After concluding our box filling fun on Friday, we were told the inaugural staff meeting of lore would be held Saturday morning. This seemed suspicious, but Luc showed up (Janet wasn’t feeling well), and found himself alone again. Apparently teacher salaries had come in that morning so the others had traveled to the nearest bank in the city to withdraw their pay checks; the school year could wait a few more day. We finally got started on Tuesday (albeit at 11:30am instead of 8:30). The school director began by introducing us to the other teachers. Actually he only introduced Lucas, because Janet was in bed recovering from bacterial dysentery (this is typical here, two of the other teachers were also recovering from malaria and other tropical maladies). Luckily Janet was able to make it to the next day for the community meeting marking the official opening of the school year. This formal event included various speeches by local dignitaries, emphasizing the importance of students actually going to school instead of working in the fields, selling goods in the market, or getting married/having kids at a young age, followed by a lengthy account of enrollment statistics and singing of the national anthem twice, to open and close the event. Afterwards we were invited to join the dignitaries for a lunch at the only formal restaurant in our town. We were told that classes would start the next day, although the school schedule was not finished yet so we didn’t know which grades to prepare for! Apparently students never show up during the first week anyway, so it was not a problem. Now we are expecting to start on Monday with actual teaching, but we’ll see what happens!
Parlez-vous francais?
We did eventually receive our teaching schedules and found out that Luc has a full afternoon of 21 periods per week of 8th and 9th grade English, with Fridays off, and Janet was only assigned 8 periods of Biology because there are more bio teachers and because they wanted her schedule open to teacher computer and run a bunch of extracurricular clubs. But our school is supposed to be teaching French to 9th graders and has never had a French teacher, so Janet decided to volunteer herself for these 10 hours per week. We have no French materials at the school, but our director says he will order a textbook and dictionary soon. It is sort of a joke that the kids learn French, since none of Mozambique’s neighbors are francophone and our students will have virtually no opportunity to ever use the language, but it should be a fun challenge and maybe a chance to teach some French culture. Crepes, anyone?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
First Week of School
The chalk board at our school announced our first staff meeting for 8:30am on Tuesday, January 12. We showed up a little early, excited to see what it would be all about. No one was there, and although a few people trickled in and out, we decided after about an hour that maybe we should try again tomorrow. The next day was dedicated to copying meticulously last year’s lesson plans into this year’s subject matter binders, drawing out the charts with rulers and making duplicate copies with carbon paper. (Some of you might not know what carbon paper is?)This entire assignment, which took the teaching staff two days of work to complete, could have been done in a matter of minutes with the copy and paste functions on a computer! After several tedious hours, the teachers announced they were tired from so much “planning” and we could go home and continue on Friday, since Thursday would be a national holiday to celebrate the re-inauguration of Mozambique’s president. We took advantage of the day off to visit the other two Peace Corps Volunteers in our province who had just returned from vacation with family out of country. We enjoyed the break from site, talking with Americans, baking pizza, and were not in a particular rush to return and fill out more boxes, but we did!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Our Last Week of Vacation
This is the last week of summer break before teachers have to report on the 12th (classes start the 18th) so we have been trying to finish up some projects around the house. These include white washing several rooms with lime to cover the cement patches. We also had to rewire the electricity after one of our sockets started to smoke (this is normal here, don’t worry). We also decorated our new fresh walls with African batiks, pictures from home, and lots of maps (visitors are particularly impressed with the quantity of maps). Our landlords removed their satellite dish from our house (which used to be their house) and moved it so they could watch the upcoming Africa Cup soccer games in Angola. Unfortunately the dish removal left a large chunk of cement missing from the side of our house, which the landlord has promised to fix this week! We also got to give our first lesson to local youth activists at the church with a group of Chilean volunteers. We taught them about HIV transmission and prevention. Another exciting event in our week was our second trip to the neighboring border town in Malawi, where we found our nearest Peace Corps volunteer, who is also a new science teacher at the secondary school. We recognized him immediately because he was white, wearing Chaco sandals and carrying a Peace Corps bag! Once we get bikes, he’ll be about 20 minutes away, so we are pretty excited. Also, he spent last summer working in Yosemite Valley chasing bears, so we have lots in common. In the kitchen, we have been moving beyond our comfort zone of chile beans and spaghetti and experimenting with new local ingredients such as pumpkin, manioc, white sweet potato, various leafy greens and okra. We were also pleased to have some favorite familiar veggies appear suddenly at our market including eggplant (Luc’s favorite), green beans, lettuce and avocados (Janet’s favorite). We have not yet ventured into the dried fish section of the market although our neighbors assure us that when rehydrated and fried it tastes like fresh fish. As we continue to adjust to our new lifestyle, we have been feeling a bit homesick this weekend. Janet in particularly has been having strong food cravings, and even stated she would exchange her dear husband for an American cupcake. So she did the next best thing, which was to bake Mozambican cupcakes, an acceptable substitute!
Backyard Bushwhacking
This Saturday we decided to attempt to summit one of the beautiful granite mountains that stand behind our town. We set out on the path our friend told us about and started to climb. As our elevation rose, we saw the ecosystem change to more lush, overgrown cloud forest. The trees were enormous and the sounds of birds and monkeys permeated the shady magical environment. We were surely the only people on the mountain, although we saw some stick shacks and flags (we later learned that they Nyau brotherhood come stay on the mountain). We scrambled to the top of one of the granite domes and took in the 360 degree views of Mozambique and Malawi. The exhilarating openness of the top was soon forgotten as we descended into the dense forest again. We lost our original trail on the way down, and while we were still on a trail, it had not been maintained for years. The tropical leaves, vines and branches grabbed at our ankles and scratched our arms as we whacked through the overgrowth. We were not lost, as we had a clear view of the valley below but it took us 2 hours to emerge from the bushes, moving very slowly and wishing we had brought a machete! We made it home eventually though and we are already planning our next trip up the mountain, next time with a guide!
Running/Walking in Mozambique
Every evening as the weather cools down and the tropical sun’s intensity diminishes, we like to go in the countryside and get some physical exercise. Sometimes we go on our own, and sometimes we have an entourage of neighborhood kids to escort us. Sometimes we pick up curious people along the way who join us for a while and then disappear. Lucas prefers running and Janet favors quick walking, so we usually split up for about 30 minutes while we carry out our respective workouts. We live just a few homes from the edge of town, so within minutes we are in a landscape of gentle hills covered by cornfields interspersed with large mango trees with continuous views of the surrounding mountains and granite monuments. The soft evening light makes the area's inherent beauty even more spectacular and at first we felt continuous urges to take pictures at every vantage point (although we were told during training not to do this so as not to be perceived as tourists). Since the network of paths cross the Mozambique/Malawi boundary without warning, our evening outings are often international events. Sometimes it is difficult to know which language to greet passer-bys in, English or Portuguese (Good Afternoon or Boa Tarde?) which I why we need to learn Chichewa, which is spoken by both populations. In the rural areas people are often quite surprised to see white people and we receive vary reactions, from running and hiding in the brush to attempts to communicate with us in Chichewa (which we cannot understand, but this doesn’t discourage some people from continuing to try) to the simpler (and universally understood) thumbs up sign. Hopefully we can continue this enjoyable evening routine after the school year starts.
Backyard Bushwhacking
This Saturday we decided to attempt to summit one of the beautiful granite mountains that stand behind our town. We set out on the path our friend told us about and started to climb. As our elevation rose, we saw the ecosystem change to more lush, overgrown cloud forest. The trees were enormous and the sounds of birds and monkeys permeated the shady magical environment. We were surely the only people on the mountain, although we saw some stick shacks and flags (we later learned that they Nyau brotherhood come stay on the mountain). We scrambled to the top of one of the granite domes and took in the 360 degree views of Mozambique and Malawi. The exhilarating openness of the top was soon forgotten as we descended into the dense forest again. We lost our original trail on the way down, and while we were still on a trail, it had not been maintained for years. The tropical leaves, vines and branches grabbed at our ankles and scratched our arms as we whacked through the overgrowth. We were not lost, as we had a clear view of the valley below but it took us 2 hours to emerge from the bushes, moving very slowly and wishing we had brought a machete! We made it home eventually though and we are already planning our next trip up the mountain, next time with a guide!
Running/Walking in Mozambique
Every evening as the weather cools down and the tropical sun’s intensity diminishes, we like to go in the countryside and get some physical exercise. Sometimes we go on our own, and sometimes we have an entourage of neighborhood kids to escort us. Sometimes we pick up curious people along the way who join us for a while and then disappear. Lucas prefers running and Janet favors quick walking, so we usually split up for about 30 minutes while we carry out our respective workouts. We live just a few homes from the edge of town, so within minutes we are in a landscape of gentle hills covered by cornfields interspersed with large mango trees with continuous views of the surrounding mountains and granite monuments. The soft evening light makes the area's inherent beauty even more spectacular and at first we felt continuous urges to take pictures at every vantage point (although we were told during training not to do this so as not to be perceived as tourists). Since the network of paths cross the Mozambique/Malawi boundary without warning, our evening outings are often international events. Sometimes it is difficult to know which language to greet passer-bys in, English or Portuguese (Good Afternoon or Boa Tarde?) which I why we need to learn Chichewa, which is spoken by both populations. In the rural areas people are often quite surprised to see white people and we receive vary reactions, from running and hiding in the brush to attempts to communicate with us in Chichewa (which we cannot understand, but this doesn’t discourage some people from continuing to try) to the simpler (and universally understood) thumbs up sign. Hopefully we can continue this enjoyable evening routine after the school year starts.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Running/Walking in Mozambique
Every evening as the weather cools down and the tropical sun’s intensity diminishes, we like to go in the countryside and get some physical exercise. Sometimes we go on our own, and sometimes we have an entourage of neighborhood kids to escort us. Sometimes we pick up curious people along the way who join us for a while and then disappear. Lucas prefers running and Janet favors quick walking, so we usually split up for about 30 minutes while we carry out our respective workouts. We live just a few homes from the edge of town, so within minutes we are in a landscape of gentle hills covered by cornfields interspersed with large mango trees with continuous views of the surrounding mountains and granite monuments. The soft evening light makes the area's inherent beauty even more spectacular and at first we felt continuous urges to take pictures at every vantage point (although we were told during training not to do this so as not to be perceived as tourists). Since the network of paths cross the Mozambique/Malawi boundary without warning, our evening outings are often international events. Sometimes it is difficult to know which language to greet passer-bys in, English or Portuguese (Good Afternoon or Boa Tarde?) which I why we need to learn Chichewa, which is spoken by both populations. In the rural areas people are often quite surprised to see white people and we receive vary reactions, from running and hiding in the brush to attempts to communicate with us in Chichewa (which we cannot understand, but this doesn’t discourage some people from continuing to try) to the simpler (and universally understood) thumbs up sign. Hopefully we can continue this enjoyable evening routine after the school year starts.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Happy New Year!
Since we had traveled for Christmas, we decided to spend New Year’s day in our site and welcome in 2010 with our Mozambican neighbors and friends. The weather continues to be sunny and summery, not quite congruous with the holiday season, but enjoyable nonetheless. We also received our first visitors to our new home, two Peace Corps Volunteers traveling through to Malawi. We decided to celebrate by attempting to create a Spanish menu out of local ingredients. Our gazpacho and fried peppers got thumbs up, but our tortilla Espanola experienced some technical difficulties (non-stick pans do not exist here). Obviously no manchego cheese, chorizo or olives were available, but it was enough to remind us of all our pleasant memories from summers in Spain!
The local Nyau celebrated the festive season in full costume with a raucous session of exuberant dancing, while channeling various animal forces. We were given chairs front and center so that we could fully experience African culture. Although we have been sleeping before 10pm almost every night here in Africa, we made a special effort to make it to midnight for New Year’s. We regretted not having any types of bomb bags or silly string or fire crackers available for the occasion, but we have no accessible Chinatowns in this region of the world! People made noise instead with drums or any kind of drum like objects, in our case our water buckets, at the stroke of midnight (or our clock-less neighbors best estimates of when midnight should be). People seemed more tired than usual January 1st, but still managed to celebrate with church and soccer. We celebrated by sleeping in!
The local Nyau celebrated the festive season in full costume with a raucous session of exuberant dancing, while channeling various animal forces. We were given chairs front and center so that we could fully experience African culture. Although we have been sleeping before 10pm almost every night here in Africa, we made a special effort to make it to midnight for New Year’s. We regretted not having any types of bomb bags or silly string or fire crackers available for the occasion, but we have no accessible Chinatowns in this region of the world! People made noise instead with drums or any kind of drum like objects, in our case our water buckets, at the stroke of midnight (or our clock-less neighbors best estimates of when midnight should be). People seemed more tired than usual January 1st, but still managed to celebrate with church and soccer. We celebrated by sleeping in!
Merry Christmas from Mozambique
Feliz Dia de Natal! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Even though much of Mozambique is Muslim or Animist, Christmas is still a big deal, although officially it is called the more politically neutral name of ‘dia de familia’ since independence. Our town seems to be predominantly Catholic, judging by how packed the masses are every Sunday, so most people celebrated Christmas at church, which also performed first communions at the ceremony. We however traveled to Sofala province to celebrate with our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers from the central region. This trip entailed several days of travel in each direction – but we took advantage by staying in the regional capitals of Tete and Chimoio along the way and enjoying the amenities of city life, such as running water, pizza, television, and supermarkets to buy specialty products like peanut butter and lentils. We also were lucky to see a family of four hippos cruising down the Zambezi River while taking a walk in Tete city! Due to the limited formal transportation options and the additional travelers during the holidays, we had to hitch hike some legs of our trip, with relative success. Riding in the back of open truck beds can lead to excess sun exposure, but we really enjoy the open views, fresh air, and ability to stretch our legs, as compared to the confined and generally uncomfortable conditions of African buses. We held our Christmas gathering at a Catholic mission school near the Gorongosa National Park. Unfortunately the park is closed during the rainy season, so we were unable to see any of the big animals being reintroduced into the region. It was very nice to see our fellow volunteers and talk about our different sites. Some volunteers are serving in remote areas, especially ones at mission schools, without access to food, markets or electricity/cell phone coverage and in very hot weather with mosquitoes, making us very grateful for our beautiful little town near the mountains. Since we were all a little homesick, we tried to reenact as many Christmas traditions as possible in our foreign setting. We hung stockings that one volunteer sewed for us, listened to carols, played games, watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and attempted to make American type food (burritos, spaghetti, biscuits, pancakes and various types of cookies). We even made our own cheese, tortillas and jam! But even with phone calls from home it was still very difficult being away from family for the first time ever over the holidays, and just doesn’t quite feel like Christmas with so much summertime weather here in the Southern hemisphere. But we have each other and so much more to be grateful for. Next year we will be together!
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