Managing Meetings in Mozambique

Good day, America! How is it going? As you all get ready to embrace the wonderful summer months, our school year is pretty much smack-dab half way done, and the time continues to feel like it’s moving faster and faster! As May comes to a close, I am getting ready to enter my final 6 months as a PCV in Mozambique. Although some days I feel I could be ready to go tomorrow, most days I feel like I have a good 180ish days left (but who’s counting??). Unfortunately, after 20 or so months in one place, the things I have to update about are getting less and less. I’m still loving teaching, my secondary projects are still an incredible inspiration or an incredible frustration, depending on the day, and my life continues to be, for the most part, very enjoyable.

That being said, one activity that I am totally ready to throw out the window is the dreaded school meeting. After a year and a half in Kaunda, I’ve had my fill. Just to give you a taste of the infuriating aspects of a school meeting, and to prepare you in case you ever chance upon working in a Mozambican school in the future, I have compiled here a “survival guide.”

Rule 1: Your schedule or outside commitments do not matter. The only time-table that is of concern is that of the “chefe,” or whoever is in charge of the meeting. So what if the meeting was supposed to start at 8? So what if every other person left their house on time and is ready to go? If he is not there, the meeting will not start. When he walks in 2 hours late (and I am not exaggerating, 2 hours is completely normal), do not expect an apology. You are not giving him your time, he is giving you his time. The underlying thing to remember is that you are not important. Your attendance, however, is.

Rule 2: If you so happen to walk in late, it is perfectly acceptable to interrupt whoever is speaking to make sure you greet all your colleagues. No matter if the school director is talking or not, you will walk in and say “Bom dia, colegas.” You will draw attention to the fact that you are late, but no one will be offended.

Rule 3: The agenda will be read aloud, and it will be read as it is written, no matter how inaccurate the delay has deemed it. For example, if the meeting was supposed to start at 8 am, the chefe will begin with “At 8 am, we will have our welcome. At 8:30…” etc. All good, right? Well, not so good if it is now 10:30. But don’t worry, no one will ever remark on the fact that it is completely wrong.

Rule 4: If you have something you would like to discuss, the appropriate time is after the agenda reading. You can basically say everything you have to say then, but just know that you are just alerting everyone of your issue to be discussed later. The chefes will write down details of your speech, and then later you will repeat everything again to actually be discussed.  No need to paraphrase on either occasion. Do not worry about not being efficient with the time; not wasting time is the least of everyone’s concerns.

Rule 5: It is totally appropriate to completely speak poorly of someone else, present or not, at the meeting. They will show no emotions. You could call them lazy, dirty, slutty… whatever you want. The person will keep looking straight ahead, and most importantly, will not hold it against you afterward.

Rule 6: (Related to rule 5) It is totally appropriate for someone to speak poorly of you. If this happens, make sure to keep looking straight ahead, and most importantly, not hold it against the person afterward.

Rule 7: There is no such thing as inappropriate laughter. If someone is being loudly, angrily yelled at by the director, it is definitely acceptable to laugh at them. The director will not laugh, he will continue yelling and looking very angry, but the anger has nothing to do with the laugher. In fact, even if it is you being yelled at, if you laugh while they yell at you, no one will think any less of you, either. It is not seen as disrespectful. It is almost expected, in fact.

Rule 8: It is completely acceptable to be blatantly doing other work during the meeting, so go ahead and bring that crossword. Most teachers use meetings as lesson planning time, and  make no effort to hide that they are not paying attention. Integrate! Do the same!

Rule 9: The meeting will go on until the chefes want it to end, so be fully prepared to be sitting in a dark classroom (if your school has no electricity) thinking longingly about the dinner you have yet to start cooking. You will start to add up the times of all the things you’ll have to do before you can actually eat. Bleach vegetables? 15 minutes. Peel and chop garlic? 5 minutes. Cook the main dish? 30 minutes. Cook the rice after? Another 20 minutes. Don’t allow yourself to add it all up… it will just get depressing.

Rule 10: This is the most important rule, and where I will end. Remember that this meeting style is only temporary. When you get back to America, it will not be okay to show up over an hour late, to interrupt the leader as he is speaking, to waste time with long-winded complaints, to openly insult your collagues, or to laugh at them when they are being insulted. While Mozambique may change you in many ways, please allow these habits to stay in Mozambique. Except for maybe the idea that you should not let what others say linger with you. That is one habit that should not only be carried with you when you go, but also shared with your friends and family back home.

So, I hope that helps you in the case that you ever enlist for Peace Corps and end up in my village someday. Good luck! The song for this post is The Beatles’ “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.” No reason, just a good song! Hope you enjoy a wonderful June and have some time to rest!

Testing, Tainted grades, and ToTs

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring. Over here in Moz, the weather is cooling, the activities are hopping, and the time is flying! Since my last update, not much has changed in terms of what’s going on at site. I am still loving my time in the classroom and am happily busy outside of the classroom, too. We have just finished the first trimester, and the end of the grading period came with a few notable events, both good and bad.

The first surprise that came at the end of the trimester was the new “provincial wide exam” policy. I remember learning during training about how final exams usually worked at the end of the term, with the students receiving an “exam schedule” where all students write their Portuguese exams one day, then English another day, etc. In this system, all teachers proctor all subjects. I recalled this being something visiting volunteers shared as a frustration, as not every teacher vigilantly proctors or controls cheating. Anyway, I was relieved to see when we got to site that this wasn’t how things actually worked in Kaunda, and each teacher was expected to just give his or her own final exams during regular class time. Well, about 4 weeks before the end of the trimester, I started hearing rumors about “provincial exams.” I tried to ask as many questions as possible, and finally learned the following week we would receive a final exam from the provincial capital, written by someone in the Ministry of Education, to give to our students. Not only would we not get to write our own final exams, but we were also going to have an exam schedule like I had heard about, so I would be leaving my students to be proctored by teachers who have no qualms with cheating or giving answers. What a nice surprise! Another fun aspect of this new system is that they block of the 3^rd to last and 2^nd to last week for these exams, leaving the last week for “recuperation.” This essentially means the students feel they are done a week early and leave for break. So, suddenly the 13 week trimester that I had planned for was 3 weeks shorter. In addition, since I only found out the new policy a week before finals, I panicked as I realized I had barely touched the majority of what I should have covered according to the 8^th grade curriculum. Call me crazy, but for some reason I found it more valuable to drill basic concepts and give the students a very firm foundation first trimester instead of rushing through the obscene amount of subject matter mandated by the national curriculum. I did all I could in the last week to review with my students, and when the day of the exam arrived, I nervously opened the envelope. To my relief, the exam covered exactly what I had taught! There were 3 variants, and this one only used verb tenses that I had covered. The students succeeded, more or less, and I counted my lucky stars, especially as I saw the other two variants and realized the other two versions would have been impossible for my students. So, disaster averted… at least until next trimester finals.

After grading all the finals, I calculated my students’ final grades and got ready to participate in my first midyear “conselhos de nota.” I had managed avoid taking part in these grading days both trimester breaks last year, as I had heard many stories about grade changing and corruption from other volunteers. Well, this year I decided I was ready to see what really went down in the grading days. And guess what? As it turns out, I’m a corrupt teacher, too. I was shocked to find myself changing grades right alongside all the other teachers. But don’t worry, I can justify it… or at least that’s what I’ll tell myself.

So here is how grading days work in Mozambique. I think I’ve explained before my role as a “director of turma.” I am essentially a homeroom teacher for one of turmas. In Mozambique, the students all stay in one class for the whole day and the teachers rotate. So for the 31 students in turma 8C, I am the one who is responsible for collecting all their grades for each discipline and entering them into one big class grade sheet. After this, I have to look at each student and calculate their overall average, and then decide if this student can pass. To pass the trimester, the student is only allowed to fail (below 50%) two disciplines, and those disciplines cannot be considered under the same branch, like 2 sciences. In addition, they cannot have a single grade below an 8/20, even if they are passing all other disciplines. Well, my grades were slightly lower than most other teachers. I also have much higher grades, though. I approach my grading with a more American mindset than other teachers. A student who does all their homework and does well on tests, for example, should get a final grade of 18 or 19 out of 20. Not a single other teacher, though, had given a grade above 13. Consequently, a student who does not turn in a single homework assignment and leaves all answers on his test blank will get a 2 or 3 out of 20. Not a single other teacher had grades below 6. So, my grades were causing some problems. Although I had planned on combatting grade changes at conselhos, I allowed a little wiggle room when I realized that several students were going to fail the entire trimester only because I gave much lower grades than all the other teachers. Some students had all passing grades, but then a 6 or 7 in English, so would be considered failing. I realized this just wasn’t very fair, and decided it was appropriate to move those grades up to an 8 in order to allow them to pass the trimester. They were still failing English, but would not be at risk of failing the year just because of me. But I didn’t stop there. I also stooped to asking other teachers to change their grades as well. One student, for example, had all passing grades (including English, which I take to mean he was a decent student), but had a 7 in gym class. It just seemed a little silly that he would fail the whole trimester because of a 7 in gym. I asked the teacher, and he accepted my request to change the grade to an 8. When did this happen? When did I suddenly become okay with changing grades? I’m still unsure about how I feel about it, but the circumstances and details of the education system in Mozambique make some ethical standards a little blurry.

The weekends around conselhos were both taken up by “ToTs,” or Training of Trainers. The first was for JUNTOS, the coed youth group organization, and the second was for REDES. I had not worked with a JUNTOS group at my school, but there already existed a “culture group” that I thought would easily into JUNTOS. I invited the teacher who works with that group, a really nice female teacher named Neolet, and she went down to Chimoio for a weekend with other new JUNTOS group leaders. She was the only woman and the conference, and really enjoyed hearing about how to work with a group and is excited to start adding gender equality components to her meetings. The group will also go to a workshop, where they’ll have a weekend with 3 other schools full of activities. I think she will be really successful, and I’m hoping that this will be a very sustainable project as she is doing the majority of startup work. She is really excited to propose the program to the school direction, and I’m excited to work with her!

For REDES, I decided that Veronica could get more out of the ToT than Celsa. After some drama getting her to go (she has twin babies and her husband at first refused to stay and take care of them), she and I did travel down to Chimoio together to spend 3 days with 22 other Mozambican women counterparts. She did great! She was a very enthusiastic participant in the sessions, and I think is really excited to bring more girl-empowerment components into our weekly meetings. She plans on transferring out of Kaunda as soon as possible to be back near her family in Maputo, so it’s nice that she has this training to take with her when she goes and could start a new group somewhere else. At the same time, Celsa can continue the group in Kaunda. Overall, I feel very good about the sustainability of the REDES group in Kaunda and I am anxious to see how the rest of the year goes. I was struggling getting the group to meet when I updated last, but they finally got involved right in time for Women’s Day, and I now have a pretty strong group of girls that is excited to actively meet every week. Fingers crossed, but I think between the girls’ involvement and Veronica’s enthusiasm, 2^nd trimester is going to be very good for REDES.

That brings me up to date, and I am excited for a successful 5^th trimester of teaching in Mozambique! Just 2 more to go! I remember last year that it was around this point that time started to go unbelievably fast, and I imagine that only becomes more intense during Year 2. To add to that, I have a visit from my mom to look forward to during the next trimester break!! I am so so excited. Well I hope that this post finds you well. I am always happy to receive e-mails! The song for this post is Stepdad’s “My Leather, My Fur, My Nails.” It’s catchy! Until next time!

Inspiration, Ingles, and Itty-bitty Harriet

Hello hello! Another long stretch has passed since my last post. If it makes any difference, I think about writing blog posts often. Chalk it up to laziness, or busyness, or a combination. Either way, it’s been a while, so I’ll just dive right in.

Year 2 is shaping up to be… different than I had expected. You hear a lot about what is “normal” for Peace Corps volunteers to experience. A low point at the start of the second year can be expected, but is usually followed by an extremely fast-paced, productive year. You no longer have to worry about language, you don’t have to waste too much time figuring out how things work at the school, and you pretty much know what you need to do to make yourself feel happy and successful. I walked into my second year assuming all of my secondary projects would start up right where I left off and I could pretty much take a back seat to my counterparts. As it turns out, Year 2 is not quite as easy breezy as I was hoping for – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

My success with REDES last year was outstanding. I had an awesome group of girls, led by a couple rock-star 10^th graders. Well, I guess I forgot that 10^th graders turn into 11^th graders the next year… of which we do not have classes for at my school. So, while I have been able to see my favorite girls on the few weekends they come back to Kaunda, for the majority of the year, they are off at boarding school a few hours up the road. I can’t be too upset as this is fantastic for them- not many Mozambican girls are lucky enough to complete past 7^th grade, let alone move on from 10^th grade. It does, however, leave me with a leaderless group of girls. I’ve tried to talk to the few remaining and to recruit some new ones, but we are still getting off the ground. Not what I was expecting for year 2! It doesn’t help that Celsa, my counterpart, is not in the best place. Between her husband (my frequently mentioned *%#$-head supervisor figure, Sev) falling off the wagon and turning into a raging alcoholic, and a string of misunderstandings that led to her suspension from the school, she is not exactly the ideal role model for REDES. Veronica, my other counterpart, is still in the picture, and she still has high hopes for the group. I do have confidence that it will get going, it’s just a little frustrating to think I am basically starting from scratch.

Soccer was also proving to be a challenge. While there are many girls that want to play, their schedule is a little different this year. The 8^th-10^th grade meets in the afternoons now, except for 2 8^th grade turmas that meet in the morning. Given this, it is really challenging to get all the girls together to play. Another snag is that fact that my soccer balls are fighting back against me for bringing them all the way to Africa. I had 3 balls pop in one week- 3! I could not believe it. I have been able to get a small group of girls out running for our “practice,” and I think we’ll get a routine down. Just one more thing I thought would be so easy this year that is turning out to be another challenge.

Needless to say, I was in need for some inspiration. I was frustrated with the lack of motivation and effort that the students were putting into the projects that I had worked so hard to build a strong foundation for last year. Enter: English Club. As the English Theater competition is not until September, I hadn’t really done anything with this group yet. Last weekend, though, I received an e-mail from my sister including some letters from her students to my students. We had talked about doing this last year, and now that I am teaching English, it is much more applicable to my students. My 8^th graders, however, are not quite up to that level. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get the English Club working on a project. So Monday, when I got back to school, I called over one of my English Club boys and told him I had an idea for a project and we needed to meet this week, maybe Friday morning, but I’d let them know. I ended up putting off “informing” them (as it involves speaking in front of the whole school and it just intimidates me), but then I was surprised to see all my returning students show up at my house Friday morning. He not only remembered, but took it upon himself to tell all the other students in the group. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but in Kaunda, this is PHENOMENAL. Motivated students! That show up on time! I was floored. I took the group over to our school’s new library to talk to them about the letters, and they jumped right in. They drafted them in Portuguese first, and I told them to just write about their lives- their families, interests, schedules, etc. After, they each showed me what they had written. One by one, I read their letters and had to hold back tears for each one. The first was from Xadreque, a really awesome 9^th grader. He wrote about how much he loves English and the music of Jason Derulo, and then went on to talk about his family, and how his father died when he was 3 and his mother died just this last year, so he lives with an uncle. The next was from Sergio, another rock star 9^th grader, and he talked about how much he likes to play soccer, and how he lives with only his mom as his dad died. Next I read Dique’s letter, who included how both his parents are farmers and he lives 10 kilometers away, but he has been fortunate enough to be able to continue in school by living in Kaunda during the week and returning home on the weekends, where he shares his house with his grandparents and 11 brothers and sisters. It seems like the odds are against each one of these kids, yet here they were, coming into school on their own time, by their own initiative, to participate in my English Club. I walked away just feeling so… humbled. Here I was, complaining about how hard things were for me. How the students didn’t care, and feeling like nothing I was doing was going to make a difference in the long run.  Sure, that may be the case for many of the things I do in these 2 years, but that’s not the case for these few students. I need to keep those students in mind as I approach the new challenges of Year 2. I may not have 40 girls show up for soccer practice, but does that really matter? Even if it’s only one student, that student is worth the effort. Although I may not have the high hopes I had during Year 1, if I go through Year 2 thinking of each student as his or her own project, well, then I think I’ll have a successful year.

In the classroom, on the other hand, Year 2 is turning out far better than I could have hoped for! Switching to English has been a nice change. Although I do have to start fresh in terms of lesson planning and getting to know new students, I am in no way starting fresh as a teacher. I actually feel like I know what I’m doing this time around! While I may have studied biology in college, I have studied English for my whole life- so I feel pretty competent! Last year I had to worry about tough vocabulary in Portuguese and how to explain complicated phenomena to students without the aids of textbooks Magic School Bus videos. This year, I just get to walk into the classroom and make up silly songs. Don’t get me wrong, it is still challenging. These students have absolutely no foundation of the English Language (and not much of the Portuguese Language, either), so it’s tough to know where to start. They are getting it, though, and most importantly, seem to WANT to learn English. That’s a big step. For a couple weeks I also got the pleasure of teaching the 10^th graders, as the aforementioned other English teacher decided to take some time off to drink. That was so much fun! The students have the foundation and are a lot more mature. I really tried to talk the school direction into letting me continue with the 10^th grade, but sure enough, when Sev came back from his binge he decided he could not give up the 10^th graders.  Ah, I could write a whole blog post about my dealings with Sev, but I’m afraid I’d come off as too bitter. So I’ll just leave it at: I think it’s very unfortunate that the students are deprived of a very capable and eager teacher  just so the school directors can save face with their drinking buddy. But such is life as a woman in Mozambique.

I guess an update would not be complete without mentioning my new little companion, Harriet. After midservice, Audrey, Eden, and I all received puppies from the family that Audrey and Helen used to share a farm with in Moatize. Harriet is the runt of the litter, but she’s pretty darn cute. The first couple days with her were rough- it was literally like having a baby! Or what I imagine having a baby would be like, I guess.  She peed EVERYWHERE and approximately every 5 seconds and could not be left alone. She has grown into a nice little dog, though, and I kind of love her a lot. We take a lot of walks and she follows me like a shadow. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have someone that is SO EXCITED to see me in the morning! It’s nice to just have someone else to worry about besides myself.  So, Harriet is a very welcome addition to my home in Moz.

Well, I hope this post finds you well. I apologize for the lower frequency of blog posts. I will blame it on the fact that I just don’t leave site as much this year! This weekend, however, I am going down to Chimoio for the first time this year. I’m excited for a little get away and some internet time. Hopefully some good food and company, too! I hope the weather is warming up, the trees are budding, and the birds are singing. My mom said it was 62 the other day- that means shorts and flip flops are coming out in Michigan! Ha. If it was 62 here, I’d probably be wrapped up in a blanket with my warm socks. I also just realized it’s just about my FAVORITE time of year there – March Madness! I am glad to see both of my teams doing well… Go Blue! Rock Chalk! (Side note- I wrote this before the first weekend of games :( )

The song for this post is “Helicopter” by Oh Land. This is new music to me, and I’m loving it. I hope you enjoy it as well! I always appreciate update e-mails- let me know what’s going on! Happy spring, and talk to you soon!

Home (USA), Home (Mozambique), and Hope!

Happy New Year! After a long absence from blogging (and from regular work life), I am back! I trust that the holidays went well for everyone.  They certainly did for me! Since my sister’s visit, I have done some traveling around Mozambique, South Africa, and finally ended up in the US for a fantastic 3 week Christmas break. Every part of the trip was amazing! If you ever get a chance to go to Cape Town, do it. It is beautiful. Nothing I saw there could compare to seeing my family and friends, though. After 15 months of phone calls and e-mails, being able to sit down and actually talk was so wonderful. The home cooked food and hot showers were not taken for granted, either! I also finally got to meet my nephew, who just must be the cutest baby ever.

After such a fantastic two months, I can’t honestly say I was super gung ho about going back to my bucket baths and no cell phone service at site, but I can honestly say that I knew it was time for vacation to be over and to get back to the real world. And for me, the real world right now is in Kaunda. So here I am!

Getting back up to site was emotional. After leaving my house empty for so long, I had visions of rodent and insect infestations, cut energy, and overall filth. I was pleasantly surprised to unlock my door and find none of those things! It looked just about how I left it. My fence has certainly seen better days (there must have been quite a few storms), but other than that, everything was pretty much good. My director’s wife and the school secretary were both sitting on the porch next door to me, and gave me a nice welcome. I wandered over to Celsa’s house, and generally just felt really good to be back. I was looking at a week and a half until I left again, so a good start was crucial. I felt like people were genuinely excited to have me back, and that made it impossible not to feel happy about being “home.”

The next week and a half were actually pretty tough. I’m sitting at the end of this stretch now, and I’m happy that it’s done. Now before I say too much, please know that things are overall very good… I just think it’s only fair to include the less than perfect times as well in this reflection. Since Molly’s visit, I hadn’t been alone for a single day. Normally I am perfectly content with alone time, but jumping right into ten straight days of no cell phone service or contact with anyone outside of site was a challenge. It didn’t help that there was absolutely nothing going on at site. The school year supposedly started on Monday, but it’s mostly just been a few teachers that show up each day to do some lesson planning. The students are slowly trickling in, but it will be a couple weeks until the school year is fully going. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit being less than enthusiastic, but I am confident that things will pick up again. The year will be full of new challenges, but there are many aspects that will be much easier than last year, and I’m very excited for it to really get started.

One large difference between this year and last year is that this year I have real friends at site! Whenever I have felt less than peppy this past week, I have made it a point to just get out of my house and find someone to sit with. I remember when I did this last year- I felt like I was obligated every day to get out and “passear.” Every day I would get criticized for “sitting alone in my house” and I remember everyone seemed very concerned about my well-being. I didn’t really get it- at that point, sitting in awkward conversation in a second language was not more comforting than sitting alone reading or doing a crossword puzzle. Well, I must be becoming integrated into Mozambican culture, because this year, those awkward conversations have been my saving grace. When it’s not a challenge to speak in Portuguese, and I feel like I genuinely know the people I’m talking to, just having someone else to sit with is necessary. My women friends really seem to appreciate it, too. Whenever I stop by someone’s house and chat with them for a while, I find that the next day it is almost guaranteed that they will return the favor the next day.

On one particularly rough day, I went over to my friend Fatima’s house. She was one of the first women that was really nice to me at site, and she just had a baby. Holding her 3 week old son and chatting with her about the challenges of being away from home, and feeling like she really understood and empathized, turned out to be the perfect therapy. She made me realize a very large flaw in my attitude. Generally, I have been pretty hesitant to talk about missing home to Mozambicans. I didn’t think anyone would understand why trading in hot showers and nachos for bucket baths and xima would be difficult, seeing as that is the only way of life known here. Family, though, is important in every culture, and the pains of being so far away from family are very much understood. I was mistaken in ever feeling like I am alone in the feelings of homesickness. Although I don’t plan on moping around Kaunda for the rest of the year, I realized it is important to reach out for help and support from my friends here! My community here really wants me to be happy, and if I tell them what I need, they will give it. If that is just someone to lend an ear, I have it here, and I can’t be afraid to seek it out! That’s a pretty great thing to feel.

On the school front, things are looking different than last year, as well. This year, I’ll be teaching English! I’ll have 8^th grade again, which meets 3 times a week (as opposed to the 2 for biology). I am pretty bummed to not be moving on with last year’s students… I was really looking forward to picking up where I left off. Instead, I’ll be starting from scratch… but that’s okay! I got to know the students last year, now I’ll just double the number of students I get to know in this 2 year gig. I am excited about teaching English, too. The program at the school, from what I’ve seen, is pretty weak. I think I can bring in some new teaching methods that will be pretty effective. Mainly, I’m pretty jazzed to get them singing! Ha. The school schedule looks a lot different, too. The secondary school is meeting in the afternoon this year instead of the morning, all except for 2 8^th grade turmas. Since I’m teaching 8^th grade, I’ll have my classes spread out over the whole day instead of just the morning. This is okay with me, since I’m sure it will make me feel much busier! I also convinced the principal to let me make the schedule with my computer, so I’m looking at a pretty nice schedule for my classes. 

So, that brings me up to date. This week classes will start up (hopefully), but I’ll be heading down to Maputo for our midservice conference. This is the first time the whole training class has been together since training. I’m really looking forward to it! It will be great to hear how everyone is doing, and a nice social getaway after these empty days. I’ll spend the week there, then get back to a school that is actually functioning. I’m hoping I can just hit the ground running at that point, and time will start to fly as it supposedly does in the 2^nd year of service! I hope I will have many wonderful stories to share throughout the year, I’m sure with a couple rough patches mixed in. Thankfully, I know I have gobs of support back home and at site, and I am truly grateful for that.

I hope 2012 is looking good on the other side of the world, as well. As always, I appreciate any emails and updates from back home! It was so great to catch up with many of you when I was home. I think of you all often!

The song from this back is a throwback to my 6^th grade music choice. We’ll go with “Still on Your Side” by BBMak. I’ll never grow out of BBMak, no matter what continent I’m on, or how old I am. I refuse.

So that’s it! Happy 2012!!!

Family, Falls, and Full Bellies

Happy Thanksgiving! It is hard to believe that it was my second Thanksgiving in Mozambique, and it certainly was one to remember. In light of the holiday (and as a way to update you on what’s been going on for the past few weeks), here is what I am thankful for Thanksgiving 2011:

1.       A wonderful end to the school year with the English Theater competition. 6 am Saturday after the last day of school, I took my ten students, along with one other teacher, down to Moatize for the big competition. Our Tete province branch had 8 schools competing, most of which were first timers. The competition was a huge success. The students all arrived safely, and we started by singing both the Mozambican and American national anthems. After, each school sent up one student to draw a number for the order of presentation. Kaunda drew lucky number 1! I was so nervous for them. We had practiced it many times, but never in front of a big audience. No need to worry, though, they did great! They were so proud of themselves afterwards, and that was so great to see. We didn’t win, but didn’t finish last either, which was great for a first year in the program. One of my girls did win the Best Actress Award, though! About half of my group is in 9^th or 8^th grade, so they’ll all come back next year, and I know they’ll be excited to do an even greater job.

2.       A chance to hang over the edge of some of the biggest waterfalls in the world- and living to tell about it! As I mentioned before, my sister came out to visit me for Thanksgiving. Molly arrived to Livingstone, Zambia last Sunday, and we have been having a blast together for the last 2 weeks. She left yesterday, but the trip was a huge success. I was able to meet her at the airport in Livingstone, and after a tearful greeting, we headed to a backpackers to get settled in. Livingstone is the town closest to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. The first day, we headed out to “Devil’s Pool,” which is within the National Park for the Falls. Because it is the dry season, we were able to follow a guide all along the edge of the falls, which is normally blocked off by water. Once we got out to the main waterfall, we got to a spot where there is a natural pool blocked off by a rock ledge. You can jump in here, and then go sit LITERALLY on the edge of the falls. Then, to top it off, the guides will hold your feet while you inch over the rock ledge to be hanging over the falls! You look down and just see white water. Talk about a natural infinity pool! It was a little scary, but for sure a once in a lifetime experience.

3.       Another survival- this time from an on-foot rhino encounter. The second day of our visit, we headed to Mosi-ao-Tunya National park for a “game walk.” We followed a guide (and chaperone with a gun…) around the park and took pictures as he pointed out footprints, animal droppings, and the actual animals! We saw elephants, impalas, baboons, giraffes, a waterbuck, and finally a herd of white rhinos. It was pretty scary to be so close to something so big, especially on foot, but definitely very cool.

4.       A chance to show my sister my site. Of all the super cool, exciting things we did on the trip, this was really the most exciting for me. She got to meet a lot of my colleagues and friends, see my school, and stay in my house. She even got to take a wonderful bucket bath, which she described as “pretty cool and refreshing… but I can see how that would get old after a few months.” Ha. She loved my site, though, and it’s just so great to have someone back home that has seen it and can picture where I am every day.

5.       A sunburn… but only because that means I was at the beach! After visiting my site, we headed down on one of the wonderful 11 hour bus rides to Vilanculos beach to see the Indian Ocean. We had a great group and a really fun time.

6.       A great Thanksgiving feast with a huge group of volunteers at Gorongosa National Park. For the last leg of our trip, we made it up to the park where a fellow PCV had set us up at one of the education centers where she works. We had access to a huge kitchen and were able to make all the Thanksgiving staples. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie… It was really good! It was so great to have Molly meet so many of my friends here, and they all really enjoyed meeting her.

7.       Finally, I am thankful that 3 weeks from today, I will hopefully be plopped on my couch in Midland, Michigan, watching Bravo TV marathons, eating nachos,  drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper, and talking to my parents.  And petting my dog. All of that just sounds wonderful. 

On the way out of Africa, I’ll spend a few days in Cape Town with some other volunteers, so I’ll update again after that fun vacation. I’m looking forward to a great break and hope I will see many of you while I am home.

The song for the post is “L-I-F-E-G-O-E-S-O-N” by Noah and the Whale. Molly and I played some trivia at the backpackers and this song came on name that tune… and I had never heard it! Really sad considering Noah and the Whale is one of my favorite bands. Must mean it’s time for a trip home to catch back up on the music scene!

So, Happy Thanksgiving! Happy start to the holiday season!!!

Teacher's Day, Taste Labs, and T-he end...

Hello, friends and family! Hope all is going well back home. As the weather turns colder on that side of the world, it is heating right up over here. Back to the days of sweat, cold baths, and acne. So excited!

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. My laptop kicked the bucket once again, so my computer time is rather limited. Overall, though, things have been going pretty much the same as last time. By the time I put this post up, I will officially be done with classroom teaching for the year! Wow, did that go quickly! At the end of September, we also celebrated our one-year anniversary of leaving America. The best part of completing a year is the fact that I feel genuinely excited for the second year, which is a good place to be at.

So what has been going on? Pretty much the same ol’, same ol’, I just feel like I know how to do it a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year! This past week at site may have been my best week at site ever, actually. October 12^th is Teacher’s Day in Mozambique, and it’s a pretty big deal. Normally the teachers organize a big party with each teacher contributing some money to pay for food and beer. Not surprisingly, my sleepy little town was a little behind on the planning. There was talk of a party, but no one ever got around to actually organizing it. We would have the normal “cultural presentations,” but besides that, not too much. I was kind of bummed about the lack of party, but it ended up being a great thing! Since no food or drink was around, the day was not focused on just getting drunk. Instead, we had a big presentation with all the teacher’s dancing, my REDES group performed some songs (we are now doing original songs with guitar accompaniment- pretty advanced!), my English Club gave part of their competition play, and some other groups showed dances. After, everyone headed out to the soccer field to watch the teachers vs. students game, which I got to participate in despite being the only female. The teachers lost, but it was a riot. They hooked up some speakers out on the soccer field and blasted music during the game, and we even had some students do a dance for the “half time show.” To round out the day, most of the teachers headed over to one of the little bancas and chatted and danced around. It was a very fun day and I’m very glad I got to participate!

In the classroom, things have been pretty fun as well. Because of the crazy number of holidays in the already shorter 3^rd trimester, I realized pretty early on that there was no way I was going to get through everything I was supposed to. It actually worked out for the best, though, because for the last few weeks I’ve just been giving fun lessons. They may not know everything about the nervous system that they are supposed to, but I think their general excitement about biology and learning is a little higher than it was, and I think that’s more important. For my last actual class before their final, we did a little “taste lab” where I brought in solutions of the different tastes and they all used match sticks to find where on the tongue that taste is detected. They were pretty excited to do something different, and I think the students really appreciate when a teacher prepares something different than the typical dictation-copy lesson plan. This coming week I’ll give my final exam, and then I’m done! I really hope I get to teach 8^th grade again next year, so I can improve on my lessons, but I also really hope I get to add 9^th grade as well so I can move on with these students. By this point, I really feel like I know each turma really well, and it’d be great to keep working with them. We’ll see next year!

Socially, things continue to get better. I feel like I can really show my personality well, now, and know what kind of sense of humor works over here. It’s nice to finally be able to joke around with the other teachers! I mentioned my friend Veronica before, I believe, and I’m really happy to keep getting closer with her. Of all the women I have gotten to know, she is the one that I can relate to the most. It helps that she’s from Maputo, so also from a little more developed society. She’s also only a year or so older than I am, and it’s just so nice to feel like I have a friendship where we are equals. I have a great time hanging out with my REDES girls, but they’re still only teenagers. Celsa has become a great friend, but she’s quite a few years older and already has older children. It’s so great to finally fill that gap of someone who was truly my peer, and I’m really jazzed to continue to get to know her next year!

The time between now and my visit back to the States in December will be pretty busy! Although teaching is done, I’ll still be pretty occupied at the school helping proctor and grade national exams, as well as the normal end of the year grade stuff. In the middle of November, I’ll get my first visitor- my sister, Molly, is coming over to Africa for 2 weeks! I am going to meet her in Zambia to hang out at Victoria Falls for a few days, then we’ll travel back to Mozambique together and bop around until Thanskgiving. We’ll be at my site for a bit, too, and I’m really excited to have her see where I live and meet some of my colleagues. Since she’s a teacher back home, it will be really cool to show her what my teaching life looks like! After that, I’ll just have a couple weeks before heading back to beautiful America. I am so very excited, and hope I’ll get to see many of you who are reading this while I am home!

Well, the song for this post is going to be “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO. I’ve done quite a bit of dancing to it in the last couple months.

So that’s it! Miss you all!

Desfilaring, Dialect, and Decorating

Well, it’s been a while. Since my last update, quite a bit has changed! For starters, I am now an aunt to an adorable little nephew. I was pretty worried that I would be out of range for the news and not know for a couple weeks, but I only was 2 days late in finding out. I am thrilled to meet the little guy in December! I last posted right before the last trimester break, so I have also completed a good vacation, the REDES conference, and the first 4 weeks of my last trimester of teaching this year. It would be impossible to include everything I want to share, but here we go!

Firstly, I definitely would like to talk about the REDES conference. Each volunteer that had a group was allowed to bring 2 girls and a counterpart. I picked my favorite girl, Madalena and one of my soccer stars, Osvalda, both extremely motivated and involved 10^th graders. My counterpart was Celsa, the same woman I have been working with for the whole year. The conference was a week long, and the girls were kept very busy with sessions on self-esteem, healthy living, women’s rights, and more. The second year volunteers did a great job organizing and planning the conference, and the first year volunteers stayed pretty busy doing the “grunt work” during the conference. Personally, I led a small group of girls in many activities, reflections, and games. It was very fun! It was great to see the cream of the crop of Mozambican girls, as well as all the powerful Mozambican women that were helping us lead sessions. And oh my goodness, these girls were CHIQUE. I did not realize how much fashion I was missing out on in my little “one-horse town” of Kaunda. These girls came in wearing heels, and my jeans and chacos just didn’t really cut it. The first night in our small group reflections, we were all supposed to share something we were good at. The girls kept bringing up this word that I had never heard of. I finally asked another volunteer, and it apparently is a verb that means, literally, “to parade,” but basically, “to strut your stuff.” The girls put on all their fanciest clothes and mimic a fashion show, walking and posing like they are the hottest thing around. It was cool to see the confidence and sass, but this trend has not quite reached Kaunda yet. Regardless, I think my girls got a lot out of the conference and came back very excited about REDES. It’s too bad I’ll lose them next year, but I think they’ll be able to show the other girls what it means to be a “REDES girl” before the year is up.

Coming back from the REDES conference was a little hard for me. After seeing all the potential in these young girls, it was tough to come back to my school that seems, at times, to have no faith in its students. The first week of classes never goes too well, and sure enough, we only had about 20 students show up each day. In addition, I hadn’t realized how much I was missing out on by living in a town where local dialect dominates. I’ll admit I haven’t done a great job at learning the language (my lessons with that teacher fell through as he got super busy with other responsibilities at school), but it almost made me angry to come back to a place where I have never EVER heard my students speaking Portuguese to each other outside of the classroom. I have to make my REDES girls run laps if they speak dialect, it has gotten that bad. Even the teachers often will switch into dialect right in front of me, which I just don’t think is very fair. I know a language is a language, but I just feel like I miss out on a lot of personality of my students when I don’t understand how they interact just with each other when they are having fun. I had assumed it was like this everywhere, but after the conference, I realized there are many sites where this is not the case. Audrey came up to visit that weekend, and she even noticed that between the city chapas and the chapas to come up to my district there is a huge difference. On our chapas, no one speaks Portuguese. I know I can’t be upset about it, I’m just a little frustrated with myself that I didn’t make a better effort at learning the local dialect. Tack that on to the list of things I’d like to do better next year!

Don’t worry, though, coming back was not all frustration. After traveling a bit and seeing other volunteers’ houses, I decided it was time to make my house a home! I don’t know what I’d been waiting for. There was white paint left in my house when I got there, so I went to the City and bought some tint to make colored paint. I also finally got all the stuff I needed to install electricity in the rest of the house, and got to work. By the end of the first week back, I had functioning lights and outlets in all rooms! This meant I was able to move my stove and food into my spare room and actually make a kitchen! I used some wood from old desks stacked on some bricks to make little counters, and it makes such a difference! That weekend, Audrey came up and helped me paint, and I now have a bright green living room and sunny yellow kitchen. Since then, the wicker furniture I arranged to be done before I even left for break was FINALLY delivered, and so I have a nice love seat-2 chair-coffee table set that just makes my house a home. I love it. I’ve been kicking myself for all the empty days I spent back in December and January with nothing to do, but I just didn’t realize that people had cute houses! Now, after dark, I can cook dinner in my brightly lit kitchen and kick back and read on my little love seat as I wait for it to be ready. It is simply charming. I am thinking I will throw myself a little house-warming party soon (I know, 10 months later). Pictures to come! Another fun addition to my life is that my computer is functioning again! Another volunteer fixed it for me, so although it’s back to like it was when I got it, it works!

In the classroom, the last trimester has been pretty fun so far. I’m teaching the reproductive system, which has been a riot. I got my first round of applause from one class as I demonstrated the “sperm meeting the egg” with little cut outs and my hand drawn female reproductive system. They were so embarrassed at first, but they are getting more comfortable. It’s a little awkward teaching it to my night school students, many of whom have babies at home (or on their backs in the classroom), but it’s getting better. I’ve been really trying to add variety to my classes and have found most of them going pretty well so far. I have learned a lot since the first weeks of school, and am excited to get even better next year!

Extracurricular-wise, this trimester has taken off running. I had the impression that the third trimester would be the least busy with clubs, seeing as many of them had big things during the second trimester. This has not been the case, and I’m not complaining! I find myself busier than ever, which, as most people probably know, is just how I like it. The English Club has finally transitioned into the English Theater group that it is supposed to be, and it’s been a blast and a half! I recruited one of my favorite colleagues to help us come up with a play idea in Portuguese, and then spent the weekend translating into English. There is a lot of work ahead of us to learn the whole play, but the kids are just GREAT. After spending a year finally accepting that no meeting would ever be on time and that you could never expect anyone to show up without a reminder, I have had to go back to my old standards of punctuality for this group! It’s just so cool to see these kids show up every week, sometimes twice a week, without any prodding from me. As I mentioned before, most of them are 10^th grade students who I have never even interacted with at school. They just want to learn English! There are only 12 students in the group, but every meeting I have at least 8 show up, and lately it’s been close to everyone. I know that doesn’t sound that impressive, but at my school, it is phenomenal. It’s mostly 10^th graders, and predominantly boys, so that’s a nice change from all the estrogen of REDES and soccer. And after spending a day teaching the male reproductive system to 8^th graders, it’s nice to hang out with some motivated 10^th graders for a couple hours. Our basic play premise is a 3-part theater, the first scene promoting abstinence, the second safe sex, and then the third is about talking to your parents about sex and HIV/AIDS. I’m pretty excited to see it come into fruition, and so are the students… which is what it’s all about! My REDES girls are also still meeting regularly, and are currently busy working on a play (my grandfather would be proud!) to put on at school about early pregnancy. After a pretty big lull in the soccer near the end of last trimester, those girls are also showing up again. I’m on my 6^th soccer ball of the year, and am hopeful that the one more I have waiting to pump up will get us through the end of the year. They average about 2 weeks of hard play, longer if I don’t give it out every day, so we’ll see. A big thank you to my mom and grandma for sending them all the way to Mozambique!!

So, I don’t have many complaints! My life is fairly worry-free. I’m happy teaching, have found awesome students to work with, have great new friends both at site and away from site with other PCVs, have an adorable house that I can be proud of, and wonderful friends and family back home, many of whom I’ll be seeing (either here or in America) in just a few short months! Although some days are more challenging than others, it’s nice to step back and know that when I look at the whole picture, life is very good. And, as my father would put it, “that’s a good thing.”

The song for this post once again has no significance to my experience, but is "American Girl" by Tom Petty. Just so much cooler to listen to when you are out of the States. Hope everyone back home is healthy and happy and ready to start the new year!
Try clicking on this to see pictures:

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