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.