Only a few more days left

***REMINDER!!! PLEASE DO NOT SHARE ANY OF THE PHOTOS WITH PICTURES OF THE STUDENTS!***

Mini! Muli Bwanj! 

I am writing this from our bus at the hotel. We have a bus that takes us to the school each day. Takes about an hour to get through Blantyre and to the rural area where MCM is. 

Today is Tuesday, and only have a few more days left with the kids. It is so bitter sweet. We all miss the creature comforts of home, but have fallen in love with the people of Malawi, but in particular, the students at MCM. I am starting to see the daily struggles that my students have to face each day, and how that impacts their learning. Everyday there are fights about resources, like pens, because the kids steal from each other and sell them at the market. These children, like millions of other children in Malawi, live in extreme poverty. Just last night we had to discuss as a group our garbage habits when at the school: we had been bringing yoghurts from the hotels breakfast buffet to snack on during the school day. The children are tasked with emptying our trash and they were observed removing our garbage and licking the contents. The children wear the same dirty uniforms every day. They wear shoes that are just barely held together. When we brought out the art supplies that we brought from the US, the kids madly clawed at them fighting for just one piece of colored paper. I could give you hundreds of other examples.

Still, each day, they show up every day and sit in their very hot classrooms with no electricity and very few supplies, and do their best to learn, study, and prepare for the their 8th grade exams. This is what all the students in standard 5th-8th grades are preparing for.

Our professors have done several trainings to all of the staff at MCM, including the kitchen staff, on grief and loss. Many of our students have lost guardians to HIV/AIDS. As a group, we are working on creating sustainable programs for the school which can carry on after we leave. At the heart of all that we do here, we stick to our ABCD framework: Asset Based Community Development. We consistently identify the strengths within the schools, within families, within villages, and within the communities. We have discussions with our MCM colleagues on how to build upon those assets. It’s an exchange of ideas, rather than a “missionary” approach. We consistently consider cultural context. 

We are also discussing the possibility of having some of the group return each year, so as to create continuity in the program. There is a LOT going on “behind the scenes” in the collaborative partnership between Binghamton University and MCM.

I’ve added pics of some of the students at play, and in their classrooms. As well as some pics of our weekend excursions, including Majete Safari park. 

Thank you all again for your support of this incredible experience!