Light up Malawi

Starfish Malawi Day at Ysgol Craig y Don - lots of Christmas Costumes and loads of resources to sent to Malawi in the New Year.
We've had two exciting Connecting Classroom days at Ysgol Craig y Don over the past few weeks. We heard yesterday that we have secured a £550 grant from the Edwina Trust to help develop a sustainable energy project called 'Light up Malawi'. The funding will secure a visit to our school by a solar, hydro and wind energy expert to work alongside Year 5 and 6 to make simple solar bulb kits that we can produce and send to Malawi to help the children there do their homework in the evenings. As it gets dark in Malawi at around 5.30-6pm, and with no electricity in most homes, many children cannot read or do work during the evening. Our hope is to use the grant to make simple 'solar' kits to send over to Malawi so the learners in our partner schools can work into the night using the energy produced by the sun during the day.
Thursday saw our 'Starfish Malawi' day at school. Starfish Malawi (click to see their web-site) is a charity, run by Mr Chris Knott, and helps with Educational projects in Malawi. He is visiting Llandudno schools on January 5th and 6th to take assemeblies and talk about his work in Malawi. On Thursday our chidlren dressed up in Christmas costumes and came to school with many items to donate to our partner schools in Malawi. These include pens, pencils, paper, football boots, wool, knitting kneedles and many more things. Llandudno Town Council have even donated a full football kit and tracksuit! A species thanks to everybody who has donated. We are grateful to Asda who donated many packs of crayons and especially to Theresea Evans and the Pearl knitters who donated two large bags of amazing knitted clothes, hats, blankets and mats for us to sell to help fund sending the items to Nkhata Bay, Malawi. Mr Chris Knott will be taking the crammed boxes back to his home in Kent so that they can go in a container which is travelling to Malawi in the New Year. It's been lovely to hear from our friends in South Africa this week too and we wish them all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We can't wait until Next Year when our Connecting Classrooms project will really take off.

Projects start for real.

During our vist to Malawi, the teachers of the three countries involved decided that we would concentrate on the following projects during the next academic year.
1.Improve Communication between countries – Skype, Letter, E-mail etc
2.Litter – reducing litter in all schools.
3.Sustainable Energy – wind, solar, hydro etc.
4.Playground games
5.Food from different countries
6.Visit to Port Elizabeth, South Africa 2012


This week we started our litter and waste project. Our goal is to reduce the amount of waste produced by the school. Last week our eco-council collected all the waste left by children who are on sandwiches and have school dinners. We filled 12 full black bin bags - a shock to us all. Imagine this over a school year! The bin bags were shown to all the children in school and we had a long discussion about waste. Our first decision is to remove the bins from our school hall at lunchtime. This has had an immediate impact with only half a bin bag of waste collected in two days. The children and staff have made ourselves a challenge to reduce the number of bin bags per week from twelve to a maximumn of two. Next week we are also starting on our reduction of energy waste challenge. We have noted the readings for gas and electric consumption and are producing an action plan to reduce this.






Our school eco-council with the unnecessary waste produced by the staff and pupils of Ysgol Craig y Don.

Nkhata Bay gift for Conwy Education Authority

Today, Mr Price and I visited the Conwy Education Authority Directorate to present them with a wonderful gift from the Nkhata Bay Department of Education Ministry in Malawi. It was presented to the Primary Director of Education, Mr Gwyn Roberts. While there we talked about our visit to Malawi and how it has benifited our schools and us as individuals. It was also an opportunity to talk about the role of the British Council and to promote Connecting Classrooms as a fantastic opportunity for schools. They thanked Mr Mzondi Moyo and his staff for looking after us while there and also for their kind gift. Last night a presentation was given to school governors about the visit.

International Week in Llandudno schools

Ysgol Craig y Don and Ysgol San-Sior have been celebrating different countries and cultures by holding International week in the two schools. All classes have been studying different countries and have produced work and presentations on that country. Today the children in Ysgol Craig y Don dressed up in the colours of flagsof different countries or dressed up in traditional costumes. The school was full of colour. Mr Hughes has been around every class talking about his visit to Malawi. Today he dressed up in Malawian costume.

Back to our own lives.

Dressing up in Malawian costume.

We've been back in Llandudno now for five whole days and we are slowly fitting back into our daily routines. It's felt strange, almost as though I've been living in a daze. I sometimes have to pinch myself to remind me that I really was in deepest Africa this time last week. It's taken a few days to adjust to UK time, not through jetlag, or daylight hours, but the pace of life back in Wales. At times, I've wished I was back in the Malawian relaxed way of life with no time restaints and no deadlines. But in reality, I'm grateful for my home comforts, happy to be back at home living the way I'm use to. Today I started my class presentations about the visit. Year 1 enjoyed the animal and bug tales, while Year 2 got excited when dressing up in Malawian costumes and pretending to cook 'sima' on the chorcoal cooker. It's difficult to convery what I really saw through words and pictures, to get the children and teachers to see beyond the photographs. The questions that kept coming from the floor were mature and thoughtful and I hope I've given them a little insight into the wonderful country I visited. It would be nice if one or two went home tonight with a little thought about how lucky they are and how grateful they should be.

Having a good feel of a Malawian hand brush.

Mr Hughes teaching using a digital whiteboard, a computer, resources and sitting on a chair! A bit different from the classses we were in a week ago.

Home, sweet home. But where is our luggage?

After the arduous journey which started back on Monday we finally reached home last night. Catching the flight soon after 11pm on Tuesday from Lilongwe airport we flew overnight to Nairobi in Kenya. We chatted to a Malawian gentleman on the way. He was the president of the Malawian Paralympics team and he was off to Kenya to meet other African counterparts to discuss London 2012. He is an athlete, racing in the wheelchair sprint and will be competing in London in 2012. After meeting him we'll certainly be looking out for how they are doing and giving them our full support. He talked about the struggle he is getting for support back at home, how no-one gives those with disability a chance and that they are left by the wayside in life. His dream is to change this; good luck to him. After arriving in Nairobi at 6am we had a wait of a few hours to catch the next plane back to Amsterdam. This was a nine hour flight and the three of us did our best to catch up with a little sleep. Luckily the journey ran smoothly and after a quick dash in Amsterdam, to catch our connection to Manchester we were on our way to the United Kingdom. On arrival we headed to collect our luggage but heard our names called out over the tanoy system. Worried that our baggage was being searched and that the wooden gifts we had bought back might contravene customs and excise rules, we wandered off to the office. When there, we were even slightly relieved to hear that our bags were still in transit; at least we weren't in trouble. Somewhere along our flight our suitcases had missed a connection. However, we have been assured that they should reach us sometime today...we shall see. After arriving home I said my hellos, gave my family hugs and disappeared off to bed with my last few ounces of energy. This morning I have woken up and got out of my bed without having to untangle my mosquito net, not had to look on the floor incase a cockroach was lurking, taken out my clean clothes that smell of lovely perfumed conditioner, had a nice warm shower and had lovely cold milk on my cereals; all things I usually take for granted. I wonder how long it will take me to fall back into not appreciating these simple things in life. I've turned on the computer without worrying about the fact that there may be no electricity, the internet connects immediately and my lamp lights up my work area. We've had an amazing time, a life changing experience and hopefully this will enrich what we teach at school. We're looking forward to share what we have seen and learnt with the teachers and learners in our schools as well as with the wider communities and our own families. This blog doesn't end here. I'll be updating it with photos of the visit as well as work we are doing in our own schools so that all can see, please call back often. Thank you for reading the blog, with 1000 hits over the past 11 days it has been worthwhile doing. Perhaps it will have inspired you to one day visit the wonderful Malawi....the warm heart of Africa.

Crocodile Hunter

We waved goodbye to our South African friends this lunchtime; Cosmo Bartman, Craig Hendricks, Nilla Fass and Musa Zokufa. They were travelling back to their home town of Port Elizabeth and should be there by the time we take off from Lilongwe airport at 11.55pm. This afternoon we're chilling waiting for our lift from the lodge. Mr Price is playing a game called 'bawo', a traditional game using beans and a wooden board. He has become quite addicted to the game, even buying his own board. Today he beat a local for the first time, so he know thinks he can take on the world....watch out Llandudno, bawo is coming! This morning we popped to the city centre to buy a few gifts for those at home. As soon as a group of 'muzongos' arrived we were swamped by sellers desperate for trade. The craftsmanship in Malawi is second to none with lovely wooden carvings and original art on canvas. The traders were our best friends and lots of bartering for the best prices took place. The traders had great names, each one introducing themselves and wanting to know who we were and where we came from; Chicken Legs, Love, Happiness and Combo amongst our new best friends. Unfortunately it was obvious that these boys were desperate, accepting next to nothing for some beautiful pieces of art, crafts and jewellery. After lunch PC Williams and I went to the local nature reserve while Mr Price rested. We went with Mzondi as our guide, although he was more than pessimistic about our chances of seeing anything of note. However, we were more than surprised. Great birds such as Chin-spot Batis, Grey headed Kingfisher, Green Wood Hoopoe and the amazing Schlaw's Turaco amongst many species seen. However, for once, birds weren't the highlight. A small movement in the water below and a focus of the binoculars revealed an eye. Slowly the eye emerged into a fine Crocodile, we backed away and suddenly the crocodile disappeared without a ripple. Made up with our sighting we continued along the track on tiptoes watching out for any movement. A group of 30 or so Monkeys ran through the forest towards us, many with young. Some were inquisitive and came close, never has the camera been so snap happy. As I rounded a corner my eyes peeled to the tree tops, Meirion sternly but calmly announced that we should stop as a crocodile was on the path. I looked down and there just in front of me was a huge male croc, right out of the water and more than that I'd nearly tripped over it. The sweat poured down my face. I suppose Meirion can now claim to have saved my life! The camera went into over drive once again with the lenses only 6 ft away from the magnificent beast. With a flick of its tail and a huge splash the giant reptile had gone back to its home in the river. At times it was easy to forget where we were and how careful we should really be. An antelope appeared from the undergrowth. No sign today of the Hyenas, Bush Pigs or Porcupines though, but we'd had our sighting of our modern day dinosaur and we were as happy as larry.
This evening there is a big thunder storm. Fingers cossed it will have cleared in a few hours!