Visitors from Kendal

For the last two weeks, Jill, Libby and Niamh, all from Kendal have been living and volunteering in and around Sitima. Tomorrow they start their journey back home having made lots of memories and leaving behind many joyful occasions.

Jill, herself a retired headteacher, spent time with headteachers, both individually and as a group assisting them with leadership and management strategies. She also gave workshops to around 80 teachers helping them to explore the intricacies of teaching English language and grammar. Without her support and guidance the other two members of the group would not have been able to make the journey as the younger members of the party are 14 year old Libby and Niamh aged 13.

These girls did amazing things with lots of children. They went into schools, peer teaching with girls of a similar age, they taught English through songs and mimes with six year olds, they worked with primary school teachers, improving their English conversation but when I asked them what they enjoyed most it was definitely playing with the children in the village. Every day after school, they would go out to the centre of the village and integrate with the local young people, some as young as 2 and others up to 18. They learnt Chichewa, taught English, sang the “Macarena”, skipped, played ball and a whole host of other games. Mostly they laughed. Here the photo shows Libby and Niamh teaching the boys to use cameras.

As they travel home all three will be leaving a big gap in the life of the local people. Zikomo to each one of you and please come back again soon