Things I plan to do in the United States while I am home:
Use a washing machine and dryer!
Get a haircut
Heat up some food in a microwave
Take a long, hot shower
Go skiing—pray for snow for me!
Drive a car
Dry my hair with a hair dryer
Wash dishes in a sink with running water, or even better in a dishwasher
Eat ice cream (I'm not going to go farther into other foods that I'm craving because this list could go on forever)
Go to the movies!
Sing Christmas carols
Drink hot chocolate by the wood stove
And most of all, see all of my family and friends! Can't wait to see all of you in just a few days!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Exams!
Much of my time here in the last month and a half has been consumed by National Exams in my school. In secondary school (8th-12th grade) students have to do exams twice, once at the end of 10th grade to move onto 11th and again at the end of 12th grade to officially graduate from school. There is a separate exam for each subject. The 10th graders have to do exams in Portuguese, English, Geography, History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. 12th graders usually have to do a maximum of five exams and have more lee-way because they can choose to do one exam over the other. During exam weeks, testing is run from 8am until 6pm. Boy, it is exhausting standing and watching kids take exams for 8 hours a day! The students have two opportunities to pass all of their exams. In the first week of exams they could pass 3 exams and then have to come back and pass the others in the second week of exams which happens a month later.
I was placed in a group with several other teachers correcting the exams of the twelfth grade students. The exams are multiple choice and they are done on scantron sheets. These sheets are USUALLY used because they are quickly corrected by a machine, but we end up correcting and grading them by hand and then the tests get sent to Maputo to correct our errors. Why are the exams not sent to the machines in the first place to save us days of work? I'll never know...
Once the exams are corrected we have to enter all of the grades into a chart to print out, post, and show to the students. Since people have little to no computer skills I have been the one to enter in the grades because something that takes me an hour takes everyone else five, and it's pretty painful to watch.
Most volunteers don't have to participate in this process of exams, but I didn't really insist against it and it is interesting to see how the process goes. Luckily, or obviously, my tenth grade English students did very well on their exams which made me very happy! I practiced sample exams with them for weeks so I was so pleased to see that the preparation paid off! Just one more day of exams and then I'm out of Mozambique and on my way home!
I was placed in a group with several other teachers correcting the exams of the twelfth grade students. The exams are multiple choice and they are done on scantron sheets. These sheets are USUALLY used because they are quickly corrected by a machine, but we end up correcting and grading them by hand and then the tests get sent to Maputo to correct our errors. Why are the exams not sent to the machines in the first place to save us days of work? I'll never know...
Once the exams are corrected we have to enter all of the grades into a chart to print out, post, and show to the students. Since people have little to no computer skills I have been the one to enter in the grades because something that takes me an hour takes everyone else five, and it's pretty painful to watch.
Most volunteers don't have to participate in this process of exams, but I didn't really insist against it and it is interesting to see how the process goes. Luckily, or obviously, my tenth grade English students did very well on their exams which made me very happy! I practiced sample exams with them for weeks so I was so pleased to see that the preparation paid off! Just one more day of exams and then I'm out of Mozambique and on my way home!
The Sound of Music
One thing that is impossible to go unnoticed here in Mozambique, is the Mozambican love for music. Firstly, wherever you are, you can almost always hear some sort of music blaring somewhere. You can seriously be in the middle of a town which has no electricity, in the middle of the night and hear music bumping. Forget running water, cell phones, televisions, and lightbulbs, the Mozambican priority is a sound system complete with large speakers and an amplifier.
Moving off subject, Francelino and I made a trip to his original hometown this weekend, Manjacaze. We hopped on a bus at 6am and took it about an hour north, part way on narrow, dusty, and sandy roads to reach our first stop, his grandmother's house. We stopped at his aunt's house to leave our backpack so we wouldn't have to lug it along on our trip and his cousin accompanied us into the bush! We trekked along for about an hour, stopping to buy a bag of bread along the way. We passed lots of caniço (straw-like) round houses, water wells and pumps, and lots of cashew trees! Manjacaze's landscape is full of cashew trees, with the occasional mango, mafura, coconut, or eucalyptus tree mixed in. We finally arrived at Vovo's (Grandmother in Portuguese) house and she hurried out to greet us. We went and sat in one of her little round houses and, as a family member prepared hot water for us to take bucket baths, we sat and ate a hearty breakfast of tea, bread, cashews, and chicken (which she of course had personally killed for us earlier that day). When you arrive at someone's house here and have been travelling the first thing that they offer you is hot water to take a bucket bath. I have gotten used to this and it's actually really nice because after travelling you are almost always covered in a layer of dust and sweat. The day at her house was relaxing. We ate, took naps, sat outside and talked with her, and Francelino made a video with my digital camera of Vovo talking about her children, grandchildren, and telling stories, which was very entertaining. She wanted to kill a duck to cook for us at about 4pm but we had already eaten so much and had to be on our way to had to decline. She lives way out in the middle of nowhere with just her sister who is also elderly. I have no idea how old she is, nor does anyone, because she can't even tell you the year she was born in, but every day she does to her machamba (fields) and work to cultivate produce like corn, peanuts, tomatoes, and other crops depending on the time of year, amazing!
In the evening we left and went back to his aunt's house. We were welcomed by a group from her church that were sitting outside on grass mats drinking tea. I sat and chatted with them until they went on their way. The rest of the day mostly consisted of taking baths, eating dinner, and finally going to sleep!
On day two we went back to the road and got in a truck to bring us to the center of the village where Francelino's uncle works. He has a salon there where he cuts hair so we found him there and got a little tour of the “downtown” area. I, unfortunately, had drunk a few cups of water the night before and my stomach did NOT like the water there so I had a few hours of frequent bathroom trips and abdominal pain. We later got into another car to take us out to his uncle's house. There were so many people waiting for us! We met several of his aunts and so many cousins! I think there must have been 12 kids under the age of 13 running around. The afternoon was relaxing and we strolled around the area, took lots of pictures of the family, and ate lots and lots of delicious food. Cameras are not super common so we spent hours making videos of the kids dancing or taking pictures and then showing it to them.
All of the houses that we visited are not connected to electricity but two of the tree have a solar panel which charges a battery which they use to charge important necessities like cell phones, and of course to power their sound systems.
My other inspiration for the title of this blog post is that I watched the movie The Sound of Music with Francelino this week and he loved it and that made me really happy.
Moving off subject, Francelino and I made a trip to his original hometown this weekend, Manjacaze. We hopped on a bus at 6am and took it about an hour north, part way on narrow, dusty, and sandy roads to reach our first stop, his grandmother's house. We stopped at his aunt's house to leave our backpack so we wouldn't have to lug it along on our trip and his cousin accompanied us into the bush! We trekked along for about an hour, stopping to buy a bag of bread along the way. We passed lots of caniço (straw-like) round houses, water wells and pumps, and lots of cashew trees! Manjacaze's landscape is full of cashew trees, with the occasional mango, mafura, coconut, or eucalyptus tree mixed in. We finally arrived at Vovo's (Grandmother in Portuguese) house and she hurried out to greet us. We went and sat in one of her little round houses and, as a family member prepared hot water for us to take bucket baths, we sat and ate a hearty breakfast of tea, bread, cashews, and chicken (which she of course had personally killed for us earlier that day). When you arrive at someone's house here and have been travelling the first thing that they offer you is hot water to take a bucket bath. I have gotten used to this and it's actually really nice because after travelling you are almost always covered in a layer of dust and sweat. The day at her house was relaxing. We ate, took naps, sat outside and talked with her, and Francelino made a video with my digital camera of Vovo talking about her children, grandchildren, and telling stories, which was very entertaining. She wanted to kill a duck to cook for us at about 4pm but we had already eaten so much and had to be on our way to had to decline. She lives way out in the middle of nowhere with just her sister who is also elderly. I have no idea how old she is, nor does anyone, because she can't even tell you the year she was born in, but every day she does to her machamba (fields) and work to cultivate produce like corn, peanuts, tomatoes, and other crops depending on the time of year, amazing!
In the evening we left and went back to his aunt's house. We were welcomed by a group from her church that were sitting outside on grass mats drinking tea. I sat and chatted with them until they went on their way. The rest of the day mostly consisted of taking baths, eating dinner, and finally going to sleep!
On day two we went back to the road and got in a truck to bring us to the center of the village where Francelino's uncle works. He has a salon there where he cuts hair so we found him there and got a little tour of the “downtown” area. I, unfortunately, had drunk a few cups of water the night before and my stomach did NOT like the water there so I had a few hours of frequent bathroom trips and abdominal pain. We later got into another car to take us out to his uncle's house. There were so many people waiting for us! We met several of his aunts and so many cousins! I think there must have been 12 kids under the age of 13 running around. The afternoon was relaxing and we strolled around the area, took lots of pictures of the family, and ate lots and lots of delicious food. Cameras are not super common so we spent hours making videos of the kids dancing or taking pictures and then showing it to them.
All of the houses that we visited are not connected to electricity but two of the tree have a solar panel which charges a battery which they use to charge important necessities like cell phones, and of course to power their sound systems.
My other inspiration for the title of this blog post is that I watched the movie The Sound of Music with Francelino this week and he loved it and that made me really happy.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Time for Reflection...
There have been a lot of big and important events that have happened around here lately, but I'm short on time so I'll tell those stories another time and instead reflect on my time already spent in Mozambique. I have now been here for over a year. I arrived in Mozambique on September 29th 2010 and we are almost through October 2011. Time flies. This has really been one of the most interesting years of my life, if not the most interesting. Honestly, when I came here a year ago I didn't know what to expect. I assume it's the same for many Peace Corps volunteers. I was ready to jump into a new job, culture, and environment just for the experience truly not knowing if I would love it or if I would have to force myself to stay for the two years. I have enjoyed life here so much that I am sad that a year has gone by so fast. I feel so well integrated into the community here and it's a really comfortable environment for me. One thing that still bothers me here is racism and descrimination. I feel totally at home in Chongoene. The people all know who I am and I never really feel the difference in the color of my skin. When I go to Xai-Xai or any other city or place where people don't know me, I hate the attention that I get for being white. A lot of the time people assume that I know no Portuguese or local language so they will talk about me and think that I don't hear them. They all assume that I am rich and make other assumptions about me based on the color of my skin. Men always harrass me for my phone number and ask me to take them back to the U.S. with me. These are things that I have gotten used to and do my best to ignore, but it's hard to be completely numb to them.
Despite these challenges I can't complain. My boyfriend's family has really welcomed me into their home. His younger sisters and brothers play with me around the house, and his mom has also really taken a liking to me. I love my job at the school and I love my students. It's great that I have the opportunity to open my students up to new opportunities through the theater or girls empowerment group at my school.
I watch the nightly telenovela on TV with Francelino every night, and I hate when we miss it. I have gotten used to eating rice with every meal and having the same food day after day. I think it would be weird to sleep in a bed without a mosquito net on it and taking a real shower will be pretty strange after 2 a day bucket baths for the last 13 months.
I find myself wanting to stay at site more and more with people from my town. I get less urges to go to the city in search of a pizza or a few hours on the internet (hence the lack of blogs of late...). All in all, I think that I have really settled into the pace of life here. I no longer obsessively check the time like I did in the U.S. although I still do get bothered when people are obnoxiously late.
I might have mentioned this before, but I did decide that I will go home this December to visit my family and friends over the holidays. I think that my transition back to the United States will be a weird one. I might be overwhelmed with 100 TV channels to choose from, the use of cars, and how easy technology makes life. It should be an interesting trip, and although I will miss Mozambique terribly during that time, I can't put a price on being with family for Christmas.
Despite these challenges I can't complain. My boyfriend's family has really welcomed me into their home. His younger sisters and brothers play with me around the house, and his mom has also really taken a liking to me. I love my job at the school and I love my students. It's great that I have the opportunity to open my students up to new opportunities through the theater or girls empowerment group at my school.
I watch the nightly telenovela on TV with Francelino every night, and I hate when we miss it. I have gotten used to eating rice with every meal and having the same food day after day. I think it would be weird to sleep in a bed without a mosquito net on it and taking a real shower will be pretty strange after 2 a day bucket baths for the last 13 months.
I find myself wanting to stay at site more and more with people from my town. I get less urges to go to the city in search of a pizza or a few hours on the internet (hence the lack of blogs of late...). All in all, I think that I have really settled into the pace of life here. I no longer obsessively check the time like I did in the U.S. although I still do get bothered when people are obnoxiously late.
I might have mentioned this before, but I did decide that I will go home this December to visit my family and friends over the holidays. I think that my transition back to the United States will be a weird one. I might be overwhelmed with 100 TV channels to choose from, the use of cars, and how easy technology makes life. It should be an interesting trip, and although I will miss Mozambique terribly during that time, I can't put a price on being with family for Christmas.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
JOMA Handover meeting and the Adventure in Chidenguele
In my previous blog post I had mentioned that I was going to Inhambane to have a meeting with the Moz 14 volunteers to facilitate the handover of jobs and responsibilities to Moz 15 volunteers (my group). In this process, the new group needed to choose who would be responsible for what and hold the coordinator positions (National Coordinator, Financial Coordinator, Regional Coordinators, etc) for the project next year. I really wanted the position of National Coordinator and nobody else seemed to be itching for that responsibility so my peers supported the idea and I will be JOMA National Coordinator for 2012! I am very excited. It's such a great project and I feel honored to have such a big responsibility. I'm eager to get started!
Last weekend Francelino and I went to Chidenguele, a beach town about 60 k north of Chongoene for a little R&R. Once you get to the main road, you have to walk on a dirt road about 8 kilometers to get to the beach. It's also not too hard to hitchhike your way in and since it was a scorching day we decided to do just that. We got a ride from a man who "said" that he was going to the beach, and who then pulled in next to a lake where some of the 2011 African Games were going on. We left the lake area and turned in the direction of the beach. We also asked a few guys if we could get to the beach on that road and they gave us an uneasy yes. In retrospect listening to them was our first big mistake but what did we know!? We had apparently missed the turn for the closest beach in the first car that we were in, which pretty much doomed us for the day. Anyway, we continued on our alternate route and got a ride from a van full of African Kayaking/Rowing athletes competing in the games who were going to another location. We got out there and continued walking. We went up and down and up and down the sandy path and prayed for another car to come and get us. Sure enough a little car picked us up but we didnt make it more than half a kilometer before the car sank down in the sand and we had to get out and push it. We pushed it a little ways until it sank in so far that we had to use the car jack to jack the car up so that it could get out. At this point the driver decided that they should go back the way they came because they were just going to continue to get stuck. We got out and got in a car behind us who drove us to an intersection where he said we could get to the beach. He showed us to the path and said it would be about 2 kilometers farther. We were sweaty, sandy, exhausted, thirsty and hungry and very very eager to make it to our destination! We made it the final two kilometers and I was so happy to finally hear the ocean and make it to the beach! Unfortunately our journey was just getting started. When we made it to the ocean there was not a soul in sight. We had clearly made it to a beach far away from the one where we were supposed to go. Luckily I had a good idea of the direction we had to go in to make it to our destination so we continued on.
We walked and walked and walked and walked... Along the way we passed a few huts up on a hill and some unfinished buildings that we checked out to see if we could find anyone to tell us how far we had to go or give us some water. I have never been so thirsty in my life. We had walked for hours in deep deep beach sand and I was sure that my shoulders, face, and back were quite sunburnt. The ocean water was so tempting to drink but I knew it would only make me thirstier. I was even tempted ro taste the contact solution that I had along but Francelino nixed that idea pretty fast (rightfully so). We stopped a few times (once to take a nap because we were so tired) and I took a dip in the ocean to cool off. I had brought some eggs to make for us in the morning since the place we were staying in was self catered and once when we sat down to rest I sat on my bag and cracked four of the eggs all over my stuff. It was easily the most frustrating part of my day! Finally we saw people in the distance and arrived at a little resort, not our final destination, but at least there was human life, food, and water there. We stopped and ate a big meal and asked about the place we were supposed to stay at. Luckily it was only one more kilometer down the beach so at about 6:30pm we finally made it to our destination. After checking in we showered and pretty much passed out immediately.
The next day was a million times better. The place where we were staying had barely any guests so we really had the place to ourselves. We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the ocean and then we put on our bathing suits to hit the beach. The beach was beautiful and we were really the only ones there. We swam in the water, played frisbee, and rested our poor bodies from the day before. Later on I swam in the pool for a bit and we could see whales swimming in the ocean and jumping into the air! It was so cool to watch and a German man also staying at the same place let us use his binoculars to see.
After lunch we had to head home so we prepared ourselves for the trip back, which turned out to be much shorter. After walking a few kilometers we were picked up by a family from Northern Mozambique in a van. The mother of the family told me she didn't want to pick me up when she saw that I was accompanied by a man, but that her daughter-in-law felt bad for me, haha. Luckily they were headed south to Maputo so they drove us all the way to Chongoene where we only had to find a car to take us the extra 5k home. We didn't even have to pay and she gave me her phone number and told me if ever I make it up north I can give her a call and come visit!
Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday tested our strength physically and emotionally, but we pulled through and had a perfect day at the beach on Sunday. It was a fun and adventurous weekend out of Chongoene for sure.
Last weekend Francelino and I went to Chidenguele, a beach town about 60 k north of Chongoene for a little R&R. Once you get to the main road, you have to walk on a dirt road about 8 kilometers to get to the beach. It's also not too hard to hitchhike your way in and since it was a scorching day we decided to do just that. We got a ride from a man who "said" that he was going to the beach, and who then pulled in next to a lake where some of the 2011 African Games were going on. We left the lake area and turned in the direction of the beach. We also asked a few guys if we could get to the beach on that road and they gave us an uneasy yes. In retrospect listening to them was our first big mistake but what did we know!? We had apparently missed the turn for the closest beach in the first car that we were in, which pretty much doomed us for the day. Anyway, we continued on our alternate route and got a ride from a van full of African Kayaking/Rowing athletes competing in the games who were going to another location. We got out there and continued walking. We went up and down and up and down the sandy path and prayed for another car to come and get us. Sure enough a little car picked us up but we didnt make it more than half a kilometer before the car sank down in the sand and we had to get out and push it. We pushed it a little ways until it sank in so far that we had to use the car jack to jack the car up so that it could get out. At this point the driver decided that they should go back the way they came because they were just going to continue to get stuck. We got out and got in a car behind us who drove us to an intersection where he said we could get to the beach. He showed us to the path and said it would be about 2 kilometers farther. We were sweaty, sandy, exhausted, thirsty and hungry and very very eager to make it to our destination! We made it the final two kilometers and I was so happy to finally hear the ocean and make it to the beach! Unfortunately our journey was just getting started. When we made it to the ocean there was not a soul in sight. We had clearly made it to a beach far away from the one where we were supposed to go. Luckily I had a good idea of the direction we had to go in to make it to our destination so we continued on.
We walked and walked and walked and walked... Along the way we passed a few huts up on a hill and some unfinished buildings that we checked out to see if we could find anyone to tell us how far we had to go or give us some water. I have never been so thirsty in my life. We had walked for hours in deep deep beach sand and I was sure that my shoulders, face, and back were quite sunburnt. The ocean water was so tempting to drink but I knew it would only make me thirstier. I was even tempted ro taste the contact solution that I had along but Francelino nixed that idea pretty fast (rightfully so). We stopped a few times (once to take a nap because we were so tired) and I took a dip in the ocean to cool off. I had brought some eggs to make for us in the morning since the place we were staying in was self catered and once when we sat down to rest I sat on my bag and cracked four of the eggs all over my stuff. It was easily the most frustrating part of my day! Finally we saw people in the distance and arrived at a little resort, not our final destination, but at least there was human life, food, and water there. We stopped and ate a big meal and asked about the place we were supposed to stay at. Luckily it was only one more kilometer down the beach so at about 6:30pm we finally made it to our destination. After checking in we showered and pretty much passed out immediately.
The next day was a million times better. The place where we were staying had barely any guests so we really had the place to ourselves. We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the ocean and then we put on our bathing suits to hit the beach. The beach was beautiful and we were really the only ones there. We swam in the water, played frisbee, and rested our poor bodies from the day before. Later on I swam in the pool for a bit and we could see whales swimming in the ocean and jumping into the air! It was so cool to watch and a German man also staying at the same place let us use his binoculars to see.
After lunch we had to head home so we prepared ourselves for the trip back, which turned out to be much shorter. After walking a few kilometers we were picked up by a family from Northern Mozambique in a van. The mother of the family told me she didn't want to pick me up when she saw that I was accompanied by a man, but that her daughter-in-law felt bad for me, haha. Luckily they were headed south to Maputo so they drove us all the way to Chongoene where we only had to find a car to take us the extra 5k home. We didn't even have to pay and she gave me her phone number and told me if ever I make it up north I can give her a call and come visit!
Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday tested our strength physically and emotionally, but we pulled through and had a perfect day at the beach on Sunday. It was a fun and adventurous weekend out of Chongoene for sure.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Summer is in the air...
As a student in the United States as soon as May comes along you can feel the sun getting stronger and the air getting thicker with the promise of hot summer days. Suddenly kids at school are itching to get out of their seats to be outside or go to the beach and everyone is anxious for summer vacation to kick in! Despite the fact that the seasons are reversed and the school year is therefore on a different schedule, the same feeling is starting to set in here. I only have 9 weeks of school left, which means that I already have 29 weeks behind me! The cool "winter" air is slowly disappearing, the sun is feeling hotter, and those pesky, malaria-carrying mosquitoes are starting to emerge.
Despite the desire for summer vacation to come, things are moving along quite smoothly in Chongoene. My JOMA group (theater) are working on their last performance of the year which is a short play in English that they will perform in an English Theater competition at the end of October. My REDES girls (girls empowerment group) are working hard on producing capulana bags (purses made of local fabric) to sell to generate some income for the group to start new projects with. I am starting to look for financing for a project at my school. The idea for the project is to start raising chickens to then sell the chickens for meat when they are big, or raise egg-laying chickens to sell the eggs later on. Theoretically this would be a project that I would help finance and could continue on in the future, but that's if all works out as it should. It costs about 23(90 cents US) meticais to buy a baby chick and when it is a full grown chicken they sell for 130($4.80) meticais so the school could really benefit from this project if it all goes well.
I have a 4 day weekend this weekend because I am going up to Inhambane for a JOMA handover meeting. The volunteers who arrived the year ahead of me are leaving in November or December so we will have some big organizational meetings and they will hand over all of the responsibilities to us. Should be fun to have a weekend away (and on the beach!).
Despite the desire for summer vacation to come, things are moving along quite smoothly in Chongoene. My JOMA group (theater) are working on their last performance of the year which is a short play in English that they will perform in an English Theater competition at the end of October. My REDES girls (girls empowerment group) are working hard on producing capulana bags (purses made of local fabric) to sell to generate some income for the group to start new projects with. I am starting to look for financing for a project at my school. The idea for the project is to start raising chickens to then sell the chickens for meat when they are big, or raise egg-laying chickens to sell the eggs later on. Theoretically this would be a project that I would help finance and could continue on in the future, but that's if all works out as it should. It costs about 23(90 cents US) meticais to buy a baby chick and when it is a full grown chicken they sell for 130($4.80) meticais so the school could really benefit from this project if it all goes well.
I have a 4 day weekend this weekend because I am going up to Inhambane for a JOMA handover meeting. The volunteers who arrived the year ahead of me are leaving in November or December so we will have some big organizational meetings and they will hand over all of the responsibilities to us. Should be fun to have a weekend away (and on the beach!).
Summer is in the air...
As a student in the United States as soon as May comes along you can feel the sun getting stronger and the air getting thicker with the promise of hot summer days. Suddenly kids at school are itching to get out of their seats to be outside or go to the beach and everyone is anxious for summer vacation to kick in! Despite the fact that the seasons are reversed and the school year is therefore on a different schedule, the same feeling is starting to set in here. I only have 9 weeks of school left, which means that I already have 29 weeks behind me! The cool "winter" air is slowly disappearing, the sun is feeling hotter, and those pesky, malaria-carrying mosquitoes are starting to emerge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)