New pics

1) Sussundenga countryside
2) Me
3) Primary school kids
4) Kid doing a backflip off some bricks.
5) My bug bite (I figured might as well post it). Don't worry it's fine now.

Check out pics of my weekend at Gorongosa with the Mills:
www.themillsinmoz.wordpress.com

Time Flies...

I have no idea how a month passed since my last post. Not much has changed, I think, besides getting more settled (although I’m about to move houses), continuing to struggle in Portuguese, and seeing some PCV friends outside of Sussundenga. I am also about to more than double my teaching load, which is great because I have been working only 6 hours a week which is wayyyy too little time to be working here. Too much free time in Sussundenga can make your brain a little mushy, especially when you don’t know that many people.
One of the classes I’m supposedly starting next week is a computer class to teach students about Microsoft Word and all that good stuff. The secondary school here actually has 20 new laptops which is fantastic and if you ask me is a sign of how things are changing (for the better) everywhere in Mozambique, even in the small towns (others say that the change was just due to election season). Teaching computers will be a great use of my time here, and I’m anxious to start (as soon as the school gets that classroom cleaned…).
The other class I’ll be starting is teaching English to adults in the community. I’m doing this with a guy who works at the Oficina Pedagogica next to the primary school and my house. I’ve never taught English (or tutored it) so it should be interesting.
Yesterday I went in to Chimoio to get 240 copies made of the test I’m giving today. I also got to see my friend Alexandra who was moved to Chimoio from Zambezia province because of robbery and school issues. If you would like to read about how my friend was robbed in the middle of the night at her house with a car jack and a machete, go to www.alexandramozambique.blogspot.com.
To get back to Sussundenga from Chimoio I took a chapa. Chapas are a part of everyday life here in Mozambique, so I thought I’d take some time to try to explain the chapa experience. Chapas are the public transportation, like the bus system in the states, but the cars are converted minibuses packed with as many people as possible (four to a row plus kids, sometimes more if people stand up). The condition of the chapas range from O.K. shape with retrofitted high tops to chapas that barely look fit to drive, with doors and trunks that don’t close and “No Fear” painted on the windshield (do you really want the driver of your chapa to have no fear?). Yesterday I was waiting at the stop and when a chapa would come about 25 people shoved their way to the door. People scramble to climb inside before people have a chance to get out. I tried and failed as two chapas came and filled up with people before I could get in. I made it in the third, but not before the door broke off from people pushing to get in. After that I just had to endure the hour drive to Sussundenga… they really need to pave the road. Halfway between Chimoio and Sussundenga the chapa stops for a couple minutes at a small village named Zembe. People outside scramble to sell their produce before the chapa motorista decides to drive away. We made it back to Sussundenga just as the sun was going down.
What else has happened? I thought about posting some pictures of my infected bug bite on my blog but decided to save people’s appetite. My right side swelled up to the mass of one, maybe two oranges. I started taking antibiotics and thankfully I’m back to my normal size and shape. I was kind of scared for a while though, at one point the liquid from the infection fell down into my abdomen and sat there, aching and making it difficult to walk.
I have been doing a lot of reading, of course, with only 6 hours of work a week. Recently I thought of a friend’s father and his reaction to me coming to Peace Corps Mozambique. He said a couple things that made me a little uncomfortable, mainly about helping people who “won’t stop killing each other” and some stuff that borders on racism. Only now have I figured out a somewhat appropriate response to his statements and it comes from a history lesson. The book “The Betrayal of Africa” is a great introduction to how European attempts at colonization created chaos in the African nations and how the west is still draining Africa of money and skill. It’s a small book that really opened my eyes. As far as how the Europeans came to colonize Africa and not the other way around, the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” does a fantastic job of answering the question. This book is a heavier, more scientific-minded read but provides an explanation for history’s broadest pattern (essentially the book explains how bio-geographic differences between regions give rise to differences in technology and ability to conquer, not the differences between peoples of those regions).
Together these books provided me with a better understanding of why some countries (like the U.S.) are so much wealthier than other countries (like Mozambique) and why living is so much easier (and healthier)
Please, everyone, don’t stop giving me updates. I don’t get bored of reading about life back in the U.S.. Also, it would be great if someone could send me some podcasts on a CD from Science Friday or whatever else you like. I would also kill for some Meet the Press podcasts. Thanks!

These damn captions are going to be in order

I love this picture, and this woman really wanted her picture taken.



me and my friend caetano in my house.


me and some other teachers.


An 8th grade class at my high school.


A pretty typical house in Sussundenga


One of the many ways kids have fun in Sussundenga without game cubes, x-boxes, etc.


Part of my secondary school.


A clothes market near my house.


First week of school.


A primary school school class being taught outside.


Some maes and criancas


Me and Caetano


Me and Christopher

Sticking to it

27 January 2010
Today was difficult for a couple of reasons and I thought I’d dedicate this post in part to some of the hardships of being a volunteer (hardships more abstract than bucket baths and questionable goat meat). I’m sure I will discover more as my time spent here matures.
I have been in a funk since a couple days ago when I came back from Chimoio. I was visiting a couple friends there who came from Catandica and Sofala province. Every time I go back to site from visiting friends I am a little sad – I think it just has to do with feeling isolated and not being able to talk with anyone about problems I have or just life in general. This is part of the reason why I don’t like leaving site in the first place – even if I leave for one night I feel like I have to readjust when I come back.
My funk has put me in a generally unenthusiastic, unmotivated mood, which of course doesn’t mix well with having to teach classes. However I had to teach today, and I was glad to get out of the house after spending almost all of yesterday inside.
I have been holding out from teaching subject material for the first week. Part of the reason is that I wanted to try to build a relationship with the students – all part of my hopeless plan to instill developmental discipline in my classroom – however I kind of half-assed it. I did take pictures of all of my students in one class, which they actually loved and when the whole class was done one of the students took a picture of me and some students.
I felt like I had some important things to talk about before actually starting material, like how to do well in class, class activities, and motivation for studying chemistry. However these topics have made for kind of boring classes, which I think contributes to the chit-chat and some of the students’ apparent lack of interest (although I guess this is to be expected). By five minutes until the end of my first class, students were telling me that it was time to leave. I was angry that they were telling me class was over with five minutes left and I was trying to explain to them why studying chemistry was important and how many jobs require knowledge about chemistry. I could have easily left it out and moved on to subject material, but I thought they would find it interesting... by the way when I asked the class why we study chemistry no one had any idea.
My second class went pretty smooth. For my third class I didn’t realize I had a break so I walked into a classroom 50 minutes before I had to give class… I was saying hello to everyone and they asked me what discipline I teach… turns out I was not only one period early but I was in the wrong classroom entirely and the students were not mine. Oops. When I left I heard some people saying “mezungu” which is the word for rich/white person in the local language. It is not necessarily a bad name but it’s also not great, and I guess above all else it makes me feel like an outsider (which I am…).
During break a couple kids came up to me to talk. One kid said he wanted to come to my house and speak English with me, which I said he could. He also said he wanted to learn about the internet, which made me happy. A girl from my previous class came up to me with candy in her mouth and asked something. I had to ask her to repeat herself about five times before I understood. She was asking if I had CDs, I guess blank ones for music. I didn’t know what to make of it so I just said no before I walked away. It wasn’t until after that I realized she was probably just saying something to talk to me.
My third class was kind of a mess. I was about two minutes in when I saw about 5 kids from the primary school standing outside the doorway looking at me and talking. I took one step forward to talk to them and they scattered. I closed the door and kept going with the lesson but then the kids showed up on the other side of the room. They were peering in through the windows and yelling at me. I didn’t really know what to do so I told them to go away and then I pretended to throw a piece of chalk at them… probably not the best idea and it didn’t even work. I eventually asked someone nearby outside to police them. When my attention came back to the class it felt pretty disordered. There was a lot of noise – both from inside and outside the class since many of the kids I think got out of class and were going home, so it is probably something I will have to tolerate each time I have that class (the windows don’t have glass either, so it’s kind of like trying to teach on a playground). I just kept going – generally the more information I present per unit time the kids get quieter because (I hope) they are at least somewhat interested in what I have to say. It’s mostly when I have to stop, either to write on the board or to fix behavior, when the noise and chit-chat starts back up. There’s not much I can do about it: I have to choose my battles wisely.
The most frustrating moment came when I was writing on the board and I was using an incorrect word. In a previous class I told the students they could correct my Portuguese if they didn’t understand or I was using the wrong word. I was using the word “notas” to mean notes you would write in your notebook. “Notas”, however, is generally understood here as a grade you make in a class (like A+ grade), and the word I should have used was “apontamentos”. When I asked a student to spell it for me I had some trouble understanding him and then there were other students interrupting him. Of course I couldn’t understand so more kids started yelling out letters… I think I probably had half the class yelling out how to spell this word. I got pretty angry after repeatedly telling the class that only the one student could talk. Eventually I had to just give him the chalk to write the word while I attempted to diatribe the rest of the class in my shitty Portuguese. It was incredibly annoying, but I don’t think they knew what they were doing. I think many of the kids just don’t have the self control to sit there and watch me and their classmate struggle, and if someone else could yell out, why not them?
I’m definitely going to have to do something about correcting my Portuguese in the middle of class. I was told it was going to be a problem but I guess I didn’t really believe it. The easiest thing would be to designate one person to do it.
After my classes I talked to some teachers about the primary school kids distracting my class. What they suggested was so simple – that I tell them to come back after my class. They just wanted to play with me, they said. It made complete sense, and I wondered why I didn’t start off doing that but I realized that when I tried to talk to them they ran away from me.
As I was walking home I thought about how seemingly difficult the day was and how I would be living here for two years. Isolation, a sense of being drained of energy, difficulty controlling the class (and kids outside the class…), and the pain of watching myself stumble: all these things weigh against my reasons for remaining in Peace Corps. Worst of all is the feeling that I am here for no reason: I am just an outsider who was uprooted from his country and is now, strangely, living in this country. Many of the students aren’t interested in learning chemistry, and sometimes I wonder how much chemistry teaching really contributes to the development of Mozambique.
So right now I am waiting it out. I am not saying I am thinking about terminating early, but I certainly can sympathize with people who do. As for my reasons to stay: I trust that Peace Corps really does make a difference (a quixotic statement to some volunteers living here), especially when taking into consideration the hundreds of volunteers who have served here over the years. I also have hope - that I will eventually feel more comfortable living here, and my still rapidly changing schedule and the few friends I do have help to enforce this. While I was writing this entry some student friends came by and did a great job cheering me up. I learned a little about Shona and we also made some plans for making a garden behind my house. It was strange how quickly my mood improved. Before I came here I read some accounts of volunteers who said that being a PCV was like being on an emotional rollercoaster ride, but I didn’t understand. It makes more sense now: so much has changed since my life in the states, and I have so few connections here, that every little thing can have a huge impact on my disposition.
I wondered about whether I should post this in my blog because I make Peace Corps sound… unpleasant. However I have only been through 6% of my time at site so far and I’m confident that things will change and I have yet to see the real rewards of working here. I’m just trying to keep it real.

Estamos prontos para escola

I have been working at the secondary school for a little over a week now. The opening ceremony for school was today and the students also learned what classes they are in for the year (the student’s class does not change when she moves to another discipline, and actually she doesn’t move because the teachers change rooms, not the students.). I have also learned that I will teach 2-3 classes in 9th grade, which is the grade I asked for.
I asked for 9th grade for a couple of reasons. First, the kids are relatively young and impressionable, which means I can mold them into whatever I want = ). I asked for 8th grade but my director said it wasn’t hard enough for me. Second, 9th grade chemistry continues with inorganic chemistry while going a little deeper into things (atomic structure and electron orbitals, bonding, chemical reactions, molar mass, and all that good stuff). 10th grade chemistry, however, introduces organic chemistry. I’m not sure why the Mozambican government chose to put organic chemistry in the curriculum. I learned organic chemistry in my second year of college and I didn’t mind it, but then again I was in a molecular and cellular biology major and all around me people were complaining about how hard it was. Even though I have only actually witnessed one 10th grade chemistry class while in Namaacha, it seems like the Mozambican school system reduces the good science of organic chemistry to basically memorizing lines and symbols. I’m not saying some college students in the states don’t get away with doing exactly this, but at least the extra information is presented if they want it. So in other words, I’m glad I’m not teaching 10th grade chemistry this year. I would consider it next year in order to teach the same students.
Last week we were busy putting the classes together. We don’t have software so we’ve been doing it with student folders… and it takes a long time. We started with separating the folders into grades… 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. The 10th grade pile was about twice as large as the others because there are national exams in 10th and 12th grade and a lot of students fail them, which means they have to take the whole grade over again (even if they failed just one discipline). At one point we had to separate the 10th grade students into “new”, “repeat”, and “twice-repeat”. My pedagogical director said if a student fails a grade twice they have to sit out for two years, but one of the students said it wasn’t true. I think the oldest person I saw in 10th grade was born in 1968.
Besides doing the work I think it’s been helpful to meet the teachers (and have them get used to me standing around) before school starts. I still can’t understand much and people have to make an effort to speak in words I can get when they talk to me. However when people are mindful of their vocabulary and speak slowly I can usually hold down a conversation alright… the problem is then I don’t know what to talk about sometimes. Before I came to Mozambique I certainly didn’t appreciate how much effort foreigners exert when they come to the states.
I was wondering today how other people cope with the challenges of learning a new language. There is one teacher at my school (I still don’t know his name – I just think of him as the bald guy with cool shoes) who is very talkative and jolly and always says hello to me, but he is also learning Portuguese. When he was young his family moved to Zimbabwe to avoid the civil war. He came back to Mozambique a couple years ago and speaks pretty damn good Portuguese considering he had no formal training. I can’t imagine him sitting silently and patiently, watching people like I do. But of course as I’m writing this I realized he had Chona to converse with people before he learned Portuguese… but what about other people?
Sometimes I forget how recently the civil war ended. There are two teachers whose mothers were pregnant with them during the war and they stayed in Mozambique through the whole thing. One day Bald Guy told me they were like stones… “nao tem medo de morrer” (they aren’t scared of dying).
Last Friday I was told it was going to be the first day of school and the students would come with parents to meet the teachers. Instead the teachers worked to finish up the classes and some students showed up for a bit, sat around outside, but then left after a couple minutes because there was nothing to do. People are just getting out of the holidays so school has been kind of slow to start up. I also think this year school starts two weeks earlier than previous years. Another thing about last Friday: we had to run out of the classroom because smoke was blowing directly inside from a huge trash fire next to us. School sure is different here!
I can’t think of much else that is worth writing… probably when classes start I’ll have interesting stuff to report. So I’ll just end with this:
Today I was walking to school and I saw two dogs cowering in fear. A woman was standing in front of her house holding a rock and threatening the dogs. I noticed the dogs were standing unusually close together and they were awkwardly standing back to back… oh, I thought: they are doing it. I remember Leah’s stories from Guatemala of how dogs would get stuck together… The woman threw the rock and it barely missed one of the dogs. They ran across the street and another dog came running up to them. It tried to join in by jumping up on the female’s back. Obviously he didn’t fit and probably got mad so he started fighting with the male. As I was walking away and trying to ignore the yelps another dog ran past me. A dog can’t catch a break in this town.

I might as well put this in my blog too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meu sito: Sussendenga

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

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

One day we decided to climb this hill

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

My house with my new friends Christopher and Caetano.