Car accident

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

-Zomba Diocese St. Joseph’s Primary School for girls (public)

-car accident

*news article about Malawi teacher’s union going on strike

1,300 students and 29 teachers

The standard 8 students were not there because they had already sat for their exams.

70% of the Standard 8 students go on to public Secondary schools.

The class has 9 subjects

1.     English

2.     Math

3.     Social Studies

4.     Agriculture

5.     Life Skills

6.     Bible Knowledge

7.     Chichewa

8.     Science

9.     Expressive Arts

When we arrived at 11:00, the youngest students had already finished for the day and they crowded around our car.  We took pictures and they tried to touch my arms and get me to take their picture.  The kids loved to say “hi” and stick out their tongues for photos.

We were led in small groups of 3 or 4 teachers to classrooms.  We went to a Standard 5 mathematics.  When we walked in the classroom, there were 150 girls sitting in rows on the floor with their legs out.  The teacher was teaching how to tell on a digital clock.  She first drew an analog clock and showed the student a real clock. Then she drew a circle and showed digital time. The students were called on and after each correct response; the whole class would clap once to praise the other learner.

I don’t understand why there are so many students in each class.  It seems that one teacher teaches 150 students while the other teachers are on break. It also seems like the teachers are walking around when we first get there and then go into the classrooms.  It seems odd to me that they leave large groups of students unattended.  In the US, we would never be allowed to leave students by themselves.

After the school we were in the car on our way to the University.  Our professor was supposed to speak at the college and we were late. When he called to tell them that we were on our way, they said that he is supposed to speak tomorrow.  Ooops.  Since we had some free time, we decided to stop at a local market.  Our driver Harrison pulled into a parking spot on the side of the road.  He hopped out to open the door because the child safety lock was on.  As Harrison reached for the door, another car turned the corner, slamming into the side of the van striking Harrison and throwing him to the ground.  Dr. Vokhiwa jumped out and pulled Harrison up.  He was very shaken up and his leg was badly hurt.  Crowds of people gathered around, getting involved in the conversation.  There car was driven by a women and she moved over and her husband got in the driver’s seat.  We later found out that she did not have a license and her husband was trying to teach her to drive.  The police were called but our other driver took the smaller car to the police station to get them to come faster.  He found them at the police station eating lunch and drove them back to the scene to expedite the process.  It took about 30 minutes to get the police to the scene.  People were still all crowded around and now they were bringing fruit, souvenirs and other items to the car windows to sell to us. 

The police got the story and got back in our other car with Harrison.  They took him back to the police station with the other driver of the car to get the rest of the details.  After the police station, our other driver took Harrison to the hospital.  They looked at his wounds and put iodine on them.  They told him he could get an x-ray but it was a very long line.  In the mean time, we walked around, making sure to stay far from the road.  We went into fabric shops (the permanent stores are all run by Indian people).  The people outside making things are all Malawian.  Outside the stores there were tailors mending clothes, shoe repair, a man running a knitting machine, a man making rubber stamps, a man fixing cell phones, and people selling fruit (bananas, strawberries, and gooseberries).  We walked around the stores and went to the market.  The market was mostly full of junk like plastic Barbie dolls, spices, car parts, and other items for daily living.

We spent about 4 hours waiting for someone to come get us or to get the okay to leave. The other car finally came back and Harrison got out.  He hopped in the driver’s seat, we pulled the door shut as best we could, and drove away.