Silke Rooman, Rini Goovaerts, Aurelie Petillon and Lien Claesen, final year students of the kindergarten teacher training program, introduced a new international destination in their college: Malawi (Africa). (Foto: Filip Van Loock)
Since then, they had a chance to get to know Mieke Hendrickx personally a while ago when she was back in the country briefly. A few years ago, along with the now deceased Johan De Mulder, she started up the non-profit YOCEvim which stands for Youth, Orphan, Care, Education, Vlaanderen in Malawi.
The students are still counting on financial support from InterS as well as on a development cooperation scholarship from the Flemish Region, but there are already 17 candidates in the university college for a limited number of scholarships. In any case, their flight with Ethiopian Airlines is already booked and they will leave for Zomba in early March come hell or high water. There they will train local volunteers who are already taking care of pre-schoolers in a school where the pupils are predominantly orphans. These children only speak the local language but because Malawi was once a British protectorate, English is still the official language and spoken by many.
“This means that in the beginning, we will only verbally communicate with the ‘teachers’ ”, says Rina, and Silke adds that they will be offering art education, movement recreation, handicrafts and sports. “Accommodation is offered by Mieke in a small house in her garden. There is room for four and we will be doing our own cooking there”, says Lien. They will do their shopping in the ‘supermarket’ but they will definitely also visit the local market, if there is one, and do their shopping there. “Of course we want to be introduced to African cooking,” says Rina.
On exploration
There are about 160 pre-schoolers and eight teachers. The teachers-in-training will each be assigned to two teachers with whom they will share their own knowhow and skills. And they will experience first hand what the local women find obvious. There is no electricity in the school nor is there running water. There is a little more comfort in the house but they are nonetheless thinking about spending the night at school every now and then because the journey home involves cycling downhill for three quarters of an hour and uphill for more than an hour. A sleeping bag and mosquito net are indispensable because there is malaria in Malawi as well. And the information they receive from the Tropical Institute ensures that they bring the right anti-malaria pills.
They will land in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, at night and spend the first night in a hotel. “It is a five-hour drive to Zomba and even if we manage to find transportation, a trip in the dark on a dirt road is too great a risk”, they tell us.
They want to spend the Easter holidays getting to know the country a bit better, a country, apparently that also attracts some tourists. They want to visit the Malawi lake but they know it is not a good idea to swim in it because of the risk of horrible infections. They are also interested in the wildlife reserves. Aurelie says that they have considered the risks and that they are well informed about the possible dangers. Malawi has the reputation of being a safe country but there are of course pickpockets. They are also aware of the fact that they should try to avoid offending people through their attire since their white skins already attract enough attention.
Lien, Silke and Aurelie will miss family and friends, but Rina believes that it will be mostly the other way around. “Because we are on a journey of exploration and will always be busy while they will have little distraction.” In any case, there is a ‘hotspot’ at Mieke’s that allows them to get onto the internet and use email. But they also intend to send postcards and Aurelie wants to write old-fashioned letters complete with a Malawi stamp on the envelope.
John Caluwaerts
