You never know what to expect...

Last Wednesday afternoon I was just finally getting the chance to sit down and relax after a long morning of classes when I received a phone call from my pedagogical director Emilio (equivalent to a vice principal).  For whatever reason, it is so unbelievably hard to understand Portuguese on the phone, combine that with the fact that this guy is the fastest speaker I have ever met.  The only thing I really understood from the phone call was that I needed to come to the school now.

I made my walk over there (only about 10 minutes away) trying to think of what he possibly could have been saying.  Did I miss some meeting?  Didn’t do something that I was supposed to because no one thought to mention that I needed to do it?  I had no idea.  Never would I have guessed what I was about to encounter….

20 brand new computers!!  There they were, in the process of being set up, 20 brand new HP computers, flat screen monitors, totally modern and all functioning!  My school’s computer room had 24 computers, 13 of which worked, one more crashing just last week to bring our number slowly lower and lower, so this was quite the surprise!

Apparently the school did not know the computers were coming.  A big truck just showed up with them and the people to set them up.  After the initial shock wore off, I tried asking where these computers came from and why we received them.  Apparently the government received them from some organization in Canada and is distributing them to 33 schools throughout the country, the schools supposedly chosen at “random” (I think it helps that the president is from Murrupula). 

Ten computers all run off of a control computer, my computer, using a program called Microsoft Multipoint Server.  I have some learning to do to figure out how to use this program and manage the students with these new computers now.  Unfortunately, there are only about five weeks left in this school year, but my students are excited to at least get to use these new computers for a little bit.

Viva Murrupula e Ciencia!

August 17^th is Dia de Murrupula.  All week, I had seen signs of the town preparing for the big day and what it day it was.  It began around 9am with a parade down the main street to the rotunda, including 100s and 100s of people, banners held by a few students both from Escola Secundária de Murrupula and Escola Secundária de Armando Emílio Guebuza (I especially loved how the second school’s sign had forgotten the “o” in “escola”, but cleverly squeezed in a very tiny one inside the “c”), a military band equipped with two drums, 2 saxaphones, 1 trumpet , trombone and even a tuba, and a pair of cymbals, and a line of cars driving in the governor and other important officials of the district.  It seemed as though all the residents had gathered together to celebrate the 53^rd year of the Vila de Murrupula. 

As with all Mozambican holidays, the festivities began with a gathering around the rotunda for the laying down of flowers at the base of the plaque in the center.  Around the rotunda were banners and signs proclaiming Murrupula’s fight against poverty, domestic violence, and the spread of HIV, and “Viva Murrupula”. 

After, two motorcycle riders did a few tricks on their motorcycles including riding backwards, driving with no hands, and driving with no feet (a little nerve racking to watch seeing as how they didn’t have helmets on, of course, and were driving so unbelievably fast amongst such a huge crowd of people all pushing and shoving to try to see).  The crowd loved it.  Then there was a competition between 3 women carrying buckets of water of their head to see who could run the fastest.  I also heard rumors of a sack race and bicycle race, but I guess they cut those activities out. 

People then rushed over to the nearby stage to watch dancing and music.  As in true form, we stood around for a while waiting while the organizers did who knows what, organizing something I guess.  It was the perfect opportunity to do some people watching amongst saying hellos to colleagues, students, and just people in the community. 

There were 700..800..900… I’m not really sure, but 100s and 100s of people.  Most women with babies strapped on their backs with capulanas, kids climbing the trees to get a good view of the stage (I counted 15 kids on top of one tree), other children probably 5 or 6 years old running around shoving their way to the front.  My favorite is seeing some of the clothes people have (not intending to make fun of them, it’s just so random sometimes how and where these clothes come from) – tweety bird shirt, Popeye, the hulk, a small child wearing a McDonald’s uniform t-shirt, and a sequined image of Michael Jackson doing a toe stand.

While waiting for the dancing to begin, I took a stroll around to see what else was going on.  In the park area they had built about 10 small reed structures.  One was handing out flyers about Malaria, another a station for donating blood, and three others for HIV testing and counseling or testing for other health factors like blood pressure, etc.  I was very pleased to see all of these set up and people actually gathering around to take advantage of their presence.  The other 5 structures of course were bar areas.  (I am already thinking about next year and what kind of station I could set up with either activities or games about HIV education, a carnival area maybe?? we’ll see…)

Then the dancing and music began, the governor and some important army guy even got up to shake their hips a little, much to the crowd’s enjoyment. 

Somewhat bittersweet, I had to leave the celebrations in the late afternoon to head to Nampula with my two students for the Provincial Science Fair.  I think one of the students was especially bummed to be missing that evening’s concert featuring some big singer from Pemba, a theater group, and some other entertainers I don’t know much about.  But I think they were both excited to see what the fair would be like, at least I hope so.

A few questions I received from my family about the science fair that I’ll address here – No I did not meet with the students’ parents before our field trip.  No there is no permission slip.  Supervision basically doesn’t exist in this country as most kids are essentially on their own starting at about age 5 and these students had been to the city many times before, so they were basically on their own to do as they pleased during free time in the evenings.  (Most students chose to stay in their rooms and watch the TV.)

For anyone curious about our accommodations, Friday night we stayed at Residencial Monte Carlo, a more motel-feeling place with rooms featuring only the bare essentials of a bed, a desk, and a chair and some rooms have air conditioning.  Saturday night, we stayed at Hotel Lurio, a more hotel-like place, and thus a bit fancier than Monte Carlo.

Okay, back to the fair. 

The approximately 30 students from various districts around the province, 9 Peace Corps volunteers and our accompanying counterparts/professors travelled into the city on Friday, meeting at the hotel, having dinner together, and essentially a free evening before the fair the next morning.  Adam and Tony planned the fair themselves, with some help from the Ministry of Science and Technology, but they pretty much coordinated everything from transportation, lodging and meals, location of the fair, prizes, etc.  Not an easy feat, especially in this country where everything seems to take much much longer than you would think.  But they did a great job and pulled everything off, receiving many compliments for their efforts.   

We left the hotel early Saturday morning to arrive at the Escola Secundária de Muatala, an extremely nice (and I mean nice even by American standards) school in Nampula city, complete with Biology, Chemistry, and Physics laboratories stocked with supplies.  The fair took place in the outside but roofed gymnasium area.  (They even had basketball hoops!)  Desks had been set up in a horse-shoe shape around the court with a few lines of chairs in the center facing a table where the important Ministry representatives would sit for the fair’s opening.  Our 30 students joined the 35 students from Nampula city secondary schools, setting up their inventions, experiments, and posters.

Though scheduled to begin at 8am, due to the late arrival of the Ministry delegates and representatives, the fair began closer to Mozambican time and started at 9:30am.  To open the fair, a cultural group sang one or two songs, the Ministry officials said a few words, and a theater group performed a short skit to an audience of about 350-400 people. 

Then the rain came…

Now is technically the dry season in Mozambique and it hasn’t rained for a couple months in Nampula city, but of course today had to be the day it rained.  Luckily the gymnasium is covered, but when the wind picked up a bit, unfortunately, a few students’ posters and projects lined up around the edge got soaked!  Everyone was a good sport about it, a few of us rushing over to help them move their desks, mostly just shaking our heads that today, of course, had to be the day it rained.

After he was done speaking, the Delegado, or basically the head of the Ministry of Science and Technology, began to visit each student and learn about his project.  There was a bit of confusion at first, as people did not quite understand the concept of a free time to walk around and visit the students, and instead all 300 people decided to crowd around the Delegado as he spoke with the student.  Thankfully, after a little while, people caught on to the idea and things smoothed out.

The jury followed a little later, passing from student to student, judging them individually on their visual and oral presentation, perceived knowledge of the presented scientific concept, use of the scientific method, and creativity and relevance of the project.  There were about 60 projects in total, so this was definitely not a quick task of judging and selecting winners.  The judges included our Peace Corps education director Gelane and the health director Lúcio, two members from a UN development organization called UNIDO, and two people from the Ministry. 

During this time, a DJ played music, there was an area featuring myths about HIV and explanations of their validity or falsehood, and a group promoting reading displayed a large spread of books.  There were also representatives from SCIP present to do free HIV tests.  Later, we learned that of the 66 people who took the test, 2 came back positive.

At about 2pm, the judges had finally finished making their rounds to each student, and the winners were announced.  There were prizes for 1-6^th place for both 1^st cycle (grades 8-10) and 2^nd cycle (grades 11-12).  My student Aires received 4^th place for 2^nd cycle for his project creating an insecticide using electrolysis!  The overall winner was Patrick’s student from Ilha who created a method of converting dirty or salty water into drinkable, clean water (an awesome project that clearly deserved to win).  Other projects included a pulley system for loading things on to the top of a chapa, many projects featuring medicinal plant health remedies, an invention of the easy lighting of a fire, demonstrations like using an egg to show density of objects in salt vs. regular water or putting a bottle over a candle to blow up a balloon, rewiring an MP3 player to play in a car stereo system, and many more. 

First place received prizes including pens, pencils, notebooks, a binder, ruler, a backpack, pencil sharpener, 4GB flash drive, and scientific calculator.  The other places received similar school supplies, just fewer or of varying degrees of quality.

Though a long day, the fair was a huge success and it seemed that many of the participants learned a lot, some even saying they already have ideas for next year’s fair!

Oops...

Wednesday afternoon I was home thinking about how I needed to write a new blog and was trying to come up with some new ideas, when I accidentally created a situation myself…..

Three little girls came over to take some papayas from my trees and to play (Fatiminha, Vanessa, and Merina, all about 9 years old).  I shut my door behind me to join them outside, not thinking anything of it.

Now, let me explain the lock on my door.  It has a normal door latch that any American door has, but you have to use the key to open it, just like turning a handle would open a door in your house. 

Yes, you probably guessed it, I locked myself out of the house.  I had always thought about this happening at some point and just wasn’t thinking when I shut the door.

I turned to the little girls and explained the situation, keys and phone both locked inside.  We tried wedging the lock open with a kitchen knife I had left outside with my washed dishes.  Nothing.  They turned to me and said, “Well I guess you are going to sleep outside tonight.”

Then one of the little girls mentioned that another girl, Esperança (another 9 year old who likes to come play), had “a key that could open any lock.”  I didn’t really understand what she meant by this, thinking how that probably was impossible, but well, it was either that or try kicking my door down.  So, I opted to try this magic key first. 

On my way over to Esperança’s house, lucky for me, it was time for the afternoon call to prayer, and I fortunately came across my carpenter on his way to the nearby mosque.  I explained my situation to him, thinking maybe he had some tool that could work or would have an idea what to do, asking him to come over after he finished praying.

I continued to Esperanca’s house and explained my problem to her mom, a very nice lady who I have sat and talked with a few other times too.  Surprisingly, she was more sympathetic than amused and never even laughed at me! 

So this magic key that could open any lock?   It was a screwdriver….. I smiled to myself and thought, well this is worth a try I guess.  Not surprisingly, the screwdriver didn’t work.  So I waited for Saida to come by, looking at the door trying to devise a plan for how to go about kicking it down if necessary, while also playing with about ten kids who had appeared in my yard.  As a good teacher would, I took advantage of the opportunity of having so many children around and taught them the alphabet song I had made J (same as the good ol’ version, just with Portuguese pronunciations).

Saida showed up not too much later and brought with him a chisel-like tool to essentially pry open the lock.  Success, it worked!  It did indeed break the lock a little, but nothing too bad, just snapping off the latch part, but I can still lock it perfectly well with a key.

The little kids, ages 6 to 11, had stuck around for the entire adventure, so I had a little reading session with them on my veranda.  Peace Corps, in conjunction with Books for Kids Africa, started a pilot program with my group of volunteers, providing us each with 50 Portuguese books of differing levels and difficulties to use as we saw fit in our communities.

Though their attention span was pretty short, I read one short book with them and then let them flip through the pages of a few others, hoping that slowly I can build an interest for reading.  One of the older boys even practiced reading with me a little, expressing a keen interest in improving his reading level, something I look forward to continuing with him and with some other kids too.

A Conference and A Festival

Early-Mid July, we had another conference, this one about project development, planning and execution.  To attend the conference, we were asked to bring along a Mozambican counterpart, or colleague, from our community. 

I brought a professor named Shek.  Shek is actually originally from the Congo.  He worked with an NGO (non-governmental organization) in the Congo helping the Unaccompanied Children, primarily working to locate their own families or finding other families to take these kids in.  However, as a result of the civil unrest in the country, Shek was forced to flee the Congo and he and his family went to South Africa and then later Mozambique.  His wife and children were later permitted to reside in the USA, in Arizona, where Shek joined them four years later.  For personal reasons, Shek was forced to return to Africa while his wife and three daughters still live in Arizona.  Quite the crazy life this man has lived!

Anyways, Shek loved the conference and is eager to help me out with any projects around the Murrupula community.  We hope to soon begin work on establishing an English library/resource center/language center/student area (can you tell the plans are still in the idea phase?), so I will keep you all updated on that progress!

During this same week as our conference, Nampula city was the site of the 7^th annual National Cultural Festival in which people from every province gather together for dancing, food, art, and music.  Several stages were constructed around the city in various locations, somewhat like a county fair.  (Big stages, like normal American standards with huge sound systems, speakers, etc.)  From what I understand, groups first compete in local provincial competitions before they come to the national festival, and the government pays for all their travel and living expenses during the festival.

I unfortunately didn’t see any of the dance performances due to scheduling conflicts, but I did meander around the “food court” area where each province had some dishes special to their region, sampling a little of this kind of xima or a little of that kind of matapa.

There was also a big art festival set up in the pavilion nearby.  (I was also surprised to learn they had a big pavilion in the city – it is a huge stadium, the size of a basketball stadium.)  Here, vendors from each province displayed their artwork, wood carvings, jewelry, knick-knacks, paintings, etc.  I limited myself to buying a carved and painted wooden bowl with giraffes and elephants, a wooden mask, and a carved rhinoceros.  It was actually a pretty surprising and impressive event for our usually not so impressive, run-down Nampula city!

After an all too fast three week school break, the third trimester will be beginning soon and it’ll be back to actually having work to do again.  It’s hard to believe this school year is almost over! 

Science Fair

I am officially back in Mozambique after two wonderful, but way too fast, weeks back in California for my sister’s wedding.  I ate everything from Del Taco, Panda Express and In N Out to California Pizza Kitchen, Chipotle, and Don Jose.  I enjoyed the luxuries of running water, a toilet seat, floors you can walk around barefoot on, and dependable electricity.  I was awed by the sheer amount of cars on the freeway, so many paved roads (without trash littered around), movie theaters, restaurants where they actually serve everything on the menu, and the lack of 30 people crammed into a small car.  It was absolutely amazing to be home and see my family and friends.

After over 65 total hours of traveling there and back, it was again time to get back to the reality of life in Africa.  I made it back just in time for the first week of provincial exams (the ones where the government writes the tests).  I helped proctor two tests this week, and will do one next week, other than that, just have to grade about 100 biology assignments about classifying plants in the area as well as 150 computer students notebooks. 

More exciting though, this Saturday was my local Science Fair.  I can’t remember if I already explained about the science fair, but if not, I’ll give a brief explanation here.

In conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology in Mozambique, Peace Corps organizes a National Science Fair for secondary school students.  First, individual districts hold a local science fair (for example, my local fair in Murrupula).  After, two winners from 11^th-12^th grade and two winners from 8^th-10^th grade go to a Provincial Fair (ours is in Nampula).  There students from districts or schools around the province compete for a chance to go to the National Fair where winners can receive prizes like a lap top or digital camera.

Though I started out with almost 30 interested students at my first information meeting, we had 4 students actually present projects during our local fair to an audience of 11 students who came to watch, 4 professors, a panel of 4 jury members and me. 

The students were instructed to create an experiment, demonstration, or invention, create a poster presentation, and prepare a presentation.  All the students did a great job!  A panel of 4 professors gave points to each student for visual presentation, oral presentation, use of the scientific method, knowledge of the scientific concept and importance of the project in life. 

Our fourth place winner, presented about water filtration and demonstrated how one can use toilet paper to filter out particulates in dirty water.  Our third place winner presented his project about the density of objects.  He demonstrated how an egg floats in salt water and sinks in plain water.  The second place student did a project analyzing the rate of fermentation of different kinds of fruits (papaya, lemon, orange, and tangerine).  He found that the papaya fermented the fastest and therefore must have the most sugar.  And our first place winner used electrolysis to create an insecticide.  He used a battery attached to two wires to create a current in salt water with iron nails.  Using a sweet potato root (I’m not totally sure why), he created a liquid that can be used to kill bugs, or even rats.  He even brought in a bug to demonstrate how his liquid will kill the insect on contact.  Though I didn’t totally understand his procedures, he definitely created an interesting project.

Because all the students were in 11^th-12^th grade, only two will go to Nampula for the Provincial Fair in August.  I had brought back some books from the US for prizes, including an English/Portuguese dictionary with pictures (1^st place chose that), a book full of questions and answers about everything from science to animals to space (2^nd place’s choice), and a pop-up book about the human body.  4^th place received a daily planner that I hadn’t used because I didn’t want him to feel left out.  I also gave each student a blue, black, and red pen as prizes and will print out certificates for them. 

Though smaller than I had originally hoped for, the fair was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to next year and hopefully having more students participate.  Only four participated, but it was great seeing them do something on their own and then present their work, something these kids don’t get the opportunity to do that often.  Perhaps I had hoped for more students, but I have learned to rationalize my work here as me giving students and people an opportunity and it’s up to them if they want to or choose to take it. 

The four participants: Juma (11th), Jaimito (12th), Hermenegildo (12th), Aires (11th)

Participants and the Professors who helped organize and judge

Grocery List

In exactly one week from today, I will be back in the USA for a couple weeks for my sister's wedding!! Of course I am excited to see my family and friends, but I am also extremely extremely excited to EAT and EAT and EAT!!  

So Mom, here is a preliminary grocery list (I will probably add to it as my leaving day gets closer and closer).  Looking forward to opening the cupboards and seeing all the American snacks!  Thanks Mom! Love you :)

Apples

Cantaloupe

Grapes

Peaches

Honeydew

Strawberries

Lettuce/spinach

Carrots

Red bell pepper

Italian dressing

Ranch

Caesar Salad

Ribs

Bacon

Deli meats – Turkey!!

Tortillas

Bagels

Wheat sliced bread

Trix

Golden Grahams

Raisin Bran Crunch

Honey Bunches of Oats

Milk

Yogurt

Cheese (string, cheddar, provolone, American, any!)

Cream cheese

Sabra Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Salsa (Santa Barbara brand)

Tortilla chips

Pita chips

Sun chips (Garden Salsa)

Cheez-its

Triscuits

Wheat Thins

Goldfish

Granola bars (chewy, nature valley)

Fruit Snacks

Pudding Cups

Ice cream (rocky road, mint choc chip, sherbert)

Chocolate chip cookie dough

Chocolate sauce

Peanut butter

Syrup

Pot stickers (Trader Joe’s has tasty ones)

Honey Baked Ham (like Easter kind?)

And to make sure I can eat it all: TUMS (and probably some immodium AD haha)

What would you do for $2?

My birthday was this past weekend.  To celebrate, about 10 volunteers met me at Jill’s house in Carapira to just hang out and eat some fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad and cake.  Good food and good company, what more could a person want for their birthday?!

On the ride back to Nampula Sunday morning, Adam and I had another chapa adventure, this time dealing with the stereotype of the perceived wealthy American. 

After catching a boleia with a nice couple to Namialo (a city about halfway to Nampula from Carapira), we opted to take a chapa for the remaining distance to the city because the road seemed pretty empty this Sunday.  It became time to pay.  Let me explain the typical paying procedure for this van filled with at least 25 people.  Chapas have a “motorista” who drives the car, and a “cobrador” who stands in the back with the passengers, opens and closes the door, and is in charge of collecting the money from each passenger, typically beginning with the back row. 

Both Adam and I were unsure of the price for this unfamiliar chapa ride, so I asked a woman sitting next to me how much it should be.  Unfortunately, she forwarded my question to the cobrador who quickly decided to take advantage of our ignorance.  He told us the price was 100mts, which we didn’t think much of until we remembered that it was 95mts all the way to Carapira, so that couldn’t possibly be the correct price.  We watched as the cobrador gave the other passengers their change back, wanting to verify that this was indeed an incorrect price.  We noticed that he was giving everyone else change so that they paid only 70mts. 

I then proceeded to argue with the cobrador (yes, in Portuguese) about how he had overcharged us.  I began with politely asking for our 60mts change and he proceeded to explain that no, it was indeed 100mts.  So I asked him, why then was everyone else paying only 70mts.  He decided to reason that because we had asked the price, it was higher.  I quickly followed, calling him out on his ridiculousness stating, no, we live here in Mozambique, we are professors and never before has this happened.  We were going the same distance as everyone else, and thus should pay the same price and he could not raise it simply because we were white.  This evoked a slight smirk out of him, indicating that I had indeed called him out and this is precisely what he was trying to do. 

He proceeded in refusing to give us our proper change, so I continued to remind him every few minutes or so about how we still needed our 60mts in change.  (Ok, that is only about $2, but that is a lot of money here in Mozambique, almost an entire other chapa ride!  And it was more about the principle of the matter, and not allowing him to rip us off.)  Eventually, he gave me 20mts, thinking that would appease me because he had “discounted” the price from 100mts to just 90mts a person.  Adam and I told him, ok great, but we still are only going to pay 70, so we still need 40 more. 

To make a long story short, we eventually did get the full amount of change, but it was not an easy task.  Typically, in the few other instances where something of this sort has occurred before, other fellow chapa riders back you up, telling the cobrador to pay up and be fair, but this was the first time no one really said anything to him.  I also want to emphasize, that yes, I have become accustomed to knowing that people will try to increase the price because they see white skin and think MONEY, but usually people relent after they find out we live here and know better, and it is certainly not something everyone does.  (I don’t intend to put a bad light on the entire country, just this one man, this one day.) 

I was pretty proud of myself for getting our proper change and doing it all using Portuguese.