Teacher's Day 2011

Teacher’s Day this year was jam-packed with activities. Both of us missed the 4am cleaning of the graves of past teachers. Apparently it involved some sort of an alcoholic offering and ceremony. The actual day started late, no surprise to us at this point of our service, but only by about an hour, so that’s actually almost on time for here. Once we got a critical mass of enough teachers to make a respectable showing, we paraded through the twisting pathways that make up our town, all wearing our teachers uniforms through a slight drizzle, calling teachers and students to join as we passed their homes. We caught one of our colleagues in the latrine, so we laughed and teased him until he joined our ranks. Teachers here have lots of songs, so we sang all the way to the praça, students out in front holding the posters they made with pro-teacher slogans, all of us teachers following in a sea of white lab-coat-like outfits.

After all the formalities in the town square we migrated to the football pitch for male and female soccer matches, which we both participated in much to the amusement of our students.

Then we all headed home to get fancied up for the party. Teachers Day is a big deal in Mozambique, especially for us teachers. Several faculty meetings had gone to planning our big party and we even had an organizing committee dedicated to working out the details. One of the main discussion points had been whether to hold the party on actual teachers day, October 12, which was a Wednesday, or postpone it until Saturday. The main fear was teachers would get so drunk they wouldn’t show up the next day to proctor final exams. Apparently many Mozambican schools just cancel classes the day after Teacher’s Day, or even take the rest of the week off, but since we’re a serious school, we all pledged to fulfill our duties, but just in case we set the starting time at 3pm so things wouldn’t get too out of control. Another point of contention was the sound system. Apparently there is no party if there is no sound system, so teachers were upset and threatening to boycott when they heard loud music would be absent. After all the fighting, we did end up with music. Each teacher contributed 500 meticais (about $20 US), which entitled him or her to two plates of food, one soda, and six half-liter beers. Luc decided to invite Janet as his guest, and since he doesn’t drink, Janet was stuck with the hefty task of disposing of all the liquid. She only made it half way through, but we convinced the other teacher’s to let us take the other three home. It was a great party, we got to meet everyone’s family, danced so much, and ate chicken.


It was especially fun to see the kids playing on playground equipment, just recently installed at the venue, our only restaurant in town. Their shining faces made it clear that none of them had ever seen slides or seesaws before. In fact, we’re pretty sure some of the teachers had never seen this before either, as they were playing and grinning too!

We made it home by 10:30pm just in time to beat the first storm of the summer. It really poured, so we felt bad for the teachers that had lingered after us, and the organizing committee that was still cleaning up. The next morning, to our surprise, everyone was on hand for invigilating exams, no one skipped out after the big discussion we’d had.