Work work work

School finished about 2 weeks ago. We had testing for a week, a week of classes, and then two days of test corrections and learning songs. I taught my 12th graders the song from the world cup- “Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher…”- and it was hilarious! At first they thought they were too cool to sing in class, but once they had the words they got so into it. We definitely disturbed every other class in session at the time. And one of the best parts, the next day I heard 11th graders and a few 8th graders singing the song with the correct words. They shared.
Well, after classes were done we started conselhos- collecting the grades for each class and writing it all out. What a process! Let me break down the school system here a little bit. Sorry if I repeat myself. So a turma is a group of 35-55 students all in the came grade. They sit in the same room all day and teachers come to them to teach. Students don’t get to choose which classes they take or what level they take- it’s all the same. And each teacher is in charge of a turma (like homeroom?) and this Director de Turma (DT) is in charge of collecting all the grades and absences from each professor and determining who’s passing and who’s missed too many classes to continue through to next trimester. So, because I’m not a DT I was able to bounce around and help people. It’s A LOT of tedious busy work- reading off lists of grades and copying them 4 times to the various books and paltas (giant list of students and grades- one for each turma). I pointed out that if we worked together in groups of 3 or 4 we could all write the same grades at the same time on the various sheets and get things done 3 to 4 times as fast. They were blown away by my efficiency. Thanks America. Anyways, a few days of that and I was pulling my hair out. This week we started 10th grade testing for students that don’t go to school but are home-schooled (kind of- they’re all older and I’m guessing more don’t study). It reminded me a lot of SATs but much more drawn out and boring. Well, today I started grading the English exams. Some short answer, multiple choice, and essay. The average score- 5. Out of 77 students there were 3 that had above a 9. That means 3% of the students passed, and I was being generous. It was pretty depressing. I really hope my kids do a bit better than that. The best part about the past week- free lunch.

Strange thing just happened. It started raining, but only on one side of my house. I opened both doors- out of one the sky was grey and water was pounding down on my porch, and the other side the sky was blue and sunny. It’s raining on both sides now, but for about 5 minutes there my brain just couldn’t make sense of what was going on.

Sleepover!

Jenna and Valerie finally came to visit me this weekend, and what a fun time! I know I love to have my own space and I’m so thankful I’m at site by myself, but I hadn’t realized how lonely I was until I had people here with me. They came walking up to my house at the end of daycare time, when I had ten or so kids drawing on my porch, so they got a very exciting welcome to the neighborhood. Other than feeling like we were on exhibit in a zoo, things were pretty calm. We had originally planned on digging my machamba on Sunday, but because I’m still waiting for a gate to close my new fence, we decided to wait until I can keep goat, ducks, kids and chickens off my space. Good company, relaxing weekend- wonderful. Not only did I have friends over, but said friends brought me bananas, eggplant, cheese and wine. Goddesses. We made eggplant parmesan (with Gouda- parm is impossibly expensive. Care package?), drank our wine, woke up and made french toast, and I convinced them to stick around for grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. It was the most decadent and delicious weekend I’ve had since arriving at site. I’m looking forward to their next visit, even if it’s another 3 or 4 months away.

Eye-opener

On my way back from Maputo I got a ride from a nice American family of four that was driving up to the beach. Not only was it a safe, quick, stress free ride, I also got to talk to a different kind of person than I’m used to- someone who is just visiting this country and still not used to all the crazy and peculiar stuff that goes on here. I had a fabulous time talking and answering all sorts of questions they had about Mozambique and my experience here. I’m sure the two boys who were trying to read/sleep got pretty annoyed with me but maybe they soaked up a thing or two. This family had such fresh eyes. They pointed out things I’ve come to take as normal or just blah, like the huge street market on the way out of Maputo, or the men making bricks in the little huts next to the road, or the way I bought tangerines and cashews and phone credit on the side of the road. It was a very refreshing experience. And it makes me so excited to be able to show my own visitors around my host country. As I was getting out and saying goodbye, the mother offered me some granola bars- I don’t think she’d ever seem anyone SO excited about granola bars! I accepted graciously and ate one on the next part of the trip home. It tasted like a candy bar. Note to readers- care package? ;)

New running mate

I met a man running the other day. Is name is Jonas. He scared me half to death the first time he started running with me- he was just walking along talking to two women when I passed him and he started jogging along with me, machete in hand. Once I noticed his big grin I wasn’t quite as terrified, yet still curious. After a few days of brief, 30 yard jogs with me, he decided to stick it out for awhile. We jogged for about 3 km talking about his life and about me and what the crazy running molungo is doing in this little town. I’ve really enjoyed chit chatting with him when I see him around town and out working in the fields. I made a new friend.

Birthday at the beach!

Not my birthday, of course, but I went to Xai-Xai beach for the weekend to celebrate Abby’s (a second year volunteer) birthday. It was a FABULOUS break! I can’t believe I haven’t had a vacation since going to Swaziland back in… April? May? I lost track. Anyways, I got to the beach Saturday morning and it was a fantastically sunny day. And since it’s the middle of winter here, the Mozambicans are too cold to go lie out on the beach/ play in the water so we had the whole place to ourselves. We threw around a football for a bit, got caught by a few rouge** waves, and caught up on the last few months. We made dinner, drank some beers, and had a bonfire on the beach. And another fantastic part of the weekend- I discovered passion fruit. I don’t think I’d ever had one. They are fabulous.

The last month (or two) has/have been pretty trying. I started teaching 8th grade a while back and it was definitely a lot harder than I had imagined it would be. I’d just become comfortable with my 12th graders, and then I threw myself into a whole new world of teaching. First off, during the first two weeks I only taught 1 ½ classes (instead of the 6 I was supposed to teach) because students just didn’t show up. I count the ½ class because I did have 7 students and we played hangman. Secondly, it’s halfway through their third year of English and they didn’t (and still don’t) know present simple tense or the verb to be. I was not prepared for that. Well, after trying to figure out my new schedule (I now teach morning, afternoon, and night), I was able to teach a few lessons and prepare them for the end of the trimester exam. I don’t think they got too much out of my teaching because the average score on the test was 5 out of 20. Ouch. Anyways, these last two weeks of the trimester I’m going to make sure to at least get one or two things into their brains- that’s my goal, however unrealistic it may be.

I can’t say I’ve mastered the art of baking in a dutch oven, but I’m definitely getting some practice in. I’m not sure why I’d never tried it before, but about 2 weeks ago it was the birthday of one of my co-workers and I decided to make him a cake. Unfortunately for him but lucky for me, he got stuck in Xai-Xai and didn’t make it back home for his birthday party. Instead of sharing the cake with co-workers I was able to enjoy it all to myself. Well, I gave about half to my neighbors because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Turns out many more people found out that I actually know how to make cake, and everyone started asking for me to teach them how to make cakes. This inspired me. Since then, every few days I pick out a new recipe and make a cake. So far my favs are coffee cake and double chocolate cake. Next- carrot cake, once I can track down carrots.

Along with picking up cooking, I’ve started sewing. I’ve tailored about 5 shirts and one dress so far (not because I’ve lost/gained weight, instead because clothes get a little/lot stretched out here) and my next project is to make a skirt out of capulana before it gets any hotter. I’ve really enjoyed the cool weather the last few months. I’ve been able to sleep in past sunrise and only one bucket bath a day will suffice. Not only has it been getting hotter lately, the electricity has been getting less and less reliant. It’s a huge pain when I count on my electricity to heat water for coffee or to cook and it goes out for an indeterminate amount of time. I know I should be thankful I have any electricity, it’s just been really difficult lately to count on anything.

little things in life

Sometimes it just takes a smile to make my day. A smile and a flower.

I was walking down the street in Maputo and decided that I wanted to buy myself flowers. Sometimes you just have to, right? Well, being a Peace Corps volunteer I couldn't afford a whole bouquet so I decided to just keep walking. After I got about 10 yards away, the man who was selling the flowers came up behind me and handed me a beautiful blue water lily. He didn't say anything, just smiled at me and walked back to his flowers.

It's beautiful. I love lilies. It's all about the little things in life.

A little variety

I killed 5 different kinds of spiders inside my house the today- one daddy long leg looking guy; a black, small, slow moving guy (he was my favorite, easiest to kill); a typical, large, striped guy; a small jumping spider (they’re all over the place- very common- I hate them); and lastly, a red, light green, and yellow striped leaping spider. Not only did this last one look terrifying, he not only jumped but he leapt around like a frog. Definitely the scariest. It goes without saying I had a nightmare about a giant spider chasing me around, trying to eat me.

Adorable neighbors

The little girl from the brother-sister duo is no longer afraid of me- I’m her new favorite person. I can hear her from yards away yelling “mana Ana! Hello! Hello!” and I see this bouncing child with her little arm furiously waving. Adorable.
I’ve recently taught her to say “bye bye,” so now I hear “Tia Aaaaaaaaaaaana! Helloooooooo! Bye bye!”