Wardrobe Change

Every Monday and Friday during our morning Chapel service at the school, the headmaster stands up and gives weekly announcements. Recently one of the announcements was about school uniforms. I have previously mentioned that the students at St. Andrews are required to wear navy blue pants (for boys) or a navy blue skirt (for girls) and a lighter blue shirt that is tucked in with black shoes. For the first few weeks of school, most of the students had something that was close to the school uniform on. It may not have been the correct shade of blue shirt, or they may have had black pants on instead of blue, but all the students were dressed smartly and in their nicest clothing when coming to school. This seemed good enough to me. This week at Chapel, the headmaster had all the students who were not wearing the proper school uniform stand up; he then proceeded to send them home for the day, saying that they were to not return to classes until they were wearing the proper uniform. 

 

This action was very hard for me to understand. These students were at school trying to brighten their futures, but were being sent away because of what they were wearing. When I asked someone why the uniforms were so important, it was explained to me like this: St. Andrews welcomes all students; some students are from wealthier families that can afford things without a problem, but other students are from poor villages that pull all their money together to send a promising student to a good secondary school. Uniforms act as equalizers for the gap between these students. Many of the students at the school pay their school fees over the entire course of the year because their families cannot afford to pay the total sum up front. The school uniform here cost 7000Kwatcha, or $10. Unlike the school fees, this amount has to be paid all at once in order to receive the uniform, which some families just cannot afford. I understand and respect the reasoning behind enforcing the rule of a proper school uniform, but at the same time, my heart breaks for the students who came to school to learn and were sent away over clothing that costs $10.

Clothing is something that is very precious here in Malawi; people are often very proud of the clothing they have. Sometimes the clothing they have is not even meant for their sex, but because it fits them they wear it proudly. For example, I have a student who has a bedazzled jacket who wears it every day because it fits him perfectly and he is proud to have it. My students may only have one school shirt, so every night I see them gathered around the water faucet washing out their shirts so they will be clean and ready for the next day. 

Clothing is important to everyone here.  Every Sunday I am blown away by the beautiful outfits that women wear to church. They really take the phrase “Sunday Best” to the next level. Employers often supply their employees a uniform to wear to ensure all their workers have a proper outfit for work. Women will often wrap a piece of cloth around their skirts called a chitenge. This is used to keep the skirt clean, they also use it to wrap up children, or to gather produce bought at the market. Brands and logos don’t seem to be important here, neither does matching; all that matters to the person is that they have something, anything, that is theirs to wear. We as Americans could learn so much from the people of Malawi.

As winter comes upon Pittsburgh and the rest of the U.S., I’m sure people are trading out their summer wardrobes and filling their closets up with warm sweaters and snow boots. Think about what a blessing it is to have that opportunity to have two completely separate wardrobes. I am not necessarily a clothes person, but even I have more clothes than I could ever possibly need. Never do I have to wash out an article of clothing everyday because I only have one. We are abundantly blessed. As you hunt for those great holiday deals, and you pull out a $10 bill to pay for it, think about those students walking home from school because they didn’t have a uniform and give thanks for how abundantly blessed we truly are.