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- On the map of Nthondo there seems to be a lot of schools How many schools are actually in Nthondo and how big is the Nthondo area?
- What are the main differences in the education system? How many children in one class?
- What does a normal day consist of for the children?
- Do children have time to play games and do they make the things they play with?
- How do Malawi children wash themselves and keep themselves clean?
- What types of houses do they live in and what are they made of?
- What sort of foods do they eat?
- I have looked at the maps on the 'Circle of Friends' website and I would like to know if the people of Nthondo can use the water from the river or Lake Malawi to irrigate their land?
- What do the men in the village do during the day? Why don't they get the water because they are strongest, not kids?
- Do many people go to church and do they go on Sundays like we do in New Zealand?
- Do they celebrate special occasions and what are they?
- In the photos most children look happy but it doesn't look like a very nice place to live. Do they ever feel sad?
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Question 1:
On the map of Nthondo there seems to be a lot of schools How many schools are actually in Nthondo and how big is the Nthondo area?
Russley School
The whole area of Nthondo is actually 214 square kilometres – so it’s much bigger than shows on the website map. Just to give you an idea, from where Jessie lives to her school is one kilometre. That’s the distance I walked with a bucket of water on my head. But on the map it looks right next door. Also, if you look closely, the really twisty part of the road just near Benson and Benwell’s house is really steep. When we drove through there it had been raining so the truck slid back and forth. I was sure we were going to topple over the side but the driver was good. From where we entered Nthondo, not too far from where Jessie’s school is, to drive to Kunthata’s house took us about 45 minutes in the truck. So it’s a much greater distance than it looks.
There are 17 primary schools in Nthondo so you now know they’re spread out. And there’s only one secondary school. The other thing to remember is that all the children have to walk to school. There are no buses and no cars. They all walk. It’s a much bigger place than it looks.
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Question 2:
What are the main differences in the education system? How many children in one class?
Weston School
The main difference is the size of the classes. In one class I visited they had 150 students in one class. Most days they didn’t all turn up but that’s how many were on the roll. That’s a big class. Most classes are a bit smaller ranging between 40 and 70 students. The younger classes are bigger because you have to pass your end of year exam to go up to the next grade, unlike in NZ where you go up to the next class automatically. This means that in a class the students are lots of different ages. One class I visited the eldest child was 15 years old and the youngest was 8 years old. This is another major difference. You may have heard about Olipa in the video and on the poster. She’s gone back to school. She’s been away from school now for 9 years, but has just decided she wants to go back to school.
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Question 3:
What does a normal day consist of for the children?
Weston School
The normal day for a child in Nthondo is they get up early, wash and help with the younger brothers and sisters. Then they head off for school. For some kids they can take up to an hour to walk to school. Schools starts at 7.30am, they have a break mid-morning and then school finishes at 12.30 and the kids go home for lunch. Then they start their chores. It depends on their family situation as to how much they have to do. They might be working in the garden, fetching the water, helping prepare food, sweeping around the house, looking after the younger kids, even tending the goats, stuff like that. A couple of hours of work for most of them. When the children have finished working they have a bit of time to play with their brothers and sisters. Dinner is anywhere between 5-6pm. Then they need to clean up before they go to bed. It is important to remember that they don’t have electricity so that’s why they go to bed when the sun goes down. It’s also why they get up so early in the morning.
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Question 4:
Do children have time to play games and do they make the things they play with?
Mellons Bay School
Yes they do have time to play games. Probably not quite as much time as New Zealand kids do because I don’t think we work as hard as they do. They do get to play with their friends at break time at school and then also the time between finishing their chores and starting dinner. On the odd occasion they might have something bought like a soccer ball or something like that but most of the time the children make their own toys. The most common ones I’ve seen are made out of the clay. When I went to visit Benson and Benwell they showed me this truck thing they had made – one they had completed and one they were still making. And the whole thing is all made out of wire and bits of rubber that make everything work. You can push the truck and the wheels turn. It’s quite amazing. They can only do this because their mother travels out of the village for work and can bring them back bits of wire. I was shown how to play the Malawian version of hopscotch, which is like our hopscotch. The soccer balls are pretty cool. What they do is take paper and crinkle it up really tight, tight, tight. They then wrap it up in plastic and tie the whole thing up with twine. And that’s how they make their soccer balls. And I’m told if they do a really good job they can last up to 3 months and then they have to make another one. For knuckle bones they use anything that is lying around.
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Question 5:
How do Malawi children wash themselves and keep themselves clean?
Mansell Senior
In every house’s compound they have a separate shelter, it’s not really a building but a wall that is made up of grass and sticks. It’s got an overlapping door. There’s no roof. It’s really only for privacy. It’s their bathroom where they wash themselves. Inside the enclosure is a large pot and there are stones on the ground. It think that helps the water drain away so you’re not standing in a puddle of water. In the morning when they first get up they wash themselves. They heat the water up a little bit because it can be a little cool.
I’ve seen lots and lots of people doing the laundry on the river banks. I’m not sure if Saturday is laundry day but when I was out on Saturday, all along this river bank was full of colour with all these clothes out to dry.
I thought you might be a little too shy to ask where they go to the toilet. So I thought I’d tell you. They have what is called a pit latrine, which is basically a pit dug in behind the house, a reasonable distance away for obvious reasons. It has a platform over the top of the pit with a hole in it. And you stand above the hole and that’s your toilet. I thought you might like to know even though you didn’t ask.
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Question 6:
What types of houses do they live in and what are they made of?
Mansell Senior
There are two main types of houses. The first basic house is made out of clay. Clay walls. The houses are usually taller than me but a really tall New Zealander would have to duck. The floor is dirt floor but it’s swept hard so it’s like rock. The roof is thatch made out of grass. And it needs to be replaced every one to three years, depending on the quality of the grass and the workmanship. The other feature of the house, which I think is really cool, is a bench that goes all the way along the outside of it. You might remember the picture of Benson and Benwell sitting outside doing their homework and they’re sitting on that kind of a bench. Now that’s your basic house.
As soon as you start earning some money you start improving your house. The first thing you do is get an iron roof. There are a couple of reasons why you want to do that. One is the grass that they use to make the roof is actually getting scarce. It’s getting used up and is harder and harder to find and it also needs to be repaired all the time. It can leak. So the roof is the first thing you change. It’s sort of a symbol of progress. It tells your neighbours that you’re moving forward and modernising. As soon as you can afford it you replace your clay walls with red brick walls that have been fired.
Houses usually have two rooms. Most of the houses don’t have any furniture in them at all. When people go into the house they get out a straw woven mat and they put that out and that’s what people sit on or they may have a stool. In one place I visited, because I was their guest of honour, they gave me a stool to sit on. But usually they have very little furniture and not much on the walls either.
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Question 7:
What sort of foods do they eat?
Weston School
Maize, maize and more maize. Maize is corn but they don't eat it like we do. They usually eat it dried, milled and made into flour. And then that flour is made into nsima - there is a diary story about making nsima (11 March). It's not that tasty to me but Malawians like it. You eat it with relish made from things like pumpkin, pumpkin leaves, tomatoes, beans leaves, peas - vegetables usually. When I visit people I usually get it with meat but that's because my visits are special occasions. But most Malawians don't eat meat. They eat Nsima for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In one area I visited they had just started growing sweet potatoes and kassava. Kassava's really good because you can eat all parts of the plant. What I find really interesting is every time I go to the bus station people are selling boiled eggs, hot chips and peanuts. That seems to be the snack food.
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Question 8:
I have looked at the maps on the 'Circle of Friends' website and I would like to know if the people of Nthondo can use the water from the river or Lake Malawi to irrigate their land?
Russley School
The Nthondo map doesn’t really show you how hilly it is there. It’s quite hilly. So if you live close to the river then it’s useful. But if you live up on the hills then it’s not so useful. So instead of trying to take the water up to the hills they dam the rain water and create wetlands and use the water where it is. Some people are using treadle pumps. They are not electrical and quite hard to use as they take the energy of a person walking on the treadle to make them go. You might remember there was a picture of Yosofati fishing in a pond. He made that by himself. He took advantage of the water that was going past him. He dug a big hole and now the water is up to his armpits and he’s got some fish in there. Lake Malawi is really a long way away from Nthondo so it is not useful.
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Question 9:
What do the men in the village do during the day? Why don't they get the water because they are strongest, not kids?
Mellons Bay School
This is a kiwi question. Malawians would never ask this. I thought it would be good to ask a man this question. His answer is that in Malawi the division of work is all based on traditional roles – it’s the way it has always been done. And it’s always been the role of women to fetch the water and bring it to the house. That means, if you are a girl then it becomes your job because you are learning all of the skills that you need for when you grow up. So that’s why it’s called girl’s work. Men are expected to be in the gardens. Women do work in the garden as well. But in Malawi there isn’t a focus on things being equal. Malawian men and women definitely do different things. During the dry season sometimes some of the men go to the city to find extra work.
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Question 10:
Do many people go to church and do they go on Sundays like we do in New Zealand?
Russley School
Apparently almost 80% are Christians and almost all of them attend church on Sunday. Some of them are Seventh Day Adventists which means they go to church on Saturday. But it’s a really small number. The 20% that are not Christian are Muslim, Hindu or some still believe in traditional African religions. But definitely there’s a lot of church going and it’s a big part of Malawi life.
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Question 11:
Do they celebrate special occasions and what are they?
Mansell Senior
Yes they do. The biggest special occasions for Malawians are Christmas and New Year. So I asked what do they do at Christmas. They go to church for a meal. This usually means they have rice. Normally they don’t have rice. They also have chicken or meat. These are also saved for special occasions. Then they take a walk with their friends and family along the road greeting each other, groups of girls and boys walking around. Then they usually go for a beer. That’s how they do Christmas. Not exchanging gifts, not like in New Zealand.
They also have other special days – Martyrs day when they remember special heroes that helped fight for freedom. The first freedom fighter in Malawi is found on all the coins. He’s a very important person and has his own special Martyrs day. They also celebrate Easter and a Muslim holiday. In the villages they sometime have their own celebrations and they are sometimes more meaningful than the big ones because they are more meaningful to the village. Weddings are huge and they usually occur in August, September and October when they are not working in their fields because it’s the off season. So that’s celebrations in Malawi.
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Question 12:
In the photos most children look happy but it doesn't look like a very nice place to live. Do they ever feel sad?
Mellons Bay School
Sometimes they do. I think they are like all of us. Sometimes they are sad. What makes Malawi children happy isn’t really the same as what makes New Zealand children happy. Malawian children are happy if they have healthy bodies, enough food to eat, if they can go to school, if they have a good hut to sleep in and they have some clothes. If their basic needs are met then they are pretty happy. And that’s certainly noticed about Malawians – how happy they are.
But they do have their sad moments. If you live in a village in Nthondo and you never leave your village then you don’t realise that not everyone lives the same way as you do. And when you find out that some people have things that you don’t, then that seems a bit tough. Losing parents is a pretty sad thing for anyone no matter where you live in the world. And some of the Nthondo children have been through that. What makes it a little bit easier is that they’re being looked after by relatives. Chimwemwe’s grandmother was saying that because Chimwemwe’s brother was so young when his parents died it’s only just now he realises that he is an orphan. It has been a bit tougher since he realised that. But as soon as you pull out the camera these children are just smiling. That’s why you see so many happy photos.
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