Done

by Dom on October 7th, 2008

That’s what I’ve started signing in the log books instead of Dom. I looks pretty similar in my scribble. So I’ve moved in to Lilongwe yesterday and started my finalizing today. Sweet.

Saying good bye to my school was surprisingly easy. There were no last minute beggars. No super awkward gifts like a guinea fowl or something. Just a lot of people asking for penpals, so if you guys want a penpal…For real though it was nice. They mixed my farewell party in with the form four graduation so they could basically just add a few more lines into their speeches and cover all their bases. There was some good food and I had to give a speech as well. Took a lot of pictures, some with people, some just of people, some even just of things. I really can’t tell if I can speak/write well anymore even when I try.

The last night at site Yorgos and Mary Cate came up and we had a nice time. In the morning it was a bit weird when some, like 30, students decided to come up and just watch me pack and finish cleaning my house. I gave some last minute things away like extra toothpaste and matches and the like. I went down to the school when I was finished with my house and shook all the students hands, said some words and then got escorted out to the bus stage by a teacher and two students carrying my bags. It was nice. Then we sat for two hours waiting for a ride.

I won’t say my last ride into town was bad, just scenic. After the two hour wait we got a nice ride to Yorgos’ site and so that was nice to be able to hang out there with him for a little bit. Got some chips and a coke. Then MC and I rolled out, with a ride that we talked out of having to pay for, to Kasungu. Bike taxi-ed it from the middle of town to the junction and got a ride pretty quick that ended up buying us pizza and milkshakes at this first-world-ish place. Pretty awesome. And no truck bed rides at that!

A bit stressed

by Dom on July 22nd, 2008

Term three was over days ago now. I’ve come to Mzuzu to do some work. See Jenn left and I started thinking, I’ll see her soon, I don’t have much time left here. Only then I took it to the next level and started worrying about grad schools and moving out and TJ coming and my peace corps paperwork. I think I worried so much it caused my face to break out in hives. I think. It might not be hives. It might not be stress related. Could be an allergic reaction, though I didn’t think I was allergic to anything. Plan on seeing the doctors next week before I pick up TJ. We’ll see what they say. It’s starting to go away.

Another teacher was transfered from my school. I’m not sure if I’ve posted this already. It was the only woman we had. She was pretty awesome. Real nice, laughed at everything. So now we’re down to four plus me. I went to the division education manager with a letter from my headmaster to request more teachers. that was only a day or two ago though so no action has been taken. Atleast none that I know of. I hope I get replaced. They need it.

Jenn’s still in thailand. She went to Cambodia, said she loved it but super corrupt. Now I think she’s gone to visit Vietnam. From all her emails it really sounds like the place to be. Like the place to be. I’m a good bit jealous.

Jon and Emily

by Dom on June 27th, 2008

So Jon and Emily came and went. It was a great time. We spent a few days at my house where they saw me teach and helped me get water. We spent some time in Lilongwe doing fourth of July stuff and we went to the lake for a few days as well. I was impressed with how they handled all the situations. Like they were old pro’s or something. They were so easy it was great. They even cleaned my house and filled up all my water buckets while I was teaching the last day we were there.

It was nice for others to see the kind of things I get to face day in and day out. Like sweet random hitches and food that almost tastes American. We all actually thought it did taste American until Jon corrected us. Out of a room of 10 I think half did a double take when he said nik naks tasted nothing like cheetoh’s. Amusing. I got him hooked on bao. I just hope he finds people to play with besides Emily, cause I know she’ll get tired of it. If he doesn’t I just keep whooping him when I get back, well he did beat me two consecutive times and deemed himself the bao champion and started talking smack to Malawians saying he was the best. I don’t think he ever let them challenge his title though. He also was kind enough to bring a soccer ball for my school which was in desperate need of one. Though now, two weeks later, it’s almost unrecognizable from the bunch. It’s amazing how they treat things.

I think they had a good time. It was stressed by some of my previous engagements but they were good sports about it and seemed to make the best of it all. We made it to the lake and thats all I really wanted to do. Now they’re home safe. Back reliable transportation and food, and traffic jams, mcdonalds and headaches. Although I think traffic fume headaches are worse than sun/boredom ones. I’m extremely glad they came and I think everyone enjoyed meeting friends of mine.

Mid-term Break and then some.

by Dom on May 24th, 2008

So all of a sudden my school informs me that next week is our mid-term break. We missed the usual times because of holiday swapping. They negated the republic day holiday I think, either that or freedom day, and reinstated Kamuzu day… So here I am. It’s gonna be a busy break, because I feel like I should be using this time to research schools, but I have a bike training in Mzuzu later this week and then I’m picking Jon and Emily up at the airport! I’m real excited for them arriving, but real nervous about applying to schools. Just sitting at site with the days coming and going only being marked by new math topics makes me feel like I’m going to inevitably be late for all my deadlines. If you’re curious, I’m interested in a Masters in Industrial Design.

Last weekend though, I went down to Yulanda’s site and helped her run a workshop on how to teach math and science. It was pretty interesting but I didn’t realize it was going to be all me. I thought there was more going on, or I was just an assistant, but no, it was all me. I didn’t have much, but it was nice because it made me make it more interactive. We just discussed common problems and how to overcome them. I showed them some fun science experiments. The ones I used for my science weekend. I finished up teaching how to change from one base to another. It was a good time though a bit disconcerting initially.

Also, I don’t think I talked about this but I had a student come find me after classes because he wanted to show me a snake he found. He said he found it on the way to school in the morning. He pulled it out of a log. He said it was hit by a car. I asked how big it was and he pointed to a small tree. I was curious. It was like a 40min walk down and across the river along the road. It was obvious where he left it, there was a small crowd. It was reassuring to see the people because he was worried someone would have taken it “some people eat them” he said; alluding to the unscrupulousness of the people who engage in that. It turned out to be about a 6′-7′ python about as thick as my forearm. It was definitely dead. An interesting site nonetheless.

So I raced some form twos. I won. We ran the width of the soccer field. Twice. I beat them both times. HA. They asked me to come to sports later to teach them how to run fast. They actually said you should come to sports to teach them how to run. Except that whole L and R thing made me think he was saying learn. I didn’t understand him for like 5 minutes. It was amusing. I showed him how to do lunges.

One last thing, have you guys seen this madonna video on Malawi? It’s, uh, a bit intense. The mushroom cloud is a bit much. There aren’t any child soldiers here that I know of. There are little kids working in the fields and carrying bricks. That’s pretty standard. And of course AIDS is pretty bad, I can’t say I have much first hand experience though since I’m not in the health field. But geez, dramatic.

Cellphones and Logorithms

by Dom on April 26th, 2008

So my Celtel phone is lost/stolen(gone either way); so any number you have for me that has a 9 in it doesn’t work anymore. Zanzibar was of course good. You can read about it below if you like. Schools been school. Nothing uber spectacular. Just been playing guitar. It was suggested that I learn “Take this job and shove it” by David Allen Coe, to play at the 4th of July celebration, if I play. Still need to look up the tabs, but it should be fun. Got a couple parties coming up.

Made form 2 compete against form 4 in a sudoku puzzle. It was a good time. They did pretty well too I was impressed. Although they have the hardest time differing how to find the degree of a monomial vs. a polynomial. (now I know most of you don’t know what I’m talking about but if I showed you how in a 40min period you’d probably be able to know the difference…I hope.) I’d never heard of a monomial before, but maybe I just don’t remember. Learned the defiintion of a logorithm too. That was crazy; I never knew. Just thought it was some other operation that gave an answer. Although again, I probably just don’t remember.

Current News.

by Dom on March 3rd, 2008

So I’m down in blantyre for a party of the birthday kind. It was good. It’s over. I need to be heading back to site now. We played a pretty sweet game of charades the other day though. It was great, I love that game.

Term one is almost over. It’s pretty great. Now were just revising(reviewing) and preparing for the term tests that honestly don’t mean much in the scheme of things. Just a formality they enjoy. I guess I enjoy the relaxation they afford. Then I think I’m going to head to Zanzibar for the term break. That should be fun. I need to party a bit. Though I don’t think I’ll get my fill until I get home and can actually relax. Then term two begins and that’s my last big hirah. It’s extra long this year, 15 weeks, but oh well. After that it’s a couple more months and a ticket home. Crazy.

new head and other parts

by Dom on February 16th, 2008

so the shift key doesn’t work here. it’s obnoxious. i got a new headmaster. my old one was awesome but got transfered to a school that has just started. so i got some new guy. doesn’t really seem to know whats going on. i gotta say it’s really decreased my dedication to the school but it’s harder just not having someone that’s easy to ask questions to about culture or just the best carpenter. the deputy headmaster left to, so we’re a teacher shorter than we were. i think we’re at 6 with me. not too many. oh well.

did the science experiment thing at my school. had over 100 students and a few teachers there. it was pretty awesome. gonna try it again next week at yorgos’ site. he’s got a lot bigger school so things will be a bit different. i’m happy with how it’s turned out though.

i think some other things have gone down but i just don’t really remember them right now. my students are kind of pissing me off with how little effort they seem to give compounded with how little they seem to be paying attention in class too. i’ll go through a whole problem explaining it. one that i gave for homework - that no one did. a kid will say ‘i don’t understand any of it, can you just repeat it?’ wastes a whole class cause they can’t put effort forward. this of course also decreases my dedication. whatever.

just got back from a night at the lake though. it was needed. a nice relaxing party and swim. great weather too; we’re in a drought right now. the rains have stopped for a couple of weeks. might try to see this ex-pat today too who has a shop and keeps a lot of potentially useful trash. she said we could rummage through it to see if we needed any of it for the experiments.

Term 1 ‘08

by Dom on January 11th, 2008

So Mid Service Training is next week. This past week I started teaching. I teach Form 1 Physical Science, Form 2 Math and Form 4 Math. It’s really amazing how much Form 2’s English came along because I’ll tell you, Form 1 doesn’t know squat. It’s so difficult. They don’t answer questions, write notes, even look at you like your from earth. I’m also the Form 4 Formmaster. That means I take role. Yay.

We also moved the plantain trees that I planted; they were getting too much water and rotting. I also tried to plant some seeds. I know I did a poor job, but it was the most effort I could muster. I planted cucumber, loofa, onion, and tomato. Something might grow. We’ll see. Otherwise, just looking forward to next week. Today isn’t that great. I still have loose stooles, as they say. I doubt I spelled that technical word correctly but we’ll see. Thanks for the dictionary mom, it’s in Mzuzu. Shephards pie for dinner, think I’m gonna go buy some beer.

Stop-over

by Dom on December 21st, 2007

So I went back to site finally. It was nice to be back but it wasn’t nice getting back. I should say travel was ok but my house was a bit distressed, to use a parlance of our times. There was mouse crap all over my bed. Like all over. I tied it and tucked it in before I left(which I did this time too) but they ate a hole through my net right behind my pillow. Talk about gross I couldn’t handle it. All I could think of was how MC told me she came home to find a mouse nest under her pillow once. Disgusting. I got my headmaster to come help me hunt out the mice. There weren’t any I’m happy to say. We then got some students over to sweet and mop and all was well. The funny thing was the only thing I found that was eaten by the mice was my bedside candle. Oh well. That was the idea initially leave no food for them and they won’t come. Only they came, just didn’t stay, which I guess is almost as good.

I spend the remainder of the week debating whether it would rain too much any given day to do laundry on that day(I got those sheets washed) and marking papers. Now I’ve come up to Mzuzu so I could email this school in England my school has the “educational link” with, and hang out until Christmas-ish time to head to Paiges, on the lake. She’s having a shin-dig.

Now and Later(those were good)

by Dom on June 20th, 2007

Ramble on…So Dom’s bored. Yes this post didn’t begin with “so” but it almost did. I’m hanging out one more day before going back to site just to make sure. Today is my eat-normal-day-and-see-how-bad-it-messes-with-me day. Sounds like a good day doesn’t. I’m hoping so. I don’t know what’s for lunch yet but breakfast was pretty fantastic. I was given some ham, so I fried it with two eggs and I bought bagels from a resteraunt yesterday so I put all that on a bagel and did that twice to make two sandwiches. The first two eggs I got scared and decided I was too inept to fry them good so I omlettized them…bad choice. The second sandwich I regained my courage and went for it. They turned out fantastic, that nice popping white around the runny yellow middles. Mmmmm. Actually found a bit of cheese for the last part of the last sandwich, which of course escalated these from excellent, to legendary. Yes I said it. I’ll say it again. Legendary.

Anyway enough of that drivel. My house is coming along. I need to find some good plants. I really really want to plant some Vidalia onions. I also need some vines for the porch and I think I’m going to grow some loofa in this big back pot I have my spout bucket draining into to pose as a sink. I think I might also use my “sink” as a seed bed to transplant stuff out. Either that or toss in some herbs and do it up herb-garden-style. We’ll see. I can always buy another huge clay pot for 150MK(~$1) and do that in it. I also might get a rocking chair built still. I haven’t heard back from the people at Luwawa. I need to go down there and talk to them, I just don’t know when I’ll make it.

So school wise, I’m thinking of trying to do like a monthly big science experiment one weekend. Purely voluntary, keep it fun and maybe even applicable. I might try to get Yorgos involved to help me explain the science and then we could do it twice, once at my place and then at his. A bit too busy right now to really get that started though, so it might have to wait until next year. I don’t really know what experiments I’d do either. I can picture 3L coke bottles flying into the air, but I don’t know how I’d make them do that or where I’d get these bottles from. So who knows.