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