First Days of Teaching

Monday was our first day of teaching the introduction to computers course. The hardest part in preparation was not knowing what to expect. Laura and I were both looking forward to starting so that we could get a feel for where the students.  It's hard to anticipate which things will be harder and which will be easier for them to pick up. 

For the first day of class we started at 8am and taught 5 classes of 4 students for an hour each. We began with introducing how to turn the computers and monitors on, how to use the mouse, how to open programs from the desktop and then some basics in Microsoft Word. We showed them how to change font size, style, color, and alignment. 

They were so interested and focused very hard as we were explaining how to do different things. Two of the students even began with the typing program and they were learning it very quickly. They began to get familiar with the keyboard and then they practiced typing out some sentences of their own. 

It was neat to see how much the students appreciate having this class and how excited they are to learn.  One of the students was typing how glad he was to have the two “sisters” from the US teaching them.  He typed how the class is an hour long but it feels like only a few minutes! He was clearly very happy to be learning.

I wore a chitenje for the first time Monday. Chitenje's are pieces of colored, printed fabric and the women wrap it around their waists like a skirt.  I bought one from the church which is blue and says Lutheran Church of  Central Africa. 

We taught straight through from 8am until about 2pm.  After our classes ended, we caught the minibus on our own for the first time.  We managed to get to the bus depot and then walked 45 minutes and made it home successfully!

Yesterday we had quite an adventure. Laura and I are practicing getting to the LBI with various means of transportation so that we know how to get there on our own.  So we got up early and left the house by 7am. We walked 45 minutes to the bus depot trying to backtrack our route since we've only ever walked home, and not there. 

We were told we could take one of 2 buses and one would bring us closer so we were looking for that bus toward Bunda College. The buses have signs in the front windshield telling which direction they're going. We made our way to the bus which was practically empty but we didn't see another one going in that direction. So we got in the minibus around 7:45 and we were supposed to begin teaching the first class at 8am. 

So we waited there. It’s an anxious feeling just waiting and not knowing how long it’s going to take, especially when you’re trying to get somewhere at a specific time. 

I got so excited every time there was one more person who came on the bus because that meant that we were one person closer to leaving. Then, just as it was full, a few people got OFF the bus and we had to wait again for those seats to fill up. That happened twice before it was finally full for good. It wasn’t until forty five (!) minutes later that we finally left the depot. As we started driving, we told the man by the door where we were getting off as he collected our money. I was so happy that we were finally going- it was about 8:35 by now. And then, just a couple minutes after leaving, we pulled into a petrol station and we had to wait in a line to get gas!!! So by the time we finally got to the LBI we were an hour late!

The students were already inside, on the computers and by now the second class was there ready to start. So we had 2 classes in one- it was a full class. Then, after an hour, it was time or the 10am class to begin, so we tried to get the previous 8 students out. Well, the second class wanted to stay longer since the first class was technically using the computers from 8-10 (2 hours since we were late) even though we weren’t teaching them for the first hour. So we were all mixed up with the classes and every computer and lap top was being used all day.

Then, at 11:30 we were in the middle of a class when the power went out! We do have 3 lap tops, but they  have almost no battery life so they weren’t much use with the power out. We of course had no idea how long the power would be out for, so we waited a bit. One of the students is more advanced with computers and he was hoping to learn how to edit videos so we told him we’d try and see what we could do. So while the power was out, I pulled out my camera and took a short video of the 4 students so that we can try to edit it depending on the software etc.

Posing for Picture During Power Outage

It’s amazing to see the enthusiasm of the students. Even while the power was out, the students still wanted to learn. One said he wanted to know what all the buttons on the keyboard are for so we started explaining. And then we showed them where to place your fingers for typing and they practiced, pretending to type things.

The power was out for 1 ½ hours and finally came back on a little after 1pm. So then we got another flood of people. The next class, plus the ones whose time was shortened when the power went out. It felt busy all day. They wanted to make sure that they all got their fair share of time on the computers. At the end of one class, one student was even telling me that he needed a couple more minutes because they started a couple minutes late!

Then after the last class, one student asked if his wife could come in and learn. So he brought her in and I started teaching her the basics. I think the other students saw that they were still in the room, and they wanted extra time too, so they started coming in for a second time! So all the computers were being used even after all our classes had ended and there was even a line of students sitting on the bench outside waiting for their turn!

We finally had to tell them that we had to go, and we left with the room still full of students and the whole bench outside full!

Last night we enjoyed spending some time with the nurse Melissa. She invited us over for dinner. We enjoyed warm lentil soup and even made homemade pretzels which were delicious! Yesterday afternoon it was so cold. The sky became completely overcast and I kept saying that if I saw that sky in the US I would say it would definitely rain! But since we’re in Malawi in the dry season, even with a completely cloudy sky, it won’t rain! It’s actually nice for planning- every day is a nice day and it never rains during the dry season. So with a cold afternoon and evening, the warm soup was much appreciated!

Wednesday-This morning we took the taxi ride to the LBI and we even arrived early to class! We opened the door, put our bags down and walked over to flip the light switch and….no power! We waited inside for a bit and then decided to sit out in the sun on a bench. The funny thing is we didn’t know how long it would take. Yesterday it was out for an hour and a half so I thought, perhaps it’ll be back on at 10am. The pastors were all talking outside waiting for their classes to start. Then they went in and we were still waiting for the power. One really neat thing was hearing all the men singing. About 60 men were inside a classroom beginning their classes for the day and the door was open and Laura and I were sitting outside waiting for power. The men started singing “Jesus Sinners Does Receive” and it sounded so neat. They sang all the verses and it was so peaceful.

Ten o’clock came and went and there was still no power. The secretary decided to join us and we started teaching her some card games and playing for a while. Then pastors would end a session and come outside for a break and then go back in for another session and back out and every time they came back out, we were still there, without power. One of the pastors said the power had gone out much earlier in the morning around 6am so it was out for a while. Finally about 12:30 it came back on! We had one full class but unfortunately most of the other students were not able to come in the afternoon. 

Then we left for the day around 4:30 to watch the pastors play a soccer match: Zambia vs. Malawi.  Apparently they’ve played for the past 2 years and one year Zambia won and the other Malawi won, so this was a tie-breaker and in the end Zambia won 1-0. It was fun to watch!

We'll just have to see if we have better luck with the power the rest of this week. Hope so!