Conversations with God

Everyday I bring my book "Conversations with God" with me to the lake shore and sit down in a comfy chair with the intention to relax and read some chapters. Some days I actually get to open the book while other days I end up chatting away the afternoon with other travelers. (I always have this habit of carrying around my book for months in case I get that inspiration of just relaxing and sinking into the book.)

"Conversation with God" is an amazing book though. I heard about this book a couple of years ago but it wasn't until two month ago I actually bought it to have something to read while in Africa. It is kind of a self-helping book where you have to stop and think after every sentence or two. It is in a way as well an autobiography. The author Neal Donald Walsch was going through a rough time in his life and in his anger he started to write a letter to God about why his life was so shitty. Surprisingly God answers, and he answers all of Neal's questions about life, universe, evil, relationships, marriage, sex, work, life purpose and so forth. 

It is interesting to follow this conversation Neal his having with God and I am having so many aha-moments while reading this book... and I am only half through it. For example, God is saying that "Life is a creation, not a discovery" and that "God is the observer, not the creator". He is also saying "My purpose in creating you, My spiritual offspring, was for Me to know myself as God". Hmmm... I have never thought of it that way.... that God created us to discover who he was (as there was no one else than him in the universe). 

To me this book is opening up a new horizon when it comes to who God is and why has he has created the world the way it is. (The answer is actually according to the book that it is WE who has created the world the way it is, with all its wars, world hunger and global warming.)

So my intention this afternoon, after a cooling down with swim in the lake, is to open the book and read yet another chapter in this eye-opening book.

Happy reading!

Teaching English

I feel bad because I have not been writing on my blog for so long. A lot of things happen all the time here and I want write down all of it but then I do not have a laptop or the internet is down when I finally get my butt over to the internet cafe. But anyhow I am here now :)
 

For the last week and a half I have been teaching English for grade 7 at Chicale primary school. First I only wanted to be the teacher's assistant and for two days I was sitting in on classes and helped the teacher Daniel mark the exercises for Mathematics and English. But already on the second day after the first lesson the class teacher asked me or more like told me "so tomorrow you can teach the class". I was like eeehhh...hmmmm... sure. What do I need to teach? He gave me the teacher's guide for English and showed me the exercises the kids are supposed to do and so it started. I have now been going to school every morning teaching for 2 hours. Grade 7 (or Standard 7 as they call it here) is divided in two classes 7A & B and there is about 35 kids in each class depending if all come to school or not. So while I teach one class the other one is either on break or are being thought Math by the class teacher Daniel. I would not be able to teach both classes at once as they sometimes have to do. It would be just too noisy and too crowded. The kids then have to sit on the floor as not enough space to it at a desk. So know when I do one class at a time it is ok. The kids are aged from 11 to 15 depending on when they started school (which should be at age 6) or if they had to redo a year, which is very common. The kids do love to learn but they are also just kids who love to talk and not pay attention. My kids are pretty good though and when the teacher talks the kids are quit... most of the times. The good thing is the other kids also tell the others to be quit, which is very nice and if someone does anything bad they all point fingers to that one... all what can I say, they are just kids.

So I teach them grammar, explain words and we read through chapters in their English books and do exercises together. Some student are brilliant while other can barely read and write in English. I have been giving extra classes to one of those students. Here name is Mercy and I had to start teaching her the basics of the ABCs and how to read English and write. She is suppose to come every day to my hostel for 1h but for example yesterday she did not show up. Maybe tomorrow she will come.

I spend about 3 hours at the school in the morning and then I have the rest of the day off. Except for when I have to mark their homework, which took me about 3h yesterday! Geez. That's why they did not get any homework today! LO

Besides volunteering I am also enjoying Nkhata Bay. This place is truly beautiful and the best place to just relax, enjoy and read a book. I go swimming every day (I also sweat as he** every day). I enjoy good food, for example today I will have some delicious bata fish fresh from the lake. I hang out a lot with Kelvin the rastafari at his local restaurant and we have some very good discussion about life, while enjoying his spectacular view of the lake. Once a week there is also a big party that the locals and the travelers go to. I meet a lot of other backpackers and hear stories about their African trip and suggestions on where to go. I could already write half a book about that.

I also moved to another hostel or backpacker lodge. Now I am staying at Mayoka Village Lodge, a beautiful beautiful place right next to Butterfly Lodge, where I stayed the three first weeks. Here is a link to Mayoka www.mayokavillagebeachlodge.com/. It is owned by a lovely mid-aged couple from South Africa and England and they also offer volunteer programs. Mayoka is a place where you can stay for weeks. So if anybody wants to visit me you are most welcome and trust me, you will love it!

Volunteering as a painter

This week I finished my volunteering project of painting at Chicale Primary School. The school has got two new classrooms and me and two other American girls started off by painting the walls white in on of the classrooms that still needs to get a proper floor. The floor will be made when the school will get some more money through donations so who knows when that will be...but hopefully soon because it is a very nice, big, and cool classroom.

After we finished painting the walls I started working on the other classroom that is already in use. I made a sketch for the blackboard wall and talked to the grade 2 4 teachers, who is using the classroom, what they would like to have. They mentioned ABCs, numbers, weekdays, months, and pictures. I had never made any drawings on any walls before so I was a bit hesitant to make any promises that there would be amazing drawings of cows and humans etc but I did promise them I will make something colorful :)

I was only able to go and paint from 15.00 in the afternoon until about 18.00 when it got dark so it took me some time to finish it. (But hey everything here is on Malawi time which means things move slow). So for the coming two weeks I was working on my drawing. There was always some kids popping in or hanging in the windows looking at what was going on. Sometimes I had to shoooo them off as they started to run around and shout in the classroom and I was afraid all paint would spill and that I would loose my peaceful 'mojo' :) Anyhow, this is the outcome of the past two weeks and tomorrow Monday I will try to see how it is to volunteer as the teacher's assistant. I am really curious if it will drain me or energize me??

Painted the walls in the first classroom that is yet to get a proper floor.

Spotless!

A steady hand is needed and some patience.

Don't ask me why I chose 12.20...

Final result :)

Some photos from the weekend...

On a boat tour to a local village beach in Nkhata Bay.

I was playing with these beautiful kids at the beach.

They all wanted me to take pictures of them.

 

 

Me and Jeannette from Netherlands enjoyed the day on the boat.

Reggea band playing in Mzuzu, a town 1h away.

20 days in...

I cannot believe it but I have already been in Malawi for 20 days! Seems more like one week. Days just flies by!

I am still working on painting at the primary school. We have painted the walls white in two class rooms and now I am working on my drawings that I sketched up for the wall where the black board is. It is coming along but is a working progress but I should be finished with it this week. I can only go and paint there after 15.00 when the kids are out and then the sun sets around 17.30. They do not have electricity at school so I can only be there during day light. Well, everything takes it's divine time in Malawi and I am also in no rush. That's what I like about this country... there is no stress and no timetable :)

I like it here in Nkhata Bay and it is a good place to stay if you want to meet new people. Besides the locals, you also get the chance to meet many other travellers as the Bay is a stop over for many backpackers going or coming from Tanzania. It is easy to spot the 'muzungus' on the street. This is what  the Malawians call us. It means 'white person' and is not in any way a bad word. Like when you walk down the street the kids can shout 'muzungu muzungu' and wave their little hands. Ah, the kids are so adorable here and so curious. They love being in school and learning new things. They always come up to you saying 'hello, how are you?' or some other random thing like 'I love you' or 'my name is Grace'. I guess it is all those small phrases they learn in school. But sometimes you end up having this how are you game. The kids say 'Hello, how are you?", I answer 'I am good, how are you?', they say, 'I am good, how are you?', I say ' I am good, and you?' and so it continues... :)

The locals here speak Chi Tonga, besides Chi Chewa and English, which are both official languages they study in school. I know they start learning English in third grade and Chi Chewa in first grade. I am yet to learn the local language but haven't decided yet if I should learn Chi Chewa or Chi Tonga. They only speak Tonga here in Nkhata Bay so maybe Chi Chewa would be smart to learn if I want to go other places in Malawi... So far I only know 'Mwe ouli '(how are you) and 'Ta wonga' (thank you) in Chi Tonga. I usually pick up languages pretty fast but here I have for some reason got stuck. So today I will make  an effort to start writing some words down. I will have a chat with to our kitchen staff, who I hang out with at times. I am sure they will teach me some words. Hey, most of them have already proposed to me!

So talking about meeting other muzungus here in the Bay, I bumped into Markus Varjonen and his Lotta the other night at the bar. Waaaa did I get surprised when I discovered they are from Finland and Finnish-Swedes just like me... I have never met any Finnish-Swedes on any of my backpacking trips! I mean there are only 300,000 of us and the likelihood of meeting two of them in Nkhata Bay in Africa is very slim! Ah so nice, made me happy! And then on top of that I discovered that Markus is a former co-worker with my best friend Maria in Helsinki.. aaah waaaaaaaaa the world is small! So we just had to send her a facebook message and take a picture :)

This weekend I also made many new friends in Mzuzu, a town 1h away. About 10 of us went there to listen and dance to Black Missionaries, Malawi's biggest reggae band. It was an afternoon gig in the park with loads of people. The pre-band played for hours and then Black Missionaries played for about 2 hours as well so we had music for the whole afternoon. Malawin's love to dance (and drink beer by the way) and in a split second tons of people, young and old, where dancing at the stage. This I love, the fact that they just go up and dance with no hesitation and no shame. Definitely something we stiff Westerners should learn. We had a great day at the park and splashed out on a pizza afterwards, which almost tasted like a real pizza back home. Yum yum yum!

I also met two lovely girl from The Netherlands, Jeanette and Veronica, this weekend. They are both teachers, who have spent the last 2 months in Malawi training teachers how to teach. Really nice friendly women and on Saturday we went together on a snorkling trip on the lake. Besides the tree of us there was Ravid, from Israel, Tom from Holland, and another guy from Kenya with us. We  went cliff jumping, swimming, snorkling, and hanging out with local kids on a beautiful remote beach. It was a beautiful afternoon on the lake :)

Yes, there are many nice things you can do here in Nkhata Bay. Maybe it is not representing the "real Africa" but it is sure a nice spot to hang at for some months while volunteering and trying to help out where it is needed. I could not ask for more.

Maybe this is also the reason why I have not managed to blog so much and upload any pictures. Well another reason is that the internet here is just very very slow. At night time it is suppose to be faster so tonight, if I have nothing better to do, I will try upload some pictures. I get to use the computers  (I do not have my own with me) and the internet 24/7 here at Butterfly as I pay for an Internet package. I am also eager to share my pictures with you as a picture always says more than a thousand words and waaaaaa... uploading a picture  would save me a lot of words!!! So I will do my best!

Until next, carpe diem.