Big Game Cancelled While Teachers Bond

Our highly anticipated match up against the Marianist Brothers of East Africa was cancelled due to an all staff meeting with the administration, representatives from the Archdiocese, and representatives from the Ministry of Education, including the District Educational Manager, who, from everything I could tell, is a really big deal.

The worst part of it all, though, is that the meeting that caused the cancellation of the game lasted about 25 minutes and was scheduled for 9AM. You might be wondering, “How in the world could a 25 minute meeting at 9 in the morning cancel a volleyball match set for 4:30 in the afternoon?” Well, I think this was my biggest lesson to date of how things work on Africa time.

At about 8:30AM on Wednesday morning, we received a memo from the school office stating we had a staff meeting at 9AM. Somewhat disappointed that we were probably going to lose at least a few hours of our morning, we all got dressed and walked over to the summer hut, the place where the teachers spend most of our break time. We arrived only to find that most of the staff was not there, the head master was walking back and forth, and no one really knew what the plan was. This wasn’t too unusual from what I’ve experienced so far.

At 10:08AM (I remember because by that point I had pulled out my journal and began writing in it), the headmaster came over to inform us that the board of directors, the representatives from the Archdiocese, and the Ministry of Education were all coming for a meeting with the administration. He also informed us that the administration would meet with them first, and then the rest of staff would meet with them. He was not sure how long it would take for the first meeting, but that they hoped to be finished by 1PM, so we should stay available so that once the first meeting ended, we could proceed to have the all staff meeting.

Already having a few Malawian meetings under my belt, I knew that this first meeting would take at least an hour, and would likely take two hours. It would then be about lunch time, so everyone would go home for lunch, so I felt pretty safe coming back home and waiting to receive word that the first meeting had ended.

We went home, ate lunch and 1PM came around with no word that the meeting had ended. Since the administration had hoped to meet with us and finish that meeting before 1PM, we figured that we should go back over to the summer hut to check things out. I took my time and got over to the summer hut around 1:30 to find most of the teachers sitting in the summer hut, a hint that perhaps something was going to happen soon. No more than two minutes went by when one of the teachers stood up and said, “The food is ready. Let’s get up and eat.” We proceeded to the geography room where a massive lunch was prepared for the teachers: apparently a “sitting allowance” for the teachers who had been waiting all day for a meeting that hadn’t happened. We all ate lunch and then went back to the summer hut. The waiting continued.

As 4:30 drew nearer and nearer, we became more worried that our volleyball game was not going to happen. Two of the brothers were in the administration meeting, and even if that finished, the rest of us would have to meet, so things weren’t looking good.

Despite all of this waiting, the day actually turned out to be pretty fun. One of the Malawian teachers, Mr. N’gambi and one of the volunteers Matt Meyers provided plenty of entertainment for the rest of the teachers. We had conversations ranging from US politics, the election, Malawian politics, economics, goats, puppies, dogs, football (soccer), and a plethora of other topics. All the while, Matt was making fun of this meeting, which, with each hour passing, became “history in the making” as one of the Malawians phrased it.

It ended up being 5:47PM when the administration meeting came to a finish. Somewhat excited, somewhat frustrated, the teachers all filed into the staff room to be updated on what the administration had discussed. When we sat down and got started, the first piece of business was an apology. Apparently, there was a misunderstanding between the administration and the headmaster, and the rest of us weren’t actually supposed to meet at all. By this point, it didn’t even matter; we didn’t even care. We just wanted to hear what the news was. They all were very cordial about the mistake, and they decided to meet with us and fill us in as a sign of appreciation for all of our patience. We were then given a 20 minute summary of what was discussed, including the accusation that some teachers were suspected to be behind the events that had unfolded the week before and an admonishment that this type of behavior should cease immediately. With that, the meeting ended, and we all went home for dinner. What a day.