The "first" school week

The Mozambican “organization” baffles my mind.  This first week has definitely been one filled with frustration, a lot of confusion, self doubt, and more frustration, but alas I have survived another week in Mozambique. 

School was technically supposed to start this Monday, but, as I think is commonplace for most schools in the country, my school had yet to create a schedule or even decide where classes were going to be taught and by whom!  A new secondary school was just built about 2-5 km down the road (depending who you ask), and, much to my surprise, I was informed that I would now be teaching some lessons at this new school. 

On Monday, they had a ceremony to celebrate the opening of this new school and to celebrate the beginning of a new school year.  After a couple dance groups performed, the governor and education administrators for the district of Murrupula gave speeches about the importance of education and the excitement of the commencement of a new year.  Interestingly to note, many of the education administrators and directors are females and the governor’s representative drew attention to this fact and the importance of educating girls and having girls in high power positions like these women.  I asked my colleague what he thought about this and he too seemed proud that his district had females in powerful ranks. 

Finally, after asking several people countless times, on Wednesday I discovered when and what I will be teaching.  I have three classes (turmas) of 10^th grade computers which meet two times a week and two classes of 11^th grade biology which meet three times a week.  (Each class is 45 minutes.)  Each class has 50 students, which is definitely a manageable number compared to other volunteers whose schools have upwards of 70, 80, or 90 students in a single class.  I have computer classes in the mornings here at the closer school about 10 minutes from my house and in the afternoons, I will have some daily exercise walking (or perhaps riding a bicycle I foresee purchasing in the near future) to the far away school for my biology lessons. 

Other than that, nothing too exciting to report for this “first week” of school.  We’ll see how many students come on Monday, but nonetheless I will be prepared and am excited to get into a routine and start teaching!