I might as well put this in my blog too.

Hi everyone, Im sorry it has taken me this long to give you all an update. For those of you who have emailed me but not gotten responses I am sorry, I have read the email but I havent responded yet because Sussendenga does not have internet and internet on phone is very slow!

So as you probably know I am done with training and now I am living in Sussendenga, province of Manica. Sussendenga is about a 40 minute drive south of the fifth largest city in Mozambique, Chimoio. In Chimoio I can pretty much find anything I need, granted with a bit of trouble, such as appliances, internet, and food. The drive to Suss is gorgeous but the road is dirt so its a bit of a bumpy ride. On the way to Suss you pass mount Zembe, which I hope to climb one day.

Suss is a small town, I tried asking how many people live there and I didnt really get any responses. Maybe 7000? I really have no idea. There is one secondary school, I think 3 primary schools or more, a big market and a couple smaller ones, churches, mosques, a police station (which is not a good place to go I found out), a hospital, and beautiful scenery. I put a bunch of pictures on my blog so be sure to check them out. As far as jobs go, I believe most people farm.

So what are my living arrangements like... when I came to Suss I didnt have much because the volunteer here before me decided she needed some extra money before returning to the states and sold almost everything in the house. I do have electricity, although it fluctuates and sometimes goes out for brief periods, on the whole its pretty good though. I do not have running water but there is a faucet next door at my neighbors house which I can get water from in the mornings - I fill up 2 big jugs and that lasts me for the day. My house is relatively nice, concrete, and has a ceramic roof, not tin, which means it doesnt get screaming hot in the middle of the day. My house is three rooms, bedroom, living room (with a table!) and a kitchen that is seperate (you have to go outside on the porch to enter). There is also a bathhouse in the back and a latrine, which is pretty much a hole in the ground.

So some people have questions which ill try to answer now. How far along are you integrating into the community? I have met many people in Sussendenga mostly including students and teachers. Sussendenga has had volunteers since Moz 4 (I am Moz 14) so many people are familiar with Peace Corps. A couple of my friends were friends with the previous volunteers. One friend has a niece named after the previous volunteer, Alyssa. I hope to meet more teachers and friends once the school year starts, since now things are a little slow. I try to get out of the house a lot (sometimes finding the motivation can be difficult) to go to the market, meet with a friend, or walk around. I still havent gone to any bars so that is something to look forward to... The past couple nights I have been watching BBCs Planet Earth (thanks, Mom) with my friend Caetano´s family and my friend/helper/empregado Christopher (who speaks a good deal of English and is very helpful). Last night I counted 7 kids on the floor and two uncles, all intently watching the wildlife documentary. For many of them it was their first time seeing animals such as whales and bears.

Are there any other Americans around? Are you the only caucasian in Suss? No. Yes, its been an interesting experience.

Whats the weather like? Right now its summer since Moz is in the southern hemisphere, which means its very hot mid day and occasionally it rains.

Why did the previous volunteer terminate? Not because she didnt like the site she said. I hear from a lot of volunteers that Suss is a fantastic site. She left early to prepare for grad school and she also mentioned that she had some family matters to attend to. Why she decided to sell the stuff at the house (apparently while knowing that a volunteer would replace her in Moz 14) is anyones guess. I still might write her an email about it.

When do you start teaching? What are you teaching? January 15th. I believe 9th grade chemistry.

Are you ready to teach? What about your portuguese? My portuguese is certainly improving and since moving to site I think I have already made strides. However it is still very limited and sometimes the thought of teaching students full time is daunting. After a couple practice lessons in training I felt a little more comfortable. One thing that helps is that I can go very very slow and even then the students may not keep up. Many kids have trouble with chemistry because they havent learned skills in other classes such as math. The troubles stack up on each other - if a kid doesnt know how to multiply or divide, even simple numbers, how can you expect him/her to calculate density or molar mass? Recognizing these problems however can allow me to go back and teach what the kids really need, whether it is adding, multiplying, or chemistry from previous years.

Do kids have to go to school by law? Does the government enforce this? Yes, kids are supposed to go to school however I do not think its enforced. Many kids skip class and I hear that the later the class is in the day the less kids attend. This same principle occurs with teachers as well, although I do not know for the school in Suss.

What is the grading system like? Students recieve 0 to 20 in a class and 10 is passing. The process to determine if a kid passed the grade is labyrinthine. Generally, however, if a kid failed a single class he cannot pass the grade. This is bad news for my friend Caetano who passed every class in 10th grade last year except math so he still has to take all of the same classes again. I wasnt positive about every word when he explained it to me but I asked him if he had to take the all same classes over again and he said yes. The inexperienced teaching, insanely hard tests, and complicated grading system can mean some students retake the same grade many times. Caetano will be 20 and still in 10th grade next year.

What will your class size be? Dont know yet, could be anywhere from 40-70. I have heard of classes as large as 90-100 in Nampula province.

How will you teach? Do you have any flexibility in your teaching style? I am excited to teach in a way that will interest the students and engage them. Many teachers do not do demos or experiments and there are no resources for lab (or books... cant really blame the moz government for not spending enough money in education when the country is poor and they dont have things like a bridge over the zambezi river where the main highway crosses so there is still a ferry supposedly until next year). So I plan on doing demos whenever I can and relating everything to real life. It can be hard though with so little resources. In Namaacha I did the experiement with baking soda and vinagre and showed how it could fill up a balloon and the kids LOVED it. I also plan on giving the kids a lot of practice problems which both helps with the class material and improves critical thinking skills. I also have ideas for the school, mainly a giant timeline (perhaps running down the main road in Suss) and a tree of life (could these things be combined?).

I hope this answered a lot of questions and satisfied at least a bit of curiosity for everyone back home... I wish you could all come visit! Keep up the emails and thank you for your interest.

Meu sito: Sussendenga

View from the top of a hill of most of the town. Mount Zembe is in the background.

The view behind my house, with a casa de banho and a failed chicken coop secondary project.

One day we decided to climb this hill

This is the main street, at the bussiest Ive ever seen it.

My house with my new friends Christopher and Caetano.