Malawian Children & Writing Stories

When I talked to the headmaster of Mphungu School yesterday, he told me that the classes have already begun to use the Kids4Kids books. I want the books to speak for themselves, so I am trying to take a hands-off perspective on them. How the school uses them is up to the school.

When I arrived at the headmaster's office, another headmaster from another area school was there. She was reading the yellow book and discussing it with the deputy head. Since they were speaking in Chichewa, I could not understand what they were saying. Body language indicated that the conversation was about the book and comparing it to what the children were doing at their schools.  

Red Books Delivered!

Today I took the red book collection to Mphungu school. I wanted to actually take the book and give them to the students, but the headmaster took the books. He stamped the school stamp on the books. They are currently in his office. I have had to let go of control and trust that these teachers will do what is best with our little books.

I believe strongly that we should not go into another culture and tell people how to change their lives. We can offer what we have, but in the end the outsider should allow those in the community to take what is offered and use it the way they see fit. This is why I am so careful in what I offer. Once it is offered, it is no longer under my control. So today I had to let go of the control of our little books. I have decided that this school, Mphungu, wants our books. I do not know how they will use them, but it will certainly be interesting to find out!

Since one of our goals for Kids 4 Kids Publishing was to get the children to write their own stories to share with the children in American, I have suggested a writing contest for the school. I have also offered to provide the prizes for the winning authors. The headmaster has suggested the prizes be pens and school notebooks. There is no time during school for the children to write original stories, so I will be interested to see how this takes place.

As I was leaving the school today, the standard 2 class saw me. The little ones gathered all around me to greet me. As I was shaking their hands, they were pushing and shoving each other so terribly that the smallest children were falling down. One boy (I assume he was also from standard 2) started to repremand the group, and he pushed the children back from me so that I could actually get out of the gate. As it turned out, this little guy was the class leader. Elected to this position by his classmates. I praised him for his leadership. He jumped right into a situation and corrected it!

Mphungu School, Lilongwe Malawi

I am in the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe. Things are different in Lilongwe than they are in the villages. Although you cannot find American fast food, you can go to a shop and order a hamburger and french fries. But of course, most people would much rather eat nsima!

I took a collection of Kids 4 Kids books to Mphungu School today as I went to visit for the first time. I wanted to meet the faculty and students before I assumed that they would want to have the Kids 4 Kids books. I gave the headmaster the book collection. He seemed to think that they would be useful for the students.

Mphungu School is a government school. This means that it is a public school, just like Morris Brandon. However, it is very different than Brandon! First of all, there are many different buildings. Each building holds only two or three classrooms. Each classroom leads outside. There is no glass in the windows of the school buildings. The doors are made up of bars. So when you close the door, the wind, dust, and noise still comes through. The rooms are pretty neat because the chalkboard is painted all around the room at student height! There is a larger chalkboard section at the front for the teacher.

The roof is made up of tiles. I could see bits of the sky through the tiles, so I was wondering if perhaps the rain could also get through. There wasn't any electricity in the school classrooms. No lights...no overhead...no computers! The school does not have a library, playground, or lunch room. The kids do get break time. During break, they chase each other or sit up on the wall and eat their snack. School runs from 7:30 until 1:00.

After having a successful visit at the school today, I will return tomorrow with one set of 40 stories. I am not sure which book I will choose, but I know I will not have enough of those books for even one class. There were over 90 students in the standard 5 English class I observed today. I only have 40 copies of each story.

I am not sure how the Kids 4 Kids stories will work at the school. I will play it all by ear tomorrow. Since I am only going to take one set of books with me, I can always adjust the following day.

Packed but......

Well....I guess I only thought I was packed! When I got to the airport I had to repack the books into two suitcases because they were too heavy for one suitcase. Luckily, we had brought an empty suitcase with us...just in case! (Many years of practice with international travel does pay off!)

The customs officials here in Malawi were not quite sure what I was doing with so many little books. I tried to explain, but I am not sure it all made sense to them. However, they waved me on and allowed me to pass.

I have already shared some of the books with the Kayuni children. (Samuel Kayuni has two biological children and 25 chosen children. Most of the Kayuni children are away at Secondary school, so there is only a handfull of children left here in Lilongwe. The secondary school is a boarding school located in Mazuzu. I am not sure I spelled that correctly! ) The kids loved the fact that children from America actually wrote stories for them! They have written some stories in return, but it was not easy. SOOOO I am getting the children to tell stories first. I think through telling stories, they will get more excited about writing down their stories. I am also giving them many opportunities to draw pictures so that they can really get into drawing. I am hoping that this will excite them about illustrating their stories.

I had plans to bring books with plain paper in them, so the children wouldn't have to draw on lined paper. There is computer paper here, but it is difficult for me to get to the store that has plain paper. I can easily walk to a shop that sells little school notebooks. They cost about ten cents, so that is what the children are using to draw in. I will keep you updated!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

The Kids 4 Kids books are all packed in my suitcase.  I had to buy a new suitcase to fit all of the books inside.  I usually travel with only carry-on luggage, so it will be an adventure to see if my suitcase makes it to Lilongwe, Malawi with me!  I HOPE that the suitcase will be under the weight allowance. I can hardly lift it! We'll soon see!

There are 6 readers: yellow, orange, blue, green, red, and purple.  Each reader has multiple stories in them.  There are 50 copies of each reader. In addition, one of the fifth grades wrote stories for me to take.  There is only one copy of each of the fifth grade books, but they are wonderful stories.  I regret that we do not have multiple copies of them, but we can only do what we can do!  

I leave for Malawi tomorrow.  It will be exciting to find out how the children in Malawi enjoy the books.  I hope it will excite them to want to write their own stories.  If it does, I will bring their stories back with me to publish for kids here in Atlanta. 

Tennie, my Old English Sheepdog, sits sadly by my bag.  She knows that something is up.  Since she barks non-stop when we travel in the car, I don't think I'll be bringing her with me on this trip! (Can you imagine what the bark of an Old English Sheepdog sounds like?  --- THINK LOUD!!!)