from Mzuzu to Belfast!!!

Last time I wrote I was under pressure – so much to do and so little time before I was preparing to fly back to Ireland. Well, I made it and here I am ready to go to my first class this afternoon. I had a hectic week last week and the past two days have been really nice just getting settled and seeing some friends and family.

It was International Peace day on 21st September, 2009, and Montessori schools all over the world were participating in a song of peace which was being sung right around the globe. Every school was given a time slot to sing in – the children at CCAP International Pre-school were between 10 and 10.10am – some of the children had tea lights to hold, and they sang beautifully. Montessori believed strongly that peace is the answer to the world’s problems, and by teaching our children that peace is important will hopefully instill this philosophy in their young lives.

Light a candle for peace,Light a candle for love,

Light a candle that shines all the way around the world.

Light a candle for me,Light a candle for you,

That our wish for world peace will one day come true

Sing Peace Around theWorld

Sing Peace Around theWorld

Sing Peace Around theWorld

Sing Peace Around theWorld

We had exciting news at school as one of our teachers, Gift, had a beautiful baby boy called Samuel – he was only 4.7kgs! Both Mum and baby are doing well as you can see, (and big sister Becky in the background).

I was intending to go to an ECD network meeting in Lilongwe but due to getting organised for leaving, I did not manage to attend. I had a friend, Sylvia, from USA staying for a few nights during the week which was great – she is also an ECD person and we had lots to talk about!
Wednesday night Bible study was a celebration that we had finished our study book and before we begin another, we have a pot luck supper – it was a fun night……

During my absence, three of our trainers are going to be busy – in fact as I write they are in a village outside Livingstonia training the caregivers and committee of a school. They will also be in Chitipa twice (15 new schools have recently opened), Rumphi and Bandawe. I am delighted that the programme can go on without me there to drive the vehicle. They are going by minibus and matola which will be a challenge for them carrying all the equipment that we use for the training! Pray for their safety on the rural roads of Malawi!

matola

Just before I left, my friend Pemphero came to say bye – he is 5 years old and the son of my neighbour – when I moved to Mzuzu he was just 2 and he used to come and visit me all the time. He said he would not be too sad when I was going away but that he would be happy when I came back – at least some one will miss me!!

this was taken with self timer...

On Friday I left on the 6am bus for Lilongwe – it was quite a good journey – only took about 5 ½ hours which was great. Travelling down over Viphya the views were stunning although some bush fires made breathing difficult as we passed through the smoke.

the Axa bussmoke over Viphyabeautiful views

I was flying Kenya Airways and the flight to Nairobi was quite rough due to the hot air temperatures outside, I was glad to get out of the plane – not quite so glad to spend 8 hours in Nairobi airport in about 40 degrees with no air conditioning! Met a few interesting people though, including the deputy minister of tourism for the Comoros islands – lovely man and great sense of humour!

Spent the night in Lilongwe and got a taxi to the airport next morning. So now I am back in the lovely cool dull weather of Northern Ireland. Was great to see family on Sunday and to have a couple of days before I begin the course.

So here I am - looking forward to seeing you all at some point during the 6 weeks.

Have a great day

Diane

from Livingstonia to Mhuju

Hi everyone, hope all is well with you where ever you are in the world!

What a week – if it was palije nyengo last week then this week is palije nyengo chomene, which means there is no time at all! It has been hectic as I am trying to get a lot packed into a short time before I go home.

Monday and Tuesday, Nicolas, Enala and myself went to Livingstonia for 2 days to do some training at the nursery school. We arrived good and early, around 7.30am to find so many people waiting for training. It transpired that the CBO (Community Based Organisations) groups around Livingstonia had heard that I was coming to train caregivers and they all decided to show up. Unfortunately I had to turn them all away as I didn’t have resources for them with me. The main issue however runs deeper than that – if I train CBO groups in Livingstonia, then I will have to do the same everywhere we go, and we just don’t have the manpower for that.

Then we had another issue with the committee of Livingstonia Pre-school, so by the time I sorted that out it was quite late in the day – just as well we were spending two days there.

The following morning we were woken by this beautiful sunrise........makes you feel good when you see such a sight in the morning!


We had such a wonderful time with the children and they had such an amazing day playing and enjoying themselves. I hope and pray that the messages we gave will really create a change in the mindset of both caregivers and committee and that next time we go we will find the same nursery school class that we left! This is what makes my job so worthwhile – when you see the impact of the training on the children………

washing hands...........

reading corner....

puzzle time...

posers...

lets swing...

inside the nursery school....

Enala about to teach........

concentration...

and of course.......... we couldn't leave Livingstonia without being tourists and visiting the church - here you can see a picture of the David Livingstone window and in the one below the inside of the church.

We travelled back to Mzuzu on Tuesday afternoon – on Wednesday I had a busy day in the office with parents and ministers and report writing.

Thursday, we headed to Nkhata Bay to Phiri congregation to train their committee and caregivers. I had another meeting so I left the trainers and caught up with them in the afternoon. I was absolutely thrilled when I arrived at the nursery as this next photo was the first thing I saw……….

Last time I called at Phiri the minister was telling me how the congregation were getting together to put up swings and make some see saws – what a pleasant surprise to see it had been done, and that the children were having so much fun.

On Thursday night I had a lady from 'Help a child', a Dutch donor organisation, staying with me. We had a great chat and I really enjoyed having her........the home made pizza was a success I think!!!

Friday was spent in the office again – by now I am getting really tired as I have not had a break for so many days and travelling in the warm weather really takes it out of you. However, the week is not yet over as today we travelled to Rumphi to Mhuju congregation for training with the caregivers and committees in for two new nursery schools. We have had a wonderful day – weather was beautiful, our hosts were brilliant, the participants were very active in participation, and all in all it was a great day. Below you can see some photos of the participants and even one of me facilitating.

I was quite surprised today because a few of our participants were well educated people – this was not the surprise, but the surprise was that most of them were learning about how children develop for the first time. It never fails to humble me when I realise that things I take for granted are so precious to people who have never heard them.

Yes.......its me on the floor demonstrating what you can do with bottle tops in a pre-school...(you may not be able to see in the photo but we were in the main body of a church and behind me is the front of the church which is open to the skies as they are renovating...I was glad it's not the rainy season!!

some of the participants

Another lovely thing happened today – the minister in the congregation had been studying at Zomba when I was teaching there. His son Chancy was in our Preschool at Zomba and today I heard that he is in Standard One (P1) and is first in the class – that made me feel really proud. I didn’t manage to get a photo of Chancy today but here is a blast from the past – its Chancy at Zomba.

Have a wonderful week......I should be on the way back to Ireland this time next week so I am not sure when the next update will be. Oh, by the way I know you like reading the blog but please don't forget to send me the odd email too or leave a comment on the blog!!

Blessings

Diane

palije nyengo!!

Palije nyengo means 'no time' and I feel as if time is passing by so quickly, I am always rushing and yet people say that living in Africa is more relaxed! Don't believe it!

I was in Lilongwe on Friday to witness the launch of the 5 year strategic plan in Early childhood Development. It was launched by the Minister of Gender, Children and community development, Patricia Kaliati who is the lady on the right of the picture. On the left handing the document to the minister is Hyacinth Kaschindo who is the Director for Children's affairs in Malawi. Its an exciting time for those of us working in ECD in Malawi as the Government is taking this initative on board an we expect in the next 5 years to see much happening in the way of ECD.

Its a beautiful time of year when the Jacaranda trees are coming into bloom, and although it is dry and warm there is much natural colour around.

This has been a busy week both insdie and outside the office. I was teaching some classes in school and also training some of our teachers. One of our teachers is on maternity leave and I am trying to empower another teacher who usually works with the toddlers, to be able to work in the 3-6 class. Although I had little time this week, we managed to fit in two sessions.

Then I was planning for the coming week when we are doing some training in the field. Two of the trainers from Mzuzu Presbytery, Nicolas and Enala who you see below, are coming with me to Livingstonia for a couple of days, then to Nkhata Bay and then to Rumphi. So we had a lot to organise in preparation for this. All in all, we trained 22 trainers, but Nicolas and Enala are two of the best we have and so I tend to use them a lot when travelling around the country.

As promised last time I said I would share some photos of some of our rural schools. Here we have a CBCC in Chitipa district........not quite what you would send your child to I am sure, but its a great achievement for the village to have built this structure, and they have to be commended for it.

Here you can see our trainer from Chitipa district inside the structure - as you can see there is not a lot of room for play..........

Another one of our rural centres in Kanyankhude which has no permanent structure but meet below a tree - in the rains of course these children do not have a chance to go to school.

Inside another centre where you can see so many children (and a blackboard - for nursery school!!) but no equipment or toys suitable for children to play. This centre has a great structure but that alone is of little use, if teachers are not trained how to make materials for the children to play with to assist in their development.

And of course we do have some good structures like the one below.

Some of our centres are in churches which are great in the short term but if we really want ECD to move forward in Malawi then we need permanent structures for our nursery schools. This will take time and we do have some NGO's working in this area, and of course CCAP with the help of Hillsborough Presbyterian Church also built our own structure in Kasowa in Karonga.

And as I am always saying - a structure alone is no good without trained teachers, so my focus is on training the teachers first and the structure comes next!

On another note altogether...

Usually in the West we are bombarded by images on the TV and in magazines about losing weight - I was reading the local paper yesterday and came across this article............

and finally for today, before the battery runs out (no electricity again), I have been accepted to do an MA in Early childhood Studies at Stranmillis, so might see you soon!

Take care, till next time,

Diane

'We do not say that we want to prepare a school for the children, we wish to prepare an environment for life, where the child can develop a life!'

an upside down week...

Well as the heading states, its been an upside down sort of week.

Last Saturday I was invited to the wedding of Rev M M Banda’s daughter Ivy in our church here in Mzuzu. Rev Mezuwa Banda is the Education Secretary for CCAP. The wedding was one of 4 taking place at the same time – it was a colourful occasion and lasted about 3-4 hours! Here is a photo of the bride and groom and their parents.



On Monday I went with my colleague Nicolas to Livingstonia to monitor the nursery school there. We decided to go the ‘back’ road as oppose to ‘gorodi’ road, which for those of you who have ever travelled these roads will understand why. However the back road had just been graded and it was a nightmare – sliding as we tried to drive through sand – by the time the car reached its destination it was more red than blue!

On arrival at Livingstonia we went to the beautiful nursery school which is behind the church, only to find that the swings had been vandalised and were no longer in use. Inside there are many boxes of toys which have been donated both from N Ireland and USA, but they were in boxes and not in use. This was a real disappointment as I know many people have put a lot of effort into this school. However, we made arrangements to go up in a couple of weeks for 2 days to talk with the school committee and also to do some basic training with the caregiver.

The swing with no swings.......

The outside of the nursery school

The inside of the nursery school with some beautiful equipment

On the way home I was stopped for speeding in an area where there is no speed sign to indicate that you are meant to go at 60km/hr and not 70 as I was doing, and so I was fined K5000 on the spot – about £21….

Tuesday was a ‘headache’ or rather it gave me a headache! I had parents complaints followed by teachers problems, so that by the time I came to do any work it was time to go home! I also had received a new bank card and went to withdraw some money only to be told that my pin number was invalid……surely things could only get better.

Then I took a look at these lovely kids from our school and it made me smile again!!

Wednesday I went to Nkhata bay on the lake shore to monitor a school at a congregation called Phiri. The minister is very enthusiastic about early childhood development and the caregiver is trying to do lots of things with the kids with little resources. Again we have arranged a date to go and give the caregivers some training.

caregiver and children at Phiri school which is held in the church building

During this week I was invited to the launch of the Early Childhood Development awareness week in Kasungu where the 5 year strategic plan was going to be launched. The Vice President the Rt Hon Mrs Joyce Banda was to be there. On arrival I saw that it was going to be a great occasion – people were all dressed in the UNICEF funded t-shirts and chitenji and caps and it looked great. There were mock ECD centres set up and some play areas for children and there were local school children there.

Shortly after my arrival the Vice President arrived and took her seat after viewing all the stands. The programme was good – we had the Minister of Finance as the MP for the area, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Gender(GCCD), Children and Community Development and some other officals from the Government, along with all the traditional chiefs and village headmen. We had traditional dancing from the women and also from Gule Wamkulu.

The Deputy Minister from GCCD, Mrs Catherine Gotani Hara made a speech about the value of early childhood education, and then she said there were some certificates to give out to a few people for outstanding contributions towards the advancement of Early Childhood Development in Malawi………….and guess what…….my name was one of those called!

What an honour for me and for CCAP! Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the occasion because I didn’t bring my camera, but here is a photo of the Vice President and one of me with my certificate. The Campaign is called Mmera Mpoyamba (which means if you have a seed you have to water it to make it grow)

Rt Hon Mrs Joyce Banda

Me and my certificate

After this occasion I met up with the Magherafelt group who were now on their way home –we had a meal together and I managed to get food poisoning so spent the next day feeling sorry for myself and feeling rather ill – much better now though.

So as you can see an upside down week, but things turned out all right in the end! God is good! Wishing you a great day.

Diane