Goooood Mo-ning Tea-cha

So since the first two weeks of school are designated for hard-core Portuguese and Math classes, Helen and I haven’t had much to do (shocking, right?).  Basically, the students only have those two classes everyday so that everyone is pretty much on the same page. This is especially important for the 1^st year kids because they’re coming from lots of different school. And the ones that are having trouble (can’t read, can’t add, etc) will get extra help in the afternoons once normal school starts. So theoretically, this is an awesome plan.

At first, our ped director wanted us to teach some of the math classes….but then, thankfully, he decided that we could just sit in on some of the classes and observe slash work on our Portuguese.  So that’s what we’ve been doing for the past two weeks – attending classes with out students. Plus, we’ve been able to scope out the classes that we’re actually teaching and get to know the kids.  Actually, the boys are hilarious when we walk in. In Mozambique, when a professor enters the room all of the students stand up and say “Bom dia professora” … or if it’s an English class “Good morning teacher.”  So when we try to sneak into a class and sit in the back row to watch, they get flustered and don’t know whether they should address us in Portuguese or English and then there’s a mad dash to find chairs for us. Which generally results in 3 or 4 boys jumping up and yelling at us to come sit in their chair.

So all in all, a pretty laid back week. Can’t complain though!

Oh I almost forgot this. One of the young professors came up to me today and told me that I needed to go to a meeting this morning because I’m on the athletic committee for the school. SO now I’m helping to organize a soccer/basketball tournament, which will serve as a makeshift try-out for the real teams.  And I will eventually be roped into coaching the girls soccer or basketball team. I’m literally praying its soccer…not because I’m good at soccer, but because I’m absolutely horrible at basketball! I’m not joking. Ha!