Casamento Moçambicano



Bride and Groom during the wedding Ceremony

 Last Saturday, Sarah and I went to our first Mozambican wedding!  The wedding was held at the gospel church in Messica where Sarah has been to a few times with our friends Otilia and Flora.  I had never been to the church since whenever I'm in Messica on a Sunday I go to the Catholic Church.  So this was my first time in an African church other than the Catholic church.  We arrived a little late because Sarah was at a school meeting and I was laying in bed trying to get over a pretty nasty cold. Sidenote: having a cold/being sick in Africa is just misery. 

Greeting line outside the church

When Sarah got home from school, I decided that even though I still wasn't feeling so great I couldn't pass up going to the wedding, so we put on our dresses and headed to the church.  When we arrived there were a ton of people standing outside of the church, and people were literally overflowing from  the church with crowds around both the entrances to the church.  We made our way up to the doors to see what was going on.  There was lots of singing and dancing, and little else was visible.  We were beckoned outside and over to some people to hand over the wedding cake that Sarah made to offer to the bride and groom.  We were then told to wait there while they went in the overcrowded church to find us some seats.  We insisted that we didn't need seats and we could just stand in the back, but they just weren't having that.   A few short minutes later, we were being escorted through the crowd to a bench that clearly had been vacated for us.  (I wish I could say that this special treatment doesn't happen often, but that would simply be untrue.  It bothers me but at the same time I know people are just trying to be nice and considerate, even though it makes us feel isolated and awkward.)

Making their way to the car.



The singing entourage of the newlyweds.

 The ceremony lasted for about another hour after we arrived.  It was a tiny church, probably about a third of the size of my church in Messica.  And it was hot.  And crowded.  And hot.  And did I mention hot?  Yet none of these things stopped the dancing, singing, and rejoicing that was going on in that church.  When I look beyond the pounding headache and slight feeling like I was going to pass out, it was seriously awesome and I feel beyond blessed to have witnessed it.  That being said, it would have been a lot more enjoyable without a cold.


Two of my students, Olivio and Tone.



One of the things I found interesting about the ceremony is that the wedding cake was at the church, and the cutting of the cake was part of the ceremony.  After the bride and groom feeding each other pieces of cake, they cut and passed out bite-sized pieces for everyone in the church.  I don't really know what the significance of the cake is, but it was delicious so I wasn't complaining.



After the wedding, the bride and groom made their way to a car and the dancers from the wedding along with many wedding-goers piled into a truck to sing celebratory songs and accompany the newlyweds to Casa Msika where they would take their wedding photos (I found this out after the fact.  I was honestly really confused about where they were going  and why they were gone for so long).  We then made our way to the pastor's house where the reception would be  held.  There were ladies from the church (including our friend Flora and Otilia) that didn't go to the wedding and had been cooking all morning.  There were at least 150-200 wedding-goers that showed up to the reception to eat, so the ladies had their work cut out for them.  There were some tables and chairs set up (but not nearly enough for  everyone).  There was also a drum set and keyboard set up which were the first of their kinds that I've seen in over 8 months.  Exciting things, people!



Reception site.



Otilia with the cake Sarah made (center) and a lot of batatas fritas!

Dininha! If you say she isn't the cutest, you're wrong.

Cows...why wouldn't there be cows at the reception?



:)



Waiting for the bride and groom to arrive.  Check out Martins in this picture. Hahahaha.

About a half hour after arriving at the reception, I was surprised to be served lunch even though the bride and groom had not yet arrived.  We were each served a heaping plate of spaghetti, rice, beef, salad, french fries, and little biscuit type cookies.  Sarah and I decided to split one plate and it's a good thing we did, because with both of us eating we couldn't even finish the plate.  Ridiculous.

When the food was served, the offerings of gifts started.  They started even before the bride and groom arrived.  There was a man with a microphone who received all the gifts on behalf  of the couple and announced each gift.  Lots of people gave money, but there were also other gifts as well.  There were many processions and dances with the gifts. It was just super interesting and very different to see.  I suppose it's much more meaningful to give gifts when you live in a country where you don't have very much in the first place.

The first group of dancers (Messica).

The majority of the dancing at the reception was done by 2 groups of dancers.  There was one group that came from Beira to dance at the wedding.  They performed choreographed dances to different songs.  There was also another group from Messica.  Personally, I think the Messica group was better (and EVERYONE wanted to know my opinion) but I also am a little biased.  The dancing was awesome, and it was the main event of the reception.

Dininha dancing with the group from Beira.

Best dressed at the wedding.  Chased this kid down to get his picture. :)

Students.

Sarah and I were also extremely popular at the reception because we had these magic machines that we like to call cameras.  Mozambicans are crazy for pictures.  Kids were following me around in a huge posse.  Students were like, “Teacher, take a picture of me over here....now over here...”  Seriously outrageous.  They also want to film everything.  No joke, everything.  I was sitting with two students while eating dinner and they were like, “teacher, you shoud film right now.”  I legitimately just looked at them like...what?  What would I even film?   I looked at them and said, “guys...there's nothing to film right now.”  They looked around, shrugged their shoulders, and reluctantly agreed that there wasn't much going on.  Sorry guys, I'm not trying to have hours of footage of people sitting around.  No thank you.



Sarah, Otilia, and I



Us with the bride and groom.



Criancas!



Our friend Flora (far left) and her family



Sarah dancing....can't pick her out or anything...

I'm really glad I went, even though I paid for it when my cold got a little bit worse on Sunday.  Oh well.  You only live once, right? :)  So now I've been to one Mozambican wedding.  Can't wait for the next one!

And then it was June...

I don't know how this is all happening so fast. We are on to the second half of the second trimester, meaning that the school year is halfway over. I have been in Messica just about 6 months and in Mozambique over 8 months. My family will be coming to visit in less than 6 months and then I will be home for Christmas. It is seriously insane to think about. My Peace Corps service is just about a third of the way over. What?

Things have been pretty busy here as last week was testing week (and grading week) and this week starts a new section of material. In 5 more weeks the dreaded provincial exams will be upon us again (God, help me) and then we will have a two week break from school in which I will be attending a Peace Corps conference and visiting some Peace Corps friends. Other events that are coming up include a Mozambican wedding next Saturday in Messica (blog to come about that, I'm sure), a trip to Malawi in a few weeks, and ultimately the JUNTOS workshop that we're hosting in Messica at the end of June.

Although my JUNTOS group has kind of been a failure, the group that already exists at the school as a culture group is eager to participate in the initiative, which ends up working out quite well. The goal of JUNTOS is to have these groups independent of volunteers, and conveniently enough this group in Messica is already functioning quite well without me. So my focus right now is planning the workshop for the end of the month which is a quite a lot of work (especially when you're trying to organize things in a country you've been in for 8 months and in Portuguese). Students will be coming from 5 different schools in the province of Manica to spend the whole weekend here in Messica and discuss different issues regarding health, gender equality, self esteem, and other relevant topics. I have arranged some ladies from the Catholic church to come to the school and do all of our cooking for the weekend. I will be going into Chimoio with them to buy most of the supplies in a couple of weeks. Overall the planning is going pretty well, and hopefully the weekend will go off without a hitch.

Besides planning the JUNTOS workshop, I have been busy with school and church. Last month was the month of Mary, so I was at the church at least 4 days a week in the evenings after school to teach the ladies how to make rosaries. We have almost finished all of the 6 rolls of rosary twine sent from the states, and am trying to find a supplier of something from here we can use which is proving to be pretty difficult. As I already mentioned last week was testing week, which was pretty stressful because there was no power at the school to make copies, so I ended up having to go to Manica to print the tests. I accidently told the guy printing the wrong number of copies so I was about 20 copies short. It was quite an adventure, and I honestly hope to never be that stressed out again on a testing day. All of my students told me that my test was really hard, and their scores confirmed that, although one student in my letras turma only missed one question out of 25, so I'll count that as a win. Also a colleague told me she heard my students talking about me. She said they said, “Professora Ana is a good teacher, but she's really strict when it comes to tests.” Can't even tell you how happy that makes me.

Oh! Also I would like to welcome the 20th group of volunteers to Moz!  They arrived last week and are now in Namaacha for their ten weeks of training.  It feels like yesterday I was in their shoes.  Insane!  Anyway, it's super weird not to be the newbies in country. So excited to meet them all!

Life's just been rollin' along and it doesn't seem like it'll be slowing down anytime soon.

Weekend in Namaacha!

Last weekend, I went back to Namaacha where I did my homestay from September to December upon arriving in Mozambique. I had been missing them a lot and decided that five months was too long without seeing them. On Thursday after class I headed to Chimoio, and attempted (and failed) to stay up all night because the bus to Maputo left from Chimoio at 4 am. I called a taxi at 3:30, and boarded the full bus to Maputo.

This was my longest distance traveled so far in Mozambique and also my first lone traveling adventure in Mozambique. To say that I went in without any doubts or worries would be a lie. My trip down was pretty uneventful. The best part about a bus full of Mozambicans traveling is when they need a bathroom break, they just stop the bus on the side of the road, and you do your business right there, in front of God and everyone (sometimes they will tell guys to go toward the front of the bus and women to go behind the bus…but on my way down that wasn’t the case). They tried to consolidate these stops (we stopped maybe 5-6 times in 16 hours), but honestly the whole ordeal just made me think of my mother. If you don’t know that story, you should ask her. It’s pretty great. (Mom, you will be really comfortable with bathroom breaks in Mozambique…)

I arrived in Maputo around 8 on Friday night, and waited in the bus station for my host sister, Nucha, to come find me. The problem was that the bus station is huge, and there was absolutely no good way to describe the exact location where I was. I mean, obviously as a white person I stand out, but she had no idea where I was in the huge bus station in Maputo and I had no idea what to tell her. And meanwhile I was getting creeped on by every taxi driver in the vicinity. It was awesome. But eventually we decided to both walk to the building that was in sight for both of us, and I finally found her! After figuring out the situation for getting my ticket back for Monday, Nucha’s boyfriend, Abel, drove us to her apartment in Matola (which is about 20 minutes outside of Maputo toward Namaacha). After a quick dinner, I went to sleep in a room that Nucha’s landlord had pre-arranged for me which was such a nice and unexpected gesture.

The next morning, Nucha and I got up, ate breakfast, and headed to Namaacha. We got on a chapa with a bunch of Catholics heading to Namaacha for the weekend’s festivities. The weekend that I visited Namaacha was a celebration of Mary in the church and there were over 50,000 people that traveled to Namaacha for the occasion. They prayed the rosary the whole way to Namaacha, and Nucha and I gladly joined in. Basically I’m getting to be a beast at the prayers in Portuguese because I’ve been at the church 3-4 nights a week praying and teaching the ladies of the church in Messica how to make rosaries (highlight of my days). 

When we arrived in Namaacha, after stopping to say hi to some of Nucha’s friends, I passed my host mom who happily greeted me on the main road, and then eventually I was home! I left my stuff in my old room, and sat down for a while to catch up with my family. That’s when I got to see the main attraction: Walmer! He is now about 19 months, and he got even cuter since December (as if that’s possible…). It took him all of 5 minutes to get over his shyness, and then it was all fun and games and adorableness. I can’t even describe how great it was to hear him screech out “Ana!” and demand things of me like “Ana! Anda ca!” (Anna! Come here!). It makes my heart happy just thinking about it. He now loves to play, but also thinks it’s hilarious to hit and pinch…so basically that stage in “playing” is universal. Seeing him and my family in Namaacha definitely made the long trip worth it, even though I would be spending as much time on a bus throughout the weekend than I actually spent in Namaacha. Maybe more. Oh well.

On Saturday night, my mae and I headed to the church for a mass and a procession around Namaacha. It was always kind of chilly in Namaacha when we were there during training, which was summertime here in Mozambique, but it is now winter. So to say I was a little cold would be an understatement. I think Mozambique has changed me. It was probably 50 degrees. I had a sweatshirt and a fleece on and I really wanted gloves. And then it started raining. But the plus side was that I got communion, got to hang out with my mae, and got to see some of my fellow volunteer’s host parents at the church. I also gave my mae, sisters, and some of the other ladies from church rosaries I made and they absolutely loved them. It was a good, albeit long and cold night. Also on the trek home I almost wiped out approximately 10 times in the mud. I do not miss that Namaacha matopi…

Sunday morning I woke up, hung out, played with Walmer, and eventually started walking around and greeting the host families of all my neighbors during training. I had lunch about 3 times that day because everywhere I went they wanted to give me food. It was great to see them, hug them, and tell them all about Messica. I think my mae was really proud and happy that I cared enough to come all the way from Manica to visit them…but I couldn’t help it. They were a bomb family, how could I not visit?!

Sunday after lunch came the time to say goodbye and head back to Matola for the night to stay in Nucha’s apartment and be driven by Abel back to Maputo at 3 am to catch my bus. We waited for a while to try to get a chapa out of Namaacha, and when we finally got one, we ended up getting off a few minutes later because Nucha had found us a different ride that was free. After waiting for another 20 minutes, our ride picked us up and we were on our way. When we were approaching Matola it was nearing 6 o’clock and Nucha got a phone call from Abel. After they finished their conversation, she turned to me and asked me if I could sleep on the bus. I told her that I could and I had slept on the bus on the way down here, thinking that she meant we would be staying up all night doing something. What she actually meant is that Abel’s car wasn’t functioning properly, so we would go to the bus station that night and I would literally spend the night on the bus.

We went back to Nucha’s apartment briefly for me to change my clothes and get organized, and immediately headed out to try to get to Maputo. The problem was, it was already dark, the chapa stop was full of about 20 or more people, and the few chapas that were passing us were already stuffed full of people. Basically, they would stop, a couple more people would attempt to squeeze on the already stuffed chapa, and then they would drive off struggling to shut the door. After about 2 or 3 failed attempts to get on a chapa, another one came up and Nucha pushed me to the front, yelling me to get on the chapa. I somehow managed to get it and kind of sit down, and she somehow also managed to get on. A very uncomfortable 20 minutes later, we got to another chapa stop, where the chapa we were on would drop us off and we would have to get on another one to actually get into Maputo. This chapa stop was bigger, busier, and a lot scarier in the dark. After waiting about 15 minutes, a bus pulled up that was going into Maputo. The bus was stuffed full of people. No joke, I didn’t think one more person could fit on it. And within seconds of the bus pulling up, there were at least 20 people swarming the doors trying to squeeze themselves in any crevice they could. Nucha was trying for a while too but I was just like…not happening…and decided to stand back and watch the magic happen. I think they squeezed 10 more people on that bus. Seriously, clown bus. It was unreal.

The next bus that pulled up about 10 minutes later, Nucha and I ran for and we were the first ones at the door. A few people got off, so I knew it was feasible that more people could fit on the already cramped bus. She pushed me on first, and squeezed in after me. A few more people weaseled their way in, and we were off. I have honestly never felt so claustrophobic in my life. Zero personal space, zero air to breathe, zero air circulating. Just freaking ridiculous. I was SO happy to get off the bus after the 15 minutes of eternity that I spent questioning my life decisions and what the hell I was doing in Mozambique in the first place. About a 5 minute car ride from Abel later, we were at the bus stop and I was getting on my bus to Chimoio at around 8 pm (6 hours before it was scheduled to leave). Lucky for me, there were many other people that also had no way to get to the bus stop at 3 am, so I was not alone on the bus and I felt completely safe. I slept for a majority of the time, and a few minutes before 3, we pulled out of the bus stop and were on our way. The bus to Chimoio from Maputo was empty compared to my bus on the way down, so it was very spacious and comfortable. The fact that I was on the bus for a full 24 hours made the trip seem really long, but by the time I made it to Chimoio I was just very relieved to see some familiar sights and happy to be up and walking around. I spent Monday night in Chimoio at another volunteer’s house, and left bright and early Tuesday morning in hopes to get back to Messica in time for my 9 o’clock JUNTOS meeting.

I figured when I got to Chimoio that I was home free. Seriously, I go to Chimoio about every other week and never have any trouble getting home. When I got to the chapa stop on Tuesday morning, there was no chapa to Messica there. I was considering taking a chapa to Manica or Machipanda and getting off in Messica, but I had a lot of stuff with me that I didn’t feel like carrying for 30 minutes from the main road all the way home as opposed to the normal 5 minute walk. I decided to wait for the Messica chapa. About 5 minutes later, one rolled up. I got in, sat down, and waited. About an hour later, I was still the only one in the chapa. Another Messica chapa rolled up. I switched chapas and waited about another hour. By this time I had already missed my meeting. Eventually people started filling up the chapa, and about 3 hours after getting to the chapa stop, we finally left for Messica. I was beyond aggravated. But then it got worse. About 15 minutes into our 45 minute trip, we were stopped on the road. All traffic was stopped. Everyone got out of the chapa. There was an accident a few hundred feet in front of us and it was blocking the entire road. So an hour after waiting for the accident to be taken care of, the police finally started to let some of the traffic go by, one car at a time. I arrived in Messica at 11:30 on Tuesday morning. I got to the chapa stop at 6:30 am. So my normal hour trip home took five hours. I got home and almost collapsed from exhaustion, frustration, and my new and annoying cold thanks to cold and rainy Namaacha. I decided that teaching my five straight hours of classes that afternoon would probably not be happening to the best of my ability that day, so I gave Sarah some work to give my students, and spent the day sleeping.

I have decided that I’m glad that I went, but I don’t think I will go again. Especially not for a long, long while. The trip back made me realize just how ridiculous traveling in Mozambique can be, and I don’t think I’ll venture that far from home again for a while.

High Highs, Low Lows

When you're serving in the Peace Corps, your highs are really high, and lows are really low. One day you can love your site, love your students, and love your Peace Corps life, and the next you can curse the day you accepted your invitation to serve. This might sound dramatic (because it is a little dramatic) but really, Peace Corps life isn't easy. You're faced with situations on the daily that the typical American couldn't fathom. You're put out of your comfort zone and forced to make the uncomfortable work for you for your 27 months of service. Some days it doesn't seem worth it. It seems like no matter how hard you try you won't make a difference. Then there are the days that make you realize that it isn't a hopeless cause; that you can truly change lives.

Since arriving in Mozambique I've had some difficult times. Yesterday was one of those times. I planned an activity for my classes. We were learning about exponencials and transformations to the graphs of exponencial functions last week, so I wrote out a different transformation on slips of paper, broke the class into groups, and told them to write out a table and graph the function they got. Later they would have to get up in front of the class and explain why their transformation affected the original graph (that I made as an example) the way it did. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG. I started the day in my worst turma. I did my explanation, passed out the slips of paper and blank paper to draw the graph on, and got about 60 blank stares followed by: “But teacherrrrrrr, we don't know how to do this.” “Teacherrrr, this custa (this costs...basically, it's hard).” “Teacherrrr, we can't do this.” And when 60 kids are complaining and whining at the same time, it's enough to make a person that already has a headache (aka me in this situation) give up. I promptly told them that they could do it and I would do an example for them. They accepted that as an answer temporarily and we started to do the example. I explained to them how they had to put the values for x from the table into the equation and solve for y...yes...that was a necessary part of the explanation. The biggest problem came when the students were helping me work out the problem after we put x into the equation. The students didn't know how to multiply fractions. Not one student in the class of 60 could tell me how to do it. I stared at them blankly and asked them “seriously?” And one of the students had the nerve to say, “Teacher, we've never done this!”

So that's when I got upset beyond belief, considering last trimester we were multiplying rational expressions, which I introduced to them by reviewing how to multiply fractions. I stared at them. They were all talking amongst themselves. No one was paying attention to me. I slowly walked over, gathered up my stuff, and walked out of the classroom. It was about 20 minutes into the 90 minute class period. I walked over to see if any of the Pedagogical Directors were in their office, but no one was there. So I leaned up against a tree in the middle of the schoolyard and thought of the million other things I could be doing with my life besides spending 27 months of it living in Mozambique trying to teach unmotivated kids 11^th grade math when they don't know the 8^th grade material. About 5 minutes after I left, 4 girls from the turma I left came over to me, apologized for the turma, and told me to come back to class. I asked them why I should come back to class when they don't want to learn and they don't listen to me. They begged and pleaded and tried to defend themselves, but I wasn't having it. I let them take my stuff back into the classroom and said I would come back in a little bit, but I told them they had to do the assignment without my help. They begrudgingly went back into the classroom. I sat under the tree for another forty five minutes, pondering my life decisions, called a fellow PCV to have a break down, and answered a few student's questions that cared enough to come out to my tree to get some math help.

Eventually I went back into the classroom, helped a few students, and a short 15 minutes later, the class period was over. I didn't address the class as a group any more that day. I really didn't know what to say. I still don't. I'm gonna have to figure that out before I go in to the classroom tomorrow. One of the worst parts about the whole ordeal is that it was my first 90 minute class of three, all using the same lesson plan. So I repeated the activity in my other two turmas. The other turmas didn't do any complaining. I gave them examples, went around and explained to each group what they were doing, and they knew how to multiply fractions. Forward progress. The activity didn't go over as well as I hoped it would in any class, but it went better in my other turmas, so I'll take it. Can't be too picky after a disaster like I had in my first class.

Looking back to yesterday, I'm glad I left the class. I think it may have taught the students in my undisciplined turma that I'm not just going to sit around and let them treat me like dirt. I still don't know what I'm going to do about the fact that they don't know how to multiply fractions (and many other fundamental math concepts), but I'll figure that out as I go, I guess.

In the Peace Corps, the bad days are inevitable, but with the bad also come the good. And if you're lucky, the good outweigh the bad. I definitely feel blessed to be in Messica and to have a great support system both in Mozambique and at home. My good days do outweigh the bad, but unfortunately the bad ones creep in and mess with me. I'm looking forward to my next extraordinarily good day when I realize that my service is not all for naught. I'm sure it will come. That's why it's worth it...for those good days, for the students that want to be in school, for the students that come over for math help, for the students that ask for extra problems to do, and the students who turn in the Sudoku problem I gave them for fun. It is worth it. Sometimes that's just clouded by a low low. Thanks to everyone who helped me put that in perspective yesterday.

Blog About Malaria Month

April is blog about malaria month, and yesterday April 25 was World Malaria Day.  I'm not sure if you guys remember this, but just last month I had malaria and I wrote a blog about it.

Here are some startling facts about malaria in Mozambique (Stomp Out Malaria):

• Malaria is the leading cause of death in Mozambique.
• Malaria accounts for 29% of deaths, and 42% of deaths among children under 5 years old in Mozambique.
• 100% of Mozambique's population is at risk of malaria.

Many in Mozambique and throughout Africa are not so fortunate to have the immediate access to medicine and healthcare as I was a short month ago.  When they fall victim to malaria, it could very well be a death sentence.  Please visit Stomp Out Malaria and get educated on the efforts by Peace Corps to eradicate malaria in Africa.

Visitors, Reconnect, and Beer

The past couple of weeks have been a little different than my usual here in Messica for a few reasons. I had some visitors to Messica, a week long conference in Chimoio with all the PCV's from my group in the central and southern regions, and took a weekend trip to the beach.

So let's backtrack to almost 2 weeks ago when the Peace Corps Country Director of Mozambique, Carl Swartz, took me out to lunch and visited Messica. Yeah, that was cool. My friend, Ryan, was also evacuated from his site that week to Chimoio, so he decided (after I pressured him a little bit) to come out and see Messica. He spent a day and a half with me and I was happy to have the company because my roommate, Sarah, had gone to Chimoio for a REDES (young female empowerment group) conference. I was excited to show people around my town and introduce them to my friends/colleagues. I got some compliments on how integrated I was, and although I still have a ways to go, I'm proud of how far I've come over the past 5 months (whoa...it's already been 5 months at site!?).

So last Monday morning, I left Messica for Chimoio. Many other volunteers had a two day journey to get to Chimoio, but I took a 45 minute chapa to get to the conference. Yes, you could say I have a prime location for the whole horrible travel situation in Mozambique. We stayed in a really chique hotel in Chimoio, conveniently located right next to the Peace Corps and about a 10 minute walk from the heart of the city of Chimoio. Hot showers, internet access, and good food were enjoyed by all. There was also the whole seeing my friends from the south that I hadn't seen in almost 5 months, so that was also super awesome. We used the conference as an opportunity to share about our successes and struggles at site and also swap teaching strategies/suggestions. It was all in all a very rewarding experience to realize all of my blessings in Messica, and rethink my teaching strategy for the second trimester. I've decided to try a few things differently this time around, and I'm hoping they will end up working a little better for me. We shall see.

After the conference, I headed out Friday morning for Vilankulos in the province of Inhambane. PCVs from all over Mozambique were meeting up for the weekend that would culminate on Sunday with the annual Beer Olympics. Beer Olympics pits the three regions of Mozambique against each other to fight for the monkey trophy (but mostly bragging rights). The most exciting part about the event for me was seeing my long lost best friends from training that came all the way down from the northern provinces (a 29 hour chapa ride...yikes!) to hang out at the beach for the weekend. The weekend was seriously just what I needed. I got to hang out with friends, enjoy some beverages, and watch (and cheer) as central clenched the Beer Olympics win and monkey trophy for the second year in a row. The first regional repeat victory. What. Up. Coesão!

Monday night I arrived back in Messica after being gone for a week. I have to say, it was very nice to be home, although I enjoyed getting away for awhile. On Tuesday, I went to the school in the morning, found out what I was teaching that afternoon, ran home and planned, and taught for 5 hours that afternoon. Right back into the groove of things. I was a little surprised at how easy it was to get back into the routine, but it's also a relief that Messica feels like home.

Basically, it's been a good couple of weeks, but I have a lot to work on now that I'm back in Messica. I'm looking to form my JUNTOS group (which has been a failure up until now...let's hope that gets figured out soon), planning the JUNTOS workshop in June (still haven't started...whoops), planning a rosary-making class, and trying to figure out how I'm going to teach my students how to factor when they don't know how to solve a linear equation. Challenges. Anyway, lots of work to do and all I want to do is watch How I Met Your Mother. Moz problems. So I'll be working on this stuff (with a little bit of HIMYM thrown in) and update you guys when there is something noteworthy going on. Until then, stay healthy, stay safe, and thanks for your prayers!

“People throughout the world may look different or have a different religion, education, or position, but they are all the same. They are all hungry for love.” – Mother Teresa

Easter, Provincial Tests, and Women's Day

  

Since my last blog, things have been a little crazy with Easter weekend, provincial tests, and today's holiday, Dia da Mulher Moçambicana.

Easter was very different than what I'm used to, but was also really awesome.  I went to church on Good Friday and saw a live re-enactment of the stations of the cross which was also a processional to the church.  At the end of the stations started mass, complete with veneration of the cross and the distribution of the Eucharist.  I was both very surprised and very excited at hearing that we would have communion.  I also found out on Good Friday that there would be a service on Saturday night (the Easter vigil).  I showed up at the church on Saturday, and the service was very long but good.  It started with the traditional candle-lighting ceremony and lighting of the Pascal candle, and after 7 long readings, I saw the consecration of the Eucharist for the first time in many months.  It was crazy awesome.  After communion is when the dancing started.  I was tempted to join in and be that white girl making a fool of herself, but I decided to take a video instead.  I will try to post the video when I go to Chimoio in a few weeks.  I got home late Saturday night and went back to church early Sunday morning for the baptism service.  There were a few of my students and other acquaintances that got baptized, made their first communion, and got confirmed, so that was really cool to see.  We also celebrated the other parts of the mass, which was awesome because I got communion for the 3rd day in a row.  Seriously, I was on spiritual cloud nine.  It was awesome.  After church, I rested at home for a little bit before going to a friend's house for lunch.  Following lunch I returned home, took a nap, and then went to a party for someone who was baptized that morning.  I eventually got home at around 9 at night, Skyped my family, and went to bed.  So I spent about 10 hours of Easter weekend at church.  Mozambican Easter was a success!

Moving on to more recent and more frustrating events: provincial tests.  I wish I could effectively explain to you what a GIGANTIC mess provincial tests are.  I just don't think it's possible.  Basically, every province in Mozambique writes tests that are distributed and given province-wide to standardize the curriculum and see how the students are doing. In theory, it doesn't sound that bad, but in actuality it's awful.  The first problem is that the school has to print all of these tests, organize the tests, and not let any of the professors see them before the tests happen.   This is because lots of the teachers are corrupt and will sell the tests to students.  So I got the job of helping the Director print all of the tests and get them formatted correctly because he knew that I would not sell the tests to my students.  I didn't really mind this job, but the tests were so disorganized that it was kind of a mess.

Another problem with provincial tests:  you don't proctor your own exams.  There is a week set aside for only taking provincial exams (which was last week) and all of the teachers are assigned to proctor tests in disciplines that they don't teach.  They can't proctor their own discipline or own classes, because they would be able to help the students and tell them the answers in order to better the results.  It's really screwed up, but it's a reality in Mozambique.  So at the beginning of last week, I was trying to figure out how I was going to proctor other people's exams since I couldn't necessarily take points off like I would for my own students if they were talking, cheating, or looking at each other's tests.  I decided that if anyone was doing anything inappropriate during the test, I would write down their numbers (each student has a number associated with their name to make taking roll easier), and turn the numbers in with the tests to the Pedagogical directors with a note explaining what happened.

The test that I proctored on Monday was in a turma that I teach.  That was good because I already knew the students, and they already knew me and how I expected them to act while taking a test.  I also knew their names/numbers, so it made it much easier to threaten them. :)  On Tuesday, I proctored the English test in one of Sarah's turmas.  This was problematic for one main reason: because I speak English.  All of the students were asking me for help (for me to tell them the answers).  So that was a problem.  There was also another problem.  One of the students was talking, so I walked over to him and asked him his number.  He ignored me.  I asked him again.  Still ignored me.  I put my paper down and told him to write down his number.  Still ignored me.  I took his test away and waited until he wrote down the number to give it back to him.  I walked away and the two students next to him started talking.  I walked back and asked why they were talking, and they informed me that the other student hadn't written down his own number (meaning he had written down the number of one of the other students in the class).  I immediately freaked out on him, and told him how unfair that was.  I then read the number out that he had written down so that person would know, and wrote down the name of the student from the front of his test.  I was so frustrated.  SO frustrated.  But I smugly smiled to myself when the student turned his test in and walked out of the room, and the other student was waiting for him right outside the door and started yelling at him hardcore.

The rest of proctoring went better, but there were definitely some instances that I was laughed at for being so strict.  I also heard a lot of "she really watches us" and "she really controls the exam."  These kids can't get away with what they normally do during exams.  It's impossible to stop them from looking at each other's papers, but if I can get them to stop talking and treating the test like a group/open book exam, I'm going to do so.

Another problem with provincial tests...the quality of the questions.  The math test was on Thursday.  I went right after my students finished with the test to pick them up to grade them.  I was looking through the test, and there were at least 4 questions that either had typos in them, or that had responses that made no sense.  I presented my concerns to the Pedagogical Directors and they said they had to report it to the ministry of Education.  I have yet to hear a result and I'm supposed to hand the tests back this week.  I can't really give them a score until I know what to do about the 4 questions that didn't make any sense.  I graded all that I could....but it's just a mess.

That brings us to today.  Today was a Mozambican holiday, Women's Day!  It is a very important day for the empowerment of women here in Mozambique.  All the teachers that are women (we have an impressive 11 or 12) bought matching capulanas and had dresses made to go to the praça and afterwards travel to Garuso to eat lunch and celebrate.  I made everyone a capulana flower from our capulana to wear in their hair, which everyone loved.  We met at the praça at 8, saw a bunch of performances of singing and dancing, and eventually left for Garuso at about 12:30.  In Garuso, we went to a hotel where there was a buffet lunch and a pool, and basically just hung out for the afternoon. It was fun, and I'm really glad I went and got to know my female colleagues.

The back of one of the Women's Day shirts:
Mozambican woman for gender equality and empowerment of women.

All the ladies before the walk over to the praça.

The Director of the school joined in the dancing.  He is really
supportive of Mozambican women, which I think is pretty rare.
We're some of the lucky volunteers.

At the praça.

Dancing at the praça.  They tried to make me dance....I laughed at them.

My 8th grader friend, Danilo.

So Mozambicans never really look at the camera....I don't get it.
Anyway, here are some of my female colleagues and our matching dresses.

The pool in Garuso.