Something bad was bound to happen.
After an absolutely perfect day yesterday, there was no way that I could have a good day on Sunday. It started almost as soon as I woke up. In coming down to Vilanculos, I had hoped that I could update anti-virus on my laptop. When I took my laptop outside though, it wouldn't turn on. It turned on just fine when it was plugged in, but now it won't turn on. Great. Battery is shot. Again. There was a time - about six weeks ago - that I seriously considered bringing this computer home. It had been working decently. Then the video playback got choppy. Now this. Looks like this computer might meet another broomstick.
To clear my head, I made a run to the market to pick up some food for lunch. There was no need for epic negotiation today. I know the price of vegetables and at this point, most of the market people recognize me. I came back prepared to make some egg sandwiches for lunch.
Even though I slept well last night, I still felt tired. Maybe it was the heat. Hot season is officially in full swing here. Maybe it was just the frustration of dealing with a busted computer. Either way, after lunch, I was ready for a nap. It didn't take long. As soon as I hit the mattress, I was out cold for a solid two hours.
My day was almost salvaged late in the afternoon. I ran over to my tailor's shop to pick up a new shirt. He did a beautiful job on it and in just one day. Nice job, Alexandre. I came back to the girls' house looking forward to a conversation with my parents and pizza. The phone call, as usual, was lovely. Right in the middle of it, the pizza man came, but with only one pizza. Where's my pizza? They didn't have my toppings. Fine, bring a different pizza. Thirty minutes later, my new pizza arrived. I devoured it as we watched dinosaurs on "Jurrasic Park" devour people. Considering when that movie was made, the dinosaurs look shockingly good. Imagine what they could do with CGI today.
The silver lining to a bad day is that the next day is usually better. I wanted to hit to an internet cafe to try to update my anti-virus and read email. There were two options: do my shopping, then head to Inhassoro to hit the awesome internet cafe there; or hit the internet cafe here, get my shopping done, then take the chapa back to Mambone. Lucky for me, the internet cafe in Vil was open. Unluckily, the internet wasn't fast enough to update anti-virus. Either way, I was happy. I got everything else done and I was able to chat with some night-owl friends.
With a little time to kill before the chapa left, I got my shopping done. I needed to by big paper for Richie so he could give his exams. Then I dipped into the market to see if there was anything special and -- wait, what is that? Avocado?! Yes! Yes! Yes! Avocado season continues! Looks like we're doing Mexican food tonight.
The chapa ride to Mambone was largely uneventful. As more people piled in, the cobrador had the audacity to propose sitting five people. The other people in my row expressed their displeasure about this, but the cobrador was adamant. Then I did something I have barely done in this country: I spoke up. "I'm the biggest person in this chapa," -- which was true -- "there's no way a fifth person is sitting back here". With that, we sat "comfortably" four to a row.
I had no wait time at the river, which was fortunate considering I was the only person there. Once I arrived on the other side, the river was so low and the shore so slick with mud that I couldn't get to the path that leads back to our house. I had to scale a small cliff just to get to another path. Awesome.
I was absolutely exhausted and hungry when I got back to the house around 3 o'clock. Richie had made extra food for lunch. I don't know if he planned on eating it later, but I didn't care. I was hungry, and when I see food, no one is going to stop me. When he came back from class, he wasn't sad to see his food again.
The food fest continued after a short respite. We went with full-on Mexican food: rice, salsa, beans (from a can), meat, tortillas, and of course guacamole! Following dinner, we watched a couple episodes of "Glee" before crashing.
After a good night's sleep, I took a look at what I had planned on teaching, and wasn't at all happy with my plans. The phrasal verbs that I wanted to teach today not only had very narrow usage, but also didn't have good Portuguese equivalents. My gut said that this would be a disaster of a lesson, so I decided to change it.
That decision proved to be brilliant once I got in the classroom. The kids did a pretty good job of picking up on the six phrasal verbs I give them. I shudder at the thought of what would have happened had I gone with my original lesson plan.
Following class, I realized it was time to get back on the workout train. Having been gone the whole weekend, I didn't have the chance to work out. I know that the longer I put it off, the more difficult it is to get back into. After the workout, I was outside drinking my protein shake when one of our colleagues called me over. He needed help solving a math problem. I knew how to solve it but for some reason, I kept getting stuck. Finally, after a couple of minutes, it hit me and I had the answer. Victory.
For the first time in a while, we had shrimp for dinner. I don't know if shrimp are officially out of season, but we haven't seen them for a while. And it seems that we didn't get nearly as much as we have in the past. Regardless, we were happy to have shrimp because if we didn't have them, we would have eaten couvi, a meal we generally struggle through, then regret after. Thrown in with some pasta, it made for a tasty meal. After eating, we sat back for a couple of episodes of "Glee". Before falling asleep, I then started on another mammoth book, Dave Eggers' "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". RIchie gave it a not-so-positive review. I figure it can't be worse than "All the King's Men".
I woke up Wednesday morning to the sound of my phone ringing, ready for another day of English theater practice. As usual, I showed up right at 8:30. I don't know why I even bother when I know everyone else is going to be late. We know the 40-minute rule applies to just about everything here. Whenever something is scheduled for a certain time, add 40 minutes to it, and that will be the actually start time. This worked almost perfectly today. We got started at 9:08, 38 minutes after our scheduled start time.
Practice lasted for about 90 minutes. Most of the kids are doing a really good job. Seven out of eight of them have their lines memorized, but one girl is still bumbling along. I'm hoping she gets it together in the next couple weeks. Aside from that little issue, the play seems to be coming along. If they can speak loudly, I believe they have a chance to win.
Wednesday proved to be a very busy day. I'm giving the first midterm of this trimester on Friday, and it wasn't going to write itself. Of the thirty phrasal verbs I have taught these first few weeks, almost all of them will appear on the exam. This is a test of study skills. If they reviewed their notes for maybe thirty minutes, they'll do just fine. If not, it's going to be a bloodbath. This will also be the first time that I'll be giving the students a "bubble sheet" to fill out. I figure it's better to have them practice now than go into the National Exam cold. The only problem with the bubble sheet is that it will be remarkably easy to cheat. In the end, it will be their funeral: I'll be giving four different forms of the test. Looking at a neighbor's sheet will certainly lead to failure.
I was slated to teach the last two periods of the afternoon, but I had a feeling that I wouldn't have to wait that long. I think that I have taught early almost every Wednesday. There was no reason to believe that I would have to wait until 4:00 today. My assumption was proved right around 3:00. Two students came by asking for me to come in to teach. Absolutely. Class I guess went okay. I asked my students if they did their difficult (and rarely given) homework assignment of writing two sentences. Three students did it. Looks like they'll be getting extra credit on the midterm.
While I was in class, a pot of beans sat on the stove. We wanted a delicious meal tonight. After all, there was cause for celebration. With this day in the past, we have only one more full month in Mozambique. Of course, we still have twenty-nine days this month and twenty-three in November, buy ya know, we take our victories when we can get them. The beans were delicious, and to top it off, we made some chocolate cake. While the cake sat in the oven, we watched "Grown Ups", a film with a whole bunch of funny people. I bought it in Vil, thinking it would be okay. After we watched it, we agreed that it probably went straight to DVD.
After such a productive Wednesday, I had a shockingly quiet Thursday morning. I didn't have any preparation for class to do. I didn't have any exams to write. So I sat around reading an old magazine in the morning.
It was nice to have that bit of down time because the afternoon would be a little busier. I went into class first period of the afternoon to give my lesson. The students were relieved to hear that this lesson wouldn't be on the exam. It wouldn't be particulary fair to them. I gave the same lesson as yesterday, including a small bit on how to fill out their answer sheet.
I was on the receiving end of some good fortune late in the afternoon. Somebody was working on the energy in the school, which allowed me to print and photocopy my exams in the afternoon instead of at night. While I was in the office, I handed over a copy of the answer sheet to the school director and left a copy on the computer. Now all of the teachers can wreak havoc on their students with long, boring multiple choice exams.
Our evening was slightly depressing. We have come to the end of the season of "Glee". We watched thirteen episodes in four days. Very sad. At least we know that the next time we see glee, we'll be in America. After dinner and "Glee", I continued on the newest book. It has a huge introduction, which I finally got through. Maybe this weekend, I'll get to start on the actual book.
Friday was a busy day all around. As I've come to expect, English theater practice started late. Still, I went in at 8:30. I can always hope. One of the students had to go the hospital before practice, which made things interesting. My counterpart went to Beira yesterday -- why, I don't know -- so I was on my own with the students. Someone had to fill in for the student, so ended up reading his lines. I think all the students, especially the girls, got really timid when we had scenes together. It was pretty funny.
I managed to get a workout in before cooking lunch. I'm in for a busy afternoon, so I knew working out then wouldn't be possible. Following lunch, it was off to the classroom.
This was an interesting test, for a lot of reasons. First, the content is not the easiest stuff in the world. Still, no one came to my house to ask questions about the content, so I'm under the assumption that they basically understand. Second, as mentioned early, it's the first time that they'll be using an answer sheet for a multiple choice exam. And third, I'm going to be very lax when it comes to controlling this exam. I don't care if a student looks at his or her neighbor's paper because the exams are different. I really feel sorry for the poor saps who depend on their neighbors for answers. It's going to be a rough exam for them.
I wanted to get the exams corrected as soon as possible. With an answer sheet, it shouldn't take so long. I was wrong. Painfully wrong. The students did miserably. There were plenty of students who received less than 25 percent low even by Mozambican education standards. And yet, the test was fair. Two students received 18 out of 20. It's pretty clear who studied.
I got through the first class and had to stop. It was just too depressing. In the first class, 22 percent passed the exam, and the average score was failing. I cringed thinking about how bad it would have been had those two students not received 18.
There was only one thing that could get me out of this depression: scotch. After dinner, Richie, another colleague and I headed out to the villa to do some drinking. Some colleagues were already there when we arrived. I bought the bottle of scotch and we got to work. In two hours, the thing was gone and my head was spinning badly. At least I wasn't thinking about the exam anymore.
I woke up Saturday morning feeeling miserable, as expected. There was more than just a hangover though. My head and neck were invaded by mosquitoes last night. I guess that's what I get for passing out on my floor for a couple hours.
Even though I was far from 100%, I still had some responsibilities to take care of on Saturday. I had an English theater meeting at 8:30, which naturally started at 9. I had the kids practice outside today. They need to start using louder voices. And as a bonus, it felt a lot better to be outside than trapped in a tiny classroom.
Once practice ended, it was right back to bed until 12:30. Finally, I felt like I had recovered. Richie decided to go with potato pancakes to fill our empty stomachs and I could not have agreed more with that decision. After lunch, the rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet. I read a bit of an "Economist" and caught up on some real news, but other than that, I can't say we did much.
Late in the afternoon, we sent Sozinho to the market to buy beef. We knew this was a gamble. If there was no beef in the market, we'd have to pull out something magical for dinner. Of course, there was no beef today. So we opened our last can of turkey and made stirfry. With no more episodes of "Glee" to watch, we watched a movie called "She's Out of Your League". It was okay. We had higher expectations, but it came up well short.
Story of my week.
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