A late night and a lot of work done appears to be the ticket for getting a good, uninterrupted sleep. Six solid hours of English theater work yesterday knocked me out but good, but I woke up Sunday morning refreshed and ready to have a relaxing day. Once Richie rolled out of his room, we finished watching "The Blind Side", one of the better films we've watched here.
We had the movie finished by 9:00, and that's just about when I realized that we were in dire need of a market run. Things here have become a little more active on Sundays. Now that energy has been fairly well established, shop-owners have realized that Sunday is just another day to make money.
All said, it was a very quiet day in Machanga. After all that work yesterday, I was happy to have a day to sit back, relax and read old "Newsweek" magazines. Most of the afternoon was spent between the patio and bed, reading "news" about the oil spill or Supreme Court nominations.
Richie made another run to the market in the afternoon. He went to take care of our dinner problem by buying meat. He appeared to have purchased a decent cut; there was no major fighting with it, a welcome surprise. I decided to cook it Mozambican/Sozinho style, in the tomato broth. Everything tasted just fine, but the meat was tough. Our high hopes were dashed in a single rubbery bite. Richie went to bed right after dinner. I stayed up to read for a little while longer before crashing.
The end of my weekend on Monday was shockingly productive, even though I did very little. Late in the morning, I made a run to the market to stock up on potatoes, onions, and eggs. Lunch quickly followed the market run.
After eating, I was sitting around for a bit reading when a colleague came by with some computer problems. He had typed up a physics exam for his students -- impressive since he's only had his computer for a couple months -- but needed to add some little graphs. These, admittedly, are tough. They do require a fairly intimate understanding of Word. He explained what he wanted and I threw them into his document in just a couple minutes.
Richie came back from his afternoon classes and both of us just sort of shook our heads. For a while now, Sozinho has been pissing us off. At first it was little things, but now we are simply annoyed. After washing dishes, he's not drying them off or putting anything back. I can't tell you how many times some of my food has tasted like dish soap. Today's action, or lack thereof, is what finally broke us. We put our laundry out on Saturday to be done. He blew it off yesterday and today, and since Richie was out of clean clothes, this created a bit of a problem. We decided he needed a talking-to.
It wasn't long before it was dinner - just a Newsweek or two away. I went over to our neighbor's house to pull out the remaining meat from his fridge. We made a stir-fry, which had the same problem as yesterday's meal. Once we finished, we decided it was time to talk to Sozinho. I calmly outlined exactly what we wanted everyday. Even though I was careful not to be an asshole about it, Sozinho still walked away like a dog with his tail between his legs.
I guess we could register it as a victory because right after that talk, he washed, dried, and arranged the dishes, then quietly left. In his absence, we watched a couple episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" before going to sleep.
Tuesday meant getting back to work, for everyone. Sozinho was over earlier than usual to sweep and mop because he had a busy day ahead of him. The longer he waited to wash clothes, the bigger the pile grew. The washing took up most of his morning.
I had my own things to do in the morning. I was prepared to cook beans tonight, which meant sorting and soaking. It's amazing how many little twigs, how many rocks, and how much dirt gets into a sack of beans. What's more amazing is that we haven't cracked any of our teeth on said rocks. After cleaning the beans, I went to the bigger project of my room. I rearranged some things, swept the floors and hands-down/ass-up Mozambican-style mopped the room.
Around lunch time, a very strange thing happened (and I don't mean our laundry being done): the skies gently split open and drizzled all over our clothing. Wonderful -- I guess our clothes won't be completely dry by the end of the afternoon. This bit of rain also thwarted my lunch efforts because we couldn't put the charcoal outside to get going. After a while, and a lot of fanning, the fire finally got going.
Full from lunch, I went over to school to give my classes for the day. Today's set of phrasal verbs were verbs with "give" and "drop". For the most part, these phrasal verbs are straight-forward. A couple of them, like drop out, required a little extra explanation, but the kids seemed to get it. I walked around class, checking on the students' work, when I saw that a couple smartasses had written a perfect and perfectly true sentence: "Mr. Lee does not give away points on the ACS (the midterm)". That is beautiful. Maybe it was just the first day that was especially difficult.
Riding a bit of a high after class and with some time on my hands, I decided to get a workout in. I figure that I'm never going to be this thin again and I've lost a ton of muscle in my time here. This is as good a time as ever to put it back on. Forty-five minutes later, I was sweaty, tired and in need of a shower and shave. I relit the charcoal from earlier, heated some water for my shower, then threw the beans on the stove to cook.
While the beans finished cooking, my parents called. A lot of the discussion centered around how quickly my time here is coming to an end. It's very funny how these conversations have changed over the course of almost two years. For a while, it was about planning their trip out here. Then, after their trip, we couldn't stop talking about the trip. And now, with less than 100 days to go, the conversation is about coming home. Crazy.
The beans came out wonderfully -- cooked thoroughly and the texture of the sauce was perfect. With our bellies full, we finished up season five of "How I Met Your Mother". There may be one more season that's already out, but I'm not sure. Still, it was cool to hear them drop "Avatar" into one of the scripts -- not because I'm a fan of the movie (haven't seen it actually) but because it came out while we were here, so it can't be that old.
Wednesday started with the sound of my alarm, a truly dreadful sound. I had to go to English around 8:30. The kids have had a couple days to read through the script. My counterpart had hoped that they would have the lines already memorized. I thought that was a little ambitious, but not entirely impossible. The day with the kids proved to be a lot more stressful than I had anticipated. At least three kids of the eight kids misunderstood their parts and went about changing line assignments. Frustrating? You bet, especially since they don't fully understand what the script says. Aside from having copies for everyone, one of the reasons I wantd to type up the script was to work out all of the kinks. In one fell swoop, these kids threw a couple wrenches into the machinery. After an hour, we finally had everything straightened out. So much for this day being productive.
My afternoon started out productive. I filled out some paperwork for Peace Corps, an always fun activity. At least I could do it with a smile on my face knowing that it would be the last set of paper work I'd have to complete. I also worked out and showered before going over to class. Even after showering, I still felt filthy. I understood why this time. The well that we usually use has been busted, so Sozinho has been using a different well. When I looked in the buckets, there was a distubing smog-colored tint. I'm supposed to use this water to get clean.
Neither of us had much luck in the afternoon. My class dealt with phrasal verbs with "cut". I can't honestly say that this class was as successful as the classes from last week. At least I made it through my class. Richie had four classes this afternoon. The first time, it tanked. The second time, it tanked and he realized it was worthless. So he just canceled the other two classes. "This shit's not important anyway". Ah, the advantage to teaching a non-National Exam year. There's only one solution to make a day like this better: cake. It's been a long time since we've had cake. After dinner, we busted out a box of Betty Crocker and had us some chocolate cake. It was as delicious as we remembered. We also started watching "Law Abiding Citizen", until my computer decided it wasn't going to work. Nice. It'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Richie had a pair of classes Thursday morning, but once he returned, we jumped back into the movie. It was everything we enjoy in a non-comedy, and by that, I mean lots of death. After a magazine or two, it was time to cook lunch.
I had the first class of the afternoon, a repeat of yesterday's class. This class was a little more cooperative in acting out some of the examples and as such, the class went much smoother than yesterday. Or maybe this class is just that much smarter than the other class. I came back from class feeling better than yesterday. No cake would be necessary today.
In the middle of the afternoon, a got an unexpected text message: a friend with whom I went to Ghana and who is now in Cameroon as a Volunteer, sent me an email. Even though we are on opposite sides of the continent, it seems like things are pretty much the same there. Same school issues, same gripes with the people in charge. He has one big advantage though -- he's in a biggish city, one that has restaurants. The coolest thing is one of those restaurants serves viper. Am I jealous? Absolutely.
It was every man for himself for dinner tonight. Richie didn't have any brilliant ideas when it came to dinner. All he was willing to do was eliminate rice, spaghetti, and xima as potential bases. Well, that's seventy-five percent of what's available. I was fine with rice, so I cooked up some stirfry. Richie did potatoes with something, and I think Sozinho just ate bread. Whatever. Richie, who is heading to Vil tomorrow, went to bed early. I stayed up replying to my buddy in Cameroon and reading a bit more of "All the King's Men" before crashing.
Richie was up and at it at 5 o'clock. I was up, but certainly not at it. I had to be up at 8:15 for English theater practice, and I'll be damned if I'm going to be on my feet a minute before. When the alarm finally went off, I felt refreshed and ready to go.
Friday's English theater practice could not have been more different than Wednesday's disaster. A couple of the kids had already memorized their lines. Things were looking good...until we timed the play. It turned out to be fourteen minutes, two minutes more than we have been allowed. A second over twelve minutes means disqualification. If these kids could just speak a little faster, know their lines a little better, then I thought it could be under twelve minutes. The second time they read through it was 11:22. Third time was 10:55. Satisfied with their work, my counterpart and I dismissed the students for the day.
I made myself some lunch before heading to school, hopeful that I could combine my classes again. For at least the second week in a row, the school director wasn't around, which meant I was free to join my classes together. Success! Today's lesson was on phrasal verbs with "go". There are so many phrasal verbs with "go" that teaching all of them, even over multiple lessons, would be impossible. I chose eight good ones and went from there. The results were pretty good. One kid wrote "I will go on to university and find a girlfriend because Machanga does not have good girls". Gotta love these kids sometimes.
I celebrated the end of the week with a brief nap before starting the charcoal for beans. I was resigned to eating something boring tonight, but Sozinho wanted to have beans, which I'm always happy to eat. With Richie gone, my only entertainment was the last chapter of "All the King's Men". Mercifully, this book came to an end. I'll give credit where credit is due: the last two chapters were better than the rest of book. That said, those chapters don't make up for the rest of the book.
For one reason or another, I could not fall asleep for the life of me. I almost popped a Benadryl to knock me out, but finally, around 1 in the morning, I finally fell asleep.
I've had plenty of good days in Mozambique and I've had a few really good days. But in almost two years here, I can't say that I've had a perfect day in Mozambique. Until Saturday. I was up and moving at 6:30, packed my backpack, and hit the the road at exactly 7:00. I walked to the river, where plenty of people of people were waiting to head to Mambone. Because of this, I had no wait time at the river. The twenty thirty minutes of waiting in Mambone was the only time I wasn't on the move. The chapa ride from Mambone to Maluvane was painfully slow. I knew ten minutes into that ride that I wouldn't be breaking 3 hours and 56 minutes.
Even so, I couldn't complain. We were at least moving. Once I got to Maluvane, things started going really well. I jumped into the back of a truck heading toward Vilanculos. The sun beat down pretty hard, but I was happy to work on my tan a bit. When we got toward Vilanculos, I offered to pay, but the driver wouldn't take my money. Awesome! One short truck ride later, and I was in Vilanculos, just breaking the 5-hour mark.
I had a significant-sized list of things to accomplish in Vilanculos and I wanted to get them all done in the afternoon. First, I took some cloth up to my tailor to have a shirt made, which will be ready tomorrow. I stopped next store to arrange my delicious dinner plans. With that done, I dropped off my things at the Vil girls' house so I wouldn't have to carry around all my stuff while I shopped.
Today's mission in the market was huge. With Sozinho's 900 Meticais, I was on the hunt for clothes for his baptism. I knew this would be a challenge when I found out that one store sold shoes for 600 Mets. That's okay -- I'm always up for a challenge at the market. I may be the exception to the rule in that I love going to the market to negotiate. I feel like I'm going into battle, with stubbornness as my best weapon. The first part was easy. I got the shirt, tie, and pants for 430. I didn't even bother to negotiate -- I knew the prices were reasonable.
I hoped, given the price I saw earlier, that I'd have just enough for shoes and the belt. That's when the battle royale began. I told the guy that I needed black leather shoes in size 42 (European, of course). He presented me a beautiful pair of shoes that cost 850 Mets. That's just a wee bit out of budget, but that wasn't going to stop me. I said that the price was too much, and he immediately sliced the price to 600. I told him I'd pay 350. The price came down to 500, but I wouldn't budge. It dropped to 450, then 400. I thought about paying 400. I got my fifty percent. But I decided to push it. Finally, he said 380. I considered it for a moment and then agreed. "This guy, he knows his money". Yes. Yes I do. Finally, I went on the hunt for a decent belt. The first one I found was 95 Mets. It was nice enough and I didn't want to negotiate anymore.
After all my purchases were made, I totaled everything up: 905. That doesn't count as being overbudget. That's a rounding error. Satisfied with my work, and hungry, I treated myself to a delicious cheeseburger.
The rest of the day, went absolutely beautifully. I ran over to the other side of town to some food shopping. I didn't find everything I wanted, but found something I wasn't expecting, so that was a bonus. By the time I got back to the house, it was already late afternoon. I hung out with the girls for a bit before heading over to Muhammad's for dinner. Even though he raised the price by 50 Meticais, it was still delicious and worth it.
So there it was: the perfect day in Mozambique. A heavily discounted ride, market domination, did all of my tasks, ate delicious food. I should just quit now. Something bad is bound to happen.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Year 2 - Week 36: The Last Return, The First Scene
When I finally made it outside of the house Sunday morning, I saw the damage that I had done to the broomstick -- destroyed in three major chunks with a bunch of little splinters strewn across the yard. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was almost salvageable. I considered super-gluing it, but realized that the first time someone would sweep, it would snap into, well, three major chunks. So I was left with the choice of buying a new broomstick or turning a thin tree branch into a new handle. Which option do you think I went with?
Of course I wasn't going to buy something that nature provides for free. It's a stick! The work wasn't that difficult: strip the branch of its bark, reduce the size on one end so the screw top would fit in, voila! New broom stick, just like that.
Normally, accomplishing a task like that would have earned me a nap, but there was much to do today. I tried to make a market run immediately afternoon. I went to buy bread, but the man who runs the bread place told me that fresh bread would be arriving in a couple hours. Fresh Mambone bread makes everyone happy, so I decided to wait. I also tried to beef in the market, but the cow hadn't been killed yet. The guy working at the butchery told me it would be killed at 4:00, which meant 5:30, so that meant no beef tonight.
Going out for two items and failing on both fronts is disappointing. A nap would certainly have resolved it, but there was more to do. I needed to get a workout in, and a workout meant a shower. Just as I was about to jump in the shower, Richie walked up to the house, exhausted from his week in Beira. He was fairly satisfied with the Science Fair in Beira and rightfully tired.
I eventually got my shower, which brought me right up to about 4:00. Time to check on bread. I don't know why I went at 4:00. That's when he told me it would be there, so why the hell would I go then. Naturally, the store was closed. I returned home and started charcoal for beans. I know, we had beans just two nights ago, but Sozinho wanted them and I'm always happy to eat.
Just as the beans were finishing, I went back to the bread place and, finally, they had bread. The wait was worth it: the bread was so soft. I came back home with nine rolls and started cooking the rice. Just about that time, Richie woke up from his nap and looked like death. He was still in bed and clearly hungry, so I threw him some bread like a SeaWorld employee throws fish to Shamu.
With the rice finished, we sat down for dinner. It was clear from the onset that Richie wasn't going to be eating much. I knew that I would be finishing his food, and it would be the vast majority of his plate. I killed off mine before he finished a quarter of his, and that's when he gave up. I knew it wasn't the beans -- they got a rave review from Sozinho -- he just wasn't hungry. Good thing I was. He went t bed and I finished his food, making me feel sick. How American.
I spent part of Monday morning trudging through another miserable chapter of "All the King's Men". It's a wonder to me how this book won a Pulitzer Prize. The entire 60-something page chapter was, thus far, completely irrelevant. I asked Richie if it came into play later in the book and he said not really. This is why literature drives me crazy.
Late in the morning, I was back on tech duty. Our photocopier-owning colleague wanted me to try to repair his copier. I've had some good luck with it prior to this, but this problem was way beyond me. I knew it was beyond my capabilities when I looked in the manual, saw the error message, and the proper course of action: call assistance. Well, that settles that. Of course, I tried to fix it, but it was not cooperating with me.
While I was in the villa, I went over to the butcher's store to buy some beef. When I showed up, all he had to say was "You came late". What? The American in me wanted to say "Uh, no, it is you who decided to kill this cow 12 hours after you said you were going to do. I was right on time, thank you very much." But that wouldn't fly, so I just said "Yea, I know". There was still some decent beef left and I wasn't going to pass it up.
This afternoon was my last day off, so I soaked it in. I spent a little more time reading "All the King's Men". I'm hoping for a decent ending because that is the only thing that can salvage this book. I ran through my now regular afternoon workout and showered shortly after. And late in the afternoon, we ran over to the villa to make some purchases -- most importantly another 10-kilo sack of rice.
Upon our return, we started cooking dinner. I wanted to learn how to cook beef the way Sozinho cooks it, except I wanted to improve it. He has not learned that glory that is seasoning. It's a pretty basic stew. It could probably use even more seasoning, but for tonight it was pretty good. After dining, we finally got back into "How I Met Your Mother". It's been a long time. Way too long. We watched two episodes before calling it a night.
Tuesday was the official start of our English Theater preparation. In the name of sustainability, I'm really hoping to pass this project off to a colleague. It's not that I don't want to do it. I'm happy to run the project, but there is going to be a day when there won't be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Machanga. It would be a shame to have a project like that go to waste. Luckily, my colleague is pretty geeked about the project. His students seem equally excited. We can bring only eight people this year, and one of them is definitely going to one of my twelfth graders. So that left seven spots for the twenty kids from tenth and eleventh grade who tried out. They ran the gamut from wonderful to miserable. By the time we got through it, we had narrowed down the list from twenty to ten.
Listening to those kids read a paragraph as a tryout took almost ninety minutes. I had but a little time between finishing the first day of English Theater and preparing for lunch.
And then after lunch, it began. School. It turns out that about half of my students have returned from holidays. Apparently, four weeks wasn't enough for some people. Those who didn't show up today were spared the first lesson of phrasal verbs. I knew this series of lessons was going to suck; I just didn't know how much. Today, I only gave four phrasal verbs, all using the verb "break": break up, break down, break in, break out. They should have known the verb "break", but when I asked, all I got were blank stares. Oh, yes, it's going to be a fun eight weeks.
The only good news that came out of the class was that it used up the entire time. It's truly amazing: teaching four verbs required 45 minutes. It's going to be like this all trimester. The rest of the afternoon, I spent trying to finish a chapter of "All the King's Men", but every time I started reading, I realized how much it sucked. Still, I'm going to power through it. I've come too far not to finish it.
I was in charge of dinner tonight. We had a little meat left over to use for stir fry. I chopped up some pineapple to sweeten it up a bit. It, along with the rice, cooked way too slowly. All said, we had the stove on for about two hours. We finally ate around 8:00, and followed our food with a pair of episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". Richie, having a 7:00 class, went right to bed. I, on the other hand, continued in the book, eventually giving up around 10:30.
The nighttime weather has been very strange the last couple of days. When we go to bed, the weather is absolutely perfect, but by 3 or 4 o'clock, it's absolutely freezing. I've been waking up shivering. And today was no different. Around 3:30, I was up, looking for sweatpants and a sweatshirt. It took a little while to warm up, but I eventually fell asleep for a couple more hours.
I lazed around in bed for a little while, finishing the seventh chapter of "All the King's Men". I can't wait to be done with this book. No matter what I read after will be better than this. Having finished the chapter, I got up and welcomed the day.
It was a particularly slow day, and I knew it would be with my only class being at 4 in the afternoon. There was some talk of school being canceled today because the the provincial government party leader came down to Machanga. At least two big truckloads of students went to greet him. It looked promising for a while, but the school bells kept ringing, so we assumed school was in.
And yet, school wasn't really happening. The students were around but a lot of teachers had to go to the meeting with the government official. The teachers' absences gave me an opening. Around 2 o'clock, a couple of my students came by to ask if I could give class early. I would love to.
After yesterday's disaster, I didn't high hopes. Today's lesson was more of the same -- phrasal verbs, this time with "fall". For some reason, this lesson clicked a lot more today. Maybe it's because so many of the phrasal verbs with "fall" actually involve falling. Whatever it was, the students were writing better sentences today, and when I asked if it was easier today, they gave me a resounding "Muito!"
With class over for the day around 3:30, I came back home to try to resolve a computer problem for a colleague. He had this really strange problem: his computer was plugged in but it wasn't charging. I did some research on the problem and as usual, there were many reasons for the problem. I tried a couple of them, but none of them worked. There wasn't a lot more I could do except tell him that he could still use his computer, but it would have to be plugged in.
The rest of the afternoon was slow for everyone. Late in the day, Richie and I started watching some episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". This led right into dinner. Sozinho cooked up couvi, a leafy green. If it's prepared right, it can be good, but Sozinho doesn't know how to cook. Even after I seasoned it, it was still bland. And by the time I found my way into bed, it wasn't settling well.
Following another 3 AM wake-up to warm up, I slept in late, lost in dreams, until I realized that I had an English Theater meeting at 9. Thank goodness for Mozambican sense of time. I showed up at 9:15 and only half of the students had arrived. By 9:30, the rest of the people were there and we were ready to get going.
The meeting last for about 90 minutes and was shockingly productive. We put together a basic plan of how the play is going to run and who will perform what rolls. There will be another meeting tomorrow to begin writing and hopefully we start reading through the play by Saturday.
I returned from the meeting right around the time we start preparing for lunch. Richie didn't want to do potatoes and eggs, complaining of their price. I don't really see why today was different than any of the other 600 days we've had potatoes and eggs, but whatever. I was happy to make my own omelet and he could figure out what he wanted later.
I had class during the first period of the day today, far more convenient than the last class of the day. I was teaching the same lesson as yesterday, but to another group of kids. Even though I was giving the same lesson, these kids just did not get it as easily. Or maybe they were just more willing to say that they weren't getting it. Either way, I tried to explain "fall down" three times and even then, they could not understand. Undeterred, I made myself fall down, dirtying myself, but it got the message across. The kids looked stunned when I fell to the ground; I don't think there is another teacher in this school that would go to that length to explain something. When I asked them "Claro?", they came back with "Claro!" Nice.
Upon returning from class, I jumped online to check email and read news. One of the stories that popped up was about twenty-somethings. I thought, "Hey, that's about me!" And after a read it, I realized, wow, it really is about me. I won't go into all the details, but it explained how there is this middle phase between adolescence and adulthood. It made mention of how many people in their twenties return home after school to live with their parents (see: future me, post-Mozambique) and how we are in this period of huge uncertainty but unlimited opportunities. I can't say I disagree with what was said.
Richie wasn't home when I came back from class, but when he returned, he came with a package in hand. Hello, beautiful. I think this is the last package I'll be getting here. Then end really is almost here. This package was full of essentials -- mac and cheese, some cans of turkey, but most importantly, it had oodles of magazines. We didn't even bother to wait until they were all out of the box. Almost immediately, we both had magazines in hand.
The night was pretty timid. After dinner, we powered through a couple episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". Richie turned in for the night and I curled up in bed with an ESPN magazine.
I woke up on Friday fifteen minutes before a scheduled English theater meeting, which is more than enough time for me to get my teeth brushed, get myself dressed, and get out of the house. I showed up to the classroom exactly at 8:30. No one was there naturally, so I waited. Within fifteen minutes, everyone else had arrived. Lovely. I'll consider that early for them.
The other English teachers and I were really hoping that we could have the script written by the end of the day. It became quickly apparent, however, that there was no way this would happen. I tried to follow last year's successful formula -- break them into small groups to write scenes -- but something wasn't coming across well. Yes, they had figured out the story, but there was no dialogue. An hour and a half later, we were no closer to having a script than we were at the beginning of the day. I guess we'll just have to try again tomorrow.
The failures from the morning didn't bleed over into the afternoon. In fact, the afternoon could easily be called a huge success. I went into school hoping to combine my classes. I knew that the school director wasn't around, which helped my cause -- not because he wouldn't permit it, but because he is supposed to teach a class before mine. When I went over, the kids were all waiting outside and confirmed that they wouldn't be having class. Beautiful.
After class, I came home with a list of things to do. I needed a workout and, more than that, I really needed to shave. Of course, my nine-month old goatee wouldn't be leaving (sorry, Sach), but everything else needed to go. And I had a new toy to help me out with this. Enclosed in the package my mom sent were a bunch of Gillette Fusion razors. I thought five-bladed razors were mythological things, like unicorns or dragons or Mozambican timeliness. I had heard of these things, but never actually had one. I was skeptical. Seriously - five blades. My head and face get plenty smooth with my Mach 3's. Of course, this was a huge step up, given my current use of disposable two-blade razors. But at the end of the day, my head wasn't any smoother. It was like upgrading from a Mustang to a Corvette. I'm still going really fast. Regardless, I was happy to have a clean-shaven dome again.
As usual, it was a quiet evening here. We had beans for dinner, watched some "How I Met Your Mother", and read a bit of "Newsweek" before heading to sleep.
The difference between yesterday's English theater session and today's was night and day. For the most part, the kids showed up on time and they figured out that they needed to use dialogue. The story started to come together. Roles became more defined. Put simply, things got done. It took nearly four hours and a bit of poking and prodding, but by 12:30, we had a script, typed and ready for editing.
Following a quick lunch break, I jumped write back into the script. If I'm that close to having something complete, there's no way I'm going to put it off until later. I cleaned up some lines, made the thing a bit more readable, and added some stage instruction. It was 4:00 by the time I finished all of that. As we had hoped, we we're good to print during the evening.
For all this success, I rewarded myself with a beer run with Richie. We walked over to the villa, had our beers, and returned in time for dinner. For the first time, the three of us had three different dinners. Sozinho wanted to eat couvi again. I wanted no part of that. Richie was eating these tiny fish that looked like anchovies. I'm still new to fish, but I'm definitely not doing anything that looks like an anchovy, especially with the heads and tails still on there.
So I went to spaghetti, as usual. While my pasta cooked, I ran over to the office to print out the play script for all of the students. The timing worked out perfectly -- as soon as I was done in the office, the pasta was ready to come off the stove. After eating, Richie and I started watching "The Blind Side". We only got half-way through it before one of my best friends from home called. Even so, two things could definitely be determined: 1) Sandra Bullock is smokin'; and 2) it's very easy to see why she won an Oscar for her role in this. I guess we'll finish it tomorrow, when a new week starts.
Of course I wasn't going to buy something that nature provides for free. It's a stick! The work wasn't that difficult: strip the branch of its bark, reduce the size on one end so the screw top would fit in, voila! New broom stick, just like that.
Normally, accomplishing a task like that would have earned me a nap, but there was much to do today. I tried to make a market run immediately afternoon. I went to buy bread, but the man who runs the bread place told me that fresh bread would be arriving in a couple hours. Fresh Mambone bread makes everyone happy, so I decided to wait. I also tried to beef in the market, but the cow hadn't been killed yet. The guy working at the butchery told me it would be killed at 4:00, which meant 5:30, so that meant no beef tonight.
Going out for two items and failing on both fronts is disappointing. A nap would certainly have resolved it, but there was more to do. I needed to get a workout in, and a workout meant a shower. Just as I was about to jump in the shower, Richie walked up to the house, exhausted from his week in Beira. He was fairly satisfied with the Science Fair in Beira and rightfully tired.
I eventually got my shower, which brought me right up to about 4:00. Time to check on bread. I don't know why I went at 4:00. That's when he told me it would be there, so why the hell would I go then. Naturally, the store was closed. I returned home and started charcoal for beans. I know, we had beans just two nights ago, but Sozinho wanted them and I'm always happy to eat.
Just as the beans were finishing, I went back to the bread place and, finally, they had bread. The wait was worth it: the bread was so soft. I came back home with nine rolls and started cooking the rice. Just about that time, Richie woke up from his nap and looked like death. He was still in bed and clearly hungry, so I threw him some bread like a SeaWorld employee throws fish to Shamu.
With the rice finished, we sat down for dinner. It was clear from the onset that Richie wasn't going to be eating much. I knew that I would be finishing his food, and it would be the vast majority of his plate. I killed off mine before he finished a quarter of his, and that's when he gave up. I knew it wasn't the beans -- they got a rave review from Sozinho -- he just wasn't hungry. Good thing I was. He went t bed and I finished his food, making me feel sick. How American.
I spent part of Monday morning trudging through another miserable chapter of "All the King's Men". It's a wonder to me how this book won a Pulitzer Prize. The entire 60-something page chapter was, thus far, completely irrelevant. I asked Richie if it came into play later in the book and he said not really. This is why literature drives me crazy.
Late in the morning, I was back on tech duty. Our photocopier-owning colleague wanted me to try to repair his copier. I've had some good luck with it prior to this, but this problem was way beyond me. I knew it was beyond my capabilities when I looked in the manual, saw the error message, and the proper course of action: call assistance. Well, that settles that. Of course, I tried to fix it, but it was not cooperating with me.
While I was in the villa, I went over to the butcher's store to buy some beef. When I showed up, all he had to say was "You came late". What? The American in me wanted to say "Uh, no, it is you who decided to kill this cow 12 hours after you said you were going to do. I was right on time, thank you very much." But that wouldn't fly, so I just said "Yea, I know". There was still some decent beef left and I wasn't going to pass it up.
This afternoon was my last day off, so I soaked it in. I spent a little more time reading "All the King's Men". I'm hoping for a decent ending because that is the only thing that can salvage this book. I ran through my now regular afternoon workout and showered shortly after. And late in the afternoon, we ran over to the villa to make some purchases -- most importantly another 10-kilo sack of rice.
Upon our return, we started cooking dinner. I wanted to learn how to cook beef the way Sozinho cooks it, except I wanted to improve it. He has not learned that glory that is seasoning. It's a pretty basic stew. It could probably use even more seasoning, but for tonight it was pretty good. After dining, we finally got back into "How I Met Your Mother". It's been a long time. Way too long. We watched two episodes before calling it a night.
Tuesday was the official start of our English Theater preparation. In the name of sustainability, I'm really hoping to pass this project off to a colleague. It's not that I don't want to do it. I'm happy to run the project, but there is going to be a day when there won't be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Machanga. It would be a shame to have a project like that go to waste. Luckily, my colleague is pretty geeked about the project. His students seem equally excited. We can bring only eight people this year, and one of them is definitely going to one of my twelfth graders. So that left seven spots for the twenty kids from tenth and eleventh grade who tried out. They ran the gamut from wonderful to miserable. By the time we got through it, we had narrowed down the list from twenty to ten.
Listening to those kids read a paragraph as a tryout took almost ninety minutes. I had but a little time between finishing the first day of English Theater and preparing for lunch.
And then after lunch, it began. School. It turns out that about half of my students have returned from holidays. Apparently, four weeks wasn't enough for some people. Those who didn't show up today were spared the first lesson of phrasal verbs. I knew this series of lessons was going to suck; I just didn't know how much. Today, I only gave four phrasal verbs, all using the verb "break": break up, break down, break in, break out. They should have known the verb "break", but when I asked, all I got were blank stares. Oh, yes, it's going to be a fun eight weeks.
The only good news that came out of the class was that it used up the entire time. It's truly amazing: teaching four verbs required 45 minutes. It's going to be like this all trimester. The rest of the afternoon, I spent trying to finish a chapter of "All the King's Men", but every time I started reading, I realized how much it sucked. Still, I'm going to power through it. I've come too far not to finish it.
I was in charge of dinner tonight. We had a little meat left over to use for stir fry. I chopped up some pineapple to sweeten it up a bit. It, along with the rice, cooked way too slowly. All said, we had the stove on for about two hours. We finally ate around 8:00, and followed our food with a pair of episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". Richie, having a 7:00 class, went right to bed. I, on the other hand, continued in the book, eventually giving up around 10:30.
The nighttime weather has been very strange the last couple of days. When we go to bed, the weather is absolutely perfect, but by 3 or 4 o'clock, it's absolutely freezing. I've been waking up shivering. And today was no different. Around 3:30, I was up, looking for sweatpants and a sweatshirt. It took a little while to warm up, but I eventually fell asleep for a couple more hours.
I lazed around in bed for a little while, finishing the seventh chapter of "All the King's Men". I can't wait to be done with this book. No matter what I read after will be better than this. Having finished the chapter, I got up and welcomed the day.
It was a particularly slow day, and I knew it would be with my only class being at 4 in the afternoon. There was some talk of school being canceled today because the the provincial government party leader came down to Machanga. At least two big truckloads of students went to greet him. It looked promising for a while, but the school bells kept ringing, so we assumed school was in.
And yet, school wasn't really happening. The students were around but a lot of teachers had to go to the meeting with the government official. The teachers' absences gave me an opening. Around 2 o'clock, a couple of my students came by to ask if I could give class early. I would love to.
After yesterday's disaster, I didn't high hopes. Today's lesson was more of the same -- phrasal verbs, this time with "fall". For some reason, this lesson clicked a lot more today. Maybe it's because so many of the phrasal verbs with "fall" actually involve falling. Whatever it was, the students were writing better sentences today, and when I asked if it was easier today, they gave me a resounding "Muito!"
With class over for the day around 3:30, I came back home to try to resolve a computer problem for a colleague. He had this really strange problem: his computer was plugged in but it wasn't charging. I did some research on the problem and as usual, there were many reasons for the problem. I tried a couple of them, but none of them worked. There wasn't a lot more I could do except tell him that he could still use his computer, but it would have to be plugged in.
The rest of the afternoon was slow for everyone. Late in the day, Richie and I started watching some episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". This led right into dinner. Sozinho cooked up couvi, a leafy green. If it's prepared right, it can be good, but Sozinho doesn't know how to cook. Even after I seasoned it, it was still bland. And by the time I found my way into bed, it wasn't settling well.
Following another 3 AM wake-up to warm up, I slept in late, lost in dreams, until I realized that I had an English Theater meeting at 9. Thank goodness for Mozambican sense of time. I showed up at 9:15 and only half of the students had arrived. By 9:30, the rest of the people were there and we were ready to get going.
The meeting last for about 90 minutes and was shockingly productive. We put together a basic plan of how the play is going to run and who will perform what rolls. There will be another meeting tomorrow to begin writing and hopefully we start reading through the play by Saturday.
I returned from the meeting right around the time we start preparing for lunch. Richie didn't want to do potatoes and eggs, complaining of their price. I don't really see why today was different than any of the other 600 days we've had potatoes and eggs, but whatever. I was happy to make my own omelet and he could figure out what he wanted later.
I had class during the first period of the day today, far more convenient than the last class of the day. I was teaching the same lesson as yesterday, but to another group of kids. Even though I was giving the same lesson, these kids just did not get it as easily. Or maybe they were just more willing to say that they weren't getting it. Either way, I tried to explain "fall down" three times and even then, they could not understand. Undeterred, I made myself fall down, dirtying myself, but it got the message across. The kids looked stunned when I fell to the ground; I don't think there is another teacher in this school that would go to that length to explain something. When I asked them "Claro?", they came back with "Claro!" Nice.
Upon returning from class, I jumped online to check email and read news. One of the stories that popped up was about twenty-somethings. I thought, "Hey, that's about me!" And after a read it, I realized, wow, it really is about me. I won't go into all the details, but it explained how there is this middle phase between adolescence and adulthood. It made mention of how many people in their twenties return home after school to live with their parents (see: future me, post-Mozambique) and how we are in this period of huge uncertainty but unlimited opportunities. I can't say I disagree with what was said.
Richie wasn't home when I came back from class, but when he returned, he came with a package in hand. Hello, beautiful. I think this is the last package I'll be getting here. Then end really is almost here. This package was full of essentials -- mac and cheese, some cans of turkey, but most importantly, it had oodles of magazines. We didn't even bother to wait until they were all out of the box. Almost immediately, we both had magazines in hand.
The night was pretty timid. After dinner, we powered through a couple episodes of "How I Met Your Mother". Richie turned in for the night and I curled up in bed with an ESPN magazine.
I woke up on Friday fifteen minutes before a scheduled English theater meeting, which is more than enough time for me to get my teeth brushed, get myself dressed, and get out of the house. I showed up to the classroom exactly at 8:30. No one was there naturally, so I waited. Within fifteen minutes, everyone else had arrived. Lovely. I'll consider that early for them.
The other English teachers and I were really hoping that we could have the script written by the end of the day. It became quickly apparent, however, that there was no way this would happen. I tried to follow last year's successful formula -- break them into small groups to write scenes -- but something wasn't coming across well. Yes, they had figured out the story, but there was no dialogue. An hour and a half later, we were no closer to having a script than we were at the beginning of the day. I guess we'll just have to try again tomorrow.
The failures from the morning didn't bleed over into the afternoon. In fact, the afternoon could easily be called a huge success. I went into school hoping to combine my classes. I knew that the school director wasn't around, which helped my cause -- not because he wouldn't permit it, but because he is supposed to teach a class before mine. When I went over, the kids were all waiting outside and confirmed that they wouldn't be having class. Beautiful.
After class, I came home with a list of things to do. I needed a workout and, more than that, I really needed to shave. Of course, my nine-month old goatee wouldn't be leaving (sorry, Sach), but everything else needed to go. And I had a new toy to help me out with this. Enclosed in the package my mom sent were a bunch of Gillette Fusion razors. I thought five-bladed razors were mythological things, like unicorns or dragons or Mozambican timeliness. I had heard of these things, but never actually had one. I was skeptical. Seriously - five blades. My head and face get plenty smooth with my Mach 3's. Of course, this was a huge step up, given my current use of disposable two-blade razors. But at the end of the day, my head wasn't any smoother. It was like upgrading from a Mustang to a Corvette. I'm still going really fast. Regardless, I was happy to have a clean-shaven dome again.
As usual, it was a quiet evening here. We had beans for dinner, watched some "How I Met Your Mother", and read a bit of "Newsweek" before heading to sleep.
The difference between yesterday's English theater session and today's was night and day. For the most part, the kids showed up on time and they figured out that they needed to use dialogue. The story started to come together. Roles became more defined. Put simply, things got done. It took nearly four hours and a bit of poking and prodding, but by 12:30, we had a script, typed and ready for editing.
Following a quick lunch break, I jumped write back into the script. If I'm that close to having something complete, there's no way I'm going to put it off until later. I cleaned up some lines, made the thing a bit more readable, and added some stage instruction. It was 4:00 by the time I finished all of that. As we had hoped, we we're good to print during the evening.
For all this success, I rewarded myself with a beer run with Richie. We walked over to the villa, had our beers, and returned in time for dinner. For the first time, the three of us had three different dinners. Sozinho wanted to eat couvi again. I wanted no part of that. Richie was eating these tiny fish that looked like anchovies. I'm still new to fish, but I'm definitely not doing anything that looks like an anchovy, especially with the heads and tails still on there.
So I went to spaghetti, as usual. While my pasta cooked, I ran over to the office to print out the play script for all of the students. The timing worked out perfectly -- as soon as I was done in the office, the pasta was ready to come off the stove. After eating, Richie and I started watching "The Blind Side". We only got half-way through it before one of my best friends from home called. Even so, two things could definitely be determined: 1) Sandra Bullock is smokin'; and 2) it's very easy to see why she won an Oscar for her role in this. I guess we'll finish it tomorrow, when a new week starts.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Year 2 - Week 35: Working Things Out
With our Close of Service conference behind us, all we had to do was, well, close our service. We may only have a couple more months left, but there is still plenty to be done. Richie will be out for most of the week preparing for Science Fair in Beira. In the meantime, I'm holding down the fort, keeping things in order here.
In theory, our last trimester here begins tomorrow, but we know better than that. In practice, students will begin walking back to school today, maybe arriving tomorrow, but in all likelihood, they won't be here until Tuesday or Wednesday. School won't really start until next week, which is all fine and good. If I don't have school to keep me busy, I'll find other things to occupy my time.
And there was no shortage of things to keep me busy on Sunday. There were two small pieces of electrical work that needed to be done in the house. The simpler of the two tasks was getting a new light bulb for my room. The more difficult was adding a plug to the electric wire I have going out to the patio. Until now, the wire has been going directly into the outlet. This situation was just begging for an electrocution of massive proportion. With a piece I purchased in Vilanculos, I fixed up the wire so it would be electrocution-proof.
My third task for the day involved my beleaguered pan handle. The third time was apparently not the charm for my whittled handiwork. Leave it to Sozinho, the person we so endearingly call "The Ruiner", to ruin my work. He didn't realize that since the handle was made from wood, he probably shouldn't put it directly over an open fire. Sometimes, I just have to wonder what goes on in that mind of his. I put on a new handle and Sozinho-proofed it by wrapping most of it in aluminum foil.
The last of my jobs today was to hand out a laptop to one of the teachers here. I would have done it early, but the computer needed an adapter. What good would a laptop be if you couldn't recharge it? I showed him the basics -- turning on, turning off, opening a document -- and told him to come by tomorrow a quick typing lesson. He had been anxious to receive a computer, so when it finally happened, he was very happy.
For all that hard work, I think I deserved a good dinner. Sozinho got his hands on some gazela -- bushmeat -- and we Americanized it: cut up some veggies, through some cheese on it, and made gazela sandwiches. The meat was as lean as any beef we've had, so we were pretty content. Making the night even better, we began the fifth season of "How I Met Your Mother". I don't know how many seasons there are, but we're happy that we're catching up.
Richie was right back on the road Monday morning, leaving me alone for the week. But even though he was gone, it's really hard to be alone here. People here are always coming by. The first two people came by around 8:30. They came strapped with their computers, eager for a quick typing lesson. If they can figure out how to touch-type, they'll be miles ahead of me because, despite my almost twenty years of working on a computer, I still cannot properly touch-type, and I don't think I'll be learning how any time soon. It was a little frustrating at first for them, using their hands and minds in a way that they never have, but I think they'll pick it up pretty quickly. If Mozambicans can do one thing well, it's memorization; they'll be able to put that skill to use in remembering where they keys are.
Late in the morning, I made a run to the market to buy some rice. Sozinho, naturally, plowed through all the rice we had while we were gone. I'm done buying things in bulk, because Richie and I are both sure that he gives away our food when we're gone. No normal human being can eat that much food in so little time. It's just another example of the Mozambican/African mentality discussed in the book I read a couple weeks ago. We buy things in bulk because it's convenient, because we don't want to walk to the market every day. But when Sozinho sees that we have ten kilos of rice, he thinks it gives him permission to distribute that rice as he sees fit. And that drives us crazy. He costs enough as it is.
After lunch, I started reading "The Kite Runner". Yea, I know, I'm a couple years behind on getting to this book, but better late than never. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and the first hundred or so pages certainly have lived up to expectations. Given the lack of work this week, I'm sure this book will not make it to the end of the week.
There was one last computer to be distributed after lunch. Well, at least until we leave. It looks like Richie and I are both going to leave our computers behind. Though still functional, they are not in particularly good shape. They'll be put to good use here. At least they will last long enough for someone to save up enough money for a new one. I went through the same basic lesson as I did yesterday and, once again, the recipient was elated.
I started preparing beans late in the afternoon. They had been soaking all day, meaning they should have taken less time to cook. Still, it took a solid two hours to get them cooked all the way through. They weren't the best beans I've ever cooked, but they were good enough. The saving grace was an avocado. That's right -- we managed to get our hands on a couple of avocados Vilanculos. Huge victory does not begin to describe that purchase. Avocado season should have been done a long time ago.
Following dinner, I was preparing for a night in bed with "The Kite Runner", when one of my colleagues asked me if I could go out for a couple drinks. Could I? Of course I can. The two teachers who received computers this week wanted to thank me with a couple beers. They couldn't think of a better way to thank me and, quite frankly, neither could I. We stayed out for a little bit. Strangely, I was the only one drinking beer. Everyone else was drinking Fanta. Odd. Didn't stop me from having a few before heading home.
Tuesday had the look and feel of winter. A sheet of grey clouds covered the sky, occasionally letting through pockets of bright blue. A strong wind made the trees lean to one side. It looked like it could rain at any moment. You could practically hear the dusty roads begging for some rain, but the clouds had nothing to offer.
The bells rang in school today, though I'm not really sure why. Students are still on their way back here, as are teachers for that matter. I asked Sozinho how many students were in his class today. He didn't even bother to verbalize it. He didn't have to: he just stuck a hand up with all fingers extended. Out of 55 students, literally a handful have shown up. It seems there's an unwritten contract between the teachers and students that says, "Let's push vacation on for one more week" and everyone is happy to comply. So be it.
Around 10:30, I decided it was time to work out again. I have been exceptionally lazy this year and it doesn't feel particularly good. I could feel it last week as we played ultimate frisbee in the sand. I was sore for the entire week after. The first workout after a long layoff always sucks, but I suspect the motivation will come easier after that first one.
After lunch, I kept myself busy with "The Kite Runner". My assumption that this book wouldn't last the week looked good. It was really a matter of whether it would survive the day. The only thing working against me was the lack of light. As the wind grew steady, the lights went out, leaving Machanga without electricity for the better part of the afternoon. Nobody stopped what they were doing. After all, this was the old normal. When the house became to dark to read, I lit a candle and read by candlelight.
Late in the afternoon, with the school generator pumping, I went over to the school to help one of the assistant directors in making a school form. The form he needed to make wasn't particularly difficult -- a header with a table below -- but he couldn't get the table to fit on the page. I tried to throw it in a header, but it wasn't really working. Finally, I just took out the margins and made the table fit. He asked me how I did it, so I showed him. I was about to show him how I did the table, but he interrupted me. "That part I know how to do." That's the kind of moment that can't be measured. It's a little thing that made my day. Then it only got better. "It's a lot more difficult in Microsoft 2007", he said. "In 2003, I could do it". I couldn't agree more. And couldn't stop laughing under my breath at the absurdity of it all. Last year, he didn't know how to turn on a computer. This year, he's griping about Microsoft Office 2007.
Finally, just after 6:00, the electricity came on for good. The timing was perfect. I cooked some rice, whipped up some guacamole and salsa and had some Mexican food. As the rice cooked, I finished "The Kite Runner". By the time I was finished with dinner, it was nearly bed time. I crawled into bed with a new book, "All the King's Men", and hoped that this one would last more than a day.
For the second day in a row, the electricity was not working as well as it should be. The wind has picked up a notch or two. We're not talking about a tropical breeze here. This was a seriously cold wind. And it was wreaking havoc with everything. It knocked out the electricity for most of the morning and kicked up a ton of dust. I overheard someone saying they "took refuge" in a shop for a little while to keep the dust from landing in their eyes. Everyone was decked out in their winter gear -- beanies, sweaters, pants -- except for our favorite two-year old, the famous "Bucket Girl", who was just fine running around with no pants on.
The school is still quiet. A couple more teachers have shown up and some have even tried to teach this week. I think the people who are trying are the ones who are new this year. They still haven't quite figured things out. But those of us who know what's up haven't even tried to teach. I figure as long as long as the school director and all of the assistant directors aren't teaching, I can't be accused of not doing my job.
I kept busy in the morning with a workout. I was sore all morning from yesterday's workout -- I guess I earned that for not exercising for months -- so I did some legwork. I'm sure I'll be sore again tomorrow, but hopefully my arms will have recovered.
After lunch, I snuck in a little nap. No commitments -- might as well sleep. I woke up hungry. Conveniently, I had half an avocado left over from last night. I mashed it up into guacamole and used it as a dip for bread. It hit the spot. How could it not?
I tried to do some more reading in "All the King's Men", but I'm having trouble getting into it. I should like it, being a political book and all. But unlike "The Kite Runner," the writing in this book is, I don't know, fluffy. It's very adjective-heavy, very repetitive. Oh, and the first chapter goes on for-fuckin-ever. No chapter in any book should last seventy-seven pages. Even biblical chapters don't last that long. I suffered through that chapter. I can only hope that the next chapters are shorter, but I have my doubts.
I was banking on eating spaghetti for dinner tonight. It's been a couple nights, so you know, I'm due. Sozinho wanted to eat rice and I figured that as long has he's cooking it, I might as well eat it. I pulled some chicken breast out of our friends freezer, defrosted it, and cooked it up on our stove. By the time we ate, it was already 8:00 or so. The rest of the night was quiet. I wrote out an email or two and went to sleep.
I woke up early Thursday morning to the ping-ping-ping of raindrops on our tin roof. It wasn't a heavy rainy-season rain, but still heavy enough as to not dissipate before hitting the ground. This rain wouldn't bring on any mud or fill our wells, but it will be good enough to water the lettuce and onions growing behind the houses. I looked at the clock and saw it was 5:45, laughed, and went right back to bed for a little while.
The morning was surprisingly busy. I caught up with a friend from home, then did a grocery run. Sozinho was out of the house preparing his potential science fair project, leaving me to go the market. That was fine by me -- I was happy to kill an hour or so. After the market run, I came back home for my workout. It's funny. I only took two days for me to crave that feeling again, the feeling that you need to work out. By the time I was done, it was lunch time already.
I ate my lunch and showered, with no big plans for the afternoon. One of our colleagues came over asking for information about the regional Science Fair in Beira. He'll be chaperoning the kids up to Beira, which shouldn't be too difficult. It's not going to cost him anything -- Science Fair will cover all the costs -- but in the meantime, I'm covering their food and transportation tomorrow, at a hit of 1800 Meticais, about thirty percent of my salary for the month. I'll have it back by Monday, so it's no big deal. Still, I think it pissed off Sozinho, knowing that I had that kind of cash, but am not willing to fork out for his baptism clothing. What he doesn't realize is that all that money has to last me through the month.
Late in the afternoon, two trucks rolled into the school, the big mack-type trucks that can carry fifty goats. In this case, though, the trucks weren't filled with goats but with students singing at the top of their lungs as they approached school. They've plotted their return perfectly -- show up late enough in the week that the teachers won't come to class for the remainder of the week. I still can't understand why anyone would be so excited to coming back here -- to Machanga, to school, to finding firewood so they can eat the same crappy food day in and day out. Whatever. I won't rain on their parade.
Whatever excitement existed in the school was non-existent in the teacher's bairro. My neighbor came over with his usual smile and "Boa Tarde" then told me that his brother died this morning. He said it like he was just reporting the news: it's windy and cold outside, the students have returned, and my brother died. He said that he had been "doente" -- sick -- which is kind of a code. If it were TB, he would have said TB. If it were malaria, he would have said malaria. But if it's AIDS, then he's "sick". I asked how old he was: forty. Another life ended early, even by Mozambican's standard for life expectancy.
That pretty much killed whatever good vibes I was feeling. In a lot of ways, we've become very accustomed to a lot of things. We're used to taking shitty chapas and power outages and nothing running on time. But I don't think I'll ever get used to someone telling me that their brother or cousin or daughter died because of a disease that was preventable, whether that disease be AIDS or malaria or diarrhea.
Uninspired, the night was nothing special: spaghetti and some more of "All the King's Men" before going to sleep.
The early part of Friday morning was filled with a colleague's first computer crisis. His battery had drained all the way to zero and wasn't charging. I thought he just left it on, killing it off. But when I plugged the computer in, it still wouldn't charge. Curious. I tried using a different battery and it still wouldn't charge. Even more curious. My last guess was the charger itself. Earlier in the year, I had given a non-functioning charger to another colleague; maybe this was the same one. I tried a different charger and it worked. Excellent -- problem solved.
The rest of the morning looked a lot like the mornings from the rest of the week. I ran over to the market to buy eggs, then to the other side of town to buy bread. When I got back, it was already time to cook.
I kept myself busy after lunch plotting out what these last few months will look like, both in terms of school and personal life. I drew out a little calendar, which was a shockingly visual way of how little time we have left here. We have only two complete months left -- amazing. On the travel side, I'm going to be a road a lot these last few months. Bank runs, English Theater, and good-bye parties will have us running between Chimoio, Vilanculos, and Machanga.
This last school trimester is going to be an interesting one. Taking out this week, there are only eight full weeks of school between next Monday and October 12th -- Teacher's Day, the unofficial end of the school year. I have a feeling it's going to be a confusing trimester. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on phrasal verbs. Students here are used to translating sentences word for word. With phrasal verbs, that won't work. It's going to take some getting used to; thankfully, we have eight weeks.
Mcel went down again sometime during the afternoon. I'm hoping this is just a day problem instead of a weeks long problem like last time. After repairing the network faster than expected, I'm trying to think positive
Once I finished planning, I started cooking dinner. The beans had been soaking in water all day, so they only needed about ninety minutes to cook. My beans got the approval of Sozinho, a rare occasion. I guess when I really want to, I can cook up Mozambican beans as well as any Mozambican. I spent the rest of the night getting through chapter two of "All the King's Men". As I thought, the chapters aren't getting any shorter. This second one was ninety pages. Craziness.
I lazed around Saturday morning for a good while. I kept on with the book, making it half way through chapter three before rolling out of bed. Once up and at it, I continued planning out this last trimester. I tried to decide the best the way to teach phrasal verbs -- by root verb or meaning, -- eventually deciding to keep all phrasal verbs with the same root together. For example, in one lesson, students will learn phrasal verbs with break: break in, break up, break out, break down, break something down, and so on.
Sozinho took care of cooking lunch, then found his way to Mambone for the afternoon. I stuck around the house, getting in a workout after lunch. I was on call for tech duty in the afternoon. The photocopier owned by one of the teachers hasn't been working and he wanted me to repair it. Little did I know that the copier was the least of his problems. The computer that I just gave him wasn't charging or turning on. Gotta love Dell products. The rest of my afternoon was spent trying to solve this problem.
I did a little online research, plugging in the "symptoms", and found out that the problem this computer had confused even the best fix-it geeks on the web. Some people said to take out RAM chips, others said to press F7 sand F8 together while turning the computer on, others said to pop the hard drive in and out. I tried all of these things and failed.
So I went to Plan B -- or C or D, depending on if all those "solutions" were separate plan. I had another computer just like the one he got, except the screen was completely shattered. I knew that it turned on okay, but was unusable. I jumped back onto Google -- seriously, what did we do before Google? -- and learned how to replace the monitor on this type of Dell. Once I had that, the fix was easy -- six screws out, pull a cable, six screws in. Just like that, I had a fully functional computer.
I rewarded myself by completely doing in the busted monitor. I took our broom stick and decided to beat the living hell out of the already broken screen. On the third thwack, the broom stick busted in three pieces. Lame. It's okay -- I felt better.
All that work pushed dinner back until 8:30. That's how committed I was to working this problem out. I ate my dinner, finished chapter three of "All the King's Men" and went to sleep.
I was out cold when, around midnight, I received a text message. It was from hours before, but it finally came through. Mcel was back up. I didn't even bother reading it – it will be there in morning. I rolled over and went back to sleep for good.
In theory, our last trimester here begins tomorrow, but we know better than that. In practice, students will begin walking back to school today, maybe arriving tomorrow, but in all likelihood, they won't be here until Tuesday or Wednesday. School won't really start until next week, which is all fine and good. If I don't have school to keep me busy, I'll find other things to occupy my time.
And there was no shortage of things to keep me busy on Sunday. There were two small pieces of electrical work that needed to be done in the house. The simpler of the two tasks was getting a new light bulb for my room. The more difficult was adding a plug to the electric wire I have going out to the patio. Until now, the wire has been going directly into the outlet. This situation was just begging for an electrocution of massive proportion. With a piece I purchased in Vilanculos, I fixed up the wire so it would be electrocution-proof.
My third task for the day involved my beleaguered pan handle. The third time was apparently not the charm for my whittled handiwork. Leave it to Sozinho, the person we so endearingly call "The Ruiner", to ruin my work. He didn't realize that since the handle was made from wood, he probably shouldn't put it directly over an open fire. Sometimes, I just have to wonder what goes on in that mind of his. I put on a new handle and Sozinho-proofed it by wrapping most of it in aluminum foil.
The last of my jobs today was to hand out a laptop to one of the teachers here. I would have done it early, but the computer needed an adapter. What good would a laptop be if you couldn't recharge it? I showed him the basics -- turning on, turning off, opening a document -- and told him to come by tomorrow a quick typing lesson. He had been anxious to receive a computer, so when it finally happened, he was very happy.
For all that hard work, I think I deserved a good dinner. Sozinho got his hands on some gazela -- bushmeat -- and we Americanized it: cut up some veggies, through some cheese on it, and made gazela sandwiches. The meat was as lean as any beef we've had, so we were pretty content. Making the night even better, we began the fifth season of "How I Met Your Mother". I don't know how many seasons there are, but we're happy that we're catching up.
Richie was right back on the road Monday morning, leaving me alone for the week. But even though he was gone, it's really hard to be alone here. People here are always coming by. The first two people came by around 8:30. They came strapped with their computers, eager for a quick typing lesson. If they can figure out how to touch-type, they'll be miles ahead of me because, despite my almost twenty years of working on a computer, I still cannot properly touch-type, and I don't think I'll be learning how any time soon. It was a little frustrating at first for them, using their hands and minds in a way that they never have, but I think they'll pick it up pretty quickly. If Mozambicans can do one thing well, it's memorization; they'll be able to put that skill to use in remembering where they keys are.
Late in the morning, I made a run to the market to buy some rice. Sozinho, naturally, plowed through all the rice we had while we were gone. I'm done buying things in bulk, because Richie and I are both sure that he gives away our food when we're gone. No normal human being can eat that much food in so little time. It's just another example of the Mozambican/African mentality discussed in the book I read a couple weeks ago. We buy things in bulk because it's convenient, because we don't want to walk to the market every day. But when Sozinho sees that we have ten kilos of rice, he thinks it gives him permission to distribute that rice as he sees fit. And that drives us crazy. He costs enough as it is.
After lunch, I started reading "The Kite Runner". Yea, I know, I'm a couple years behind on getting to this book, but better late than never. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and the first hundred or so pages certainly have lived up to expectations. Given the lack of work this week, I'm sure this book will not make it to the end of the week.
There was one last computer to be distributed after lunch. Well, at least until we leave. It looks like Richie and I are both going to leave our computers behind. Though still functional, they are not in particularly good shape. They'll be put to good use here. At least they will last long enough for someone to save up enough money for a new one. I went through the same basic lesson as I did yesterday and, once again, the recipient was elated.
I started preparing beans late in the afternoon. They had been soaking all day, meaning they should have taken less time to cook. Still, it took a solid two hours to get them cooked all the way through. They weren't the best beans I've ever cooked, but they were good enough. The saving grace was an avocado. That's right -- we managed to get our hands on a couple of avocados Vilanculos. Huge victory does not begin to describe that purchase. Avocado season should have been done a long time ago.
Following dinner, I was preparing for a night in bed with "The Kite Runner", when one of my colleagues asked me if I could go out for a couple drinks. Could I? Of course I can. The two teachers who received computers this week wanted to thank me with a couple beers. They couldn't think of a better way to thank me and, quite frankly, neither could I. We stayed out for a little bit. Strangely, I was the only one drinking beer. Everyone else was drinking Fanta. Odd. Didn't stop me from having a few before heading home.
Tuesday had the look and feel of winter. A sheet of grey clouds covered the sky, occasionally letting through pockets of bright blue. A strong wind made the trees lean to one side. It looked like it could rain at any moment. You could practically hear the dusty roads begging for some rain, but the clouds had nothing to offer.
The bells rang in school today, though I'm not really sure why. Students are still on their way back here, as are teachers for that matter. I asked Sozinho how many students were in his class today. He didn't even bother to verbalize it. He didn't have to: he just stuck a hand up with all fingers extended. Out of 55 students, literally a handful have shown up. It seems there's an unwritten contract between the teachers and students that says, "Let's push vacation on for one more week" and everyone is happy to comply. So be it.
Around 10:30, I decided it was time to work out again. I have been exceptionally lazy this year and it doesn't feel particularly good. I could feel it last week as we played ultimate frisbee in the sand. I was sore for the entire week after. The first workout after a long layoff always sucks, but I suspect the motivation will come easier after that first one.
After lunch, I kept myself busy with "The Kite Runner". My assumption that this book wouldn't last the week looked good. It was really a matter of whether it would survive the day. The only thing working against me was the lack of light. As the wind grew steady, the lights went out, leaving Machanga without electricity for the better part of the afternoon. Nobody stopped what they were doing. After all, this was the old normal. When the house became to dark to read, I lit a candle and read by candlelight.
Late in the afternoon, with the school generator pumping, I went over to the school to help one of the assistant directors in making a school form. The form he needed to make wasn't particularly difficult -- a header with a table below -- but he couldn't get the table to fit on the page. I tried to throw it in a header, but it wasn't really working. Finally, I just took out the margins and made the table fit. He asked me how I did it, so I showed him. I was about to show him how I did the table, but he interrupted me. "That part I know how to do." That's the kind of moment that can't be measured. It's a little thing that made my day. Then it only got better. "It's a lot more difficult in Microsoft 2007", he said. "In 2003, I could do it". I couldn't agree more. And couldn't stop laughing under my breath at the absurdity of it all. Last year, he didn't know how to turn on a computer. This year, he's griping about Microsoft Office 2007.
Finally, just after 6:00, the electricity came on for good. The timing was perfect. I cooked some rice, whipped up some guacamole and salsa and had some Mexican food. As the rice cooked, I finished "The Kite Runner". By the time I was finished with dinner, it was nearly bed time. I crawled into bed with a new book, "All the King's Men", and hoped that this one would last more than a day.
For the second day in a row, the electricity was not working as well as it should be. The wind has picked up a notch or two. We're not talking about a tropical breeze here. This was a seriously cold wind. And it was wreaking havoc with everything. It knocked out the electricity for most of the morning and kicked up a ton of dust. I overheard someone saying they "took refuge" in a shop for a little while to keep the dust from landing in their eyes. Everyone was decked out in their winter gear -- beanies, sweaters, pants -- except for our favorite two-year old, the famous "Bucket Girl", who was just fine running around with no pants on.
The school is still quiet. A couple more teachers have shown up and some have even tried to teach this week. I think the people who are trying are the ones who are new this year. They still haven't quite figured things out. But those of us who know what's up haven't even tried to teach. I figure as long as long as the school director and all of the assistant directors aren't teaching, I can't be accused of not doing my job.
I kept busy in the morning with a workout. I was sore all morning from yesterday's workout -- I guess I earned that for not exercising for months -- so I did some legwork. I'm sure I'll be sore again tomorrow, but hopefully my arms will have recovered.
After lunch, I snuck in a little nap. No commitments -- might as well sleep. I woke up hungry. Conveniently, I had half an avocado left over from last night. I mashed it up into guacamole and used it as a dip for bread. It hit the spot. How could it not?
I tried to do some more reading in "All the King's Men", but I'm having trouble getting into it. I should like it, being a political book and all. But unlike "The Kite Runner," the writing in this book is, I don't know, fluffy. It's very adjective-heavy, very repetitive. Oh, and the first chapter goes on for-fuckin-ever. No chapter in any book should last seventy-seven pages. Even biblical chapters don't last that long. I suffered through that chapter. I can only hope that the next chapters are shorter, but I have my doubts.
I was banking on eating spaghetti for dinner tonight. It's been a couple nights, so you know, I'm due. Sozinho wanted to eat rice and I figured that as long has he's cooking it, I might as well eat it. I pulled some chicken breast out of our friends freezer, defrosted it, and cooked it up on our stove. By the time we ate, it was already 8:00 or so. The rest of the night was quiet. I wrote out an email or two and went to sleep.
I woke up early Thursday morning to the ping-ping-ping of raindrops on our tin roof. It wasn't a heavy rainy-season rain, but still heavy enough as to not dissipate before hitting the ground. This rain wouldn't bring on any mud or fill our wells, but it will be good enough to water the lettuce and onions growing behind the houses. I looked at the clock and saw it was 5:45, laughed, and went right back to bed for a little while.
The morning was surprisingly busy. I caught up with a friend from home, then did a grocery run. Sozinho was out of the house preparing his potential science fair project, leaving me to go the market. That was fine by me -- I was happy to kill an hour or so. After the market run, I came back home for my workout. It's funny. I only took two days for me to crave that feeling again, the feeling that you need to work out. By the time I was done, it was lunch time already.
I ate my lunch and showered, with no big plans for the afternoon. One of our colleagues came over asking for information about the regional Science Fair in Beira. He'll be chaperoning the kids up to Beira, which shouldn't be too difficult. It's not going to cost him anything -- Science Fair will cover all the costs -- but in the meantime, I'm covering their food and transportation tomorrow, at a hit of 1800 Meticais, about thirty percent of my salary for the month. I'll have it back by Monday, so it's no big deal. Still, I think it pissed off Sozinho, knowing that I had that kind of cash, but am not willing to fork out for his baptism clothing. What he doesn't realize is that all that money has to last me through the month.
Late in the afternoon, two trucks rolled into the school, the big mack-type trucks that can carry fifty goats. In this case, though, the trucks weren't filled with goats but with students singing at the top of their lungs as they approached school. They've plotted their return perfectly -- show up late enough in the week that the teachers won't come to class for the remainder of the week. I still can't understand why anyone would be so excited to coming back here -- to Machanga, to school, to finding firewood so they can eat the same crappy food day in and day out. Whatever. I won't rain on their parade.
Whatever excitement existed in the school was non-existent in the teacher's bairro. My neighbor came over with his usual smile and "Boa Tarde" then told me that his brother died this morning. He said it like he was just reporting the news: it's windy and cold outside, the students have returned, and my brother died. He said that he had been "doente" -- sick -- which is kind of a code. If it were TB, he would have said TB. If it were malaria, he would have said malaria. But if it's AIDS, then he's "sick". I asked how old he was: forty. Another life ended early, even by Mozambican's standard for life expectancy.
That pretty much killed whatever good vibes I was feeling. In a lot of ways, we've become very accustomed to a lot of things. We're used to taking shitty chapas and power outages and nothing running on time. But I don't think I'll ever get used to someone telling me that their brother or cousin or daughter died because of a disease that was preventable, whether that disease be AIDS or malaria or diarrhea.
Uninspired, the night was nothing special: spaghetti and some more of "All the King's Men" before going to sleep.
The early part of Friday morning was filled with a colleague's first computer crisis. His battery had drained all the way to zero and wasn't charging. I thought he just left it on, killing it off. But when I plugged the computer in, it still wouldn't charge. Curious. I tried using a different battery and it still wouldn't charge. Even more curious. My last guess was the charger itself. Earlier in the year, I had given a non-functioning charger to another colleague; maybe this was the same one. I tried a different charger and it worked. Excellent -- problem solved.
The rest of the morning looked a lot like the mornings from the rest of the week. I ran over to the market to buy eggs, then to the other side of town to buy bread. When I got back, it was already time to cook.
I kept myself busy after lunch plotting out what these last few months will look like, both in terms of school and personal life. I drew out a little calendar, which was a shockingly visual way of how little time we have left here. We have only two complete months left -- amazing. On the travel side, I'm going to be a road a lot these last few months. Bank runs, English Theater, and good-bye parties will have us running between Chimoio, Vilanculos, and Machanga.
This last school trimester is going to be an interesting one. Taking out this week, there are only eight full weeks of school between next Monday and October 12th -- Teacher's Day, the unofficial end of the school year. I have a feeling it's going to be a confusing trimester. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on phrasal verbs. Students here are used to translating sentences word for word. With phrasal verbs, that won't work. It's going to take some getting used to; thankfully, we have eight weeks.
Mcel went down again sometime during the afternoon. I'm hoping this is just a day problem instead of a weeks long problem like last time. After repairing the network faster than expected, I'm trying to think positive
Once I finished planning, I started cooking dinner. The beans had been soaking in water all day, so they only needed about ninety minutes to cook. My beans got the approval of Sozinho, a rare occasion. I guess when I really want to, I can cook up Mozambican beans as well as any Mozambican. I spent the rest of the night getting through chapter two of "All the King's Men". As I thought, the chapters aren't getting any shorter. This second one was ninety pages. Craziness.
I lazed around Saturday morning for a good while. I kept on with the book, making it half way through chapter three before rolling out of bed. Once up and at it, I continued planning out this last trimester. I tried to decide the best the way to teach phrasal verbs -- by root verb or meaning, -- eventually deciding to keep all phrasal verbs with the same root together. For example, in one lesson, students will learn phrasal verbs with break: break in, break up, break out, break down, break something down, and so on.
Sozinho took care of cooking lunch, then found his way to Mambone for the afternoon. I stuck around the house, getting in a workout after lunch. I was on call for tech duty in the afternoon. The photocopier owned by one of the teachers hasn't been working and he wanted me to repair it. Little did I know that the copier was the least of his problems. The computer that I just gave him wasn't charging or turning on. Gotta love Dell products. The rest of my afternoon was spent trying to solve this problem.
I did a little online research, plugging in the "symptoms", and found out that the problem this computer had confused even the best fix-it geeks on the web. Some people said to take out RAM chips, others said to press F7 sand F8 together while turning the computer on, others said to pop the hard drive in and out. I tried all of these things and failed.
So I went to Plan B -- or C or D, depending on if all those "solutions" were separate plan. I had another computer just like the one he got, except the screen was completely shattered. I knew that it turned on okay, but was unusable. I jumped back onto Google -- seriously, what did we do before Google? -- and learned how to replace the monitor on this type of Dell. Once I had that, the fix was easy -- six screws out, pull a cable, six screws in. Just like that, I had a fully functional computer.
I rewarded myself by completely doing in the busted monitor. I took our broom stick and decided to beat the living hell out of the already broken screen. On the third thwack, the broom stick busted in three pieces. Lame. It's okay -- I felt better.
All that work pushed dinner back until 8:30. That's how committed I was to working this problem out. I ate my dinner, finished chapter three of "All the King's Men" and went to sleep.
I was out cold when, around midnight, I received a text message. It was from hours before, but it finally came through. Mcel was back up. I didn't even bother reading it – it will be there in morning. I rolled over and went back to sleep for good.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Year 2 - Week 34: COS Conference
We know that we're close to the end, and this week only confirmed what we already knew. The fifty-two remaining Moz 13 Volunteers convened in Inhassoro this week for our Close of Service conference. The conference had two main purposes: to give the Volunteers one last time to see everyone together; and to give us some information about our transition from Peace Corps life to normal American life.
On the second front, the conference was fairly successful. Over the course of three days in Inhassoro, we discussed resume writing, how to talk about our service, jobs and grad school, and how to leave our sites as smoothly as possible. Time was also spent describing all of the things we have to do in Mozambique before we actually leave, like closing out bank accounts, wrapping up projects, and making sure that we are healthy before leaving. A lot of the discussion was common-sense stuff, but it was still informative.
As for the first purpose conference, I have mixed thoughts. On the one hand, it was really nice to see some people who I don't normally see. There are some people, especially in the north of the country, that I would not have seen otherwise had we not had this conference. On the other hand, there were a lot of people that I could have gone without seeing and it wouldn't have made much difference to me. There are plenty of people with whom I didn't talk much during training or any other conference over the two years. And the people with whom I'm closest -- like the people in Vilanculos or some of the Volunteers in the Central region of the country -- I'll be seeing at least one or two more times before leaving.
So on the whole, it was a week of conflicting feelings. This was goodbye, but not really. This was our Close of Service conference, but we're still here for three or four more months.
Outside of the conference, things were actually pretty exciting for me. I got my hands on the book "The Blind Side", which was turned into a movie this past year. The book was written well, though it tailed off the end. I found some information about U2's tour dates for next summer. It's not a matter of whether I see them: it's a matter of how many times and where. Most exciting for me, though, was I had the opportunity to download Arcade Fire's new album. This was a rare moment where I got something here on its release date instead of months afterward.
Finally, Mcel made its valiant return to service and, as such, I have switched back to my regular number. For those of you who have been out of touch, I'm sorry if you've tried to be in touch the last couple weeks. It's always a little concerning when we lose contact, but everything is okay and back to normal now. If it's been a while, I look forward to catching up with you.
On the second front, the conference was fairly successful. Over the course of three days in Inhassoro, we discussed resume writing, how to talk about our service, jobs and grad school, and how to leave our sites as smoothly as possible. Time was also spent describing all of the things we have to do in Mozambique before we actually leave, like closing out bank accounts, wrapping up projects, and making sure that we are healthy before leaving. A lot of the discussion was common-sense stuff, but it was still informative.
As for the first purpose conference, I have mixed thoughts. On the one hand, it was really nice to see some people who I don't normally see. There are some people, especially in the north of the country, that I would not have seen otherwise had we not had this conference. On the other hand, there were a lot of people that I could have gone without seeing and it wouldn't have made much difference to me. There are plenty of people with whom I didn't talk much during training or any other conference over the two years. And the people with whom I'm closest -- like the people in Vilanculos or some of the Volunteers in the Central region of the country -- I'll be seeing at least one or two more times before leaving.
So on the whole, it was a week of conflicting feelings. This was goodbye, but not really. This was our Close of Service conference, but we're still here for three or four more months.
Outside of the conference, things were actually pretty exciting for me. I got my hands on the book "The Blind Side", which was turned into a movie this past year. The book was written well, though it tailed off the end. I found some information about U2's tour dates for next summer. It's not a matter of whether I see them: it's a matter of how many times and where. Most exciting for me, though, was I had the opportunity to download Arcade Fire's new album. This was a rare moment where I got something here on its release date instead of months afterward.
Finally, Mcel made its valiant return to service and, as such, I have switched back to my regular number. For those of you who have been out of touch, I'm sorry if you've tried to be in touch the last couple weeks. It's always a little concerning when we lose contact, but everything is okay and back to normal now. If it's been a while, I look forward to catching up with you.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Year 2 - Week 33: The March of "Times"
By Sunday morning, just about everybody had found there way out of the school. The whole town, for that matter, was shockingly quiet. There wasn't much music blaring, no school bells ringing, no kids screaming at the top of their lungs in spite of their proximity to each other. We would make our way out soon enough too. There were some things to be done around the house before we could enjoy our last vacation here.
For one, we needed our laundry done. I can't speak for Richie, but I'm going to be gone for at least ten days, and I was running low on clean clothing. Sozinho did his work at a reasonable hour this morning, which was a welcome change from last week's disaster. I had my own clothing work to do. I came here with two pairs of jeans and each have taken a beating. It's gotten to the point that I'm now using one pair of jeans as a junkyard in an effort to salvage the other pair. The saveable pair had a Texas-sized hole in one of the knees. I cut out a slightly bigger square from the other pair and sewed it in. The way Sozinho abuses our clothes when he washes them, I'm sure they won't hold up for that long.
That little project took up most of my morning. Richie, in the meantime, went to the villa to pick up some food items for the day. He then decided that we were going to eliminate as much food as possible today. We had so many potato pancakes between us that we both felt pretty sick after finishing. Richie noted that usually our stomachs hurt from feeling hungry. This was a rare moment when we hurt from being too full.
After lunch, I went about cleaning my room. I don't mean just a casual picking up of things. This was a full on scrubbing. There are few things worse than coming home to a filthy room. I organized my things, threw out a ton of unnecessary stuff, swept and mopped. The worst part is by the time I come back from my trip, it will be blanketed in dust again. At least there won't be that much cleaning to do.
We continued our demolition of food in our house at dinner. We knocked off the last couple of chicken breasts that we bought last month in Vilanculos. Fake chicken parmesan has moved very high on the list, quite possibly to the top, of our favorite dinners. With the extra tomato sauce we made a couple Mambone bread pizzas. If nothing else, this day was a culinary victory.
Our nightly entertainment consisted of "Burn After Reading". It was a strange and strangely funny film. We both particularly enjoyed Brad Pitt's role as a gym trainer half his age. His roll was only made better when he was shot in the head by George Clooney. We did not see that coming. Within seconds of the film ending, my parents called. We talked for a little bit before I drifted off to sleep.
Richie and I were up and at it around 6:00, ready for the travel battle ahead on Monday. We left the house around 6:30 and made our way to Mambone. The day started well. We didn't have any wait time at the river or in Mambone. That was the end of our luck. The car we got to Maluvane was a pick-up drunk. Richie and I eventually made it, along with seventeen other people. Even this far into my time here, I'm still shocked at how many people can fit into the back of a truck.
I'm shocked even more by how much of that shit people are willing to tolerate. We didn't have to wait long for the next truck at Maluvane. As we waited, more and more people piled into the truck. We were packed in like goats. And as we went down the road, more people yet piled in. Fifteen minutes into the ride, Richie and I had had enough. We got out of the car and told the driver that we didn't want to die today. Another fifteen minutes passed before we got another truck, which actually was packed with goats. It was heading to the crossroads just outside of Vilanculos, the price was less than it should have been, and we felt considerably safer, so we were content with our decision to abandon the other car.
We arrived in town and fell into our normal routine. Or so we thought. As we made our way over to our regular backpackers place, a very enthusiastic Canadian told us that we should go to another place. We weren't completely convinced, until she told us that for just twenty-five more Meticais than we would have paid, we got our own room instead of a dorm and breakfast was included. I think breakfast was the main selling point. We said "what the hell" and gave it a shot.
After dropping our bags at our new place, we did all the things we usually do in Vilanculos. Our first stop was pizza. It's the first time we've had real pizza since coming down for World Cup at the beginning of June, and yes, it was just as good as we remember it. Then the great shopping fest began. We killed off a good thousand Meticais in just under an hour. And there would be more to do later. I failed to find a couple things, as did Richie. We remembered our credo "if at first you don't succeed, give up" and went back to the hotel to relax until dinner.
Dinner was way beyond our expectations. For a mere hundred Meticais, we got plate after plate of rice, chicken, beans and seafood (which I passed off to Richie). It wasn't just the quantity that did it: the quality was pretty good too. I thought I was full last night, but tonight outdid it by a landslide.
I woke up Tuesday morning still full from dinner, a truly amazing feeling. That set up a wonderfully lazy day. I went over to our regular backpackers place because the have hammocks, looking forward to a lovely day of reading "The Three Musketeers". Within thirty minutes, I was lulled to sleep, only to be awakened by a text message from Richie a couple hours later.
There was much to do in the afternoon. A had to get a shirt altered by my tailor. A couple months ago, we made me a couple shirts. I told him cut them a little big, figuring that I would fill them out when I returned to America. He clearly did not hear me say "a little" because I could fit a second me into the shirt. While he worked on the shirt, Richie and I had some business to take care of in town.
Richie was on the hunt for flashlight light bulbs for a student's science fair project. I was looking for power adapters for a couple teachers. A laptop is pretty worthless if it can't be recharged. After failing in three places yesterday, I succeeded at the first store today. That's when the fun began. The price the salesman told me was almost double what it was three months ago. I understand that the value of the Metical keeps slipping, but it's not falling that fast. This isn't Zimbabwe, where currency devalues so quickly, it has an expiration date. So I considered this price the opening salvo in a war and I was not going to lose. The man wanted 120 Mets for an adapter. I returned with an offer of 200 for three of them. He dropped his price, bit by bit, but I stuck with my offer. He finally agreed. And after the exchange of money for goods was made, he had the audacity to ask for more money. I laughed in his face and walked away. Point: Muzungu.
Year 2 - Week 33: The March of Times
That was the first of two wins on this day. The other item that we bought had a set price, but it's still a huge win for us. We purchased an electric kettle. It may seem crazy that we're buying new items with just over 100 days left to go here, but this is a worthwhile luxury. Instead of lighting up carvao or putting a kettle on our stove for ten or fifteen minutes, we can plug in our kettle and have two liters of boiling water in less than five minutes. Yes, it cost 350 Meticais, but we boil water often enough that we'll make up that money in our energy bill quite quickly. And it will be a nice thing for the next Volunteers in our house to have.
With the successful day in the market behind us, I chilled at our hotel and read "The Three Musketeers". It's not as good as "The Count of Monte Cristo", but it's still a pretty smooth read. By the end of the afternoon, I had finished about forty percent of it. I should have it knocked out in the next couple days.
Instead of sticking with good, cheap food at our hotel, we met up with some other Volunteers at a different restaurant. The food at this other place was slightly cheaper, but not nearly as good. I guess the company made up for the loss in quality. We got a ride back to the hotel from some people who had dinner with us, had a nightcap, and went to bed.
Or at least we tried. There was so much noise throughout the night that we struggled to get any sleep. Regardless, we had planned to leave anyway on Wednesday. Richie decided to head back home for a couple days before heading back to Inhassoro. I decided to stick around Vil, but save some money by staying around with a Volunteer here.
My decision to do so looked better and better by the minute. The father and sister of a Volunteer here are visiting and they brought all the same goodies my family brought in December, except more recent. They brought a hard drive full of music and a glorious bounty of magazines. There were three month's worth of Time magazines, including one from -- no joke -- July 26th. I did a double-take when I saw the date. News that was actually news? Unheard of. That was enough reason for me to stay. I spent the afternoon engrossed.
Having bypassed lunch, I decided to indulge on dinner. I went out with another Volunteer and her family. I had no issue paying -- I fully expected to, quite honestly. But then I rolled out the booze. The Volunteer's father and I split a bottle of rum. Three-quarters of the way throught the bottle, the waiter told us that we had to pay a "corkage" of 175 Meticais on my fifty Met bottle of rum. I argued my way out of that one. Another point for me. And when we knocked out that bottle, the double Captain and Cokes started coming. By the end of the night, my food and drink was covered - and the father and I were tanked.
Considering I only got four hours of sleep, I was feeling pretty good on Thursday. I was definitely not hung over, although I can't say the same for my drinking partner. He claimed to be fine when he walked out around 8 in the morning, but he promptly found his way to sleep for another couple hours.
The whole day was pretty lazy. Though I didn't go back to sleep, or even nap later in the afternoon, I did spend most of the day horizontal with a couple of Time magazines. I can't say that many of the stories stuck. I was going through the magazines so quickly that the material usually left as soon as I read it. But three articles that really stood out to me were an article on adopting Russian children; one on the fiftieth anniversary of The Pill; and the new tech-savvy generation of poker players.
In the dead heat of the afternoon, I made a run to the supermarket - yes, the supermarket - to buy some dinner. One of the Volunteers and I decided we were going to do spaghetti and meatballs. I know, spaghetti is old and boring, but meatballs are a new adventure here and I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to buy ground beef.
Just after getting back, one of the Vil Volunteers and her family decided that they were going to have pizza for dinner. They invited me along. Telling them "no, I'm committing to making spaghetti and meatballs" like a thousand stabs to the stomach. Turning down pizza for spaghetti. It makes me sick thinking about it.
When another Volunteer from close to Xai Xai came into town, us non-pizza eaters got started on dinner. We diced, chopped, boiled and baked our way to a pretty tasty dinner. The deliciousness of the meatballs helped me get past the lack of pizza. After eating, the three of us watched "Invictus". Richie and I started watching this movie a couple months ago, but the DVD we bought in Vil cut off short of the first hour. It was lovely to see the second half of the movie. Morgan Freeman did an incredible job as Mandela.
Friday would be my last day in Vilanculos. I made a couple of calls to arrange my weekend stay in Inhassoro. It was time to leave. The only thing really keeping me in Vil was the pile of Time magazines. I made myself anti-social and read for most of the morning and into the early afternoon. In three days, I think I made my way through nine Time magazines cover to cover.
By mid-afternoon, I was starting to get antsy. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one. While I was reading, other people in the house were watching "Glee" and "How I Met Your Mother". I think we all reached our breaking point around the same time. I proposed that we play Phase 10, a pretty good card game that can take up a lot of time. The game went long enough that we didn't finish it by the dinner time.
We took the cards to dinner with us and still did not finish before our food came out. The father of the Vil Volunteer treated us to burgers, which was very kind. This little restaurant opened up literally across the street from their school. Talk about convenience. And the burger was pretty tasty - definitely better than the burgers that Richie and I get on the other side of town.
Everybody was on the move Saturday morning. One of the Vil Volunteers is training for a marathon, so she went out for a three hour run. The other girl and her family were going out to the islands for snorkeling. And I was on my way to Inhassoro. I picked up some cash - always an interesting event - before heading out. People here seriously struggle to use ATMs here. I think it's a combination of the technology and a lack of Portuguese vocabulary. I had four people in front of me. In America, I would have waited, I don't know, ten minutes at most. I waited twenty-five minutes before I got to the machine. It was frustrating, sure, but I was in no rush to get to Inhassoro.
Even so, I was still in Inhassoro by 10 o'clock. The chapa that I got in never filled up completely and only stopped twice along the way. This was my kind of chapa. The Volunteer with whom I was staying wasn't at home, so I went across the street to the high-speed internet cafe to update my anti-virus, check my email, and catch up on the sports world. By 11, the Volunteer still wasn't back, so I read some "Three Musketeers" until she arrived.
She was as hungry as I when she arrived, so we headed to the market to forage for food. We bought some items for dinner and went to a little restaurant for egg sandwiches. By coincidence, the Portuguese people who came to Machanga a couple weeks ago were in Inhassoro as well. They sat with us for a little bit before we made our way back to the Volunteer's house.
The rest of the afternoon was calm. Someone came over asking for help writing a grant. The Volunteer helped this kid write it out while I messed around on the computer and read a book. By the time she was done with him, it was dinner time. It would be yet another spaghetti night. It's a good thing I like spaghetti. A third Volunteer came over with a bottle of wine. We ate, drank, and were merry, happy to be done with another week in Mozambique.
For one, we needed our laundry done. I can't speak for Richie, but I'm going to be gone for at least ten days, and I was running low on clean clothing. Sozinho did his work at a reasonable hour this morning, which was a welcome change from last week's disaster. I had my own clothing work to do. I came here with two pairs of jeans and each have taken a beating. It's gotten to the point that I'm now using one pair of jeans as a junkyard in an effort to salvage the other pair. The saveable pair had a Texas-sized hole in one of the knees. I cut out a slightly bigger square from the other pair and sewed it in. The way Sozinho abuses our clothes when he washes them, I'm sure they won't hold up for that long.
That little project took up most of my morning. Richie, in the meantime, went to the villa to pick up some food items for the day. He then decided that we were going to eliminate as much food as possible today. We had so many potato pancakes between us that we both felt pretty sick after finishing. Richie noted that usually our stomachs hurt from feeling hungry. This was a rare moment when we hurt from being too full.
After lunch, I went about cleaning my room. I don't mean just a casual picking up of things. This was a full on scrubbing. There are few things worse than coming home to a filthy room. I organized my things, threw out a ton of unnecessary stuff, swept and mopped. The worst part is by the time I come back from my trip, it will be blanketed in dust again. At least there won't be that much cleaning to do.
We continued our demolition of food in our house at dinner. We knocked off the last couple of chicken breasts that we bought last month in Vilanculos. Fake chicken parmesan has moved very high on the list, quite possibly to the top, of our favorite dinners. With the extra tomato sauce we made a couple Mambone bread pizzas. If nothing else, this day was a culinary victory.
Our nightly entertainment consisted of "Burn After Reading". It was a strange and strangely funny film. We both particularly enjoyed Brad Pitt's role as a gym trainer half his age. His roll was only made better when he was shot in the head by George Clooney. We did not see that coming. Within seconds of the film ending, my parents called. We talked for a little bit before I drifted off to sleep.
Richie and I were up and at it around 6:00, ready for the travel battle ahead on Monday. We left the house around 6:30 and made our way to Mambone. The day started well. We didn't have any wait time at the river or in Mambone. That was the end of our luck. The car we got to Maluvane was a pick-up drunk. Richie and I eventually made it, along with seventeen other people. Even this far into my time here, I'm still shocked at how many people can fit into the back of a truck.
I'm shocked even more by how much of that shit people are willing to tolerate. We didn't have to wait long for the next truck at Maluvane. As we waited, more and more people piled into the truck. We were packed in like goats. And as we went down the road, more people yet piled in. Fifteen minutes into the ride, Richie and I had had enough. We got out of the car and told the driver that we didn't want to die today. Another fifteen minutes passed before we got another truck, which actually was packed with goats. It was heading to the crossroads just outside of Vilanculos, the price was less than it should have been, and we felt considerably safer, so we were content with our decision to abandon the other car.
We arrived in town and fell into our normal routine. Or so we thought. As we made our way over to our regular backpackers place, a very enthusiastic Canadian told us that we should go to another place. We weren't completely convinced, until she told us that for just twenty-five more Meticais than we would have paid, we got our own room instead of a dorm and breakfast was included. I think breakfast was the main selling point. We said "what the hell" and gave it a shot.
After dropping our bags at our new place, we did all the things we usually do in Vilanculos. Our first stop was pizza. It's the first time we've had real pizza since coming down for World Cup at the beginning of June, and yes, it was just as good as we remember it. Then the great shopping fest began. We killed off a good thousand Meticais in just under an hour. And there would be more to do later. I failed to find a couple things, as did Richie. We remembered our credo "if at first you don't succeed, give up" and went back to the hotel to relax until dinner.
Dinner was way beyond our expectations. For a mere hundred Meticais, we got plate after plate of rice, chicken, beans and seafood (which I passed off to Richie). It wasn't just the quantity that did it: the quality was pretty good too. I thought I was full last night, but tonight outdid it by a landslide.
I woke up Tuesday morning still full from dinner, a truly amazing feeling. That set up a wonderfully lazy day. I went over to our regular backpackers place because the have hammocks, looking forward to a lovely day of reading "The Three Musketeers". Within thirty minutes, I was lulled to sleep, only to be awakened by a text message from Richie a couple hours later.
There was much to do in the afternoon. A had to get a shirt altered by my tailor. A couple months ago, we made me a couple shirts. I told him cut them a little big, figuring that I would fill them out when I returned to America. He clearly did not hear me say "a little" because I could fit a second me into the shirt. While he worked on the shirt, Richie and I had some business to take care of in town.
Richie was on the hunt for flashlight light bulbs for a student's science fair project. I was looking for power adapters for a couple teachers. A laptop is pretty worthless if it can't be recharged. After failing in three places yesterday, I succeeded at the first store today. That's when the fun began. The price the salesman told me was almost double what it was three months ago. I understand that the value of the Metical keeps slipping, but it's not falling that fast. This isn't Zimbabwe, where currency devalues so quickly, it has an expiration date. So I considered this price the opening salvo in a war and I was not going to lose. The man wanted 120 Mets for an adapter. I returned with an offer of 200 for three of them. He dropped his price, bit by bit, but I stuck with my offer. He finally agreed. And after the exchange of money for goods was made, he had the audacity to ask for more money. I laughed in his face and walked away. Point: Muzungu.
Year 2 - Week 33: The March of Times
That was the first of two wins on this day. The other item that we bought had a set price, but it's still a huge win for us. We purchased an electric kettle. It may seem crazy that we're buying new items with just over 100 days left to go here, but this is a worthwhile luxury. Instead of lighting up carvao or putting a kettle on our stove for ten or fifteen minutes, we can plug in our kettle and have two liters of boiling water in less than five minutes. Yes, it cost 350 Meticais, but we boil water often enough that we'll make up that money in our energy bill quite quickly. And it will be a nice thing for the next Volunteers in our house to have.
With the successful day in the market behind us, I chilled at our hotel and read "The Three Musketeers". It's not as good as "The Count of Monte Cristo", but it's still a pretty smooth read. By the end of the afternoon, I had finished about forty percent of it. I should have it knocked out in the next couple days.
Instead of sticking with good, cheap food at our hotel, we met up with some other Volunteers at a different restaurant. The food at this other place was slightly cheaper, but not nearly as good. I guess the company made up for the loss in quality. We got a ride back to the hotel from some people who had dinner with us, had a nightcap, and went to bed.
Or at least we tried. There was so much noise throughout the night that we struggled to get any sleep. Regardless, we had planned to leave anyway on Wednesday. Richie decided to head back home for a couple days before heading back to Inhassoro. I decided to stick around Vil, but save some money by staying around with a Volunteer here.
My decision to do so looked better and better by the minute. The father and sister of a Volunteer here are visiting and they brought all the same goodies my family brought in December, except more recent. They brought a hard drive full of music and a glorious bounty of magazines. There were three month's worth of Time magazines, including one from -- no joke -- July 26th. I did a double-take when I saw the date. News that was actually news? Unheard of. That was enough reason for me to stay. I spent the afternoon engrossed.
Having bypassed lunch, I decided to indulge on dinner. I went out with another Volunteer and her family. I had no issue paying -- I fully expected to, quite honestly. But then I rolled out the booze. The Volunteer's father and I split a bottle of rum. Three-quarters of the way throught the bottle, the waiter told us that we had to pay a "corkage" of 175 Meticais on my fifty Met bottle of rum. I argued my way out of that one. Another point for me. And when we knocked out that bottle, the double Captain and Cokes started coming. By the end of the night, my food and drink was covered - and the father and I were tanked.
Considering I only got four hours of sleep, I was feeling pretty good on Thursday. I was definitely not hung over, although I can't say the same for my drinking partner. He claimed to be fine when he walked out around 8 in the morning, but he promptly found his way to sleep for another couple hours.
The whole day was pretty lazy. Though I didn't go back to sleep, or even nap later in the afternoon, I did spend most of the day horizontal with a couple of Time magazines. I can't say that many of the stories stuck. I was going through the magazines so quickly that the material usually left as soon as I read it. But three articles that really stood out to me were an article on adopting Russian children; one on the fiftieth anniversary of The Pill; and the new tech-savvy generation of poker players.
In the dead heat of the afternoon, I made a run to the supermarket - yes, the supermarket - to buy some dinner. One of the Volunteers and I decided we were going to do spaghetti and meatballs. I know, spaghetti is old and boring, but meatballs are a new adventure here and I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to buy ground beef.
Just after getting back, one of the Vil Volunteers and her family decided that they were going to have pizza for dinner. They invited me along. Telling them "no, I'm committing to making spaghetti and meatballs" like a thousand stabs to the stomach. Turning down pizza for spaghetti. It makes me sick thinking about it.
When another Volunteer from close to Xai Xai came into town, us non-pizza eaters got started on dinner. We diced, chopped, boiled and baked our way to a pretty tasty dinner. The deliciousness of the meatballs helped me get past the lack of pizza. After eating, the three of us watched "Invictus". Richie and I started watching this movie a couple months ago, but the DVD we bought in Vil cut off short of the first hour. It was lovely to see the second half of the movie. Morgan Freeman did an incredible job as Mandela.
Friday would be my last day in Vilanculos. I made a couple of calls to arrange my weekend stay in Inhassoro. It was time to leave. The only thing really keeping me in Vil was the pile of Time magazines. I made myself anti-social and read for most of the morning and into the early afternoon. In three days, I think I made my way through nine Time magazines cover to cover.
By mid-afternoon, I was starting to get antsy. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one. While I was reading, other people in the house were watching "Glee" and "How I Met Your Mother". I think we all reached our breaking point around the same time. I proposed that we play Phase 10, a pretty good card game that can take up a lot of time. The game went long enough that we didn't finish it by the dinner time.
We took the cards to dinner with us and still did not finish before our food came out. The father of the Vil Volunteer treated us to burgers, which was very kind. This little restaurant opened up literally across the street from their school. Talk about convenience. And the burger was pretty tasty - definitely better than the burgers that Richie and I get on the other side of town.
Everybody was on the move Saturday morning. One of the Vil Volunteers is training for a marathon, so she went out for a three hour run. The other girl and her family were going out to the islands for snorkeling. And I was on my way to Inhassoro. I picked up some cash - always an interesting event - before heading out. People here seriously struggle to use ATMs here. I think it's a combination of the technology and a lack of Portuguese vocabulary. I had four people in front of me. In America, I would have waited, I don't know, ten minutes at most. I waited twenty-five minutes before I got to the machine. It was frustrating, sure, but I was in no rush to get to Inhassoro.
Even so, I was still in Inhassoro by 10 o'clock. The chapa that I got in never filled up completely and only stopped twice along the way. This was my kind of chapa. The Volunteer with whom I was staying wasn't at home, so I went across the street to the high-speed internet cafe to update my anti-virus, check my email, and catch up on the sports world. By 11, the Volunteer still wasn't back, so I read some "Three Musketeers" until she arrived.
She was as hungry as I when she arrived, so we headed to the market to forage for food. We bought some items for dinner and went to a little restaurant for egg sandwiches. By coincidence, the Portuguese people who came to Machanga a couple weeks ago were in Inhassoro as well. They sat with us for a little bit before we made our way back to the Volunteer's house.
The rest of the afternoon was calm. Someone came over asking for help writing a grant. The Volunteer helped this kid write it out while I messed around on the computer and read a book. By the time she was done with him, it was dinner time. It would be yet another spaghetti night. It's a good thing I like spaghetti. A third Volunteer came over with a bottle of wine. We ate, drank, and were merry, happy to be done with another week in Mozambique.
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