Final Days of Training

Time for another post. Training has been a whirlwind of events. We are doing model school now and I’ve been very busy the past week making lessons and giving them, watching and critiquing other volunteers, and going to technical training. It’s been chilly and raining for about 6 days straight. It actually just stopped raining and the sun is shining but the power went out again so I will have to pause writing this for a bit…
I am really glad the rain stopped today. Luckily my sister washed my clothes right before the rain started… they didn’t get fully dry but dried in my room over the next couple days. Many trainees weren’t so lucky and now they are wearing the same clothing for the nth day. Being constantly damp and walking around in the mud gets kind of tiring too. There are rivers of rainwater flowing down the roads and pathways. Some of them look reminiscent of the chocolate river in Willy Wonka’s factory.
I have taught 3 classes in model school and I have 2 more to go (and then hundreds more when I get to site). It is a lot more fun to teach students than teaching PCTs who don’t want to be there. It’s also a lot more interactive. My group is teaching two eighth grade classes. Peace Corps gives kids the incentive to go to model school by giving them a certificate of completion, notebooks, and free lanches. There are a lot of kids who are too young for eighth grade but they are all smart and on the average more motivated than the kids I will be teaching in school since they aren’t required to go to model school.
With three lessons down I already feel more comfortable giving lessons in Portuguese. The first day I talked about matter in general (for many students it was their first exposure to chemistry) and pretty much read off my sheet I had prepared the night before. The second day I talked about the periodic table of elements (after the PCTs in my group covered other topics) and read mostly but occasionally came up with some explanations on the spot. The third lesson I gave was mostly impromptu which I was proud of but I also have problems with enthusiasm while giving lessons, and it didn’t help that Friday it was raining for the 5th day in a row and I was first up to teach in my group with only three students. It can also be difficult identifying what the students are having trouble understanding. Some of them are very quiet talkers (I think they might be scared of me…) and it doesn’t help that I’m still learning the language.
It’s been helpful to watch other PCTs teach their lessons. Everyone, I think, is already decent at teaching, which some of us may not admit, and we have all received a fantastic education from the U.S.. Anyway we will all become comfortable with teaching soon enough. Site delivery starts in 2 weeks which is very exciting. I should know my site Wednesday which I will post on my facebook page.
There are huge differences in the Mozambican and U.S. school system. The most obvious is the lack of resources in the classroom. At the secondary school in Namaacha, where model school takes place, the classrooms are limited to desks and a chalkboard. On Friday, when it was raining hard, there were puddles on the floor and drops of water were coming from the ceiling. One trainee in our room put her wet jacket too close to some electrical wires and class was interrupted by a loud shock.
The teaching style in Mozambique is also very different. The classes are lecture style format and the focus is on rote memorization. There is minimal student engagement. High-school teachers in Mozambique are only required to complete high-school and attend a year long teacher training course, while elementary school teachers are only required to finish 10th grade followed by a training course.
Since my last blog post I also went on site visit with one other trainee. We went to Chicumbane in Gaza Province. The first day we were there the volunteer we were staying with toured us around town. We met many people who were excited to see our volunteer and meet us. One man was walking with a wheelbarrow and stopped to greet us. He asked for my friend Gary’s name and then tried to repeat it without success (Garr… Garrehh!). He then asked my name and I said David, to which he yelled Daviiid! and dropped his wheelbarrow to shake my hand. The next morning he even remembered my name but not Gary’s. People in Chicumbane seemed pretty nice as a whole, even when they couldn’t remember your name. We also met our volunteer’s friend who goes by Big (named for his size and his reputation). He worked at the local rural hospital educating people about health topics such as nutrition and childcare. Big even gave us a tour of the hospital on the last day we were there.
One morning in Chicumbane our volunteer decided it would be good for us to control a national exam. He even told the director of the school that we wanted to control an exam each for ourselves but luckily the director thought it was better for us to be with one other Mozambican teacher. I was happy when I found out it was an art exam because the student’s can’t make cabulas (cheat sheets). Although it was art and the questions were fairly straightforward, a lot of the students felt the need to look at other student’s exams. I did my best to look intimidating, walk up and down the isles, and tell kids to look on their own papers.
What else do I have to say? There is less than 2 weeks of training left and they will pass by very quickly I’m sure. We find out site placements tomorrow (it took me a couple days to write this blog entry…). I am excited but it is a little intimidating to think that everything will change again, right when I was getting used to things. I think I’m becoming slightly more comfortable with Portuguese and the volunteers from previous groups say that going to site makes you learn much faster. I have also become much more comfortable with giving chemistry lessons - these few lessons in model school prepared us well for what is to come.
I will try to write again soon! I’m curious to hear how people are doing in the states and I still haven’t gotten any snail mails (besides my big package from Mom). Até logo!

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