Happy Fourth of July Everyone!!

I want to apologize for not uploading photos. Please check out my fellow WC Volunteer’s blog to see photos and videos:
A Worldwide Education

Emily is working towards her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction in Social Studies and the University of Missouri.

We are celebrating with you in spirit (and with some spirits) here in Malawi!! We are also celebrating the completion of our first Camp.

We have been teaching for the last three days in the village of Kalonga. I have no idea how to find this on a map, but if I had to give directions– Drive about an hour from Lilongwe down a paved road, past the Carlsberg billboard, take a left on the red dirt road, past a few ox driven carts and over a hill and the school is on your left.

The sights, sounds and dust are overwhelming to describe. The first day of camp our vehicle was surrounded by children, waiting to grasp our hands and greet us with smiles, two-handed handshakes and, “Mulibange!” After rallying the students with songs and dances we divided into classes with our translators and co-teachers and all of our educations began.

Our classroom was a dustcovered room, bare of desks or chairs and without a bulletinboard in sight. 23 kids– statistically, given the percentage of HIV infections in Malawi, 3 or more of them, already infected with HIV. 2 teachers and our translator ready to help them discover the means to help themselves and their communities thrive.

Over the three days, we taught our students the ways HIV can be transmitted, how HIV develops into AIDS, ways to protect from HIV and then transitioned into environmental protection– deforestation prevention and solar power. In my 5 years of teaching, I have never taught such respectful, engaged students in my life. That could be because they are used to getting the switch for an incorrect answer, but I’d like to think they truly were learning.

It was incredibly powereful to hear a student respond to the question, “What can we do to help prevent deforestation?” with the response, “We can go out and tell our village and community all about what we have learned and about how forest help protect our soil and grow food for our communities.”

It is difficult to see such amazing kids, smart, respectful, hilarious, bright kids, knowing some of them will die of AIDS, and have to leave them after a few short days– but I hope and believe that our teaching is impacting them and empowering them. ..g