There names can be said in Chichewa or English, and you can often use them interchangeably. Here are some of the names: Faith, Gift, Charity, Omega, Fortunate, Patience, Blessings, Gracious, Precious, Favour, Memory, as well as many Bible names. Of course, they also have many other names, but names like these ones are very common.
The last little tidbit for you all is something called second selection. Second Selection is where the higher tier schools will fill any empty spots in their classes with students that just missed the cutoff on their exams. For the students it is great, because they get to finally go to a school with more resources and opportunities. However, for me this means that at the start of Term 2 in January, I essentially lost my 50 brightest students in both Form 1 and Form 3. Those 50 spots in each class were then filled with new students that I hadn’t worked with at all during the previous 4 months. I was basically starting again from scratch and whenever I start new with students they have a very difficult time understanding my ‘thick American accent’. So that was a challenge for me, but I have always been the type that looks forward to a little challenge. Though I can’t lie, it was hard saying goodbye to many students who I had really connected with during Term 1.
I could go on all day about all the interesting things I have learned about education in Malawi, but I think this is already plenty. It has been such a cool experience to teach these students and learn from them. I know how much you love videos, so I have prepared one final video showing what it all looks like. You will notice many of the details we have talked about here and more.
