DAY THREE BOMA SCHOOL

I am disappointed to find I cannot add video for you to see as the files are too large but I will try.

Day 3 and today is a teaching day for me. The Headmaster, Mr Foster Amose, is very keen for us to share good teaching practices so I am going to tell the children the story of the Little Red Hen.

First, Ruth Phiri (our link coordinator at Boma school and the lady who you may remember visited us a few years ago) and I set off to visit Standard 6a. The children were sitting at desks or on the floor and in the middle of a lesson but the teacher was expecting us. There are not enough desks for all the children so some sit on the floor. Generally, if you are the last one into the classroom or you are late, you sit on the floor.

When an adult enters the classroom, the children all stand up and say 'Good morning Madam. You are welcome Madam.' The teacher then says, 'Good morning children. You may sit down.' 'Thank you Madam,' chorus the children before sitting back down in silence.

So I introduced myself and explained how our schools are linked and with Ruth's help began to tell them the story of the Little Red Hen which they repeated back to me with story actions. "Once upon a time there was a Little Red Hen who wanted to make some bread..." Once Ruth explained that they were meant to copy me, they did exactly that. Even if I said something that wasn't part of the story, such as, 'Oh, we forgot the part where we grind the wheat...' or 'Could you hold this picture please Ruth,' then they would repeat that too. It was quite funny as the children were all vey serious indeed until I made a pig noise and that made the children and Ruth laugh as I don't think they usually do things like that in schools in Malawi :-)

Standard 8

I told this story with pictures to children aged from around 9 to children in Standard 7 and 8 so children up to the age of around 12 and 13. I taught six classes and only one of them giggled or found it funny. For the older children I decided to tell them the bible story of the Lost Coin as you saw Elephant class retell in assembly before I left to visit Boma school. We started with a 'Hot and Cold' game in which they had to find a silver coin that I had hidden in the classroom. Then we learnt the story with actions. Afterwards I explained how the story tells us that God never gives up searching for us until he finds us. The children were wonderful in every class  and I told them how much I appreciated their respect and participation. They asked me about the children in England and what they did after school and we compared it with what they did after school. It seems that children in Malawi are more involved in the work around the house and home - sweeping, cleaning, helping to gather firewood as well as playing games. Then Ruth decided that I should try to tell the Little Red Hen story to the youngest children even though they don't speak much English.  Standard 1 children (aged 6 which is when they start school here) had had their porridge and gone home after first break but Standard 2 children were still in class so off we went. These children were the same age as my own class but spoke only a little English. They were very impressed that I could say 'Koukou' or perhaps that is spelt 'Kuku' in chechewa which you may remember is the word for chicken. Ruth taught them the English words for cat, pig, dog, cow and chicken and slowly, a few words at a time we told the story in English and Ruth translated it into Chichewa so they would understand. They were brilliant - I bet we couldn't tell a story in Chichewa!

Standard 6

I shared with the children some of the fun things we do when you are all a bit fidgety - show me five fingers, or actions with our hands that you all follow - and they very much enjoyed them. At Boma, the teachers say, 'Order!' and the children repeat, 'Order!' and stop talking. Sometimes they sing a song the teacher told me so I asked her if they would sing one for me. They sang, 'We are marching in the light of God' and not in Chichewa but in English. It was a bit more fun than our version so we must ask Mr Foster Amose to teach it to us when he visits us next June.

Standard 2

Then it was time for lunch at the Head Teacher's house after the children had all gone home at 1.05pm. When I say the children had all gone home this is not strictly true. As I mentioned before, I think, the children don't have TV to go home to so they often hang around at school in the playground and play with each other before going home a bit later. Also, local children come and drink water from the water tap or just hang around to see what's going on!!

Local children getting a drink and just hanging around in the afternoon in Boma School playground.

After lunch, Mr Foster Amose and I talked about how we are going to link our schools over the next year before he visits us in June. We are going to write stories, carry out a litter pick and sort to see if our waste products are similar or different and explore the results in terms of global citizenship and responsibilities, and the Pupil Council in Boma and at Sissinghurst will appoint water monitors.
Boma school were given a large water container which links, through pipes, to the main supply.

The water storage tower funded by charity for Boma School.

 The pipe then runs underground to the tap you see in the picture below.

Boma School water tap - one single tap for 4,600 children and Mary's Meals kitchen.

 This is the only source of water for the school which you will remember has 4,600 children and 63 staff. The large green bucket is filled up by Mary's Meals kitchen staff who volunteer to come to the school and cook the 'para' or porridge that the children eat each day at break time. The women fill many of these large green buckets with water and then carry them on their heads to the kitchen where they mix the water with maize before making porridge in huge pots which sit above open wood fires.

Chris and I attempted to life the buckets and I could not even lift them off the ground. The children use their cups - you see a small green cup in the picture of the tap - for 'parra' and for drinks of water throughout the day. One of the things we could help with would be to house the tap securely as the children play with it and it is beginning to look like it will break which would be a disaster as you can imagine.
When the children arrive at school I noticed many of them are carrying sticks. I was told that each child brings some firewood to school and it is used by the volunteers to burn underneath the large pots which cook the porridge.

Mary's Meals Kitchen at Boma School. Firewood is brought in by the children and piled up outside ready for the volunteer staff to use to cook the porridge.

By the way - I have only seen one spider and that was in the hotel. It was large and ran like the wind. We all stood up on our chairs and a member of staff chased it around the room with his shoe...very funny indeed! In the back of a jeep on the way to climb up Black Rock to see the sun set over Kasungu Park there was a small stick insect. It was quite sweet but next to me which was not a wise decision. It's little legs waved and it walked towards me and I leapt off my seat and sat in on the floor to avoid it. Another teacher said she would pick it up...no problem she said...and she let it walk onto her hand. When it's little legs tickled she was scared and threw it off her finger! Luckily, Frank who is one of our drivers from Malawi picked it up and carefully put it outside. Phew. A few days later I saw an enormous stick insect and said to everyone that it was lucky that our stick insect in the jeep had not been THAT big! No...said Frank...that is a praying mantis....WOW! The only horrid thing was Tetse flies that flew into the jeep through the window. Everyone was trying to swat them as they carry a disease called Sleeping Sickness. I squashed one with my water bottle and it was full of blood so we knew one of us had been bitten...heavens how horrid. They are very unpleasant and all around the park land there were special traps to stop them from proliferating. House point for anyone who looks up 'proliferating' and can tell me what it means :-)