I had a two week break between semesters so my family came to visit me in Mozambique! I took a chapa down to Maputo the night before their arrival because their plane was arriving at 11, and there was a very slim chance that I could get from my site to the airport in time the next morning. I got up in the morning and tried to kill some time by walking to a little cafe and getting myself a coffee and a croissant. I then took a chapa to the airport and waited oh-so patiently. I have never been so anxious waiting for someone in the airport before! They don't really update the monitors so I didn't even know if their plane had landed and I couldn't even call them since it would be an international call! Finally they emerged through the door with a cart full of suitcases and it was so nice to see their smiling faces again. We quickly exited and hopped into a van to take us to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel we sat outside and had some beers in the sun while we caught up on life. It had been so long since I had seen them that I kept touching their arms periodically to make sure that it was all real.
We spent a couple of relaxing days in Maputo and saw some of my favorite city spots. We visited the open air fish market down the road from the hotel. When you arrive you have people coming up to you to basically take you in as their "customer". A nice woman named Emilia approached me so I chose her as our cook and waitress for the day.You then enter the market and pick out what seafood you want for your meal. They put it in bags right there and give it to you. We got steamers, prawns, and fish. Then you make your way into an open air seating section surrounded by little enclosed rooms where the cooking takes place. Emilia then took our food out back and cooked it while we sat and sipped on our drinks. I had been there before with volunteers and it's a nice place to spend the afternoon, not to mention that the seafood is delicious! We also visited a craft market where I showed them all of the local wooden crafts, jewelry, and other crafts. We spent a lot of time looking around and then worked on haggling down the prices so that my Mom and sister could go home with some nice gifts and souvenirs!
After our days in Maputo we rented a car and zipped up to my site, Chongoene. My Dad did the driving (it's on the left side of the road here) and did a wonderful job driving. We did get stopped by a police officer on our way out of Maputo for a minor confusion in the turning lanes but I apologized profusely in my best Portuguese and she let us go. On the way up to Chongoene we stopped to buy some passion fruit and tangerines, which are so tasty here and the family loved. We also bought some food for the week in Xai-Xai and bought chairs for my house! I only had one chair before this week because that's all that was there when I arrived and I never had an easy way to transport them there from the city before.
The two days we spent in Chongoene were nice and relaxing. We drank coffee on the porch, had a tour of a town, and they spent a good amount of time getting to know my boyfriend, Francelino and his family (more on that in the post below). They got a good taste of life in my town and I think they liked being finally able to see my house and where I had been living for the last 10 months.
After we left Chongoene, we went to Xai-Xai beach which is about a 40 min drive away. We rented a little beach house on stilts and had some more relaxing games full of book reading, card games, walks on the beach, and yummy seafood. It is "winter" here so the weather was around 60-70 degrees, the wind was blowing, and the water was rough so none of us went swimming, although my mother did get drenched once when knocked over by an unexpected wave. (Sorry Mom, I had to mention it). The sun was out the whole week though and all in all, we had beautiful weather.
On Saturday we left the beach and headed back to Maputo. We spent another night in a hotel there and the next morning got in a van to take us to South Africa! The trip took a total of about 5 hours and crossing the border was quick and easy. We got to our hotel in Hazyview called Hippo Hollow. It was a cute little place and we settled in after an early dinner. We had to eat early dinners most nights because you are not supposed to walk around the area at night because hippos roam around and they're super dangerous, seriously. We were picked up bright and early the next morning by our safari guide, Elvis. Elvis drove us about 25 minutes to one of the gates of Kruger National Park where we entered to start searching for animals! We had our eyes peeled from the start (despite the FREEZING weather) and about 5 minutes in I spotted a giraffe with just its neck sticking out from the grass. It was so unreal and exciting! Over the next few days we saw lots of giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, birds, buffalo, warthogs and lots of other cool animals. We also got two awesome close-ups of groups of lions which is harder to see and caught a leopard crossing the road too. On the third day we opted out of the safari since we had seen just about everything and we went water rafting instead. During the summer the rapids there are a class 5 since it's the rainy season. We hit it at a low point and as a result got stuck on lots of rocks, but it was still a fun activity to end a great vacation. While we were in South Africa I also got a haircut (first in a year!...gross..I know) and two pairs of jeans (also first new clothes in a year). Exciting stuff. After Kruger we went down to Johannesburg for a day and then I flew back to Maputo and the family went back to the States. It was sad to say goodbye again but we had a great 2 week vaca and I think everyone was ready to head home at the end of it.
Any other friends and family members are welcome to visit while I am here!!!
And I will be home to visit at Christmas so, USA, see you in 4 months...
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Francelino
So this is a post that I have been meaning to write for a while but have just not gotten around to doing it! For six months now (almost) I have been dating a guy in my town. His name is Francelino, he is Mozambican and is just wonderful! We are the same age and he lives in a house close to mine. He is finishing 12th grade this year, which age-wise is more normal for schools here. He didn't start school at the correct age because the civil war was still going on in Mozambique and it wasn't safe for kids to go out and attend school. We were introduced by Zach, the volunteer who lived in my town before I got there and left just a few days after I arrived. I spend a lot of time at his house and his family has really welcomed me as a daughter. When my parents and my sister visited Mozambique two weeks ago, he met them and his family invited us to dinner for the two nights that we were in Chongoene. It was definitely an interesting cultural experience for all. My parents, sister, and I are the only Americans that they have ever met and they are the only Mozambicans that my family has ever met. We did have to do some 3 language translating which was definitely a first(Francelino's family said something in Changana, their local language, he translated to me in Portuguese, and I translated to my family in English), but overall it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed the company. More on the family's visit to Africa to come in another post!
When I made the decision to go into the Peace Corps, a relationship was the last thing on my mind, but I was certainly very lucky for him to come along. He makes me very very happy and he makes life here and the whole experience so much easier for me.
4th of July Audrey's Visit
Firstly, sorry for being MIA for so long...life has been busy here! Enjoy the new posts!
Usually the 4th of July is a fun-filled day of barbecuing, beer, maybe a parade, and some fireworks. Here in Mozambique, in the company of many America-loving volunteer, we tried to make the day no different. I went up to a town called Inharrime, about 4 hours north of where I live, where some of the volunteers who arrived a year ahead of me were setting up for some 4th of July fun. WhenI arrived everyone was sitting outside decked out in red, white, and blue clothing, eating popcorn, and drinking beer. Good start right? We all mostly hung out outside in the sun chatting and listening to music all afternoon, and it was nice to be around Americans and speak English for an extended amount of time. For dinner they made cheeseburgers and potato salad. Some of the girls had also whipped up some cakes and brownies for everyone and had appropriately made red, white, and blue colored frosting to decorate the cakes with. One was decorated with an American flag and on the other one they made the Peace Corps logo. It was very impressive. At night a bonfire was made...minus the fireworks we came pretty close to having an American 4th of July party right? I certainly thought so!
My friend and fellow volunteer, Audrey made the trek down from Tete (a province far, far away) to meet everyone in Inharrime at the 4th of July celebration. It was the first time that I had seen her since swearing in in December so it was great to finally see her again. Her parents were visiting in the coming weeks so she was making her way down to Maputo, the capital to meet them. We planned to meet up in Inharrime and then she came back to Chongoene with me and spent 3 days at my site. It was great to have an extended visitor! She attended some of my classes and we had a question and answer session with her and my 11th grade classes, which was great. Audrey and I are basically the same height, have similar color hair, and both of our preferred outfits are usually jeans with a black fleece jacket. EVERYONE we met asked us if we were sisters and were shocked to learn that we were not. She got a few marriage proposals from some of my students, which is nothing out of the ordinary in this country for us. My students really seemed to like her and it was nice having company in my house. At the end of the week I took a couple of days off and went down to Maputo to “play” a little but, so I got a nice 4-day weekend out of it. Three other volunteers that we are close with were also there so going out with them and exploring the city was a great time. On Sunday, I dropped her off at the airport and started the journey back to site!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
JOMA!
Above is a picture of me with my students and their certificates from the conference that they attended
I think that I have mentioned before that I have been working with a theater group at the school through a Peace Corps program called JOMA. The weekend before last I had an opportunity to take 8 of the kids from the group to a weekend conference a few hours away. They get everything provided for them (transportation, food, lodging) which is great because most of these kids have little to no money to be able to travel like that. I was so excited to go and the weekend was a blast!!!
There were about 62 kids representing 8 different schools in Maputo and Gaza province there. The weekend was full of sessions educating the students on topics like domestic violence, STDs, HIV/AIDS, puberty, pregnancy, self-esteem, and leadership. The kids were so dynamic in the sessions. I was surprised that even while talking about some of the less comfortable health topics, students always had something to say. There were also two Mozambican health workers there to test people for HIV. The majority of the kids elected to get tested and it was a nice opportunity for them to do the test in a safe place. Many people here are afraid to get tested in their own towns because confidentiality here isn't what it is in the US and people think that everyone in their community will know their status if it comes out positive. Some travel to other health centers farther away, but most don't have the money to do that.
At night we held activities like musical chairs or dances or other team building exercises. The kids all made fast friends with each other and it was a really positive environment for them. So many students here love to perform! Whether it was dance, song, poems, theater, or jokes, every student had something to share and on the last night we held a talent show where each group presented something and a group of the girls put on a beauty pageant (with judges and everything).
I'm pretty sure the kids barely slept all weekend. I know for sure that the first night a group of kids woke up at 4am to play soccer before breakfast and the second night they woke up at midnight to play for a while. The volunteers there (including myself) also barely slept and tried to keep things moving smoothly all weekend.
The women who worked in the kitchen preparing food did the hardest work of the weekend. The first night they cooked 27 chickens for all of us. That includes killing them by hand, plucking them, gutting them, butchering, and finally cooking them. It's hard work! The last night they also cooked two goats for us (and also had to kill, skin, and butcher them personally...it's just how it works here!). The food all weekend was delicious and I had a great time. I also think it inspired the kids in my group to keep up the hard work so that they can have other similar opportunities!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Bom Dia Senhora Professora
"Bom dia Senhora Professora!" or "Good Morning Teacher!" is how I am greeted by all of the students (in unison) when I walk into any classroom. It's actually a really nice way to start off a class and can sometimes be a nice pick-me-up on a tiring day.
So for the blog post this week I have decided to give a brief explanation about how the school system here works:
There are two levels of schools here. There is primary school which is 1st-7th grade and secondary school which is 8th-12th grade. School is also not free. The high school kids had to pay about 550 mets for the year which is about 15 dollars US. It doesn't seem like a lot of money to us, but for Mozambicans it really is. I know a couple of students who are doing night school now because years ago they had to stop going to school so that a sibling would go to school. In his family the kids took turns attending school for a couple of years at a time because the family could only pay for one child to go to school each year. He is now 27 years old and is in the 11th grade. This happens a lot so I have many 10th,11th, or 12th graders who are 21, 22 or even 25 years old.
The grading system here is also very different. All of their grades are out of 20 points and a 10 is passing. Yes, 50% is passing, and still SO many students fail every exam. I corrected a 12th grade chemistry exam that I gave last week and out of 25 kids I had ONE student pass and I'm pretty sure he guessed on all of the answers (it was multiple choice). The school likes to see a passing rate of around 70-80% per discipline, but there are some teachers with a passing rate of as low as 30%.
Another issue is that the schools are not completely honest with what they do with the money. For example, in this years matriculation fees for the kids, it included money for their exams. You have to pay for every piece of paper printed or copied at the school since the school has no money. Every time I want to give a test I have to collect 1 or 2 mets from each kid to give them their test. (Someone suggested that as a volunteer I should pay for the tests for my kids,but I currently have about 745 students so for a two page test I have to collect 1490 mets) and I only get paid 6700 per month so it ends up being a big chunk out of my living allowance). Supposedly the kids paid their test money at the beginning of the school year and then the school just decided to use it for something else...
The school also uses a chunk of the money to pay a bakery to send a bread truck to the school every day to bring bread for the kids...but the kids then have to buy the bread when it is sent to the school...so it's like the kids pay twice for the bread...
Students here have a HUGE problem with cheating. I think that they think it's the only way for them to pass and many teachers let it go so the kids learn that they can get away with it. They get pretty upset when I give them zeroes on their exams for using their notebooks or cheat sheets, but they have to learn! They also talk all the time to each other during tests and there are so many of them that it's hard to control. My newest and most successful strategy is that if I catch a student talking to a friend I take 2 points off of their test and make them sit on the ground at the front of the classroom for the rest of their test. Mozambicans HATE getting dirty and the floor is always dirty or dusty and it's also cement which is not super comfortable to sit on.
The students are required to come to school 20 minutes before school starts, line up in front of the school, and sing the national anthem every day. I also am required to be there and have to stand in front of the students with the other teachers and sing (so I now know all of the words). The students are also responsible for keeping their classroom clean so every day before school they have to sweep the classroom. The class that I am responsible for borrows the broom from my house every morning, and many other classes pool together money to buy a class broom and a class eraser for the blackboard because it is not provided by the school. The students are also responsible for keeping the school grounds clean so every other Saturday all of the students are required to be at the school in the morning with their garden hoes or rakes to clean the school grounds.
I'm sure that I am forgetting to include all sorts of other interesting tidbits about the school system but that's all I have for now.
Here are some other interesting things that have happened to me this week:
-On my way here my shoe completely broke. What was I supposed to do with one shoe in the middle of town?! Luckily Xai Xai has many cobblers who re-sole and fix shoes so a guy across the street called me over and fixed my shoe in about two minutes. He also probably could have charged me anything for it since I was shoe-less but it was only 10 mets(30 cents)!
-My dog has been killing chickens/chicks that belong to my neighbors and even though I try to stop him/hide the evidence, they (very nicely) confronted me this week and asked me if I could keep him tied up at night. Thank God they like me.
-They built a KFC in XaiXai (I can't remember if I mentioned this) and it opened about 2 weeks ago. It is also a drive through and the only drive through that I have seen in Mozambique. There is a guard outside who instructs people on how to go through the drive-thru since most people have never used one before haha. ALSO since they drive on the other side of the road here, the drive-thru also goes the opposite way around the building....
That's all I've got for now...until next week...
So for the blog post this week I have decided to give a brief explanation about how the school system here works:
There are two levels of schools here. There is primary school which is 1st-7th grade and secondary school which is 8th-12th grade. School is also not free. The high school kids had to pay about 550 mets for the year which is about 15 dollars US. It doesn't seem like a lot of money to us, but for Mozambicans it really is. I know a couple of students who are doing night school now because years ago they had to stop going to school so that a sibling would go to school. In his family the kids took turns attending school for a couple of years at a time because the family could only pay for one child to go to school each year. He is now 27 years old and is in the 11th grade. This happens a lot so I have many 10th,11th, or 12th graders who are 21, 22 or even 25 years old.
The grading system here is also very different. All of their grades are out of 20 points and a 10 is passing. Yes, 50% is passing, and still SO many students fail every exam. I corrected a 12th grade chemistry exam that I gave last week and out of 25 kids I had ONE student pass and I'm pretty sure he guessed on all of the answers (it was multiple choice). The school likes to see a passing rate of around 70-80% per discipline, but there are some teachers with a passing rate of as low as 30%.
Another issue is that the schools are not completely honest with what they do with the money. For example, in this years matriculation fees for the kids, it included money for their exams. You have to pay for every piece of paper printed or copied at the school since the school has no money. Every time I want to give a test I have to collect 1 or 2 mets from each kid to give them their test. (Someone suggested that as a volunteer I should pay for the tests for my kids,but I currently have about 745 students so for a two page test I have to collect 1490 mets) and I only get paid 6700 per month so it ends up being a big chunk out of my living allowance). Supposedly the kids paid their test money at the beginning of the school year and then the school just decided to use it for something else...
The school also uses a chunk of the money to pay a bakery to send a bread truck to the school every day to bring bread for the kids...but the kids then have to buy the bread when it is sent to the school...so it's like the kids pay twice for the bread...
Students here have a HUGE problem with cheating. I think that they think it's the only way for them to pass and many teachers let it go so the kids learn that they can get away with it. They get pretty upset when I give them zeroes on their exams for using their notebooks or cheat sheets, but they have to learn! They also talk all the time to each other during tests and there are so many of them that it's hard to control. My newest and most successful strategy is that if I catch a student talking to a friend I take 2 points off of their test and make them sit on the ground at the front of the classroom for the rest of their test. Mozambicans HATE getting dirty and the floor is always dirty or dusty and it's also cement which is not super comfortable to sit on.
The students are required to come to school 20 minutes before school starts, line up in front of the school, and sing the national anthem every day. I also am required to be there and have to stand in front of the students with the other teachers and sing (so I now know all of the words). The students are also responsible for keeping their classroom clean so every day before school they have to sweep the classroom. The class that I am responsible for borrows the broom from my house every morning, and many other classes pool together money to buy a class broom and a class eraser for the blackboard because it is not provided by the school. The students are also responsible for keeping the school grounds clean so every other Saturday all of the students are required to be at the school in the morning with their garden hoes or rakes to clean the school grounds.
I'm sure that I am forgetting to include all sorts of other interesting tidbits about the school system but that's all I have for now.
Here are some other interesting things that have happened to me this week:
-On my way here my shoe completely broke. What was I supposed to do with one shoe in the middle of town?! Luckily Xai Xai has many cobblers who re-sole and fix shoes so a guy across the street called me over and fixed my shoe in about two minutes. He also probably could have charged me anything for it since I was shoe-less but it was only 10 mets(30 cents)!
-My dog has been killing chickens/chicks that belong to my neighbors and even though I try to stop him/hide the evidence, they (very nicely) confronted me this week and asked me if I could keep him tied up at night. Thank God they like me.
-They built a KFC in XaiXai (I can't remember if I mentioned this) and it opened about 2 weeks ago. It is also a drive through and the only drive through that I have seen in Mozambique. There is a guard outside who instructs people on how to go through the drive-thru since most people have never used one before haha. ALSO since they drive on the other side of the road here, the drive-thru also goes the opposite way around the building....
That's all I've got for now...until next week...
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
I apologize for going SO long without an entry here. Here are the more interesting things going on in my life:
Last Saturday we had a mandatory teachers meeting at the school. I was a little annoyed about it because I was only informed about it on Friday, but oh well. The meeting was supposed to start at 8:30 and teachers were encouraged to get there at 7:30 to work on lesson plans with other teachers of the same discipline. Not wanting to be the only one hanging around at 7:30, I tidied up my house and arrived in Mozambican fashion at 8. I met with some of the other English teachers to talk about the curriculum and challenges that we were having in the classroom and I met with the other chemistry teacher to coordinate our lessons.
The meeting ended up starting at 9:40 (surprise, surprise!). We start every school day with the singing of the Mozambican national anthem so we also kicked off the meeting with the national anthem as well, which I thought was kind of funny, but they took it very seriously. The director and the assistant directors of the school each spoke about what would go on at the meeting. The meeting was basically called to assess and discuss the results and grades from the first trimester. Each teacher for each class is required to calculate their passing rate so for each grade the subject with the highest passing percentage and lowest passing percentage was read off and the teachers were called on to explain what happened either positively or negatively. Luckily my classes of English and Chemistry were not on the top, nor on the bottom for each grade so I wasn't put in the hot seat. Oh and when I say "low passing rate" I'm referring to 25-30%, yes, THAT low. It's a problem.
On the up side, we had been told in training about how lots of teachers and schools change the grades of their students to look better on paper to the government and to therefore receive more funding. I was very impressed at this meeting to hear the teachers stand up and justify failing their students and refusing to change the grades. It's true that there are a lot of kids here who just don't care about their grades and just don't study at all and deserve to fail. I was impressed that the teachers stood up and said that the kids deserved the grades that they got instead of breaking under the pressure of the superiors. Some even accused other teachers with high passing percentages of changing grades.
There is also a problem with illiteracy in the school. In primary school (1st-7th grade), the kids are never held back. They can fail all of their subjects, but will ultimately still move onto the next grade. Therefore, if kids aren't taught well and are just passed along, some kids go through the system without really learning to read and write. Luckily I don't run into these problems since I only teach 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, but I can definitely see how challenging that would be for the 8th grade teachers.
There were about 30 teachers at the meeting and maybe 8 or 9 of them really guiding the discussion about challenges and passing percentages, but of course about halfway through the meeting the director felt the need to call me out and ask me if I wanted to contribute something. Up until that point I truly had nothing to contribute, but I decided that I really should say something so I ended up bringing up some issues that I and the other teachers have been having with night classes. It's one thing talking in front of a group of kids in somewhat gramatically incorrect Portuguese, but it's a bit more intimidating doing it in front of 30 of my colleagues, but I survived. I even made a joke and they all laughed---SUCCESS!
The meeting lasted about 3 hours, but it was all really important stuff and I was able to keep up with all of it in Portuguese which was nice. It was also nice to spend more time with the other teachers and I definitely have a more friendly relationship with them now.
Classes are all going well. I absolutely love teaching English--especially for the benefit of those kids who really want to learn. One of my 10th graders lives at the Catholic missionary church in my town with other students who will enter the seminary in Maputo after 10th grade. He constantly asks me for help and stays after school once or twice a week to practice his English with me in conversation or he will read a book in English out loud so that I can help him with his pronunciation. He is just so adorable and really really wants to learn English.
Also my 11th grade English classes had to write a skit to perform in class this week that had to do with fashion and clothing (because we just learned all of that vocabulary). One of my classes asked if they could come in on Saturday to perform it because they didn't think they would have enough time to do a good job during class on Friday. What kind of high school kids ASK to come to school on a Saturday? When I announced it to the class that it would take place on Saturday a bunch of them stood up and started cheering...crazy kids.
That's all for now--more updates (and pictures) coming soon!
Last Saturday we had a mandatory teachers meeting at the school. I was a little annoyed about it because I was only informed about it on Friday, but oh well. The meeting was supposed to start at 8:30 and teachers were encouraged to get there at 7:30 to work on lesson plans with other teachers of the same discipline. Not wanting to be the only one hanging around at 7:30, I tidied up my house and arrived in Mozambican fashion at 8. I met with some of the other English teachers to talk about the curriculum and challenges that we were having in the classroom and I met with the other chemistry teacher to coordinate our lessons.
The meeting ended up starting at 9:40 (surprise, surprise!). We start every school day with the singing of the Mozambican national anthem so we also kicked off the meeting with the national anthem as well, which I thought was kind of funny, but they took it very seriously. The director and the assistant directors of the school each spoke about what would go on at the meeting. The meeting was basically called to assess and discuss the results and grades from the first trimester. Each teacher for each class is required to calculate their passing rate so for each grade the subject with the highest passing percentage and lowest passing percentage was read off and the teachers were called on to explain what happened either positively or negatively. Luckily my classes of English and Chemistry were not on the top, nor on the bottom for each grade so I wasn't put in the hot seat. Oh and when I say "low passing rate" I'm referring to 25-30%, yes, THAT low. It's a problem.
On the up side, we had been told in training about how lots of teachers and schools change the grades of their students to look better on paper to the government and to therefore receive more funding. I was very impressed at this meeting to hear the teachers stand up and justify failing their students and refusing to change the grades. It's true that there are a lot of kids here who just don't care about their grades and just don't study at all and deserve to fail. I was impressed that the teachers stood up and said that the kids deserved the grades that they got instead of breaking under the pressure of the superiors. Some even accused other teachers with high passing percentages of changing grades.
There is also a problem with illiteracy in the school. In primary school (1st-7th grade), the kids are never held back. They can fail all of their subjects, but will ultimately still move onto the next grade. Therefore, if kids aren't taught well and are just passed along, some kids go through the system without really learning to read and write. Luckily I don't run into these problems since I only teach 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, but I can definitely see how challenging that would be for the 8th grade teachers.
There were about 30 teachers at the meeting and maybe 8 or 9 of them really guiding the discussion about challenges and passing percentages, but of course about halfway through the meeting the director felt the need to call me out and ask me if I wanted to contribute something. Up until that point I truly had nothing to contribute, but I decided that I really should say something so I ended up bringing up some issues that I and the other teachers have been having with night classes. It's one thing talking in front of a group of kids in somewhat gramatically incorrect Portuguese, but it's a bit more intimidating doing it in front of 30 of my colleagues, but I survived. I even made a joke and they all laughed---SUCCESS!
The meeting lasted about 3 hours, but it was all really important stuff and I was able to keep up with all of it in Portuguese which was nice. It was also nice to spend more time with the other teachers and I definitely have a more friendly relationship with them now.
Classes are all going well. I absolutely love teaching English--especially for the benefit of those kids who really want to learn. One of my 10th graders lives at the Catholic missionary church in my town with other students who will enter the seminary in Maputo after 10th grade. He constantly asks me for help and stays after school once or twice a week to practice his English with me in conversation or he will read a book in English out loud so that I can help him with his pronunciation. He is just so adorable and really really wants to learn English.
Also my 11th grade English classes had to write a skit to perform in class this week that had to do with fashion and clothing (because we just learned all of that vocabulary). One of my classes asked if they could come in on Saturday to perform it because they didn't think they would have enough time to do a good job during class on Friday. What kind of high school kids ASK to come to school on a Saturday? When I announced it to the class that it would take place on Saturday a bunch of them stood up and started cheering...crazy kids.
That's all for now--more updates (and pictures) coming soon!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
End of the first trimester and Reconnect conference in Maputo
The last few weeks have really flown by!
The week before last was the last week of the trimester. This meant that I had to finish up evaluating my students and calculate and submit all of their grades by Friday. For many people, this is work, but not too time consuming. Compared to other volunteers and many other teachers at my school, I teach A LOT. I have 600 students and to evaluate them, correct exams, and calculate grades for that many kids in a week is a real challenge.
The other 11th grade English teacher volunteered to write the 11th grade final English test if I would write the 10th grade one in an attempt to split up the work and make it easier for each other. I said that was fine, but made it very clear that the test MUST be printed and in my hand on Monday morning so that I could evaluate my 3 sections of 11th grade English.
I sent him a text message on Sunday night to remind him of this, but low an behold, first period on Monday morning he was nowhere to be seen. I called him right away and he told me that he had arranged the periods with other teachers to be able to give exams to all five of the 11th grade classes at the same time. We would be giving the test at 9am and he would arrive at 830. I was a little bit annoyed because I was at school bright and early at 6:45 and would have to hang around doing nothing until 9, but I acceped it.
By 9:10, he still had not arrived and I was starting to get somewhat ticked off. I called him and....he was still at home. He promised to be on his way and still come in and although I waited until noon for him to show up, he never arrived. Needless to say, I will be writing all of my English exams on my own from now on. I slept little during the week and spent most of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning correcting, grading, correcting, grading and finally finished Friday afternoon so that I could head out to Maputo the next morning.
This past week we had a big conference in Maputo. After 3 (or 4) months of being at site all volunteers have in service training in their area of work. My conferece was with 16 other education volunteers from the southern provinces of Mozambique. Peace Corps pays for cute little hotel rooms for us and meals are all provided to us which is a really nice treat for us. Ans we got to take showers!!! This was my first hot shower in 4 1/2 months so you bet I enjoyed it. The first day of the conference was really nice. We each gave 10-15 minute presentations about our experiences about our respective sites and it was so interesting to hear about the similar and different experiences that the other volunteers were having.
For dinner on the first night we had salad and LASAGNA and veggies, chicken, and CHOCOLATE PUDDING. Okay, so that probably sounds pretty normal to you, but that was the most exciting meal that I had eaten in 4 1/2 months. Unfortunately either that meal or the next one had something in it that was out to destroy my body because the next two days of the conference I spent in my bed with a fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pains. The fever subsided after a day, but my two roommates and I there have been suffering from abdominal pains and intestinal problems ever since.
The doctor here said it was just food poisoning which is unfortunate because I have been waiting to eat ice cream and food variety forever and when I finally have it, I can't eat it!
I was planning to visit my host family from training in Namaacha which is only an hour and a half away from here for a couple of days, but I decided to go home tomorrow instead and spend the weekend at home in my bed recovering.
All is well and it was so much fun to visit with the other volunteers in the South. It will be nice to start a new semester fresh with my students on Monday and I bought some speakers in Maputo so I can play my English classes some American songs to learn! Any suggestions???
The week before last was the last week of the trimester. This meant that I had to finish up evaluating my students and calculate and submit all of their grades by Friday. For many people, this is work, but not too time consuming. Compared to other volunteers and many other teachers at my school, I teach A LOT. I have 600 students and to evaluate them, correct exams, and calculate grades for that many kids in a week is a real challenge.
The other 11th grade English teacher volunteered to write the 11th grade final English test if I would write the 10th grade one in an attempt to split up the work and make it easier for each other. I said that was fine, but made it very clear that the test MUST be printed and in my hand on Monday morning so that I could evaluate my 3 sections of 11th grade English.
I sent him a text message on Sunday night to remind him of this, but low an behold, first period on Monday morning he was nowhere to be seen. I called him right away and he told me that he had arranged the periods with other teachers to be able to give exams to all five of the 11th grade classes at the same time. We would be giving the test at 9am and he would arrive at 830. I was a little bit annoyed because I was at school bright and early at 6:45 and would have to hang around doing nothing until 9, but I acceped it.
By 9:10, he still had not arrived and I was starting to get somewhat ticked off. I called him and....he was still at home. He promised to be on his way and still come in and although I waited until noon for him to show up, he never arrived. Needless to say, I will be writing all of my English exams on my own from now on. I slept little during the week and spent most of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning correcting, grading, correcting, grading and finally finished Friday afternoon so that I could head out to Maputo the next morning.
This past week we had a big conference in Maputo. After 3 (or 4) months of being at site all volunteers have in service training in their area of work. My conferece was with 16 other education volunteers from the southern provinces of Mozambique. Peace Corps pays for cute little hotel rooms for us and meals are all provided to us which is a really nice treat for us. Ans we got to take showers!!! This was my first hot shower in 4 1/2 months so you bet I enjoyed it. The first day of the conference was really nice. We each gave 10-15 minute presentations about our experiences about our respective sites and it was so interesting to hear about the similar and different experiences that the other volunteers were having.
For dinner on the first night we had salad and LASAGNA and veggies, chicken, and CHOCOLATE PUDDING. Okay, so that probably sounds pretty normal to you, but that was the most exciting meal that I had eaten in 4 1/2 months. Unfortunately either that meal or the next one had something in it that was out to destroy my body because the next two days of the conference I spent in my bed with a fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pains. The fever subsided after a day, but my two roommates and I there have been suffering from abdominal pains and intestinal problems ever since.
The doctor here said it was just food poisoning which is unfortunate because I have been waiting to eat ice cream and food variety forever and when I finally have it, I can't eat it!
I was planning to visit my host family from training in Namaacha which is only an hour and a half away from here for a couple of days, but I decided to go home tomorrow instead and spend the weekend at home in my bed recovering.
All is well and it was so much fun to visit with the other volunteers in the South. It will be nice to start a new semester fresh with my students on Monday and I bought some speakers in Maputo so I can play my English classes some American songs to learn! Any suggestions???
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