Our little house is actually starting to feel like a home now,i have experienced so much in the past 3 weeks that is actually feels like i have been here for much much longer. Our house is very basic but cosy, we still have far more luxuries than our neighbours such as an outdoor shower room and tap thanks to a barrel on top of our roof. The children love helping us fill it up and take great enjoyment out of watching us fail to carry things on our heads!
We have a living area which is fairly large with two little tables and a few chairs. A tiny bedroom which me and clare share. (Our neighbour Matheus was taking the mick out of us because we have beds with mattresses and Malawians tend to sleep on a mat on the floor. He was basically calling us soft little white girls!!!) We have a kitchen which is comprised of a 2 ring gas cooker and a few shelves, curtains made from mix-matched bits of fabric held up by pieces of wire, an outdoor drop toilet which isnt very pleasant but we are coping with it! We also have 2 bikes given to us by the Lujeri Tea Estate, we are waiting till the rains ease off a bit before we take them out for a spin! The little muddy roads are trecherous in the rain!
The school is reasonably well run but lacks in many ways. The teaching has been the most difficult thing for both me and Clare. The curriculum is very bizarre indeed, standards 5 and above are supposed to have all their lessons taught in english yet some of the pupils in standard 7 struggle to say how old they are! It is really quite frustating sometimes simply because the children don't understand what i am saying. The headteacher Mike is also very frustrating and his dedication to the school is not the best. I teach standard 7 with him and he quite often does not turn up to teach his lessons and can be seen just wandering around the school grounds, or at his house 2 minutes walk away from the school. Somtimes it has been hard to think that our help is actually appreciated but i no that we are in fact a huge benefit to the children and that is all that matters.
Maveya is very very under resourced. For a school of over 900 pupils, PE equiptment consists of 4 half deflated footballs and 2 skipping ropes! I have already taught the school choir "He's got the whole world in his hands", and i am starting a letter writing club next week along with recorder groups and extra english tuition. I really have had some fantastic moments with the children. Teaching notated rhythm with standard 8 was so good, with crotchets = clapping hands, quavers = slapping legs and semi-quavers = tapping the table. They are in their final year of primary school and many are the same age as me if not older than me. Its really sad because if they want to go onto secondary school it costs them eighteen pounds a year and a lot will not be able to afford that.
The young ones are absolutely adorable, they all fight to hold your hands and steal your attention. I have so much fun skipping around with them. The children all get provided with a bowl of "porridge" from the government every day. It is so sad to think that for some of those poor little children this is there only meal of the whole day. Me and Clare decided to try it out the other day and well...we swallowed it down trying not to grimace too much whilst saying "mmmmmm this is lovely" to the cooks who gave us big toothless grins in return.
Clare had quite an event in her english class the other day. She decided to give stickers to everyone who got all the questions right, this resulted in two of the older boys in the class full on punching each other because one did not think the other deserved a sticker!!!!
So yeah, malaria and homesickness! Clare was diagnosed with Malaria this morning and i broke down in tears at school because me already very sensitive from missing everyone at home so much had once again been left in the lurch by Mike not knowing what the hell to teach this rowdy bunch of children that would not listen to me!!! Urghhh! Stressful times! 
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