Watch it happen
The warm heart of Africa.
Malawi is called the warm heart of Africa because of the people. Travel there with a family who went, and then see the country itself.
Say it together
Children here hold two languages at once.
Chichewa is Malawi's national language and is spoken by most people in the country. English is also official, so children in Zomba usually hold two languages at once. Ulemu would greet you with Moni, which means hello.
None of these words has a voice yet. A reader from this city is recording them. Until then, say them from the beats written on each card, and do not guess at the sound from the spelling.
Your turn to build something
Your week at the Zomba market
Ulemu's family did not start with a lodge. They started with one idea. You are starting with nothing but groundnuts you can gather yourself. Sell for seven days and see how far you get.
- Made0
- Spent0
- Saved0
- In hand0
-
1 Choose an item to sell
Today you only have what you can gather yourself. That is how everybody starts.
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2 What will you charge?
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3 Open your stand
Today0MKMoni! That means hello. You will say it a lot this week.
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4 What will you do with today's money?
Your whole week
| Day | Sold | Spent | Made |
|---|
- You made0MK
- You spent making it0MK
- You saved0MK
- Left in your tin0MK
Build something where you live
Six ways to start with what is already here.
Ulemu's family did not wait for somebody to bring them a business. They had a house, a road and people coming past, so they built Mango Lodge. Start with what is already in front of you.
You have been somewhere real. Now it is about you.
Zomba did not wait to be given a business. Ulemu's family looked at what was already there and opened the doors.
Run a market day with your class. Then come back and take your stamp.
For grown-ups
Running Zomba with children
What the child should be able to do at the end
The learner can name a safe purpose, compare material properties, match a material to a function, run a controlled test, and explain one evidence-based revision.
What to read or watch together, and the questions that go with it
“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. There is a young readers' edition and a picture-book edition for younger children. His TED talk is in this lesson and runs a few minutes.
- He could not read all the English in the book. What did he read instead?
- Everything he used was already in his village. Why had nobody used it?
- People came to watch him fail. What would that have felt like?
- What is lying unused where you live?
A note on safety and place
Use only clean, blunt, low-risk practice materials. No mains electricity, blades, heated plastic, broken ceramics, unknown salvage, or powered tools.
If a device is not available
Place clean paper, card, craft sticks, short string, and other grown-up-approved practice materials on a table. Sort them by observable properties, build one low-risk function model, run the same test twice, and record the revision. Do not use unknown salvage, electronics, blades, heat, or broken materials.
About this lesson
For ages 8 to 11, grades 3 to 5.
Film sources
The short films in this lesson come from Growing Up Without Borders and Stephen Burkholder, shown in their own YouTube players.
Map and image sources
The lesson map is drawn with OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles, using OpenStreetMap data under the Open Database License. The map component is MapLibre.