A work day at Mbidi School
By Doug Stewart
Today was overcast for the most part – the first of its kind since our arrival. By local standards, this was considered a cool day but for us it was most pleasant and enabled us to do our work more efficiently out at the school site.
Andrew seemed to be everywhere today: on the ground where with the able assistance of Abby, he mounted some of the world maps on plywood for classrooms and continued with the construction of bookshelves; up on the roof of a new classroom installing a skylight; and on top of a ladder repairing the hoop for net ball. Abby showed just how skilled she had become at the end of a saw cutting many pieces of lumber for the bookshelves.
The painters, who today included Dave, Norma, Julie, Chris, and Doug, mounted a major push to finish the walls in the new classrooms. The upper half of the classroom walls are white and the lower half ivory, and with the final coats of paint now on the interior both classrooms look great. And, while the headmaster’s request to have the geometric structures in the classroom windows painted blue and pink – the school colours – raised a few eyebrows initially, all agree that the windows are quite attractive. Even the inside walls of the two existing classrooms got a much needed face lift and they certainly look the better for it.
Karen was in charge of organizing some classroom teaching. At one point she could be seen in the middle of the playground working with her teaching materials and six Standard Three students while many other students looked on. Her objective was to teach the children some basic logical thought using geometric shaped blocks while Norma was working with the Standard Six class on English vowel sounds and pronunciation.
Meanwhile, classrooms need doors and once again Brian could be seen persistently chiseling and planning away in order that good fits with door frames would be assured.
The highlight of the day was seeing the expressions of joy on the children’s faces when the sports equipment we brought for them was handed out. In front of the school, the girls could be seen playing a spirited game of net ball while on the backfield the boys were engaged in a robust game of soccer on an uneven dirt field in bare feet – they couldn’t have been happier. Unfortunately, the local carpenters did not show up today so no progress was made on the desks for the school classrooms.
Our final activity was a most interesting presentation by Dr. Jamu on the fishing industry in Malawi. He pointed out that Lake Malawi was the most species diverse lake in the world but that the number of species is in decline due to overfishing. He helped us to understand some of the current challenges and how the government, fishermen, and consumers are addressing these.
you guys look like your are having fun playing soccer we are now starting our socccer team at school. that is where we have a group of people in the school that enjoy playing soccer like you guys and we play against other schools in the area. i have a question what is your favorite subject in school my favorite subject is math. also we play a sport called basketball do guys know about it? it is my favorite sport!