Dealing with Fred

As a student, you don't really put much thought into how long it takes to do things such as grade papers, plan lessons, and write tests. At least, I never did.  But let me tell you, it takes time to do all of those things.  Lots of it. Especially when you're doing them in a language that you're still learning/have only been speaking for 4 and a half months. It is quite the challenge.  I'm managing better than I thought I might, but it wears you down after some time. Frustration takes over and giving up seems like the better and only option...especially when you're working with some of the people I have as colleagues.

One of my colleagues...let's call him Fred...is a major problem.  He teaches the two other sections of 11th grade math to the kids on the letters track.  He is also the head of the math department for 11th and 12th grade. My first impression of him was when he was drunk at my Director's house.  He heard that I was teaching math and couldn't believe it.  He gave me a napkin with a limit problem written on it for me to solve. I kind of laughed and looked at him, and then realized he was serious.  He didn't think I could do it.  So trying not to start off on the wrong foot, I wrote the correct answer and gave it back to him. He kind of shrugged and didn't talk to me for the remainder of the time I was at the director's house.  That probably should have tipped me off to his attitude toward me, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  I really wish I was wrong about him.

The second encounter I had with him, he decided he still didn't know I could do math, so gave me the 10th grade national exam and picked out problems that he wanted to see if I could do. Even with them in Portuguese, I succeeded in doing all of them (I was pretty proud of myself), though I was pretty ticked off that I had to prove myself at all...and again.  Even after this second attempt to embarrass me, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt.  Then things got worse.

The first week of school, Fred showed up at my house.  He brought me an old 10th grade exam and told me that I had to pick questions off of it to make a diagnostic test for the 11th and 12th graders.  This didn't make much sense to me considering I had already made my diagnostic test and I don't even teach 12th grade.  He then told me, "listen, I have other stuff to do, you need to do this for me.  Pick them out, type them up."  Okay, this doesn't make sense for multiple reasons. First, I don't know any of the curriculum.  How am I supposed to know what 11th and 12th graders should already know?  Second, how am I supposed to type up this test in Portuguese with no program to make functions, etc. on my computer?  Seriously, makes no sense.

I told him I had absolutely no idea what questions to pick because I didn't know what the curriculum was, so he then proceeded to look through the test and pick out the questions for 11th and 12th grade.  "I'm sorry, if it takes you approximately 3 minutes to go through and pick  out the questions, why wouldn't you just do it in the first place?!  Why do I have to retype the questions that are already typed up on the test?  Circle the questions you want to use. Write them on the board.  It's not rocket science!"  I didn't say any of this.  But I should have.  And I should have known his ridiculous demands wouldn't stop there.  I ended up telling him that I couldn't type up the questions, but I could write out questions for him.  It ended up being even more annoying because he couldn't read my handwriting and had to come interrupt my class to ask me about it when he had the freaking national exam with the exact same question on it with him.  

A few times since then I've told him that I'm not doing things for him because he can do them for himself.  Then he says, "you just don't want to do any work." False, dude. That's you.

So yesterday morning we had a planning meeting at the school.  I am supposed to be giving my classes a test this week, so Fred told me we need to give the same test.  Clearly, that meant that I would be expected to write it.  And I already decided that I'm writing two different tests for both science and letters.  So that's 4 tests of 40 questions in Portuguese in a day and a half.  It's been a stressful weekend, but now the tests are written.  I need to have someone proof read them, but I can tell you right now I'm not giving my test to Fred for him to proof read or otherwise.  It took me many long hard hours to write those tests, and I'm sure it would have taken him maybe one to pull some questions together from previously made tests.  Seriously, so infuriating.  He's not going to be happy with me, but whatever.  He can be held responsible for his own actions and not making his own test. I have to draw the line somewhere.

On a brighter note, at church this morning we had anointing of the sick and communion! It was wonderful!  I was anointed and had a sip  of some special healing tea.  Maybe tomorrow my back will be good as new!  It was crazy how many people came to the celebration.  There was still no priest, but  it was okay because we still had communion and that was the part I was looking forward to the most anyway. I also bought a bible in Portuguese on Friday, so I was double-fisting it with my bible in English and Portuguese and trying desperately to understand what was going on.  And it helped!  Everyone keeps telling me I'm going to be fluent within a year, and I really hope they're right.  I really want to know what's going on.  My rosary twine is gone, and about 25-30 rosaries have new homes in Messica. Hopefully they will be well-used.  Their new owners were sure happy and I have  lots more people that want them, so I can't wait  to get my next shipment.  Also, there are a few of my students that I always see at church that I'm definitely going to be teaching how to make rosaries.  They could even make them to sell if they wanted.  :)

Lent starts this Wednesday, and I realized today that I won't be able to go to the celebration because I am teaching at the same time.  But regardless, I'm preparing myself for the Lenten season, and I've decided to give up my fan for my Lenten sacrifice (also pop and beer but those seem less impressive).  It's probably the biggest luxury I have, but I know I will be able to live without it.  There are other volunteers that live with no electricity in much hotter places in Mozambique, and also my roommate Sarah doesn't even have a fan.  So I will survive, but it will be difficult.  This might just be the most meaningful Lent I've ever had with one of the most difficult sacrifices, but I know that I'll be better because of it.

Something else that's noteworthy is that this week I will be getting a new neighbor from Moz 19!  Haleigh was living in Guija in Gaza province and due to the extreme flooding in her area, she won't be able to return to her community.  I can only imagine what she is feeling because most of her possessions were lost, and the progress she's made toward integrating in Guija is now all for naught.  But the good news (for me, at least) is that she's moving up to Manica province and living about a half hour away in Vanduzi.  I'm really excited to have another Moz 19er up here, and Haleigh and I went on site visits together to Chongoene, so I'm excited to get to spend more time with her!  Hopefully she gets here safely, and has a smooth transition to life up here in Central.

I can't think of anything else of dire importance to tell you guys, so I'll leave you with words of wisdom from one of my favorite people.

"Love cannot remain by itself -- it has no meaning.  Love has to be put into action and that action is service.  A mission of love can come only from union with God.  From that union, love for the family, love for one's neighbor, love for the poor is the natural fruit."
                                                             - Mother Teresa

"Multi-choice" Nightmare

Happenings in Mozambique never cease to amaze me.

On Thursday at the end of the school day, I came home very frustrated. My eleventh grade students were INSANE during my lessons in my last two turmas. They would just not stop talking, and I'm having trouble demanding their attention. It's just really annoying because I thought since I was teaching eleventh grade, they would want to be in school and learn and I wouldn't have disciplinary problems like this. But I was wrong. So I'm going to start kicking people out. Things are going to get serious. No cheating, no disrespecting me, period. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it...or at least until I get back in the classroom and chicken out. When I told my students that they would have to turn their homework in on Monday, they all jumped down my throat saying “what do you mean, Monday, we don't have classes on Monday!” Which was news to me...so I asked them what they were talking about and legitimately I had 50 students screaming the reason at me at the same time. Obviously I couldn't understand any of them, especially when I couldn't even hear myself think. It was so rough. It took all the patience I had to get through the rest of that turma. And at the end of the day, I still wasn't sure if we had classes Monday or not.

I got home and started venting to Sarah (poor girl). I told her about the no classes on Monday rumor and she told me she hadn't heard anything about it. We were both kind of hoping it was a lie because we are both already really behind in the curriculum due to the slow start of the school year and we have provincial exams at the end of the trimester to prepare the students for. She also informed me that we had a seminar the coming weekend on Saturday from 8-4. This was my reaction: “umm....WHAT?! Um what the heck could we be talking about for 8 hours...? Do we get lunch...?” And not surprisingly, she didn't know any more answers than I did. Oh Mozambique...

So Friday was a nice day of relaxing and planning for my unlikely lessons on Monday. I texted one of the Pedagogical Directors asking him if we had school Monday, and legitimately he texted back “I don't have information.” Okay, if the freaking Pedagogical Director doesn't know, we have a problem. So I took things a step further and texted the Director. He called me and explained that Sunday is a Mozambican holiday (Day of the Heroes) and normally when they have holidays on Sundays, they don't have school on Monday. He said it wasn't officially announced yet, but we weren't going to be having classes on Monday. I then asked him about the seminar and he confirmed that it was happening (and also that it was 8 hours long). I mean, it was helpful to learn what was going on, but I wasn't so stoked about the results of the phone call.

This morning, I got up and ate a hearty breakfast in anticipation of an 8 hour day with no sustenance. Sarah and I made our way to the school, and talked with the other professors who were waiting for the seminar to start. We asked them what the seminar was about and they told me something that I had a hard time believing: multiple choice tests. I actually almost laughed thinking that we would be talking about multiple choice tests for 8 hours. But I shouldn't have laughed. I should have known that since I'm in Mozambique, it indeed takes 8 hours to explain how to write a good multiple choice question, the different types of multiple choice questions, etc. About an hour in, I was out for the count. I've never really taught before, but I've taken enough multiple choice tests in my life to know how questions should be written. Apparently that's not the case for all of my colleagues. They were chalk-full of questions, doubts, and comments. Seriously, guys?

After about 2 hours of riveting 'multi-choice' information, we were allowed a break. Upon announcement of the duration of the break (5 minutes), there was an uproar from all of my colleagues. In that moment, I thought I was back in my turma on Thursday. It was a slightly comical and slightly horrifying realization that it's not just an issue of my students being easily riled up, but more of a cultural norm to not let things you don't approve of go by unnoticed.

After our slightly longer than 5 minute break, we were back in for 2 more hours of (repetitive) information. At least 30 minutes of the two hours was debating whether or not it is better to use arrows or lines to indicate parts of diagrams. I'm not kidding. If you know me personally, you know how I was feeling at that point. And if you don't, I can paint the picture a little better for you: I was hot, tired, frustrated, and hungry. So not the happiest camper.

A little after noon we broke for lunch, which the school provided. We waited around for about a half hour before it was delivered, and when it arrived, things got pretty out of control. It was literally like my colleagues hadn't eaten in weeks. Sarah and I stood back and watched the madness unravel. Then one of our colleagues grabbed a plate and handed it to me and handed another one to Sarah. So we were in on the madness. I got one of the last pieces of chicken (score!) and my xima and headed outside to sit and eat Mozambican-style (with my hands). When I sat down outside, there was some chaos going on inside. Apparently the people that made the food didn't bring enough plates even though they were told the right number, so there were a fair number of people that weren't able to eat...one of the Pedagogical Directors being one of them. Oh man, bad day for the cooks. Eventually it all got sorted out, but there was a lot of yelling, and it was a little uncomfortable there for awhile.

After lunch, we went back into the classroom and started up with the seminar once again. Yes, I know you're shocked, but we were still discussing multiple choice questions. It lasted for about an hour longer, and then 'closing remarks' from professors, Ped Directors, and the people leading the session lasted about a half hour. Finally at around 3:30, we were free (Praise Jesus)!

Then Sarah and I decided to go on an adventure with our Ped Director, Jorge. He has a car, and he took us to Manica to walk around and hang out. When we got to Manica, he asked us if we'd ever been to Machipanda, which is further west on the EN6, right on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We told him we hadn't, so he decided he needed to take us. So we continued on our excursion to Machipanda, which is located in the Chimanimani Mountains and absolutely beautiful. The drive was great, and we went all and the way up to the Zimbabwe border, but didn't cross. We're going to hike up the mountains on the border sometime and hopefully I'll step into Zimbabwe at some point. :) On our way back through Manica, we got some money out at the bank, stopped to buy some homemade peanut butter, and got some pastries at a bakery that Jorge pointed out to us. Then when we got back to Messica, Jorge took us a different way to our house and past the place in Messica that produces lots of wood for Mozambique (Yes, Mom, I finally saw it...good job doing your research). So it was a successful excursion and I enjoyed exploring Machipanda, Manica, and Messica.

So today was a little rough at first, but it got a lot better as it went on. Tomorrow I am going to church in the morning, and then Sarah and I are re-doing the schedule for the school...again. Apparently we got more teachers, so it needs to be redone. Oh joy. I'm going to be the most patient person in the world in two years...

The Good Life

I taught one 45 minute class today, and proceeded to play with and talk to adorable Mozambican crianças the rest of the day.  This is the good life.  I am beyond blessed to be in such a beautiful place with such beautiful people.  Here are some photo highlights of my afternoon.

They go crazy over the camera. They're like "take a picture of meeee!" and then they'll run over and look at it and giggle uncontrollably.  So freaking cute.

These were probably 3/4 of the kids that were at my house. They flocked from everywhere to get their pictures taken. :)

The one on my lap is my favorite.  I know I'm not supposed to have favorites...whoops.

Noqutenda.  She is my neighbor.  She is precious.  It melts my heart when I say "Tudo bem?" and she responds with "Tudo." :)

They were dancing to no music. So cute.

Valentina.  So adorable.

Precious.

They know what's up. :) OHIO.  Buckeye for life.  These kids will be buckeyes fans within the next two years whether they like it or not.  Mom, start sending buckeye paraphernalia!

Has it really been 4 months?

That doesn't seem right. I don't know if it seems like too little or too much, but it definitely doesn't seem right.

But I made it through my first real week of school!  And tomorrow starts week 2 (should be 3, but 2 is way more realistic), where things get serious and we actually get into new material.

The rest of last week was definitely a learning experience.  The students here don't have textbooks.  We have a small library at our school that is open for a few hours every day that students can go to if they need to look at a book, but they have to use it in the library and leave it there.  It's good that they have a small library, because it can grow, but at the same time it's less than ideal to have large classes and no books. The lack of books makes their notes more important than ever, since their notes become their textbook.  So, therefore if I make a mistake, that's as good as there being a mistake in their textbook.  No pressure or anything.  Because there is so much information to give out to the students, many teachers dictate their information, repeating it slowly, many times, for the students to write down.  Well, that's great for Mozambican teachers that have fluent Portuguese skills, but for this  girl that poses a bit of a challenge.  Last week was my first go at dictating.  And it was definitely a fail at first.  My first turma told me that a student could read it for me, so I agreed.  Then they just complained that the student I picked can't read, blah blah blah, more and more complaints.  So the next turma, I tried that again.  I picked a student, and everyone had only complaints about the dictation.  The following turma, I tried again, different student.  When he wasn't doing much better of a job, I took back my notebook, took a deep breath, and read my notes.  The students all breathed a sigh of relief and they were just like, "No teacher, you need to read your notes, it's better." You can imagine my excitement upon hearing this.  I was preferred to some of these students that had been learning Portuguese since 1st grade.  Oh yeahhhh.  In my last turma, I just started out reading my notes.  They suggested that a student do it, but I told them, "No, I am going to be your teacher all year.  I have to learn how to do this.  If you have a question about a word,  ask me and I will try to say it again or write it on the board."  They accepted this.   There were quite a few laughs when I tried reading some words that are freaking hard to say, by both myself and my students.  There are some pretty big math terms that it's just like really? Are you serious?  But at the end of the day I thanked my class for their patience, and reassured them that it will get easier little by little (simultaneously reassuring myself of the same).  Overall, I'll take it for my first few days. It should only go up from here, and I'm so excited to know more Portuguese and be a better teacher.

I offered to have open hours for my students to come and ask questions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Since then, it is starting to become commonplace to be stopped by a random student on the street at whatever time of day asking if they can come over for some math help. 10th graders, 8th graders, my students, whoever.  And I can't and won't turn anyone away.  But anyway, Friday two of my students came over for some math help.  After about an hour of practicing a couple of different types of problems, they thanked me sincerely for my help and asked for problems that they can do at home to make sure they knew how to do them.  That was seriously one of the greatest feelings that I've had since coming to Mozambique.  They had wanted to learn, came and learned, and wanted to prove to both me and themselves that they were successful. So freaking cool.  I also asked the other students if any other teachers had any open hours for explanation and they laughed at me.  They told me that if you ask many other teachers for help they say they don't have time, and you have to figure it out by yourself at home.  So that was sad.  But at least apparently every student at the Secondary School of Messica knows that they can come over and get some math help.  So that's good. :)

Saturday afternoon, I headed to church around 3:00.  I had heard the previous weekend that  people gather at the church on Saturdays to say some prayers to Mary.  I assumed that they were talking about the rosary, and I really want to learn the prayers in Portuguese, so I figured that would be a good place for me to go.  I also got rosary twine in the package from my mom, so I had been making rosaries for about a week, and had about 10 to give away.  I was the first one at the church, and sat in the shade waiting for other people to show up.  A few minutes later, a couple of ladies walked up and offered me a smile and a "boa tarde."  I asked them if people were gathering to say prayers to Mary, and they told me that they were. I then held up one of my rosaries and asked, "are we going to use these?"  And I think I really confused them, because they weren't there to say the rosary.  Also I had like 10 rosaries in my lap so they were probably really confused about what this weird white girl was doing with all the rosaries.  They showed me the pamphlet with prayers to Mary in it that they were there to say, and I finally understood that we were on different pages.  So then I asked them, "Do you use these things to pray here in Mozambique?"  Because I still didn't know the word for rosary in Portuguese at the time.  They told me they did use them (and kind of looked at me like it was the dumbest question ever).  I told them that I made the rosaries and I wanted to give them to people that didn't have the money to buy them but would put it to good use.  They quickly said that they would each love to have one, so I handed out my first two rosaries.  They were so grateful that they started dancing around and praying and saying that God had delivered them an angel.  If that doesn't make you feel good, I don't know what will.  This scene replayed as more ladies came to join the small circle of us that was forming.  They asked me if I was going to come back every Saturday with a gleam of hope in their eyes.  I told them every Saturday I'm in Messica, I will come and pray with them.  They thought that was acceptable.  I also asked them where I can buy a prayer book in Portuguese, and ended up being lent one until I can buy my own from one of the ladies there.  It was super helpful to have in church this morning.  I ended up giving out all of my rosaries before leaving the church, and was asked to teach them how to make them next Saturday.  I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot more rosary twine...

This morning after church, I was walking out when I was stopped by the man who always does announcements at church.  He told me that a lot of the people at church were talking and they want me to be a catechist.  I looked at him like he was a little crazy and promptly told him I still don't know how to speak Portuguese very well.  He told me that it would be a great way for me to learn a lot, and people will help me.  Apparently they're starting these small groups on Saturdays to study the bible and catechism, and they want me to lead one of the groups.  I couldn't very well say no, so I told him to just tell me where I needed to be and when, and I would try my best.  He looked super excited and told me he would get my information next Sunday.  I don't know what God's going to do with this, but I'm not even nervous at this point.  I'm excited to get more involved in the church here.  It will be a great way to integrate while also being able to do what I came here for (besides the whole teaching thing).  I should've known God would provide something great, but I just wasn't expecting it, especially this morning.

So the rest of the morning was spent lesson planning, and then I took a nice little walk around Messica.  Walking around Messica makes me feel like a celebrity.  No joke.  There's people screaming random English phrases at me like "What is my name?"   There's also the ever so popular conversation that goes like this:

"Hi Teacher! How are you?" 

"I'm good, how are you?"

"I'm fine, and you?

...at which point it becomes an endless circle that you can either keep perpetuating, or just leave it at that.  There are also those people that yell things at me such as Mulungu, Branca, Professora, Teacher, Ana, Mana, and the list goes on.  There are also random people that act like they know me very well and get very excited when they see me, but I actually have no idea who they are.  Then there are the men that come up to me and without even asking for my name, cut right to the chase and ask me for my phone number. I've gotten good at waving my finger in their faces and saying "NAO!" and quickly walking away.  Creeps.   When I'm not walking with Sarah everyone asks me, "where's the other one?" which I find slightly comical.   But the best times are when I actually see someone I know while walking around and have a pleasant conversation with them, or when passing by smiling and offering a "bom dia" or "boa tarde," depending on the time of day.  Regardless of what happens on my passear's around Messica, there is almost a guaranteed story to tell Sarah when I get home.

Oh, Mozambique...

Ingrown toenails, packages, and Jesus

It's been an interesting couple of days. I feel like I've had more crises in the past month in Mozambique than the average Peace Corps Moz Volunteer and let me tell you why: I have the WORST luck. Seriously. It's bad.

On Thursday evening, I admitted to myself that the pain in my left big toe was not going to go away on its own. I had an ingrown toenail and texted the Peace Corps medical officer. They told me that the next day I would have to go to the clinic in Chimoio. Conveniently enough, I was planning on going into Chimoio anyway with Sarah to buy bikes. So Friday morning, we got on a chapa bright and early and headed into the city. I went to the clinic first thing and ended up sitting there for approximately 2 hours before getting back to see the doctor. Sidenote: all of the employees at the clinic know me...I think they expect to see me on a weekly basis. Anyway, the doctor dug out my ingrown toenail nonchalantly as I was grimacing in pain and almost passed out. It was lovely. Then he cleaned it out and sent me on my way.

I headed over to the Peace Corps office where I found a large group of PCVs hanging out, much to my surprise. There was a meeting in Chimoio over the weekend for one of the secondary projects that a lot of volunteers participate in called REDES. I'm sure I'll write more about that later because Sarah and I want to have our own REDES group. When I was waiting in the office, I found out that there were about 15 packages waiting at the post office for Peace Corps to pick up, but that Peace Corps wouldn't be able to go until the following day to pick them up. Upon hearing this exciting news about packages, I decided that I probably had one (hoping beyond hope that I had one), so it would have been kind of dumb to go back to Messica just to turn around and go back to Chimoio to get a package. So my friend Anna kindly invited Sarah and I to spend the night at her place in Chimoio, and we promptly accepted. The rest of the day we spent hanging out, using internet, lounging in the A/C...you know...what we do when we're in Chimoio. We also got packages later in the evening. :) I got three packages, two from Jamie, one from Momma. Almost everything was there...the only thing that was missing was a 64 gb flash drive, which was obviously the most expensive thing in the package. Whatever, I was still excited to have actually received a package! That's one of the good things about Mozambique: your expectations are so low that if anything comes through it is super exciting!

Saturday, we got bikes. It was quite the task to pick out a bike that looked heavy duty enough to last two years in Mozambique in harsh conditions, but after about 2-3 hours of looking around at different stores, Sarah and I decided on bikes. We bought them, and then took them to a mechanic to make sure that everything was functioning well. By the time that was done, it was already afternoon. And I had to go back to the clinic to get my toe cleaned. Also, during this time was approximately when my eye started having some issues. This should be no shock to anyone because nothing is ever easy in my life. So I went back to the Peace Corps office, dropped off my bike, checked out my contact which was not the reason for my eye irritation, and then headed out to the clinic. A nurse cleaned out my toe relatively quickly and bandaged it well, and I went back to the office. Then Sarah and I headed back to Messica with the loot from our packages and the rest of the stuff we bought to take back with us (minus the bikes...Peace Corps staff is delivering those this week). We decided to try to boleia (hitchhike) home. We ended up finding a boleia pretty quickly once we walked outside of the city towards Messica. It actually worked out really well because it was a truck with a cover on the bed, so we sat in the bed, opened the windows, and had a lot more space than we would have in a chapa. The only downside is that the truck was going to Machipanda, which is right on the Zimbabwe border, so we were dropped off on the side of the EN6 with all of our stuff. Yeah, it was kind of a lot of stuff. And then we walked a couple of kilometers with all of that stuff to our house. But hey, the trip was free. So I was fine with it. Plus it was my first time boleia-ing and I was happy to have the experience.

So then Sunday happened. I woke up and couldn't open my eye. If I did open my eye, there was lots of pain. It was swollen, bloodshot, and sensitive to light. So I laid on my “bed” (blankets on the floor) legitimately all day listening to Gilmore Girls (what else would I do?). I'm pretty sure it was an allergic reaction to something, but it was pretty bad. Monday it was still kind of painful, but today, I'm pain-free and could even wear contacts again.

Monday was the real first day of classes. I had a full day of classes, three duplas (double bells). My plan for all of the classes was the same: introduce myself, go around and have them introduce themselves, go over classroom rules, and then have them take a diagnostic test so I can see what I'm working with. During the classroom rules section I mentioned a rule: Do your own work. Yes, in America we have people that cheat during tests, but oh man, it's a whole different ballgame here. I'm not sure if they didn't understand the fact that a diagnostic test doesn't count for anything, if they wanted to impress me, or what, but cheating was happening all over the place. And I was beyond pissed off. First problem, the students didn't think talking during a test is cheating. Um...what? Second problem, apparently they didn't realize that it is super obvious when their eyes are looking at their neighbor's paper. Third problem, when one student is doing work on a crumpled sheet of paper and two minutes later another student picks up said crumpled sheet of paper, pretty sure you're cheating! Seriously, after two duplas of this insanity going on, I was mad. Like, livid. So my third class got my wrath. Whoops. I even made them write down the names of the people they were sitting by on the back of the test so I could compare if they made the same mistakes. Yeah, it got very serious. During real tests if they talk, look at someone else's paper, or cheat in any other way, they will be kicked out and get a zero on the test. They already have been informed of this, and I'm going to be a stickler. Can't wait to kick out that first student and make an example out of him/her.

Today, I taught one 45 minute class. Afterward, I was writing out my plan for the rest of the trimester when three 10^th grade students stopped by my house to get some math help. We sat on the porch for about an hour while I helped them do some problems. When we finished, they asked me if they could talk to me about Jesus. Seemed a little out of the blue to me, but I have no problems with talking about Jesus, so I was like sure, why not. They proceeded to ask me if I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, blah blah blah, all those things that come in a conversation when someone is about to tell you the whole gospel. I told them that I'm Catholic, that Jesus is my Savior, and that I already know and love Him. I don't know if they didn't believe me or what, but they just kept pulling out different verses from the bible to try to convince me how much God loves me. Some of the passages I couldn't understand very well seeing that they were in Portuguese, so I told them to wait a second, and I brought out my bible. We started looking up verses in both bibles and reading them in both Portuguese and English. They shared a few more verses with me and then asked if I had any verses to share with them. I picked out some of my favorites including Proverbs 16:9 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (which is not popular here, so I thought they would enjoy it). I read the verses to them and they repeated after me, practicing their English. The Corinthians verse inspired me to bring out some Christian music, so I played Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath for them. They loved it, and they said that they're going to come over more often to hear more Christian music in English. I told them when I get better at speaking Portuguese, I'll be able to translate the songs for them so they'll be able to understand what's going on. It started out as a very weird encounter, but turned into something beautiful. Faith transcends the boundaries of language and culture and unites us all. Pretty freaking sweet, if you ask me.

The school year has begun!

The first week of school.  It sounded so daunting at first, but in reality: not so much. 

The first day of school: I was super anxious before the first day of school on Tuesday.  I taught first period in the afternoon, so I left the house super early in order to arrive on time. I brought my bata which is a white coat that all professors here have to wear while teaching, and materials for an activity that I wanted to do in class.  When I got to the school, there were a few other teachers around, and random students scattered as well.  I started talking to some of my colleagues who informed me that we were not giving lessons that day because the list of turmas had just been posted the night before, so none of the students knew their turma, classroom, etc.  So I sat around talking to colleagues for 2ish hours and never even entered the classroom.  All that anxiety for nothing.

The second day of school:  Well, I didn't even end up going to the school the second day, because Sarah went to school and saw that there were little to no teachers at the school, and also little to no students at the school.  So after waiting around all morning in anticipation of teaching again, I got a call saying that I shouldn't even bother going to the school.

The third day of school:  Clearly, I didn't know what to expect.  I was scheduled to give three double periods in a row which seemed a little daunting, especially when I had yet to give a lesson.  I was kind of hoping that it would be a repeat of the two days before with no lessons given, but to no avail.  There were probably 10-15 students in every class out of the 40-50 on the roster.  I didn't want to launch into the rules/give the diagnostic test while I didn't have all of my students, so I decided to try to do some impromptu reviewing of what the students should have learned in 10th grade.  I don't necessarily know the 10th grade cirriculum, but I tried.  I had been told by many of my colleagues that most student's levels of math are very low, but in my experience the students just needed to brush up on some of the material, and I think they actually did very well considering it was their first math lesson after a couple months off of school.  Overall I consider the day a success, even though I stumbled through some concepts and didn't speak flawlessly.  My students could understand me relatively well.  When I didn't know a word, I asked them and they told me.  I felt comfortable with my students already and it was my first time meeting them.  I think that's partly because there was only a fraction of the students there and I could be a little more personal and friendly with them.  I hope the promising start that I had continues throughout the rest of the trimester and the year!

Ceremonia de Abertura

So this is how today went:

Woke up at 6:45 and got ready for the day.

Left my house at 8 o'clock to walk to the Ceremonia de Abertura (opening ceremony) of the primary and secondary schools in Messica, which was at a church that is approximately a 3 minute walk from my house.  The ceremony was set to start at 7:30 am, but we were told it would probably end up starting around 8. Upon arriving, there were approximately 4 other people at the church with us, none of which was our school director who obviously had a large role in said opening ceremony. So we waited.  And met a few people.  And stood there awkwardly while everyone was conversing in Portuguese.  And talked a little bit about the school system in the U.S.  And continued to wait around awkwardly.  And then met a guy named Innocent that was from Zimbabwe and spoke excellent English.  And then waited around some more.  And then around 10 o'clock, the ceremony actually started.

The ceremony itself was not what you might expect of an opening ceremony. It started with the planting of some trees symbolizing the new school year.  Sarah and I were told by our new friend Innocent that they normally don't water the trees, so they will probably die in a couple of weeks.  Awesome symbol of the new year there.  After the planting of the trees, we went inside the church where the ceremony was taking place and sang the national anthem of Mozambique.  Then the teachers were introduced.  So, of course Sarah and I had a special introduction and had to get in front of everyone and introduce ourselves.  You can probably guess how much I enjoyed that.  I must say, I've memorized my introduction,  so it's not so bad anymore. :)

Anyway, after introductions, there was a LOT of talking.  It started with the presidents of the schools reading off some important school rules.  Then it moved to the directors reading off some more information.  I missed most of this because there were no microphones, there was a lot of background noise, and they were speaking in Portuguese.  I'm actually surprised that I got any of it.  After the director's speech, it was time for community members to stand up and voice their concerns about the school and how it's run.  Afterwards, the directors got back up and tried to defend their actions/clarify certain things.  And so this continued, until everyone felt satisfied and/or too hungry and uncomfortable to care anymore.   I must say that people got super passionate, and I was a little afraid of a riot breaking out there for awhile.  Then there were closing remarks, and at about 1:30, the ceremony ended.

The director then told Sarah and I that we were going to have some refrescos (drinks).  So we got into our pedagogical director's car, and he took us to this incredible site in Messica that I didn't know existed.  Apparently Messica has many hidden treasures that I don't know about.  Anyway, this place was a gorgeous fenced in property with a bar/restaurant and cafe that are opening soon.  Apparently it's still being built and they are adding many more buildings to the property.  There is also a huge library that is privately owned on the property.  So we met the owner, and obviously we're going to become best friends.  He said when the restaurant opens he would like to serve some American food there, so he would like Sarah and my suggestions.  Discovering this place was definitely today's greatest success.

When everyone else arrived, we sat down at tables and were served cheese or ham sandwiches and pop/beer.  So clearly, the first question on everyone's mind was 'do these white girls drink?'  And I made the mistake of saying that I drink sometimes.  My colleague at my table told me that he doesn't drink. And then he continued to try to shove beer down my throat for the next hour until I finally agreed to have one.  The problem was that I hadn't eaten since 7:30 in the morning (a hard boiled egg) besides the small cheese sandwich.  So that's how I got tipsy after the opening ceremony with lots of my male colleagues... (Sidenote: Sarah and I were the only females at this 'reception'...)

While I was drinking my beer, Sarah and I were conversing with this colleague of ours.  He asked us which one of us was older, and I told him Sarah was older.  He proceeded to insist that we were lying.  I asked him why we would lie, and then he asked me how old I was.  I asked him how old he was, and he informed me that he was 30.  I told him that I was 21, and that's when he told me that all women lie about their ages.  I insisted that I wasn't lying, but he would not take that as an answer.  I asked him how old he thought I was, and he said, "hmmm....probably about 31."  Duuuudeeee.  Not cool.  No way do I look 31. I was brainstorming ideas on how to prove my age to him, and then I remembered that I had my passport in my purse.  I showed him my date of birth on my passport, and he was still insisting that I was lying although at that point he kind of had to admit defeat because my passport clearly doesn't lie.  It was an extremely frustrating and weird conversation.

And then things got weirder.  He was wearing a ring on his finger, so I asked him if he was married.  Evidently, that was a mistake.  He told me that he was not married.  And then he asked me if I was married. When I told him that I wasn't, he proceeded to give me the third degree about getting married in Mozambique, dating Mozambicans, etc.  And proceeded to tell me that he is going to come back to the U.S. with me.  So that was awkward.

Let me just say that I've been told by at least 10 Mozambicans that when I go back to the U.S., I just have to take them with me.  What is assumed by this is that we will get married.  So that's always an extremely awkward situation because how do you nicely say, "no way in hell is that happening..."?

Yeah, so that was my day.  School starts tomorrow.  I am teaching one 45 minute class, and I think I have a pretty decent plan, but I'm still pretty nervous.  I'm just going to go in there and try to be confident and pray that they understand what I'm saying.  But any and all prayers are appreciated.  :)  Let's see how this goes...