The Thunta (Toon-ta) Walk

I feel like I rave about my school on a regular basis – we Dom Bosco is amazing and super progressive compared to the majority of Mozambican schools. Our school, which is Salesiano mission school, is very focused on “forming” our students into responsible community members and well rounded people.  That might sound like a normal high school in America, but here, where the majority of schools have teachers that just don’t show up and are where is often found in the highest authority figures….well, it’s kind of a big deal.  We have program for deaf students (and students who don’t speak) where my classes are signed as I speak.  Our students are constantly pressured to be professional looking and punctual (I can now pick out students who haven’t brushed their hair, kick out students who have their shirts untucked, and have had students sent home for the day because they showed up 2 minutes late to our morning assembly.  On the other “non-discipline” hand, our school is hella fun. We have random soccer tournements and basketball games between students and professors. We play chess and eat cookies during our morning interval (these kids just discovered chess, slash are obsessed with it). Anyways. I’m rambling. What I was getting at is that when our director asked if I would come on a “field trip” one Friday in May, I responded “um. Absolutely” (Oh and ps May is the “month of Mary” ---- rememeber, Catholic mission school --- so we have all kinds of crazy activities planned).

They told me that we were just going to “passear” (which means “walk” …. But its kind of leisurely, social type of walk). Easy! I did start to wonder if I should worry when my boys started asking “Teacher, vai passear con nosco?” (Teacher, will you walk with us?). “Sim, claro!” (Yes, of course!).  “Mais…..Teacher, vai consiger?” (But….. teacher, will you make it?) ……….. thanks for the encouragement guys.  I was like, shoot! Its just walking, how hard can it be!? If you’re not running or walking up a mountain, it cant be thatttt bad.  Well then I fould out that only like 9 teachers were actually going on this little walk.  Still, I wasn’t really concerned.

So Friday morning rolls around, and we all have to meet at school at 6 am – with a packed lunch and lots of water. Done. Then we take off towards the Zambezi river.  This is when I started to worry. These boys were doing what can only be described as power walking. And we were moving! We stopped about 3 k into the walk to stop and take roll and whatnot. Which is also when my students noticed that my face was BRIGHT red (my face turns red when I work out, shocking).  Apparently to a bunch of teenagers whose faces literally can’t turn red, this was, in fact, shocking.  Actually, one time my face turned bright red when I got really angry at one of my turmas (they were being punks) and they freaked out and started fanning me and told me to stop crying. So after I clarified that I was not angry, and that my face also turns red when I exercise (particularly in the heat of Tete), we continued on towards Thunta. 

I need to clarify that Thunta (as lovely as it is) is in the mato (bush). And therefore, the walk to Thunta is a little…..rough. So there we were, just cruising down a dirt “path” …. 300 students, 10 teachers, extreme heat. Oh, and a significant part of the path was sand –which, is super pleasant and easy to walk through in tennis shoes. Not.

After we had been walking for about 2 hours, I started dragging my feet a little. Luckily, I had one of my second year auto mechanics with me – Omar – and we were walking buddies. Omar is legit a full foot taller than any other student in our school and has one of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen. Helen and I call him the gentle giant. And (this is the best part), his best friend is the shortest kid in the entire school. We regularly have to tell Omar to put Aurenlio down because he just throws him over his shoulder. 

Around 2 hours and 45 minutes, we finally made it to Thunta.  The bustling metropolis of Thunta consists of about 25 mud huts, a few farms, and a small Church on the bank of the river.  We sat down and rested for a while… I was legit tired and had some serious blisters forming on my feet. (I tried to mentally will my face back to its normal white self – which gets enough attention when its NOT red). Two of the Padres came with us and gave Mass in the little church – which included some sweet drum music, students giving the readings, and more aisle dancing (2 for 2 makes me think that’s normal).  Then we ate lunch, had a little assembly, and everyone was like “welp, lets head back” (are you kidding me?! We just walked 15 kilometers to eat lunch, go to church and walk back?!) For a while Helen and I though maybe there was a car somewhere we could get in – but then one of the Padres laughed at that…..so no-go on the ride home.  This is clearly why these boys were asking if we would make it!

So totally dreading the return trip, Omar and I started waking near the back of the pack. About 30 minutes in, some of the guys started asking if I was tired. Yes of course I’m tired. We’ve been walking forever!! So they said they could fix this problem. A pack of about 8 of them surrounded me, took both of my hands, and said that we were going to run like snakes were chasing us (they know I hate snakes). So. We took off running (and screaming and waving our arms and laughing hysterically) and passed the majority of the other kids.  And once you’re in the front of the pack, well, you can’t really slow down! Another one of my favorite kids showed up, and they started singing the “teacher Carolina” song (which consists of two parts : “Teacher Car-Car-Carolinaa” and “Eewhaaee”).  All in all, we finished strong around 5 pm. 

I may or may not have had to scoot around my bedroom floor that night because I couldn’t stand up and may or may not have limped for about 24 hours post-walk…. A