Life at Primary School for the Deaf
Because it is a boarding school, the Embangweni Primary School for the Deaf is home to its students for much of the year. From the time a new school year begins in September until it ends in mid-July, students may go to their home village for only 2 short (2-week) breaks between terms. A few students do not return to the village during those breaks as the cost for transportation is very high. They stay at school under the supervision of the house staff and the headteacher. Almost all do go home for the long break between July and September. And, to be honest, some students have said they don’t really want to go home because “there is no one there to chat with” and “all my friends are here”. In the home village very few people know sign while at school everyone from the head teacher to the house mamas and the security men knows sign and communicates easily with the learners.
Since this is truly home, students have rules to follow and chores to do. Each school day they clean the school grounds and sweep and mop the classrooms; some are assigned to clean the latrines. Older girls have access to office keys and routinely clean staff offices. Students care for the school livestock, which may include chickens, pigs and cattle. Usually an older boy cares for the cattle used to pull the school ox-cart. They care for the square foot gardens and other demonstration gardens as well as the large maize field. When the maize is ripe, students help harvest, stook and later store the dried maize.
All students do their own laundry and carry water from the bore hole for personal bathing. The house mamas launder things like bedding. Older girls sometimes help with food preparation.
If there are visitors coming, the students prepare regional dances, handbell performances and chancel drama, which is also often done at morning chapel when the oldest students are in charge.
During free time, all younger students must stay on the school grounds. There are no fences, but everyone knows where the boundaries are! With permission, older students may go to the trading center of Embangweni which is about a kilometer away and to the hospital to visit someone they know who is ill.
On the weekend, there may be sporting events scheduled either at school or at the opponent’s school. On Friday evening the whole school gathers in the chapel to see a video. Each evening a student leads bedtime prayers in the hostels. Class 9 learners frequently have additional class time on Saturday as they prepare for their school-leaving exams. Most students attend a worship service; many attend the English service at the CCAP church on Loudon Station. Teachers provide sign interpretation of the service for them.
On Sunday afternoon, some students attend Girls’ Brigade or Boys’ Brigade with hearing children. These organizations are partly religious-based and partly like an American Scout troop.
Some older students also go to the nearby home of Joseph Nyongo for prayer meeting. Joseph is a good friend to the deaf children and also helps with Boys’ and Girls Brigades.
Students at the Embangweni Primary School for the Deaf enjoy sports! Like many schools in Malawi, this one cannot always afford equipment, including balls, but they make do. Younger students invent games using available materials as kids do all over the world. The older learners participate in several organized sports with teachers providing coaching. One teacher is assigned to be the Games Master and is responsible for scheduling and planning events. Between the Primary School and the Secondary School there is a large playing field with soccer and netball goals used by both schools. A volleyball net can be erected as well.
Students enjoy track and field events involving races and long jumping.
Boys play soccer and basketball and often compete with other schools in the area. Games alternate between at-home and away games; some competing schools are close enough for students to walk back and forth.
Girls participate in netball, which is a form of basketball. They also compete against neighboring schools at home or away.
Students not involved in a game and teachers provide the sideline cheering sections! Sometimes teachers or teacher wives bring snacks for sale like ice pops and a snack like the USA’s Cheetos. Kids are happy to spend their tuck money! Teachers are encouraged to watch the games and will also bring their children. Deaf school girls happily take care of teachers’ small babies on the sidelines!
Playing organized sports can present challenges to the deaf child. Obviously s/he cannot hear the referee’s whistle, so a yellow flag is waved as well. But sign language can be used to notify a friend of an upcoming play even if that friend is across the field!
Something that makes the school special is the practice of “adoption”. Older students will “adopt” a younger new student and may come up and say “this is my baby.” They share a bed and the older one teaches the young child the basics of school life: routine, staying clean, when/how to get meals, being properly dressed for class with hair combed and shoes on. Sometimes a new student decides to go back home and the big brother/sister will go along until they can convince the child that they need to stay at the school. All the older students help the new ones learn sign and it is not uncommon to see a big brother/sister sitting beside a small one during chapel to help them understand and focus. New students are introduced at assembly following morning chapel; older kids are encouraged to develop a sign name for the new one. Each person at school – student, teacher, house staff – has a distinct sign name. Even visitors are often given sign names. Using their personal sign helps students feel included and distinct from everyone else. Teachers are urged to know and use the signs for their class rather than the general “imwe” (“you”). In fact, one head teacher was once asked by a visitor “What is that boy’s name?” Head thought a moment and then said “I don’t know his name. I know his sign and all the children’s signs, but I don’t always remember their spoken name.”
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