the river in Moatize

students jumping off rocks

Zoeller fam plus DomBosco students

Safari Pics!

 

Professional School Week

A few weeks ago, Mozambique celebrated “Professional School Week” – although I’m pretty sure 95% of the country was unaware. I, a teacher at a professional school, was not even made aware of it until Monday. As in, “Happy Monday! Its professional school week!” Ok. Cool. Sounds fun.

Monday, the direction of the school cancelled the last 4 classes of the day to clean.  Luckily, I have some friends in the workshops and I convinced them that giving class was more important than having my kids sweep the dirt outside their room. Plus, their morning “moral development” class wasn’t happening. Why? Oh just because the Padre that gives that class had something more important to do. Ya know, like buy cookies. Typical. (Side note: one of the most frustrating things I’ve encountered in the school system here is the general lack of forethought and planning. Like. If you’re going to cancel 4 afternoon classes, why don’t you at least effectively occupy the first four periods. And if this Padre neverrrrr shows up to give class – which he doesn’t – why not schedule something else for that hour and a half those kids are just sitting in an empty room?!) Moral of the story. I had my kids clean during their ‘empty’ class time and kept my afternoon English class.  And since everyone else was cleaning, no one reprimanded us for being superrrr loud playing a review game.

Tuesday was the big day – a visit from the government. Wahooo! Ha! Basically, we started the day by picking out the kids who didn’t look up to par and sending them home. Seriously. One by one, we went threw the students to make sure everyone was in perfect uniform. Gotta impress the visitor. Then, we all crammed in the big multi-purpose room where the fashion girls were being showcased as our chosen professional.  Two kids DJ’ed – which is always a hit. Then, a group of kids did the entire MJ thriller dance – which was AWESOME! They had costumes and make-up and everything. Then, the girls put on an awesome fashion show with all the clothes they’ve made this year. They were rock stars! There are so few girls at our school, so it was really awesome that they got to do this.  It was a HUGE confidence boost and overall, very impressive. Finally, our visitors got toured through all of the workshops where students explained different machines and projects they’re working on. Somehow, I ended up being the school photographer for the day… aka I just followed around the group of “chefes” and snapped photos (eventually, someone in the group of like 8 men was like ‘who is this white girl following us around?!’ … ‘no worries, she’s our English teacher’ HA)

A snowballs chance in Tete

The “time of heat” has officially arrived here in Tete – which I’ve been completely dreading.  And let me tell you, this was no slow transition. Seriously, it probably went from “cool-ish” to “oh my god I’m going to die” hot  in about a week.  Fans are on full blast, heating bath water is a thing of the past, and windows are flung wide open…..except for those in the dining room and kitchen…. Someone is too concerned with dust getting in to enjoy a breeze, cough cough Eduardo.

All this heat means that mango season is right around the corner (!!!!!) and that ‘crazy thirst’ is too. Let me explain what “crazy thirst” is: its pretty simple. When you’re walking all the way back to our house or standing at the chapa stop in Matema (aka the hottest place on earth) crazy thirst hits you like a ton of bricks.  You realize how unbelievable thirsty you are, how there is nothing available to drink, how you are sweating profusely…and it consumes your mind.  It is something I NEVER felt in the states. If you’re that hot, you go in some air-conditioning or you get a glass of ice water. NADA. That’s not an option here. 

What is an option, is a can of cold Orange Fanta. Cue, what we like to call “the lesson that will never be learned.”  Here’s what happens : you’re withering in the sun at the chapa stop – praying one will stop and you can squeeze on.  Crazy thirst hits you, and its bad. You’re about 10 feet away from a number of crianças (children) peddling cans of cold Fanta. And you just can’t resist. So you flip the shoe-less 8 year old 25 mets and pop open the Fanta. At this point, it goes down in less than three gulps – and it’s AMAZING.  You feel satisfied for about 5 minutes. And then, you get hit with a second wave crazy thirst – but this time, it HAS to be water.  And that, is the lesson that will never be learned. You always drink the Fanta – and it always makes you even more thirsty that before.

Maybe you’re thinking that there has to be a solution to this problem (…. Mom).  So you suggest taking a bottle of water with you in the morning.  This will not work…. The water will be at a quasi-boil by the time you need it. Maybe you could buy some water instead of Fanta at the chapa stop? Well yes, people are there selling chilled water.  The water that they’re selling, however, is not treated….. we boil and filter all of our drinking water at home…. And this water is not.  And I’m not really in the mood for parasites, so that’s out of the question. 

I think my new method this season, will be to buy a bottle of cold water at one of the bancas close to our school. Then just carry it with me on my way home. That way, when crazy thirst hits – I’m prepared!

Back to school

My family left Moz on a Thursday, and Dom Bosco started classes again the next Monday.  Granted, I’d seen a lot of my students during our five week break – especially when my family was there – but it was SO awesome to see everyone. I don’t know if it was that we were all excited to see each other (and by we, I mean me and the students), but I’m marking that week down as my best week ever teaching. It was like a little (non creepy) second-honeymoon every time I walked into a classroom! My lesson plans worked out perfectly, there was no fighting or bickering, they seemed to be listening and understanding…. Bottom line, two big thumbs up for the first week back.

Also, Helen and I started giving English lessons to Padre Pedro (the director/principal of our school).  I wrongly assumed he didn’t speak much English, but it turns out he does! He just has a really thick Spanish accent.  So basically, one of us sits down with him for thirty minutes a day to have a conversation in English and read some of a book.  At first it was Lord of the Rings – but recently its been parts of a Catholic mass. Apparently he’s going to start giving mass in English pretty soon and he’s not entirely comfortable with it yet. So, unlike Lord of the Rings (which I never read) I’ve heard this a million times. Ha!

Mozambique has taught me to run on my own time….

Hence why I’ve been so absent. Around here, if you don’t really feel like doing something… well, it will just have to wait! Which is not to say that life has slowed down in the least.  The biggest thing that’s happened lately is that my family visited!! Seriously, 10 months without seeing those goons – well it was great! (Totally kidding, I missed them like crazy and was stoked to see those smiling faces!)

Here’s what happened…. I left Moatize and bopped around Moz for a while by myself.  A REDES meeting in Chimoio (and a little pre-birthday celebration) = awesome. A 14 hour bus ride without having slept (post pre-birthday celebration) and without an actual seat – just a stool in the aisle = the opposite of awesome. Being reunited with one of my best friends from training who I haven’t seen since I was tossed in the back of a Peace Corps land rover (crying) after swear-in = amazing!!! (not the crying part, that was actually really sad).  A forth of July party that included a bon fire, burgers and french fries, and a football = great. Hanging out with Michelle’s awesome students and boyfriend, eating homemade Mozambican food for my birthday and catching up on Glee … well, I have no complaints about that

Then, Michelle and I headed to Maputo to play for a few days – with the help of Mark, Eddie and Ryan (SOOO great to see everyone).  And from there I hopped on a plane to South Africa.

I apparently am in my own little heat bubble up here in Tete and therefore had no IDEA that it was actually cold in South Africa. So showing up in the Jo’berg airport with sandals and a light jacket when people had on long coats was embarrassing (not as embarrassing as the fact that I put on socks with my sandals…… it was that cold).  Anyways, I hung around a hotel lobby for about 6 hours waiting for my room and I’m pretty sure people thought I was crazy – but I’m accustomed to waiting and I sure as hell wasn’t about to walk outside in the cold again.  Then I finally checked in, took and excessively long shower (I mean, I hadn’t showered since March – I deserved it slashhh I needed it) and passed out in an oversized hotel bed. And who should come knocking on my door – BUT MY ENTIRE FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

The next morning we headed to Kruger Park where we had an AMAZING safari.  Not only did we stay at this super fancy beautiful “camp” (it was in no way a camp), but we saw all kinds of awesome animals. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, antelope, buffalo, giraffes, hyenas and a whole pride of lions – seriously, so cool! I’ll upload some pictures as soon as I can, because they’re AWESOME!

From Kruger, we went to Maputo (the capital of Mozambica).  I took the fam to this awesome fish market (you can buy all kinds of fresh seafood and then they cook it for you there) and the big craft market (which is where all of your Christmas presents are coming from!). 

Also, we went to Namaacha for a day to visit Mama Joana! After I drug everyone around the muddy, rainy village, we finally found her at the market where she was selling her big cauldrons. This is the first time I’ve seen her since I moved to Tete, and she was super excited to meet my family. She insisted we come back to her house for some fried eggs, which of course we did. She’s just a warm and strong lady and I’m so glad my family got to meet my Mozambican mom! Plus it was a fun little experience translating back and forth between her and my mom! 

Then, after an entire day of sitting in the airport (because LAM is lame) we finally made it to Tete! This day, which happened to be my parents anniversary, was a little touch-and-go for a while…. But nothing a little GingerNut cookies and some Mozambican beer with my mom, dad, and brother couldn’t fix! We rented a car at in Tete – which worked out perfectly. There was no way we were going to use chapas the whole time.

The first real place I took them was my school (of course).  Helen had been keeping my kids updated on my travel progress – and seeing as these boys have been looking forward to meeting my family for months now –  they were Sooooo excited!!  My brother Christian was a huge hit.  He walked into a classroom and not only did they all cheer, but they immediately challenged him to an arm wrestling competition.  It was pretty cute… and now I’m constantly fielding questions like “Ummm…. Teacher? Can we call Cristiano?”  (“you remember that my family only speaks English, right?” “Yes teacher we remember! I will say ‘Good Morning Ms. Charlie, I am student of teacher Carolina’”).

Other highlights included…

-  a picnic down by the river with some of my students and the other Tete PCVs

- a basketball game with my welders (they made my dad and my brother play on opposite teams --- they were both a solid foot taller than any Mozambican man around)

- Tours of all the workshops at school  - which ended with Char getting some goodies (a new purse from the fashion girls and some candleholders from the welders)

- what Helen and I are calling “char’s extreme home makeover”  - a clean house, some new grown-up furniture and a very nicely decorated room

- a suitcase FULL of birthday goodies!! New clothes, some spices, the works

- all kinds of wonderful meals and a sweet non-chapa ride (heyyyy kia rio!)

Lastly, and most importantly, my main highlight was just seeing them!!! I get to talk to them on the phone about once a week – but even an hour a week of explaining my life here doesn’t come close to what it needs.  But now, they’ve been here! They’ve seen the way my life is here and the way people in my village live. And that’s so awesome.  (It’s a game changer, if you will) I think it’s a comfort for them – they know I’m being looked after.  And its certainly a comfort for me – I can talk to them about things here, and they actually know what I’m talking about! Plus, they reminded me of things I initially loved about Mozambique that I’d forgotten about…And now I’m noticing and appreciating those things again!!

Ok sorry this has been long and scattered – but there’s still a lot to tell!! Hope everyone back stateside is happy and healthy!

Gestures

Seeing as Portuguese is obviously not my first language, I have a new appreciation for any and all hand gestures.  And lucky for me, Mozambicans have some pretty sweet little moves they do!

- Lots of people here are fans of the double wave – which I love. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, refer to the scene in Love Actually where Hugh Grant (the Prime Minister) gets out of his car and waves to the public.  To do the double hand wave – you first need to stop walking, put on a biggg smile and frantically wave both hand. 

- We are also all about the double cheek kiss over here. I’m pretty sure I always have a big smile on my face when I do the cheek kiss.  It’s just so friendly, I can’t help it!

- The “left hand to right elbow” move  is a big one. Any time you accept something (like a gift) or shake someone’s hand, you put your left hand on your right elbow as you receive/shake with the right hand.  It’s a sign of respect.

- the “criança” (child) signal.  This is when you make a little cup with your hand and then use said hand to indicate height (and therefore age) of a child.  For example, “my little brother is coming to Africa” would necessitate a cupped hand at chest level – not so young (and if I was indicating the actual height of my little brother it would be wayyy above my head!). BUT. “When I was 4 I fell got this scar on my arm” would be a cupped hand below the hip. 

- the sun dial.  This and the criança move are my personal favorites.  Basically, this is a way of indicating time.  Maybe I want to know what time our basketball game is this Saturday and Crispen (one of my students) wants to tell me to be at school by 8 am. So he’ll make a squinty face (important) and look at the sky. Then he’ll make a blade with his hand and point at where the sun will be at that time. “Teacher, come to school at 8 (about a 25º angle) and we will go home at ummmmmm 12 (90º angle with arm straight up in the air). ”  Perhaps this is why we have trouble starting on time around here lol!