A new member of the family

The big news this week is that I got a dog! Last Friday when I came to Xai-Xai I was low on food and planning on stocking up on some necessities, but instead Naa and I ran into a guy who had promised to try to get us dogs. He asked us if we wanted to see some right then so we said, why not? He brought us, in his car, to the house of someone he knew who had two cute black and brown dogs and we jumped on the opportunity and took them. We didn’t even have to pay for them, just for the gas money to bring them home in the car.
So I basically had this dog at my house with me, but no collar, no leash, no food. Time to improvise! I made a collar out of a piece of rope that I had. I then used a carabineer that I had and hooked it onto my clothesline outside to act as a sort of runner and then attached the carabineer to his collar with another rope. He did NOT like the leash and so that set-up didn’t last very long. At their previous house they were only outside dogs and basically roamed free on the property, but apparently were disciplined very well (they were probably hit a lot). I eventually gave up on the leash and just let him hang out. Luckily he seems to be a smart little pup and stays close to the house. He doesn’t chase after people and will stop chasing after pigs and chickens when I yell at him.
He also follows me everywhere, which is super convenient when we go on walks because I never use a leash and he never strays from me, but is a HUGE problem when I need to go places without him. I was travelling to a nearby town on Saturday for a little PCV get together so I had arranged for a teacher at the school to come feed him that night. I tied Baloo up, got my backpack, and left. I got to the chapa stop and 30 seconds later, here comes the dog running to meet me. He had apparently chewed through the rope in record time and chased after me. Luckily the teacher who said he would feed him was around and sat with me at the chapa stop until I got on my way, and then he walked the dog back to the house.
He later told me that after that the dog started following him everywhere, and had a hard time getting rid of him. Since then, he has taken a liking to being inside the house some so he stays inside while I teach at the school and then I come home and let him out when I have breaks. It’s nice to have a little companion around and many Mozambicans are afraid of dogs and think that he bites so I think that he will keep away unwanted visitors.
Things are a little bit more organized at school this week. I finally have curricula for both grades and have the trimester all planned out, although I still don’t know exactly when the trimester ends. I have asked my director three times, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know either.
I was assigned to be “director de turma” for one of the 11th grade classes which means that I am kind of like their home room teacher and if they have any problems, I am the one that they come to. I find it kind of funny because I really don’t know what I’m doing, but I guess I’ll figure it out. I meet with them once a week to give announcements or information from the school directors. I had my first meeting with them Wednesday. I went over the info that I had and then we had a lot of extra time so I taught them how to play 7-up. It was a hit, but they all cheated, oh well.
The kids are very respectful of all of the teachers at the school. At the beginning of every class the kids stand up when the teacher enters and welcome them with this little routine:
Students: “Bom dia Professora” (Good morning teacher)
Teacher: “Bom dia. Como estao?” (Good morning. How are you?)
Students: “Estamos bem de saude, obrigado/a” (We are in good health, thank you)
Teacher: “Eu tambem estou bem. Podem sentar” (I am also well. You can sit.)
Then they sit down and we start the class. It’s pretty fun. They sometimes come take the chalkboard eraser from me and erase the board so I don’t have to. Once I was at the office in another building and some of my students were there and they carried my bag for me on the way to my classroom, which isn’t a weird thing to do here, and I didn’t mind. Also, during my night classes, especially when it’s raining, all the bugs come out and there are a ton of mosquitoes and spiders in the classroom. The kids always tell me if a mosquito is on me or they chase spiders out of the room if they come to close to me when I am teaching. I’m not a huge fan of the 90 minute classes that I have to teach because it just feels like such a long time, but otherwise teaching is going well.
The days are a lot longer now since I get up around 4:30 or 5 and then when I teach at night, I don’t get to sleep until 10:30 or 11, but I’m glad to be busy and I use the afternoons for yard work or washing clothes or cleaning the house. Last Saturday students were asked to come to school with their garden hoes to do some school beautification so around 8 there were a couple hundred kids around hoeing the dirt and cutting the grass. Since my house is right by the school they cut the long grass near my house and in my yard, which was awesome because it was getting really long and I didn’t know what to do about it. My director told me this week that I should have my empregada (maid) clean up my yard and get rid of all the cut grass because otherwise snakes would get in it. Right now she just gets my water for me and I like to be self-sufficient and do the rest of the household chores so yesterday I set out with my rake to clean up the yard. My director saw me out there and brought me a better sturdier metal rake and commented that I was a very hard worker. He said that he was impressed that I clean my own house, wash my own clothes, and do my own yard work. He then said that I am just like an African woman and was just born on the wrong continent. I took that as a big compliment because African women are very hard workers!
Yesterday the Government of Mozambique declared an Institutional Red Alert for the next 60 days because of all the rain we have been getting here in the south. I guess a lot of roads are flooded and they will be closing many roads if the rains continue. Hopefully I don’t get stuck anywhere! Today I’ll have to stock up on some food and stop by the bank for money so hold me over in case they do cut me off from the city.
That’s all for now. Hopefully, if I don’t get cut off from the city, I’ll have another update next Friday.