4 months down

I can’t believe I have already been in Mozambique for four months! I still miss my family and friends back home but I’m adjusting to life over here pretty well (at least I think so). It’s been nice to get all settled in my house at site and meet all the people in Nacuxa. I’m feeling more and more integrated everyday.

I started a garden this week in our backyard! I brought Broccoli, Pumpkin, and Corn seeds with me from the States—and the nuns gave me amendoim (peanuts) and mandioca (a type of vegetable that looks like a stick). Sister Sandra found a woman to help us clean up the weeds and other junk in our backyard. She then proceeded to plant all the peanuts she gave me (which was a LOT!) and wanted to go get more from her house. I told her I didn’t know what I would do with all those peanuts if she got me more. She then told me that since I love peanut butter I could make my own. That’s a good thought but we’ll see if that happens. However, today I did make my own hummus—I was proud it turned out pretty nicely…just a little too much garlic (oops).

School should be starting next week (At least I hope so!) and I’m still not sure of my schedule. This last week the priest asked me if I could teach an introductory French class if they didn’t find a French teacher in time. I told him maybe but then tried to rack my brain for all the French that I have studied and couldn’t remember much at all. Studying Portuguese for the past 4 months everyday has made me forget all the French I know. Thankfully at church Sunday two new professors were introduced and I’m pretty positive one of them is teaching French, whew! I’m anxious to start teaching and forming a club or group outside of school as well! I’ll be sure to post next week after my first week of classes J

Last week it rained a lot, which was really nice because we were able to collect it since we haven’t had water coming out of the faucet for over a week. I can definitely understand the meaning of the rainy season now. The storms come up out of nowhere and just downpour for an hour or so then just stop and the hot, humid sun comes out again. It surprised me how fast the sand can absorb all the big pools of water.

We have been really lucky at site because we haven’t had any flooding or problems with the rain. However, the rest of Mozambique hasn’t faired so well. Many PCVs in Gaza province (which is in Southern Mozambique) have had to be evacuated to Maputo due to the flooding of the Limpopo River. Over 100,000 people have been displaced. The water in some towns is as high as the roofs and the roads are getting washed out and many people are stranded without fresh food and clean water. With the rainy season not even halfway through there is bound to be more flooding and problems for those along the Limpopo River.  Many prayers are needed for the PCVs in the south as well as the many Mozambicans who have lost their homes and are without food and clean water.

Today was a success!

Finally I had a day where I felt like a productive PCV. Here’s a little glimpse into what I did today…

-Skyped with my mom back home! 

-Cut my hair for the first time since leaving home (yes you are reading this right—I cut my own hair with sewing scissors my mom sent with me. I’ll admit I don’t I cut it straight…probably because I did it outside with no mirror…oops.) :)

-Talked to Irmå Tassy about the English and Computer Curriculum. She then told me that she wants me to do more projects outside of the classroom so I’ll only be teaching 11^th grade English and probably not Computers anymore (which is fine with me!)

-We started talking about how Bryson (5yrs old) and Ano  (4yrs old) don’t go to the Primary school yet but have a lot to learn (they don’t even know their colors or how to count to 10). She mentioned that she wants to teach them or do things educational things with all the little kids living at the school. I jumped at that idea and told her I would love to teach them and even had some books for kids in English. She asked if I really wanted to do that with them everyday and of course I said yes (finally something to do! And teaching little kids!). I think she’s getting an idea of the Professors’ kids that would come and going to tell me more about it tomorrow. She even said she has little chairs I could borrow for the kids to sit in while I teach them in my “Quintal” (backyard)

-Made an Omelet that actually looked like an Omelet-success!

-Wrote more lesson plans for my 11^th grade English class

-Made no bake cookies :) 

-Helped a nun (Irmå Lucia) set up her very own email account! It wasn’t until after we set up the account did I find out that she doesn’t know how to use a computer. Probably should have taught her a little bit about that first before introducing her to the email world. You wouldn’t believe how long it takes to teach how to double click and type all the weird accents on Portuguese words. Today we just learned how to send and check email and write in a Word document. Tomorrow we’ll practice again

-Today is one of the seminarian’s birthday and I think my roommate and I got invited to a mass/party for him…I’m not quite sure though. I guess I’ll find out in an hour if someone knocks on my door wanting me to go to this mass.

I’d say overall this has been the best day of 2013. I’m glad I finally have things to do and a purpose to my life in Nacuxa! More to come later once I start teaching the little “crianças” (kids) :)

Funny Stories from the week:

-On Sunday at church I somehow got pulled into dancing with the girls who were dancing in front of church to the songs. (Let me just tell you…I’m not a good dancer in America or Mozambique…so it was slightly embarrassing but I had fun dancing with the students and looking like a fool) :)

-One night this week my counterpart, Irmå Tassy, came over and sat by me on my porch and we started talking about school, Nacuxa and cooking. She then asked what I had been cooking…well we really don’t have much access to meat or vegetables or fruit (besides mangos) so I’ve been eating a lot of eggs and peanut butter sandwiches. After I told her this she laughed and told me she’s going to help me learn how to cook. She even brought me over to their house that same night and cooked an egg for me and gave me a huge plate of rice. I tried to explain that back in America I cooked every night at home—I don’t think she believed me. She then told me she would take me to Nacala to the stores that sell vegetables and meat (that you don’t have to kill). After we do that she wants me to come over to her house for a little bit everyday to learn how to cook. They must think I am an idiot in the kitchen. I need to explain to her that I like to bake more than I cook. Since I’ve been here I have made coffee cakes, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, French toast, pancakes, and no bake cookies! I just didn’t no how to say all of that in Portuguese so she thinks I’ve just been eating bread, peanut butter and eggs. Oh boy. I have a long way to go to reassuring them I can cook!

Here are some quotes that I wanted to share this week:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  ~Jeremiah 29:11

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you may go.”  ~Joshua 1:9

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” ~Walter Bagehot 

(However, for me it’s doing the things I thought I could never do…like living on a different continent, speaking a different language, killing scorpions in my room and not thinking twice seeing lizards in my house) :)

New Year, New Resolutions

It’s hard to believe it’s 2013 already! I am happy to say that I accomplished half of my New Year’s resolutions from last year! I’m hoping to go for all of them this year so we’ll see how it goes. This year already has been different than 2012…I’m in Africa killing unknown bugs every night in my house. I never thought I would be happy to just have a normal looking spider in the bathroom to kill rather than some freaky mutant insect. I’ve been trying to get better with my fear of insects, bugs and anything “creepy crawly”…I like to think I’ve made some improvements but when I feel a bug crawling on me I still freak out a tad bit.

**On the plus side the past 3 nights in a row we haven’t had our nightly part spider/part scorpion/part very weird looking insect in our house. We had been having these things running around our house every night and it took an extreme amount of bug spray to finally slow them enough to sweep them out of the house. Knock on wood that they stay out of our house for the time being!

I wish I could tell you how productive I have been during the New Year or all the new projects I’ve started but I can’t. Everyday I go over to the school’s office and ask the same questions—“when do classes start? Do you know the class schedule?” Unfortunately I have yet to truly get an answer to this. I think I have the school start date down to sometime in early February (so at least there is some time to plan lessons). I still don’t know what grades I’m teaching or the curriculum for the English and Computer classes. I’m hoping to get that sometime this week so I can be productive and start planning lessons.

The most productive things I’ve done so far are make new resolutions for 2013, bake oatmeal & sugar cookies (the oatmeal one’s actually tasted like cookies whereas the sugar cookies tasted a little odd), and have been reading a lot to fill my days. Usually the most exciting part of my day is sitting on my front porch coloring and talking with the 4 year old living a few houses down. I wish I had more exciting things to share with you about life in Nacuxa but the school is eerily quiet with all the students gone. (It reminds me of Jewell on the weekends. But Liberty at least had a 24 hour Wal-Mart and sonic) :) Hopefully in my next post I’ll have more exciting news to share!

My goals for this week (so I can be more productive!):

•  Figure out the curriculum for English & Computer class and write the first few lessons
• Sit outside once a day and talk in Portuguese to my neighbors
• Start reading the one book I have that’s in Portuguese (The Princess Diaries…yes I know how lame that sounds but the sad fact is that book will probably still be a little challenging since it’s in Portuguese)
• Figure out a way to make a closet so bugs don’t get in my clothes
• Make cinnamon toast and more coffee cake!

As I was looking through my quotes to find one to share with you I came across this quote. I remember reading it in high school and thinking how truly blessed I was for everything.

As I read it now it could not be truer and make me feel even more blessed than the first time I read it. I’ll admit there are days when I stop and think about how hard it is being away from my friends and family back home and how easy it would be to go home and live with all the luxuries of life in the U.S. (washing clothes in a machine, gong out to eat, driving a car, having running water (that is clean) and electricity 24/7). But then I’m reminded of why I chose to join the Peace Corps. I’m blessed by having some amazing nuns who want to just sit on my porch and talk, students who are eager to learn, kids who would be happy just coloring with me all day (and who don’t laugh at my terrible Portuguese)…and that in itself makes up for the days when I feel homesick and like I’m not doing enough. I know I can’t change the world in 2 years…but I hope I can at least inspire students to “dream big” (as Mr. Young would say) :) and work hard for what they want.