So here is my Second Report and I have just had my Second Wedding so perfect timing! I would like to say I got there on time but that would be wishful thinking in Malawi. Got to love them! We were a lot more on time than last time though so thats always good. Anyway it was really good. It was Kiris wedding who is one of the Aquaid staff. She is Administrator at Thyolo. She is sooo nice and she looked stunning.
Anyway since I last wrote I have started teaching. I am teaching Standard 6 Mathematics and Standard 7 Science. In Malawi they have 8 standards in Primary and 4 forms in Secondary. Anyway its good and I think they understand. – Its quite hard sometimes as all lessons from Standard 5 up are in English which is good for me but not really for them as they dont have great English at that age but they are doing surprisingly well. They come out with some hilarious answers which I really shouldnt laugh at but sometimes you cant help yourself! I like teaching both but standard 6 are probably harder partly because they are younger but also because there are 67 in the class! – pretty hard work !
At the moment other than teaching I spend my time playing football with the girls who are coming on really well and are pretty fit since they spend their time running after the boys who have stolen there footballs! Seriously boys are right annoying sometimes! When Im not playing football I am leading devotions at the kids houses which is actually hilarious sometimes great fun! When I have nothing else to do Im most likely eating. Seriously the Malawians only have one aim for my year here and thats to get me fat! I managed to have Malawian porridge one day which is the most filling breakfast ever, I then went to church and when I came home was cooked a huge lunch then went to visit a friend who stuffed me full of biscuits and then produced a huge plate of Nsima. By time I was finished there I was too late to tell the house, I was supposed to be eating with, that I wasnt eating and unfortunately they had made too much so gave me the biggest helping ever. Thankfully they hadnt eaten as much as me previously so I didnt have to eat it all. I seriously thought I was going to explode! Anyway when I last spoke the Standard 8s, Form 2s, Form 4s, and the trainee teachers were all waiting for exam results. The Standard 8s and Form 2s received theirs about three weeks ago so are now back at school. They did really well and some of the standard 8s were selected to some of the top schools in the country which is really good – the Standard 8s at the Government School nearby all failed so Aquaid did amazing. The teachers and Form 4s are still waiting so Modesta, my sisters friend ,and a few of the others are helping out at Aquaid primary which is good as Malawians are often ill and since they are waiting for ten students to come they are sometimes a little short – so much so that I ended up teaching two classes one day, which is hard enough at the best of time but I happened to have a random cold and had pretty much no voice. It worked well enough well they did their work! The whole day everyone kept asking why I had changed my voice! I had to explain that I hadnt quite chosen for my voice to go!
Anyway I am pretty shattered right now since I have to get up at 5 or earlier to clean the house before school – seriously it is so annoying I literally finish and turn round and its all dusty again. Right now we have huge ant issues so much so that I think we have a nest somewhere in one of our settees but I just cant find it so cant completely kill them. Whenever we have visitors they start wriggling around after about ten minutes -slightly embarrassing!
Had the first rains last week and although its supposed to get super hot but its actually gone quite cold- not too sure whats going on just now .Its also gone pretty windy. There have even been a couple of mini twisters going round – this really wouldnt be a problem in Scotland but when you have to wear skirts here there can be some pretty embarrassing moments especially when our porch is like a wind tunnel!
Anyway right now my Chichewa is improving but it seems to be so slow. I think its because I so want it to come and as they say a waiting pot never boils. Im at the super annoying stage where I understand a bit but not enough to get what they actually want! Anyways thats my second update over. Speak soon.
Love Naomi. x
PS. Meant to say that I have named my first Malawian Baby! I named her Chimwemwe which means Happiness.
