tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27974051068492178292024-02-19T07:58:17.814-08:00Fantastic VoyageDov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-64822521572511312742012-04-05T10:46:00.002-07:002012-04-05T10:50:22.947-07:00Letter to Paul Gilding, author of "The Great Disruption" (and response)Hello Mr. Gilding,<br /><br />Last week I watched your TED talk online and immediately bought The Great Disruption. It had a huge impact on the way I think and the choices I make in the future. I am currently waiting to enter graduate school at Yale for a PhD in neuroscience, however after reading your book, environmentalism and Sustainability (with a big “S”) will always be on my mind. I am not even sure anymore that neuroscience is the best choice for me!<br /><br />The claim in your book – that we are now hitting the limits of both the planet’s resources and its capacity to absorb our impact – was shocking to me for multiple reasons. I was shocked by the prescience and content of the claim. The truth tightened its grip on my reality. I was also shocked to learn that I was unaware of the scope of resource depletion on a global scale until seeing your talk. I generally pay attention to current events and I am a popular science buff. I was sympathetic to environmentalism, however I was never swept up by the wave of the green movement because its message of “saving the planet” and staying healthy was too fuzzy for me. I was aware of the Sixth Extinction, but adopted a defeatist attitude because no one was taking the necessary steps to tackle climate change.<br /><br />Your book is important to me because it recognizes the peril of human welfare as well as provides a new angle for environmentalism. As you said, we are not trying to protect the environment anymore, we are trying to save ourselves. At this point I believe they are the same thing!<br /><br />So here’s my point. The fact that I had not heard of The Great Disruption’s claim suggests that there are many others who are also in the dark about this topic (in other words, it’s not just denial – it’s lack of information and discussion). While I was reading the book I felt like my mind was swarming with ideas, mainly to get the word out. I believe we (the environmentalists) can create a powerful campaign to reignite environmentalism, this time as a human rights issue and with the simple but crucial objective of saving civilization.<br /><br />I believe the message of environmentalism can be clearer and louder. One way we can do this is by creating a short (30 min) film which grabs attention and gives people a clear reason why climate change and resource depletion is important to them. While I was reading your book the Kony 2012 video went viral and I started wondering why your message couldn’t have a film which evoked the same kind of response. After all, preventing more climate change will undoubtedly prevent more hunger, refugees, wars, and atrocities than putting one man in jail will. So one could argue this cause is much more important. Of course there are some things which impede this idea from spreading like Kony 2012 did:<br />1. The “enemy” is not a person or group. This can be ameliorated by giving what we are fighting against a name (I like to call it Collapse – part of me feels like this name exaggerates the issue but in reality if we continue blindly over the edge it could very well mean the end of civilization).<br />2. It is relatively difficult for the public to understand. The first instinct of environmentalists and scientists is to try to explain to the public with a lot of information, but this drives people away and makes them less curious, especially in a video. Perhaps we can use simple analogies to explain what is happening in the world. The trick is to explain with the smallest number of words. I was trying to think of some analogies… like an ant farm running out of food (surely there are better analogies). Although you mentioned Jared Diamond in your book, I was surprised you didn't discuss Easter Island since it is a clear example of civilization collapse due to finite resources.<br />3. Explanations of resource limits and environmental impact generally lack deep emotion. An anti-collapse video could show scenes from the developing world: women waiting in line for hours to get a jug of water for their family in places such as Mozambique or the Punjab region of India. If this kind of footage were shown along with the statement “climate change is speeding up aquifer depletion”, it would make a lasting impact in people’s hearts and minds and motivate them to learn more, spread the word, and make changes in their own lives.<br />4. It is relatively abstract because it tries to prevent something in the future, not something that is happening now. If fully understood, the public would treat your claim as if an asteroid were heading towards Earth. People continue to avoid the conclusion by invoking technology (I believe the people whom you call the techno-optimists).<br /><br />As I write this, I am comparing the Story of Stuff video to Kony 2012, two videos meant to spread awareness on an issue (however the latter got over 75 million views in less than a week). Story of Stuff is chalk-full of information, but doesn’t grab attention. There is a constant stream of information, no real emotion, and personally I felt patronized by the speaker. Comparatively, Kony 2012 looks great, tugs on the strings of emotion, and the crowds of people make you feel like you are in a community by supporting their cause. I feel like I am way out of my league here, both within environmentalism and marketing, but I am writing this because I think it would be worth looking into how to better spread the message. Maybe an advertising company would be the best option?!<br /><br />Another aspect of the Kony 2012 video which I believe gave it so much success was the emotion of hope and change (the Obama 2008 campaign too!). I think Story of Stuff did little to harness that energy, and your talk and book started to but it can be made much more powerful through imagery. This should be easy to show because of all the reasons you stated – healthier people and a less polluted planet, more emphasis on communities and less on consumerism. Also, people obviously won’t change their behavior if they think the situation is hopeless. So you can show them what they can do.<br /><br />Besides a video, I believe an online portal is necessary for environmentalism. Because of its massive size, it is difficult to navigate the world of environmentalism on the web. There are so many aspects of environmentalism, from water quality to climate change, and the plethora of associated websites, it becomes overwhelming and anyone new to the subject doesn’t know where to start (or what is most important).<br />At the least, for the sake of spreading awareness, there should be a portal for The Great Disruption. This website would have an introduction to the ideas in your book, as well as links to:<br />1. Climate Change reports for those still unconvinced<br />2. Sites which monitor global resources like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment<br />3. Sites which monitor human impact like the Global Footprint Network<br />4. Sites which describe actions you can take to fight collapse such as freecycling and carrotmobbing.<br />5. Who are the “bad guys”? Organizations such as anti-climate change groups and ExxonMobil.<br /><br />As you can probably tell, your book instilled a lot of excitement in me and if for no other reason I wanted to express my gratitude through this email. I really do want to spread the word about The Great Disruption. I am planning on sending an email to Paul Krugman, an American economist, and Nichlas D. Kristof, an American journalist, both of whom are New York Times op-ed columnists and advocates of human rights. Hopefully they will choose to write more about resource depletion and environmental impact because it is both an economic and human rights issue.<br /><br />I would love to hear your thoughts about a possible Great Disruption video, a website, and ways to spread the word in general. I have some other questions and ideas as well if you are able to answer them.<br /><br />Thank you for your time and for writing an incredibly powerful book,<br /><br />David “Dov” Salkoff<br /><br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Dov<br /><br />Wow, thanks for going to so much effort to get your ideas down in such detail!<br /><br />There is great richness and insight in your thinking, so firstly let me encourage you to pursue this direction. I think you could make a very significant contribution to these issues.<br /><br />With respect to the video/website ideas, I think again these are great. While many have suggested this and I certainly agree re the need and the benefit of having them, I have chosen a path for myself of being a single operator, with no organisation. My focus is on doing what I do best - the writing and speaking. The frustration in this is the loss of leverage, the great thing is that after a life time of building and running organisations, I can now focus on thinking and communicating and as a result do that better.<br /><br />So, the short answer, I'd love someone or a group of people to do a video/website etc on the great disruption and would happily and enthusiastically endorse their efforts, but right now this is not my focus (again, not because it's not important or useful, but because of my capacity and focus). My job is to trigger people like you to act, not to do all the acting.<br /><br />But I love your thinking and approach, so if you have the energy and enthusiasm for it, then go wild!<br /><br />Kind regards<br /><br />PaulDov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-36875468315639112062012-04-05T10:24:00.002-07:002012-04-05T10:27:47.776-07:00This Chapter of the Journey has EndedWell, I'm back in the states now. I traveled a bit in Tanzania with Kendra and Ann before arriving home on the 28th of November. As you can see I got very lazy about posting. Some day I will make a final post about what it's like to be back.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-62890251603628044932011-07-12T07:49:00.000-07:002011-07-12T08:05:53.823-07:00Provincial Science FairWe had the provincial science fair last Saturday. There were 7 schools and 18 participants... not as many as I wanted but overall it was successful. Most important, I think the kids really liked it.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNAlL6x3LcxFaMnv2rf9bPSFvgciMiR8BURZcyIKJJBczA6A1cPXob_WNZPicrp2zUvZEGLwLqTaJ29-YMb9gRI6eI6Bxj8EWgdJzYnwOFEYdEVF-JVGg1PzMDMtSn6aP4i7M7Yh-NpU5/s1600/1.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNAlL6x3LcxFaMnv2rf9bPSFvgciMiR8BURZcyIKJJBczA6A1cPXob_WNZPicrp2zUvZEGLwLqTaJ29-YMb9gRI6eI6Bxj8EWgdJzYnwOFEYdEVF-JVGg1PzMDMtSn6aP4i7M7Yh-NpU5/s320/1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628479345024275794" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzVfvOeGqPP2fg1MGxf7vTVW4BHvr2Z9OdXqBbqXl_UWNO_0gSRn4Pf-FzZLJ6YurJL_XZMpVq_CFUoXSsmo8eWoWi_3PINWl7xIdWKmuFpU4fWI-KPvVtGisgzUUeOz8M9LeO-92oT25e/s1600/2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; 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margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDrOvvnWfOX-l6F4_4qNMnF1CR6KDBNobZ-GYChDWGAWz30_nsSUFxwCJhzSqD21XI5hEN8ciVZhN9lUAOg27MQMTJZ2G7EkeLq6PwHt5UuLBtOZbHW1m9fyHLkPMjKfw6-XcXU3p6mUp/s320/12.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628478511531520018" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-51103052941334869882011-05-20T07:16:00.000-07:002011-05-20T07:31:25.885-07:00More pics from site1) Children dancing on Mozambican Woman's Day<br />2) My friend Caetano, on a visit to his mom's house<br />3) Cae's mom making xima (corn meal)<br />4) Cae's mom and view of her compound<br />5) Cae's step-dad who goes by "soup-soup"<br />6) The pot was made by Cae's aunt<br />7) I don't know what we are doing<br />8) I'm eating a banana<br />9) Some friends in front of my house<br />10 and 11) JOMA (youths for change and action) meeting with a trainer from Chimoio<br />12) My JOMA counterpart and friend, Nelson<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NYHydMW6m4v8gsOH_x3wyJ-LjSeJ3krG-xV6UnUs-4ICFNbhOHTFibzOBRUmY2-n-vLLrJ5uRQzcEWOPnh4pzjiuo3ckSZLG81YJM5oMiVNlcDA6YDrqtMVIL0McOsVShpdCb7SpNANk/s1600/IMG_8588+edit.jpg"><img style="display:block; 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margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL_wqdRr9gAmbIpRli21-apjh1fMtvhhnO4ehtLDF6QRy6FARdlbAxR_7JuD2lnYZxMGIVOWfyJQD-XHjxJA4XFhwZ9W4TPipEWRlprUhxk_vvlT3kXg7YnoTUlSlLFNCA_Ey-ndhBBJS9/s320/IMG_8758.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608803869622254194" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6jitiixuTsOxdXs2RyLqs2iN2N21yfm6HFcUQNy-gbbQciuRmWQlb0jphoU7nseGXrS5gzRFvfucc1YO9Gpg4lqRwIa6zvT0321RvYVod2IETrhzMtwfHUl9jUhVyTocstdzxhi4zBrt/s1600/IMG_8778.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6jitiixuTsOxdXs2RyLqs2iN2N21yfm6HFcUQNy-gbbQciuRmWQlb0jphoU7nseGXrS5gzRFvfucc1YO9Gpg4lqRwIa6zvT0321RvYVod2IETrhzMtwfHUl9jUhVyTocstdzxhi4zBrt/s320/IMG_8778.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608803863887501170" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-49202394174844320692011-04-16T08:58:00.001-07:002011-04-16T09:05:28.523-07:00Mount Binga<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkdK7EOQt2v3lcO2cH-3vHqv0_fbwUt6XeQ_k20OuHzELNSLnTk_B6bLq8hPBPy9e_8kDsEVRdRpm0T_x7JbzMxnWDRmXOStULhGXe4jyV4DUeSlDVHvWJOIrAqO0SP8WgnU3pFAeja3t1/s1600/binga2.JPG"><img style="display:block; 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margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIFv-uiSrMevZAaoJUQ8ikz2td1pvcMV1uvqFbUnySvFIoS2_ZgeVaAWlHsVehdAjpQBGyWOzLmYZBCUMr6rCL-L9Jo23fmgR7m6IPttB1tpzYBeWgMHOWdKJKVzEMt0FKcGNRpvQhqsHa/s320/binga18.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5596211703115137394" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-49318536138008108322011-04-08T04:49:00.000-07:002011-04-08T04:56:39.010-07:00Journal Entry April 6While we were hiking Mount Binga (pictures soon) I had and interesting discussion with J about development and aid. I forgot how we got on the topic – at one point she mentioned Jeffrey Sachs and when I said I liked reading his articles she was alarmed. His perspective, if I understood right (I know close to nothing on foreign aid), was that all underdeveloped countries and communities need is for us to pump money and effort into them. If you put in enough money eventually the people will bring themselves up. At least that is the idea. However, J argued, this does nothing to build the capacity of the people. If you give people new homes and schools and wells so people can get clean water that may be good in the short term. It may save lives. But if you come back 10 years later the community will look the same. There won’t be any new wells because no one can pay for it or knows how to dig one.<br /><br /> J’s view was that change must come from within the community. I played devil’s advocate and asked her to propose a project to develop a community if she were in charge. First she described the importance of assessment – not just a survey of HIV prevalence or literacy rates but an in-depth, multi-dimensional assessment of the level of development of a community which you could use to measure the community’s progress, understand inter-relations of different problems, and use to encourage inter-community rivalry and progress. This might take a couple years but it’s still an important step. The problem is that no sponsor wants to fund a 2 year foreign aid project that can’t claim to save a single life.<br /><br /> The next step is for the people of the community to elect a council. I missed the details of it (damn ADD I was probably distracted by some ant behavior I had never seen before) but basically the people need a place and organized meetings to report a problem. Example: is it difficult for the people on one side of town to get water? The council can add this problem to the list, decide to build a well on that side of town, and devise a plan to acquire money to do it. If this requires everyone in the community giving a little bit of money per week or giving up one chicken, apparently people are willing to do it. I imagine the council could deal with more abstract problems as well, such as giving a presentation or having a meeting to discuss domestic violence. That’s the just of the idea. However again, no one wants to fund this kind of project because when you compare the numbers it looks like an ineffective strategy.<br /><br /> In Peace Corps, sustainability is the magic word. It’s all about applicability, thinking small and building people power. However sometimes it can be hard to put a number on that type of progress. This seems to contrast other foreign aid which revolves around numbers (the type of aid Jeffrey Sachs supports): how many mouths did you feed and how many lives did you save? That’s where the money comes from. People like to give money and think that they saved a life. They probably did, and I’m not completely against that kind of aid. But a crucial part of the solution to poverty and underdevelopment is building the capacity of the people.<br /><br /> I got excited today when I heard my JOMA counterpart, Nelson, talk to the kids in our journalism group. He was obviously inspired by the training-of-trainers conference last weekend (completely organized, and temporarily funded – until grant money came in - by PCVs). He reminded the students that the province of Manica doesn’t yet have a newspaper, and that one day they might become journalists. He planted the idea of giving talks in all the churches in town about issues such as gender equality and domestic violence. We also talked about how to fund the group – after the aid money stops flowing. Nelson’s new attitude is the type of progress I like to see because the change is coming from within. It would be impossible to measure. It also may seem like a small difference in a country crippled by poverty. However it’s all part of the bigger picture. Maybe the kids in my journalism group will help pave the way to more jobs or increase the transparency of the government.<br /><br /> I’ve thought a lot about the amount of difference Peace Corps makes. Overall it would be really hard to say because the effects may not be felt until many years down the road (perhaps when my favorite students become teachers?). It can’t be accurately measured or estimated, not even to the right magnitude, so I have to go off of what I believe to be true to justify me living and working here for 27 months. And in terms of building the capacity of the people… well there aren’t many programs like it. Some days are difficult, and often times I can be pessimistic, but in the end I truly believe it makes a big difference and will change the lives of people for the better. I’m glad to part of it. It’s just too bad the entire Peace Corps budget is smaller than that of the Army’s marching band.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-20864474812461428802011-03-25T00:35:00.000-07:002011-03-25T00:36:35.920-07:00Journal Entry March 22, 2011I solved a mystery this morning, unfortunately. I’ve been leaving site about every weekend and when I come back I notice something is changed with my house. The first couple times it was small – someone had moved the nail in my window, perhaps to look inside, for example. But two weekends ago I came back and the shelf in my room had been moved and the headlamp was disassembled and the batteries were on the floor. Since the grates had been closed, it meant that someone had reached through the window in my bedroom. I didn’t notice anything missing, but it still was strange and I don’t want anyone messing around my house or looking inside. So this last weekend, before I went to Mangunde, I moved everything away from the windows, locked the grate with two locks, and took a picture of my shelf to make a record of its position and the few remaining things on it.<br /> <br />Yesterday when I came back home I put my backpack and other things down and then walked up to the banca next to the school to get a quick breakfast. On the way I ran into Jemusse (my new empregado – employee - after Chris and Caetano – I need someone to cook lunch for me before noon and Caetano has classes in the morning) and asked how his weekend was. I complimented him on the job he did outside my house with the lawn and then as we parted I noticed he was wearing my sandals with the scorpions on them. I asked him about it later and he said he was sorry he didn’t ask. I asked him how he got the sandals and he said he had taken them before I left and he was going to clean them along with the clothes. I was a little confused, but didn’t think much of it for the rest of the day. Then as I was going to sleep I remembered I had taken the picture.<br /> <br />I woke up, still curious about whether the picture would reveal anything. Sure enough, in the bottom right corner of the picture was one of the sandals… which meant Jemusse had opened my window while I was gone and used a stick to fish them out. I decided to confront him about it first thing. I grabbed a chair from inside and told him to get the other in the kitchen.<br /> <br />I proceeded to tell him about how someone was messing around my house every weekend and that I decided to take a picture as a record. Then I showed him the picture.<br /> <br />“So do you want to change your story about how you got my shoes?” I wanted to give him one last chance, but I had made my mind up in the bathroom that if he lied again he was out.<br /> <br />“Maybe the picture was taken before?”<br /> <br />“No, Jemusse, I took the picture and locked the door.”<br /> <br />He pretty much repeated the same excuse. I was pissed. “I don’t like it when people lie, Jemusse. I know what you did, you know what you did. You need to speak the truth.” At this point I think he still didn’t get it. “How can I invite you now?” (I meant to say “trust” but said convidar instead of confiar. God damnit why do I still suck at Portuguese?).<br /> <br />“I’m sorry I won’t do it again. I was afraid.”<br /> <br />“Well now you’ve lied to me twice, and I’m not sure whether I still want you as an employee.” I told him to go home, he was done for the day. I was going to decide if he could still work for me and he could come back the next day to discuss. I didn’t know what else to do. I wanted to scare the shit out of him so he could get it in his head that lying isn’t OK. I’ll have a talk with him tomorrow about trust (now that I know to use the actual word in Portuguese) and having the courage to tell the truth. And if he does anything like that again he’s fired for good.<br /> <br />This is certainly not my first experience with kids lying to me. My students lied to me recklessly before, trying to redeem some points on their test, before I chewed them out for doing so. The ones I caught didn’t seem remorseful at all, in fact some of them laughed it off, which bothered me more than them actually trying to cheat in the first place. So I’m making it my goal to change Jemusse.<br /><br />As Jordan said to me earlier, I certainly didn’t foresee parenting my empregado in my Peace Corps job description.<br /><br />-------------<br /><br />I’ll mention science fair real quick. I offered to be the regional coordinator in central and the provincial coordinator for Manica… which is crazy because it feels like the most responsibility I’ve ever had. It’s not out of my league, just more than I’ve had. Erica (national coordinator) just sent some info about it and it’s a little overwhelming. I’ve looked over a lot of it but I’m still kind of processing –<br /><br /> I need to get organized and take notes on everything, including a calendar of when I need to get started working on some of the stuff. Some of the jobs include: inviting schools to the provincial fair in Chimoio, finding judges, inviting an organization to come do HIV tests and counseling, and setting up accommodations / meals for students and teachers.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-33481516908037488992010-12-29T01:50:00.000-08:002010-12-29T02:15:31.731-08:00cOOKing tErMitESHere 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)?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXuOWaL3Z84UC171_Kmljc4CRzJLo_TvKmpTYimB40AUJNUSshErQ1FKK3PlcwoWTxX6gCfiH5Mcn91rP67tL4CQk8TEkBtXocLxTLoFnoRCAnwsG9Auy5W-KDIYzz_DpcoJsYvtzWzeN/s1600/DSCF0003.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXuOWaL3Z84UC171_Kmljc4CRzJLo_TvKmpTYimB40AUJNUSshErQ1FKK3PlcwoWTxX6gCfiH5Mcn91rP67tL4CQk8TEkBtXocLxTLoFnoRCAnwsG9Auy5W-KDIYzz_DpcoJsYvtzWzeN/s320/DSCF0003.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556045629003925154" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lZaI6cYwxNVm1CBp7k8HcA-8tW79xLW9an-nXa5A9zpOcHnGY3a2kuaOp-G59C999BzleqhsqyUg4GSFlrD7MatFF8nDNjrVhufEXpyK65kYx9jL1JFex9mhexUm6_7sG3xx6vJeVTGr/s1600/DSCF0022.JPG"><img style="display:block; 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margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD8nTUbihoyg28FwLmzR7Zw7T5eKObRiRaactjCG8TnT2iBsID6gFfixuNRNuT3fuxxHN5YoqQedCGZvlilBOag6ULVMwR6amio4AqpJ9_Ya1rVrUmpaE3Hv2REdcnMKuE-XBg3cjmZK96/s320/IMG_8403.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556045403444793698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIlvP0QMlhjBsFWzSNrUoQ9kuzuqPByGaIM38uSt_UbzMRlKWLzHePKqcMYuvRyl1szudfhcHkgJjYEyHRjGpaOlTpxxLq67Vs0vx7gdBrk2q5oTlnPPUawStFWjf2Y1eqeSauu-C0ohGM/s1600/SHUMBA2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIlvP0QMlhjBsFWzSNrUoQ9kuzuqPByGaIM38uSt_UbzMRlKWLzHePKqcMYuvRyl1szudfhcHkgJjYEyHRjGpaOlTpxxLq67Vs0vx7gdBrk2q5oTlnPPUawStFWjf2Y1eqeSauu-C0ohGM/s320/SHUMBA2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556045399707464306" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-53870725095439757812010-12-29T01:46:00.000-08:002010-12-29T01:49:21.440-08:00Journal Entry 15 DecemberI 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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”.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-45417889921794958192010-12-28T02:30:00.001-08:002010-12-28T02:46:36.941-08:00Epic Vacation (pics)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrJtk_3UY8ineVWPIt6-O-ZaVfqUJ3nx0ETgq81JSn3jlRSRRyODlQKavHaeCB-ZbcbRyJ3hXSz4ZT76Bgn4mWLLz1JEgAQWEe8Lrm8w1qj-juqrsmELHyTh4Gqoee2StPtzSg-g_UqiK/s1600/IMG_8058.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrJtk_3UY8ineVWPIt6-O-ZaVfqUJ3nx0ETgq81JSn3jlRSRRyODlQKavHaeCB-ZbcbRyJ3hXSz4ZT76Bgn4mWLLz1JEgAQWEe8Lrm8w1qj-juqrsmELHyTh4Gqoee2StPtzSg-g_UqiK/s320/IMG_8058.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555682162129742402" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwssQok-psq8QudV0Xgv4WIyNNUqxCA2KgE2TTe5-c3-AbxEDPO1XN5KmgZdrhb8A47FyG6jGI95dLqf_V6hBNBjS7W4I2tkCrLVPs_pHi3OV7EOeboC0f_XEBohe8KB5Sto5IBSBhvur/s1600/IMG_8065.JPG"><img style="float:left; 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margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF4cl0qNtF3fBbRE9Pb-FGAl7cAzqYTufShY8y7IUmk1oqZg4-8iGLfURJQl1Phc4ONkfhywPHnq-c4pjK5GEk_YOh5RyN92AptK7fRiQahXkcCtnVrScAu7I4rwA_hovCnA3XI6xPFch/s320/IMG_8368.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555679662494608114" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7IK7rEnc7sq0hKUQoubo13TEbEgFqsSDZv8p2MVi86SFVF6xHT-IsIc03tVUeFnXMnUVSN_iTQvh7ZFjO12oI3YUk37AQIywrSXAzxj9zClfL_M8B-kLrfqGLrZxLv0sGrgKyPFMi2zI/s1600/IMG_8372.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7IK7rEnc7sq0hKUQoubo13TEbEgFqsSDZv8p2MVi86SFVF6xHT-IsIc03tVUeFnXMnUVSN_iTQvh7ZFjO12oI3YUk37AQIywrSXAzxj9zClfL_M8B-kLrfqGLrZxLv0sGrgKyPFMi2zI/s320/IMG_8372.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555679661385728658" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvHLe2RuZKB2S2nFpxOs4XPaOOcNDdLMOTYMpeUENKNlUYCJbrrEhPBi9FWm7qZ-9_1OoqdO3YXzpQjU3oHOFuBFrA7KJC9p6ZMFhlFFkhdVQOLDe-_m48dChL70nzTZDgAEH4S5HaBQxx/s1600/IMG_8380.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvHLe2RuZKB2S2nFpxOs4XPaOOcNDdLMOTYMpeUENKNlUYCJbrrEhPBi9FWm7qZ-9_1OoqdO3YXzpQjU3oHOFuBFrA7KJC9p6ZMFhlFFkhdVQOLDe-_m48dChL70nzTZDgAEH4S5HaBQxx/s320/IMG_8380.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555678843778285458" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-46581354538439375272010-12-28T02:20:00.001-08:002010-12-30T06:54:20.744-08:00Epic Vacation -- with detailsHere is a summary of what I did:<br /><br />1) Mom arrives in Sussundenga, day-trip to Mount Zembe.<br /> 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.<br /><br />2) Rio Sevani, Vonnie and my b-day.<br /> 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!"<br /><br />3) Go to Gorongosa park with the parents.<br /> 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.<br /><br />4) Pick up Andrew, stay at Barra for two nights, Ocean Safari swim with whale-shark.<br /> 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...<br /><br />5) Drop off Andrew at Jon's site, spend two nights in Kruger Park with my parents.<br /> 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.<br /><br />6) I part with my parents, spend one strange night in Maputo with some expats I meet.<br /> Anyone alone in Maputo should get a room at Fatima's backpackers place. You can instantly find some interesting people to talk to.<br /><br />7) I meet Jon and we go to Tofo for one night and cut a rug at a discoteca.<br /> 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.<br /><br />8) Jon and I return to his site. We drink lots of soura (coconut wine) and watch Star Wars.<br /> OoO-tee-Nee!<br /><br />9) Jon and I meet Mike in Maxixe, head south to Scooter and Ann's site.<br /><br />10) We all head to Bilene, close to Xai-Xai, for the trainees' “site visit”. It was more partying than anything else.<br /> 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.<br /><br />11) I go to the last week of training for the new volunteers. Work hard and play hard.<br /> 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).<br /><br />12) Spend a couple nights in Maputo and appreciate great food, music videos, and the hilarious family of a man who works for USAID.<br /><br />13) Sam, Vonnie, Mike, and I go to Ponta do Ouro for some nar shredding, rockin out, and braying.<br /> 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).<br /><br />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.<br /> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /> That pretty much explains it.<br /><br />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!).<br /> 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!Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-31792882528967844842010-12-28T02:14:00.000-08:002010-12-28T02:20:06.639-08:00Journal 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-16204440361143157242010-12-12T05:12:00.000-08:002010-12-12T05:26:04.120-08:00back 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!<br /><br />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.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-21422536698689215722010-09-21T15:01:00.000-07:002010-09-21T15:02:28.767-07:00Journal Entry September 21I just need to write about something that happened tonight. One of the chemistry teachers, Aman (sp?) came to my house about some university English homework. I invited him inside to work on it together but then I realized he wanted me to do the homework for him (there were several pages) and later he would pick it up and I would explain it to him (which means I would do it for him, and then when he comes to pick it up later he tells me he is busy and I’ll explain it to him “later”). So I asked him “isn’t it you’re work?” and then I offered to help him through it right then. I looked at the first page and it was tough - there were sentences using the conditional and subjunctive tenses which I still struggle through after nine months of being immersed in Portuguese. But I tried to help him as much as I could and we worked through several problems. It was difficult because the questions were way above his skill level and he was not confident enough in his English to try to construct the sentence by himself.<br /><br /> Before we even made it through the first page he asked me if my hired worker - Chris - knew English. “Yeah“, I said. “He’s from Zimbabwe“. So Aman calls Chris over to help him. Chris had been cooking dinner for me in the kitchen. I had an idea of where this was going so I left and continued cooking in the other room. About 5 minutes passed and Aman was already outside my house, on his way back home. “Yeah, I gave it to Chris and he’ll complete it. I’ll pick it up later and he can explain it to me. In the meantime I can work on spelling and how to write”.<br /> “OK” I said. “Boa noite”. I walked back into the kitchen to talk with Chris, who thanked me for continuing to cook dinner.<br /><br /> “Thank you” I said. “It looks like you have some new homework.” I explained to him that I won’t do other people’s work - I’m willing to help people as much as it takes to get the work done but I rarely have to because people usually give up before then. All they want is the answers, they don’t care about learning. “He’s just lazy”.<br /><br /> “Yeah, people here are lazy. He grew up copying and not doing his work and he‘ll continue to do the same thing. He won‘t change.” It was sad but true. Chris later told me he didn’t mind doing other people’s work because he would end up learning from it. “It’s their own loss. I get to learn from the work.” It seemed like an incredibly insightful thing to say from someone still in high school who had grown up in Zimbabwe and been living in Mozambique for two years. Granted the education system in Zimbabwe was a lot better (not sure about it now that Mugabe is really messing things up) but I still wouldn’t expect someone else in Chris’s place to view things so… lucidly. But Chris has a way of surprising me like that. He has his dull moments, but his sharp ones, too. After all, he did win the regional science fair ;)Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-4132207865872885112010-09-20T02:54:00.000-07:002010-09-20T02:57:04.248-07:00Journal Entry September 14...<br />School today… ugh. Before I even started class in Turma C it was a mess. They were all riled up because of some drawing homework that was passed back, and I told them to put it away, it was time for chemistry. Then they were complaining because I asked them to turn in homework but I hadn’t told them specifically the class before to do homework on a sheet of paper, even though I have said multiple times to do every homework on a sheet of paper (do it in your notebook, the default, essentially means don’t do it). Everyone was talking, so I told them to be quiet, and one dude said something right after I finished speaking so I kicked him out. Other students were yelling “leave, get out” and so I told them to be quiet and they were students and I am the teacher and they need to sit and listen and learn not tell other students to leave. I think I’m getting better at controlling class, though. I don’t know how, just experience I guess. And the realization that if I want something from them (or I don’t want something) I will have to explain exactly what it is. This could be as simple as not talking during practice problems. It’s bad enough that my classes are so different, but they also have the disadvantage of not being able to think for themselves.<br /><br /> Oh, then there was the thing about the date. I HATE it when students correct me on trivial Portuguese errors. I rue the day I told them it was okay to correct my Portuguese. I had written the date on the board – as is expected every class along with a summary – but had written September in English. The Portuguese word is 2 letters off, but still someone had to correct me… I told them they knew what month it was and we didn’t need to talk about it anymore. God damn, it’s boiling my blood just thinking about it. I don’t think they understand that class time is precious – we have 90 minutes a week. In normal life in Sussundenga though, time is anything but precious, so maybe I will have to explain it to them.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-53429473566162561222010-09-13T03:11:00.001-07:002010-09-13T06:12:56.383-07:00goats, puppies, and more pics1) My students and I at the regional science fair. Chris, in the top right, got first place for the older bracket.<br />2) A snake in my bathroom, before Chris bashed it with a big stick.<br />3,4) My puppy<br />5,6) Around the center of town. I don't remember if I already posted these pictures before. The center is a chapa stop where you go to catch a bus to Chimoio, the fifth biggest city in Mozambique and a (bumpy) hour away). The chapa stop is lined by bars, small stores called bancas, and a restaurant that almost never serves food.<br />7) Also at the center of town, the line of about 10 bancas. Most of them sell the same stuff: oil, matches, spaghetti, etc.<br />8) Inside one of the bancas<br />9) The largest "shop" in Suss. They got real dish soap!<br />10,11) At A Tribunal in Suss on a holiday I believe called A Concordanca de Victoria. It was the day the fighting with the Portuguese stopped and a treaty was signed in 1974.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNp7PNziFTBLsW4lBPM0Io1VrzSH-zCMIwLeyCJ7uhf3VL2nIHrPftac3el17_XSSDhymT-NQg5RTDASgbdR1YHbwwTvCgkEYEnOTt14T09S_2Mnwxg5SwrlUW3RYymx-qygSAAS7yfJJ_/s1600/IMG_7774.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNp7PNziFTBLsW4lBPM0Io1VrzSH-zCMIwLeyCJ7uhf3VL2nIHrPftac3el17_XSSDhymT-NQg5RTDASgbdR1YHbwwTvCgkEYEnOTt14T09S_2Mnwxg5SwrlUW3RYymx-qygSAAS7yfJJ_/s320/IMG_7774.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516338932637509170" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DVud1MV6ELt2SL4_ndbYfOwSgEoFGJ7464L_fEDYDHmsRI-83FWzX4lLffnlDThkVBvkoQ9vA6HUD5KisF0F8rYklXm4BkBupvvvS7WvJC95I38TcNOix265pnWmc-nKwkrMhfhrv6W6/s1600/IMG_7810.jpg"><img style="float:left; 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margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivkWV_qkk4qcAyqPxh38nisTrhIT76Pd5G07383z1Ge4u9RdJp3oE732-HMqkLm8oSo6FMOP5I-j50a5aVQEDJqlQ86y0wBu_wsS5ZdWD3hhnfFLejxycjEqnGPTuGzXZgOclS1HgWeLtu/s320/IMG_7882.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516339525381945474" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnrbpUxj8O7Cgg3bcTN_u9UzpI90NLWQ5er_2wPMDDz-QHVI3ZAglPjTe0MvazfMto8_I81RuFqdlDLL1B7PQsLNLiM6jkeYI9xbmg1z6oNXKQvOjViL7zfvAvsk4zR0DX13WwnjcxRMS/s1600/IMG_7854.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnrbpUxj8O7Cgg3bcTN_u9UzpI90NLWQ5er_2wPMDDz-QHVI3ZAglPjTe0MvazfMto8_I81RuFqdlDLL1B7PQsLNLiM6jkeYI9xbmg1z6oNXKQvOjViL7zfvAvsk4zR0DX13WwnjcxRMS/s320/IMG_7854.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516381332494718034" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-12857126543840444802010-09-02T12:57:00.000-07:002010-09-02T13:02:15.787-07:00August 2, 2010I still don’t have any classes on Thursday, or anything to do for that matter, so today was a slow day. However a couple things happened which made it interesting, which is why I’m writing about it at all.<br /><br /> The first fun thing that happened was this morning. I was in bed reading a National Geographic – from April and also the newest magazine I have – but was kind of falling asleep. However some voices in back of my house woke me up and I realized they were people I knew, on of them my good friends, right outside my window. I went to my backyard and saw four adults, three kids and a couple dogs standing around a goat which was tied up and looking frightened. It was goat killing time, and for some reason they chose to do it in my backyard. Was it bad that the first thing I thought to do was get my camera?<br /><br /> It was actually the first time I’ve seen a goat being killed and I was startled by the gruesomeness of it. They slit the throat and cracked the neck. There was a LOT of blood gushing out, which they saved in a pan of course to eat in some dish I’m not particularly keen to try. I was also surprised by the kids who were totally nonchalant about the event. The littlest, about four or five, was playing with a condom by blowing it up like a balloon. So that’s why I see so many condom wrappers on the ground…<br /><br /> The second thing that happened is, well, I bought a dog. I don’t know if it will end up being MY dog or just be a stray showing up at my house to be fed every once in a while. I’m hoping to train it, though; tricks like sit, come, maybe how to attack people, and if it gets big enough I could ride on its back to the market.<br /> It was never really my plan to buy a dog. I was talking to my whacky friend Tim Froh this afternoon on the phone. He was telling me about some crazy dude in the U.S. who kidnapped some people from Discovery Channel because he thought the company was promoting procreation and overpopulating the world. (Sometimes I’m glad I’ve been away from the states for so long – all that craziness and you’ll start to think it’s normal. But then again Moz has its fair share of craziness as well.) Anyway while I was talking on the phone I saw these really, really cute puppies that my neighbors have. There were 7 of them and they were all running around and fighting with each other. I could barely say goodbye to Tim because I was so infatuated with these little guys. I’m not even a “cute puppy” person, if that gives you any idea how cute this scene actually was.<br /><br /> So I kept telling Chris I wanted to buy a puppy until I decided to do it right then and there. I went to my neighbor’s house and asked if they were for sale – 50 meticais each which is $1.43 if the exchange rate is still 35 mets to the dollar. They had been born last week from a dog I’m pretty sure gave birth like four months ago. Those puppies might all be dead from starvation – I had seen them scrounging around my house for anything, even a little bit of tuna juice soaked into the dirt. That was one of the reasons I decided I wanted one of the puppies. Even if I fail to take care of it, it was probably going to die anyway. I said I’d take one and sat next to the furry convention before making my decision. My criteria were smartness, playfulness, and feistiness. Cuteness was not a factor under consideration because they were all adorable.<br /><br /> I took the rascal home (if you have a good name make a suggestion in the next couple days) and he cried in my kitchen for the next couple hours. After petting him a lot, trying to play with him, and offering him some rice and couve, which he didn’t eat, he was almost asleep. I put him back with his brothers and sisters and I’ll get him tomorrow morning. I’ll know which one it is because he’s got green permanent marker on his head.<br /><br /> Well this blog post is beginning to look like so many others on the internet which discuss the owner’s pets. I’ll end here.<br /><br />PS more pics on the way. I would have gone to Chimoio today to upload pics but we are on standfast, which means we can not leave our site because of the rioting in Maputo over increased prices. Don't worry, I'm in no trouble. The black mambas in my bathroom are infinitely more dangerous.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-76500577790645572372010-08-16T01:34:00.000-07:002010-08-16T02:30:02.700-07:00Vacation pics (Nampula + Cabo Delgado)1)My travel buddies, Rebecca, Bao, and Diana<br />2)Bao and I on the way to Ilha de Mocambique<br />3)Diana and I on Ilha de Mocambique<br />4)An old colonial-era church that is now a museum<br />5)Old town in Ilha has a lot of ruins from when the Portuguese were there<br />6) These kids were very happy to have a picture taken with whitey<br />7) Parts of Ilha are kind of creepy...<br />8) Creepy, continued<br />9) Entrance to the Forteleza Sao Sebastiao. The fort took 50-60 years to complete and is the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa<br />10) Church (?) in the fort<br />11) Fort from the sailboat, going to Chocas beach. Chocas was awesome but I don't have many good pics of it, still waiting for one of my travel buddies to post.<br />12) Our capitao manning the sail<br />13) On a boat to go snorkeling in Pemba<br />14) Sunset on Wimbi Beach, Pemba<br />15) After people went back home / to silly meetings I continued north, to the Arquipelago das Quirimbas. This is at Tandanhangue, waiting for a boat to take me to Ilha de Ibo<br />16) Ilha de Ibo is a strange place. It has even more of a deserted feeling than Ilha de Mocambique. Of course this is in stone town, and the other half of the island is more populated.<br />17) More of Ibo<br />18) From Ibo I chartered a boat with two other guys I met on my travels. We went to stopped at Ilha de Matemo for dinner and then on to Ilha de Rolas to spend the night<br />19) Passing by a sailboat<br />20) Me and one of our captains.<br />21) I had one reason to go to Ilha de Rolas: one purpose that drove me north of Pemba. And that purpose was to find the legendary coconut crab. We found a miniature version with the help of a guard on the island.<br />22) In the morning I had to check out the coral reef that the guard had told me about. I swam about 200m in the direction in back of me in the pic and found an awesome reef covered with coral and filled with different kinds of fish. The reef was right on a ridge that dropped off into the dark blue, so of course I decided to dive down into the deep to see what I could see. I almost regretted the idea when I saw a dark figure in the distance. I'm pretty sure it was a big, big shark.<br />23) Back on Ibo, this power house definitely doesn't supply energy to the island any more.<br />24) more deserted-looking pics on Ibo<br />25) etc.<br />26) Back at Russel's Place (awesome hostel) in Pemba where I ran into Vonney and Mike. This picture is right before I beat them 1 v 2 at smash ball... twice. Proudest moment in my life.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZd-a-l443yJWwotzgWJ2tMfFy5BvHr8DGCflZ9AINjYVZPnlQ-doPb8mc1xG6e0XnZmWRwXCiPLT6BSv2-TWxWR3v4zf4tQe-2xu5kTaeXtvxNITan5su7_IHYS0GfqPq7UYG9qUoFYSY/s1600/IMG_7370.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZd-a-l443yJWwotzgWJ2tMfFy5BvHr8DGCflZ9AINjYVZPnlQ-doPb8mc1xG6e0XnZmWRwXCiPLT6BSv2-TWxWR3v4zf4tQe-2xu5kTaeXtvxNITan5su7_IHYS0GfqPq7UYG9qUoFYSY/s320/IMG_7370.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505930353252433442" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8RNnVQt0qZSvPQByzPm95gXPT-c2Jnian26mUo-uE4In5tidwwquMfllkcTTEavVUjplpcPjxcydiVygE5NEM5-tveuWO8XnsKAga8vMWLYSrEl5urxC1Pe9o-IPoERytBfJC05_r2RI/s1600/IMG_7378.jpg"><img style="float:left; 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margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASXd9oOWDb1ajjRFo-T_7PG2jDV43wcOxbnaJsn-xJjJ4z37m3LCztWIu5CYl941PEPo8uO-kW20naac7dyFFPdPG3oPhE07rL16nBqhZWQAEqQDHPBvES5OKp6_IBOcK7YaWRd7Zmdd4/s320/IMG_7574.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505926062629409394" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtIBelN3QKQZwjedHkfCGIGIrKB55ayZuZ7V03kz2771tXXWldSrejHlyJbgF3vT0dmylvtICoR3uPTV-1FW8zyI36CaI5bl0nd9zpaeUo1AFYoYKgHbdotWkNAETE0pCYi2QdDJ0PJiz/s1600/IMG_7577.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFtIBelN3QKQZwjedHkfCGIGIrKB55ayZuZ7V03kz2771tXXWldSrejHlyJbgF3vT0dmylvtICoR3uPTV-1FW8zyI36CaI5bl0nd9zpaeUo1AFYoYKgHbdotWkNAETE0pCYi2QdDJ0PJiz/s320/IMG_7577.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505926062237868354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fKT3zbjb5SCq2A9tRRKuTCJ3kQlCtiOSUMVfL0oKCEH2jUihRmKVj6Etg9FzB3vq7KC4fLpNjAY1nuOwpXD_L6gF7zP_QC9uT7fwmPkuNGw1Px8UAOkCIv-85aIbDbuQ_MUMKOVYKJ7Y/s1600/IMG_7599.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fKT3zbjb5SCq2A9tRRKuTCJ3kQlCtiOSUMVfL0oKCEH2jUihRmKVj6Etg9FzB3vq7KC4fLpNjAY1nuOwpXD_L6gF7zP_QC9uT7fwmPkuNGw1Px8UAOkCIv-85aIbDbuQ_MUMKOVYKJ7Y/s320/IMG_7599.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505926054055601986" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-42726114558867057562010-08-16T01:19:00.000-07:002010-08-16T01:33:14.954-07:00Science Fair photos1) Science Fair starts. More people showed up, but not that many more...<br />2) The first place winner explaining to the public how to run a calculator with several lemons (and no, the calculator isn't solar powered!)<br />3) The students went to town with my colored chalk. In front is also one of my favorite students who should have been a winner in the fair...<br />4) Explaining how to recharge batteries by boiling them? I'm still skeptic...<br />5) Which soil holds water the best?<br />6) Chris, vividly explaining distillation<br />7) The winners + me and my counterpart<br />8) All the participants. I swear, they are happier than they look.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIjPrNHRLn7F8QarnbE0cmebUckHjwcc1-YZjW4v8uD0MIYtrxelmngqyEde104M_vCkgUrtOsPKdogiD2Q_taumeluBTWn2gxWl7ktrs7gGEFICmpMj1B8XqpawlYqgxfXED7nf9cMg-/s1600/IMG_7314.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIjPrNHRLn7F8QarnbE0cmebUckHjwcc1-YZjW4v8uD0MIYtrxelmngqyEde104M_vCkgUrtOsPKdogiD2Q_taumeluBTWn2gxWl7ktrs7gGEFICmpMj1B8XqpawlYqgxfXED7nf9cMg-/s320/IMG_7314.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505921186954121410" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAjQxh8__tn8PS0BfqTaO6kj3JWYewY-2vlD1wqtd8ByhdJlNJSED38zbAeN9F-eoAcH-F5cHjzPyWd8u2M2ekI_Ksnf9v-SASYaL1d6rRbRoZ7wLXOgbIHsnXn0WkeIh9JRz2ehVnduF/s1600/IMG_7316.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAjQxh8__tn8PS0BfqTaO6kj3JWYewY-2vlD1wqtd8ByhdJlNJSED38zbAeN9F-eoAcH-F5cHjzPyWd8u2M2ekI_Ksnf9v-SASYaL1d6rRbRoZ7wLXOgbIHsnXn0WkeIh9JRz2ehVnduF/s320/IMG_7316.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505921180107001042" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ijqqHaBiOdZHkdH_9JzcQD4R0X3H0kEFRidkHzGQ19JY8YTte7fJYsvpyHc5LEr0UpvlbLV8fWyhtd3jYeLRDyvsUsNgvemyrnakrmw41SZCwxmCzmFlbuVaJFhO7tXy2gvk2fKH5lu7/s1600/IMG_7324.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ijqqHaBiOdZHkdH_9JzcQD4R0X3H0kEFRidkHzGQ19JY8YTte7fJYsvpyHc5LEr0UpvlbLV8fWyhtd3jYeLRDyvsUsNgvemyrnakrmw41SZCwxmCzmFlbuVaJFhO7tXy2gvk2fKH5lu7/s320/IMG_7324.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505921176345495538" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqvH8Cy90U4vizCByPwc90bkMKzQ-FVBG5tZ8YjaeGQQYbI9rzVDll4szCTLll8jfMjB70LyKsSUAoEVh15YcxG48rXLxHqkkHxGsYSHdCCM8suXAnAdnJ5-izBy4ZeHmw4HBAdYxRCK8/s1600/IMG_7330.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqvH8Cy90U4vizCByPwc90bkMKzQ-FVBG5tZ8YjaeGQQYbI9rzVDll4szCTLll8jfMjB70LyKsSUAoEVh15YcxG48rXLxHqkkHxGsYSHdCCM8suXAnAdnJ5-izBy4ZeHmw4HBAdYxRCK8/s320/IMG_7330.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505921170379800898" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xRjNrr1IeerhoSKPEPF-m3zWE22msIRFxzpFk2aPwtCp3SFo2pC8XQ2fm0mThGmF873i6oHAGeLRsnNmBkdYg7qDzZ1jlRTTuYJb4KPy3Ob9R91_yJMRLH31doCpwv8BJGZ4HLMmq39m/s1600/IMG_7333.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xRjNrr1IeerhoSKPEPF-m3zWE22msIRFxzpFk2aPwtCp3SFo2pC8XQ2fm0mThGmF873i6oHAGeLRsnNmBkdYg7qDzZ1jlRTTuYJb4KPy3Ob9R91_yJMRLH31doCpwv8BJGZ4HLMmq39m/s320/IMG_7333.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505920320202230338" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUT51nq1Sclr133c_3fSLWyTjZxzns-4LTDmeUhT4zPhbRrHZY_rzB6xHJMSg6mKQygr4E9hAsAvD8_Lc8jh4zGjyH8q0rk4QvvHQ_aQU1kANvcrS3U1ZTWCSCj2L18QjGtDVWmkpdoG2/s1600/IMG_7337.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUT51nq1Sclr133c_3fSLWyTjZxzns-4LTDmeUhT4zPhbRrHZY_rzB6xHJMSg6mKQygr4E9hAsAvD8_Lc8jh4zGjyH8q0rk4QvvHQ_aQU1kANvcrS3U1ZTWCSCj2L18QjGtDVWmkpdoG2/s320/IMG_7337.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505920314209131234" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPelHvide3hftDxajFBdHjFU5xFsm8x3tvslNRBSM9CnduExs-NXOJA4vqz6c3uI7SS3B_HH-cY1mgNx2n0AYzWv0pLLTZ1aGjaFKt46QtJGGcyP3QP3dEJspo2PZSMlJAw5AR7JIrROH/s1600/IMG_7358.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPelHvide3hftDxajFBdHjFU5xFsm8x3tvslNRBSM9CnduExs-NXOJA4vqz6c3uI7SS3B_HH-cY1mgNx2n0AYzWv0pLLTZ1aGjaFKt46QtJGGcyP3QP3dEJspo2PZSMlJAw5AR7JIrROH/s320/IMG_7358.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505920309621728594" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiwRRiTRbXJMOSjikKpWvZ5t8rQKszt719okQVsW04UoMbPHINAoD_52xhBCFMUeN-Vpg7S-FXhBy4l1EJ9eTIRKmhJts10F_p53yHWS_Ft8yVK36Q25DB0-li0kBplKwjM4Wqa6iyWaM/s1600/IMG_7360.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiwRRiTRbXJMOSjikKpWvZ5t8rQKszt719okQVsW04UoMbPHINAoD_52xhBCFMUeN-Vpg7S-FXhBy4l1EJ9eTIRKmhJts10F_p53yHWS_Ft8yVK36Q25DB0-li0kBplKwjM4Wqa6iyWaM/s320/IMG_7360.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505920303796166562" /></a>Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-12216802895849438932010-08-15T09:38:00.000-07:002010-08-15T09:42:40.483-07:00Local Science Fair of SussundengaScience Fair (July 24)<br /><br /> The Secondary school of Sussundenga had its Science Fair today at the Joao Paulo Center (I rented a room owned by the Catholic Church). I have been planning and meeting with kids now for over a month so it was relieving that the day had finally came. <br /><br /><br />I started out meeting with the students every week and then as the big day approached we met twice every week. After the first meeting of constructing a giant timeline I taught the students about the scientific method over several meetings. I really tried hammering it into their brains that the scientific method has an order to it and it starts with a question. Almost all the students started off wanting to do a demonstration of some scientific concept they had learned about in class or read about – making glue for example. But this is not an experiment; it is just a procedure without real science. I encouraged them to think of a question (or use a question from the idea bank) that could be tested. It was difficult for students to think of a question that could be possibly resolved without many resources and using creativity all at the same time. However by the end I was satisfied by what most students had chosen to work on and impressed by others.<br /><br /> As the weeks went by I started to help each student with his/her own project. It was difficult enough to understand the Portuguese, let alone give advice on the science of the project and tips for kids who had no idea what the scientific method is. By the end though I figured out it was a lot easier if they came to me with something written down, that way I could read it at my own pace. My counterpart, Narciso (a Mozambican physics teacher) also helped a lot at meetings, although I have doubts about him running science fair without me after my service ends.<br /><br /> The last week the kids wrote up their reports and mounted them on cardboard for the public to see. I also had put up public notices around town and talked to the director at my school about coming.<br /><br /> The day of the science fair I woke up and was very happy to see that it was sunny outside, since it was raining the day before. I rode to town early to open the center where we were doing science fair so the students could set up their projects (we didn’t have it at the school since it’s kind of far from town and there’s not really a big enough room). I had no idea how many people would show up to watch, or even how many kids would participate since I had also invited another school but hadn’t heard back from them.<br /><br /> Students slowly trickled into the center as well as people who wanted to watch. Two teachers from the other secondary school showed up and told me no one was going to participate from their school. That made things simpler. My counterpart showed up, as well as Bao and Meghann (PCVs from Buzi and Catandica, respectively. I had been a judge at the Catandica science fair the week before and now Meghann was returning the favor. Bao was our photographer.) My counterpart told me that one of the judges, his friend who worked at the hospital, couldn’t make it. This is a textbook example of what can go wrong during an event like this. No problem, Professor Tomas was there, who was more qualified to judge anyway, and more than happy to judge projects. One of the chefes from the Direcção Distrital came, possibly the most important VIP at the fair (the Director of my school never came, gave some excuse later). I thought it was telling when we shook hands and he immediately commented on a movie a teacher was holding, some action flick with a shirtless dude on it. Yes, it is a good film.<br /><br /> I think there were about 10 people in the audience when we decided to start. I was disappointed that more people didn’t show up – many people had told me they would and I thought the color advertisement in the market would really get some attention. As the fair went on though we picked up more people, maybe until about 25 total.<br /><br /> For some reason I still do not understand, it is required that the most important person does the opening for the science fair, even if he or she had nothing to do with the organization of the fair and probably knows nothing about science. So the chefe of the Direcção Distrital started us off. I don’t really know all that he said but there seemed to be a lot of rambling. Next I asked if I could say something, and nervously gave a speech (I suck at public speaking) I had prepared first by writing in English and then translating to Portuguese with the help of Chris, my empregado / helper. I quixotically spoke of the future of Mozambique and the joy that science can give, even to someone who doesn’t have a job in science.<br /><br /> Science fairs in Moz run a little differently than in the states. Students have already completed their projects but they like to re-create the experiment, if possible, for the public. I think it makes things more interesting for the public, too, and having each student present individually allows them to practice their public speaking skills. After the student presents the judges and the public can ask questions, but I am going to change this to only judges next year. I got really tired of wasting time having students answer ridiculously pedantic questions like what is the chemical formula of X, etc. The kids don’t really have that many resources anyway, and I was more interested in the design of the experiment – why they did what they did.<br /><br /> First place was given to a 10th grader who did a project on generating energy from different metals in lemons. He showed that by using many lemons he could power a calculator. I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t more creative (essentially read the project description from wiki) but his presentation was good and research was thorough. He had come to me a lot for help, which I don’t feel guilty about because I helped everyone who came to me.<br /><br /> Chris, my friend / helper was also a winner. He had distilled dirty water which was cool, but what I found most impressive was that he proved it was pure by showing that the water was clearer, didn’t have a salty taste, and didn’t conduct electricity (the last one is admittedly my idea). His presentation was thorough and crowd-pleasing but I was disappointed when he didn’t answer my question correctly about why he used a light to show that the water was pure. I think he knew but students here are very unused to getting open-ended questions.<br /><br /> I don’t really know what else to say. I hope the kids got something useful out of it. The provincial-level science fair will take place in Chimoio on August 28.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-74775165912729411872010-08-01T12:11:00.000-07:002010-08-01T12:16:24.642-07:00falling behindSo I'm falling behind in blog posts. I'm on vacation right now (school has ferrias) in Northern provinces so it's been hard to do email / blog. I'm writing this post from Russel's Place in Pemba city. Tomorrow will be diving or snorkeling, then possibly going on a legendary journey for the biggest crabs in the world.<br /><br />Before I left Suss I also had a science fair for the secondary school. I'll just say now that it went about as well as it could.<br /><br />More soon...Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-5105057004881539742010-07-11T13:45:00.000-07:002010-07-12T02:07:37.090-07:00Journal entry 7/11/10I will write about going to church today, since it isn’t something I have done in Suss yet and that’s about the only noteworthy thing that happened this Sunday.<br /><br /> I don’t really know why I decided to go, it was a kind of perfect storm of events. I guess the main reason is this pastor has been bothering me to go since the time I met him way back when I was still running by my old house. He sent me a funny text message yesterday: “I want to say halo dave I am longing for you can I invite you tomorrow for a Sunday church plz dave”. The guy was longing for me. How can I not go to his sermon?<br /><br /> So I got there at 10:00 this morning – the church is actually attached to the police station – and before I entered the building I could hear the chanting. There were four people inside pacing back and forth with eyes closed, saying some prayers or something rapidly in Shona and Portuguese. More people showed up and started chanting. It was kind of creepy being in an echo-y building with people chanting, not really sure what was being said.<br /><br /> Next there were a lot of Hallelujahs. They don’t get tired of them. Pastor Magara introduced me to everyone (there were maybe 30 people) and thanked me. Then he started preaching. It was interesting that there were three languages being used – Shona mostly, but it was being translated into Portuguese by a helper, and also Magara kept throwing in some English here and there. Trilingual sermons - something you don’t see in the US.<br /><br /> As the minutes trudged on my mind began to wander, although I was trying to pay attention to the Portuguese translation to improve my listening. However I couldn’t help thinking about other things. One thing that leapt out at me was that the Shona word for church is, well, church (or chuch). So this would imply that there were no churches here before the Europeans arrived. I wonder if Magara or anyone else has thought about this before. It seems a little ironic that they are having the sermon in Shona but no one stops to think that, although they are using their mother tongue, this is not their mother religion (traditional, that is). Reminds me of the time in Namaacha when I was looking through my host father’s illustrated bible which was written in Shona but all of the people in it were white.<br /><br /> I was also thinking about how the belief of an individual is really a product of a person’s upbringing. Here I am, an atheist in a church, everyone else is a devout believer. I can’t see why people would do otherwise though, because we are humans and we do what our family and our community does. If a kid sees his mom and community members in church every Sunday, why wouldn’t he do the same? We all need to belong.<br /><br /> But for some reason, be it an accident or a new culture of un-believers, I do not believe in God. Maybe I found a way to belong to something outside of believing in God. (I can think of one friend in kindergarten who didn’t believe in God, thanks Evan.)<br /><br /> Sometimes I do envy people who believe in God. In my life I want to have a wide range of experiences, but I’m thinking believing is not one I will have the pleasure to enjoy. I looked around the church and some people were just so happy, so emotional. One woman was brought to tears while chanting. However believing can probably bring about problems as well, namely confusion and horrible inconsistency. Anyway it doesn’t matter either way for me at least. I am set in my ways and am incapable, as far as I know, of changing. Even if I truly wanted to believe, the problem is I am so sure I’m <span style="font-style:italic;">right</span>.<br /><br /> So by the end of the sermon my head hurt from trying to understand the Portuguese translation and I had Magara’s voice ringing in my ears. When I commented to Chris that maybe Pastors speak so loud because it is the power of God, Chris disagreed and said it’s because “they think that God is so far away”. Hah! After Magara blessed a bunch of people it was just about time to leave, but first he had to ask me something. Magara spoke to everyone and thanked me multiple times for coming, then he said he had discussed with his helper how great it would be if I could give sermons because white people are so respected here. He asked if I would work with him, giving sermons. I was thunderstruck… I’m also positive I’ve told Magara I don’t believe in Jesus. I declined and said I wasn’t the right man for the job but thank you for the offer.<br /><br /> So that’s the story of how I failed at religious revival but was offered to become a pastor in the process.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-18836070966559979862010-06-19T14:26:00.000-07:002010-06-19T14:30:25.163-07:00Go go Science Fair!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocmcE9W9LPBgkwWrVewDeSxyl0TjuFfpCL2dlQSid6ZOWDXicE-k1gO6efBOc1JLasSsZdkwg0rGMP7QaKjOU4e1zSSyKA8koX4QB-3zI25bDzJ34ONZVuhtx7zUH-wuEg47BdR8OORvJ/s1600/timeline.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhocmcE9W9LPBgkwWrVewDeSxyl0TjuFfpCL2dlQSid6ZOWDXicE-k1gO6efBOc1JLasSsZdkwg0rGMP7QaKjOU4e1zSSyKA8koX4QB-3zI25bDzJ34ONZVuhtx7zUH-wuEg47BdR8OORvJ/s320/timeline.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484599976356532770" /></a><br />This morning was the first big science fair meeting. Yesterday my counterpart Narcisio and I went into all of the morning turmas (10,11,12 grade) and announced that science fair was starting. For the first meeting I decided we should do something fun so I figured we could make a timeline of the universe. That night Chris and I spent a while in the school office typing up a list of events that I wanted to put on the timeline (birth of the universe, first humans, independence of Mozambique, etc). I woke up and went to the office to see if the printer had really ran out of ink. Indeed it had, and I was writing up the table by hand before a secretary came and put in new ink cartridges. Phew. I sat down and pretended to be thinking about planificação for about 3 minutes and then prepared for the meeting. Oh, I also saw my pedagogical director and counterpart Jamal, who I think has returned from a month-long vacation.<br /><br /> When we started I was disappointed when it was just me, Caetano, Albino, Hilario, and one other student. But when we went over to the (unfinished) basketball court Narcisio joined us and a bunch of other students. Now it was beginning to look like a real club, which was a little rewarding I guess. We started and in my broken Portuguese I tried to explain what a timeline was and how most of the dates of the events on the timeline had to be figured out by scientists since no one was alive to write it down. I talked about the sun, the closest star to the Earth, and said it was part of a group of stars called the Milky Way. Any scientific question can be tried to be solved with the scientific method. Even the biggest question – how the universe was born – is at least partially solved by scientists. I explained that scientists saw these groups of stars, or galaxies, moving away from each other. If they are moving away from each other now, in the past they must have been closer together. This leads scientists to believe that the universe started from a very hot, dense point. About this time my counterpart Narcisio was away talking on the phone but I did notice some students nodding their heads. I had passed out three copies of the list of events that had the date, name, and description of each event, and now it was time to make the timeline.<br /><br /> Making the timeline was more difficult for the students, and less interesting, than I had anticipated. In retrospect, I guess I could have gone with 1mm = 1 million years, but I thought 2 mm = 1 million years was easy enough. I ended up doing the measuring but after some motivation and coercion I had a couple kids helping me make the timeline as others sat around doing nothing. My counterpart had left for I don’t know what, I think he said something about a call from Maputo. When we finished I wanted to read every event from start to finish, but by then people weren’t really interested I think (it was 11:00 and we started at about 9:30). I was so concerned with everything else I think I actually forgot to stand back for a moment and look at the 28 m string and think about the history of the universe.<br /><br /> By the end I was exhausted (without eating breakfast – my fault more than anything else) and I realized people probably wanted to go home. I failed to explain enough about the science fair – I just told them to come next week with three questions about any scientific topic, but I didn’t give enough information about what is science fair and the scientific method, or sample questions which could have helped them since the kids aren’t really that curious or creative. I thought that the kids would be more interested in the project, and I guess I mistook my own interest and awe in the age of the universe as the inevitable interest of the students. It may have been with some, such as Albino who is one of my favorite students and an incredibly motivated and smart person, but with most it was not so. Most students had never heard of dinosaurs. Some of them did not know that man had walked on the moon (I showed them a picture on my laptop). The events I had chosen for the timeline weren’t very interesting because the students did not understand most of them. I came away from the meeting feeling disappointed and with a feeling of failure. It had not met my expectations but then again I was expecting too much. I need to remind myself the amount of knowledge that students have here. A better project would have been a science experiment (maybe a flashy chemical reaction) to demonstrate the scientific method. These kids do not have the mental tools to fully appreciate something like a timeline of the universe or a tree of life. And I can not foolishly assume that students will be impressed with the same thing that I am.<br /><br /> Perhaps the trick is finding what interests them, what grabs their attention, and then bending their interest to my will…Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-22740993693758636112010-06-07T01:34:00.001-07:002010-06-07T01:52:12.895-07:00Guebuza came, and a lobolo<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3YTCNj6zcT1q1zYyPhqymjNr1bw4CCsGm2HJJfRkTQeIN9qiqNy8vz1sbPVbJ05ST0BWVTnkIMkJHYuGAnpp7SR9mhHDoR69uKEJPDVs8u1nXPRQ3cEx2yfUq1uRqNzRn-E07VV7hi0H/s1600/IMG_7162.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3YTCNj6zcT1q1zYyPhqymjNr1bw4CCsGm2HJJfRkTQeIN9qiqNy8vz1sbPVbJ05ST0BWVTnkIMkJHYuGAnpp7SR9mhHDoR69uKEJPDVs8u1nXPRQ3cEx2yfUq1uRqNzRn-E07VV7hi0H/s320/IMG_7162.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479947829525303634" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBU25B76oYHYS5hMf1J3JLTeDmFoZpJMK5g39UsHEVP7r2HQc7VN9o1AVZ-gtH8eoJS0V55ZVw4EQ4Ko_lX8hOPhrtd_WYRbXiw-q7rI2YjE8o-__oRNv4uLjN7Akuo54UeYJeQ7UbTBFV/s1600/IMG_7166.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBU25B76oYHYS5hMf1J3JLTeDmFoZpJMK5g39UsHEVP7r2HQc7VN9o1AVZ-gtH8eoJS0V55ZVw4EQ4Ko_lX8hOPhrtd_WYRbXiw-q7rI2YjE8o-__oRNv4uLjN7Akuo54UeYJeQ7UbTBFV/s320/IMG_7166.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479947823823117906" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTKR9YQ0LoUSfHrSCCOBVuGE1yFJaVMRnWkTwpO7n5cGZZowVI6AHsLEU3mUj94PO9XaxYo4AGpyXSJfgEPJGC9k_7ALD8zpjO7SI-7_kITlUp0SnjVNz59fiv6ZP2z3UQN9156O81-OY/s1600/IMG_7188.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTKR9YQ0LoUSfHrSCCOBVuGE1yFJaVMRnWkTwpO7n5cGZZowVI6AHsLEU3mUj94PO9XaxYo4AGpyXSJfgEPJGC9k_7ALD8zpjO7SI-7_kITlUp0SnjVNz59fiv6ZP2z3UQN9156O81-OY/s320/IMG_7188.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479947806444259778" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88pRzlyQygG_YmFLfwr2peZITXtcyhJ7sI7rzkkPLFnAHKXV4x2n5b-ON7e2NgZB11iSRXrblFiaruYCAjYqzj_Q1DcAC6IhrtLysONsBOJGgN4uDbG033fsoGqvIAZJCKYa0e9WTmGoU/s1600/IMG_7182.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88pRzlyQygG_YmFLfwr2peZITXtcyhJ7sI7rzkkPLFnAHKXV4x2n5b-ON7e2NgZB11iSRXrblFiaruYCAjYqzj_Q1DcAC6IhrtLysONsBOJGgN4uDbG033fsoGqvIAZJCKYa0e9WTmGoU/s320/IMG_7182.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479947810035599970" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoIehAXc9Yd7JAK_egqi2Rs-Nr49fF90tdYBkzGiSVasWzi67SfIC0o6G_XFbMfjKuMsm6HEXxGCbjKT8tv2WyZb8cFRcfGSCsxxqhPXWVCHeGp-jMMFYlIOoAFLat9dUSI3wVVT1d2Pc/s1600/IMG_7193.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoIehAXc9Yd7JAK_egqi2Rs-Nr49fF90tdYBkzGiSVasWzi67SfIC0o6G_XFbMfjKuMsm6HEXxGCbjKT8tv2WyZb8cFRcfGSCsxxqhPXWVCHeGp-jMMFYlIOoAFLat9dUSI3wVVT1d2Pc/s320/IMG_7193.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479947799545313154" /></a><br /><br />1) Guebuza, the President of Mozambique came to Sussundenga. Yes, the president. It was pretty exciting. The banner reads Children of Sussundenga salute Papa Guebuza.<br />2) There were TONS of people at the house where Guebuza was staying for the night. The school children were dancing and there was music playing until the guards told everyone to go away because we were making noise.<br />3) I went to the lobolo of my friends mom and step-father last weekend. A lobolo happens after a marriage and the mans family gives money (or many times and this case alcohol) to the family of the woman. Some words are spoken and then the fun commences.<br />4) My friend Caetanos step-dad on the left and me.<br />5) The bride and groom. Caetano is in the middle. Yes, his step-dad is offering whiskey to his mom in the picture. I now know why Caetano is such a goofy guy.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2797405106849217829.post-33140504460523933532010-06-04T01:54:00.000-07:002010-06-04T02:07:11.555-07:00My day todayTo give people a sense of what my daily life is like. It's not always this busy.<br /><br />• Woke up at 9:00. It’s the latest I’ve slept in for a while.<br />• Quickly checked email, fb, and nytimes on my nokia 2630<br />• Was walking to the market when I realized I didn’t have any credit to call Brian so I went to the shop by the school (centro social de esperança) to buy credit.<br />• Turned out the shop had egg sandwiches so I ate breakfast there as well as chatted with Brian<br />• Decided to walk to the mato-market anyway to buy leaves for dinner, onion, and tomatoes. Also bought two wire-y things to try and ground my electric stove that always shocks me.<br />• Planned for chemistry class<br />• Taught chemistry class. I have first period of the afternoon on Thursday and about half the class comes in late.<br />• Went home and spent 15 minutes playing around with eurotalk learn Shona before realizing it was pretty useless.<br />• Did some exercises and took a bucket-bath. It smelled like pee in my shower because a primary school kid snuck in and used it. He could have at least used the other side, but then again I did realize the latrina-side is a mosquito breeding pit this morning when there were about 30 on the wall next to the hole. I really need to do something about that.<br />• Cooked pasta and red sauce for lunch.<br />• Got a text from Nelson, my JOMA counterpart asking if I was at the school so I left lunch to meet him there. We went to his house and picked up the Moz-soft CD with the JOMA manual on it and I installed Adobe acrobat and Lingoes dictionary on his new computer.<br />• Nelson and I chatted while I ate lunch at my house. It was good to have company while I ate. He was telling me about how the higher-up direction of the school is against the teachers. I didn’t really catch all of it because that part of the conversation was in Portuguese. Something about teachers having different diplomas.<br />• We went to the school together to print the JOMA manual. I was glad the secretaries were kind enough to let us use all that paper. (Nelson also asked to take some paper for home haha).<br />• I biked down to the Oficina Pedegogica for my English class. With no time to plan (and some admitted procrastination) I only had a general sense of what I would teach before I went.<br />• Taught English class. Turns out my students like writing dialogues. I also discovered the wrong way to teach comparisons in English.<br />• Stopped by the market on my way home. I love it when there are potatoes.<br />• Got home and discovered Chris had already cooked dinner but was gone for the moment. I played some violin until he got back.<br />• Ate dinner (leaf curry – something called repe) and watched part of “The Goonies” with Chris. God I haven’t seen that movie in a long time.<br />• Chris left to prepare for a test tomorrow<br />• I read some Alistair Reynolds for a bit and now I’m writing this entry.Dov Salkoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12146646361849914005noreply@blogger.com2