back to Zomba....

Welcome to Zomba!! I was in Zomba for a week attending a workshop organised by the Ministry of Gender, Women and Children where we are planning to develop a new curriculum for Early Childhood Development in Malawi. It was held just outside Zomba at Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) and on Monday I left very early in the morning and collected the District Social Welfare Officer from Mzimba to travel with me. It was good to have a travelling companion for the 10 hour drive. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon.

Although I did not manage to climb Zomba Mountain (we simply did not have a spare moment) this is the view from the top...fabulous!!

As you approach Zomba this is the view from the road of Zomba Mountain - it is a truly amazing sight, and one which I miss in Mzuzu which is relatively flat.

A path on the mountain where the woman have the difficult task of collecting firewood.

MIE is situated near lake Chilwa which is a small lake full of very delicious fish as we found out at the workshop! In the foreground of the picture you can see the fish drying in the sun.



A few colleagues at the workshop. On the left is a Curriculum specialist from MIE, in the middle is the acting Director of the Association of Pre-school Playgroups in Malawi (APPM) and on the right my travelling companion.

During lunch hour we had time to take a few photos. I think you recognise the one in the centre! The lady on the left is from the Ministry and Mary on the right is an old friend from Zomba who has been an advocate for Early Childhood Development longer than I have been in Malawi!

The workshop involved a lot of group work and debate and we had some lively dancing and singing sessions during the week!

The nice thing about going to Zomba is that I know it, having spent 11 years of my time in Malawi there. I took the opportunity to visit some old friends including the Makasu family. Ephraim began work with me as my gardener in 1995. He was an intelligent guy so gradually he upgraded his education and is now a Pastor in Zomba. He also works at ZTC Pre-school where I was the director. It was great to catch up with the Zomba news and to see how the family are growing up.

The eldest boy Hope wants to be a pilot when he grows up (not with Air Malawi I hope!!). Its great that he has ambition, he was showing me his school report and its really good, so I hope he achieves his goal in life. Look at the lovely smiles on the boys faces!!

This coming week, its back to work in Mzuzu. We are conducting a training course for 2 weeks with APPM for caregivers, so I will be co-ordinating that during the week along with lots of other duties. I am also excited as I have some friends coming to stay this week so that is something to look forward to. I just pray that I will have time off to spend with them!

Wishing you a wonderful week

Blessings

Diane

its the weekend again............

Hello everyone,

Its been a couple of weeks since I have written but again its just hectic - I never seem to have a minute and today we have no electricity yet again.....or water..........

The school building is coming on - the roof has started and hopefully during the next week the iron sheets will start going on.

This is a picture of the school building just this afternoon so as you can see things are progressing well. Thanks to all the latest donations............

We were out monitoring a school in Ekwendeni Presbytery. Here you can see Nicolas doing some action songs with the children.

Fiona (no, its not me, Nicolas and Memory outside the school - its a beautiful day as you can see.

One of the caregivers chatting to Memory our trainer in Ekwendeni Presbytery.

Some of the lovely kids........

The school is in a beautiful location with lovely wild flowers all around. Rains have almost stopped now so the grass is drying up.

This week I was attending a workshop in Lilongwe where we are establishing an Early Childhood Development Coalition in Malawi comprising of several civil society groups. On the way we came across this accident. A large lorry carrying tobacco behind the one in the picture had fallen down and people were attempting to pulll it up. They tried and they failed and eventually we were allowed to pass...........this time of year is hazardous on the roads with the tobacco lorries overloaded and often broken down!

The workshop was good fun as well as being hard work. The people who attended are in the photo below - spot the white one in the back row!!

Tomorrow morning I am off to Zomba (its only about 9 hours driving) for another workshop on Curriculum development in Early Childhood. At the same time we have a two week training course going on in Mzuzu. So, its all go as usual!!
Wishing you a great week.

Blessings

Diane

aching limbs and exhaustion!!

Hello all

Apologies for no posting last week - this was due to a number of factors - the internet connection was so bad that nothing would work, I had a very busy week as usual, and I think I am suffering from exhaustion. I woke up this morning with aching limbs and no energy - all of last week I have had a dreadful sore head, but lets hope it gets better soon!

This did not deter me of course from the usual hectic schedule. We were in Rumphi for a morning at the nursery school trying to encourage the caregivers and give them a few ideas of what to do with the children. As you can see everyone was having fun! Take note of the number of toys and the amount of equipment available to the children!!

We had our second meeting with directors of nursery schools in Mzuzu and we addressed the topics of discipline and Monitoring and Evaluation. The discipline topic was long as it is a big issue in our nursery schools. One question asked was how to deter a child from biting another child in a school. We opened the floor for answers and the most dominant answer was that to deter a child from biting you put some chicken dung on the child's arm and ask them to bite it, and guess what.........they will never bite another child again! We were horrified by this and by a few other answers, and by the response we received when we encouraged positive discipline, I reckon it will be a long time before things change in the schools!

Last weekend, I went to Chitimba on the lake with Fiona. It was lovely after the rain of Mzuzu to see the sunshine again. Here you can see Chombe mountain in the background with the lovely green surrounding the villages in the foreground.

Me relaxing at the lake!!

I have been in Malawi for some time and the sun rising and setting never ceases to amaze me. This was a sunrise - so beautiful!

I had a call from an Irish lady who is involved in a project called 'Well's for Zoe' here in Mzuzu. She was asking for help in training the caregivers in their nursery school. I went to visit the school to find out more about it. Its a beautiful setting with a lot of land and beautiful buildings and outdoor play materials for the children. I was discouraged by the teacher centred approach to learning but we can assist the caregivers to understand more about child centred approach and play as a mode of learning.

A team is coming from PCI in July and I would like to take them to a couple of rural nursery schools so last Monday I went with Fiona, Nicolas and Memory(in the picture) to see where would be suitable. Unfortunatley the two schools we had chosen were not in operation that day. One school's building was being used for school exams so the nursery was not happening, and the second one where the photo is taken was at a primary school, but the caregiver had gone to the hospital with her child and so the school was not on that day! These are the challenges we face in villages. Memory in the photo is the trainer in Ekwendeni presbytery and she has to travel long distances by foot to reach these schools. As you can see the primary school children were very excited to see us..........

The Association of Pre-school Playgroups in Malawi is organising training for caregivers at the end of May for 2 weeks and have asked CCAP to be the main facilitators. We had a meeting on Wednesday to discuss logistics of the training and in this photo you can see Mr Kajani from the association with Nicolas and Enala as we plan for the workshop.

and this just made my day...the other morning when I was in school and the kids were arriving, this little boy just looked at the little girl, and shouted hug and this is the result. Such happy kids, I hope it makes your day too!

So life continues to be busy, sometimes too busy - everyone wants you to deal with them and its difficult with such a big catchment area trying to organise things! But its exciting to see so many good things happening to help the lives of our chidlren in Malawi!

Wishing you a great week wherever you are in the world.

Blessings

Diane