Meeting Our School Partners
June 25, 2009
On Thursday we road the bus to our first partner school, Malemia Primary School, a village school in the Domasi area, off the paved road. At the sight of the bus, children swarm across the playground to greet us. Esther Majawa, the head teacher, greets us and we tour the school: visiting each classroom, meeting each teacher, and greeting the pupils as they rise to chant their welcome. Today is market day, so classes have anywhere from one-half or more absent. We see the grass structure they have constructed to house the feeding program that is currently funded by the Chibale Project, a joint effort of Radford University, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina A&T. Many U.S. friends contribute to the Chibale Project, which not only funds the feeding program but also scholarships that assist students who have been selected for secondary school but cannot afford to attend.
The bus drops us at Domasi Demonstration School, about a mile from Malemia and located on the grounds of Domasi College of Education. Here is where the North Carolina A&T team will spend the next three weeks. Although a public school, the Demonstration School has an application process. Ausman Ngwali, the head teacher, welcomes us and we move to a “common room” for introductions. Classes are busily working, so we try to keep our visit to a minimum of disturbance.
We set out across the Domasi College campus, cut through the woods, cross a soccer field, cross a bridge for the Domasi River, and emerge at Domasi Government School, where a new head teacher, Hilton Mautonga, eagerly awaits his first visit with our group. Virginia Tech students will work here for three weeks. Mr. Mautonga takes us on a tour beginning with Standard 1. At each room he respectfully waits until noticed, then explains his purpose, and is invited in. We troop into each classroom, again pupils rise and chant their greeting. This time our students take turns returning the greeting and giving permission to be seated. We move through the standards being welcomed by teachers that Virginia Tech has worked with for several years.
The Commons Room at Malawi Institute of Education, which borders Domasi Government School, is a welcome sight for our students – they have cold soft drinks for sale. We adjourn to our classroom at MIE, where we eat our lunch and have a whole group discussion of the three universities where we process our experiences so far, especially the initial school visits.
We end the day by stopping in Zomba to buy water for the next few days – almost everyone buys four 5-liter jugs because we’ll put them on the bus for the drive up the hill to Annie’s Lodge.
