indian26

As you know, I am going back to the states in a few weeks to visit my family and friends for Christmas. So, this is a question that I have been thinking about and a few people have asked me: Will I be different when I go back to the states? Eu nao sei (I do not know).

Some noticeable and not-so-noticeable differences are:
* I will be 50 pounds lighter
* My hair is thinner , thanks to Malaria meds
* I can somewhat speak Portuguese
* I have a tan from being in the African sun 24/7
* I wear skirts a lot now
* I go to bed at 20:00 (8pm) here, but sometimes I on the edge and go to bed around 21:30
* I walk slower (Mozambicans just like to passear and walk slow)
* I can squat over a hole and pee
* I can take a bath and wash my hair with a bucket full of water, I forgot what a shower is!!!!
* I can make homemade spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, beans and rice
* I can peel an orange with a knife (Mozambicans do not use their fingers to peel an orange)
* I can dance the Passada
* I can say a few words in two local Indigenous languages
* I can have a whole conversation by just using my hands (you learn to do hand signals for a lot of things here, especially since my Portuguese is bad)
* I can hand wash my clothes


So, lets talk about school for a while. Classes finished up about three weeks ago. We then had to proctor national exams for the 10th graders. They have to take national written exams in all subject areas in order to pass 10th grade. They also have to take oral exams in Portuguese and English. So, I have been busy grading written English exams and then giving oral English exams. The oral exam consists of four parts: students read a text outloud and then I ask them questions about it, students write a sentence on the board using different grammar structures, students conjugate verbs into different tenses, and then students have a short conversation with me about their family or friends or chores. So, we just finished up all the testing yesterday. Now, we have to combine the written scores with the oral scores. If students received less than 10 (out of 20), then they have to redo the exams in December. Most students finish school after 10th grade. Some lucky students go to 11th and 12th grade in order to go to an university or to get a better job. You do not have to go to the university to be a teacher here, you just need a certain amount of training, which depends on the grade level you are going to teach.

So, students are officially on summer break until February. However, the teachers have to work until the second week of December and then have about 4 or 5 weeks off before they have to return to school to prepare for the next year.

My sitemate is done with his contract here and is returning to California for good. So, I will get a new sitemate in December. There are 55 Americans living around Maputo right now and are going through PC training. One of them will be my future sitemate. I went down to help with training a few times. It is a good experience to help the new trainees because it makes you reflect on your own experiences here. However, I had a hard time talking to the new trainees. Its just weird because I spend a lot of my time with Portuguese speaking people and a lot of time with men (not many female teachers, etc). So, it was weird for me to be around so many white Americans who are speaking English and who were just emerged in the American culture and who are female. It was overwhelming at one point. However, it was better for me to talk to them in small groups.

So, I guess I am warning you all and please be patient with me if I seem a little weird when I come back. Ta ta.