April 14 and 15

Wednesday, April 14

Happy Birthday Alyssa !!!!!!!!!

The morning started with Dyna and Alyssa awaking first, getting the fire going and morning prep started. Today was a big day with us “teaching” and then hosting a dinner for 17 at Alyssa’s house. We all thought it would be great to help out with Alyssa’s classes on her birthday. So we conducted an American/Malawian culture exchange for the classes of Form 1, Form 2 and Form 3. We refined our plans as the day went on, and it culminated with teaching the last class the Hokey Pokey! And they did not want to stop, even after 3 renditions.

How did we get to the Hokey Pokey? We conducted each class with variations of “Ask Alyssa’s family questions you have about American culture, school, family life, government, etc.” Without fail, we were always asked about dancing. As witnessed in the celebration the day before, these kids are quite accomplished dancers themselves We had many other very good questions, and were very impressed by the student’s attentiveness and respect given to Alyssa and us. They even rise when a teach enters the room, greet her in unison, answer her questions in unison and then wait to be told to be seated. Another treat for us was the singing of the Malawian national anthem by her Form 1 students at the end our class session.

After school, we hurried home to prepare for the evening feast. Alyssa was in her glory with her new dry erase board and wrote the menu, along with preparation plans, in brilliant colors. Dyna asked 3 friends to come help cook. We enjoyed the camaraderie and challenge of meeting the 5:00 deadline. Our meal was fantastic, thanks to the girls and the four fires they had blazing in Alyssa’s courtyard. The main dish was the chicken that was gifted to us the day before. Alyssa had the honors of killing it, and yes, we have pictures. One of the girls swiftly and skillfully plucked it and had it in a bucket of water before we knew it. Dyna got us laughing with her joke of the chicken “kicking the bucket”! Other dishes included American potato salad (an attempt to use up some of the gifted eggs and potatoes and Alyssa’s passion fruit wine as the vinegar), cooked greens, cooked vegetable medley, sima, rice, and pumpkin cake, made from the pumpkin gifted to us the evening prior and quite skillfully put together by Candy. As the adults were eating, the girls and some teen-age party crashers were laughing and having fun in the courtyard. The teachers and their wives thoroughly enjoyed the evening of food and friendship, along with their gifts of caps (with Michigan on the visor), chocolate, and Michigan playing cards. One teacher told Mark this was such a feast, it was like having two Christmases in one year.

The teachers left and we all went to bed. The dishes waited until the morning.

The Morning After (Thursday, April 15)

We were all a bit groggy—was it the late night, the barking dog during the night, or the MGTs? Mark got up to school to take a picture of the library with the students gathered, as did Alyssa to write some assignments on the board. We then headed to meet with Ground Nut Group, at the ground nut peanut fields. We love this group—they sang to us as we arrived. They are so proud of their work and also of the education they received (coordinated by Madame Alyssa) regarding business management and nutrition specific to living with HIV/AIDS. They all had their certificates of completing these workshops and posed for pictures. After visiting with them and walking with them to the warehouse where they hope to store the harvest, we began our walk to Bolero, about 8 km from Alyssa’s village. It was a delightful walk of greeting people and animals. In Bolero, we saw Johannah, the PCV, who will be replacing Emily. We enjoyed a quick Malawian lunch with her, and are now at Laura’s house using her electricity and hopefully internet access to post this blog. Tomorrow we begin our journey back south, stopping overnight in Mzuzu, to stay with the Steyn’s, who are South African and Zimbabwean friends of Alyssa. Then on Saturday we will drive to Lilongwe to stay the night before flying home. We are already asking ourselves where the time has gone.