Mozambican Police Day

It seems like every week here features some sort of national commemorative day. Last week was Mozambican Nurses’ Day; previously we’ve commemorated such days as International Malaria Day, Mozambican Children’s Day, Southern Africa Development Community Day, the passing of the Mozambican Unity Torch, none of which had the stature to command a national holiday, but needed to be celebrated at some level nonetheless. Although we only cancel school for top tier holidays, commemorative days often require the presence of our school administrators and various teachers who also double as local hot-shots in the ruling party. Preparations often monopolize our computer lab and our best computer students for the typing and printing of various official documents with our ever-scarce school toner. Also, at any moment a big-wig could demand some sort of song and dance or theatrical presentation from one of our youth groups, so commemorative days usually end up interrupting our work lives regardless if the official agenda says classes are to proceed as normal. This week we had Mozambican Police Day. As normal the Vice-Principal, who also serves as the Local FRELIMO Chapter Leader, came into the computer lab dressed in his finest, desperately seeking to co-opt typists to digitize various pages of scribbled manuscripts. Luckily we’re between computer classes so the lab was free and we didn’t have to involve ourselves personally in the desperate dash which usually delays whatever ceremony is being planned by at least a couple of hours. Even though school was not canceled, the police and border guard forces challenged us teachers to an afternoon soccer match to commemorate their day. Obviously we all showed up to play the game, and coerced all of our students to come cheer us on, so whatever classes or youth group meetings were scheduled for after 3pm were canceled, except for Janet’s 8th grade biology which she taught despite the commotion from the soccer field tugging away the less disciplined members of her class. We all had fun, who doesn’t enjoy a spontaneous work stoppage with no consequences? The local police chief, who happens to be the roundest and jolliest man in town, took the field for his side, but immediately called for a switch after kicking off the game, which was for the best considering that the size of his belly and the size of his soccer shorts were in no way compatible. Our buddy who was coaching the teacher side took the game way too seriously and wouldn’t let any of our subs into the game until deep into the second half, after we had secured a 2-0 lead despite the crowds chanting to see their American teacher take the field. When Luc finally came in for the last 15 minutes he got big cheers every time he touched the ball, which was only about 5 times, but one of them was a defensive header to clear a corner kick from the goal area, so that got people excited. The police threatened to arrest every teacher on the field for not carrying their official Mozambican ID cards if we didn’t let them score at least one goal, but we didn’t let them, especially when we discovered they had sneaked two Malawian boarder guards onto their team. The next day the teachers lounge was abuzz with stories of our favorite moments from the game, and friendly jabs at those who weren’t running hard enough or could shed a few extra pounds. Luckily as foreigners we’re immune from any critical analysis of our game, the novelty of having a white player on the field being contribution enough to the effort.