anyhoo, at the house I have a wonderful lady named Fanny who comes over every day to help me around the house. By help me around the house, I mean cook, clean, and do laundry. She also checks on my dog and cat while I am away (like right now). My daily sustenance is rice, one egg per meal, and tomatoes and sometimes onions. Then I throw a little garlic salt and Velveeta from my wonderful mother and away we go to the fine dining of Malawian cuisine. I also come into town about once a week to have a good meal at my favorite restaurant in Malawi called Heaven’s Mouth or K.J.P.’s. There I can have a good burger, steak, pizza, or my favorite, steak & stout pie that I save for special occasions.
Sometimes I eat breakfast of mphala (porridge) ndi nsinjilo (with peanut flour) that is pretty tasty. If not then I head to school by 7:30 and teach for a bit and then have tea and bread at 9:30 and then teach some more. I then head home for some scrumptious and aforementioned rice, egg, and tomatoes then finish out the school day by 2 pm.
Although the workload is not difficult in the sense of having a lot of it to do (I can’t tell you how much free time I can have sometimes) it is the most frustrating teaching experience I have ever had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I have learned a lot about myself and some things I need to work on (like patience and love) and it has helped my teaching style develop.
The frustrations of teaching in this beautiful country are many an unending. The hardest for me is my student’s English ability; or rather lack thereof. And when I say lack thereof, don’t underestimate how bad it is. I have asked, in both my Form 1 (Freshmen), and Form 2 (Sophomores), the following question (keep in mind that when you teach in Malawi you develop a “special English” where you e-nun-ci-ate ev-e-ry syll-a-ble so the stu-dents can un-der-stand you whil speaking slowly so they can keep up. If they can’t, don’t expect them to tell you they don’t understand until you ask them a question!) “A molecule is made up of atoms. What is a molecule made up of?” this was followed by 4 responses in a row of “I have no idea.” Now imagine a full week of this and you can probably capture a bit of the frustrations that that I am discussing with you.
Another egregious annoyance is that every single one of my 130+ Form 1 students are sitting on the dirt floor in a room with no chalkboard, an uncompleted roof that leaks horribly though the gap when it rains and windows that they wired shut so I wouldn’t open them anymore (because who the duce would want to open freaking windows if it gets hot or dusty which it would never do in Africa of course!).
So like I said frustrating but I am learning a lot. The students are progressing and I imagine that some of what I teach them is sinking in. A big problem in Malawi, however is the fact that Malawians have a hard time with free thinking or doing anything beyond memorization. So they can many times answer a simple question, but the moment I ask “why?” every single student freezes, chuckles shyly, and sits down because they cannot answer. I am working on them as they work on me and the Lord is teaching me quite a bit through these kiddos.
Well on another note, Sarah, my beautiful and amazing (although she is dating me so probably a bit crazy as well) girlfriend is arriving in-county on the 15th of March and will be staying with a fellow teacher until the 30th of August. I don’t know if can tell you how excited I am to have her here. I miss her terribly and it will be great to have another “azungu” here with me; especially one that I love so very much.
I want to close up this blog, but I will end it with one funny story: I sometimes give my students an opportunity to ask me any questions that they would like about anything. They usually stick with questions about America, Sarah, and my preferences. Some of them stray a little bit to my obvious expertise about karate and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In two classes I have been asked about both the governor of California and karate. My favorites were “I heard it is true that Americans are very good at karate, how is this so?” and “I was watching Judgement Day, and have heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California. But in the movie he was cutting into his hand and it seemed metal and man. How is this so?” I am not going to lie; I cannot stop laughing at some of the questions.
Well all you crazies out there, I hope all is well and that I will be able to talk to soon. Please call I would love to talk and thanks to everyone who has sent letters and packages. They make me oh so very happy. If you are thinking about sending your favorite Peace Corps Volunteer that special something this holiday season might include DVDs (both movies and tv shows), CDs, junk food of any type especially involving sugar, cheese, protein, or something crunchy, and anything else you might think might be fun or useful. Ok so I am done with the absolutely shameless begging ( I hear Malawians say every day “give me my money.” So I think it has worn off on me!) but I love y’all and ill catch you soon. Peace out from Spencer H. “too bad my middle name is not Howie because then it would rhyme with Malawi” Martin.
Anyhoo, at the house I have a wonderful lady named Fanny who comes over every day to help me around the house. By help me around the house, I mean cook, clean, and do laundry. She also checks on my dog and cat while I am away (like right now). My daily sustenance is rice, one egg per meal, and tomatoes and sometimes onions. Then I throw a little garlic salt and Velveeta from my wonderful mother and away we go to the fine dining of Malawian cuisine. I also come into town about once a week to have a good meal at my favorite restaurant in Malawi called Heaven’s Mouth or K.J.P.’s. There I can have a good burger, steak, pizza, or my favorite, steak & stout pie that I save for special occasions.
Sometimes I eat breakfast of mphala (porridge) ndi nsinjilo (with peanut flour) that is pretty tasty. If not then I head to school by 7:30 and teach for a bit and then have tea and bread at 9:30 and then teach some more. I then head home for some scrumptious and aforementioned rice, egg, and tomatoes then finish out the school day by 2 pm.
Although the workload is not difficult in the sense of having a lot of it to do (I can’t tell you how much free time I can have sometimes) it is the most frustrating teaching experience I have ever had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I have learned a lot about myself and some things I need to work on (like patience and love) and it has helped my teaching style develop.
The frustrations of teaching in this beautiful country are many an unending. The hardest for me is my student’s English ability; or rather lack thereof. And when I say lack thereof, don’t underestimate how bad it is. I have asked, in both my Form 1 (Freshmen), and Form 2 (Sophomores), the following question (keep in mind that when you teach in Malawi you develop a “special English” where you e-nun-ci-ate ev-e-ry syll-a-ble so the stu-dents can un-der-stand you whil speaking slowly so they can keep up. If they can’t, don’t expect them to tell you they don’t understand until you ask them a question!) “A molecule is made up of atoms. What is a molecule made up of?” this was followed by 4 responses in a row of “I have no idea.” Now imagine a full week of this and you can probably capture a bit of the frustrations that that I am discussing with you.
Another egregious annoyance is that every single one of my 130+ Form 1 students are sitting on the dirt floor in a room with no chalkboard, an uncompleted roof that leaks horribly though the gap when it rains and windows that they wired shut so I wouldn’t open them anymore (because who the duce would want to open freaking windows if it gets hot or dusty which it would never do in Africa of course!).
So like I said frustrating but I am learning a lot. The students are progressing and I imagine that some of what I teach them is sinking in. A big problem in Malawi, however is the fact that Malawians have a hard time with free thinking or doing anything beyond memorization. So they can many times answer a simple question, but the moment I ask “why?” every single student freezes, chuckles shyly, and sits down because they cannot answer. I am working on them as they work on me and the Lord is teaching me quite a bit through these kiddos.
Well on another note, Sarah, my beautiful and amazing (although she is dating me so probably a bit crazy as well) girlfriend is arriving in-county on the 15th of March and will be staying with a fellow teacher until the 30th of August. I don’t know if can tell you how excited I am to have her here. I miss her terribly and it will be great to have another “azungu” here with me; especially one that I love so very much.
I want to close up this blog, but I will end it with one funny story: I sometimes give my students an opportunity to ask me any questions that they would like about anything. They usually stick with questions about America, Sarah, and my preferences. Some of them stray a little bit to my obvious expertise about karate and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In two classes I have been asked about both the governor of California and karate. My favorites were “I heard it is true that Americans are very good at karate, how is this so?” and “I was watching Judgement Day, and have heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California. But in the movie he was cutting into his hand and it seemed metal and man. How is this so?” I am not going to lie; I cannot stop laughing at some of the questions.
Well all you crazies out there, I hope all is well and that I will be able to talk to soon. Please call I would love to talk and thanks to everyone who has sent letters and packages. They make me oh so very happy. If you are thinking about sending your favorite Peace Corps Volunteer that special something this holiday season might include DVDs (both movies and tv shows), CDs, junk food of any type especially involving sugar, cheese, protein, or something crunchy, and anything else you might think might be fun or useful. Ok so I am done with the absolutely shameless begging ( I hear Malawians say every day “give me my money.” So I think it has worn off on me!) but I love y’all and ill catch you soon. Peace out from Spencer H. “too bad my middle name is not Howie because then it would rhyme with Malawi” Martin.
