Cornerstones

Every strong building has a cornerstone. The cornerstone is the thing that provides stability to the entire building. Cornerstones are such a key element in building that my home state, Pennsylvania, is called the Keystone State! Recently I have been taking more notice of the piles of bricks all around Malawi. I started to think about how these bricks represent so much about Malawi, including the education system I am now working in. 

Bricks here in Malawi are handmade. There is no automatic machine that produces them by the truck load. Every brick that is produced is the product of the blood, sweat and tears that went into it. Similarly with education, there is no home school or cyber school option here. Kids must be in a classroom in order to learn. Educators pour their blood, sweat and tears into giving their students the best education they can provide. 

The bricks are made from the soil of the surrounding area where the building is to be constructed. This isn’t a problem, unless the soil in the area you want to build isn’t good for making bricks. Comparatively, what is a child in Malawi expected to do if there is no local school within a reasonable walking distance of their village? In the US school districts spend tons of money transporting students to school, but here, if there is no school nearby, there is no schooling. No good soil, no bricks. No school, no education. I am thankful to be working at a school that was built in an area that needed a good quality secondary school. 

After the bricks are constructed they are left in the sun to dry. If the brick was not constructed in the proper way, or if the materials used were not mixed properly, it is at this point the bricks will crumble. I wish I did not hear about students’ education crumbling due to measures they cannot control. Some of the events that can contribute to the breakup of their education are: a death in the family, illness, or lack of funds for uniforms or school supplies. Any education that is left to crumble due to elements outside of the student’s control is a tragedy that I hope someday is no longer an issue. Another problem here is getting the proper materials needed to teach. I have seen school houses that are simply a thatched roof with children sitting under it. How can students succeed without the proper materials they need to learn? Many schools have just a few textbooks and desks or benches, no workbooks, paper, pens, pencils and no computers, projectors or electricity. It seems to me that many schools are like a building that has a "brick cornerstone" that is built without the proper mix of materials, and is sure to fall apart. 

Once the handmade bricks here are dried they are piled and covered in mud to be fired like pottery in a kiln. The bricks are again put to the test. The strongest bricks will survive the firing and the weaker bricks will crack. In the Malawi education system, in order to advance to the next step of schooling a student must pass exams. If the exam is not passed, the student has two options, redo the previous year and sit for exams again (which sometimes isn't financially or realistically an option) or drop out. The other realistic part of the educational system in Malawi is that there are simply not enough universities or scholarships to support all the students that wish to attend. Therefore only the absolute best of the best are chosen to advance to University level education, leaving the rest behind. 

Making bricks is back breaking, hard work. Education is not something that is simple or easy in Malawi. There are obstacles and sometimes factors that cannot be controlled. But the beautiful thing about Malawi is that even though it isn’t easy, the students and brick makers continue to persevere. Students continue to walk miles and miles to get to school. Teachers use whatever they can in order to get the material across to the students. Communities come together to support students who are struggling. And just like the bricks that they work so hard for, they use them to BUILD something great. They become cornerstones made out of the most unlikely circumstances. 

Education is a lot like building bricks here. It’s not easy. Sometimes the materials are not exactly what you need. Even if you do everything right there are still cracks in the system. But at the end of the day, the students of Malawi are the cornerstones for this developing nation moving forward. Please continue to pray for them as they build themselves as high as they can go.