The actual first week, well kind of....

The first day of school in the USA generally consists of chaos in the school parking lots, lines of cars with parents eager to drop their children off, students excited to show off their new clothes and teachers ready to meet their new students.  Here in Mozambique, it could not be any more different….

Though the school year technically started last week, Monday marked my first actual lesson.  I walked the two miles or so to school having no idea what to expect, no idea how many, if any, students would even show up. 

As I approached the school, I saw a couple groups of about ten students standing outside some of the classrooms, no professors in sight.  Walking closer, I recognized about three professors and stopped to chat with them, acknowledging the lack of students and professors present.  That just shook their heads saying, “Oh Murrupula…” 

When it was time for my lesson to begin, I entered the classroom feeling somewhat flustered and still not sure what to expect, but pretending not to show my nervousness.  As is routine for Mozambican classrooms, the students all stand when the professor enters the room and wait for you to greet them, responding robotically “Bom dia, Senhora Professora”, waiting to sit until you allow.  That was an interesting moment, and I thought to myself, wow I am the professor!  How crazy!

My class for the day consisted of 15 of the 50 students who were supposed to be there and the lesson was supposed to last two 45 minute periods.  At first the kids sat there, staring blankly at me, not answering my questions and probably thinking to themselves “Where did this white girl come from?!”  I introduced myself and went over some rules for my classroom, explaining that this was probably going to be different than their usual classes; we are going to have group projects, presentations, demonstrations.  Again, mostly blank stares. 

Slowly I got the kids to warm up to me, asking questions as I went over my rules of be on time, be prepared, participate, etc.  I mentioned how I wanted them to ask questions, to have discussions during the lessons with me and that I did not want to always be just talking at them, but want them involved.  By the looks on their faces, they were somewhat confused by this, but seemed intrigued at the same time.  I then asked them some diagnostic questions about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and personal questions like what they like to do in their free time, what they want to do after they finish school, and what their favorite subject is. 

This all took about the first 45 minute period to do, and then I thought to myself, okay now what?  I explained that I did have a lesson prepared, but didn’t want to teach it when not even half of the class was there, so they could either leave or we could chat.  To my surprise, not a single one of them wanted to leave! 

So I asked them what they wanted to talk about, if they had any questions for me.  At first nothing, but soon I got a discussion going and they asked if I was married, had a boyfriend, that I needed a Mozambican boyfriend and could they have my phone number (I quickly said no making them laugh), how old I was, what my favorite Mozambican foods were, etc.  I spoke a little in English to see how much they understood (they are in 11^th grade so I at least expected something) and they taught me a few words in the local language Macua.  It was actually a lot of fun.

Though I was nervous about possibly having too much fun and having them think I was more their friend than their teacher, I think this first lesson will hopefully help them open up and participate during future lessons.  They asked if I was nice or mean, and I replied, “I am nice if you are good, if you are bad, I will get mad and we will have problems.”  I think that pretty much summed it up for them, and I made sure to distinguish fun time from lesson time, so we’ll see what happens.

The only bad part of the day was the walk home.  If you have been checking the weather here, you know there is a category 1 cyclone moving its way south.  Though I think we missed the worst of it, it was definitely extremely stormy walking home the two miles after school.  Wind mixed with rain makes an umbrella pretty useless and I was soaked by the time I got back, but worse things can happen I guess and I just laughed it off, explaining to one woman in the market that now at least I was clean!

Tuesday I gave my first computer class lesson.  Now, when I checked last week, computers (or TICs, as they call the course here) was still not listed on the schedule.  When I spoke with my director about this, we discussed the possibility of having the class during one of the free periods the turmas currently had in the schedules, but nothing was officially decided and they said they would work on it. 

Well surprise!  When I arrived at the school in the morning, still no TICs scheduled, but I just decided to give the lesson during their free period anyway, seeing as how my director was not around, and there was only one other professor present. 

This class had 35 students who were definitely excited to learn that they were going to have a course in computers.  Again, I went over rules, asked some questions, they asked me questions, and slowly we got a discussion going and they got more comfortable talking with me.  Not a single student raised their hand when I asked if they had ever used a computer, so I definitely have some work cut out for me!  At the end of class, I managed to get the computer room keys and let them enter.  Their enthusiasm and excitement was incredible!  They sat at the computers ready to learn right then and there.  It was exciting and kind of inspiring for me to see.  It will definitely be easier teaching students who are interested in the topic.

Upon inspection of the computers after class, I soon discovered that several don’t turn on for whatever reason (beyond this “computer expert’s” knowledge…), but we do have 13 functioning computers to work with. 

I still have a lot of work to do planning my trimester out for both subjects, thinking of ways to challenge my students and get them involved and thinking critically, and yup! doing it all in Portuguese!  Sometimes, while walking around I still have those moments where I think to myself, “Wow I am in Africa, alone!  And teaching!  How did this happen?!” But, though it is going to be a lot of hard work, I am excited for what lies ahead.  After almost a year of waiting for it, it’s all actually beginning.  Wish me luck!

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!  

Home Sweet Home

It happened.  I knew someday it would, and the other morning it finally happened.  A lizard inside my mosquito net….

I still am not really sure how he got in there or how long he was there for, but I came back from the bathroom and there he was, a little guy about 6 inches long, sitting up in the far corner of the net.  Rather than simply leave him and hope he found his own way out only to climb in to bed at night and discover my new friend still with me, I strategized a plan to help him exit. 

Grasping a broom, I kept as much distance between me and him as I could, trying to coax him down off the net.  Who knew lizards could jump?!  This guy leapt on to that broom causing me to of course scream but I acted quickly and ran outside before he could jump off.

Later in the afternoon, I was greeted by another friend in my kitchen.  This guy was a fat one and quite the jumper too!  I tried to coax him out with a broom also, but his jumping was too much for me confined inside the tiny kitchen so I just let him be and hoped he found his way out on his own.

It’s small moments like this when you realize the little things about yourself that have already changed.  I distinctly remember a time back at my home in California involving a similar lizard incident when I called my dad at work to help me.  What I expected him to do all the way from work, I don’t know, but somehow he was going to rescue me from this “beast”.

Now, here I am in Africa tackling these “beasts” on my own.  Though, admittedly I still might scream a little when it seems like the lizard is coming toward me, I look at them more now as friends who eat the bugs.  I’m happy to see them running around my backyard.  As long as they stay out of my bed, we will be okay.  I definitely check (and then recheck and check again) to make sure my net is fully tucked in at night so no other fun critters try to snuggle up with me…

Since these lizard adventures, I have since been graced with the presence of a spider almost as big as my palm and a little scorpion inside my house.  Home sweet home!

Beaches, BBQs, and Bioluminescence

Here is an update on what I have been up to the last few weeks.  

I spent a couple days in Angoche at a volunteer’s apartment which resembles an apartment you might find back in the US. (you can see the ocean out of every window, I kid you not! And it is huge!)  They sell these things there called Apas, which consist of a tortilla filled with a fried egg and ketchup and mayonnaise.  Don’t diss it til you try it!  It’s much tastier than it sounds!  Greasy goodness!  The town of Angoche resembles any other beach town, just imagine such a beach town mostly deserted kind of like a ghost town.  Most of the people living in Angoche live in the bairros outside the city’s center, so it seems like there is almost no one around sometimes.  We took a small boat across to a beautiful beach, imagine paradise, and boom you’re on a beach in Angoche.

On Dec 24^th, we left Angoche to meet up with the other Northerners in Ilha de Mocambique for the memorial service for Lena and Alden.  We celebrated Christmas by eating at Bar Flor, this amazing, though expensive (well expensive by Mozambique standards and my living budget, like $15 a meal) restaurant where I had lobster pasta which was delicious!  Without the Christmas carols, lights, or decorations, it was really easy to forget that it was Christmas and didn’t feel like it at all!  But I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Then on Dec 29^th, about 15 of us returned to Angoche, planning to celebrate New Year’s there.  Taking advantage of the huge, real life style kitchen, I reveled in the opportunity to cook.  One night we opted for fish tacos.  So knowing nothing about fish, I ventured with Ashley to the fish market for an adventure.  The entire market gathered round as we negotiated with the fisherman.  He presented us with about six huge, and I mean huge fish!  Like four feet long! Some even had teeth while others looked like they had had a bad day.  I had no idea what type of fish these were, and still don’t but we chose two big guys and then the fisherman handed me one by its tail.  I looked at him and then at the fish and then thought to myself, well guess we gotta carry them home some how!  So I grabbed that fish by its tail and motioned to Ashley to do the same with the second.  She gave me the same surprised look I gave the fisherman, but she too picked the huge fish up and we proceeded to walk home, fish in hand.  Those suckers were heavy!  We named them Stan and Mel and kept thinking what we would do if the fish suddenly came back to life and started moving.  It took me several hours to cook everything, but I could think of worse things to do than cook delicious food on a balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean.  And they made for some certainly tasty tacos! 

For New Year’s eve, twelve of us decided to go jump in the Indian Ocean at midnight and were greeted with an incredible surprise.  The power had been out all day, and the stars that night were unbelievably beautiful!  There were even stars in the water!  Yeah! There was bioluminescence in the water!  It looked like little jewels of light floating around whenever you moved in the water.  At midnight, some people from shore even let off a few fireworks as if anything could have made this moment more perfect!  We all kept looking at each other thinking to ourselves, this can’t be real life!  It was a moment I will certainly never forget and quite the way to bring in the new year. 

Had a couple more lazy days in Angoche before returning back to site for a night, then Peace Corps flew our entire Moz 17 group down to Maputo for the weekend.  It was awesome being able to see everyone and catch up and just have more support around. 

While we were down south, Peace Corps arranged to have us help out with a volunteer project in Catembe.  Catembe has this huge sink hole, a common occurrence along the coast of Mozambique, and had the army present to help fill sand bags to fill the sink hole and prevent it from growing during the upcoming rainy season.  So our job was to sort through the 300,000 or so bags, separating those that could be filled from those that couldn’t.  It was about as exciting as it sounds, and much dirtier than one might expect.  The bags had been delivered by a sugar company, so they were sticky and someone decided they should be placed under a mango tree, so there were dead mangos all over to add a wonderful smell to the whole mix.  The sheer number of bags was incredible!  Piled under the mango tree and spreading down the street looking like huge stacks of trash strewn everywhere.  We all stuck it out together and enjoyed a free afternoon on the beach after a few hours of the exciting bag sorting.  This beach was incredible!  There was a short pier with a little bar on the end in a tiki hut style belonging to the Gallery Hotel, definitely a place I would recommend staying to anyone planning to visit Maputo.  So beautiful!

We stayed on a USAID complex in Maputo which felt like America!  The house had a huge kitchen complete with oven and stovetop, full size refrigerator, and coffee machine.  The bedrooms had been arranged with several beds in each making it feel like we were on some MTV reality show or something.  They even had air conditioning! The whole complex felt like a gated community from the US.  There are about 15 houses or so and even a park with a playground and swing set.  One family even had a yellow lab dog!  I swear we had been transported to America!

One night, we had a BBQ with hamburgers, sausages, baked beans, cauliflower and broccoli, and chocolate chip cookies.  Then on January 9^th, we had a memorial service for Lena and Alden at the Ambassador’s house.  About 150 people attended, including RPCVs, Lena and Alden’s host families from Namaacha, Mozambican administrative officials, and our training staff.  Carl, the country director, said a few words encouraging us to have the courage and strength to continue on and return back to site, the Ambassador spoke, we read some passages from Lena’s blog and a book Alden had been reading, Patrick said a few words about Alden and Anna about Lena, we lined up to place flowers under their photos, and the Ambassador’s husband, a RPCV from the Philippines finished the ceremony with a few words of encouragement. 

Following the ceremony, for lunch we met with our Namaacha families who Peace Corps had driven down.  My mae and my aunt Rita came and I caught up with them and showed them photos of my house.  Though we only were together for about an hour or so, it was good seeing them and they seemed happy to see me too. 

Then it was vacation over and back to site and real life again.  Looking forward to the school year beginning and what new adventures lay ahead!

From my first days at site

Sorry I have been absent for several weeks!  To start, here is something I wrote during my first week at site….

It’s difficult to begin to describe quite what it feels like to be in our current situation.  The first word that comes to mind is overwhelming.  We just finished ten weeks of training, but nothing can quite prepare you for the feeling that comes when you first arrive at your new house, your home for the next 2 years.  It feels just as crazy as one might think it sounds, but slowly we will make this into our home. 

On Monday, December 12th, Erica and I were driven in a Peace Corps car to our site in Murrupula.  Though only about 70km from Nampula City, the ride seemed much longer than the hour or so it took, and as more and more time passed, we both got more and more nervous, completely unsure about what to expect. 

We were first taken to our school and met the school director and then we went to our house.  The director was so excited to show us our new house, but Erica and I were totally and completely shocked by what we encountered.  So I guess that is what culture shock feels like…  The walls inside desperately needed a paint job to cover up the dirt, random patches of cement, and just random feel of dirtiness and old, broken down feeling.  The doorways are tiny, just wide enough to walk through and short so you have to bend over when passing through.  I have already hit my head many many times.  There are almost no windows, only one small one in the bedroom and another small one in the kitchen.  And the house was totally empty, only a table and three wooden chairs which have seen better days, and a small wooden bookshelf, nothing else.  Nothing on the dirty walls, no plates or kitchenware, no bed frames nor mattress, no dresser or nightstand, basically nothing. 

There are actually two houses, one with a bedroom, kitchen, and living room area and the other with a bedroom and living room with some concrete benches.  We have an outdoor bathroom, one side, a key-shaped hole into the abyss with two foot-shaped concrete sections to indicate where to place your feet, and on the other side, a place for our bucket baths.  We also have (and our favorite parts) a gazebo with a thatched roof for some shade relief from the ridiculously hot African sun and a reed fence around the entire property for some privacy.

Initially, we were totally shocked, thinking what in the heck have we gotten ourselves in to and why!  Luckily, and thank god, the Peace Corps driver stayed with us and, along with another professor, helped us buy mattresses, pots, and big buckets for storing water.  They also arranged for another guy to get us water and fill up the buckets.  Slowly things were coming together and the initial shock and total overwhelmed feeling began to subside a bit.

Once we were on our own, Erica and I took a seat in our living room and surveyed our house for a second time.  Though there is a ton of work to be done, we actually have a pretty awesome set up here.  With a little paint on the walls, building some shelves or something for storage and making it so we don’t have to live out of our suitcases for two years, this house can and will become our home, slowly.  We even have some papaya trees of our own!

For the first few days, we lived without electricity.  Having no lights was okay to deal with, but the heat, especially at night, was miserable with no fans!  Our first night, we barely were able to sleep as our house felt like the inside of an oven and we resorted to soaking some t-shirts in water and laying them on ourselves to try to cool off enough to fall asleep.  Needless to say, it was a long first night.

But, thankfully, our director, who seems pretty on top of things so far, arranged for us to get electricity set up a few days later.  And the first thing we bought that day was two big fans :). 

It’s been a long week, but we have come a long way from that first day.  We bought some paint and painted the walls in our living room a super super bright blue and a bright green and had enough paint left to paint one wall in our bedrooms.  We have gotten crafty during our free time (we have lots and lots of free time), weaving capulana strips together to make a wall hanging and hanging another cool looking capulana up as art work.  I made a basket out of sticks lashed together and covered in capulana and another out of taped together cardboard from a cereal box.  I “repaired” our kitchen counter using some rocks and duct tape (only a picture can really explain).  We even braved up enough to sleep in our separate houses!

It’s a lot easier to stay in our backyard, but we are trying to force ourselves to leave and at least walk around the community.  So far, I really like the feel of the community here and the town itself.  Most everyone we have met has been super friendly!  Our school director took us around to meet some administrative officials including the governor of the district of Murrupula, the city’s one doctor, the director of the hospital, the secretary of the district, and the district educational administrators.  We have met several other teachers, many of whom are our neighbors or live really close by.

The town itself is actually pretty big and spreads out in either direction for a while.  (I’ve never been the greatest with distances, but I’ll try to find out some numerical values or something soon.)  There is a small market with not many food options other than rice, beans, tomatoes, onions (so many onions!), potatoes, mangoes, bananas, eggs, and some pasta.  But the options really vary depending on the day and time of day you go.  We also discovered a dried fish market, quite the smelly place and not something we will ever be frequent visitors at.  Luckily, Nampula City isn’t too far for a day trip to a somewhat larger “grocery store” to include a little more variety into our diet.

So that was my first week at site, and my how things have changed since then!  Unfortunately, Erica decided to return home to the US so I am on my own now.  Also, my school got a new director, yes a new director just a week before school begins.  But I am embracing this new independence and taking it one day at a time.  Recent changes I have made to my house include making a shelf out of stacked plastic bottles and two others out of bricks and reeds, organizing my house a little more, meeting some more neighbors, hanging up some new artwork, and cleaning.  School starts on Monday so that should keep me busy and help me meet more people.  Each day has its ups and downs, but I am hanging in there!