School Shmool

Well. I’m really not sure where to start with this one….sooooo lets see…. The fun stuff started once I got my own group of students to supervise. Honestly, I felt like we needed someone else there to help manage the situation, but my Ped Director (kind of like the vice principal) seemed to think that me and my 30 first year auto mechanics would be justttt fine by ourselves. Ok. That’s cool. Whatever he says… So away we go, off to whack down a field of weeds near the basketball court. I quickly learned a few important things about my little charges: 1. They were thrilled to have the new professora as their leader because 2. They were not in the mood to work and 3. I apparently had zero authority to tell them to do so. Let’s be real, I didn’t want to be standing in a field in the heat of Tete watching these kids do field work either, so I was going pretty easy on them. Something else I realized within minutes is that you can pick out certain kids in a group super easily – and its not usually for good reasons (ie they are the ring leaders of the “cool kids” – keep in mind, it was these kids second day at a new school as the “freshman”, the ones not working AT ALL, or the ones making lots of noise).

So, they’re seeing how long they can sit down without me telling them to stand up – and then there’s a big commotion. They all start yelling and hacking at the ground in the middle of a circle. Then, the one boy I had already pegged as the ring leader comes running toward me with his hoe in the air. And what is balanced on said hoe? Oh but the front half (aka, minus the back half) of a huge lizard they have chopped in two.  When I say huge, I mean this bad boy was probably a good 10 inches long and 3 inches off the ground in his prime – which, needless to say, was not right now. I made a face (obviously) , they thought it was hilarious (obviously) and then I made them take the bloody half ‘o lizard away.  About an hour or so later, we have another similar commotion. Awesome, at least I knew what to expect… Psych. This time my ring leader (his name is Alvero) comes running with some other kids with a rake in the air. This time, they have three feet of a snake on the rake. I say “three feet of a snake” and not “a three foot long snake” because it was sans head. SO I’m not sure how big it actually was BUT the back half that I did see was still very much moving. Ok guys, I get it. I don’t like snakes, you think its funny, take it away. So then we have to spend a good 15 minutes trying to fling the snake over an 8 foot tall fence – yet another good way to procrastinate. Finally we finish our spot of land and I call roll (which, let me tell you, is unbelievable painful due to the names on there) and we go home.

The next day, my mechanics actually requested Professora Carolina – I wasn’t really making them work  AND they were getting a few good laughs out of it- so I guess that’s to be expected.  We head off to a different patch of land and I’m enjoying chatting with the guys. Plus, I’ve picked out who the good workers are and the troublemakers so that I can call them out when I need to.  When we get to our area, I hung my purse up on a tree and planted myself right in the middle of the line of work to pull grass with my hands. Despite the blisters and general heat, I really liked being out there because all of the kinds had random things they wanted to talk to me about (No, I don’t know Arnold Schwartzeneger or Micheal Jackson – sidenote, the news of MJ’s death didn’t make it to Moz, No, Canada is not the United States. Yes, I’ve already finished university and I’m only 22. Yes, you did see me riding to school on a chapa). 

Later that day, there is a “commotion” that was at least double the commotion of the day before. This time there is yelling and tons of people crowd around. Meanwhile, I’m keeping a safe distance knowing that whatever it is they’re killing is about to make its way to my on a hoe. False. I see a boy coming toward me with his arm extended at a 90 degree angle. In his hand, he’s holding the tail of something…..and its head is dragging on the ground. My first instinct: baby crocodile. Mother of God, these kids just killed a baby crocodile. But then I got a better look. No that’s not a crocodile. What is it I ask….its a salamander. Welllll that’s not like any salamander I’ve ever seen! (After discussing it with Luc, another PCV who legit is an encyclopedia, we decided it was closer to a Komodo Dragon). So there we are, circled around this giant, dead lizard – and what’s next on the agenda? Well we should fight about if this is something we can eat, of course! Followed by, lets sell it. And finally, a quick battle over –if the “sell” plan works out- who actually killed the beast and therefore will get the profits.  After about 15 minutes, one of the Padres came over and regained control, sending my little hunters back to work.

And just like that (one snake, two lizards, a wicked sunburn and a nice big infected scrape on my leg), the first week: dunzo 

ADDRESS

Audrey Zoeller, PCV
Corpo da Paz
C.P. 331
Chimoio, Mozambique


its about 6 hours away, but thats as good as its going to get!

back to school, back to school....prove to dad i'm not a fool

thats from billy madison, btw. and ps this is an excessively long-winded account....

First days of school are always funny….not to mention that you usually get a sweet pic on the morning of the first day (at least my brother and I did).  Well, I wasn’t entirely sure that school was starting today. The public schools here in Mozambique were supposed to start today – but since we’re a technical school, we have a different schedule than everyone else. So when one of the Padres stopped by this weekend and told us we had a “meeting” at school on Monday – I started to think maybe this was it! When we asked what time this so-called meeting was, he just told us “morning.”  Awesome, thanks for the details. When we couldn’t get any more information (do we need to bring anything? What should we wear?) we decided we would just show up dressed to teach at 7 am – which is when school normally starts.  We made it out the front door at 6 am…which was the plan. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the main road where the chapas stop.  So we’re strolling along to the main road – munching on a peanut butter sandwich and noticing that everyone here sleeps outside with their mosquito nets strung up on clothsline (I don’t blame them, its much cooler than inside the little ovens we call houses) and then BAM mud puddle. Awesome. I now have mud all over my birkinstocks and my feet. Hellen stopped while I pulled random leaves off of plants along the path to try and wipe off the mud…all in vain. I was just spreading the mud. Ok whatever, I’ll figure it out when we get there. If stepping in a mud puddle is the worst thing that happens today – I’m golden.

We get to the main road and a chapa pulls up right then. Score. Unfortunately the chapa is “full” … and I’m including the quotation marks because there is rarely a chapa whose driver doesn’t think he can actually squeeze a few more people in. He waves us in, and I somehow ended up in an incredibly awkward backwards facing squat where I was sitting on some mans feet and leaning on another ones knees  - all while 18 people are staring right at me. No big, totally normal. We’re on the road! Then I realize that this squat-move I’ve got going on is putting my muddy feet in much closer proximity to, well, my entire body. Nothing I can do about it now…. Also, around this time, I realize  there are a bunch of teenage boys on here with me and that this is most likely their first encounter with the new American teachers they’ve been hearing about. What up kids.

We finally make it to our stop and have another good 10 minute walk to our school. Now I’m seeing the effects to the traveling mud which is all over my legs (Helen points out that the mud really stands out on my white skin….sweet).  Dom Bosco Escola Profesional is – in typical Mozambican fashion – running a few minutes late for this morning meeting, so I had some time to work on the mud situation. All of the students were lined up waiting for the assembly to start when Padre Pedro (the director of the school) started speaking. He talked a little about the school year and how we are going to work on punctuality (….) and whatnot. And that we’re here today to clean the school ground and meet the American teachers. We gave a quick introduction and they sent us off with the first year students to do some “work.”

Apparently, this meant that we were going to weed the entire school grounds….which were covered in thick grass up to my waist. Clearly, this is why every student came prepared with his own hoe. Why wouldn’t you show up the first day of 8^th grade with a hoe? Anyways, I got stuck with the first year welding students and led off to a patch of land.  They lined up and got to working, clearing all the grass and weeds. I asked if I could help and they gave me a little row with weed with my hands.  Thank God the kid next to me knew that I wasn’t sure what I was doing and stopped me from pulling out some bushes (that were there on purpose) or grabbing onto thorny plants (which I inevitably did anyways a few minutes later).  Then they told me we HAD to do this because there are just too many snakes out here with the grass like this.  Cool, I love snakes…..absolutely not I’m terrified of snakes. After about thirty minutes we were all good and sweaty but making some good progress. About this time I started to get a lot “Teacher go to the shadows”…. Meaning they wanted me to stop working and go stand my little white-self in the shade.  Which I did. And had lots of time to chat with one of the civil construction professors who is a super cool guy. I’d go back and work for as long as I thought I could get away with before they told be to return to the “shadows”. 

After we had cleared our patch of land, and called roll again, I got a big “teacher you are free. See you tomorrow”  (sidenote, people really want to learn English and will talk to me in English even if I ask them to speak Portuguese so I can practice….so then I just stand my ground and speak Portuguese back to their English. It seems to work actually).   Apparently for the next 2 weeks, we’re just weeding and cleaning the school.  So Helen and I did the 40 minute trek home in the heat of the day (sweet tan lines), rewarded ourselves with a cold coke and some Jenny cookies and then promptly passed out in our beds.

And there you have it kids. First day of school, Mozambican edition. I’ll keep you posted on when school (classes) actually start.

Mr toads wild ride

So, I was returning from a little visit to Kayunda (Hannah’s site) this week – and had quite the ride home .  There I am, stuffed into the back seat of a full chapa (chapas are vans – about the size of the airport shuttle vans –that serve as “public transportaion”………I’m using that term very loosely because there are no maps or designated stops).  It’s a full chapa, so there are roughly 23 people in this van.  In fact, its so full that the cobrador (the guy who takes the money) is literally riding on the outside of the van – standing on the ledge and holding on through the window. So,  we’re cruising along through the mountains – man riding on ouside- and we stop to pick up some extra “cargo.” This cargo happens to be about 30 live chickens tied together in buddles by their feet. And where to do the chickens get to ride? Under the back seat, of course. Directly under my seat. So in go the squawking chickens (they, also, are not pleased with this arrangement) and away we go.  We’re zipping through these mountains pretty fast, maybe 50 or 60 miles an hour, and the chickens start to slide around under my seat. Fabulous. They start flapping into the back of my legs and I freak out. I squeeled and tried to jerk around to avoid the angry chickens, but I can barely fit my knees in the row because of the seat in front of me. (Keep in mind there is only one other woman on this chapa and I’m definitely the only white person there  - so they’re all pretty shocked to see me anyways.) Luckily, after the guys I was sitting next to finished laughing at the little white girl who was scared of the chickens, they reached down and tried to shove the chickens back under the seat. 

T.I.A.

virtual tour....sort of.....

living room

hallway

view from one of my bedroom windows

opening our stockings christmas morning

that tree was a christmas miracle

stop being so cute!! (Juno, Jack...he's the alpha male, daisy and bruno)

Random Happy things from this week....

Things that have made the past few days particularly exceptional.

1.     Pineapples appeared at the market! Just in time, seeing as I was beginning to mourn the end of mango season. They’re tiny (which makes them cute) and so so sweet…

2.    
      Padre Ricardo told us that he’s bringing us a freezer! Right now, we have nothing – so any kind of cooling device is much appreciated. Ice cubes, here we come.

3.    
      We went to play with some local kids (about 60 of them) yesterday with some Chilean volunteers. And let me tell you. Nothing boosts your mood like being treated like a rock star by a swarm of children jumping to kiss your cheeks.
      
      Janet and Luc (two Moz14 PCVs) are returning to Tete today from the states…. And bringing one of my Christmas presents from home with them! (I know what it is – a Kindle. So. Excited.)
 I    
       I have talked to 4 friends on the phone! Thanks for dishing out the money on skype kids. Not you Delevan, I know your parents got stuck with the bill…