Greetings- May 30-2005

Greetings. May 30, 2005

The weather is cooling here and the school term is well on its way. Last weekend six other Peace Corps Volunteers came up to this area for a meeting of our Gender and Development group.

The meeting was a chance for people to visit a new area of Malawi as well as continued planning of future gender based activities. The visitors helped remind my site mate and me of what a beautiful place we live in. The waterfalls were full of rain water, the lake was clear, and the sky was cloudy, shooing off the heat. The meeting went very well. We discussed how to improve clubs at the school levels, how it involve boys, and future ideas for essay projects and career day visits.

After the meeting we went to the region’s big city for a going away party. There is a constant flux of people coming and going, but this girl had been around for a while and joined our trip to South Africa.

Upon returning back to my village, I was greeted by good news in two parts. The first good news was a new headmaster joined our school. We really needed a leader as the students were starting to leave our school to transfer to others due to the low number of teachers. The other good news was delivered by a ward councilor (local politician who helps support development). He informed me that they had been awarded a new school block (two classrooms) and that they had already prepared the bricks. He wanted me to know how grateful they were for my help as I picked up a copy of the application. I was happy to see effort towards such a good thing. Sometimes it seems this place lacks the motivation. Just the jab I needed. The same man also opened up a maize mill ( to grind the corn grain into flour) in the area. This helps reduce the amount of laborious hand pounding or transport to the nearest maize mill.

The bad news came in a casual conversation with someone else. A wonderful man, a friend, a champion in development, and a moral, dedicated example for all, had passed away the night before. He was very kind and warm to me. He always made time to chat, welcomed me to his house, helped me with projects, and even let me ride his motorcycle (which afterwards I think he regretted because I rode like an idiot). The village of Khwawa was blessed to have him here. Good journey, friend. I never knew he was sick and the last time I saw him he told me that he was being transferred and I told him that I was going with him. (He was medically diagnosed with Malaria. I have read that if the U.S. decided to, it could eradicate Malaria. But it is never that simple.)

Since an accident involving some of our students, things have been strange here. Students have gone on strike, even locking a teacher out of his house so that he could not leave. The 12th graders only have classes for 3-4 periods out of 9 each day. And this is their big exam year. Along with this there has been some unnecessary drama involving a teacher with a drinking problem, money, and the students.

To set up the story, a foreword is needed. If a teacher or bursar (accountant) is caught doing something illegal they are transferred to another school as punishment. Very few teachers are actually fired. Our bursar has been transferred three times for theft.

The teacher in question is actually a good teacher when sober. Unfortunately he drinks too much. This requires money. In the past at our school, he was caught keeping money that belonged to the school. Unfortunately that did not stop the management of our school from making him head teacher, placing him in charge of the money. He received money that belonged to the students of the accident that should have been returned to the students because the journey was not complete. He kept it. The students hounded him to the point that he ran away. One teacher chased him down on bicycle asking him to return. Instead he abandoned his wife and child for a week. He was to be transferred to another school and came back with the truck to move his household items. The students were not as nice this time and he became fearful. It is not uncommon for students in Malawi to riot, stone people, or beat people. This teacher had been beaten at a previous school and then transferred.

He lied to the students and tried to take off in the truck. The students jumped on top and hijacked the truck. They were stopped at a road block and the students convinced the police to hold him there until they received their money. The teacher concocted a story that the money was with our bursar. They journeyed to his home and he lied to the police saying that he had the money. The next day he came to school and told everyone he had been lying and was protecting his friend from the students. The schools response was to wait, do nothing, and wait for the teacher to bring the money back. If he did not, his salary was to be docked. No punishment per say for either person! That is just one small example of why corruption goes unchecked here. People say they feel trapped by the hierarchy. A fall back to the tribal days!

I tried to motivate the students to go to the police and file a complaint against both men. The school teachers are lobbying (villagers, village headman, and others also) to delay any action. I feel that in doing nothing we will punish all involved by limiting a sense of justice as well as reinforcing his actions.

On Monday we had a meeting with the students and the staff. The students at first were intimidated, but then they stood up and displayed courage in making demands for justice. The showed integrity by indicating that getting the money back was not the most important part. This is rarely the case where students stand up like this and I recognized a higher order in their comments and requests. It was almost as if I were watching them expand their own freedom.

The bursar made a trip to improve the situation and stayed away three extra days returning with little information. The top of our region’s Ministry of Education was supposed to take care of things but little has been done. Our head master went to the new school of the teacher, and the teacher ran away again. He made up a really poor excuse of going to the hospital. During this time, I found out that he had access to school fees and money that was used to pay for construction of a new building. All evidence points him taking that as well.

This past Friday, the Ministry of Education was going to send a vehicle to pick him up and bring him to the school. They were planning on bringing an auditor to check the funds and a security officer to protect him from the students. The students have been waiting patiently, slowly loosing steam.

Yesterday I went to visit with the head of the Ministry of Education in our region. Malawi is divided up into three regions. He has a large amount of responsibility and he is busy. The first time I tried to visit he would not see me, so I was happy just to get an audience with him. I explained to him that I felt there was not enough being done to protect the students from this injustice. This has both short term--money, and long term-- sense of responsibility, consequences. We also discussed that the behavior of the teacher who stole, and the bursar, is unacceptable and damaging to both themselves and others who view it as acceptable based on the punishment. He openly said that they have done little to assist in changing the behavior and he did not respect the quality of those people. He agreed that the students should get the money back by garnishing wages. His suggestion of discipline is an official letter warning. I suggested allowing the students to go to the police and file official complaints, and after a short discussion, he agreed. The final step is that he will transfer the bursar to another school

It may seem strange that the idea of legal action is so important to me, but in consideration this country lost 1/3 rd of is budget ($70 million) to corruption. That is more than the education and health budget of the country combined. I feel that people need to be held accountable so that corruption is viewed by the general population as wrong doing.

Matt