Today we had another round of teacher training in rural Blantyre. We drove to Nankumba Training Development Centre with Francis, our friend and driver.
He told us many stories on the journey, even one about him climbing an African mountain and camping there for three days! It has been wonderful listening to him and his wife, Charity talking about their daily lives.
We shared stories about our families and the differences between Glasgow and Malawi. Once we arrived we were greeted by some old MLOL Malawian friends who even went to the effort of wearing tartan ties and Scottish badges on their blazers.
Wilson our Malawian colleague, introduced us to the Malawian teachers and set such an enthusiastic atmosphere for the day.
We had lots of laughs with the teachers and shared active learning strategies as part of 'the good lesson' training which they found very useful.
Stephen continued to crack his Chechewa jokes all day and even wore his African shirt!
We took a short walk to another building to see the Primary school library. It was very well organised and the teachers had made a library timetable for each class to visit. We visited a Standard 6 class, which is roughly P6/7 in Scotland.
There were over 100 pupils in one room with crowded desks and a blackboard. We also spoke to a crowd of children in the playground.
The rural playground was the size of three or four tennis courts with goals at either end.
I know my boys and girls in school would love a pitch that size to play football and basketball.
Some of the children were very funny, they asked Jade an I our names and we tried our best to speak some Chechewa too!
On route home Francis took us to a little shop that sold some Malawi trinkets.
I bought a few bits and bobs for my family and bought the most beautiful Nativity scene hand carved out of wood.
Tomorrow will be our penultimate day here and I cant believe how quickly time has flown.
