From letter 2/20/09

Form 3
The form 3 class at my school has grown. Currently we're at 72 students. Happily, some of the newcomers are girls. Our class ratio is 1:5, 12 girls to 60 boys. Another change, I am their form teacher now as well. I swapped form 1 for form 3 with our agriculture teacher, Mr. Mvula. The reason for this is mostly because form 1 students have the least understanding of English, and of the staff, I have the least understanding of Chichewa. Form 1 students were reluctant to come to me with their problems. Additionally, I have the form 3 students for 14 class periods/week and am in the process of visiting their homes. Being their form teacher makes sense.
As a form teacher, I have given everyone assigned seats (helps with attendance and learning names) and teams. They sit with their team. The teams have all made up names like 'Young Destroyers,' 'Kasmallsmall,' and 'Elephant Grass' and are competing against each other for points (the team with the most points at the end of the term wins prizes). Whenever they do group work, group projects, or lab assignments, they are supposed to work with their team. The class is (at the moment) split into 9 teams of eight students including a team leader (selected by me). The team leaders help me collect and pass back assignments, and are also the go-to people for the members of the group that have difficulties understanding me. When I created the teams, I also tried to separate my chattier students, stick the girls in pairs (I didn't want any single girl to be stranded in a group of boys), and separate those who I saw copying answers from each other during a test. So far the system has been working nicely for me, with only a few bumps.
One of those bumps was a sudden influx of eyesight complaints from my good students who like to sit up front. We've compromised so that they can come sit near the board whenever there are notes to take. Also, being their form teacher subjects me to some less pressing complaints… for example, a few students (concerned about the MSCE) came to ask if I could drop teaching them life skills and teach them math or physical science during that time instead. I had to conceal my reaction (abject horror) at the suggestion, and said I'd consider it if the majority of the class felt the same way. But I think life skills is more important for them in the long run and it is the single class I have that has no exam and I can do whatever I want with, so I would loathe to give that up. Hopefully I won't have to.

Blood Donations
One Thursday, Malawi Blood Transfusion Services (MBTS) sent a representative from Lilongwe to discuss blood donations with the students at my school. I was using that week to test my students' knowledge of HIV/AIDS in Life Skills, and finding many confused about blood donation (no, they will not get HIV from donating blood, they use sterile needles now and test the blood), I strongly suggested that all attend the lecture.
I also attended, listening with an attentive ear as the MBTS representative spoke alternatively in Chichewa and English to the student body about why blood donation is important, what the blood is used for, the criteria to determine who is allowed to donate. In Malawi, many of those who require blood transfusions are women with childbirth complications. The donor has to be at least 16. The usual rules of not being sick when donating still apply. After giving blood, each donor is given a package of 'glucose' (a brand of cookies) and Sobo (a soft drink).
Once the lecture was finished there was a Q&A session conducted in rapid Chichewa. The students wanted to know (as far as I could gather)… why aren't they paid for their blood? Is it really safe to donate? Wouldn't they feel really sick after donating? Was the donated blood going to be sold overseas for profit?
These questions were answered (because it's blood donation; yes; no; no), but the students weren't at all convinced as I later found out. Walking into the form 4 class for Life Skills, I casually asked, as a matter of curiosity, how many of them thought they might donate blood? Not a single hand was raised. I was taken aback. Why not? I asked them, tossing aside any lesson plans I had made. I've donated blood in America before. People all over the world do it for free. It doesn't hurt you (much) to donate. There are no lasting effects, you might feel a little tired for a few hours aybe. And you'd be helping others. You might even be helping yourself. What if you have an accident and need a blood transfusion?
I was on my way to making a fine self-righteous sermon when a student reminded me to take a step back and look at the full picture, though he didn't phrase it as such. "Madam," he said, "There are private hospitals in Malawi and there are Government hospitals and there are the local public clinics. Students at our school have donated blood in the past. But we have never seen any of that blood end up in the local Clinic. When they need blood transfusions here they bring their closest relatives. So where is the blood going? To the cities? To the private hospitals where only the rich go?"
I thought it a good point and said so. Then I added that, to store blood and keep it fresh you need refrigeration and electricity. At my village our power regularly goes out… maybe that's why the blood is kept in bigger hospitals and why, I reminded them, we also have an ambulance that takes patients needing blood transfusions to Kasungu hospital. As for blood going to private hospitals instead of public ones, is the possibility that the blood you donate may go to save a rich person's life any reason to not donate?
We made a chart of the pros and cons of donating. I think maybe I swayed popular opinion a little in favor of donating by the end of class. But as I was leaving I said I would also try my best to track down where their blood goes, to see if most of it is used in public hospitals. One of these days I'll follow up on that by visiting the blood bank or the MBTS headquarters. I'm rather curious myself.

Home Visits
At some point I mentioned plans to visit the homes of all of my form 3 students. This has started and has possibly20been my best idea to follow through to date. So far I have visited 25 of the students, either at the places where they are staying currently, or at their home village. Some of their parents speak English. Most do not. As a result my Chichewa has shown marked improvement. My knowledge of geography of the area has greatly improved as well. And even better, people are talking. This new volunteer (I'm told they say) isn’t too proud to come to our homes and sit with us and discuss our problems. She even tries to speak our language. This wasn't my intention when I decided to do home visits, but it's a nice side-benefit.
The greatest thing about home visits; no two visits are the same. I've been presented with entire clans: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, extended family… 30 or 40 curious faces crowded into a small thatched hut and alternatively with only one parent or guardian, or only my student. Sometimes I find myself in a town with a nice, tin roofed, brick house, furniture, and even a TV. One time I visited a grass and mud house (the parents were tenants, and too poor to even be able to afford bricks—the walls were even made of grass). Sometimes my students escort me to and from their village on foot or on bicycle.
Many times, the parents have provided refreshments; soft drinks, snacks (chippies), or full course meals (nsima, eggs, beans, vegetables). Sometimes we have good chats about differences between Malawi and America. I have been asked to aid students from poor families (and sometimes I'm asked to aid not-so-poor families pretending to be poorer than they are). Sometimes people lie, but mostly they are honest and generous. I learn surprising new things.
Often times, I'm given gifts from the students' family to take back home. (Part of Malawian hospitality, culture, and I was told very rude to refuse). I think, in total, I've come back home with 15 small bananas, 8 mangos, 18 medium sized tomatoes, about 2 kgs of fresh beans, 6 cobs
of green maize, 4 eggs, and one live chicken (that I cooked at home).
Home visits have taken me over 10 km away from my home (across rivers and roads, through fields and family compounds... for once I am very thankful that this area is flat, it makes cycling relatively easy).
Some of these villages have never seen a foreigner. I can usually tell. The kids come out from every corner to see the strange visitor. Sometimes the small ones cry.
When I'm in an area that's new to me, I usually am asked to meet the village chief and tour village landmarks. As a result, I've doubled up home visits with community assessment. At least I ask the chief what are the biggest problems facing the area and poke my nose around the primary school my students graduated from.
There were things that, from my position at home, seemed like solved problems. I've found things look very different in the villages. For example, ARVs are readily offered at the clinic, but patients must agree to take them regularly, and must come to the clinic to pick up one weeks worth of medication every Wednesday. That's fine for those who live close by. What about those who are far away and will have to walk 10-15 km to the clinic and back? At the clinic, I was told that some people, counseled to take the ARVs, refuse. The reason given was 'ignorance.' I'm wondering now if actually it's impracticality.

Projects
1. I have set up a scholarship fund. Well, I call it that. Really, it's just me setting aside some of my living allowance to assist students with school fees.
To be considered for "scholarship," you have to meet three requirements. 1) You have to be a good student. (I'm a little lax on this one. Even if your grades aren't great, as long as you come to class, turn in assignments, and show some effort, you meet this one.)
2) You have to have demonstrated financial need (and if your family lives in a hut with a thatched roof or your parents are tenants who make next to nothing, you meet this one.) 3) You have to demonstrate what I call "service spirit." An interest in helping others and giving back to the community, (or in participating in other programs I'm trying to establish). I have, so far, 6 students that I'm helping, either fully or partially, with school fees. I'm sure I'll add more as I continue with home visits.
2. A women's group I've recently discovered meets every week on Wednesday. They discuss HIV/AIDs, aid for orphans, family planning, domestic problems, nutrition, food security, and knitting. Their members come from all over the area, and they're a relatively new group.
They've only been meeting since September of last year. They are concerned with a lot of the same issues I'm concerned with. And they want my "expertise" (*cough*) to make sure they have accurate and complete information about issues they're trying to educate their community about. I think I'd like to conduct a training workshop for them, and maybe invite some other Health PCVs to come to help. The women's group have also been trying to identify orphans under age 5 (by the time they hit 5, they are identified at the primary schools), and organize care-taking facilities for them. It looks like a promising crowd to throw in my chitenje with.
3. Clubs are underway. Edzi-toto club (No AIDS!) would like to write and perform a drama in English at our school, and maybe the same drama at primary schools around here (but in
Chichewa). I would like to introduce the Girls club to the local women's group. Wildlife club is trying to get itself registered with the national registry of wildlife clubs. Physical Science club takes a great deal of my energy (and patience) and could/should basically be considered another class. To deal with clubs, which keep me at school, often, from 7:00 a.m. (school begins at 7:30) to 4:00 (and home visits afterwards), I have taken to eating lunch at the kitchen with our school boarders. Because of this, complaints from students about school food have greatly decreased. I guess they feel if I can eat it, they should be okay with eating it too.