English Language Class

Paul and I have started taking an English Language, after school class at St. Peter’s Secondary School, twice a week.  The purpose of the class is help Form 1 and Form 3 students feel more confident in communicating in English.  This week we had great fun tossing the pancake on Shrove Tuesday and of course eating the pancakes we had prepared earlier.

Visit to Katawa Primary

Today (Wednesday) we visited Katawa Primary School which is partnered with Caledonia Primary in Saltcoats.  We are delighted to pass on “May thanks” to the staff and pupils at Caledonia Primary for the wonderful gift of a reading scheme for the school.  The books will be well read by everyone in school.  The Head teacher explained that they only have one text book for teaching reading and there is only one book between 3 or 4 pupils.  Now individual pupils may have an attractive book to read.  Everyone was very happy today.

 

 

 

 

I wish to make an appeal to young readers – can you choose one book to pass on to a child here in Mzuzu?  Keep it safe until May and then I will arrange for it to be transported by container to Malawi.

We also gave a small gift of jotters from Caledonia Primary to the Head Teacher and Depute.  These jotters took 3 months to travel by container ship from Scotland to Malawi.

 

Valentine’s Celebration

On Friday at the Women’s Development Centre we had a Valentine’s Celebration with the children.  We took over pencils, pens and paper for the children to make a Valentine’s card or to draw a picture.  Someone had given us cucumber so we had cucumber sandwiches and I had made Marshmallow top hats, the night before.  The children enjoyed tasting the top hats for the first time.  The ladies had prepared an African drink in a big, blue plastic bucker, normally taken in the villages, made from millet and maize; all the children appeared to like it.  However, it did not look appetising to us because of the grey colour.

Baby Martin

Many people here are encouraging us to learn the Chitumbuka language; several of the ladies at Church always greet us in the local language.  Trinity Kamanga, in particular, makes us practise our pronunciation and gives us feedback .  On Sunday she invited us to see her new born grandson, Martin at her home.  Martin was born premature and in the hospital he had stopped breathing and the family was told nothing more could be done for him.  Trinity requested permission to try mouth to mouth resuscitation on baby Martin because she had been trained in First Aid.  Trinity remembered her training and prayed to God…alas, baby Martin started breathing!  Trinity told us that sadly many babies do not survive. 

Martin was just a few pounds when he was born but he is growing stronger each day.  He has lovely fine, black curly hair.  In the photo he is wearing the blue baby clothes from Scotland.

 

Martin's cousins came to visit and they were very happy to have their photo taken with Martin.

Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!

This entry is for the pupils in Caledonia Primary who were very interested in knowing about dogs in Malawi.  A couple of dogs came to our garden when we first moved into the house but now there are 6 wandering round looking for food.  The other day, they were even attempting to come into the house!  Dogs here are not kept as pets, the way we would in Scotland; we tend to see them roaming around.  Some dogs appear to be outside property, thus providing security.  Certainly at night on many occasions we hear dogs barking and at first light in the morning.

 One Saturday we noticed a few people walking with dogs which a very unusual sight here in Mzuzu.  A couple of these dogs were held on long metal chains while others were just walking alongside the people.  Apparently, the dogs were being taken to the Dipping Station to have their coats treated.  Although the dogs tend to run wild around the streets someone explained that in the interest of health, a person from the local housing area will take the dogs to the station.