Well our 2 week turned 2 month stay in Senga Bay has come to an end. We are now driving in the car on our way to Muzuzu to stay with Randy and Marty of Muzuzu bible collage.
Our last week in Senga Bay was full of “see you again” and “have a safe journey” (you don’t say good bye here). We worked Monday and Tuesday in the library. I finished the painting in the children’s corner. It is a picture from the Franklin book. I think it came out nice. Austin (a teacher at the Para Secondary School) was talking a lot with me over the last couple weeks and he explained to me that the children will just love it because Malawian people are not really exposed to art and especially murals; also most things in their lives are brown or very dull blues and pinks so to see bright colors and pictures on the walls will be something new for them.
Jarrod and Barry really struggled with the library all week. There is no electricity at the school or in the library so they have been relying on generators to power their drill. One generator worked for a bit then didn’t want to start back up, then they couldn’t use it another day because it was needed by someone else, then another generator came that worked and started up just fine but it only put out 3 volts of power. The last generator came and worked great, so much work was done that day and the boys’ frustrations quickly turned to progress.
Let me tell you a little about the library…
It is a building that is on the Parachute Battalion base but unlike the states anyone is welcome to walk on or off the base with no questions asked, it is not even gated. Even though the library is on the base and is right next to the Para Secondary School it is for anyone in the community. It is the first library in Senga Bay and has been funded by the people in the community. Many of the village and Army people contributed to the purchase of the bricks and cement to build the building and the Malawi Project donated the money for the roof. The 6000 books inside of it were all donations from Sam’s clients and the Malawi national library. A gentleman from the community has been sent to training in Lilongwe on how to properly run and organize the library. He will be the main librarian but teachers at the school said that they would help out on their off days. All of the teachers are so very excited about the space, every day that we are there they come in to see the progress and look through some of the books. The Minister of Education stopped by this week to see our progress. It is so nice to really see the people interested in the library. When Barry and Jarrod hung the first set of shelves everyone came running to see because they have never had shelves before and a shelf full of books is even better.
Plans for the future include a long ten person table for study sessions and homework small tables for works and reading or games of chess or checkers. They will be running electricity to the library hopefully by the end of the month for lights and for computers. The library is hoping to have 3 computers donated (do you have a computer you don’t want, it is duty free!) so that people can write papers or research the internet. That would just be a wonderful thing.
Now that we are leaving Barry will continue on for another week or so, but he and Jarrod have shown the men how the shelves are to be hung and if the volunteers can’t finish the work the Malawian men can definitely finish the job.
There is much more about the week to talk about but I will leave you with this for now so you can just absorb.
Much Love,
Kate
Our last week in Senga Bay was full of “see you again” and “have a safe journey” (you don’t say good bye here). We worked Monday and Tuesday in the library. I finished the painting in the children’s corner. It is a picture from the Franklin book. I think it came out nice. Austin (a teacher at the Para Secondary School) was talking a lot with me over the last couple weeks and he explained to me that the children will just love it because Malawian people are not really exposed to art and especially murals; also most things in their lives are brown or very dull blues and pinks so to see bright colors and pictures on the walls will be something new for them.
Jarrod and Barry really struggled with the library all week. There is no electricity at the school or in the library so they have been relying on generators to power their drill. One generator worked for a bit then didn’t want to start back up, then they couldn’t use it another day because it was needed by someone else, then another generator came that worked and started up just fine but it only put out 3 volts of power. The last generator came and worked great, so much work was done that day and the boys’ frustrations quickly turned to progress.
Let me tell you a little about the library…
It is a building that is on the Parachute Battalion base but unlike the states anyone is welcome to walk on or off the base with no questions asked, it is not even gated. Even though the library is on the base and is right next to the Para Secondary School it is for anyone in the community. It is the first library in Senga Bay and has been funded by the people in the community. Many of the village and Army people contributed to the purchase of the bricks and cement to build the building and the Malawi Project donated the money for the roof. The 6000 books inside of it were all donations from Sam’s clients and the Malawi national library. A gentleman from the community has been sent to training in Lilongwe on how to properly run and organize the library. He will be the main librarian but teachers at the school said that they would help out on their off days. All of the teachers are so very excited about the space, every day that we are there they come in to see the progress and look through some of the books. The Minister of Education stopped by this week to see our progress. It is so nice to really see the people interested in the library. When Barry and Jarrod hung the first set of shelves everyone came running to see because they have never had shelves before and a shelf full of books is even better.
Plans for the future include a long ten person table for study sessions and homework small tables for works and reading or games of chess or checkers. They will be running electricity to the library hopefully by the end of the month for lights and for computers. The library is hoping to have 3 computers donated (do you have a computer you don’t want, it is duty free!) so that people can write papers or research the internet. That would just be a wonderful thing.
Now that we are leaving Barry will continue on for another week or so, but he and Jarrod have shown the men how the shelves are to be hung and if the volunteers can’t finish the work the Malawian men can definitely finish the job.
There is much more about the week to talk about but I will leave you with this for now so you can just absorb.
Much Love,
Kate
Posts
This is Every teacher's dream!!! I am such a geek!! It sounds so rewarding! I can see why a Library would be exciting. I got excited while reading this. Have safe travels. Love and miss you both like crazy!!!
ReplyDelete