Wow, has it really been almost 2 months since I last wrote?
Time has been flying more than I think it ever has in my life, and I suddenly
find myself with just 2 measly weeks left in Kaunda. So what have I been doing
the last 2 months? Well, quite bit actually!
The end of September was pretty busy with English Theater.
This year I was the coordinator for Tete Province’s annual competition. This
meant I had to invite schools, set up the location, organize food, and make
sure everyone got to the competition. As far as logistics, Tete is probably one
of the easiest competitions to organize, but the competition still was a
stressful affair. At one point I thought our roster was full, and stopped
inviting other schools… only to have schools drop out a week before the
competition. This led me to calling teachers 3 days before the competition
inviting them to come – which was, as I knew it would be, completely useless as
it takes more than 3 days for even the most talented Mozambican students to
come up with a ten minute theater piece entirely in English! The day before the
competition, I headed into town to make sure everything was set up in terms of
lodging, location, and food. I arrived at the bank to take out all the money
(you have to pay for pretty much everything in cash here) – about 80,000 mets
(almost 3,000 dollars). After waiting forever for the withdrawal to process, I
watched with horror as the bank teller set 80,000 mets on the counter – all in
50 and 100 note bills – in front of a busy lobby of waiting customers. I could
just picture alerts going around to all the pick pocketers in Tete City- watch
out for the short white girl, she’s loaded!! But, it all came together, and
despite one of the drop out schools showing up the day of the competition, it
was overall a big success. My poor English Club got a little ignored the day of
the competition with me running around, but they still had a good time and
walked away very proud of themselves.
The day of the competition conveniently coincided with the
day I was set to fly down to Maputo to take part in Week 1 of Pre-Service
Training for Moz19, the new group of volunteers. This was my first time back in
Namaacha since my own PST, and I was pretty excited to get to go, especially
Week 1! The trainees were full of questions about everything Mozambique. It was
really fun to realize the things we have become so accustomed to, and remember
that at one point this WASN’T normal to us. Is it normal that no one speaks
during dinner? Of course! Expect total silence. Can I wear shorts at my home
stay? Not if you don’t want people staring at your pale white legs all evening.
Why does my brother try to hold my hand all the time? Because people love
holding hands here. Boys and girls, boys and boys, principals and teachers, it’s
just the way things are. It was cool to feel like a quasi-“expert” on
Mozambican culture. I guess that’s what 2 years will get you! It was also just
such a wonderful thing to get to witness their optimism an overall excitement
about Peace Corps. After failure on top of failure (with successes mixed in),
it’s easy to forget the dreams you had coming into PC. Usually when a group of
PCVs get together, it’s not so much to share success stories, but rather to
vent about your latest frustration. But you do have success stories! Listening
to what these new trainees hoped to experience in the 2 years made me realize I
have, in fact, accomplished so many of my goals. I wanted to participate in
Training this year for many reasons, but one was that I was hoping it would be
a nice cherry on the top of my service, and that hope was fulfilled. I left at
the end of the week with an overall positive feeling about Mozambique and with
genuine excitement for my last 2 months at site. How great is that!?
Another fun aspect of training was that I got to see my host
family again! I was honestly kind of dreading seeing them. I was dying to see
my sisters, but called them when I got there and learned they were studying in
Maputo and would not be in Namaacha that week. Bummer! Not sure if I ever wrote
about it, but the end of my home stay experience with my “mom” was actually not
that positive. My last week of training, my dad moved home and the whole
dynamic changed. Then, the day I left, my mom took off for work without even
saying goodbye! I was offended at the time, but now after knowing more about
the culture, was REALLY offended. Not saying goodbye to someone is a really bad
thing to do. So anyway, I was not that thrilled to go see my mom, but I knew I
should do it. I figured my sisters would have called her to let her know I was
there, so one afternoon trudged down my old road to go visit. At first I
thought I must not remember where my house was- it looked completely different!
They had painted the outside and there was a car in the driveway. Behind the
car was a woman, and as soon as she looked up a huge smile spread across her
face. “MANA ANA!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed and ran up to hug and kiss me. She
invited me inside to the beautifully remodeled house and proceeded to ask me question
after question about how I’ve been. She told me she’d been trying to call me
for months to invite me to their wedding at the end of November. My parents
were “traditionally” married, like many Mozambican couples, but were apparently
making it official with a church wedding. She filled me in on the family- my
sisters are both living in Maputo, one studying civil engineering and the other
electrical engineering- just like they had hoped to do when I was with them as
they finished 11th grade! I am so happy for them. My dad wasn’t home
at the time, but she called him (“Your daughter is here! Come home!”) and he
eventually arrived and we ate some crackers and drank some soda. It was a
wonderful visit and I am so glad I stopped by. Apparently my mom’s not saying
goodbye was probably just a fluke and she really did like me after all.
After a great week in Namaacha, I returned to site for the “homestretch.”
Before I left, I knew final exams would be coming up… but little did I know
that they would be the day I got back to site! I thought I had another week of
teaching, but thought wrong. We would have exams as we’d had them all year, on
an exam schedule, but this time we got to write our own. I had one day to write
the English final that would be given to all the 8th graders the
next day. Well, so much for the sentimental feelings I had about my last days
in the classroom. Apparently they had already happened! It all was fine,
though, and the students did pretty well on the exam despite any preparation
with me in the classroom. The rest of the year was spent proctoring other
disciplines and calculating (and changing so I would have a high enough passing
percentage) final grades. And then it was done! 2 years of teaching, just over.
I am sad to not give any more classes to the students, but ready to be done
with the Mozambican education system… which brings me to today.
We just finished the week of the first round of National
Exams, a week I’d rather erase from my memory of Kaunda. I could write a whole
blog post about the frustrations of the week, and maybe I’ll do that soon. For now, let me just sum it up by saying:
corruption is rampant, and it is really unfortunate that no one seems to see
the negative effects on society as a whole.
So here we are! This coming week I will be busy correcting
National Exams. The next week I will meet up with some other PCVs for my 3rd(!)
Thanksgiving in Mozambique, and then it will be the last weekend at site. I
plan on visiting all my close friends that weekend, and also inviting the
ladies I am closest with over for a clothes extravanganza. How I ever ended up
with this many t-shirts is beyond me, but they are not travelling back with me.
I am hoping it doesn’t cause a big uproar, but I’ll be gone before they can
complain too much. I expect to continue feeling the roller coaster of emotions
until then. On Wednesday I was almost in tears walking home from visiting with
Celsa for a bit because I was so sad to be leaving. Thursday I was actually in
tears because I was so mad at the stuff going on at school. Just now I walked
outside with my buckets to go get water and 2 of the annoying children yelled
to me to let them go get me water… a fitting apology after 2 years of harassment,
which also gets me a little choked up. I just am hoping time doesn’t go too
quickly the next 2 weeks- I want to fully enjoy my last days in Kaunda. November 26th I fly down to Maputo
for a week of Close of Service processing, and then on November 30th,
I become an official Returned Peace Corps Volunteer!
From there, I begin my COS trip. I guess I have never
mentioned it here (although most of you either know from me - or my mother, more
likely) that I have been dating another volunteer for basically the whole time
here. Anyway, Ian and I are traveling to India (with a day layover in Abu
Dhabi) for 2 weeks, then Thailand for a week, and then heading back home! I
will arrive in Portland, to greet my new little niece (who could be arriving
any day now) and my family on December 23rd. After a week there, I
will finally get to Midland! Just in time for a New Years celebration. Will it
really be 2013?!
I hope you are all well back home. I imagine winter is
rolling in, and colder days are coming. Just think of me here, sweating in the
43 degree C sun. You can convert it – that’s hot! – and you will maybe feel
happy to see snow. Grass is always greener, right? The song for this post is
Elton John’s “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.” Not sure why… just feels like a good
song for the ending of things. Okay, stay well!