Upon arrival I decided to join the sports and culture responsibility area. I thought this would be a great way to interact with the students while also having some fun. During my first week at campus we arranged to have a meeting where the committee explained the activities that usually take place. Most of them were related to sports by hosting football, netball and volleyball games.
Let me give you some context, the college is located in the outskirts of Mzimba Boma town; going to town by car takes around 15 minutes, it is a short time, but transportation from college to town and back is not very frequent. Otherwise, you can walk but it can take you up to two hours, meaning students and staff tend to stay at campus most of the time. That is why sports and entertainment activities are crucial for the college program.
When I started going to the matches I noticed that DAPP TTC teams did not wear sport uniforms (netball, football and volleyball). They used a color coordinated T-shirt for netball and volleyball matches and for football they were borrowing from a nearby team. I thought to myself that I must figure out how to get uniforms for the college. First things first, find quotations for uniforms, so I travelled to the nearest city which is 1 hour 30 minutes from the college. I spent one day visiting stores, taking pictures, checking quality, colors and prices.
Once I collected the information, and figured out how to get the funds I communicated the news with the teams. In this way we could choose the colors and sizes together. Students and teachers were extremely happy with the news.
Now the college would have their own identity representing the institution. I was also very happy to bring so much joy to them.
In my personal opinion there is no right or wrong way to fulfill the core group teacher position. I think it’s really helpful to observe the entire picture and ask yourself: What can I do here? How can I best invest my time? How can I best invest my resources? Identify your interests and try your best to adequately bring your ideas into the environment. Being creative is also a very important quality to embrace being a core group teacher.
Lia from Honduras, a core-group teacher from January to July 2023 at DAPPs Teacher Training College in Mzimba, Malawi.
