WHO'S READY FOR SOME SCIENCE!!!

I am!

I got the go ahead for my itty bitty day camp from the boss-man, who said that we can get me a little grant when I apply for it, so that's good, now I just have to write and submit the thing. We don't need money right this moment, but I'd like to know that the group will be supplied with iron nails and insulated wire for a bit longer. The experiments and posters are all set and assembled- I just need to add color to the posters that I made, but I can get that done over the weekend. Vanessa is coming up next Tuesday to help set up and teach- and by this time next week, we will be on our way to Mzuzu so I can buy more fabric for Umoza, and she can go to some meeting.

Umoza is going just fine- and the other women's group, the one that meets on Wednesdays is also just fine. They have started turning a profit on home made peanut brittle which they store in my house at night when it rains. Yeah, guess who their #1 customer is...

Also, as of yesterday, all but one of the puppies are GONE! This is a good thing. One puppy is cute, five puppies are a pain in the ass.

so that's about it in the world of Melissa. The world is puddle wonderful and green, things are good.

beeb

Science and Technology Club Part II

Hey all! So after a weekend at the beach to celebrate a friend's birthday, I'm back and really getting into preparing for next week's break when (drumroll please...) I am going to have a day camp for the Sci/Tech club! What?! Yeah, it is a week long break, and yes, I am going to spend it fiddling around with science experiments with my students. Don't judge.

Most of the experiments I'll be presenting/ letting kids mess with come courtesy of Kitty and her amazing science kits! My favorite was definitely the kit that showed you how to make little things like a battery operated motor out of wire and paper clips, or another one which used the concept of electromagnets to create a telegraph machine. The solar cars are also awesome, I kept looking outside in hopes that the sun would come out so I could test them. Hope and pray for sun next week!

This is how the camp will go- I have 5 main topics: sound, flight, electricity, magnets, and solar. The magnet activity will be next to the electricity activity so I can save time with the electromagnets. Each subject has about 5 activities to go with it, so the camp will either need to happen over the course of 2 days, or I'll need help (I have friends who are maybe coming though, keep your fingers crossed). Either way, I'm excited! I feel like Esther.

Science and Technology Club

SUCCESS!

Ok, ok, maybe this is a little premature, since we've only had our first meeting, but I will say that I for one had a good time teaching the little lecture I put together on flight. I told the students the basics of airplane flight, showed them some books that they could borrow for more reference, and then we took some of the balsa wood airplanes that I got in a package (thanks kitty!), and we threw them around, trying to see which model would go the farthest, and why. The kids loved it when one of the planes did loops. Then, we went back to the library and the kids made their own airplanes out of some index cards I'd found. It was a fun little lesson to start with. I think that next week we are going to work on simple machines (screws, wedges, levers, maybe even, gasp, a pulley)- I've got my carpenter working on making some simple shapes out of scraps for us, and he is even making me a peg board so that I can better demonstrate the principles. Today, a form 1 who isn't even taller than me yet borrowed a book about airplanes that I'd pulled and put on display under the 'technology club' poster. I'd say thats progress.

melissa

Ant Problem

I have an ant problem. There is really not much to be done about it, I keep all of my food in ant-proof containers, and the dogs make sure that there isn't a bit of food on the floor, but the ants seem to be ok with eating anything- dead insects, book glue, my backpack (why, I don't know, but they always seem to be on it). Sigh. Some day, I'll have nice things, and a house that isn't infested with things I only used to see on the discovery channel... someday.

Things here are good, as you know, the rainy season is my favorite, so I am generally happy. I also have a pretty exciting stack of books sitting in my bedroom waiting for me to take them to the beach down the road. Yup, its a good life alright.

In my most recent packages, I received some science type kits and a bunch of science books, which has inspired the staff to start a science and technology club. Now, I am no science teacher, but I think I'll manage. I think it would be cool to get the kids to make contraptions, sort of like what we used to do with tinker toys when I was growing up, and hopefully I can give small lectures about physics and simple tools. I have an idea in mind that we'll all make crazy contraptions a la Rube Goldberg that will solve all of our problems. This is, of course, not going to happen, but a girl can dream, right? Hopefully my local carpenter can help us by providing scraps of wood and things for a low cost, anyone who would like to send tinker toys or gears and stuff in their next packages will be very popular with the kiddies, I'm sure.

Otherwise, no new news!

Love,

Melissa

Rainy Misty Mountains

Before I start in on my planned blog entry that I penned in my off period while I was sitting in the library, let me just thank Kitty R., who is a rockstar, and sent me 4 packages which all arrived today- my postmaster pretended at first that only one was coming, that joker. They are now strapped to my bike- I am waiting to open them until I get home :D

We are in the middle of the rainy season here, so the entire countryside is green. This is my favorite time of year here, I have decided. There is a pass North of Mzuzu along the M1 which goes up the mountains and along an escarpment. The last time I traveled North to visit my friend who lives on the other side of the mountains, it was dry and yellow, and you could see scorch marks on the hills from brush fires, and the trees were sad low twisted things. Now though, when you travel through the mountains, everything is misty and green, it is the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time.

This time last year, I remember being in the back of a pickup truck with some friends on our way to some training or another, and we went through the mountains from Salima to Lilongwe. I think what I liked most about that trip was the way the clouds touched their surrounding hills, because we don't have anything like that where I'm from.

My goal this term is to stay in the North and avoid the capitol as much as possible, unless Peace Corps demands that I go, or if, no sorry, WHEN Esther comes back. Last term I went six times: once in September for a rabies shot, then in October for the GRE (and an unfortunate bout of Malaria at the same time, in case you were wondering, even though I was on an IV drip 12 hours before I sat for the test, my scores weren't too shabby)- then I went again for Thanksgiving and to fly out to America, then of course I was there again when I returned from America, and finally I had MST in January, which meant that I was through Lilongwe both on my way to and from Dedza. I. Hate. Lilongwe. I have been away from the stupid place for about a month now, and I'm still annoyed by it- I can never meet with anyone from the office unless I am missing school, since office hours are only on the weekdays, and in order to get home in one day, I have to leave at 5:30. No thank you. So I'm boycotting the city- a bridge went out to the South of me, barring my way to the capitol, good riddance.

I'd rather stay here along the lake shore up in the North, and when I do travel, I'll try to stay as close to home as possible. I think that in the future, I'll remember my time in the Peace Corps as me sitting in the back of a truck going along the lakeshort, or though the mountains to Mzuzu, my hair tucked into a hat to save it from the wind as I pass by terraced fields on steep hillsides, then past banana trees, and finally through the rubber tree plantation, where the rows of trees all seem to lean to the South. It is a good life here in Northern Malawi, I promise.