Things continue to roll along smoothly at my school in Chongoene. I came to the realization this week that I really feel comfortable and am much more integrated into the community. I came to this conclusion in the following way. When I first got to site and would walk around my village to cure some of my boredom, most people just gawked at me and didn't really talk to me. After a couple of weeks people started to greet me in the street, but without much recognition or extended conversation. Now, I am greeted with warm smiles, and "Bom dia senhora professora". People invite me to sit down with them for tea or a meal; they want to talk with me and teach me their local language; and I am greeted with waves and smiles of recognition because now everyone knows who I am. It's a really good feeling. This weekend I had to turn down invitations to hang out with people TWICE because I already had plans, that's a first.
On Thursday afternoons three of my 12th grade girls have started to come to my house while they wait a few hours for gym class to start. The first week we just chatted and they shared their lunch food with me. The second week I also made food for them, we painted our nails, and I showed them my American magazines which they lovedddd. It's a fun exchange of cultures and I hope they continue to come to hang out.
The onlyyyy tricky thing is that people are also comfortable with me so they invite themselves over to my house for meals. Since it's just me at home I don't eat the most lavish meals. I usually stick to a banana or pineapple at breakfast (or oatmeal if I have it), for lunch or dinner I'll make a little soup, maybe some rice or pasta or beans, but it's always very simple. Having guests at my house means I have to really cook! Now I try to stay on my game at all times and keep different food in the house to whip up in case I have an unexpected visitor!
I always get asked here if I am married or have a boyfriend and people are literally SHOCKED to hear that I am not. Then of course they ask why? (What's wrong with you?) Haha, and then we inevitably get into a long discussion about how they think I should really get a Mozambican boyfriend and then take him back to the US with me when I leave. I think people are surprised that I'm single also because people here think that I'm a lot older than I am, which is probably because my level of education is really high for my age (compared to people here). I've had three students or friends ask me how old I am in the last week and when I let them guess their guesses were 28, 28, and 30. Yikes!
Anyway, on Valentine's day yesterday, I received three flowers from students and some cookies so that was exciting. In my time here I've also had several students or men in my village come to my house and literally beg me to be their girlfriend, which is always an awkward situation, but I think I'm getting pretty good at turning them down.
Tomorrow there are no classes at the school because it is the anniversary of the school's opening so we just have a party all day! Apparently it starts with a big soccer game and then the students perform dances, music, theatre, and we have lots of food and alcohol. Sounds like it should be a good time. I heard some professors talking about having some of the students stay this afternoon after school to help prepare the alcohol(they make it themselves out of a certain fruit here) and kill and pluck the chickens. The school really holds the students responsible for taking care of their school. The kids have to sweep their classrooms out every morning and are often ordered to come to the school on Saturdays with their hoes and machetes to cut the grass and keep the school grounds looking nice.
The first week of school a student interrupted my class to make an announcement that went something like this, "The gym teacher would like you all to report to the soccer field tomorrow at 2:00 with your hoes." I really got a kick out of that. The first week of school instead of having gym class the kids had to hoe the field and cut the grass, rough.
The school wants me to start to teach computer technology classes soon which should be fun, except that they want me to follow the curriculum, which just isn't going to happen. We are starting with 12th grade. Some of these kids have barely any experience with computers and the 12th grade curriculum teaches Microsoft Access, databases, and programming languages....yeah, like that's going to happen.
The dog is still healthy, as am I. Time to do some errands and then get back to my school for a meeting this evening.