first aid kits

Today Fredison and I went to one of my favorite preschools “Blessings”…this week we are working on first aid kits for the preschools…a few of the preschool's have first aid boxes that were given to them by former DI’s…BUT a lot of them do not…I stocked-up on band-aids, gauze, alcohol swaps and, rubber gloves before I left the states…so I wanted to create first aid boxes for some of the preschools that did not have one…so together with the supervisors we created a few first aid boxes…I was very happy that i brought these items from home and that we were able to put them to good use…as a team we decided which preschools should receive the boxes and what we should put in them…it was very challenging deciding on what schools would receive the first aid boxes...we came to the conclusion that it would be best to give the boxes to the preschools that we could trust to use the contents of the first aid boxes just for the students...we added some of the medications that we bought last month with the preschool budget to the boxes too…I kept some of those medications so we can have them on us in case we come across a child that may need assistance…at Blessings today, Fredison and I were going over the items in the first aid box with the teachers explaining to them what each item was and how to use them...this precious little girl "Alice" was so curious about the first aid boxes and wanted to help me put everything into the box and then take it all out again...

 

 

after we finished with the first aid kits the two teachers began with their lesson…one thing that I have been trying to help the teachers with is to make sure that every student is involved with each lesson…I made an observation after visiting many of the preschools in Chilangoma…it’s very common for the teachers to call-on the same kids for every activity…so with the supervisor’s, we have been trying to teach the teachers that it’s VERY important to call-on all of the students ,not just the ones they know will know the answer “the smarter students”…we feel that the students who know they aren’t going to be called-on are the ones who don’t feel the need to pay attention …we are doing our best to encourage these teachers to try and make all of the students feel as though they belong and that they “matter too”…we are hoping that the extra  encouragement from the teachers will help the slower students begin to excel...

while the teachers were teaching i realized a little girl in the back of the class was just sitting there kind of staring off into space...the teachers were neglecting to call on her...so i started talking with Fredison about the little girl and when the lesson was over we approached the teachers with our concerns...she told us this girl was actually "Alice's little sister" and that she was to weak to participate...they explained that Alice's mother was pregnant and was unable to breastfeed this little girl...it's customary for the mother's here to breastfeed their children up until the age of three...the reasoning for this is because their staple food here is "nsima" which is a thick "maze" porridge...Malawian's call corn "maze"... i have tasted it a few times and it's very thick and taste a little like grits in my opinion...but if you don't have sugar to add to the nisma it taste very bland...the nsima alone doesnt have enough nutrition that a child that young needs to grow...Fredison and I felt very sadden by this news...we told the teachers that someone needs to talk to this family about not having anymore children because they cant even provide for the ones they already have...he and I decided to go to their village market and buy some powered milk for this little girl..."it's rare to find milk in these small villages like I am use to in the states"...we returned with the powered milk and prepared it for the little girl...at first, she was very hesitant to try the milk...she seemed to be more concerned with the fact that a white person was giving it to her...we all had a little laugh about this and i walked outside of the preschool while the teacher's gave the little girl the milk..she drank just about all of the milk and then let-out a little burp that i could here through the thin school wall...i never thought hearing a burp would make me feel very pleased but this one did...

on the bike ride home "Fredison lets me ride beside him" ...i felt the need to ask Fredison if he was feeling ok?..he is always very cheerful but today something seemed a little off with him...so we stopped at the next village and had a cold coke "in a glass bottle"...he began to explain that his wife was sick and that he didn't have the money to take her to the private hospital or to just buy medicine for her...throughout his explanation he didn't once ask me for money or if i could help him..so i asked him where the closet hospital was and how much the medication would cost...he looked down and said "I wasn't asking you for anything Megan, I was just sharing with you because you asked" ...i repeated the same question again and he replied that it was about 30 mins by bike from the village we were in...i then asked him how much the medication would cost and when he replied around 700 mk which equals $4.21 in the states...my heart sank...it's so hard  knowing that so many people suffer from different illnesses here and cant afford to get the medications they need...and they cost nothing...i looked at Fredison and ask him "will you allow me to buy this medication for your wife?" and he gave me a nod...so we finished our cokes and went to the hospital and got the medications...i fought back the tears on the way back to the campus...i felt so mad about all of the suffering here... children not having the proper nutrition they need...people having to suffer from illness that cost nothing to cure...it just isn't fair and something i will never understand...all over the world there are countries spending money on fighting each other... and none of them seem to care that there are people just fighting to stay alive...