I wanted to share with you some statistics I got on
the education system during my PST…I was really shocked by some of them and
thought it was important for people back home to see the differences between
our education system in America and those of other countries.
Statistics on
Education in Moz
o
Adult literacy rate is 47%
o
Female literacy rate is 32%
o
52% of children attend school in a mud or stick
structure or under a tree
o
26% of primary school teachers have not received
any training
o
Based on a USAID study in Mozambique of 50
schools, on average a school had 30 days of effective instructional time
per 183-day school year
o
59% of 3rd grade students in the Cabo
Delgado province could NOT read a single word
Random Happenings in
Nacuxa
-This last week I was wondering why my bread was crunchy…I
then looked and saw some black specks and figured it was mold. I then decided
to look closer and pull that piece out and realized their was a bug in the
bread. I had been eating bread with bugs in it—I felt kind of gross but I kept
eating the bread since it was dinner, (haha—not something I thought I would
ever say)
-Went to the hospital with my roommate, Anna, and was able
to see her weigh babies and what it is like to go to the hospital in Nacuxa. In
order to weigh the babies they put them in this fabric swing that hangs off a
scale. Most of the babies don’t weigh as much as they need to and look pretty
malnourished. It’s also so weird to me to see women breast-feeding in public
and not covering themselves up. It just is odd that women cannot show their
knees in public or even at home in front of men but they can walk around
feeding their babies uncovered. It’s perfectly normal to everyone here and I’m
sure soon I’ll be accustomed to it as well.
-Finally got my 2 year bag and other boxes! It was so happy
seeing what all I had in there. It was like I got a whole new wardrobe with all
my other clothes I forgot I had. (Still can’t find my camera cord….so no
pictures until my mom sends me the cord, sorry!)
-Buying a fan was the BEST purchase I think I have ever
made! I absolutely love it and was even able to sleep using my quilt from home
for the first time this week (Without sweating!)
-I now have a USB internet modem that lets me skype (yay!)
but not check gmail or go to my blog…so it’s working but only for certain
things
-Killing cockroaches and other weird bugs in our house has
become a daily occurrence—at least so far I’ve only had one in my room and none
in my bed!
-Last night I walked into my room to find 1 of the biggest
spiders I have ever seen…I didn’t want to step on it so I instead went and got
our bug spray. When I sprayed it lots of mini little bugs/spiders came out of
it and it ended up getting away! I then saw 2 more huge spiders in my room—I
only successfully killed one (and the babies) but the others are somewhere
hiding under my clothes/suitcase. I’m just hoping the fumes from the spray
killed them slowly. For the rest of the night I sat on my bed with my laptop,
kindle, water bottle, hard drive and ipod securely tucked under my mosquito net
for fear the spiders would come get me...I haven’t gotten over my spider fear
yet but I’m working on it J
-I hate to admit this but I got a little too excited to have
peanut butter m&ms from my care package….I ended up eating both bags (not
the mini ones either) in just 3 days...let’s just say I haven’t been eating the
most healthy lunches when it consists of pb m&ms and fruit! But I ate them
all so now hopefully I can start cooking and stop being lazy with my meals. My
roommate and I are going to try and go into the city sometime soon and buy an
oven so we can start baking!
-Thanks to my family back home our house is now decorated
with a Christmas tree, nativity scene and wreath! It feels so homey now J Anna and I are going
to have one night where we make the snow in a can (thanks mom!), drink hot
chocolate and make cinnamon toast—I’m so excited! I’m hoping it’ll cool down
some before we do this or else I’ll be sweating as I drink the hot chocolate.
-I finally put up all my pictures on quotes on the wall—so
now with our Christmas decorations and pictures on the wall my house is
starting to feel like home J
-This weekend the neighbor kids came over to color and I
brought out my 2 big English picture books (thanks Katie!) and the kids
absolutely loved it! They asked me to tell them what every word was
because they really wanted to learn English and then they would tell me in
Portuguese. I even had one little boy come back over to our house this morning
asking for the books so he could read it on our porch! They are super cute
kids—I took lots of pictures this weekend of them playing and acting crazy and
I’ll be sure to put them up soon
Hope you all are enjoying the Holiday season! Make some
Christmas cookies and drink some hot apple cider for me J
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