Dia de Cidade

Tete City celebrated its 52 year this March. These are pictures from the festa in the city.  Then men covered in feathers/mud/masks are respected (and feared) members of community because they chase away any evil spirits. However, they also come out on special occasions just to dance....although it was still a little scary!

Gnous (sp?) dancing for the celebration

More dancing slash scaring children

Some of my students and me having some ice cream in the city

Hike to river in Angonia

Mountains and flowers

Why we needed to get IN the flowers?....not sure

Soccer Pics

campo de futebol. Dom Bosco

Soccer tournament

Crispen. Pre PK (they win, btw)

Helen and I, after the girls game

Liar liar pants on fire.

This week, Helen and I are giving our first exams for English classes. And on account of my poor planning, I’m also giving biology exams as well.  SO. Before I get into my tales of this exhausting week, there are a few things you need to know. First, Mozambique has a notoriously bad school system (hence why Peace Corps education volunteers are here).   It’s not uncommon for teachers to simply not show up to teach a class…if they do show up, they will likely just write some stuff on the board and then leave. So when they give exams to their classes, the students often go un-proctored…which obviously leaves them to their notebooks and homemade cheat sheets and their neighbors test. Secondly, any kind of forethought or planning is essentially unheard of in any aspect of Mozambican life. For example. You eat the last piece of bread on Saturday morning. Now, you know that you can NOT buy bread on Sunday, and will have to wait til Monday to buy more bread. Do you go Saturday afternoon to buy bread for Sunday? Of course you don’t.  You wake up Sunday morning (sans breakfast) and then ask your neighbors for food. SO. You have an English test tomorrow. Do you study? Absolutely not. You rip out a sheet of paper from your English notebook (just hoping that’s the information you will need) and stuff it in your pocket – and BAM you get an A.

This is where Helen and I come in. All of our students were informed a week in advance of the test. We reviewed all of the material to be covered on the test. They were specifically told that they would NOT cheat. So, Monday morning we show up to tag team these kids (ie we sat in on each others classes so that there were 4 eyes on the kids).  Walk into the classroom – “take out a sheet of paper, you have a test” (average, they know this drill). And then we flipped the switch. “All backpacks to the front of the room” (shocked faces all around) and “I want every English notebook on my desk” (panic). Then, I write 2 different tests on the board – test A and test B- and walk around the room and write A or B with a pink marker on their papers….now, their neighbor doesn’t have the same test as them (hearts are breaking).  They start working, and we move around the room to make sure everyone has clean hands/arms and that there are no “suspect” pieces of paper. 

I must admit. I’ve been very impressed with how adamant these kids are in their cheating.  I now look for any awkward sitting positions (I removed 11 notebooks that kids were sitting on) any wallet that is in plain view (cheat sheets hidden where a drivers license should be),  shirts that appear more bulky than normal (stuffed in there).  You name it, they’ve thought of it. And normally, they get away with it. 

Luckily, all but one of my classes had passing averages…and I’m pretty sure that we (they) have realized that we (they) need to study a little more

I can't sleep past 5 A.M.

(Real) classes at Dom Bosco Escola Professional started three weeks ago – and that has been a game changer to say the least. I start my day at 5 am (which conveniently is before the majority of you at home are in bed). When I see the sun rise over the cornfields out my bedroom window. School starts at 7 …which means I have to be out the front door no later than 6 if I want to fight my way onto a chapa for the 15 minute drive. A 40 minute commute might not sound like that much – but when (I could be making this statistic up …but seriously) 85% of the education PCVs here live on, or right next to their school, its pretty insane. The price we pay to lead the city life here in Moatize I suppose… Anyways, it goes something like this: Out the door… Dogs in the yard… goats.... women carrying HUGE baskets of market goods on their heads…. Over the railroad tracks…. goats…. pack of toddlers that greet us every morning…. Pigs…piglets (shockingly cute, btw)…dogs chasing goats and/or piglets….chapa stop. And the waiting begins.

Here we generally meet up with some of our students who (unless they’re in danger of being late) try to get us good seats on the chapa. God-willing the chapa doesn’t break down, we take off: Drive through some coalmines…. drive along side the Rovubwe river (comes from the Zambezi)…. Get stopped by a herd of cattle roaming across the road…. Cross the river (people are already there bathing/washing things)…. Hope that I don’t miss the crocodile sightings (twice in one week I missed them!)…. Past the airport…arrive in Matema.

Safely off the chapa and across the street, we walk to the next bairro (neighborhood), Matundo. There are already tons of women out selling little cookies and doughnut type things and occasionally men drinking who will inevitably yell at us (I mean, come on, its 6:40 am on a Tuesday and you’re having a beer?).

And then, we arrive. Helen and I prettyyyy much stick out like crazy in the sea of 15-19 year old Mozambican boys, all wearing olive green uniforms. We flood into the school with the rest of the kids and teachers and convene around a big rock in the back of school. Here, the kids line up by turma (homeroom) to get their daily pep talk from the school director or another professor. This part is pretty boring – UNLESS (like yesterday) a snake makes its way into the crowd and causes mass chaos OR someone passes out (twice in a month? Is anyone concerned about this?). Regardless, pep talk, BREAK.

Then the real work begins.......attempting to corral, control, and (hopefully) teach a room of 40 17-year old boys.

Let the games begin

Just an average Friday

So, the sports committee (which, yours truly is a member of) planned a school wide soccer tournament for this Friday and Saturday. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting (lie. I was expecting it to start 3 hours late and for half of the people not to show up), but I LOVED it. As soon as the morning assembly was over, 2nd year students started their games. I had to teach an English class first, but when I made it over to the field it was, what can only be described as, madness. Someone had brought speakers, so techno music was blaring (typical Mozambique….although the techno remix of “its raining men” was a new addition) as kids played on the dirt field. Obviously, this is not the kind of thing that gets uniforms – so half of the boys had their shirts flipped over their heads.

Let me take this time to comment on Mozambican fashion…. Most of the clothes people here wear are cast offs from America. So when some random church collects clothes to send to the poor kids in Africa … this is where they come. ALSO. There is absolutely zero gender issues with cloths. So you’re a 16 year old boy and you want to wear a lavender baby-tee that says “Greek goddess”? Go for it. You’re a first year auto mechanic student and you have a hot pink Barbie backpack? No shame. Feel like wearing swim trunks? Do it. Pokeman tank top (why?)? Put it on. Also lacking in the way of equipment : shoes. About half of the kids played barefoot. Some wore just socks…a (very) few had real shoes. My personal favorites were the kids who wore totally barefoot EXCEPT for one shoe (that one hot pink high top converse is totally helping). Meanwhile, the kids who had already lost (cough cough all of the carpenters) were posted up at the speakers just dancing their little hearts out. Add this to the list of things I love about these kids: all of a sudden, some part of a song will get to a kid and he just can’t fight the urge to dance. It’s like lightning. You’ll just see a crowd of kids standing around talking and then BAM one of them is just going nuts. It happened to one of my favorite first year students while he was playing today… apparently his techno jam came on and he just completely stopped playing to have a little dance break. And let me tell you, these people can moveeee. They are putting every goofy white-person dance to shame! I’ll video it some time so yall can see it, because seriously, its incredible.

I hope you’re getting an idea of what kind of sports fan I am – seeing as I have described everything BUT the actual sporting event. Honestly, I was really impressed with all of my students. They are incredible athletes and they were so into the games – plus, it was great team building for the turmas. So I cheered for all of my kids, who would run off the field and want to wave at me (so.cute.).

I “breakfasted” with some of my first year kids. They made me wash my hands and then presented me with about 7 packed Tupperware containers of homemade Mozambican food which they insisted I eat (no complaints there). I fielded an endless number of “teacher I want to visit your house in Moatize,” (tell me when you’re coming) “teacher do you know lil wayne,” (I’ve already told you, no) and “teacher tomorrow you will play with us?” (apparently yes).

After I had a Fanta with some professors, I was given very explicit instruction to return at 7 am on Saturday to play in the Meninas game (don’t worry, I saw them play today…I’ll be fine). Side note; I’m SO proud of my girls. There are only about 30 girls at our school and they’re really holding their own. I’m just thrilled they’re here and still in school. So if I can make a fool out of myself and play soccer with them – just to let them know that they can do it too…done and done.

T.T.I. (Travel, Teaching & Illness)

I’m blaming travel, teaching and illness for not posting sooner. BUT. Since you last heard from me, here’s what’s been going on….

- I had a draft beer for the first time since September…thank you Sundowners and all of the South African ex-pats who also like cold draft beer.
- I had an amazingggg time in Chimoio (a city about 6 hours south of Tete) with all of the Central PCVs. There were about 25 of us there, which translates into – we did some hardcore crashing on the floors of volunteers houses. Chimoio is like a real city – it has different kinds of restaurants and bars. Saturday night, we had a scavenger hunt at a few bars in town where we took pictures and videos of things like “teaching the bartender how to make an American cocktail” or “a Mozambican defining a scientific term”….”the entire team in the air” …. You get the picture (HA). The entire thing culminated in a dance party at a bar which we fondly refer to as Rainforest Café – because…well… the two places are strikingly similar.
- We had our first real “boleia” experience getting back to Tete (boleia-ing is essentially like hitch-hiking…. Now, before you freak out (mom), this is a common and generally accepted form of travel here. There aren’t that many cars here as it is – so sometimes you just have to stick out you little hand and ask for a ride). Anyways, one back of a pick-up, one semi, 3 chapas and 12 hours later we made it back to Tete. Lessons learned here: wear sunscreen, there is not much traffic on Sunday, travel lightly….absolutely not recommended in a “post bar scavenger” hunt state.
- I taught my first class….well…. technically I missed my very first class (my school changed the schedule without telling me) but regardless, real teaching has begun!!
- I am now part of the athletics committee at my school. Totally serious. Me and the other young, athletic male professors are the committee. I, apparently, am there for the meninas (girls) and have now been roped into refereeing a school wide soccer tournament.
- I got crazyyy sick. Let me tell you, dysentery is not something to mess with! Any disease that kills players on “Oregon trail” should be avoided. Bottom line, I didn’t/couldn’t get out of bed for about 48 hours (accept, of course, to run to the bathroom…..thank GOD for the our relatively civilized housing situation. Oh, and Helen. Thank God for Helen). On day three, I started on antibiotics, which allowed me to eat something and take a bath, but did not stop me from sleeping approximately 20 hours a day. I’m feeling much better now, btw!