Homestay Week 7: Last week of Language, Prep for Model School

I reached a level of boredom on Sunday that I didn’t think was possible. I began my usual Saturday routine a bit early, getting to internet café just after 8:00 AM. With my emails pre-written and the internet moving at an early 21st Century speed, I was done early. Too early. I made my way home, but no one had returned, so I went for a stroll into another bairro to bother some people. Luckily, the people who I went to bother were just as bored as I was, yet we couldn’t really find the motivation to do anything of substance. So I returned home again, this time to find that one of my sisters had returned from church. I ironed my clothes just before eating lunch. My family has stopped watching me iron my clothes, which I think means I’m doing a decent job.

I returned to the bairro in the afternoon, once again bored, once again looking to bother people. They put on a movie, which kept us mildly entertained. I didn’t really want to return home, but I knew I had to. I had a feeling that it just wasn’t going to be a good evening.

A good conversation when I got home changed my outlook on the evening. And following dinner, minha mae broke out sweet rice – what a treat! The evening turned out surprisingly well, much better than I had expected. And it was made even better by conversations with my parents and my brother.

I knew that Monday was going to be a somewhat interesting day, for a couple reasons. First, we started preparing curriculum for our fist step of practice teaching. And second, our program directors were in town to talk about site placement. It was exciting to learn about the possible site placements, although it seems that that there aren’t enough potential job placements for male volunteers. I let them know that I was interesting in doing teacher training and not just secondary school teaching. Hopefully, they will be able to fill my request, but I won’t be angry if they can’t.

The afternoon was somewhat slow. As I walked home, a ran into minha mae on the road. Just as it began to rain, she saw a friend, and told me to run home. As I walked in the door, the rain starting coming hard. It would be rainy on and off for the remainder of the evening. When it was quiet, it rained; when there was thunder and lightning, no rain came. Strange place this sometimes is. I prepared a color wheel for my teaching segment for tomorrow, knocked out the rest of my homework, ate dinner, and – exhausted – went to bed.

The morning’s weather left off where last night began – grey. It wasn’t raining but it was clear that rain was on the way. The ground was still wet from last night’s rain. Namaacha is finally turning into the mud pit that we had expected weeks ago. But at the same time, this place is starting to turn shades of green. After an uneventful language class, the English teachers convened to begin “micro-teaching”. Working in groups of three, we designed lesson plans for very basic subjects such as the human body or food. All of these small lessons were taught in front of some of the language teachers and and the other English teachers, which was a little strange. My group taught colors and clothing. This brought back memories of my first weeks teaching English last year with my students. I remembered how long it took to learn thirteen colors, how they struggled with pronunciation, but how they eventually got it. The afternoon was much of the same, but as I had delivered my lesson in the morning, I was stuck sitting for the entirety of the afternoon.

By mid afternoon, the rain began albeit lightly. It was just enough to tease and dampen us, but this place will take any rain it can get. Upon getting home, minha mae was very pleased with how green her garden was. Soon enough, she will have enough food growing here that she won’t have to buy vegetables in the market. In a country that relies so heavily on agriculture, I don’t think it is too much of an overstatement to say that the economic fortune of people here depends largely on weather. Just within a household alone, if a person doesn’t have to spend money on basics like onions or tomatoes, it is money that can be saved.

The evening passed without consequence or event, with the exception of a phone call from a friend in the states. I cleaned up my room, which was in dire need of a good cleaning, ate dinner, and read about the election that has already happened. It is very strange to read articles about election issues and candidates after the fact. But much like a rerun on television, if I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me. So I will continue to enjoy these mid-October magazines well into December.

Wednesday was a big day, not just for Namaacha, but for all of Mozambique. Today, municipal elections were held across the country. It was pretty amazing to see people line up for hours, just for the opportunity to take part in the democratic process. Minha mae was proud to show off her ink-covered fingertip, evidence that she had voted.

We started our language class late, a gift from our language teacher. Today, we learned the future conjunctive. I know: sounds impossible. But it was surprisingly easy for me, especially since I can still barely conjugate some verbs in present tense. After classes, almost all of the language teachers went to Maputo so they could vote. We were left with our Volunteer of the week to help us develop lesson plans for Model School. No, model school is not about teaching Volunteers how to walk down a catwalk – it is an opportunity to practice teaching in front of real Mozambican secondary school students.

Following lunch at home, I met up with my teaching partner to develop lesson plans for the first couple days of the week. Planning went by quite quickly. We both noted that planning with another teacher is much more difficult than planning alone. While it’s nice to have the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another, we also have to make sure that we are getting across a consistent message. For the majority of the teachers here, this will be the first attempt at lesson planning and teaching; it will also be an opportunity to see what works, what doesn’t and learn from mistakes. Even with a year of teaching English as a Second Language under my belt, I’m sure that I will take a lot away from Model School.

I had low expectations for Thursday. The day started early and did not start off well. I woke up at 2:30, courtesy of a pack of barking dogs. I was absolutely freezing when I woke up, so I put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, which were barely sufficient in keeping me warm. I had trouble sleeping the remainder of the night, as I was awakened almost hourly by mefloquine-induced dreams. I mumbled my way through breakfast and certainly didn’t understand much of what minha mae had to say. Thankfully, we didn’t do a whole lot in language class. The majority of our time was spent playing “Vinte Perguntas” – Twenty Questions – which I actually thought was a good way to use language. After language classes, all of the Trainees met up for a session on working with Mozambican colleagues. We mostly discussed very possible situations in the workplace, which was fairly beneficial.

I returned home for lunch knowing that the plans for the afternoon were loose at best. We were told that we might meet at a certain house at some hour to continue lesson planning. I figured we wouldn’t have the session, but I received a text message saying otherwise. I made my up to the house, but before I got there, I was stopped by two other Trainees who said it was cancelled. Shocking. I didn’t want to return home, so I went to a hotel with three other Trainees for a soda and snack. This is where the afternoon got interesting.

As we waited on our food, the owner of the hotel – a white local Mozambican –introduced himself to us. For about twenty minutes, we listened to a small lecture and asked questions regarding Mozambican history and problems in Namaacha. It was probably the best-spent twenty minutes I’ve had here. Following this, we went to a barraca where a lot of other Trainees were hanging out, either playing cards, lesson planning, or just being social.

I returned home around 6:00 and the afternoon became more interesting. One way or another, I got into a conversation about HIV/AIDS with minha mae. I don’t even know how it started, but it was the first time I found myself in this situation. One thing about being here in Mozambique is that almost everybody has been affected by HIV/AIDS in one way or another. As we talked, minha mae disclosed that she lost her brother, at 33 years old, to AIDS. It was physically apparent that it was difficult for her to discuss. And it was difficult to be on the listening side of the conversation too. It is something that I’m going to have to get used to: this certainly won’t be the last time that I have a discussion like this.

Friday was nothing out of the norm. We had Hub Day, which was nice, although we saw all of the health and science people yesterday, so it wasn’t like a usual Hub Day. After a very causal (and final) language class, most of the morning was dominated by health issues, especially for the teachers. First, we all got a lecture on emergencies and benefits. Then toward the end of the morning, we were split into education and health groups. As the education group learned about the national health system, the health group learned about the national education system.

Our afternoon schedule was loose again, which as yesterday set up for trouble. I stuck around at the school for lunch with a couple other people before heading for a scheduled 2:30 meeting. We had the feeling that the session wasn’t going to last more than 20 or 30 minutes and we probably weren’t going to get a lot done. We received two or three pieces of information and we were done in less than half an hour. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the barraca, celebrating the end of the week, talking, and playing cards.

I was awakened Saturday by a phone call from minha mae. She had gone into Maputo yesterday and stayed the night. She probably thought that I had classes today, which had been the norm, but our only obligation today was to continue lesson-planning on our own. With my lesson plan for Monday already done, most of the morning was committed to housework – cleaning up my room and doing laundry. Once again, I was spared from washing by the empregada, who is recovering from malaria. I didn’t ask her for help and, considering her health status, didn’t expect it.

I spent a little time after lunch with a 10th grade boy who has moved into the house this week. I think he goes to school somewhere but is just spending his vacation here. We hadn’t talked much over the course of the week, but we finally found something to talk about – music. He was blown away by the iPod touch and enjoyed the music I played. I’m going to burn him a CD sometime next week.

Following a brief rest, I walked toward the Mozambique-Swaziland fronteira for a game of soccer. With six Mozambicanos and four Americanos, we played Mozambicanos vs. Americanos (plus 1 Mozambican). We played miserably. We couldn’t pass and certainly couldn’t dribble. The Mozambicans passed well. They dribbled with ease. They made fools of us Americans time and time again. They played the beautiful game beautifully in a 10-5 loss to the Americans. They just seemed to forget that you need to score in order to win. Victorious, I returned home, showered and ate dinner.

Seven weeks are in the books. Next week is probably going to be the most exciting we have until we officially become Volunteers. We begin Model School on Monday. I can’t wait to be back in a classroom. On Wednesday, we celebrate Thanksgiving and we find out to where we will be moving. It should be a fast week. And the weeks that come should pass quickly also.

Week 6: Site Visits

It’s early. I can’t even say it’s “bright and early” because at 2:30 in the morning, nothing is bright. Even the stars that should be shining are covered by clouds that are showering a cool and gentle rain as we walk to our buses. We departed from Namaacha, not exactly wide-eyed, at 4:00 AM, and made our way through the dark toward Maputo. We arrived at the junta – the place where the chapas convene in Maputo – around 5:30, hoping for a 6:00 departure. That, however, was not meant to be: the driver tried to rip off our Volunteer and our Volunteer was not having it. It’s not the 50 Meticais difference that is the problem; it is the principle of the matter. We finally started really moving around 6:45.

The drive to Maxixe (pronounced ma-SHEESH) is long, bumpy, and slow. And the rain that is moving through the South of the country is not moving us along any faster. I closed my eyes for a fair portion of the trip that lasted until beyond 1:30. A group of about 10 of us – Volunteers, a friend visiting one of the Volunteers, and Trainees stopped for lunch before splitting off to different cities.

We walked through Maxixe, buying fresh cashews outside of a gas station and stocking up on food at the market. From Maxixe, five of us took a short chapa ride to a small city called Inhamussua (In-ya-MOO-swa, I think) where we arrived at the house where another Trainee and I were to stay from the next couple days. We arrived around 4:00, with food waiting for us. The black-eyed peas that my Volunteer’s empregada (maid) made were delicious. With little to do for the remainder of the night, we relaxed, talked about Peace Corps life, and did some reading.

The house is awesome. It is a coniço (ka-NEE-soo) house: it is a house made of reeds, with a tin roof. It has fairly constant electricity and a water tap outside the house, which provides such clean water that it needs no filtering. The bathroom, also made of reeds, is set aside about 20 yards from the house. There is no real toilet, but there is a small chimney, which goes down some distance, with a seat on top of it. It’s not uncomfortable, but it certainly doesn’t smell refreshing. All said, this is the kind of house I expected when I joined the Peace Corps. It is not glamorous, although it is nicer than most of the similar houses in the area.

After a rough night of sleep, I woke up Sunday morning feeling sick. I don’t know if it was dinner or the long day’s travel the day before, but I knew that it was going to be a long day. With my stomach aching and a headache to match, I figured it would be best to relax and drink water, but with the multiple runs to the bathroom, relaxing was not easy. Thankfully, I brought Pepto-Bismol – the best drug ever – with me, which, along with a nap and some water, helped settle my stomach. We made our way down to a barraca, where we played a couple games of pool and enjoyed each other’s company.

Walking back toward the house, we stopped in a market where we picked up some ingredients for dinner and dessert. We all helped out in making some pasta, fresh tomato sauce, and garlic bread. For dessert, we made monkey bread – a cinnamon sugar cake – with a banana frosting. It was delicious, but I probably ate too much of it.

That was confirmed when I woke up Monday again feeling sick. Somewhat frustrated,
I started drinking a lot of water and felt better. After eating breakfast, which also helped, we took a walk around the school. The school is a large, beautiful school agrarian school, so there are all sorts of plant life around. The students grow fruits and vegetables and raise chickens and cattle with varying rates of success.

We returned to the house and learned a bit about the grading system that our Volunteer used. He built a large and complicated spreadsheet that does almost all of the work for him, but he rewards attendance: students on the edge of passing a class get the bump up if they come to class.

The afternoon was a lot of sitting and waiting to head to Tofo for a little bit of beachside rest and relaxation. We got going mid afternoon, taking an open-back chapa from Inhamussua to Maxixe. An open-back chapa is a truck, with a rebar-supported canopy over the back. Peace Corps has told us not to ride these, but this the only type of chapa that runs between these two cities. 3d tetris

From Maxixe, we walked a couple blocks to the pier, where we took a 25 minute boat-ride across the bay to Inhambane City. We walked through a bit of this beautiful and more Westernized city to get a chapa to Tofo. But, being somewhat late in the afternoon, chapas were no longer running to Tofo. Excellent. So, we took a crammed in chapa in the general direction of Tofo and got off three-quarters of the way down. By this time, it was already dark, and we were lucky to hitch a ride in the back of truck to Tofo for the last seven kilometers. Fairly exhausted, we checked in and headed to Dino’s, a restaurant that sits on the beach. We ordered pizza, which was a little overhyped, but still not bad. Returning to our dorm-style room after a late-night drink, we set up bednets and fell asleep.

All of us woke up early, but with a full night’s sleep before, and a full day at the beach ahead. We were all on the beach by 8:30. The beach at Tofo is spectacular: it stretches in a crescent for a couple miles with a crystal clear ocean accompanying it. The water of the Indian Ocean is warm and wavy. I was excited to be swimming in my third ocean and getting a tan. Over the course of the day, more and more trainees showed up at Tofo, and it became quite a little party. I learned how to play Euchre, which is a pretty cool card game, and did a little bit of reading in between trips into the ocean.

We returned again to Dino’s to dinner. Not wanting pizza for a second night in a row, I ordered a shwarma, one of my favorite foods from my trip to Egypt. While it didn’t even come close to being as good as Egyptian street-vender shwarma, it was still satisfying. After dinner, I returned back to the hotel, played a game of Euchre, taught some people how to play Spar – the card game I learned in Ghana – and played some catchphrase. I would have liked to have gone to bed earlier, with a long day ahead, but such is life.

Once again, it is too early to be bright. We’re on the road again at 4:00, on a fairly comfortable bus to Maputo. I kept falling asleep – and leaning into another Trainee. Oops. Half way through the ride, at Xai Xai (pronounced Shy-Shy) I switched seats so I could play Scrabble with a couple of Trainees. We arrived in Maputo around 11 and we made a valiant return to Maputo Shopping Center.

We sat down at a shwarma place. Many of the stores in the shopping center are run by Middle Easterners, so I figured it would be pretty good…and it was. Good enough to have two. As if the afternoon couldn’t have got better, I found razor blades and shaving cream. I have become sick of using an electric razor; I never feel like I get a good shave. So I am very excited, even if they are two-blade crappy throw-aways.

I arrived back in Namaacha with a group of 10 other Trainees around 3:15. Exhausted from another long day of travel, I was greeted by minha mae with a bucket of hot water for a shower and a cup of coffee. I rested a bit before dinner and called it an early night.

I woke up refreshed and looking forward to Hub Day. Most of the morning was spent discussing our different experiences at different Volunteer sites, the first half in Portuguese, the second half in English. This was followed by a medical discussion on the light topic of Avian Flu. Not concerned by getting this, I worked on my homework as the medic spoke. I had anticipated getting mail – especially the package(s) that my parents sent weeks ago, but we were told that mail would arrive on Monday. Just after lunch, we received our results from our most recent oral language test. I was told that I was at Intermediate High level, which is where Peace Corps wants us at the end of training. So I am pretty happy.

Realizing that most of us would be tired from our travels, Peace Corps gave us the better part of the afternoon off. A few of us went down to the barraca to have a drink and play cards. I have continued my domination of Euchre, winning five straight games. I plan on never losing at this game. Playing cards for hours resulted in a late return home; we had tea around 6:00 and dinner around 8:15. I talked to family today – my parents in the afternoon, my grandparents in the evening. It was good to catch up with everyone and get some news from the other side of the world. Feeling tired, I once again called it an early night.

I woke up to the pitter-patter of a light rain, the tail end of a massive storm that blew through Namaacha last night. Minha mae was very happy this morning – it was like Christmas for her. Just about everyone was excited for the rain, but one house where a Trainee is staying flooded. As I walked out the door, my sister called and we talked as I made my way to class. Our language class learned how to write formal letters today. It will be a good skill to have, as we will need to make formal requests to our school directors.

Our late morning session, across town, was on loss and grieving. Scheduled for two hours, the entire session lasted about ten minutes. The only good thing about this was it left plenty of time for mail to be distributed. And there was plenty to go around. I received both packages – loaded with shoes, spices, and magazines – that my parents sent me. I got lucky in that my packages were unopened. Apparently, Christmas has come early to Namaacha, first with the rain and now with the packages.

I returned home, dropped off my packages at home, and headed to the house that was flooded. It happened that the house that flooded was the house of my best friend here. I offered to help out her host mae, but by the time I arrived the house was already clean. It was somewhat unbelievable.

After lunch, all of the English teachers reconvened for a session on classroom management and grade-keeping. Keeping grades is quite the process here. You don’t really appreciate the wonder of computer networks until you work within this grading system. Everything is handwritten multiple times in multiple places. Some Peace Corps Volunteers have developed a spreadsheet to help simplify and digitize some of it, but in the end, we all have to handwrite the grades that we turn in.

With the rest of the afternoon free, a group of us made our way to a barraca to play cards. I have finally been humbled at Euchre: I lost 3 out of 4 games. It is a team game, but I have to take most of the blame for the losses. The hardest part of being new at a team game is not being a liability to the team, and today I misplayed a lot of hands. As it is with Portuguese, I’m trying to remember that I’m new to Euchre, and I’m going to make my fair share of mistakes.

As the downpour continued, I made my home in damp darkness, occasionally illuminated by lightning. It’s cold enough that I could see my breath as I walked in the dark. Without streetlights, other senses take over. It was easy to hear where the water was flowing, so I knew to avoid certain areas. I managed to get home without stepping in any massive puddles. I ate dinner with minha mae and minha irma, read up on the current hockey season in a magazine and went to bed.

Saturday did not feel like Saturday; then again, Thursday didn’t feel like Thursday, and the same was true for Friday. Our internal calendars have been thrown off by all the travel this week. I went to language class, where we played a vocabulary game. I think our teacher has realized that at this point, there is not a lot more grammatical structure that she can teach, so the focus has shifted to using vocabulary and becoming comfortable with speaking.

After language class, we continued learning, although in a much more interested manner. My language group returned to my house, where minha mae was set to teach us how to make spring rolls. Eight Trainees, our teacher, and minha mae diced up onions, parsley, and cilantro; shredded cabbage, chicken, and carrots; and contributed to the cooking. After letting everything cool, we learned how to roll the spring rolls. Our work completed, I broke out the soy sauce which just arrived yesterday, and we enjoyed fruits of the labor.

Sufficiently fed after eating a small lunch with minha mae, I started washing clothes. We have a break from the rain, so today was a perfect day to have everything air-dry. I was prepared to wash clothes by myself, but one shirt in, the empregada stepped in and I was relegated to rinsing and hanging. I can’t say I was angered by this: it is much easier when a second person helps, regardless of who is washing and who is rinsing.

Exhausted, I was keen on relaxing for the remainder of the afternoon. But minha mae informed me as I was washing clothes that we were going to a wedding party. I wanted no piece of this. I went to my room, fell asleep, expecting her to wake me up. Her efforts to get me out of bed failed. She left, leaving me a text message saying that minha irma would take me to the party when I awakened. I thought I had dodged the situation. So I lied my way out of it. I told minha mae via text that I had a headache and I was going to stay home. I should feel bad about it, but I think I might have passed out at the party had I gone. As I relaxed, I received calls from my grandmother and my father.

The rest of the night was passed writing emails for sending later, cleaning up my room, and eating dinner. The day passed by in blur. And so did this week. Getting away from Namaacha certainly helped make the week pass by quickly. Six weeks in the books, the remainder of our time here should go by quickly. Just as the beginning of this experience was marked by a lot of “firsts” – and continues to be marked by such events – there will be some things reaching their conclusion. Next week is our last week of language, and the week after, we will lose the anxiety of worrying where we will be for the next two years. We also begin planning curriculum and teaching next week, so things are becoming a little more real, a little more job-relevant. Put that together with our site visits, it’s starting to feel a little more like we’re Volunteers and not Trainees.

Homestay Week 5: Half Way Through Training

By this week, our fifth week at our homestays, I think most of us are starting to find our rhythm here. We have figured out how to pass the slow Sundays, how to most efficiently get from one place to another, and how to sleep through the roosters in the morning. This Sunday was definitely easier than last Sunday, mostly because I managed to keep myself busy.

After catching up on news at the internet café while everyone was at church, I returned home to start cleaning my room. Minha mae and my sisters returned from church around 11:00 and we started cooking up brunch. Sunday food is almost always better than the rest of the week. There is usually a lot more diversity in what we eat. This week, we had mostly leftovers from last night, but we also had some freshly-cooked garlic fries, samoosas, and spring rolls.

Replenished and refreshed, I spent some time ironing some clothes before heading off to play some soccer around 3:00. All of us were happy to be moving around, and building up a sweat we want to have, even if it was 100 degrees outside. We had a really good mix of locals and Peace Corps Trainees, which made for some really fun games.

As always, I had tea with minha mae in the late afternoon. As we drank our tea, she told me that I would be cooking dinner. This caught me slightly off guard, but I was definitely up for it.

Cooking is one of the things from the United States that I’ve really come to miss. For the last couple of years, I have cooked for myself. I know what foods I like and how I like them cooked. But it’s not just about the food; cooking is one of those activities that help me relax. So I looked forward to cooking this meal – some beef with sautéed onions and bell peppers. I enjoyed it, and minha mae said it was good, but she wasn’t too quick to reach for seconds.

Knowing that it was Sunday, I expected to talk to my parents. When the phone rang, though, I was surprised that I had another set of grandparents on the line. It was good to catch up with them. And, I did get a call from my parents just before heading to bed, but we had a bad connection.

Of all the nights we have had here, I think this was the hottest one. I opened up my window and slept with without blankets, but I still woke up in a sweat. Some of the other Trainees agreed that it was by far the hottest night. And, the morning was warm, so we knew it was going to be a hot day.

Before heading to class in oppressive humidity, I spoke with my parents, who gave me all the football scores from this past weekend and some election news. As exciting as this election has been, I’m ready for it to be over. I feel like this election season has gone on forever. At the same time, though, it is very weird to not be in the United States for this election. And what is even weirder is because of the time difference, we won’t get news of a winner until at least Wednesday morning.

After a class where we had a test – it wasn’t too hard, in my opinion – we headed off to our morning session, which was about the stigma of HIV/AIDS. One of the challenges of living in a country with such a high rate of HIV/AIDS is getting out good information. Oftentimes, people will not know the facts about HIV contraction, so they live with some fears that we might consider irrational. The afternoon was nothing special – we filled out bank forms and had some light conversation before getting a cold soda on a hot afternoon.

My evening was nothing special too. I returned home after talking with our Volunteer of the week, who seems to really enjoy his job. He lives in a thatched-roof hut that has electricity and a water tap outside his house. I think I would take that. I had tea, then dinner with minha mae and one of my sisters – the other sister is with her parents for a couple days.

As hot and clear as it was during the day, the evening was that cold and cloudy. A system blew in quickly and it threatened to rain, but all it produced very little. We were told that Namaacha would get muddy very quickly, but I have yet to see any mud here. The storm did keep the evening pretty cool though. Just before going to bed, one of my best friends called me. He caught me up on all sorts of pop culture, which I really needed for my own sanity.

I woke up tired, both from staying up late to talk and not sleeping particularly well. Today was a day I had been looking forward to; it is America Day. Not only is it Election Day in the States (although we won’t receive any results until today), but all of the language groups cooked American food for the maes. I know we looked forward to this, but I think the maes had some trepidation. Luckily for them, they only have to deal with our food for one meal. Our group cooked up French toast and garlic mashed potatoes – quite the combination – but I think the maes actually enjoyed some of it, so that was good news.

Science and English teachers came together for the afternoon session on classroom management. We received a lot of really good information from our Volunteer about how classrooms work in Mozambique. A lot of discussion revolved around the idea of cheating on tests and how to deal with that particular problem. As we get further into training, our sessions are becoming more specific and more job-relevant.

Prior to dinner, I spoke with my aunt for the first time in a while. All of these phone calls coming in are very encouraging. They definitely lift my spirits, especially when I have not had the greatest of days. Today wasn’t so bad, but it definitely could have been better. I feel like I’m having another down week when it comes to language, but not so bad to throw everything else off kilter.

Right after dinner, there was actually an American election special on one of the local television stations. Of course it was all in Portuguese, so I didn’t understand everything. Regardless, it was quite clear which way the anchor and analyst were leaning. I really wanted to stay up and watch it, hoping I could get some state-by-state results, but with a ten hour time difference to the West Coast, I wouldn’t expect to learn anything at reasonable. With that in mind, I went to bed and awaited text messages with election results.

Early morning Wednesday, I started receiving text messages. And when I say early, I mean before the roosters got to me. My first one came at 3:17 and they continued coming in every half hour after that. I tried to get some sleep in between messages, but just couldn’t manage to get any rest. When I got a call from my very excited brother at just after 6:00, I finally gave up. I wasn’t particular shocked with the result, but I was surprised by the margin of victory.

Surprises continued to come in when one of the local television stations actually played the concession and acceptance speeches of the nominees. As they spoke in English, somebody translated the speeches into Portuguese. It was very cool because both minha mae and I could see and hear the same speech without either one of us dealing with the language barrier.

I went to class dead tired; everyone was tired because everyone got text messages or calls throughout the night. Most of the conversation in the morning revolved around the election: what states we are from and who received that state’s votes, how the Electoral College works, and how we felt about the result. The second part of the class was a practice for our second language proficiency exam. But for the most part, we were very distracted. Not only were we all getting text messages, but there are a bunch of little animals running around us. As we are in the middle of spring here (remember, it’s the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed), there are packs of puppies, ducklings, chicks, and goats running around the bairros.

During the latter part of the morning, a couple of us took some time to study for our language test. Our tests weren’t until the afternoon, so we had plenty of time, both to worry and to waste. In the end, we were only semi-productive, but we at least felt a little bit better knowing some new verb conjugations.

Everyone in our language group met up at the test location on time, but we ended up starting a little bit late. I think we were all a little nervous about what was going to happen, not because we had any fear of repercussion, but because we just didn’t really know what to expect. In addition to language testing, we were also grilled on health, safety, and classroom management. It was a little tedious, but I guess all of the key players want to see how we are doing half way through training.

Not until this evening did we really have reason for a little celebration. With the election over and our language testing done, a group of us headed to a barraca to relax, talk about the election with some locals and each other, and discuss our language tests. Even though I feel like I have regressed a little this week, the test still went pretty well. But it was a long and exhausting day. Right after dinner, I told minha mae that I had to sleep because I was just too tired; she understood.

Thursday morning classes started a bit later than usual. Our teacher gave us an extra half hour to sleep because it was quite clear after yesterday that we needed it. And on top of that, we started late because one of the members in our language group showed up late. We didn’t have a lot to do as it was. We have already covered the verb tenses that we really need to know – and probably some that we don’t – so now it is just a matter of putting them into practice. We also received our tests back from this past Monday. I was satisfied with my result and our teacher was so pleased that she brought us some cake. After a small break, we played “Catch Phrase,” but in Portuguese. It was actually really helpful because I had to really pay attention to what was being said.

Having finished class early, I returned home to start doing some laundry. I won’t have time to do laundry this weekend because all of us are heading to Volunteers’ sites for the weekend and into the week. With the light rain that is passing through Namaacha right now, my clothes will need a little more time to dry than usual. After I finished laundry, I had lunch with minha mae and then headed out to our afternoon session. It’s been a slow day, only because language testing continued into today, so there was not a lot on the schedule. After the session, which was on again on lesson planning and teaching tips, I returned home for tea, a bit of rest, and dinner.

On Friday, all of us convened for Hub Day, with great anticipation for our site visits. We had a lecture on common diseases, which, as always, was very fun to hear. There is a part of me that believes that these lectures are meant to put a ton of fear into us, but at the same time, I realize that they have to tell us about all these different scenarios. I also got my last vaccination for a while. The rest of the afternoon was free for us, so I relaxed, ironed some clothing, and played some soccer.

Perhaps it is because many of us just got out of college where we lived alone. Or it may be because on the whole, we are fairly independent people. But I think a lot of us are excited to get out of town for a little while. Undoubtedly, I am enjoying my time here in Namaacha, in spite of the fact that I don’t have a lot of independence. But I think this site visit will be a good opportunity to recharge, see what life is really like as a Volunteer, and come back with a new energy.

Everybody will be back midweek. I suspect it will be an interesting experience and there will be a lot of good stories to go around.

Homestay Week 4: A Change Will Do You Good

Sundays are usually difficult for me. With no structured activities, it is easy to get lost in thoughts and wishes. After last week’s Sunday difficulties, I promised myself that I would get out of the house and do something to keep my mind off of what I miss.

I slept in until about 8:00, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to the internet café to catch up on news and sports. Sunday is a great time to go because just about everyone – including most of the Trainees – are in church. I got all the news I wanted, talked with some friends online, and returned home for brunch with minha mae. After eating quickly – minha mae had to leave the house for a funeral – I cleaned up my room and listened to some music. We were scheduled to play soccer around 3:30, but I started getting antsy around 2:15. I left the house, book in hand, expecting to wait for others.

As I walked up to the court where we were going to play, I saw another Trainee come up with a family’s-worth of criancas. We had some other unexpected players. Playing sports with little kids is always fun, but when they are too small – as many of them were – it becomes a problem. We managed to play for about 90 minutes without seriously injuring anyone. I returned home around 6:00 for a shower, then early dinner. After dinner, I did some reading on how to conjugate verbs – great bedtime reading.

Language class is at minha casa this week, which means I get to sleep an extra 15 minutes everyday; I don’t have to leave myself time to walk to another house. We had a new teacher today – my teacher from the first week – which I think we were pretty happy about. Regardless of the new teacher, we still got stuck up in the minutiae of the language, instead of learning a lot of new vocabulary. At this point, I decided I needed to tackle this language problem myself. I took our one copy of “501 Portuguese Verbs” and started copying over verbs and definitions. I figure that if I can learn 10 verbs a day, I can have 500 verbs memorized by the end of training. It might be slightly unrealistic, but why not shoot high?

Our late morning session was about lesson planning on low resources. A noted change from last week, this session was productive. We know that we will have very little to work with, so attempting to put together a lesson plan using almost nothing was both challenging and practical. We kept the good vibes going in the afternoon with sessions on how to teach speaking and listening, two things that we often take for granted as English speakers; as current language learners though, this is something that the Trainees truly appreciate. When it comes to learning a new language, listening and comprehending others is the biggest challenge for me. And with a language as complex as English, it is surely just as, if not more, challenging.

I returned home on the late side of the afternoon for tea with minha mae. After tea, I continued working on my verbs book and did my homework.

A not so interesting day turned very interesting at dinner. Minhas irmas brought out dinner: rice, spinach, green beans and chicken – all foods I like. But on this night, the chicken was a little different. As the chicken got passed around, I failed to notice a single wing, thigh, or breast. What I did see was a pair of feet and some of the innards – not exactly the parts I was used to. To this point, I have been very good about trying new foods and eating what has been in front of me. But everybody has their line, and this was it for me. It is a difficult line to toe because on the one hand, I would like to not eat chicken feet, and on the other hand, I don’t want to be culturally insensitive. I explained to minha mae, after she put the liver on my plate, that I wasn’t accustomed to eating these parts of the chicken. I think this was the first time in my life that I ever said “no” to eating chicken. Of course, my sisters got a good laugh out of this. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Tuesday went by like a blur. Language class, once again, was productive. We started learning about subjunctive – the bane of my existence in Spanish – and discussed major world problems such as hunger, poverty, and climate change. We still talk like kindergarteners, but to be able to even begin discussing these topics was encouraging. Our late morning session was also productive; the topic was roles and goals of Peace Corps Volunteers. It seems like these sessions are starting to tie together some of the loose threads from prior sessions.

I returned to my house for lunch for the first time in weeks. Usually I take my lunch with me to the afternoon session, but since today’s afternoon session was at my house, I was able to come home. After lunch, we continued discussing major world problems. Each of us picked a topic, and we had to write and speak on the topic. This was an extraordinarily helpful exercise as it helped us learn a lot of new vocabulary that we may actually use in the future.

The highpoint of the afternoon, though, was making samoosas with minha mae. I had looked forward to this because over the past year, I had eaten a fair amount of sambusas (Somali spelling, same food) and really wanted to learn how to make them. Putting a samoosa together is part cooking, part art. There is an origami-like folding sequence that takes place that took me at least ten times to get somewhat right. Minha mae gave me credit though. Apparently, my sisters have no idea how to make samoosas and she made sure to let them know about it. Moments like that make me laugh

It’s funny how one moment can change a day. For most of Wednesday, I felt like I was a half-step off. Language class was a little out of the ordinary. We reviewed the subjunctive tenses and during the break, minha mae served our group tea, homemade biscotti, an home made liqueur; nothing like drinking at 8:30 in the morning. Our late morning session was about rituals and religion in Mozambique. It was a fascinating session that we actually didn’t finish.

I returned home for lunch and the afternoon language session. I was somewhat disheartened by the news I received just prior to lunch about my oral language test. I was told I was at a low intermediate level. I thought I had been moving at a better clip than that and it definitely brought my mood down. After lunch, I looked at our manual to see where we should be after five weeks; at five weeks, Peace Corps expects us to be at a low intermediate level. This single moment turned around my day.

In the afternoon, over tea, I had one of those conversations with minha mae that I can look back on when I’m having a tough day with Portuguese. It is hard to change from Portuguese to English back to Portuguese multiple times a day. But for the late afternoon into the evening, I was locked in. I was able to pick up her use of imperfect subjunctive, which made me very happy. I even got talking to my sisters a bit while we finished a Su Doku

As we finished dinner – xima (pronounced SHE-ma: it is one of those foods served with the sole purpose of sitting in one’s stomach for a while), salad, french fries, rice and parts of the chicken I was happy to eat – thunder and lightning passed their way through Namaacha. A light rain followed, bringing out the frogs, which make the most pleasant sound for sleeping.

In spite of waking up multiple times over the course of the night – huge cracks of thunder and crazy Larium dreams did me in – I woke up feeling strangely refreshed. As I finished breakfast, my parents called to give me the World Series result. We continued talking as I walked toward the training center for Hub Day. Once I hung up the phone, I got into a conversation with a teenage boy. I knew it was going to be a good day because I was able to hold a conversation together in the morning.

I rode the momentum of that first conversation into class, where we spent most of the time reviewing for our upcoming test. Class was fairly productive; we did a lot of speaking, which meant a lot of listening practice for me. The rest of our sessions for the day were about safety and security. Once a week, Peace Corps tells us all the bad things that could happen to us – they’ve happened to others in the past – and it scares just about everyone.

Over our lunch break, I went to the market to try to buy a clipper set. The man selling the razor wanted 350 metacais (about 15 dollars). I bargained him down to 200. He sold it for 200, which was good for him because anything that cheap probably doesn’t work. What was important, though, was I was able to understand what price he wanted, bargain it down, and get the price down to an amount I was willing to lose.

Following our afternoon sessions, a group of us went to the barraca for a drink. Hub Days are usually the only day that we get to see the Health group, so we do our best to catch up. Before I opened my drink, a random group of men at the barraca asked me what I was doing in Mozambique. I explained my role in the Peace Corps, what I had done prior to Peace Corps, and other random topics. We spoke for about 20 minutes, almost entirely in Portuguese. It was a confidence-building conversation, simply because the Portuguese was coming from voices that I hadn’t heard before.

I returned home, with my mind fully in Portuguese mode, for tea with minha mae, quickly followed by dinner. We had a great conversation about the politics of Mozambique. Without a doubt, today was one of those days where a successful conversation led to another successful conversation. After dinner, I tested out my razor, which of course didn’t work. It’s not even worth trying to return it. Losing 200 metacais is not going to kill me.

Just before going to bed, I spoke to my brother for about 20 minutes. He sacrificed his lunch break to talk to me, for which I was very grateful. It was a great end to a great day.

With Hub Day falling on Thursday instead of Friday, our Friday felt like Saturday. And on top of feeling like it was the weekend, it was Halloween. None of us were moving very quickly. We got through the first hour of language class, barely. What was supposed to be a 10 minute break took up the entire second hour when minha mae put out a spread including samoosas, spring rolls, biscotti, and more. But we did continue speaking Portuguese, so in a way, our class continued.

We trekked up the road to catch a ride in Peace Corps car to our late morning session, which was on integrating different learning styles and planning a unit. It was taught by our Volunteer of the week, who did a really good job the entire week. Our afternoon session, taught by current Trainees, was on how to teach reading and writing. They also did a good job getting us information and keeping us a week.

I returned home briefly to change into my “costume”; with the goatee I’m currently growing, a bandana quickly turned me into a pirate. Just about all of the Trainees converged on single barraca where we celebrated Halloween American-style. Some of the Trainees even made some pizza, which was actually pretty good.

By the time I got home, I was feeling pretty good. The affect of alcohol on language ability is really interesting. I wouldn’t say that one’s language ability improves with alcohol, although many people think that. I believe that a person is more willing to make mistakes after a few drinks, so a person is more willing to speak. After dinner, I had a long conversation with minha mae, which apparently made sense, because she kept responding without correcting me.

I woke up a bit earlier than usual on Saturday so our language group could head back into Maputo. As it turned out, our regular teacher was ill, so we had a substitute who only held class for one hour. By 8:40, we were on the road to Maputo. I didn’t have to sit backwards this time, so my trip was already better. We were in town by 10:15 and at a different shopping center than the prior week by 10:45. This place had everything. Our two people who failed to get phones last week got them. One person bought a guitar. I bought a new clipper set that actually works – I did the entire transaction in Portuguese, in spite of the fact that the salesman often spoke English to me. And we all got pizza again. All of us felt like the next time we go to Maputo, we could navigate our way around with some confidence. We were back in Namaacha, after a successful trip, by 4:30.

Back in town, I had tea with minha mae and another Trainee. As I was resting after tea, I received an unanticipated but very much appreciated phone call from my grandparents and my sister, and I called one of my best friends. It was great to hear some new voices from people I hadn’t heard from in a while.

It is amazing what a difference a week can make. After what was a tough week last week, this week was the exact opposite. Maybe it was the new language teacher. Maybe it was a series of good conversations. Maybe it was becoming more confident and comfortable in our new homes. The truth is that it is probably a combination of all these things because all of them are connected. Because communicating has become easier, everything else has become easier.

I try to keep in mind, though, that as we go through this learning process, there are no constants. A lot changed for the better in one week. But as quickly as it changed for the better in one week, next week could be challenging. Life right now is an emotional rollercoaster that can take a rise or a fall at any hour on any day. Little things that bother us can throw us into a tailspin. Small successes or short phone calls can lift our spirits. But soon enough, we will level off and the ups and downs of life in Mozambique will just be normal. I think we’re all waiting for that day.