Malawi

We have been comparing similarities and differences between Omar’s life’ a girl that live in Malawi and our life here in New Zealand. We’re going to be looking at how hard Omars school life and home life is compared to ours.

Omars school life is hard because, students have to be at school at 6.30 to sweep the dusty playground, half an hour before school starts. Students also have to share 1 book between 4-5 people. Not having enough money to buy books, pens or even pencils is hard for kids. 1.30 is the time they finish school, during that time they only have two 10min breaks. One at 8.40 and another at 10.40. Since they don’t have any where to hold their assembly they have it outside.

Sadly Omars parents died, so she now lives with her grandparents. Her  grandpa is the chief of her village but they live in a poor home. Inside her room she has no bed because her Grandpa sleeps on it. She calls it her bedroom but she has no bed so its basically just a room. On the floor is where Omar sleeps. The toilet and the kitchen are in two separate blocks outside.

Exams are really hard to pass, because students don’t have enough time to study. But when they do go home they're too busy helping out with the food and chores. Teachers sometimes have students at the age of 12-16 in their class, because they didn’t pass their exam. If students were unable to pass the exam then they stay in the same class.

SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES

We wear shoes to school but Omar doesn’t. She has to walk 6 kilometres to get to school whereas we just live down the road. In New Zealand its a must for us to go to school unlike kids in Malawi most of them stay home and learn to cook and do the chores. They also get their water out of a little well, however we get our water out of the tap. There is a lot of differences in Malawi.

There are some similarities such as we walk to school, we have assemblies, sing the national anthem and play sports. Omars school does the same as us. Another similar thing is that us and some schools in Malawi have desks and chairs. Books are provided but shared between 4-5 people in Malawi schools, unlike us we have netbooks and also get our own books.

its the kids responsibility to come to school early and clean the school. As for us we have don’t have to clean, instead we have a caretaker and cleaners. Mwaya school starts at 7.00 and finishes the day at 1.30, which is way different to Pt England School. Electricity, we have this but Mwaya School does not. They have no computers and they can’t even flick the switch to turn the light on, because there's no electricity.

For breakfast they grow Cassava and make it into a porridge. Here in New Zealand we have a variety of breakfast cereals to eat. Instead of living in a house with a kitchen and a toilet, they have them in two separate blocks outside. But after using the toilet they have no sink to wash their hands. These are all so different to how we live.