Plans for 2009...Roughly.

Well, it's been two weeks now since I got back into Malawi, and it's been pretty eventful in that short amount of time. I spent a week in Lilongwe with my lovely girlfriend Salima (a Peace Corps volunteer I met at a Halloween party last year...but that's a story for another day), I've been in a highway accident (slow but destructive - to the vehicles only, thankfully. Few injuries), sat in a few planning meetings for upcoming projects, shown the new volunteers around Namitembo, and had my first serious car-stuck-in-the-mud experience since coming to Malawi in 2007 (you can read about it here).

Still, I can't help this feeling that I've been drifting. I know I've only been back in the country for a couple of weeks, and in Namitembo for half of that time, but I'm going a bit stir-crazy here. Maybe it's because I'm coming directly from the States, and I'm still adjusting to "Malawi time." Maybe it's the Malawi rain, and its ability to stifle the best-laid plans (particularly those involving travel). Or maybe it's the fact that I don't (yet) have a daily job for 2009. Probably a combination of the three - but particularly that last one.

I'm working on it, though - and if last year has made anything clear to me, it's that my work in Malawi will center on computers and internet - and, possibly, mobile web. Let me back up for a moment here. As a primary school teacher, I was so-so. I think my particular skill as a teacher is my ability to clearly and patiently explain concepts, moving step by step logically. However, I have practically zero classroom management skills. This is why I was far more successful as an after-school math tutor (taking only those students who were truly interested) than as a classroom teacher with some 65 students. It's also why I think I was a good computer teacher for the NAMTAS parallel program.

I started this program in April 2008, shortly after NAMTAS (that's Namitembo Trade and Agriculture School) finally got internet access - satellite broadband! It seemed a shame that the trade school's computer students only used the computers 5 days a week, finishing at 3:30 (at the latest) on weekdays, and yet here we were, paying for 24/7 internet access. Together with Mr. Nkhoma (the trade school administrator) and Father Owen, I worked out a plan to offer optional classes in computer basics and internet to anybody in the Namitembo area who was interested in learning. Each course lasted for one month, three classes per week, coming to 30 hours of instruction altogether. We set a fee of 500 kwacha - about 3 US Dollars, pretty much a cursory expense - to ensure that we only got students who were serious about learning. After seven months of the class, I managed to train nearly 70 teachers, health care professionals, small business owners, and others in the use of the computers - starting from the basics (how to turn the computer on and off, the proper way to hold a mouse), moving through word processing and spreadsheets (and talking about the possible applications of both in their own work and daily lives), touching upon printing and CD burning, how to navigate and search the web, and finally, each student was provided with an e-mail account and shown how to use it.

I spent a lot of 2008 twisting around, trying my hand at a number of small projects. Most of these projects fizzed out. In the process, though, I found something that I genuinely enjoyed, and turned out to be pretty good at - computer training. I'm really quite pleased to report that more than a few people have asked me within the past week when I'm starting up my classes again. So, I'm proud of the work I've done so far, and I'd really like to expand it in 2009. I've got a few ideas...

One of the things that interests me most about this work is its adaptability. I've managed to tailor my classes each month based upon the interests and professions of that month's intake of students. In that same spirit, I'd like to offer a series of classes aimed at specific groups of people. For example, teachers at every level - primary, secondary, tertiary - could benefit from computer workshops on creating learning aids using Microsoft Word, or on organizing attendance sheets and grades with Excel. As for the internet, an ever-growing number of websites offer free downloadable lesson and activity plans - mathematics worksheets for all levels of instruction, short plays for English class, ideas for easy-to-recreate science experiments - you name it. Some school supplies can even be downloaded and printed. When I discovered that only a handful of my students had protractors last year, I downloaded and cut out enough copies for everyone to use, at very little cost (63 students without protractors, 3 protractors to 1 sheet of paper, 4 kwacha to the page = 84 kwacha, about 50 cents, to cover everybody). Clinicians could benefit in the same way, as could workers in the government's aquaculture projects, electricians, plumbers - you name it.

Okay, I have a tendency of getting off-track when I start thinking of the possibilities. Anyway, here are a few things I'd like to do with the NAMTAS computers:

1. Continue last year's parallel program.
2. Offer specialized classes for teachers, clinicians, and the like.
3. Offer trainings for people interested in using the computers to generate income as part of a small business (could get tricky, but I have a few ideas).
4. Sit down weekly with all of the trade school teachers to give increasingly advanced computer lessons, so that they can maintain the soon-to-be-published NAMTAS website after I've gone.
5. Bring in Namitembo Secondary School's Form 4 students (seniors) for computer classes on a regular basis.

I probably won't get to all of these things, but if I can nail down a few of them, I'd be pretty happy. The real boost will come when NAMTAS gets its computer/internet cafe set up later this year - I'm hoping that we can keep the users' fees pretty low, so it will be realistic for local people to use these computers to do business for themselves, or for their school, or clinic, or what have you.

The other idea that I've been ping-ponging around inside my brain is traveling around Malawi a bit and offering my services as a trainer, particularly to NGOs, hospitals, and some government agencies. Many of these institutions have purchased, or have been given, computers - but have such a small training budget that only a couple of employees know how to use the computers, or have no training budget at all. I'm willing to come in as a volunteer, which is to say, I wouldn't ask for any personal fee, but I would require room and board, and I'd need my transportation either to be provided or reimbursed. I've been in contact with a couple of NGOs in Malawi, but haven't set any dates yet for training. I will, however, be going to Changalume Barracks, the local army base, to train the officers' clerks sometime in February or March.

That about covers my plans for the year. There are a few other little ideas flitting about in my mind (like pesky moths), but for the most part, I think I'm going to try and focus on the task(s) at hand. I'll let you all know how it goes!