VIEWS FROM THE CLASSROOM: Sarah Lewis (RU Elementary Education)

Today at school and after school was a day of celebration. Celebrating why we are even here in the first place, to help the students at our schools to succeed and hopefully go onto secondary school, was the occasion.  Before celebrating, it was a normal teaching day, Ryan and I sat in our room and attempting all we could do of morning meeting without having anyone in the classroom to translate for us. After completing what we could, it was porridge time, after which we had someone to translate so we finished morning meeting. It didn’t go as well as it did Monday, but we were just happy to have someone in the classroom to translate so the students could understand us. By the time morning meeting was finished, it was time to go and meet the new ten girls. Our school was sponsoring ten girls in primary school to try to help them stay in school and hopefully make it to secondary school. Out of the first ten, four are still in the program with one actually in secondary school, Annie. Jennifer spoke to the girls and their mothers about the program and how we are there to help and support them. Annie, and two other of the girls were there, the fourth girl was in Lilongwe, but her mom was there on her behalf. After giving these girls backpacks, we went on to give the ten new girls a t-shirt and some pencils. The new girls ranged from standards 5-7, so some of them have a few years until they have to take the Standard 8 exam, and others only a year. I hope that all the girls can pass the Standard 8 exam and get into secondary school. After the Head teacher, Esther, spoke about the responsibilities of the parents in this partnership were, some of the mothers spoke. They were all so thankful for the opportunity that their daughters are now going to receive. That’s one thing I really like about the people here, they are so thankful for anything and everything that someone does for them, no matter how big or small. In this group of moms, there was one man. I didn’t learn why until later in the afternoon, but nonetheless, it was very moving to hear why he was the only man there. One of our new girls, Ellen, is an orphan. This man was her grandfather. He told Jennifer that he was thankful for her being selected to be in the program, because he was concerned about her education. He was an older man and unsure about how long he may be around, but now he didn’t have to worry. That was just so amazing to me; I know how hard it is to deal with life, missing two major parts of your life, and here is a little girl in standard five who is dealing with it, and obviously showing promise to be chosen to be one of the girls in our program. And with the support from a grandfather who cares for her, hopefully she will go far and be very successful in all she does. It’s a girl like this who can really make a difference one day, and I hope and pray that she is given that chance. After our celebration of the new girls in our program at our school, we walked over to the Demonstration School to meet the students in secondary school who receive scholarships from the Malawi Chibale project. Annie is one of the students that receives a scholarship, and she is the only one in this group that is from our primary school. There were quite a few students who do, and it was wonderful to see that our little society actually makes a difference in these kids’ lives. This day really taught me that there are kids in the world that really cherish education and really want the chance to go to school. I really think that if a child wants to go to school, he/she should be given that chance; no matter how much money their family has or does not have. Hopefully when I am back at school, I will no longer dread going to school, knowing that there are kids here that would do so much to be in my place.