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A citizenship lesson from the Malawi book

Build Something Where You Live

Grades 2 to 5 · K-1 with an adult reading aloud · one 60 minute session or two 30 minute sessions, plus an ongoing class project if the class adopts one

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STEP 1

Who built this?

Why this lesson: The lodge in the book is real: Mango Lodge is a working business owned by the family of the book’s writer. That fact is the whole lesson. One story says help arrives from outside; this lesson shows a family that saw what travelers needed in their own town and built the answer themselves, and a Malawian teenager who read library books and built a windmill because his family needed electricity. Entrepreneurship is noticing a need where you live, starting from what you are good at, and trying again when the first plan fails.

Look around the room. Name things someone made or started, and add them.

Your class’s ideas will pin up here.
STEP 2

The words carry a wish. Flip them open.

In Zomba, Ulemu’s family welcomes guests to their lodge. A greeting many families in Malawi use is “Muli bwanji?”, which asks “how are you?”, and the warm answer is “Ndili bwino, zikomo”: I am well, thank you.

The cover of the Zomba, Malawi book
STEP 3

Your turn: three questions.

Write or draw on paper, or type here. Typed answers appear on your class page at the end.

STEP 4

Something real to read, and talk through.

Two real Malawian stories, kept distinct. First, from the book: Mango Lodge in Zomba, Ulemu’s family’s own business, answering a real need: travelers who need a welcoming place to stay and eat.

Second, from elsewhere in Malawi: read from “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” (the picture book edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon). William grew up in Wimbe, near Kasungu, in another part of Malawi; he noticed what his family and village needed, studied library books, and built a working windmill from gathered materials, revising it until it worked. Present William through what he noticed, read, built, and revised.

Open each question when you are ready. Type what your class says:

What need did Mango Lodge answer, and who does it serve?
What children might sayChildren might say: visitors need somewhere safe and friendly to sleep and eat; the family serves travelers and gives work to people in town. Keep the claim family-scale: this is Ulemu’s family’s business, one real answer to one real need.
What did William notice, and what did he do about it?
What children might sayChildren might trace the chain: he noticed his family needed electricity and water, he read, he collected materials, he built, it did not work perfectly, he changed it. Ask which step they think was hardest.
What makes a family business special?
What children might sayChildren might say: you work with people you trust, everyone has a job, the pride belongs to the whole family, it stays in the place you love. There is no single right answer.
What could you build or start where you live, and what would you share from your own family’s know-how?
What children might sayEvery child’s answer is right. Family recipes, repair skills, braiding, gardening, selling, organizing all count as know-how.
STEP 5

Six actions. Which will your class do this week?

Tap a name to see the activity. Tap We’ll do this to put it on your class page.

🌍
Needs walk: the class walks its own school with a notebook and lists real needs they notice, the way Ulemu’s family noticed what travelers needed in Zomba.
👂
Customer listening: in pairs, children interview each other with one question, “what would make our classroom better for you?”, and write down the answer in the other person’s words before adding their own ideas.
🗳
The class votes to choose one need from the list, then plans the fix together: steps, roles, what we need, who does what.
💡
Three ways to solve one problem: teams take the chosen need and invent three genuinely different solutions before the class picks one, because the first idea is not always the best idea.
🪞
My strengths list: each child writes what they are good at making, fixing, explaining, or organizing, and signs up for a project role that uses a strength.
🤝
When the plan fails: the class tries its fix, finds what did not work, and revises without blaming, the way William revised his windmill. Disagreements about ideas get fair turns and a vote.
STEP 6

Then and now. Drag the handle.

↔
◀ Zomba, the capital yearsZomba today ▶

Ask together: What changed? What stayed? A city can change its job and keep its heart. Under the same plateau, what did people build next?

These pictures are our artist’s sketches. For real photographs, search the place names together on the classroom screen.

STEP 7

Our Classroom Improvement Pitch

⭐A classroom improvement pitch: the class notices a real need in its own room or school, chooses one, and plans the fix, with roles, steps, and a first try.

Name the need your class chose, the plan, and who does what. Then try it, and revise without blaming.

Our Classroom Improvement Pitch

Everything your class typed, on one page. Print it, sign it, post it.

Our first ideas

(none yet)

Our reflections

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What we said together

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The actions we chose

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Our plan

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Signed by

With thanks to the edition of the Kamkwamba book you read from. · alexandriasworld.com · Welcome home.