Africa Malawi
Malawi Teaching Diary
After a cushy flight relaxing in an emergency exit seat, I arrived into Lilongwe Airport in the midday heat and was relieved to be met by the director of the Frontier partner charity in Malawi. A few bumpy and sleepy hours later I had arrived in my new home for the next 8 weeks.
After settling in and eating dinner, I met the two other Frontier volunteers who were in their final week of their project and invited me join them for a week of travelling around Malawi before they left. We jumped in the back of a pickup truck and soon arrived at the top of Zomba Plateau and enjoyed some stunning views over the African plains below us. A trek to a waterfall later we headed to Liwonde National Park. We jumped in a boat for a trip up the river and spotted several hippos, lots of birds and locals in their dug-out canoes. We did a jeep safari next and saw several impala deer's, waterbucks, warthogs but sadly no elephants. We then retired to sleep under the stars and be serenaded to sleep by the grunts of nearby hippos.
The other Frontier volunteers headed home and I began to start my teaching in earnest. I was teaching Standard 2 in the Primary School, usually for three hours a day. The kids were absolutely fantastic and 
were bags of fun and so keen to learn. I decided to teach them how to read and found this really satisfying and very enjoyable. We played sport every day at 4pm, either rounders, football or rugby, which I taught them towards the end. When I wasn't teaching or playing sport, I was either playing and hanging out with the orphans, exploring the area, relaxing in the sun, tutoring the secondary school students in Maths, English and Chemistry, playing backgammon with the volunteer supervisor or just chatting with the friendly people in the village.
The time flew by and I soon found myself watching the sun rise out of the car window as I headed back to Lilongwe. After a quick pit stop of steak dinners and air conditioned supermarkets , I jumped on a bus to Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi. I found myself a nice, cheap wooden chalet right on the lakefront with my own little patch of sand and admired the stunning views of the lake whilst relaxing in the sun. I then did some very cheap diving in the lake, which was fantastic and was like being in a 
massive aquarium. I spent five days there before catching a bus across to Tanzania for five days in idyllic Zanzibar before my flight back to the grey skies of London where I am now hatching my plan to return!
Patrick Massey's teaching placement in Malawi was arranged with Frontier