kapiri secondary school girls volleyball club

Since October of last year I have been working with high school girls at Kapiri Secondary School. From almost the first day in country I knew that I wanted to be a part of something specifically designed to empower teenage girls. And since I love volleyball I thought that to start a club where girls could learn about life skills, gender development, the environment, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, career development, etc., as well as play volleyball, it would be a good fit.

At Kapiri Private Secondary School there is about 250 students from Form 1 to Form 4. The school is operated without electricity, without running water, without access to many textbooks, and with no female teachers. Some of the students live at the school in hostels while others are day students who go home after classes are finished each day. Since most of the girls live at school they have a lot of free time between their classes to meet with boys, go to the local market, or just be idle. As you can imagine teenage pregnancy, spreading of HIV/AIDS, and even dropping out of school early to get married is a very common thing. So to have this club twice a week hopefully gives them a fun alternative.

The club meets for about 2 hours and the first hour is usually spent inside the classroom. It’s there that we discuss the theme for that month as well as to give the girls an open forum to talk about classes, life, music, family, boys, and anything else they want to share. The next hour is spent outside playing volleyball. I started out with the very, very basics of passing, setting, serving, etc. and now we are working on refining those skills as well as playing some scrimmage-like games.

The first two months of the club were at times difficult, I think for myself as well as for the girls. First of all, English is not their native language but since they are supposed to be learning it in school, I have the rule that the girls must speak in English while we are meeting as a club. For them to get a good job, to go on to university, or even to get a good score on their exams in school, they must be able to speak English. But getting them to actually speak it and for them to understand me when I am talking can be really challenging. Another frustration is through our difference in cultures. I have been taught to be confident in my God-given abilities, to believe that women have just as many rights as men, to not be afraid to voice my opinion, and to try to achieve anything I set my mind to. This however is not how girls and young women are raised. Malawian girls tend to be shy, quiet, submissive to men, and adverse to taking risks. So it can be really hard for me to relate to them as well as them to me. But we are getting there.
 
The last challenge was because of equipment. I only brought one volleyball with me to country, but thankfully my mom sent me an outdoor net and a volleyball early on in my service, thus giving me two volleyballs and a net to play on. And if you know anything about coaching, you can understand that trying to teach 40+ girls with only two volleyballs is not easy. It’s tough trying to teach them the skills like passing and hitting without having three quarters of the girls sit on the sideline just watching.

Therefore since I knew I was coming home for Christmas, I decided to contact my high school volleyball coach Margie Arm and her teams, the GPS Crush and Central Bucks East volleyball teams. Not only did I play volleyball for Coach Arm in high school, but I had the opportunity to coach club alongside her for three years. Needless to say I have learned so much about playing and coaching volleyball from her and I have a great deal of respect for her. She is a great coach and friend and has been very supportive of me in my PC service. So, I told her the situation and asked her if her teams would be willing to help the club out with about 20 volleyballs. Thankfully, Coach Arm agreed and I traveled back to Malawi with a suitcase full of balls. Not only that, but I was able to share with the two teams a little about the girls in the club, life in Malawi, their culture, etc. We swapped pictures and letters of the teams and I hope that in the future there will continue to be communication between my club and Coach Arm’s teams.

In the coming months I hope to take the girls on a field trip to Lilongwe where they can see the Malawi Women’s National Volleyball team play or even to take them to other schools to compete. And a concern of mine is sustainability so that when I leave the club will continue on. Therefore I am trying to find someone to help coach with me and then eventually let that person take over the club as I prepare to leave. But all-in-all the club has been a great experience so far despite the challenges and I hope that the girls as well as myself continue to learn from each other and have fun playing volleyball. Because that's what it's all about!