#3rd + 4th month (October + November)
By now it has already been 2 months since my last blog entry in the
end of September, how time flies!
The beginning of October started with a pleasant diversion from my
daily routine here at Mpemba. On occasion of the Day of German Unity, the
German embassy in Lilongwe invited all volunteers to a garden party at the
house of the ambassador on 3rd of October. As I am the only
volunteer at MOET by now it was really nice to meet some other Germans, and to hear
about their projects which are spread all over Malawi. After finishing our duty
of helping to prepare and serve some small snacks and drinks in the beginning,
we could enjoy the party as well. They served real bread, bacon, “Wiener
Schnitzel”, “Currywurst” and lots of other things that German expatriates and
volunteers like me were missing a lot!
The garden of the residence
At MOET I had the chance to go deeper into the philosophy of Permaculture at a special 2-days “Permaculture Training” for all of the MOET
staff on the weekend. We learned about the principle of “everything must at
least serve in 2 ways”, which means that you should not just throw away things
like empty bottles and plastic bags etc. after using them once but reuse them.
Additionally we were taught about ways to use the resources of nature sparingly
and about sustainable ways to plant vegetables, like using a growing bag. In the
practical part we even did one growing bag ourselves and I had the chance to plant my own
seedling! Every morning when I go to the Standard 6 classroom I can watch it
growing a little bigger J
The growing bag we did. Later we added the
seedlings
The next week will be very important for the learners, as the “End
of term one examinations” are taking place in all subjects and for all
Standards from 1 to 8. As I have been teaching English Grammar in Standard 6
for almost 4 months now, these examinations will also be quite suspenseful for
me. I really hope they will show that my teaching has had at least some impact
and that the students will do very well in answering my questions.
“My” Standard 6 students J
I just wanted to take a photo of what I
have written on the board... but every time I take out my phone, a group of learners
suddenly comes to the front to pose for a photo :D
The last weekend was a very nice one, because the class teacher of
Standard 6 invited me to his home for lunch. We were eating “Nsima” (maize porridge,
the Malawian national dish) with sweet potato leaves and freshly caught fish
from Lake Malawi. Afterwards we hiked a small mountain (“Koche Hill”) next to
his house and he was quite proud to show me some pieces of the Malawian
infrastructure like a big water tank, which is supplying all of the surrounding
villages with treated drinking water and a very high mobile phone tower by the
Malawian network TNM. On our way back, the class teacher of Standard 5
surprisingly joined us and we went the way back together with him.
Well, hiking can be
dangerous in Malawi at times. You must take care of your steps, if you don't
want to fall down an edge, when the way suddenly stops.
