anyone looking for a working holiday???

Hello there,

This is just a quick post to ask if anyone would be free in August 2013 for a couple of weeks  (or more) to come and teach our teachers in the CCAP International Pre-school.  They have been Montessori trained but I am not really looking specifically for a Montessori trained person to come.  I am looking for someone who can deal with issues like health and nutrition, managing unruly children, interaction between teachers, learning in the outdoors........the list is endless!!

Another aspect to consider is looking at issues of working with children 1-3 years as most of our early childhood manuals here deal with children three years and above.

If anyone is interested please get in touch with me as soon as possible (if you don't have my contact details just leave a message on the blog and I will get in touch with you).  Obviously you will need to have experience in an early years setting yourself!!

Look forward to hearing from you!!

Blessings,

Diane

another week......

Hello everyone from a cool damp day in Mzuzu!  I went to the Anglican church this morning which meant I was home just after 9am, probably while most of you were still in bed!  

This week has been busy as always.  Its the rainy season and although in Mzuzu we have not had as much rain as I remember in past years, some parts of the country have been really badly flooded, and yet others have had little rain.  Here the maize is growing well and people are busy working in the fields - we are getting rain every few days and it doesn't seem to be too much!

Last weekend it was Matt's birthday so I went to his party in Ekwendeni - doesn't he look well with his flower in his hair!  One of the children gave it to him!!

We are continuing to visit Presbyteries to sensitize ministers and session clerks on the importance of Early Childhood, and to discuss how we can assist each other in this ministry.  This week we went to Champhira Presbytery.  Unfortunately as we arrived there we realised there was a funeral in the village so the Presbytery Clerk had to go and conduct the funeral.  As the meeting was going on the funeral passed by with the coffin in the oxcart - I didn't think it appropriate to take a picture but you can imagine what it was like.  It was windy and the minister's robes were flowing behind him!  They had to walk 5kms to the graveyard from the church and it was in the heat of the day.......

Here you can see the group of session clerks with one minister who were very active in their participation.

On Friday morning Nicolas and I decided to go out to visit two centres within Mzuzu to see how they were getting on.  The first one was at Msongwe and we found some children (there are 55 on the rollbook) but they had not yet all arrived.  They were very excited to see us.

I brought a box with some toys and the boys especially were very excited with the balls inside......

After Msongwe, we went to Lusangazi where we found only a few children with the caregivers - this was because of a funeral in the village and many of the children had not come.  In this culture if there is a funeral in the village everyone goes to it regardless of whether you knew the person well or not.  This causes many problems in the workplace when every day we have funerals here and so the workforce almost certainly has someone missing each day to attend a funeral.

On Saturday there was a state funeral for Paramount Chief M'mbelwa IV of Mzimba.  He was not only a chief but an Ngoni King and he died suddenly.  I did not go to the funeral but saw some of it on TV.  As an Ngoni he was buried sitting up as is the tradition so the coffin was not the usual shape that we know. Ngoni people bury their leaders in a seated postion so that they may keep watch on enemy armies, perpetuating the belief that Ngoni's never die but live on to play watchful roles over the living.  His body was viewed and he was sitting up holding his head in his hands with his glasses on - he just looked like he was sleeping! As it was a state funeral the President and many other politicians were in attendance.  Livingstonia synod were doing the funeral service which was accompanied by different funeral rites of the Ngoni people.  Apparently in the past when a chief died, the servant girl who worked for him was buried alive with him - nowadays that tradition is no longer followed, but a  bull is killed and its hide put around the chief and the gallbladder also put in with him!!

His son who was the crown prince will take over his throne! 

Yesterday I was driving in Mzuzu when suddenly a bicycle came at the car and as I swerved to miss it, it hit me and took off the back bumper part of the car.  I stopped and the guy on the bicycle was okay thankfully, but these are the perils of living in a city where most people travel on 'sacramento's' or bicycle taxis!

So that is how my week went - I hope you also had a good week and I wish you all a pleasant week ahead.

Blessings,
Diane

Hello everyone from a very warm and humid afternoon here in Mzuzu!

We are in the middle of the rainy season where its hot and humid these days.  We have had some days of really heavy rain day and night and its great to see the sunshine again.  Because of the humidity things are damp and there are now many mushrooms in the garden, and mould growing all over the place.  Thankfully we usually only have a few weeks of humidity!  

In some areas there has been severe flooding because of the heavy rains and people have lost their homes, but the good news is that in most areas maize is growing well and people are looking forward to a bumper harvest.

I heard a few days ago of a lady who had nothing to eat except the husks from the maize - the new maize is not yet ready and for many the old maize is finished so this is a time of scarcity.  Because of the currency, the Kwacha being unstable, prices are rising almost every day and it is hard for people to survive.

Time is flying past and its hard to believe its February already.  We had a sad occasion a couple of weeks ago when one of my trainers, Emily, lost her husband very suddenly.  Emily is our trainer in Mzalangwe presbytery.  She is expecting her fourth child and it was so sad when her husband passed away.  I went to the village with Nicolas and two other trainers as we heard the news after the funeral had taken place.  Here are some of the children outside the home.

As I said in an earlier posting, we are now doing Early Childhood sensitization with Ministers and session clerks in Presbyteries.  Last week we went to Limphasa Presbytery where we had a successful meeting.  It was great to see one of my past pupils from the nursery school in Zomba - he is now in Form 4 of secondary school and is taller than me - it made me feel very old!!  The ministers are keen to know how to assist us in the ECD centres and there were many questions!!

group work

Diane in action...

As I said we have been having quite a lot of rain and off the road travel these days is difficult as my colleague Vincent found out (the one in the red shirt) when he got quite stuck out in the field a couple of days ago!!

However, as is typical in Malawi, villagers quickly came to the rescue and eventually they got the car out!!

Last year in August, the Synod decided that Early Childhood Development would become a department, and it was very exciting on Wednesday as we had our first Board of Directors meeting.  Here you can see the members of the Board after our meeting when we went to visit our Preschool.  I am happy with the Board because all of them are interested in Early Childhood and some have even gone to South Africa to do Early Years training, so I hope we will work well together and be effective in supporting the children in our centres.  I just realised we are not very gender sensitive as we only have one lady on the Board and the rest are men!!  

My colleague Nicolas has been off for a few days now as he has malaria.  Please pray for his quick recovery - its very quiet in the office without him!!

Wishing you all a good weekend whatever you plan to do.

Blessings,

Diane