Monday, December 5, 2011
Do you want to know the key to sleeping in an a place that is completely different than what you are used to and in a different time zone? Work super hard all day, pray, read the Word before going to bed and take a sleeping pill. Yep, that is my secret. Seriously speaking, this strategy has really helped me be ready for each new day of making friends and discovering the beauty and uniqueness of the Malawian people living in the villages.
Tila and I were out of the door by 8 am – on our way back to the village area that we were on Saturday. Amon our driver did a great job driving through the fog on the dirt road congested not with vehicles, but women, children, men cows, goats and dogs. The 2 hour drive was different today than on the weekend. People were out working the fields, working hard plowing by hand, planting seed, fertilizing, etc. (I am not a farming so forgive me on the details here). About 30 minutes into the drive, I was in a haze as the road seemed to feel harder on my spine today and the fog made it hard to see out. But then, out of nowhere, to my right a boy about 13 appeared on the edge of the field. He was looking at me, holding his hoe across the back of his neck with the other arm hanging over it. His red scarf was blowing and his eyes seemed to penetrate mine. I was frozen for some reason…then quickly I scrambled to get my camera but the vehicle was moving and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether to stop and go back or miss capturing this amazing and beautiful image. By now we had really gotten further down the road and so I gave up the idea of stopping. Why am I noting this? Because, even as I write this, I can see him clearly, the image still moves me.
Eventually we made it to Katsekera. Tila and I were greeted by the chairman of the CBO (Community Based Organization of the surrounding villages) and a few other people. Our goal today was to personally visit the Under 5 Feeding program that had been started by the CBO, then visit the Secondary School (high school) and finally, visit one of the three Primary Schools.
Under 5 Feeding Program
The Under 5 Feeding program is supposed to feed children at-risk of malnourishment 5 days a week and provide some development activity. I wasn’t sure what to expect. As we pulled up to a boarded up square hut, there were about 40 or so children squeezed on the “porch” or, more like stoop, half of them crying and most of them with runny noses. Two women stood next to them and one of them had register (a book that lists the children by name, age, etc and tracks their attendance). Tila and I greeted everyone. I asked to see the book. I quickly noticed that the register was falling apart, as if it had been used so much that it was disintegrating. However, upon closer inspection, Tila and I could see that only 2 weeks of activity have been were recorded (The CBO, with the help of some outside donations for the food, restarted the program in October). At a glance, the attendance checkmarks looked to be about 65%. I asked if the children go inside or stay out on the “porch”. They said, “No.” Then I asked what if it rains, what do you do? They said, “We don’t meet.” Tila and I looked at each other as if were knew what each other was thinking, “really?”. I asked to see the kitchen. The women took us around back to a round “kitchen” hut. I asked what were the specific ingredients in the big iron cooking pot on the ground over a fire. They told me it was corn meal (nsima) mixed with soya beans. For you and me, think grits with a porridge consistency. I asked what other ingredients was in there and what else to they eat. Nothing…and nothing. They were should have had green beans somewhere according to Tila – but we didn’t see them and they didn’t mention them. All in all, this is why Tila and I are planning to shut it down. Then we can open a new concept called a Learning Center at the nearby Primary School for these at-risk children, many who are orphaned. This new program would be run by VisionTrust and be the beginning of a long-term holistic development program that will not only do nutritional support correctly and consistently, but provide early childhood development and spiritual mentoring – all the way through Secondary School (high school).
Secondary School Interview/Visit
From the feeding center, we walked to the Secondary School. I asked Tila if we could “walk” the village so I can get a better feel for the village and get some badly needed exercise. (flights+meetings+driving for hours = very sore body). The school was about a 10 minute walk, just down the hill. We had a gracious welcome and we found ourselves in the headmaster’s office. I am not if I’ve mentioned this yet, but there is no electricity in this community unless provided by some localized source like solar, wind or generator. So, the office and school does not have electricity for lighting or information management on a computer. This little office was crammed with paper records and charts stuck to the walls listing facts about enrollment, who is responsible for what, lessons about seed germination, etc.
Tila and I spent the next 60 minutes quizzing the headmaster, named Mr. Pierce, about everything. He is in his first year at the school and lives with is family in the only teacher housing available. In villages, and some other areas, it is a common perk for teachers to have housing next to the school provided, much like the old days in the US. The pay is not great, so free housing makes up for a lot of lost opportunity. But the biggest reason for housing is that the teacher housing is usually the best in the area compared to the usual hut style buildings with dirt floors and thatch roofs. In other words, the way to attract a decent teacher (or for that matter any teacher), the community needs to provide housing. Most people are trying to get to the bigger cities where there is some infrastructure like electricity, running water and public transportation.
Back to Mr. Pierce. He said they have 150 students and 8 teachers plus one volunteer (18 students to 1 teacher)
Form 1 (9th grade) = 55 (30 boys / 25 girls)
Form 2 (10th grade) = 46 (25 boys / 21 girls)
Form 3 (11th grade) = 27 (15 boys / 12 girls…not sure on this number)
Form 4 (12th grade) = 22 (11 boys / 11 girls) IN 2010, only 8 of 20 students passed national exam for graduation. 1 who failed chose to repeat. The others quit.
Notice the dropout rate from Form 2 to Form 3, almost 50%. One huge reason is that the students must pass the national Junior Certificate exam to continue on in to Form 3.
School starts at 7:30 am breaks at 9:30 for 30 min, then breaks at Noon for 30 min, then finishes at 3:30 pm. The children bring water to school in pails/buckets if they want a drink and bring a snach/lunch. I didn’t get to find out the details, bummer. There will be a water source near the school. I walked down a few minutes to it. It is a “shallow well”, meaning, it is hand dug like a pit latrine, brick up with a cement top and pump (in these case). It is dug out, but nothing else has been done. The school has the cement and bricks to brick up the inside. Then they will wait for Concern Universal to install a hand pump and safe cover (these guys are an NGO contracted with grant money to repair boreholes – deep well with casing and a pump – as well as providing some new shallow wells.). The bummer is each school should have a borehole is possible due to the hygiene and high volume demands. As I inspected the well, I asked does it dry up during the dry months? They said, “Yes” and smiled. While the shallow wells are super cheap to do, they don’t make sense in this case for the reasons that I’ve stated.
Sports, Extra Curricular:
Boys like to play soccer and the girls “net-ball”. For the arts, they only have a variety type show. No music, no choir, no art, no, no, no.
I asked Mr. Pierce what his biggest challenge was. He said, “Having qualified teachers and keeping them.” He is the only one on staff that has a diploma in Education. The other 7 teachers completed Form 4. Three of them are trying to go to school for Education during the breaks between terms. Teachers at this school earn about $80/month compared to bigger city teachers at $150/month (qualified teachers in the city). In addition, he told me that they don’t have the teaching staff or materials for science (no books, lab or lab materials). Then I asked him why does he want to stay at this school so far from anywhere. He said is that he is called to improve education in the villages like this one. Tila asked Mr. Pierce what he likes the most. He said, “The school has a great relationship with the community.” He also told us that his students perform very good in Math and English.
School Funding Sources:
The school is funded from student tuition + Textbook Revolving Fund ($2.50 is once per year to assist with buying text books.). The standard tuition is $10 per term, they attend 3 terms per year. The $10 goes to the following expense:
1) $2.50 goes to Malawi Ministry of Education
2) $2.50 goes to General Purpose Fund (Parent Teacher Organization decides how and where to spend this)
3) $2.50 goes to pay the teacher salary
4) $2.50 goes to Development Fund (No idea where this goes)
In addition, the students must pay for peripheral items like supplies, uniform, and national exam fees, of which there are two:
1) Junior Certificate to go from Form 2 to 3 at a cost of $4
2) Malawi School Certificate of Education (basic high school graduation) to go from Form 4 to 5 and then on to college at a cost of $8
So, on average, a student in Form 1 to Form 4 needs to have approximately $32.50 to $40 + uniforms and stationary + lunch.
Primary School Interview/Visit (this is the central one, closest to the health center)
Tila and I walked from the Secondary School back to the center of the area where one of the Primary Schools is located. This walk took about 20 minutes. I enjoyed this time of seeing things from a different perspective and it gave me a chance to take some pictures as well as interact with some of the children in the area. It also gave me a feel for how long a walk it is to the Secondary School from the other two, more distant, Primary Schools – I bet at least 60 minute walk away or more.
Upon arriving at the Primary School, Tila and I were quickly whisked over into the worst room of all of the rooms at the school complex. It was the school office. Very narrow, dark and the walls were cracking and the roof has many small holes. Like the Secondary School office, this was THE place for all of the paperwork, reports, books and resources. Unlike the Secondary School, we had about 10 people in this meeting, sitting in close quarters. I enjoyed the open atmosphere and smiles. The headmaster of this school was the same gentleman that joined us on Saturday for our Community Based Organization meeting.
Soon we jumped into the details of the school. The complex had 4 buildings with two classes each, for 8 grades (called Standards). The older children had the newest rooms and the youngest had the worst. The community tore down one of the rooms on the end of the oldest building because it was ready to collapse. Honestly, the remaining two classrooms and office (where we were meeting) looked dangerous too. 10 teachers (including the headmaster) teach from 7:30 am to about 4:00 pm. They are trying a pilot schedule mandated by the government to balance the children out to improve the ratio of teachers per class.
1,2,3 got from 7:30 am to Noon and are split into 2 classes each,
Student to teacher ratio is 108 to 1! The classroom sizes are so large in the younger grades that they have to sit on the floor…all day….because you can only fit about 50 students with desks – if you are lucky.
Enrollment:
1080 children, 492 boys and 588 girls.
Standard 1 = 236
Standard 2 = 152
Standard 3 = 165
Standard 4 = 152
Standard 5 = 133
Standard 6 = 107
Standard 7 = 61
Standard 8 = 74
236 are in Standard 1 and 74 are in Standard 8. More than 66% of those who started in first Standard have dropped out by the 8th Standard.
In 2010, total enrollment was 1,487 children, nearly 33% reducation in attendance compared to 2011.
In 2010, 392 were in Standard 1 and 77 were in Standard 8. More than 75% of those who started in first Standard have dropped out by the 8th Standard.
OVERALL, I don’t think we need to guess if we should or shouldn’t work in this area…do you?
Funding:
Opposite from the funding model using by the Secondary School, the Ministry of Education funds the almost all of the costs for the school. The exceptions that we undercover, after over an hour+ of meeting, include a 25 cent stationary fee charged by the Parent Teacher Association for the Development Fund (meaning, they collect money in coordination with the headmaster and spend it on photocopies, extra chalk and other supplies.) This only comes to $270. If they collect it. We discovered that this fee isn’t successfully collected! In addition, the government sends (hopefully at some point in the year they told me) $420 for a total of $690 to buy supplies - for the whole year for the whole school! If the Standard has books for a subject, it an average 6 students to one book.
Each student finishing Standard 8 must take a national exam and pay the school about $3 some-time during the first term to cover the actual exam and extra time spent at school (Standard 8 stays the longest at school in an attempt to get them ready for the exam.)
Students are responsible to pay for the uniform, notebooks, pencils, etc.
Teachers are paid an average of $60 per month directly from the Ministry of Education into their personal bank accounts. The closest bank is back in Ntcheu, 2 hours by car, 52 km away. THIS means that these teachers who make only $60 per month have to spend money to travel to the bank a far way off to get paid. In addition, they have to travel on a business day when the banks are open. THIS means that they close school that day while they go get their money. THIS means in addition to any other holiday, or super bad weather, they will miss close to 12 more days of school because of this government solution. Again, Tila and I short of looked at each when we discovered this and the teachers smiled. Like they know this is not a good idea. But can you do? (I think we can do something!)
Drove all the way back, 4 hours to Lilongwe, the capital and spent the night at ABC, had a great evening with Tila and the Spencer family. Prepared for the next day’s chapel sermon until 11:00 pm.
Tuesday - Wednesday, December 6 & 7, 2011
Tuesday morning up at 6:10 am, breakfast with Tila at the Spencer’s and then I had the privilege teach the chapel sermon at 7:30 pm to a group of around 200-300 college students attending ABC. It was fun and the Lord I believe spoke through me. Amen! Then off to the airport, flying back through Johannesburg, South African, then to Franfurt, Germany, Chicago and finally to Colorado Springs (I am sending this email from Chicago…ready to board the final leg to Colorado).
Glory to God for all things!
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