cOOKing tErMitES

Here are few pictures from the brief time I was at site. The rains bring waves of winged termites out at night - they coordinate their leaving from the nest and dispersal to minimize getting eaten by predators (like hatching sea turtles). A couple posts ago I said I was too lazy to catch them and eat them, but I think really it was more nervousness about eating them in large quantities. I can eat one bug - but can I eat a handful of them? Turns out I really like them... like potato chips. Just another lesson taught to me in the Peace Corps experience: how your perception about something can be skewed simply because of your culture. My culture tells me we don't eat bugs (except snails, which I think is 1000x more disgusting). But why not eat bugs (I think there is a recent TED talk with the same title)?

The pictures of the kids are my friend Caetano's family. It's going to be so awesome when they grow up and see themselves in the lineup picture - they are like the little rascals.

There's also my dog, Shumba (or Chumba, as some people have started spelling it, depending on if you want his name to mean "Lion" in Shona or "he fails" in Portuguese) who is much too small for his puppy bed but decided to curl up in it the other day nonetheless.

Journal Entry 15 December

I woke up and the room was totally dark and silent. It was like being in a sensory deprivation chamber. Half awake, I laid there for a while, trying to figure out where I was. I was definitely in Mozambique: many times I have had the same disorienting feeling and my gut reaction is that I'm still a PCV in Africa. A couple weeks ago I had woken up with this feeling and I had figured out I was in Maputo, Mozambique, in the house of a friend who works in the U.S. Embassy. About a week later I had woken up and figured out that I was in Nicoadala, Mozambique, about 800 km to the north, underneath a mosquito net which was a crucial barrier between me and the multitude of bugs which had plagued the small town in the recent rainy days.

But now I was confused again, in the dark, and the answer wasn't coming to me. Somehow, suddenly, the light turned on, and I was instantly reminded that I was back “home” in Sussundenga, Mozambique, in my bed after a long vacation. I didn't understand how the light came back on by itself and, remembering Chris's story of how the electricity surged and made the light bulbs pop, I closed my eyes expecting a shower of shattered glass. The bulb didn't go out, however, and then I remembered I had fallen asleep with the light on and the electricity must have gone off and on.

My fan had fallen over and was on the floor in the off-position, which was strange because it had been on the dresser in the on-position when I had went to sleep. Maybe someone had placed it there? I looked around my room and beside me on the bed, but I was obviously alone. (The scene from “Ernest does Halloween” where the little girl checks under the bed for monsters and then rolls back onto bed only to find the monster lying next to her still haunts me.) The only explanation I can think of is that the fan lost balance when the power went out and fell without me waking up. I'm a pretty light sleeper though, so I'll file this mystery under “unsolved”.

I opened my door to go outside to take a whiz and found a thousand termite wings on my porch. The termites had been attracted to the porch light and, after flying around for a couple hours, dropped their wings and went to copulate and create a new colony, that is unless they were eaten by my dog first. (I'm too lazy to collect them in huge quantities but I eat them too – they are great slightly cooked with a bit of salt...) There was a thunderstorm in the distance and the familiar landscape in front of my house was periodically illuminated by a flash of lightning. I did my business and went back inside. I turned off the light but then got startled when I bumped the door and it creaked a bit. I calmed myself down and reminded myself that a side-effect of the malaria medicine is anxiety, which I notice most in the middle of the night.

After one year of being in site, I now consider this my home. I'm use to my house and being alone and dealing with the bugs and the dirt. But having been away from site for a while makes it feel alien again, almost like I just came to Mozambique. The “model” peace corps volunteer is happy to return to site, and although I am, in the big picture, personally, it doesn't feel quite right to wake up anywhere in Mozambique.

Epic Vacation (pics)

Epic Vacation -- with details

Here is a summary of what I did:

1) Mom arrives in Sussundenga, day-trip to Mount Zembe.
After talking to the Chefe of the Administrative Post, driving to the Queen of Zembe's house and picking up her and her sister, then participating in a ceremony to appease the spirits of Mount Zembe, we were able to climb the mountain.

2) Rio Sevani, Vonnie and my b-day.
After buying several flats of beer and a bunch of food we headed to the closest beach in our region, Rio Sevani. We were all done with classes at this point, so many of us were glad to sit on a beach, drink a beer or many, and unwind. One night after drinking a bit my friends came into my parent's bungalow and met them for the first time. I walked outside with my mom who turns to me and says "this would be a good sobriety test!"

3) Go to Gorongosa park with the parents.
My Mom, George, and I spent two nights in Gorongosa National park, one of the few places that still has wildlife in Mozambique after the civil war. Many of the animals were killed by hungry soldiers. Some of the elephants were alive during the war and are now terrified by humans. The biodiversity is low, however the population of some species (waterbuck, impala, warthog, and baboon) is bouncing back quickly.

4) Pick up Andrew, stay at Barra for two nights, Ocean Safari swim with whale-shark.
Barra is a great place to stay if you're not tight on money. We went on an "ocean safari" which means you drive around in a boat with snorkel and fins on waiting to see some animal in the water. The guides are pretty good at spotting them, and this time we were able to see a whale shark (largest fish in the world, this one was about 15 ft long) and swam next to it for a good while as it lazily fed on plankton. I can check the achievement off the list of "things to do before I die", however I'm still eager to swim with an even larger one...

5) Drop off Andrew at Jon's site, spend two nights in Kruger Park with my parents.
Spent two nights in Kruger with the rents. Kruger National Park in South Africa is the best park around and I highly recommend it. It has pretty much everything - from crocodile to wild dog, as well as the Big 5. We managed to see 4 of them: elephant, lion, rhino, and cape buffalo, but not leopard.

6) I part with my parents, spend one strange night in Maputo with some expats I meet.
Anyone alone in Maputo should get a room at Fatima's backpackers place. You can instantly find some interesting people to talk to.

7) I meet Jon and we go to Tofo for one night and cut a rug at a discoteca.
We also went to a super nice hotel in Barra called Flamingo Bay and had lunch there / swam in the pool. It makes me want to get married just so I can have my honeymoon there. Before hittin the dance floor Jon and I also talked about a plethora of topics, from the complex race issues in South Africa to female anatomy.

8) Jon and I return to his site. We drink lots of soura (coconut wine) and watch Star Wars.
OoO-tee-Nee!

9) Jon and I meet Mike in Maxixe, head south to Scooter and Ann's site.

10) We all head to Bilene, close to Xai-Xai, for the trainees' “site visit”. It was more partying than anything else.
The moz 15ers actually wanted to have more of a mellow weekend, I found out later. It was a strange way to meet the new volunteers (us trying to get everyone buck-wild), but I'm sure I made a good impression.

11) I go to the last week of training for the new volunteers. Work hard and play hard.
I was glad to help out in training as an Education volunteer with Vonnie, Sam, and Gabe. We managed not to screw up the diversity session (or the "Identity Formation" session, as we called it).

12) Spend a couple nights in Maputo and appreciate great food, music videos, and the hilarious family of a man who works for USAID.

13) Sam, Vonnie, Mike, and I go to Ponta do Ouro for some nar shredding, rockin out, and braying.
In English that would be surfing (I stood up!), dancing, and grilling. Ponto do Ouro is like South Africa's Nogales (it's in Mexico) and there were a lot of South African college students who were there on holiday. I also learned how to say "ice" if you are from South Africa (it really sounds like "ass" and I had to ask about 10 times).

14) I fly to Nampula, in the north. I spend a nervous night at a hotel waiting for seven of my friends who were on a bus from Beira. They end up spending the night on the road which made their bus-trip a total of 26 hours.
I got in a huge argument with the guy at the front desk when I found out my friends weren't coming and he wanted me to pay for all three rooms I had reserved. In my broken Portuguese, I say some things that I probably shouldn't have.

15) We all go to Mozambique Island for Brian's birthday party. We “roast” him on the night of his birthday which means we make him sit in a stool in front of everyone else and make fun of him until he cries like a baby.
That pretty much explains it.

16) Vonnie, Brennan and I return to central region. We barely make it when we get chased out of a small town by the residents holding pitchforks and torches (kidding!).
But we did get kicked out of a restaurant for refusing to pay 150 MTs for a plate of eggs, potatoes, and lettuce. I mean, come on, that's just ridiculous!

Journal Entry October 21 (before school ended)

I have got just about everything graded for the year. The feeling is bittersweet, maybe more bitter than sweet (at least I can leave in a couple days and start my awesomely huge adventure in Mozambique). When I calculated the passing rate for my chemistry turmas this trimester I was... ashamed and angry. Turma C had a 6% passing rate. Turma A, my best class, had 48% and Turma B had 17%. At least when my pedagogical directors say something to me about the low passing rate in Turma C I can point to Turma A and say that at least when students study they can pass my class. There are a lot of reasons they didn't do well – it was kind of a perfect storm for failure. One reason is that I am totally new to teaching and I have no training. I make mistakes, I forget to cover material, I don't repeat some things enough. I probably don't realize most of what I do wrong.

Another reason is that my style of teaching is totally different from what they are used to. It is difficult to explain, but I am less concerned with what the right answer is and more concerned with why it is the right answer. In order to remember something you can use logic to figure it out. For example, here is a question on my ACP: “Which of these does not have an effect on the speed of a reaction? A) concentration B) conductibility C) surface area D) catalysts E) temperature.” The student can get the answer right if he memorized the list that should be in his notes, or he can remember why it is that each factor effects the speed of the reaction. In this way, if a student is good at memorizing they can do well in my class, but if he actually listens and internalizes what I say it should be easier. At least that's the idea. I have a feeling getting these students to respond correctly also depends heavily on the way you word the question. If you ask the same thing over and over they will eventually get it. However if you change it a bit they will get lost. But I refuse to ask them questions so well practiced they can regurgitate the answer. If they can't recognize a concept from a slightly different perspective that means they haven't learned it.

Another frustrating cause of the perfect storm of failure is that most of my students don't respect me in the way they do their Mozambican teachers. In a way, I can't blame them. After all, what would I have done my freshman year of high school if a young, foreign teacher came into my classroom the first day of class, hardly spoke English, and taught in a way different from my other teachers? I probably would've torn them apart. The last point is probably the most important. I teach so differently than their other teachers I have no doubt some students believe I don't know how to teach at all. In Turma C I was essentially a year-long substitute teacher. I'm just a weird mezungu (white person) who doesn't know the first thing about teaching.

It's interesting to think about why I wanted to teach in Mozambique from the start. I wanted to show that class could be interesting, and I wanted to show my students that questions could be based on logic rather than memorization. I wanted my students to think for themselves. Today I have the same hopes but I know they are so difficult they are largely unattainable. It is more complex than I had imagined. I can't just do things “my way” simply because I am the teacher. I am teaching Mozambican students, which means to some extent I have to do things “their way”. After years and years of the students being taught to regurgitate answers and copy, you can't expect to go into a class and ask a question which requires critical thinking. Well, you can, but they won't know it. I wanted to teach students to think by themselves, but, to be brutally honest, I think the school system is doing the exact opposite. I still think it's possible to work on critical thinking skills with students, but I don't know how. Worse, I want to do it without teaching for the top 10% of the class because the others simply do not have the mental tools.

back at site! (almost)

Wow... I've been falling way behind on this. For the past month and a half I've been on holiday. School doesn't start again until mid January so I traveled a lot: six out of the nine provinces, six different beaches, three late nights in discotecas, one bad surf rash, and a really nice tan :) I can also check something off my list of "things to do before I die" which is swimming with a whale shark!

I will post a summary of my vacation soon, along with pictures. Right now I'm ready to go back home to good ol' Sussundenga and see my friends and my dog. I still have about a month before I have to work again so I'm planning on just chillin at site - talking with people, reading, and passear-ing (walking around). I'm sure I'll have some sort of adventure or fun story to tell soon.