9B…. Or my little rockstars, as I like to call them…

This year, unlike last year, I am a D.T. – or Directora da Turma. For those of you who don’t speak Portuguese and/or are not familiar with the Mozambican school system (sooo everyone? I thought so…), it’s basically a homeroom teacher.  So I have my own class (9B, obviously). In addition to being their English teacher, I am their homeroom teacher as well…. Basically, I’m like their school mom. 

The other teachers told me that I was very lucky to have gotten a 9^th grade class.  The 8^th graders are clueless (adorable, but clueless) and the 10^th graders have national exams – which adds a whole other level of stress and work.  Being a DT is totally different from just being a teacher. Last year, I just kind of bopped around, graded my tests and could peace out after that. Not this year…

I have 57 students that I am completely responsible for.  If one of them acts up in another teacher’s class – I get a note about it.  If 3 of them show up late for first period – I hear about it.  And I’m expected to dole out punishments like candy… I’m still getting the hang of that part (Right now it involves me flashing my mean face and making them stay after school to clean the classroom). If a mom shows up at school with a question about her kid, she gets sent right to me. P.S., Little American girl? Not what the moms are expecting….

Some other little gems that have come up… National Statistics day. That was a blast. Basically, we spent the day in our classroom (“we” being me and my 57 kids) working through an absurd number of national statistics.  It went like this “If you are a 15 year old boy, stand up” (and then I counted and recorded the number). Side note – my 9^th graders range from 14 to 20. Then we got to some really awkward statistics… “if your Mother died, stand up.”  “If you’re an orphan, stand up.” “If you are repeating 9^th grade because you failed last year.” Are you just cringing? Political correctness has yet to arrive in Mozambique. Just wait, it gets better…. “If you have any kind of physical disability, stand up” “if you have problems hearing” (that one was ironic…it resulted in someone tapping the kid who has auditory problems and telling him to stand up). “If you are a ‘mentally slow’.”

Another one of my favorites – planting. Every Mozambican student is required to bring some kind of tree and plant it on school grounds.  This has resulted in me continually harassed my students to find and bring plants to school.  They’re sneaky though and try to sneak in just a branch they snapped off a tree. Now we (I) have to check for roots… We also have to do a lot of cleaning/hoeing/ physical labor…. Which they love. Not.

Don’t worry though! Being their DT has allowed me to get to know these kids much better than any of my other classes.  I know all of their names. I check up with their other teachers to see how they’re doing. They come to me with their random problems.  My little chefe (think, class president), Paulo, is an angel – so responsible, so kind … it literally broke my heart when he stood up for ‘orphan’ on statistics day. I kinda like that when I see them doing something good, I get to say ‘oh yeah, he’s one of my kids…they’re rockstars, I know!!’

Waiting for Guffman

So my friend Hannah told me about this movie, Waiting for Guffman, and how totally appropriate it was for our lives here. If you haven’t seen it, it’s faux-documentary about a group of people putting on a community theater piece about the history of their small town.  Basically, they are expecting some big shot from Broadway  (Mr. Guffman) to come and watch the play – and hopefully take them, and the play, to New York.  So they prepare and do all this crazy stuff waiting for this man – they give him a special reserved seat in the front row… and naturally, he never shows up. (Ps. The movie is made by the Best in Show people….so its hilarious)

Soooo that clearly has nothing to do with my life in Mozambique. But in a twisted way – it’s exactly the same.  Cateme is a pretty tiny little village. So when we hear that we’ll be receiving a visitor, it’s a big F-ing deal. Classes are cancelled so that we can clean the school and make sure everything is perfect (do you know how hard it is to clean things in Africa!? We don’t even have a paved road!! Dirt. Is. Everywhere).  The teachers’ houses are inspected. Just in case, ya know, the governor decides he wants to pop in for a cup of tea… Hours are spent practicing the dances and songs that the students will perform as the visitor arrives.  In a word – it is ridiculous. Or in my words – ri-goddamn-diculous.

Last week, we had the joy of receiving the governor of Tete Province.  Now, no one told us what time this guy was going to show up…just the day. So, we obviously cancelled all classes – just to be sure we were good and ready. Around noon, the Nyaos showed up to help us welcome the governor.  (If you’re wondering what a Nyao is…. They’re the traditional, spiritual guardians of the community: a secret society of men who, on special occasions, dress in crazy feathers and rags and do some wild dancing and wailing.  You’re supposed to run and hide from them… which to be honest, they’re usually waving and smacking people with tree branches… so hiding is a good idea.)  Conveniently, Helen and I live directly across from the school so the Nyaos chased us inside our house within seconds. The students were very amused, to say the least.  

At about 1 pm, the group of students who were singing and dancing started doing their thing – which included lots of jumping and yelling and whistle blowing.  At 2 pm, all of the teachers convened outside the school – getting ready to form a giant line of students (teachers at the end) for the governor to drive past as he approached the entrance. (Ps. this was not a cool day, by any means). So we waited. We waited. The dancing kids got tired and thirsty. Three o’clock came and went. No gov.

Then, we saw the brigade slash entourage coming.  Truck loads of policemen, SUVs… seriously about 10 or 12 cars.  Everyone lined up –so ready! And what happened? Oh he zipped right past our school and went on to visit the next village down the road.  Are you kidding me!? So finally around 5:30, the entourage reappears. At this point, a lot of kids had escaped and gone home (I don’t blame them).  We literally had to RUN to get everyone back in order, about 30 people jump out of the cars, and the governor shakes all the teachers’ hands.  Then the school director led the governor on a speed-tour of the school. I’ve never seen Mozambicans move so fast in my life. All of the teachers and entourage were expected to “accompany” this tour – but not get in the way.  This resulted in about 50 people trotting behind two guys… And just like that, in a grand total of 20 minutes, he was gone.  It was 6 o’clock! He was ready to get back to the city and onto paved roads! Meanwhile, we spend hours and hours sweeping and cleaning, waiting and organizing… BAM. Waiting for Guffman.

The half way slump

So, if it wasn’t made obvious by some of the previous posts – coming back to site after Christmas was difficult. I’m told that this is normal.  That this time is supposed to be a low point in the “life cycle of a PCV.”  I felt like I was especially struggling  (along with other Moz15ers) for a number of additional reasons.

Our Peace Corps Mozambique family suffered a horrible tragedy while I was on leave in the states. Five volunteers (one of whom is a good friend of mine) were in a car accident on December 21^st. Two of the female volunteers in the car, who had only arrived in country Sept. 2011,  died almost immediately. The other 3 were med-evac-ed to South Africa with serious injuries (they are all currently recovering well). You can imagine how incredibly traumatizing this was for our entire peace corps family – let alone the families of the volunteers at home in the states.

Needless to say, this took a huge mental toll on my readjustment in Cateme.  Add that to the riot, the fact that I still didn’t really know anyone at my new site AND that I was trying to transition back from America……. Lets just say January was rough.

Not to worry though! I’m pushing right through that little troubled spot in a number of ways.  Some of these things might sound menial.  However, even the smallest things can be a game changer when you’re hanging by a thread…

My personally tested “How to pull yourself out of a funk” guide:

1.      Break down and buy yourself a nice phone.  You have no idea how much the full keyboard on a blackberry will enhance your life. Ha!  Not to mention the Internet capacity. Plus, getting emails and texts from home is generally a highlight of my day.

2.      Get a puppy. If nothing else, it will keep you extremely busy.  If you’re lucky (like me) she will be very cute, willing to listen to whatever you want to talk about, and hands down the most excited person (?) to see you everyday. In fact, Hannah, Eden and I each took one of the puppies from the newest litter at our old house in Moatize.  All 3 sisters are growing and doing well J

3.      Start exercising on a normal basis.  I’ve gotten in the habit of waking up at 5 am and taking off on a morning run as the sun rises.  I’ve never felt more productive before 6 in the morning!

4.      Find students that are screaming potential. Helen and I have started 2 groups for the 11^th and 12^th graders at our school. The first group, REDES, is specifically for girls and focuses on female empowerment. Our girls want to learn how to make a business plan – then to sew and sell capulana bags at our school. The other group, JUNTOS, is a co-ed group that focuses on youth activism.  This particular group of kids wants to either do community theatre (most likely HIV focused) OR write a newspaper for the school/village.  Now this won’t be like an American high school paper. It will be a single copy, handwritten newspaper posted in a communal place. Regardless, these kids show SO much potential… it’s incredible. They’re excited. They know they have to work for their futures – and that they’re fighting an uphill battle.  They hang on every piece of information they can get their hands on. I’m SO thrilled to be working with all of them!! I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about  both REDES and JUNTOS kids in the future.

5.      Never underestimate how much little things can help. Paint your nails. Put up pictures.  Cook something you love.  Watch an episode of Friends.

You’ll be just fine!

Cateme Riot in the News

I though I would share some of the news articles from the demonstration that I mentioned in my last post.  Luckily, our Peace Corps friends who have already finished their service have been keeping us in the official loop.

Mozambique families protest against Brazil's Vale

Wed Jan 11, 2012 5:27am GMT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Families resettled by Brazilian mining giant Vale in the Tete region of Mozambique protested on Tuesday that the company had failed to keep promises it made to them in 2009.

About 700 families, resettled approximately 60 kilometres away from the Moatize coal mining site, demonstrated against the lack of access to water, electricity and agricultural land at their resettlement Cateme area.

"Many promises made by Vale before they resettled us here have not been accomplished since 2009," said community leader Eduardo Zinocassaka.

Vale refused to comment, saying it had an agreement with the local government, which would release an official comment on Wednesday morning.

The families were resettled between November 2009 and December 2010.

"Last December we sent a document-complaint to the government of Moatize District requesting their official intervention to solve the problems faced by the communities, and as we saw the government's incapacity, we decided to demonstrate," Zinocassaka told Reuters by phone.

© Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved

Mozambique: Vale Promises to Solve Resettlement Problems

19 January 2012

Maputo — The Brazilian mining company Vale has promised to solve within six months all the problems faced by households resettled from the area where Vale is now mining coal in Moatize district, in the western province of Tete.


717 households were resettled at Cateme, about 35 kilometres from Moatize town. Many of these families protest that the houses they were given are shoddily built. Cracks have appeared in the walls and the roofs are leaking.


On 10 January this problem hit the headlines when about 500 Cateme residents blocked the Sena railway line, from Moatize to the port of Beira, thus interrupting the movement of Vale coal trains. The protestors were eventually dispersed by the riot police and 14 alleged ringleaders were arrested.


In addition to the problems with the houses, Cateme residents cited in Thursday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais" say that Vale promised each household two hectares of land for farming, but actually only allotted one hectare each, and in an area that is not suitable for agriculture.


They say they are facing hunger, have no jobs, and have no means of transport. They claim Vale promised them priority in the allocation of jobs, but the only jobs some of them managed to obtain were temporary. They also accuse the government of doing nothing to relieve their suffering.


Adriano Ramos, director for sustainability of Vale-Mozambique, admitted to the paper that the complaints are justified, and promised that everything can be set right within six months.


"I think there was a lack of dialogue between the population, Vale and the government", he said. "There should be a permanent dialogue, because we want to see the development of all concerned, and particularly of Mozambique. We have to recognise that processes are dynamic. What was good two years ago may not be good today".


The costs of resettlement were estimated at 120 million US dollars, of which Vale has so far spent 100 million.

(from AllAfrica.com)

(this is an email that I sent to my mom on the second day back at site.  Apologies for the lack of formatting, thats just the way Nokia phones email lol)




welllll ... if possible, today has been crazier than yesterday.  after we talked, i started trying to unpack-waiting for the water to come on. during said unpacking, i encountered the giant f-ing lizard whose
been leaving gifts all over the house. i screamed when he came flying out at me and he promptly hid behind my matress. awesome. so as im trying to scare him out, olive (who apparently has learned to be slightly more productive after her time with antonias family) caught him on the other side. she then proceeded to scurry around the house with the twitching, bleeding lizard looking for a place to eat him.  i, in turn, ran after her with a broom trying to get both of them outside. at this point, the lizards 4 inch long tail fell off (they do that
sometimes, im not always sure why, in this case, i would assume it was the ´oh shit this cat will eat me´reasoning.)  so i just left olive in the kitchen, swept the still moving tail outside and left them.  she
didnt leave a drop. sidenote, olive wont stop purring and its really pissing me off.... could be that i took a full larium. anyways, 8 oclock rolls around and im panicking about the water sitch. i was trying to wait to go over to school until i had bathed.  eventually, i just wiped myself down with a baby wipe (which, btw, is not a good substitue for a bath) and went over to school. after being told i was fat and pale, multiple times, and that water just wasnt running i went home and decided to walk to the market in an attempt to buy either
bottled water, toilet paper or phone credit.  luckily on the way, 2 students stopped me (a brother and sister) and the girl offered to come with me to the market. shes gonna be a rockstar, i can tell. so so sweet. she had the peace corps teachers in zobue before janet and luc and won the national science fair in 2008--- she was super proud. she told me about the water sitch. apparently there was a strike with some of the community members and they blockaded that one road into the village. so whoever was supposed to come and turn on the water never made it. the rest of the people who live here took that as their cue to take the day off as well. so there was literally nothing in the market. nothing. we tried 3 different peoples houses for toilet paper and phone credit and eventually, after about an hour and a half, got some phone credit.  so i came home, super sweaty and dirty and spit on my used baby wipe to get some of the dirt off my feet.  seriously. i feel like this could be some crazy joke haha!! i did, what im refering to as my ´possom plan´....and went to sleep.  when i woke up and went out, my director offered a little water (i think he was more concerned as to how i had managed to make it til 1:30 with zero water).  ive managed to unpack the majority of my things - so thats mentally helpful. not to be dramatic, but i feel like ive been traumatized within the past 48 hours! ughh. itll be fine.  i just keep thinking, even if i were to just crack and e.t. today, id still have to stay for at least like 2 weeks getting all of my paperwork and med stuff done. and within 2 weeks, things could be much better here anyway! i guess thats a good thing?! who knows! ok well now that ive recounted my entire day ill let you be!! although i am enjoying the airconditioned computer room at school and appearing to be busy... maybe when i call you in the a.m. things will be on the up swing!!


i loveeee you!!!!

The Return Trip

After a fun-packed month at home,  people kept asking if I was excited to go back to Mozambique.  I won’t lie, “excited” isn’t the word I’d use.  When I was headed home to America, I was EXCITED. There were lots of people I was looking forward to seeing, food I wanted to eat, places to go, couches to sit on…. But coming back, not so much. Especially since I’m coming back to a house that is not yet a ‘home’ and a new village where I don’t really know anyone.  I wasn’t dreading coming back, but I wasn’t super pumped to come back to a life of dirty feet, no bed, and a house populated by far more lizards that people.

I will say that between the Delta SkyClub in Atlanta (thanks Aunt Suzanne!), the 16 hour international flight, and the hotel in South Africa, I encountered more free wine than I thought was possible. “Well, this isn’t so bad  at all” I was thinking… I could get used to this! And then I landed in Mozambique. Bum bum bummm! That’s when the crazy hit me like a ton o’ bricks.

My first stop was our old house.  I had promised the other family that lived on our farm I’d come see them as soon as I landed.  Plus, they’ve been watching Olive. I figured that between the other 2 cats and 11 dogs (more puppies!), I should get her off their hands. That part of the day was greattt! The farm is so green and beautiful right now.  Antonia and I sat out under a mango tree and caught up on the past month.  If that had been the end of the trip, I would have been a happy girl. I really liked Moatize – and I would have been perfectly happy to have stayed there (minus one little detail, of course). 

I picked up all types of veggies in the market, and some of my South African friends came to pick up me and Olive to take us to Cateme.  It took us foreverrr to figure out how to tie my bags on the top of their truck (at which point I was questioning if I really needed to bring back a muffin tin and a magic bullet blender…too late for that thought lol!)

Once we finally got to Cateme, Olive (maybe I should have clarified earlier, Olive is a cat) and I arrived to a house full of bug and spider webs. Also, droppings from what must be GIANT lizards – which I have yet to see.  Ok, I thought.  Just need to sweep out this house, take a shower, and I’ll unpack tomorrow.  Well, apparently the water had already been turned off for the day, so showering was out of the question (very unfortunate considering the state of my hair and 100 degree heat). Then I realized that in the midst of vegetable shopping, I had failed to buy toilet paper.  Awesome. Which then reminded me that Olive’s litter box was locked in Helen’s room.  Now I was starting to freak out a little.  I decided my best plan of action was to just go to sleep and figure it out in the morning. I locked Olive in the bathroom with a makeshift litter box and plopped down on my floor bed (which is just a mattress on a the floor…so fancy).  A few minutes later, I got up to make sure the doors were locked and noticed something roughly 9 inches long and the width of one of those giant sharpie markers.  Stick? I thought. Um nope, I didn’t bring any sticks in with me.  Snake?! (panic.) Well I jumped over it to get to a light switch and came face to face (?) with the most giant millipede slash bug I’ve ever seen.  Half a can of bug spray later and that sucker was dead. Being the professional that  I am, I left it on the floor to be dealt with the next day. 

SO.  Here I am. I’ve been awake since 3 am waiting on the sun to come up and the water fairy to switch on the water in my house.  Today, I will remove the giant dead bug, access the Olive situaton, find toilet paper, and attempt to unpack.  Also on the list: find a bed (I’d like to be as far from giant bugs and lizards as possible….aka, not sleeping on the floor). I’ll keep you posted! 

An extremely long-winded account of my journey home

After a long week of literally doing nothing but waiting to go home, Wednesday December 7^th could not come fast enough.  As instructed by my mom when she visited in July – I hardly brought anything with me.  First of all, it's not 110 degrees in America – so my tank tops didn’t need to make the trek.  Secondly, my favorite pair of J.Crew jeans now has a total of 8 holes and, as much as I love them, they would be frowned upon at home. I did, however, plan on bringing an empty suitcase with me to fill with goodies from the craft market in Maputo.  So I threw my laptop, camera and a few other things in my overworked backpack, grabbed my empty suitcase and took off. And by took off, I mean I talked some friends (who conveniently have car) into dropping me off at the Tete airport.   Naturally, as soon as they pulled away, I realized the number of critical things I had forgotten in Cateme (my Kindle - not like I had 3 hours to sit and wait for my plane or anything…. and my phone charger).  No worries, I thought. I’m going home. It’s all going to be fine.

So after waiting 3 hours of the plane and then a 2 hour flight to Maputo (seriously, just sitting), I finally made it to the capital city.  It was late afternoon and my flight to South Africa wasn’t until the next afternoon.  At first, I thought this was a huge bummer BUT my parents so kindly offered to put me in the hotel of my choice that night.  So I left the airport in a taxi headed for Hotel Cardoso (which was the hotel we stayed at a year earlier the night we swore-in…I had fond memories of taking an hour long shower and nearly making myself sick on the breakfast buffet. Needless to say, I was quick to choose Cardoso). Just as I hopped out of the cab (which I was expecting to be about 300 mets – or at least it was in October) and was about to throw back whatever was in that champagne glass as a welcome drink, the driver says its 950 mets. WHAT?! Naturally, I freaked out. I’m sorry, but 950 mets! That’s insane.  I can come and go from Tete to Chimoio 3 times for that – 18 hours in a bus or 20 minutes in a cab1?  I realized I wouldn’t win this battle, so I paid the man, shot him an angry look and decided to put it behind me. A hot shower was in my future, I wasn’t going to let this joker ruin that.

As I checked in, I had a conversation with the lady about how my father in the United States had booked this room and prepaid it. There was a little bit of confusion, but I figured if worse came to worse I’d just hand over my credit card and call it a day.  At this point, my phone was doing that angry beep about every 2 minutes to tell me it was dying. This was mainly a problem because, Eden, one of the volunteers from Tete was going to stay with me that night. Now, I don’t know my way around Maputo that well, but I look like a tour guide compared to Eden.  There was no way she would be able to find me without a phone.  I paced angrily around my room for a while (still peeved over the taxi incident) and decided that my best move was to find dinner. Now, Maputo is the food meca as far as Mozambique is concerned.  Determined not to waste a coveted dinner in the city, I took off looking for a suitable restaurant.

After wondering around for about 20 minutes and using the last of my cell phone battery to message Eden my room number, I found a fancy little Thai place. Jackpot! I went in, sat down, and ordered enough food for about 3 people (I assumed Eden would show up at some point and appreciate being greeted with pad Thai)….and asked for it to-go.  I also decided that I deserved a beer for my efforts – and in the process made friends with my server… who I then convinced to charge my phone for me on his charger in the back.  I left the restaurant with a hugeeee bag of food and a new found sense of accomplishment.  The rest of my evening consisted of taking a glorious shower and eating some delicious Thai food while lying in a giant bed and watching Gossip Girl on my laptop. Seriously…AWESOME. Eden showed up around midnight just in time to eat, chat, and pass out in what was the most comfortable bed I had touched in about 8 months.

When I checked out the next morning, I re-encountered that whole “prepaid room” mess. They had no record of it being paid, and my credit card had so conveniently expired.  Sweet. I told them if I could get my dad on the phone he could email in all of the information to pay.  My phone was doing the angry beep again, so I called America, woke up my dad (it was his birthday – I’m sure he loved being woken up at 4 am by a daughter requesting he send his credit card information half way around the world) and attempted to explain the humor of the situation to the man at the counter….not sure whether that worked or not….

Finally, we got everything figured out and Eden and I set off to do some Christmas shopping at the craft market. Two hours later, we emerged with huge carved wooden bowls, tons of beautiful batiques (I have no idea how to spell that), and lots of other fun stuff. We hit the fish market for lunch, where we feasted on prawns, mussels, crab and draft beer for my last meal in Mozambique.

I left Eden in Maputo, and I flew to Johannesburg, South Africa for yet another 4 hour long airport-sit. The lack of kindle or book was really starting to sting at this point.  Also, my ipod and laptop had already died. Again, I was going home. All good. I finally got on a giantttt Atlanta-bound flight and mentally prepared for 16 hours of airtime.  Luckily, I was able to sleep for a significant amount of time (thank you hundreds of hours of African travel – which was much less comfortable than the wonders that Delta had to offer)

In the Atlanta airport, I practically ran to the closest open fast food place (a burger king, in this case) and got a large fountain diet coke.  Then, I grabbed a shiny new Cosmo magazine (!!!!!!) and tried to ignore the fact that people were giving me strange look (I know! I’m wearing flip flops and a light jacket and you have on a scarf and snow boots….I’m coming from Africa, leave me aloneee!!!!).

From there, it was just one quick flight to Louisville. I seriously don’t think I have ever been more excited.  Even as quickly as I was busting toward my parents (who I knew were waiting just past the security point), I honestly looked at all the “Welcome to Kentucky” stuff on the walls and LOVED IT!  Unbridled Spirit logans, I have never been more happy to see you!!! I was a few minutes early, so I surprised my parents when I came running out. Naturally, my mom and I both cried and my dad attempted to take photos. They wrapped me up in my favorite red coat and traded my flip flops for cowboy boots right there. SO WORTH THE TRAVEL!!!!