Mocambique Nossa Terra Gloriosa...

My school. 9 classrooms. 3000 students.

We are now PROS at collecting water.

Bat on sharpies.

Different bat in our dish washing bucket =/

Since the last time I’ve had a chance to write, the biggest change over here in Mozambique is that school has started. I knew I was coming to teach biology, what I didn’t know was that it was only going to be a sliver of my work load. I am spending most of my time teaching physics and English.
I agreed to teach English because I figured, ‘hey, I speak that language and I was teaching kids to read English before I came, how hard can it be?’ It has proven to be waaay harder than I could have imagined. Teaching kids English as a second language is tough. It requires a certain level of patience that I just don’t have. Honestly, without my experience before coming to the Peace Corps, I don’t think I would have been very effective. Luckily, I learned some tricks at the Cullinan Education Center that have turned out to be life savers.
Physics is by far the biggest challenge. The main reason is because I have zero physics supplies. The only thing the school supplies is chalk. I bought a textbook in Nampula City so I could at least know physics words in Portuguese. This may sound helpful, but Mozambican textbooks are loaded with wrong information, misspelled words, and are extremely disorganized. My lifeline has been Portuguese Wikipedia, which really just makes me laugh. Another challenge is trying teach topics that require calculations to kids that don’t have a solid foundation in basic math. To be fair, this is a generalization, but because of it I have spent too much class time reteaching decimals. (It has kind of been a blessing in disguise because it has helped me clear up one very important thing in my mind. They use periods were we put commas and vice versa, and it took a little bit of time before it started to look correct).
Teaching biology is lovely. I am teaching 11th grade, which is the grade where kids can either choose to do arts or science. The students in my class are serious and love science. They participate, ask great questions, and are a breath of fresh air on a long day. As a secondary project, I am going to do the science fair. I can’t wait to get them all involved and see what they are really capable of!!!
We just finished week 5 of school, and our first round of tests. My English scores were all over the place. I am absolutely thrilled, though, because the average suggests that I may actually be doing a good job! =) Biology went even better! They are understanding the information and me!!! I guess that is the best part. I am able to convey what I want to about biology in Portuguese!! Woo hoo! I have no idea how my physics students did yet, because their ungraded tests are sitting in a pile on my chair. I’m scared for two reasons: 1. I have no idea if they understood a word I said and 2. I have 4 classes of 100+ students to grade (it’s a BIG pile).
On a completely different note, Esther and I seem to have a big problem with anything that ends in –at. At least two times each week, we get bats in our house at night. They come in through this chimney-ish opening in our back room. We open the doors and wait outside for them to leave. It’s not so bad, minus we get bit to death by mosquitos while we are out there. Bats also looove to hang out in our latrine hole. Going to the bathroom at night when they are flying around has become too difficult. We have resorted to going outside after dark. Our other problem is with a gigantic rat. It loves our veggies, spices, bread, etc. We are looking into getting a cat to help us with this problem.
My roommate Esther is wonderful. It is seriously like the Peace Corps did extensive research before they put us together. She cooks, I clean. We both LOVE games: board, dice, cards, etc. We are both obsessed with the same TV shows. The list goes on and on. She has started teaching me Korean, and it is amazing!!! I have mastered the vowels and consonants and have set a goal for myself: if I can master reading and conversational Korean by the time I am done here, I want to move to Korea for a year!!!
I miss you all like crazy!! Keep writing, it is always great to hear from all of you! I keep getting called “popular” because you guys are great at writing, but I just don’t think anyone understands how big my family is and how wonderful my friends are!! =)
Beijitos, Vonnie