NO WEE WEEING OUTSIDE

Well today was the official first day of school.  It was a good day and we went over a lot of rules and procedures.  I was surprised, because it was the first time that NONE of my student’s cried while at school.  They were all very excited and basically told their parents to leave.  It was a funny first.  I am pretty strict when school starts so I thought maybe they would all want to go home, but many of them were begging their parents to stay at school! 

The funniest moment of the day happened while my class was writing our classroom rules.  One little boy raised his hand and said we should have the rule “No wee weeing on the playground.”  At first I thought I just didn’t understand this Malawian boy, so when asked to repeat what he said, he said it again.  He also said that this was a very good rule.  All the other children turned and agreed with him.  I laughed about this a lot, but then later I thought that this might be a good rule.

See, here in Malawi, and in several places around the world, it is acceptable for people to use the bathroom anywhere on the side of the road.  In fact, while I was leaving the grocery store last week, I saw a man using the restroom on a busy main road!  One of our Malawian teacher assistants said that when she was in South Africa, she heard men saying that they couldn't wait to get back to Malawi just so that they could go to the bathroom anywhere they wanted.  They were sick of the bathroom rules in South Africa! 

So, despite my laughter, I realized that in Africa . . . . No wee weeing outside is a VERY GOOD RULE!