After 2 months of being MIA, I am finally writing a
blogpost!
My
crazy short semester
So
this semester was filled with many interesting things all of which I will get
to in this post. The first thing I must
tell you thought is that this semester has been a crazy one when it comes to
teaching. The ministry of education in
Mozambique moved the scheduled two week break that is at the end of the
trimester up by 2 weeks midway through the trimester. This effectively turned a 12 week trimester
into a 10 week trimester and if that doesn’t seem short enough for you they
scheduled exams on the third to last week of school effectively reducing the
amount of time that I was able to spend inside a class room teaching to about 7
weeks. Way to go Mozambican education system. This had a sort of ripple effect on my life
here in Mangunde. For the entire
trimester I was operating on a condensed amount of time so the 10 weeks of the
trimester seemed to fly by with one event after another.
The
first event that I had the trimester was something called a “troca de
experiencia’ which is na ‘exchange of experience’
between REDES groups from different schools.
So, on June 23 a school about 3.5 hours away came with 15 REDES girls
and a couple of awesome Peace Core friends of mine and we had a party here in
Mangunde! The group from Machanga
performed a dance for the girls in Mangunde and the girls in Mangunde put on a
theater performance and a musical performance for the girls in Machanga. All the performances had a HIV/AIDS related
theme and the weekend was filled with dancing, laughing and making friends. It was also very exciting because a friend
of mine traveled for 2 days to see me and my friend Mac in Mangunde and we were
all joined by the fanstic Williams duo from Mapinhane ( a married couple who
live about 3 hours south of me). This of
course added a whole other dynamic to the weekend. Spending the weekend with good friends,
hanging out with the girls in my REDES group and watching them meet new people,
and spending time running around trying to make sure everything works out made
for an eventful but wonderful weekend. I
can honestly say that June 23 and 24 was probably my most memorable days in
Peace Core today and I would trade them for the world.
Since
the beginning of the second trimester I have been having meetings on Sunday afternoons
trying to get people interested (and get those interested working on) science
fair projects. The Peace Core about 5 or
6 years ago started having provincial science fairs to try to get kids more
interested in the sciences and technology and in Mangunde at least it has
turned into a big deal! On June 30
Mangunde held its annual science fair (coordinated by yours truly with some
wonderful advice and help from my roommate Ian) and it was a huge success! We had 18 students participate in the fair and
present their projects. Each student was required to stand up and give a 5-6
minute presentation about their experiment and I am happy to say they all did a
great job. However words can’t tell you
how wonderful it was to finish up the local science fair and put it behind
me. There were 6 winners for the science fair (1
and 2nd in different age groups and 2 different schools) and we are
all looking forward to the provincial science fair which will be happening next
semester in Beira(the capital of the province I live in).
After
the trimester ended a bunch of my friends and I decided that it would be
awesome if we walked from my site (Mangunde, Sofala) to our friends site in
Dombe Manica for a quick 4th of July party before the majority of us
went up to some conferences that we had in Chimoio. The journey was every bit of 100km (62 miles
more or less) and was a grand adventure that I will never do again. We walked into some of the most rural parts
of Mozambique and by the end of the first day I had the two biggest blisters I
have ever had on my two feet. (and I run marathons!!!) They appeared right on the balls on my feet
and turned me into a grumpy, injured old man for the last 2 hours of our walk
to rich Alberto’s sister’s house.
(Alberto a colleague of mine from Mangunde who works with both Ian and I
on many different projects, he is a wonderful person and diamond in the rough
so to speak here in Mozambique). When we
finally arrived at our destination just after dusk on Friday night all 8 of us
were pooped but excited to be able to chill for a few day in Dombe! (Except for
my 9th grade student who decided to tag along and did the whole journey
barefoot! That kid showed us all up.)
After
spending a day or two in Dombe, Mac and I went up had a brief visit with a
another Peace Core friend of ours, Jamie, at her beautiful site in Sussendenga
, after spending only a single night there Alberto, Mac, and I grabbed a
chapa up to Chimoio to start our Project
Management and Design (PDM)training.
Alberto was my counterpart for this training and we spent the next 3
days planning out a project that we would like to do in Mangunde. These three
days included LOTS of eating, running water, and a hot shower, and me getting
really excited about our project. The
project is in its infancy but if all goes according to plan Alberto and I will
build a community center that has a focus on HIV/AIDS and has a supply of books
to act as a library. There is a lot of
planning left to do with it but at this point it seems very possible! (more to
come!)
So
after the PDM conference I stayed right in Chimoio to help my friend Emily (the
volunteer who lives in Chimoio) plan a huge REDES workshop here in
Chimoio. The workshop was a 3 day
course were a bunch of girls from the surrounding provinces get together and
are given classes on self-esteem, communication, HIV/AIDS, Male and female
Biology, Sex education, and setting goals for the future. I thought the conference went very well and
I enjoyed working with Emily and the other Peace Core volunteers to make it
happen.
So now
I am here again after talking about the last two months trying to come up with
some way to describe how I feel after almost 10 months here in Mozambique. The last few months have been hectic and
these next 3 months are sure to be even busier. I find myself missing a lot of things about
home these days while at the same time finding myself adjusting to a whole new
level to the way of life here in Mozambique.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed my blog and I promise to be a little more on
top of writing blogs this trimester so that I don’t fall behind so much on my
experiences. (It’s hard to to a summary
of the past 2 months in a single afternoon here at my laptop) I hope all is going well, Lot’s of love from
AFRICA!!! <3
