Year 1 - Week 11: Measuring Time in Toothbrushes

Sunday started with a sunrise. And a raging hangover. I was up for the first time at 5:30, just as the sun was rising over the islands off of Vilanculos. I admired the scenery, and decided that I might as well go back to bed for a bit.

Up for the second time around 7:30, I gathered my things in preparation for another long travel day. While I helped sort out who owed money to whom, Richie went into the villa and confirmed there was a chapa directly to Mambone. By 9:30, we were at the chapa stand and by 10:30, we were on the road. We started out slowly, stopping every couple hundred meters in search of more people, but few were to be found.

Outside of the amp that was directly under my seat and pounding terrible Mozambican music, this was probably the most comfortable chapa ride we have had since arriving. For most of the ride, we were sitting three to a row comfortably instead of the customary cramped four per row. The driver made good time. But this was the easy part of the trip. It’s difficult knowing that we have to make the walk back into Machanga.

Pretty tired from the day of travel and the party the night before, we had a pretty relaxing afternoon. As soon as we arrived, we ate delicious Mambone bread and an almost legitimate salad of cucumber, tomato, and onion. I also had an apple for the first time in a while. All these veggies and fruit can’t be good for my system. Right after I finished eating, we started preparing for dinner bit by bit. We had all of our regular ingredients for tomato sauce plus some rare additions – carrots, bell pepper, and canned mushrooms all from Vilanculos. I predicted it would be the best sauce to date; Richie thanked me for jinxing it.

Just as we were about to start cooking, my parents called. Richie was stuck on dinner duty. I had a nice conversation with my parents, a lot of it revolving around their trip out here. Yes, it is months and months away, but it is nice for all of us to have something to look forward to in the long term.

Jinxes, be damned. The sauce was delicious. We made our regular garlic bread with newly acquired olive oil from Vilanculos. After eating, we watched a little bit of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” before hitting the hay, committing a minor crime of going to bed with the energy still on.

We have found that when we have small milestones, trips, or activities to look forward to, the time passes much more quickly. We know that we get to leave every couple of weeks for money, and trimesters last between nine and 12 weeks. But we each have our own milestones that we use. This morning’s usually mundane activity of brushing my teeth was a little more special than usual because I hit a milestone. Before I left, my mom packed me with ten toothbrushes. Being here for about 100 weeks (and since it is best to change brushes regularly), I get to use a new toothbrush every 10 weeks. I went into the reserves, cracked open my set of brushes, and enjoyed a new brush. It’s just a way to keep us sane.

Monday was an easy day for both Richie and me. We both gave exams, which meant that neither of us had to actually teach. It was time to see how much these kids learned or have not learned. But before we gave the tests, we had to actually write them out. While it rained and with the sunlight at a minimum, I wrote out my exams by candlelight on big paper.

Monday was a milestone day for another reason. It was Larium day, and Richie and I are both running low on Larium. Low enough that we need to text the medical office to send more. We get 10 or 12 pills per packet, so getting so close to the end of a packet is just another way to know time is passing.

Giving exams is boring and slow. A lot of the kids cheat in one way or another. There are a lot of shift eyes. But I think I was able to keep the standard cheat sheets down to a minimum. This test was pretty “un-cheat-sheet-able”; they either knew it or they didn’t.

After six periods of test giving, I set back to see the results. The range was huge: out of 20 points, at least one person received a three and there were a couple of 20s scattered in there. It was quickly apparent who came to class and who didn’t, who participated in class and who didn’t. On the whole though, the students did pretty well.

When the energy came on, another favor asked two favors of me: if I could teach a calculus lesson for his Physics class; and if I could type up an exam for him. The latter I could do with no problem. The former is going to be a challenge. First I have to brush up on my calculus. Then I have to actually understand what is going on in this all-Portuguese book. There’s no bullshitting around this language test. As I was trying to figure all of this out, my grandfather called. So there were three things going on in my head: speaking in English, reading in Portuguese, and doing math. My head nearly exploded.

I returned to the house to help Richie out with dinner. I had started preparing when his family called. Then he took over for a bit while I was talking, and then I took over again. The French toast we made was some of the best yet. And with our new stock of syrup, we were quite satisfied. We finished of a disc of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and went to bed.

For the last couple nights, it had been cool, and last night was no exception. Once again, we slept without sweating (at least while we were awake in bed), but we both woke up drowsy. Richie headed to the market while I typed up the teacher’s test and figured out the rest of the trimester.

Just before we started to cook up lunch, a man carrying shrimp came around. We knew that we were making spaghetti later, so we figured we would get some. The man told us that a plate was 20 metacais – about 80 cents. As he piled the shrimp onto this plate, I thought to myself “What would Forrest Gump do with all of this shrimp?” I think there was enough shrimp for the village. So we are now throwing shrimp in everything. We put it in our eggs for lunch, which was quite delicious. And it will go in the tomato sauce for dinner.

Classes went well today. I taught favorites to one set of twelfth graders while the other twelfth graders took an exam. My eleventh graders got the lesson on “should” and “ought to” that the twelfth graders got earlier in the trimester. It is apparent that the students are getting more and more comfortable, both with my teaching style and with the language. I returned home after teaching, graded the most recent set of tests, and started preparing for dinner.

In between grading and dinner, I talked to one of my students who helps some teachers at another house. I asked him if he knew any students who could help Richie and me around the house. We can do most everything here, but there are some things like deshelling shrimp and washing clothes that we just don’t want to do. The kid said that he would help out with another kid. Perfect.

Having shrimp in the pasta sauce was delicious. It was definitely a twist on what we are used to. We’ll probably have one more day until this shrimp goes bad – not having a refrigerator is kind of tough. But if we waste a little bit of shrimp, we are not going to cry over the 20 cents.

I slept through the night (I think we might finally be getting comfortable here), which including a massive storm. Richie said it happened around 5 or 5:30 but hell if I know; I was gone. I went outside and noticed that our buckets had been filled. I asked Richie if he put them out, and he said no. Curious, to say the least. Then the kid from last night came over, and I knew my answer. I told him that we didn’t need that much help, just with laundry and some other small things when needed.

It took two days, but I finally figured out how to get all of students learning the same amount of content for the trimester. It sounds like it shouldn’t be challenging, but I have four groups of eleventh graders, two of which started two weeks late. They meet five times per week. My twelfth graders meet three times a week, so I have to teach everything to them faster.

Luckily, the groups that started late are pretty quick learners. One group especially is really powering through the material. We were supposed to meet three times today, but we got everything done in two sessions. The last session is supposed to be the end of their day and the end of mine, so if we can cover everything, I’m happy to let them go early. Everybody wins.

I finally got my hands on the class lists for twelfth grade. Just before energy came on, I started popping the names into an Excel sheet. The twelfth graders did a nice job on the test. About 90 percent of them passed the test, which is definitely more than I expected. I am happily pleased. We will see soon if the eleventh graders are as good.

Richie took care of making our baby formula pancakes. We slightly altered the recipe and they came out pretty good. We watched a little “Scrubs” and went to bed.

I didn’t have a lot to do Thursday morning, and it was kind of nice. I was able to just sit back with no real obligations except for going to the market. That, however, proved to be amazing on this day. I went on the hunt for beer in preparation for the weekend and for making onion rings. What I stumbled upon shocked me: legitimately cold beer. I came back from the market as quickly as possible and I think Richie was as stunned as I was. We both knew exactly what we had to do. There is no reason to waste a cold beer.

We killed our beers and started preparing for lunch. Like I said, we didn’t have a lot to do. Mostly, we just waited out the clock until we could actually cook.

Classes went pretty well. My last class of the day meets for two consecutive periods, and thankfully they are a group of quick learners. I can usually get in all the material I need in one period instead of the two. It’s probably not the best thing to do, but considering they outperformed all the other classes on the exam, I’m okay with it.

As I started preparing dinner before, we received some mail. A big envelope had the words “Richie & Lee – Os Americanos, Machanga.” The person bringing the mail had no problem finding us. The only thing that would have made it better is if it had said “Os Muzungus.” I received four receipts for packages and a birthday card from my parents. They were prepared and sent a “Happy belated card,” but amazingly, it got here on time. I would have done the same thing.

After dinner, I was summoned into the computer lab again. Some people just needed some documents printed for Beira. I found out that people were heading to Beira over the weekend, which was good news. I sent the receipts with some money up with the people going to Beira. Hopefully I will receive those packages next week.

Richie and I knew we were in for a big day Friday. We were committed to going out to the villa for a drink or two with some colleagues. But first, I had to work. I read through the physical chemistry manual that the teacher had given me, but I wasn’t of much help. It has been a long time since I learned calculus, and differential equations weren’t exactly my strong suit.

I had four classes in the afternoon, all with my late-starting groups. Just like yesterday, I had a double class to end the day with a fast-learning group. I was able to get everything done in one period. Everybody was happy to leave early. Upon my return, I put in one last set of grades from exams. All of the classes performed with amazing consistency – an average of 13 out of 20, with 85 percent passing (passing here is 10 or more).

Then the drinking began. We had four beers left from yesterday’s beer run and we figured we could pregame before heading out. The idea would have been better if it wasn’t on an empty stomach. We started dinner only slightly buzzed, making decent pancakes and some pre-packaged pasta.

It was really nice to get out into the villa during the evening. It is a little surprising that it took us nearly 11 weeks to go out at night. Usually, by 9:30, we are exhausted. But with some liquid help, we made it until midnight. It was a pretty fun night. One of the teachers we went out with spoke decent English, so we kept bouncing in between languages. It was a good exchange of language.

All the fun from last night created a little bit of mayhem in the morning. I was up at 6 with a massive hangover. Richie says he woke up with his head on the floor. I don’t even know how that is possible. We were committed to going to Mambone, but we needed to recover first. We both went back to bed for a bit to fight the hangovers.

We kind of got our day going around 8:30. I cut up some onions and lit carvão to cook up some onion rings and eggs. All the batter on the onion rings definitely helped us. We were feeling a little better, but still exhausted. Once again, we were down for the count.

Take three. Finally, we were awake for good around 10. We were off to Mambone with a couple of other teachers and some students. The idea was to go drinking again, but Richie and I both thought it wouldn’t be a great idea.

Speaking of things that were not great ideas: following the teachers on a different path to Mambone was a terrible idea. One would think that they would know the best way to get to the river because they live here. We were wrong. At various points during the trek – and let me emphasize, this was a trek – we walked through disgusting water, ankle-deep mud, and scalding hot sand. Oh yea, and this path was much longer to the river. Terrible idea. We thought we had walked long enough that we were actually in Mambone. And then we hit the river. Terrible, terrible idea.

Once we were in Mambone, things were a little awkward. Some people – like us – went to buy things; others started drinking. After about an hour, we all settled at a bar. Richie and I chose not to drink. It was probably the best idea all day. Even being at the bar though was a little awkward. Everyone was speaking really quickly, sometimes not even in Portuguese, leaving Richie and I pretty much in the dark. We want on search of a hat for me, but I got massively sidetracked. I saw an old-school Latrell Sprewell Golden State Warriors jersey. For 150 meticais – 6 dollars – I had to buy it. I also got a pretty sweet England soccer jersey for the same price.

By the time we got back, people were ready to head back. The others wanted to go back the same way we came. We told them we would race them home. And in spite of sitting on the Mambone side of the river for 30 minutes waiting for a canoe, we still got home 20 minutes ahead of the others. We felt slightly redeemed.

Both Richie and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Richie napped until the energy came on. I cleaned up around the house and fashioned a rather excellent pants hanger out of a couple sticks and some wire. It was suffice until we can buy more hangers in Maputo.

Oh yes, Maputo. We have a meeting in Maputo the second week in March. We are already counting down the days. But between now and then, there is a birthday (mine) to celebrate, a visit from our program director, and a week’s worth of teaching.