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!'