Artistic Endeavors of Procrastination

Adrienne, my new roommate, has been here for about two weeks now.  After painting a nice base coat on the walls, creating a couch using the already built in base with a cut up mattress wrapped in a sheet, and massacring hundreds of cockroaches, Adrienne's house still need some homey touches. We decided to get a little creative and paint a baobab tree on her wall.  After searching online for several images that inspired us, we finally chose one and began sketching.  

Here is an image of the final product:

As Peace Corps volunteers, you learn to get creative and work with limited resources. We originally planned to head to Nampula to buy colored paint, but after finishing our sketching, both of us were eager to continue with the painting job.  One of us joked about the idea of mixing our white paint with dirt from outside.  After a few minutes, we both thought about how that might actually work.  Adrienne experimented with a small amount first, then we tentatively applied it to the wall to see what would happen.  Success!  We quickly proceeded to add handfuls of dirt to our bucket of paint, creating a chocolate milkshake colored substance.  Lacking paint brushes, we channeled our five-year-old side and embraced finger painting, receiving a nice hand exfoliation from the rocks and grains of dirt present in our dirt-paint.  For the color accents and the sun, Adrienne first drew in colored pencil, then watered down the white paint and applied it over the pencil.  

Here is what I have been up to the past couple days while searching for other things to do than grading exams or calculating final grades.  Also, was a great way to pass the day when we had no electricity.  

Meet Elliot the Elephant and Jaime the Giraffe (names pending)

The end of the school year

I’ve finished an entire year of teaching (well technically I still have one final exam left then grading to do still, but lessons are over).  And I think, overall, it’s been really good.  Not too bad for a new teacher, teaching for her first time in another country, in another language.  I mean there were certainly those days where I dreaded making the trek to the school and when the students themselves seemed to not want to be there.  It took a few months to get used to the school system and to learn to be totally flexible when surprises came your way like surprise holidays, an unexpected change in the class schedule, or an empty classroom.  But, I think at least some of the students got something out of the class, at least I can hope so.

After my last Biology class, a student thanked me and handed me a letter he had written.  It was definitely a touching moment that I’d like to share.  People always say all the frustrations are worth it if you reach just one student.

Want to practice your Portuguese?  here’s a copy of his letter:

É com grande prazer e enorme satisfação que neste present momento tenho a honra de redigir para desejar a paz, saude, felicidade, uma longa vida, alegria, esperança, amor, sucesso, respeito, harmonia, solidariedade, humildade, amizade, sabedoria, luz, e bom estar nos seus trabalhos diários.

Bom estado de equilíbrio, bons desejos, bom alcance dos seus sonhos, sobre tudo bom regress á terra natal ou de origem EUA e que tenha a vida e terra graças a Deus.

Agradeço e elogio o vosso caminho e bontade, paciência e amor que teve por nos, de modo particular o meu nome pessoal ao long do nosso processo de ensino e aprendissagente do corrent ano 2012.

Muito obrigado professora Sara! Pela generocidade, gentileza e todos valores éticos que nos tem mostrado.

Atravessou rios, lagos, e mares; florestras, savannas, e montanhas; atravessou fronteiras entre continents e países, e passou mais cidades com a compixa de conhecer e transmitir o saber ao povo Moçambicano.  Dando o contributo na luta contra pobreza e para o desenvolviment da nação!

Aceitou sofizer por vários efeitos, tais como diversidade da cultura e humilidade, mas nunca perdeu a força nem vontade do trabalha.  Peço e espero a seus pai todo poderoso que abençoe a senhora professor.

Sem medo de errar sera-me tão dificil esquecer a professor Sara por ter-me levado e deixado no mundo da Biologia sem dúvidas.

Pouco foi o tempo que tivemos, maior é a esperança de que mas um dia faremos se seus quiser; poucas são as palavras que trocamos mas maiores são os conhecimentos que aolquiri senhora professor.

Vosso aluno,

Anifo

Or if you prefer English, i translated it:

It is with great pleasure and enormous satisfaction that in this present moment I have the honor of writing for the wish of peace, health, happiness, a long life, joy, hope, love, success, respect, harmony, solidarity, humility, friendship, wisdom, light and good being in your daily work. 

Good state of balance, good wishes, good reaching of your dreams, about everything, good return to your native land the USA and in which you have a life and land thanks to God.

Thanks and praise for your care, good will, patience, and love that you had for us, particularly for me personally along our process of learning in this current year 2012.

Thank you very much teacher Sara!  For the generosity, kindness and all the valuable ethics that you have shown us.

Across the rivers, lakes, and oceans; forests, savannahs, and mountains; across the borders between continents and countries and past the cities, for the compassion of knowing and transmitting knowledge to the Mozambican people, for giving a contribution to the fight against poverty and for the development of the nation.

You accepted suffering from various effects like diversity of the culture and humility but never lost the force nor the will to work.  I ask for and hope that the all-powerful Father bless you.

Without fear of error, it will be very difficult for me to forget teacher Sara for having led and left me in the world of Biology without doubts.

Short was the time that we had, greater is the hope, but one day we will talk if you wish; few were the words that we exchanged but greater is the knowledge that I acquired teacher.

Your student,

Anifo

One Year!!

September 26^th marked exactly one year since I left home for my first days of Peace Corps training.  Technically, the one year anniversary for being a Peace Corps volunteer will not be until early December, but I think this still merits some acknowledgement. 

I came across the new group of Peace Corps Mozambique education volunteers’ Facebook page, and it provided a great means for comparing where I was then and where I am one year later. 

For instance, they had questions and concerns like what “professional clothing” really means and if they should bring their professional suit to how the cell phones work to how you can fit two years of stuff into two bags and how you can possibly be expected to learn another language in such a short amount of time.  Basically, total cluelessness and lack of any idea of what it will really be like.  You can read books and blogs, browse through the daunting stack of paperwork Peace Corps gives you, or ask current and returned volunteers about their experiences, trying to form your own idea of what it might be like.  Ultimately though, nothing can really prepare you for this adventure until you actually arrive, experience it and live it.

And I have lived it, for an entire year now!  It really is pretty crazy to think about.  I still have those moments walking to the market or standing in front of the classroom where I think to myself, “Wow, this is my life…living in Africa” and I can only really chuckle to myself thinking about what a strange reality that is. 

I have grown accustomed to walking to school with a herd of cows and goats and chickens roaming the streets.  It is normal to use a hole in the ground as my “toilet”, to take a shower without running water and to pee in a bucket in the middle of the night.  It no longer intimidates me being constantly stared at and being the only white person around for miles and miles.  I am an expert carvão (charcoal) lighter and can even make sweet potato gnoochi without an American kitchen and all its conveniences.  I have come to expect an unreliability in electricity and cheer right along with the rest of the town when it comes back gone.  It really is amazing how your sense of “normal” can change in such a short amount of time.

Certain things though still catch me off guard and are reminders that I am not in California anymore –  That goat riding on the front of someone’s bicycle, lizards on the walls of my house almost constantly, the six year old boy herding goats along the national highway.  I’m still just as surprised when I see four people drive by on a single motorcycle, no helmets, a baby in the front.  Those chickens still take me by surprise, especially when one is hiding in my bathroom and rushes past my legs, giving me a heart attack.  The extreme power of the African sun and trying to sleep in a house that is over 90 degrees is something you can expect but certainly never get used to.

Those things and moments are reminders that life is a little, no, a lot different here.  But amongst all those inconveniences, simples moments like when I walk home from school and three little girls come running up to give me a big hug and kids coming over in the evening asking for a “discotecha”, meaning for me to bring my flash light out and put it on strobe mode while they dance.  Helping 11 year old Niquito learn to read and seeing my students’ faces when I show them photos of animals they have never heard of like jellyfish and clams.  Those are the things that keep me around and guarantee to make me smile. 

So I have made it through my first year.  Through the ups and downs and all the emotions one might expect someone in this situation to have, and then some.  Have I changed in this past year? Yes, how could you not!?  Here, you certainly need to develop a huge sense of patience and flexibility and it’s almost impossible not to develop an appreciation for the simple things. I most certainly have learned a lot about myself and am much more comfortable and confident.  Mom, that young shy girl who was afraid to talk on the phone or order her food is long gone.  Now I do it in Portuguese or even a local African language! 

It’s still hard and I still have those days where I wish I could sleep in a more comfortable bed without a mosquito net, use a washing machine, or go to a drive-thru.  Days when I wonder what I am doing here, if I’m really making any difference and how nice it would be to hop on a plane and go back to my home in California.  What’s the most surprising aspect?  What’s the biggest difference between here and there?  What’s the hardest part?  Really all I can say in response to those questions is LIFE.  And it’s also my favorite part.  A bit general perhaps, but for this past year, this has been my life and it no longer seems so foreign nor strange.  It’s a simpler life in many ways with fewer conveniences, fewer material items, and a slower pace, but it’s been all the adventure I was hoping it would be.  And guess what….I still have another year! 

Now, rather than thinking of it as a daunting time frame and constantly counting the number of weeks or months I have been here, I have switched to a mindset of realizing how quickly time can pass and how much I still want to do before I leave, potentially just a short 13 months away now!  The days still feel just as long, but the weeks and months seem to be passing much faster now.

This one year mark, interestingly enough exactly one year to the day, brought another surprise….I received a roommate! I had previously been informed that I would most likely be getting a roommate in December, but due to some security reasons at her old house, Adrienne was moved from her site in central Mozambique to come live with me now and will be living in my other small house.  It’ll be quite a different experience this second year not being on my own anymore and sharing my town, but I’m excited for the change! 

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my current projects so I’ll try to catch up on the past few months now too.

About two months ago, I met a neighbor named Iassito when he came by for help with his internet modem.  We got to talking and I discovered he was president of a non-profit organization called AJUDEMU – Associação Juvenil para o Desenvolvimento de Murrupula (Youth Association for the Development of Murrupula).  Volunteerism is not a super common trait among a lot of people here and I was totally impressed hearing about his group’s previous projects and excited at the prospect of possibly being able to help them. 

Currently, they are working on a project to provide computer classes to the community.  They have one super old computer and just finished their first round of classes which include hour-long lessons 5 days a week for 3 weeks for paying students.  Now, I am meeting with about five people, including members of AJUDEMU and the best student from the previous lessons, to help them learn some more about using computers and train them to become teachers for future lessons. 

Iassito also has been helping me with my community library project, along with Professor Shek.  More on this project soon!  We are currently working on making a budget for the construction of the library and are hoping to write a proposal for funding within the next couple months. 

School is coming to its final weeks, only two weeks of classes left and then exam time.  I think both the teachers and the students are ready for the summer break.  During my break, I hope to do a little more traveling, perhaps to see Lake Niassa, travel south of my site to visit other volunteers, and say good-bye to those volunteers who have completed their service and are heading home in November and December.  Perhaps most exciting, my friend Courtney from home is meeting me in South Africa to do a safari and visit Cape Town in January! 

I still can’t decide if it feels like it’s been a long year or has gone by really quickly, but, nonetheless, an entire year has passed since I left home and that is pretty incredible to think about.  Thank you for your considered support and words of encouragement! J

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!