COS Madness

Since April, the 55 or so people remaining in Moz 15 (my training group) have been waiting not so patiently for our COS dates.  COS, or “close of service,”  is when we officially end our service here in Mozambique.  Since we will leave in phases over a period of 6 weeks – knowing our dates and who we’ll be leaving with is pretty exciting news and usually provides a lot of drama. You know, “my best friend is COSing 3 weeks before me!” or “I can’t believe I have to stay here until December 15 and other people are leaving November 8^th!!”  Anyways, last week we finally got word via email our dates.  I was at home alone when I opened the email on my blackberry.  Immediately, I saw Helen’s name (she’s COSing November 8^th – the first week and thus the best week).  I rapidly scrolled down, hoping my name wasn’t far behind. And it wasn’t!!!! I COS during the 2^nd week, on November 15^th with a great group of friends! In desperate need to share this news with someone, I called Helen (who was about 100 yards away in the teachers room at school) and told her to check her email.  I stood on our front porch and watched her run, screaming and waving her arms back to our house where we proceeded to jump up and down and hug while countless students, once again, tried to figure out what we were up to.

Now, this may sound like excessive celebration – or that I’m somehow not enjoying my time here. That is not the case, at all. I have no regrets being here.  I love parts of it and I hate parts of it. I’ve learned more than I’ll ever be able to put into words. But it’s hard.  And, its time. Time to come home and start something new.  So, I will be trying to savor and simultaneously push through the next 5 months.  It will be here in the blink of an eye! And then, I’m planning on stopping in Cape Town for a few days with friends before I roll into America for Thanksgiving (or, “the most epic and overwhelming homecoming meal, ever”).

Secondary Projects

This year, Helen and I have spent a lot of time working on secondary projects here in Cateme. Basically, “secondary projects” are any work we do aside from just teaching.  Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve been up to:

Our JUNTOS group, which is comprised of both boys and girls in the 11^th and 12^th grades, has been superrr active! I am constantly impressed by the ideas and motivation of these kids. Most recently, we had “JUNTOS week” at our school.  Our group of 20 students divided into small groups and chose a theme (Cholera, discrimination of HIV positive people, sexual abuse of minors, etc).  Then, they prepared a short theater piece and a piece of “educational art” to hang outside their classrooms. Everyday, a different group presented at morning and afternoon assembly for the rest of the school. It was a HUGE hit! Plus, it got the group a lot of publicity… and these kids are such hams! They LOVE anything that gets them in front of people. Also JUNTOS related, we just had our “workshop” with 3 other schools in Manica province.  We took 8 students down for the weekend long conference where they talked about gender inequality, leadership, etc. It was a tiring (per usual when dealing with 40+ high schoolers) but everyone had a blast! Such a great experience for the kids.

REDES – our girls group – is picking up steam.  We’re up to 27 girls that we meet with on a weekly basis.  During the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about self-esteem and gender roles.  This group is 8^th, 9^th and 10^th graders – so they’re a little bit younger and just getting used to talking about these issues.  They are also currently preparing something to present (I was told it was a “surprise” and I’ll find out later….we shall see) for Independence Day, as well as getting psyched for their upcoming trip to Chiuta to meet the REDES group that Hannah works with. 

 Finallyyyy (this is one I’m really excited about) I finally got my act together with WorldWise Schools! I know, I know, I have 5 months left and I’m just now getting this off the ground. Anyways, this is a program where Peace Corps schools get matched with a school in America to do some kind of exchange. Conveniently, one of my best friends from college (hey Kalli!) is teaching at The Soulsville Charter School in Memphis.  I asked her to have some of her students write letters to my kids here.  SO. A week or two ago, we received 14 scanned letters (via email) from high school students in Memphis. I chose some of my best 8^th and 9^th grade English students to read and try to respond to the letters (remember, huge language barrier here).  First of all, the letters from America were hilarious and very sweet, although I had to tone down the vocabulary level a little bit.  Then, I had a blast distributing the letters. In typical Mozambican youth manner – they all accepted this task with very solemn respect… but I could tell they were about to scream they were so excited. One by one, they would come back to my house with questions about words and in need of a reality check that these were, in fact, real kids who wanted to here about their lives here in Mozambique.  Next week, we’ll be videotaping a little tour of our school and some student reading their letters to send to The Soulsville Charter School.  Also, veryyyyyy exciting for the kids here.