Chimwala Primary School

 marshie and stewie gave me the most incredible christmas present this year. it was even better than the purple pterodactyl i asked for. in my name, via UNICEF, the two lovebirds donated a classroom of desks at the Chimwala primary school in Lilongwe. since i happened to be up in the capital for the past few days, last night on the way back from the field, we decided to swing by and take a look. it was nearly completely dark by the time we reached it, and were merely hoping to get a photo of the sign out front, but this is what we found...

drove in the gate of the Chimwala CCAP Parish. the primary school is actually run by CCAP (pronounced sisepi, dont ask me why) which stands for the Church of Central Africa-Pentecostal. next to the church were 4 brick buildings and a massive dirt football pitch. there was a small assortment of school age children playing in some puddles. the headlights of our truck attracted even more kids until they formed quite a large collection, as well as one of the Chimwala teachers (mphunzitisi= teacher). we explained ourselves to him, and he graciously opened up one of the classrooms to show me my desks. 

Chimwala primary school, he said, has 4000 students. mostly they live in the surrounding villages, but some of the kids are orphans who are cared for at the parish; which explains the flock of children playing in the mud after dark. 

the 4000 students are divided into 47 "classrooms", of about 100 students each, but there are only 7 actually class rooms, the remaining 40 "classrooms" are clusters of kids scattered around the football pitch. "this problem of school buildings makes the teaching very challenging during the wet season", mphunzitsi explained. he said the children were very grateful for the desks they received in december and he said the chruch is hoping to raise enough money to pay for the aluminum sheets to roof the fourth building. 

thanks mom and stu.