My Ramblings

I am the only female teacher that teaches in the morning, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th grades. There are only 3 female teachers that teach afternoons, 8^th and 9^th grades, and two of whom will be leaving after the school year ends. This inevitably makes for some interesting dynamics at meetings. Most of the other teachers are un-creepy, so I really have no problem with it. But, it just gets me thinking how male-dominated the work force is. There is not really sexism here that says, “a woman isn’t capable of (insert whatever skill, profession, etc)” but there is a sexism that mandates women to be the primary, and really the sole, caretakers of the home, cleaning and cooking, and the kids. And because of the significantly long time it takes to complete any household chore by nature of no running water, pre-prepared foods or other niceties, this is a full-time unpaid job for most women. Those who do have a job (out of necessity or just education), usually have a younger sibling, niece, nephew, or other relative living with them to do most of these jobs around the house, since the wife/mother has less time to complete the tasks. It is very common for teachers to take in a family-member or two, pay for school and provide food and shelter in exchange for housework. Hence, the average Mozambican household has like 8 people or more in it. If you have any semblance of means, you are expected to spread the wealth to family, friends, and neighbors. In this sense, the great lengths and care families go to for each other is inspiring. But in the sense that you are supposed to turn up the volume of your music and TV so loud that everyone within a mile radius can hear it, because, naturally, that’s what it means to share, makes your neighbor (me!) not so thrilled. You win some…you lose some.

The other day, a boy wearing a shirt with my school’s emblem on it entered my house without asking. He sat on my couch and scared the shit out of me when I walked into the living room a few minutes later. He started talking about how he just wanted to talk to me, how he needed some help for a sick sister, how he wanted to namorar (hook up) with someone, and then he was just rambling. Aside from how him being in my house uninvited, the mention of namorar made me, as a teacher and him an ostensible student, rather uncomfortable and annoyed. I didn’t know this kid, but I told him if he needed money, I wouldn’t just give it to him. He could do some work for us, like getting water, and we could help him out. Then he incoherently rambled some more. Sometimes, I think I don’t understand people because they mumble their Portuguese, but this was different and I really had no idea what was going on. Finally, we apparently came to some sort of understanding because he left saying he was going to find his sister. My neighbor then came up to me, apparently eavesdropping the whole time (but not helping…), and said that the boy is mentally ill. I thanked my neighbor for explaining this, but it got me thinking. I know that the mental hospital (I believe there is one in all of the northern half of the country) is currently full and that there is nowhere else or nothing else that addresses the needs of the mentally ill.

There is a guy in Nampula city that thinks all white women are his girlfriend, so he sneaks up and kisses you and before you can even register what happened, he is off. Peace Corps knows about this guy because so many of us have been attacked by the kissing man (myself included), and tried to get him a space in the mental hospital, but alas, there is no room, and thus nothing, or so we are told, that we can do.

It really gets to me, the lack of medical care. You hear stories about seriously ill two-year olds that die, and it is almost a relief to the family, because the baby was a burden on the already burdened family. And I can’t blame them. There is no support for the mentally ill, the disabled, the gravely ill (or sometimes even just the moderately ill), etc, especially if you don’t have money, and many times even if you do have some. You can see a doctor for free but any services will cost you. If an HIV positive person wants it, all kinds of HIV/AIDS support in many capacities can be made available (though if they consistently stick with it is a whole other battle). But any other disease is simply just dealt with as best as possible, which often, with no one to blame, is not “best” at all. And beyond just happening to have an extra pair of glasses in my house to give to a kid with bad eyesight in my class, there is nothing I can do. Yes, I can be nice to the mentally ill kid who doesn’t understand the many social norms, since I’m sure many people are not, as mental illness is not always understood here. And yes, I can employ the kid across the street who has turrets (undiagnosed of course, as I am clearly no doctor and he has never been to one about it) to sweep my yard and clean my floors because I know many people wouldn’t want to employ him. But beyond that, I am helpless. Seeing warmhearted, loving, fun people with no running water, no electricity, a one-room mud house with sticks and leaves as a roof, makes me think and makes me upset a lot of the time. Having students sit on the floor with no desks and a cracked chalkboard, using notebook paper to erase chalk, breaks my heart. Many aspects of life in Mozambique make me think and wonder and downright angry much of the time, but this one, lack of medical care, is by far the worst. Yes, the roads here are horrendous. The state of education leaves much to be desired. The standard of living is pretty low. Water and electricity are not guarantees. Corruption in schools and the police are pretty routine occurrences. But the vast extent of the spirit and ingenuity of most people here should indicate that great things are just on the verge and will indeed manifest. Except all this propensity for goodness and greatness is stunted when even basic medical needs are not consistently being met.

Mozambique is hosting the 10^th All-Africa Games (African Olympics) starting next week, and it has been big news about all the money foreign governments and other bodies have given to the games. And though I think hosting the games will be great for Mozambique, as far as tourism, potential revenue, and publicity, I believe the $250,000 donated by the government of Mauritius alone might have better uses. No, throwing money at a problem here will not fix it. And I’m not really sure what will. But, money, in the right hands, and in the right programs, probably can’t hurt. 

And the Point Goes to...

As the original theme of this blog was Annie versus Mozambique and I have kinda trailed off on this effort, I thought I would bring it back in the epic (yet, not so epic) battle of Gurué, my old site, versus Invinha, my new site.

Distance Traveled by the Average Student to Attend Classes Everyday: Point Invinha

-Yes, at my new school, kids come from all over the bush, super far away, by foot, many by bike, and a select, rich few, by motorcycle. For my first day of survey, a few students wrote they live in neighborhoods up to 20km away. Now that is some dedication to the normally sub-par education most students receive here in Mozambique if I have ever heard of some.

Quality of Teachers: Point Invinha

As opposed to my old school, we have to wear our batas, (the teacher lab coat uniform, I even got yelled at for not buttoning mine on a abnormally hot day) and teachers show up on average 50% more than they did at my old school. This means, that I am not the only teacher teaching during the last two class periods of the day and my students don’t resent me for my consistent attendance, Yipee! We have teacher meetings I am actually informed of and teachers can even be found lesson-planning in the teacher’s lounge (crazy I know). 90% of the teachers are young, this being their only first to fifth years teaching, and they are enthusiastic. It really is rather refreshing.

Quality of School Grounds: Point Invinha

-I am provided with chalk! And garbage cans! And every student sits at a desk and not on the floor! (granted, they share the desk another student, but at least there are enough desks to do so in each class). But no, they do not have books, so, per Mozmabican usual, the whole of the learning that goes on is from chalkboard to notebook.

Cute Children: Point Invinha

-All my neighbors have children under the age of 8 and they are adorable. You only have to say Tia Ana to me and I melt. They always bom dia me and come to play, I love it. Also, a student dropped off 2 one month old puppies on our porch, and we have been babysitting for a few days, so the neighborhood kids have not left their perch on the porch, playing with and holding the puppies. Cuteness abounds. The kids also love to play with our turtle, aptly named Cargado (turtle in Portuguese) who lives in our compost pile. (sometimes I even surprise myself by the true things I am able to say about my life here).

Availability of Food: Point Gurué

-You really can’t buy much in Invinha, so I try to get a ride to the city a few times a week to buy things, print, etc. Its mostly just a time-consuming hassle, but by no means impossible.

People I Know and Like: Point Gurué

-I still keep up with my student groups in Gurué twice a week and offer tutoring once a week since they all complained to me that their new teacher does not explain very well. They are always happy to see me in the city, I think only because they liked me as a teacher but not that I made them do work and try. What a concept.

So with a score of 4-2, Invinha wins. It is a great town and a great school, and really the only thing holding me back are my old students. But I’m sure the new ones will be just as awesome as time goes on, once they get to know my teaching style and get used to the crazy white lady in front of them.

In other notes, it is the dry season here and hasn’t rained in months. Thus, it is also building season. Everywhere in the bush people are putting mud-ish goop in molds to make bricks and adding on to houses or building one from scratch. The poorer people use more mud to hold the bricks together, and the richer people use cement and even build brick ovens to heat the bricks and “make them strong,” or so I’m told. If you are super rich, you put a layer of cement on the outside of the bricks, case in point, my house.

I went to Mass at the beautiful church on the hill on Invinha the other day and had dinner with the nuns that run my school. Bishop O’Dowd High has trained me well. Luckily, I chose a day that was doing Mass in Portuguese and not in Elomwe, the local language, so I could pretend I wanted to follow along.

I also finally got a bed in my new house. It is made of bamboo and relatively comfortable. But as luck and Mozambique would have it, the guy I contracted to make it, misread his measurements, and made it exactly one foot too narrow and one foot too short for my mattress. So it's an interesting squeeze.

And as no blog post is ever truly complete without a funny English class moment, here is mine of the week. Since we have been reviewing parts of speech (because they are in 11^th grade and don’t know the difference between a noun and a verb) I wrote a MadLib on a big sheet of paper and we filled in the missing words as practice. I asked for a plural noun and a student said “child.” When asked to make that plural, he correctly responded “children.” Good job, student! But, when I placed this word upon the paper, I realized, we had just created the sentence, “My hobby is collecting children.” Oops. Especially because there is a legend in the neighborhood that this certain creepy Portuguese man who lives in the city steals children. My bad.

Mark and Debbi Take on Mozambique

Debbi

We have been home for a week now and we are still processing all the sights and experiences we encountered on our trip to Africa. First let me say that it was an amazing trip and how wonderful it was to see Annie for the first time in 10 months. She guided us through her new homeland with ease. From amazing meals (chocolate pancakes to homemade tortillas to musafaca (a traditional zambezian dish of lentils, rice, coconut milk and spices) to her mastery of Portuguese, each day in Mozambique offered insights into Annie’s daily life. We shopped in the local market, drank local beer, collected water each night, visited her classes and even took bucket baths! The countryside was full of many different landscapes and housing options.

We then spent 3 days at a private game reserve bordering Kruger Park in South Africa. We observed the " big 5" as well as numerous other creatures and birds. The baby elephants and observing leopards mating were just 2 of the drive highlights, fabulous meals rounded out our stay at Idube Lodge. Have you ever eaten ostrich?

On to Cape Town,  a very beautiful city. The picturesque waterfront and surrounding areas reminded us alot of San Francisco. The 2 ½ hour drive to the Cape of Good Hope was beautiful with baboon and ostrich sightings as well as stop by a penguin habitat. Baby penguins are a close second to baby elephants on the cuteness scale. There are amazing gardens at Kirshtenboch in the center of a residential area of Cape Town.

Words really can’t describe our 3 weeks in Africa..It was a trip of many eye opening contrasts…..we have many photos and anecdotes to share….

Now off to Florida to celebrate Arthur’s 90^th birthday!

Mark

Debbi does an excellent job of briefly describing our three weeks in Africa. The travel and experiences were an eye-opening look at poverty and prosperity and included many things that I will never forget. Seeing Annie with her students was inspiring and a powerful reminder of how much I love her. The trek through Mozambique  (from the cities, to the mountains, to the coast) at first created a kind of culture shock but developed into respect for the people who can live and, in some cases, thrive without water coming into their house and living on $1 per day.  I am proud that the United States sends volunteers to help these people. I asked other Peace Corps Volunteers if other countries had programs like the Peace Corps and the only other country was Japan.

The traveling to and from Africa with 18 hour plane rides and even longer travel periods were exhausting and difficult.  The bodily system changes with added medication for malaria and concerns about the drinking water created some uncomfortable times but both Debbi and I faired rather well.

The pleasures of the luxurious safari including lodging and meals were great. The 12 hours of driving in the bush and, of course, the animals made that experience very special. It was amazing that our jeep could pull up in front of wild animals and it would not faze them. If they were sleeping they might open their eyes and look out, but then would just go back to sleep. The leopards mating just continued their activities as jeeps from the lodges pulled up (not more than two jeeps at a location at a time) and pulled away. The rangers have radios and tell each other where the animals are located. However, we were just lucky to see a zebra and giraffe. 

Cape Town was, again, a slight reverse culture shock because it is a cosmopolitan city with lots of tourists and restaurants. The coast line was beautiful and baboons were plentiful and acting out for the tourists. There are signs all along the highway saying “Baboons are wild animals, do not feed” but they seemed to get along by stealing food from motorists who stop to take pictures of them. The government has hired Baboon Tenders to chase the baboons from the road and make sure tourists don’t harm the baboons or visa versa.

I look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you.

I need to thank:

·      Debbi for helping me through the travels. I could not have made it without her.

      

      Annie for going into the Peace Corp and giving me an opportunity to visit somewhere I never would have gone. I will never forget these experiences and you made it possible.

·      

      Emily and Mike for sending us off from D.C. and welcoming us home after traveling for 25 days. I felt like I was home when I reached your home and it was a good thing because I literally passed out the first night back.

     Enjoy and keep smiling. 

Goodbye City Life. Hello Mato.

I have officially said goodbye to city life. I now live in the mato (aka, the bush).

About three weeks ago, our house was broken into. Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt, but the resulting attempted break-ins with the stolen keys along with other incidents that have happened to previous volunteers in my town made Peace Corps feel that moving us out of the city was necessary. I now live 15km outside my old town of Gurué in the small, small, small, (emphasis noted?) town of Invinha.

I moved in with one of my best friends, Allison, who is finishing her Peace Corps contract at the end of the school year (December). I will be either commuting back to the city to continue my old classes and/or taking over some classes of the overworked teachers at Allison’s school for the next four months. Then, next year, I will replace Allison as the Invinha volunteer.

Though I am not happy to be leaving what was my home for 8 months, to be leaving my students who I have come to really enjoy teaching, to be adjusting to a new site, new neighbors, new coworkers, everything, Invinha was my first choice if a move was necessary. Being here, I can still commute to the city (and by commute, I mean, essentially hitchhike) to work with my girls group and English theatre troop, and keep in contact easily with people in Gurué, all of which are extremely important to me.

Invinha is a small town that pretty much exists because of the secondary school. About 25 of the 35 teachers live in a teacher’s neighborhood, and the only food that can be bought in the “market” is onions, tomatoes (maybe), coconuts, (maybe), sugar, oil, and other extreme basics. So I have to go into the city to buy the “luxury” items, like rice and wheat flour, that I will inevitably want. My house is pretty much the same, concrete with a tin roof, no running water, and a water-dump-flush toilet. The pump I get water from is about 2 houses away, which is awesome, but I will have to learn a whole new set of water-pump politics (whose turn it is, when I can go, etc etc), which shall be interesting. There is no cell service, so we have a landline phone, circa 1992. It is pretty legit. So I will be slower answering emails and not very able to respond to texts unless I happen to be in town. My house is also on a dirt road that goes between Gurué and the next big town, which means, lots of dust gets EVERYWHERE whenever a car or motorcycle drives by. The people-watching, therefore, is more than excellent from the porch. Also on the positive, I brought my big refrigerator (YAY!), and Allison has a dog. So I am now the proud owner of 2 trash-eating, dust-covered, chicken-chasing, absolutely lovely, loving dogs.

And the best part of the Invinha Secondary School: it is a Catholic school run by nuns. Yes, thank you very much Bishop O’Dowd High, my Catholic education is certainly coming in handy…in Mozambique. But I do like me some Mozambican church music, and, because it is a Catholic school, the classes are much smaller, the community is much tighter, and the demographic makeup of the students is either RICH or literally taken from the bush (making for some interesting interactions). But the school and town are much smaller and more supportive than my previous big city livin’, so it will be good. Or so I hope.

I think I always wanted to live in a small town in Mozambique, and Invinha is pretty darn great. No, I would rather not move, but if I had to, Invinha would be it. Though the fact that I LITERALLY live in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but the sporadically-placed mud house and subsistence farmers between me and the possibility of purchasing bananas and eggs is pretty daunting. It shall be interesting.

We have begun making our own peanut butter from the roasted peanuts in town. Skippy and Jif here I come.

The only truly legit grocery store in the entirety of the north of Mozambique, ShopRite (a South African chain) burnt down a few weeks ago because, apparently, they weren’t paying the workers sufficiently. So the workers burnt it down. Now where I am supposed to get my spices, oats, and shampoo? Granted, it was 8 hours away on a good day, but still…it is pretty sad.

And finally, I helped with a WONDERFUL girl’s empowerment conference last week connected to my girls group. We talked about many things from HIV/AIDS stuff to public speaking to nutrition to women’s rights, and study skills. For all you camp people, imagine Camp Kesem or UniCamp but with more of an emphasis on condoms, periods, and why not to sleep with teachers. Seriously though, it was amazing.

 Me and my girls at the conference.

 New brothers. 

 My new home.

The Gurue crew at the Provincial Science Fair.

 Third-place winner! My student! (sweet Obama shirt- CHECK!)

Mom and Dad in Cape Town

            

Can You Say Science Fair?

So apparently, given practically no help on account of my lack of knowledge of scientific terms in Portuguese, my students can still churn out amazing science experiments fit for a science fair. The best included: making ethanol in a banana tree root, making sunflower seed oil, making a lever that moves with electricity, making a homemade alarm system, and using local plants as a “remedy” for stomach pains. It was a great day, with 26 participants from two schools, my girls group doing activities about the biology of and preventing HIV, and 71 people getting tested for HIV. A lot of students came to observe and hopefully something was learned and some nerdy, science fun was had.

5 of my students, the winners, went to the provincial science fair at our provincial capital, Quelimane last weekend. And one of my students, who is also in my class, came in third place! It was a great weekend, giving the kids a chance to travel, meet up with other high schoolers, and compete in an intellectual competition, which is a rare occasion here. I am super proud of all the participants!

After a half dozen different internet connections and a half dozen photo-upload failures (leading to my delayed posting), I have decided that photos of the science fair are apparently not going to make it online at this time. Maybe soon!

Also, my parents have indeed arrived here in Mozambique. They will be updating my blog with a post of their own soon with their experiences, observations, and photos!

New Beginnings for the Start of Winter

We learned in training about what our options and resources are for
our students with disabilities, learning or otherwise. The answer?
There are none.

If a volunteer had the knowledge, training, and resources to diagnose
something, I guess, then more power to him or her to help these
students. But I, like the vast majority of other volunteers do not
have that ability. By the time students reach the 11th grade, which is
the grade I teach, if they have a learning disability they have most
likely dropped out because there is no support. Basically, it sucks. I
have no way of knowing if one of my students has a learning disability
but even if I did, I honestly don’t have a realistic way of helping.

Though it is not a “learning disability,” there are plenty of students
with poor eyesight and no glasses. So how are they supposed to see the
board? (The board being the only form of textbook and thus ostensible
reference or study material they have.) I have one such student. He
rarely comes to class and when he does he can’t see the board even
from the front row and while squinting. But we know he’s a good kid.
So my roommate and I decided to take action. We talked to him about it
and he said he has trouble coming to class because when he does, he
goes home with horrible headaches from all the squinting. So we gave
him an extra pair of glasses we had at our house that we thought might
work. Obviously, they are not a perfect prescription but he has been
wearing them for the past two weeks and hasn’t missed a class. He is
working extremely hard, has no more headaches, and thus also has the
ability to actually see what is being written by the teachers,
allowing him to, and what is that word again? Oh yes, LEARN. This
could be something that potentially significantly changes or improves
his life. I’m super excited for him and to see how this affects his
academic performance, self-esteem, you name it.

On a slightly more embarrassing note, I was locked out of my house the
other day while de-fleaing and de-ticking my dog. I was sitting on the
porch with no shoes on and no keys when the front door slammed,
locking me out. Luckily, I generally keep my phone in my bra and
therefore I could call my friend who has a spare key at her house on
the other side of town. But I still had no shoes. And though it would
not be at all uncommon for someone to walk around with no shoes here,
my feet are definitely not Mozambican-ized and weathered enough to
withstand the piercingly hot and rocky terrain. So I can now add
“asking the neighbors to borrow shoes” to the list of the crazy things
the white girl does.

I find it interesting that a lot of Mozambicans find me more strange
when I do the same things they do everyday, like lets say, grate
coconut, cook on a charcoal stove, sweep my yard with a reed broom, or
even (and how dare she!?) walk to town to buy some vegetables, than
when I do something totally new and different to them, like have a dog
that lives in my house, read a book on my porch, or offer tutoring to
any student who wants it. I guess they expect me to do things that are
weird and crazy, so it amazes them when I do something they are so
accustomed to. The white teacher cooks dinner!? Who knew…?

We started teaching computers this week in addition to our other
lessons. After putting it off for a trimester and a half, we could not
do so any longer. According to our school director, we have “enough”
computers that are “working” to service the 11 classes of 60 students
each. And by “enough,” I mean, we have 11 computers. Yes. 11. For 660
11th grade students. And by “working,” I mean usually about 8 are
working on any given day out of the 25 that make-up the computer lab.
So if each class is divided into three subgroups based on ability,
then two students share each computer. But hey, two is better than
six. Computer class is mostly only a chore because the ratio of
computers to students means we have to repeat each lesson no less than
33 times throughout the year. And the lessons are super boring because
the vast majority of students have never used a computer before. So we
started with the parts of the computer, how to put your hand on a
mouse, how to click a mouse, how to double-click a mouse, and what the
basic buttons on a keyboard do. It is enthralling… The upside of it
all is that though it may be semi-painstaking for us to teach, I am a)
practicing a lot of Portuguese everyday and learning new vocab, and b)
the kids are extremely excited and attentive during lessons because
using a computer is new and cool. The faces and reactions they had
when we actually let them turn on the computers for the first time
were priceless. They more frequently show up on time and have even
been known to ask for more during the last 5 minutes of class when we
had tried to be nice and end class early. Every teacher’s dream, I
guess?

Finally, it is lettuce season. And therefore, the season for SALAD!
With actual lettuce. Not just any salad with whatever veggies I can
find and use to pretend I am eating salad, but an actual
semi-romaine-like-lettuce salad. And so now the next task is homemade
salad dressing.
And, as a last side note, I had to use a blanket last night for the
first time since training. Hello, winter in one of the coolest regions
of Mozambique!

Also, according to my student, I am “heavy calm.” Thanks?

A New Addition

Yes, we adopted a puppy. And he is awesome.

Our friend’s dog had puppies two months ago, and we promptly reserved the cutest male of the litter (we don’t want to have to deal with pregnant dogs or puppies…) and he was finally handed off to us about a week ago.

His name is Bowzer and he is currently learning how not to pee in the house and the standard dog commands. We are planning on teaching him the dog commands in Portuguese so that ostensibly the neighborhood kids can also tell him to sit and stay, meaning they will hopefully not throw rocks at him as is the fate of most Mozambican dogs. I have also recently become truly obsessed with my cement floors, since they make cleaning up after a non-house-trained dog quite easy.

In other news, the unit we are doing in class is “Made in Mozambique,” aka buying local products. In order to introduce the unit, I brought in a grab bag of items from our house and we played a guessing game about which items were made in Mozambique and which items were not while simultaneously learning new vocab. It was easy to find food items that were grown here, as most produce is, but finding packaged items not imported from South Africa proved more difficult. The three items I found in our house that were actually manufactured in Mozambique were beer, cigarettes, and condoms. Telling? I think so.

The Catholic secondary school near where I live had some big festa last weekend that I went to mostly for the free food and Mozambican church music (so pretty). I got to meet one of the two bishops that oversee my province of Zambezia. And get served pig. No, not pork. I say pig because a platter was brought to me with a roasted pig’s head on it. To not offend, I asked for a little, and was promptly given a humongous piece that was 99% pure fat. Lovely. We also went early to help set up for the “banquet” luncheon, and were put in charge of making the potato salad. Apparently, according to the nuns, I did not lather on a sufficient helping of oil or mayonnaise. Sorry I’m not sorry.

We fired our empregada, cleaning lady, because she a) does a terrible job cleaning the house and b) steals from us. So out she goes. But now we will be doing all the chores ourselves (except we will outsource clothes-washing because I am terrible at it and really have no desire to improve). The only chore I am really not looking forward to is sweeping the dirt in front of my house with a reed broom. One of the girls in my girls group asked me the other day during our meeting if I had a broom. I said yes, and she told me I needed to do a better job sweeping. Apparently you are not allowed to have leaves fall from your trees in front of your house. But maybe I will learn how to make cool patterns in the dirt like all the Mozambican women. Definitely a useful and applicable life skill.

And finally, I have an abscess on my left bicep. Did I know what an abscess was before coming to Mozambique? No, I did not. It is quite unattractive and prompts the majority of Mozambicans to make a comment. But hey, at least they have stopped commenting on my infected-mosquito-bite-ridden legs. But no, random Mozambican stranger, I do not know why I got an abscess and nor do I want to go to the local hospital to get it drained (I know, gross). I am just hoping it doesn’t get worse so I don’t have to go to the Peace Corps doctor to get it taken care of. Just add it to the list of weird skin infections that are the plight of Mozambique.

My girls group had an exchange with another girls group this weekend. True to form, 8 girls showed up at my house at 7:00am on Saturday, when we had found out at about 6:58 that the guy we had asked to drive us has malaria and thus cannot take us anymore. So, we went to the road to wait for a truck to drive by with enough space to take us to our destination. We were very lucky and got a ride after only a few minutes. As my friend always says about Mozambique, “Things do not go well. They just go better than expected.” But, we had a good day of playing games, cooking lunch (tacos and pizza with homemade cheese!), and doing some activities about gender and HIV/AIDS. Overall, it was a great day. And I will never fail to be impressed by the work ethic of Mozambican women. We said, hey, let’s wash the dishes and 4 girls jumped up and completed the task. I said, hey, we have to walk to the road and wait for a ride, and the girls took it amongst themselves to carry all the food, pots, and pans, and even a crate of sodas on their heads. 

The Crew  

 My students!

Showing off their tortilla making skills 

Cooking Time 

The new Man of the House, Bowzer