Category — Malawi Study Trip 2009 Leaders

The Education for All Trip to Makupo Village

by Doug Miller

Before the Vanier Education for All Study Trip to Malawi in June, I was interviewed by a Vanier student who wanted to write an article for the school newspaper. Time and again, she returned to the idea that our trip was a humanitarian undertaking to help the poor people of Africa. She was stuck on the idea that we have so much and they have so little so we must be going to help them change their impoverished lives. It took some discussion but when her article finally appeared it reflected the idea that this sort of exposure tourism for student learning benefits the Canadian visitor more than the Malawian hosts. The June – July trip for 7 students from Vanier College fits within the sustainable tourism project of Makupo Development Group. The goals are to provide a unique learning experience for Canadians of all ages to travel to Africa, learn about life on the ground through face to face contact with rural people, and provide them a source of income beyond the once a year returns from sale of farm crops. The experience is based on equity where the visitors learn and take away as much if not more than they contribute.

Malawians do benefit when there is a redistribution of wealth from the rich world to the poor, but a charitable approach perpetuates dependency and is too transitory and short term to bring about any real change. The goal of the exposure visits from the Makupo perspective is to create income generation projects based on ethical tourism. By paying villagers to house and feed them the Canadians are contributing to creating a self-sustaining enterprise which can serve as a springboard for many other revenue creating activities. This is not charity, it is sustainable development. Apart from paying for the experience and thus providing a revenue to the villagers, the utility of whatever the Canadians bring must fulfill the principle of providing a hand up and not a hand out (credit to Geoff Furber of Ripple Africa). The visitors pay for their stay and thus contribute to building economic diversity. For their efforts, the villagers earn money rather than being dependent on the problematic handouts from expatriate family members and rich relatives.

For their part, the Canadian students derive lifelong learning and benefits from their visit. They gain knowledge and insights about another side of the world that we are carefully shielded from when we live in the splendid isolation of middle class Canada. The intense friendships that are formed allow them insights into the nature of structural poverty and the limits on the lives of people who do not have access to the kind of resources widely and freely available here in Canada. They also learn about how resourceful Malawians are and how they are able to accomplish a great deal despite the lack of material wealth. The Canadian students benefit enormously from this knowledge, friendship, and appreciation of a different way of life. The learning they acquire allows them to return home with information for credits, and an enhanced resume. They gain even more experience when they give presentations, and write articles about the experience. They will be able to continue their education to achieve their goals and the village experience becomes an integral part of the accumulation of wisdom about life making them richer in many ways. Regardless of what they learn about the difficulties of rural life in Malawi, the Canadian students have the privileged vantage point of being able to return to their comfortable North American lives and draw benefit from the experience for many subsequent years.

These exposure visits must be carefully managed to create the most favourable opportunities for the Malawian hosts and facilitate the learning experience of the Canadians in an atmosphere of mutual respect and recognition of the enormous differences that the contact represents for the 2 sides. The sustainable tourism bases the experience on the learning of the participants. The visits brings Canadians into a friendly, safe environment where they can meet rural Malawians who in return house them, feed them, wash their clothes, act as  guides and translators and provide security at nights. The people of Makupo Village are wonderful hosts. They are natural guides and teachers every day of the visit and even those who speak little or no English are excellent teachers as they help their visitors master the chiChewa greetings and vocabulary needed for everyday life.

Learning about life from the ground up is a unique way of introducing people to a new country or environment. As an approach it allows the ordinary people to become teachers and explain the realities of their life without academic, political or social/ cultural filters which by virtue of their perspective bias the view visitors can have about life in the rural areas. The Vanier students learn about the country through the eyes of Malawian villagers and their everyday lived experience. Without fail the visitors to Makupo find they are received with such warmth and made to feel so comfortable and secure that regardless of where they traveled thereafter they were keen to return to the village.

This kind of exposure requires a special kind of arrangement and preparation. The participants are selected from a pool of applicants after period of publicity to advertise the trip and its role in the Vanier International Education programme. This year’s project was entitled: “Education for All” and attracted almost exclusively female applicants. They quality of the applicants was exceptional, with many of the students already implicated in international projects or social justice issues. In the months before departure, my wife Nellie and I had worked with our group of Vanier students and staff to give them a feel for the village with regular orientation sessions which included language, culture, food and medical preparation as well as some politics and history. We set goals for the trip and developed the methodology to ensure that we learned as much as possible during our limited time in Malawi.

These kinds of trips have had a specific focus and objectives which members of the group are committed to fulfilling. These overall objectives are often complemented by deeply personal goals that motivated the students to join and learn.

The focused learning: The Vanier students spent time the morning of each day in the schools collecting information, taking pictures, interviewing teachers, headmasters ands students and building case histories of students struggles to get an education. The three headmasters did a great job of giving the Vanier students access to the classrooms teachers and students. Our students are all academically strong and were able to tutor individual students and groups during their stay. A special focus was put on the graduating year students preparing to write their major exams at the end of Standard 8, and Forms 2 and 4. They helped with English, mathematics, and science among other subjects and always under the direction of the responsible Malawian teachers.

With the help of a small amount of money from a primary school in Victoria B.C. we were able to dedicate 3 afternoons to a cooperative work brigade to paint one of the primary school classrooms. We also brought a few used laptop computers to become the nucleus for a small computer laboratory at the Chilanga Community Day Secondary School. Our students helped the teachers and students become familiar with the educational software we installed before we left Canada. The Vanier students also recruited some special paper for printing the Braille texts for the School for the Blind.

I did not foresee our students doing classroom teaching because of their age, they lack the skills and experience to deal with such large groups. However in the class, they first observed the lessons then circulated among the students and gave one-on-one help to the students when the teacher had given an assignment. This has to be the senior primary grades and maybe the secondary classes since these students would speak enough English for our students to communicate with them. Even here our Canadian students have never learned the elements of English grammar so they had to struggle to learn the basics in order to be helpful with the lessons in English. Our students had to quickly pick up the Malawi methodology, but since it is a relatively basic level this was not too hard.

For the first week especially we held regular end of the day meetings to reflect on how we felt as individuals about what was happening and to plan our activities for the next day. These were essential for moving the learning forward and guiding the participants into fruitful experiences and contacts. The presence of the Vanier College photographer, Dale Robinson, provided another useful focus. Dale taught us all how to effectively and artfully capture the images of our experience by teaching us all how use the cameras, compose the picture and how to look for the best shots. The post-trip presentations and displays are going to be very well done as a result.

The goal of our exposure tours is to bridge the void between the portrait drawn about the poor world and the reality by providing some insight into the daily reality facing ordinary people in one small, poor country. Our slogan is “solidarity not charity.” We were not primarily interested in finding more ways of fundraising or exploiting the impulse to reach for the cheque book to solve the problem. Our goal was to create bridges of understanding that lead to action for change in Canada, to change the relationship between rich and poor countries and undermine the structural impediments to development. The Vanier Education for All visit accomplished all of this and I know from speaking with the students that they recognised how much they have gained and are wonderfully motivated to stay involved and work for the kind of change that will bring about real change and amore equitable world.

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Melanie

Melanie  has been responsible for the successful implementation of project “Vanier AIDS Action in Africa” since May 2008; she  brings a rich educational background with studies in International Development Studies and Women’s Studies and experience as an intern with a CIDA- recognized NGO in Bhopal, India in 2007.

Malawi Study Trip 2009

by Melanie Hadida

Week one

The Vanier group arrived in Makupo village exhausted, hungry, ( and a bit dirty) but mostly excited and curious about what the next few weeks would consist of for us. We were on a different continent, in a different hemisphere and in a totally new environment.

The first weekend we arrived, we spent Saturday morning taking a walking tour of the 3 Chilanga school campuses across from Makupo village. This was a very good activity because it helped everyone to become familiarized with our future working environments, on a day when staff and students were not around. On Saturday afternoon we attended a football (soccer) match between the Chilanga Day Secondary School team and a team from another local school. On Sunday, we discovered that we were extremely lucky, for a large-scale event was taking place, just minutes from Makupo. This event was held in honour of “Day of the African Child”, this year’s theme being “Stop Child Abuse”. This was a national day for all of Malawi. Children from several different schools and villages assembled to hold performances (traditional dance, music, poetry, theatre etc.). The “Big Chief” was the guest of honour at this event; he is the head chief overseeing all the chiefs of 700 Malawian villages. This event did a tremendous job of making us all feel extremely comfortable, welcomed and enthusiastic about our upcoming weeks.

Week One

During our first week in Makupo, Doug Miller, our trip leader, took the 7 Vanier students, Melanie, Cari and Dale to visit the Chilanga Primary School, The Chilanga School for the Blind and the Chilanga Community Day Secondary School (CDSS).

The first week we spent our mornings in the different schools. We chose not to bring our cameras this week as to not distract the students from their teachers. We began by simply observing classes taking place, but quickly teachers began to give us the teaching materials and requested that we assist in, and even lead lessons. Among the difficulties in the first week, was the fact that the teachers from all 3 schools regarded Vanier staff and students to be teachers ourselves, with many Malawian teachers looking to us for guidance and advice pertaining to their teaching techniques.

During the first week we spent our afternoons doing various research and experiential activities. On Tuesday June 23rd we met with the assistant District Education Manager at the Kasungu District government building. All of the students took notes as the assistant DEM gave us a very good overview of the state of education in the Kasungu District. For example, in this particular district there are 187,000 “learners” (students) and only 2000 teachers; the district goal is to have a 1:60 teacher to student ratio.    On Wednesday June 24th we visited the Skills Youth Network who had come together with an organization that helps to provide employment opportunities for disabled people. Makupo Development Group was responsible for the joining of these two organizations. At this meeting, the groups were presented with a fully-equipped tool box donated by Cari Clough. These tools will prove to be an invaluable contribution to the organizations that are aimed at providing income generating opportunities for unemployed youth and the disabled.

On Thursday June 25th the group visited the Kasungu Teacher Training College where we learned all about the process of becoming at teacher in Malawi. Friday June 26th the group met with the CCAP reverend who spoke with the group about the ways in which the Church influences and impacts the community.

Every second evening the group would assemble after dinner for a group meeting. The meetings largely focused on process, and organizing our upcoming days, however often we would take the time to discuss our feelings and emotions as we went through this experience. The meetings were extremely helpful because they helped to best make use of Dale Robinson’s photography talents, by discussing the anticipated events of the following days, and photographing priorities.

On the weekend, the Vanier group along with Makupo villagers planted several trees around the boarders of the village. This was very exhausting and difficult work, but we were able to experience, if only for a few short hours, the life of a rural farmer. We learned how to plant seedlings, how to use a hoe, and of course, to carry water on our heads. On Sunday we went on a walking tour of 2 neighbouring villages that do not have working water pumps. We took many photos and interviewed several villagers about the situation; mainly, how lack of working water pumps affects village life.

Week two

During the second week we spent every morning working at the schools. In the afternoons we split up as the 3 groups—political, socio-economic, religious/cultural focused on their particular topics. Student groups, lead by Doug, Cari and Melanie visited different organizations and NGOs in Kasungu, politician, the reverend as well as many local villagers. During the afternoons, Cari, James, Cate and Jen also helped to run an experimental “study hall” at the secondary school and Melanie, Audrey, Katherine and Victoria along with our guides, painted one of the classrooms in the primary school.

During this week we contributed 5 working laptops to the secondary school, for them to set up a small computer lab in their library. We also brought 1000 sheets of Braille paper to the School for the Blind of which they were very much in need.  All contributions were received warmly and were much appreciated. This week, we also presented the women of Makupo village with money donated by the Vanier College Library for a piggery at Makupo—this will be an income generating opportunity for the women.

On the Friday of our second week, the group of seven students—Cari, Dale, Melanie and Doug, accompanied by our 3 Malawian guides, Kenny, Francis and Mercy—departed for Nkhata bay where we spent 3 nights relaxing by a beautiful beach. During this time we met many interesting people, other travelers or young people who were working or volunteering in Africa. We also met many interesting Malwians whose colourful personalities and interesting stories helped to enrich our overall trip experience.

We left Nkhata Bay on July 6th which incidentally is Malawi’s Independence Day. We drove to Lilongwe where we spent one night and one day there. While in Lilongwe we had a chance to visit the “townships” where much of Lilongwe’s working class lives. This was a good opportunity for the students to contrast their experiences of African village life, with that of the city life. During our day in Lilongwe we met with two very interesting and inspiring individuals. One was Malawian Jacob Mapemba—Malawi country director for WUSC (World University Services Canada). Jacob spoke with us about his role as WUSC Director in Malawi and the various programs and services that WUSC provides in the country. This visit was particularly interesting to 3 of our students, Sarah Lone, Jen Barbato and James Arruda who have been extremely active in initiating the first WUSC chapter at Vanier College this past academic year.

The second person we met that day was Malawian McPherson Jere, who is the Education Specialist for the Malawi-Canada Programme Support Unit. McPherson spoke with the group about the current status of education in Malawi, history of the education system including important changes that have been recently implemented. McPherson also discussed with us many national goals that government administration hopes to implement into the education system within the next few years. For this visit we went to the Canadian High Commission which was an interesting experience for all of us. Our discussion with McPherson Jere was extremely valuable, as we complied a great deal of information from him, he was detailed and compelling with everything he spoke to us about.

Week Three

Since we spent Monday and Tuesday in Lilongwe, our third week back at Makupo was short. On Wednesday the Vanier Group was invited to a small goodbye party hosted by the teachers of the Chilanga Primary, Secondary, and School for the Blind. We were touched by the effort the teachers put into this event. The Chief from Makupo was invited to attend as well as several board members from the school.

During this last week, students took the time to complete any interviews they had planned on conducting and by tying up loose ends with some of their personal projects. During our final day at Makupo, the Vanier group, along with a group of Malawians from Makupo and the Secondary School, climbed Mount Kasungu. This was a really challenging but exciting activity for the entire group. On our final evening, the people of Makupo threw a party for the Vanier group and we all enjoyed a fun night of dancing with people from the village and students from the school.

Malawian Guides

Our three Makupo guides, Kenny, Francis, and Mercy were invaluable to the overall Malawi Study Trip experience. All three of our guides spoke English extremely well and acted as excellent English-Chichewa translators for the group. At all points of our trip, all three guides knew where we were and how to navigate our way around our surroundings and therefore no one ever got lost or disoriented.  Additionally, Mercy, Francis and Kenny were all able to converse with the Vanier group about Malawi or African specific cultural issues which was clearly another important aspect of our trip experience. In addition to their practical help and guidance, each and every member of the Vanier group made a strong and meaningful connection with our guides, fostering reciprocal relationships between Canadians and Malawians that will be sustained for future years.

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Cari Clough has been working in The Learning Centre at Vanier since 2005.  A graduate of Vanier herself, she loves working with students.  Also a writer of grant proposals, Cari became involved in the development of the International Education office in 2007.  She was beyond thrilled to partake in the 2009 study trip to Malawi, a life-changing adventure!

Coming of age in the 1980s, I developed a certain perception of Africa.  In the media, it was only ever discussed within the contexts of drought, famine, apartheid, violence.  Africa became a mythic place for me: so tragic, so distant, so intangible and surreal.   As I got older, the information I took in worked to confirm the image I grew up with of Africa as a catastrophic land so desperate to be saved by the rich west, yet somehow beyond repair.  This perception was informed by a western, Euro-centric viewpoint and I was very eager to land on African soil and discover it for myself; to find out what the African perception of Africa is.

After being in transit for three long days, we arrived at the place that would be our home for the next three and a half weeks: Makupo village in rural Malawi.  Never in my life have I received such a warm welcoming!  The moment we stepped out of the vehicles, we were greeted by a group of children and teenagers who gave us big hugs and with whom we instantly bonded.

The villagers did everything to make us feel at home, and this was key to our smooth integration into a totally different way of life.   Having always lived in busy cities, the need to readjust my pace to that of quieter village life was a welcome change.  For me, two specific aspects of village life stood out and made this experience all-the-more unique.  First, the absence of distractions like television and internet meant that we interacted with one another more and had amazing conversations that might not have taken place had everyone been isolated at a computer.  Second, unlike how life often is here, in Malawi we weren’t constantly dictated by the clock; daily life was more about going with the flow than about trying to control the flow and fit it into a tidy schedule.

In addition to these general observations, life in Malawi – specifically Makupo Village – offered new experiences due to the physical and living conditions.  Most of the inhabitants of Makupo are related to one another, meaning that not only does everyone know his/her neighbours, but they’re all family!  Cousins grow up together like brothers and sisters, and there is the sense that “home” is not just one’s house, but the entire village.  Because family members live in such close proximity, one gets the impression that they are much closer than North American families.  The family in Makupo depends on the land for sustenance and survival; thus, it’s like the villagers are all integral members of a team: they work together to get the most out of the land, and then to transform the earth’s riches into consumable goods.  This yields a sense of family unity that transcends what most Westerners experience within their family lives.  In other respects, however, Malawians also appear to be less emotionally intimate with family members.  Their culture is rather conservative, which means that people often maintain decorum at the expense of concealing their thoughts and feelings.  Coming from a place where closeness is directly linked to how open one is with others (as well as coming from a family full of nosey people!), this struck me as something of a paradox.  I found it striking that the family members in Makupo spend a great deal of time together working, cooking, cleaning, raising children, singing and dancing, yet the conversation generally remains polite and unobtrusive.

Differences in lifestyles and conventions, however, did not mean that we were fish out of water; after all, weren’t these differences what we came to experience?  How disappointing would it have been to land in Malawi only to find that life there is just as it is in Canada?  Indeed, discovering Malawian culture was a major drive for me.  In addition to living in the village, one of the best ways in which we immersed ourselves into our surroundings was by working at the nearby schools.  This not only allowed us to experience the daily life of Malawian students and teachers, but it also gave us a sense of purpose and belonging.

I was stationed at the Chilanga Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) along with Cathy, Jen and James.  Being at this school was an extraordinary experience.  In Malawi, secondary education is not free; thus, many (too many) leave school for good when they are done primary school (or earlier).  The fact that education is not accessible to all tends to mean that those who are in secondary school consider themselves to be very fortunate and have a great respect for learning.  It struck me early on in our work at the CDSS that if had been born in Malawi, it is highly likely that I would have never gone beyond primary school, or that perhaps I would have never received an education at.  This has to do with coming from a none-too-rich working class background, as well as being female.

Unfortunately, as with the rest of the world, males and females are held to different standards in Malawi.  While education is perhaps one of the areas most affected, disparities between the value placed on males and females also greatly impact division of labour (both within the home and the larger social context), as well as most aspects of life.  In terms of education, if a family can only afford to send one child to school (note that while primary education is theoretically free, there are still costs involved, such as supplies and uniforms), they are much more likely to send their son than daughter.  The heart-breaking assumption is that an education might be wasted on a girl, since she will likely have children at a young age, and thus never “need” an education.  Viewing education from this perspective was quite an eye-opener and helped me empathize with the students at CDSS, as well as those not lucky enough to be there.

The school’s infrastructure was also alarming.  There is an urgent need for renovations and more space.  With a total of 464 students and only four classrooms (one for each level), 100 to 140 students are crammed into poorly-lit classrooms on the verge of dilapidation.  The classroom for the form 1 students has no desks or chairs; students have to sit on the floor from 7:30 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. with an hour lunch break and two short recess periods.  (Nonetheless, the classroom was packed every day with students eager to learn.)  Furthermore, there is a shortage of materials, meaning students do not each get a textbook; they must share two – three, sometimes even four, to a book.  Teachers also have to make do with the limited supply of teaching aids and employ creative tactics in the classroom.  In short, there is a general, overarching presence of poverty at Chilanga CDSS.  Considering this, it might not be easy for someone used to Vanier standards to view CDSS students as “lucky.”  But they are, and the reason for this is also the thing CDSS and Vanier students most have in common: they have goals and education is the gateway to realizing their aspirations.

While I witnessed poverty and the need to improve both living and learning conditions, I have not taken away from this trip an image of Malawians as sad, desperate and needy.  In fact, the contrary was true.  The majority of people we met were happy, friendly, magnanimous, resourceful, bright and funny.   There is such a brimming-over of these amazing, positive qualities that I have been greatly enriched by my time spent with the people I met.  Many lessons were learnt and, as cliché as it might sound, I came back a changed person.

Above all, this trip changed the view of Africa that had been cultivated in me since my youth.  I did not see a land full of victims in need of saving.  I saw a population of hopeful, capable people who are still standing strong despite centuries of abuse at the hands of other continents.  While I was in Malawi, the “Africa” I grew up with felt very far away; this had to do with being far removed from western culture and its (mis)representations.  As I wrote in my Malawi journal during my visit, “The Africa myth perpetuated in western popular culture and media is a representation of a reality, but walking around here, my sense is that the perspective of that representation was not informed by actual Africans.”

The things I’ll remember most and forever cherish about my time in Malawi are, first and foremost, getting to know the people; developing a new appreciation of the access to water, to education, and to health services we have in Canada; learning that some things are just not worth stressing about; basking in the presence of so much sky, the breath-taking sunsets, and the absolute plethora of stars in the sky at night; and, happily, adopting a new and improved perception of Africa.

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