Peace and perfect timing

God and Peace Corps have perfect timing....

Lately, I have been struggling with homesickness and missing important events going on in America. I’ve missed quite a few life-changing events in my family and friends’ life…and recently one of my best friends got engaged and is planning her wedding. I was having a really hard time knowing that I was going to miss all the planning by being in Mozambique. I was really having doubts about whether or not I could stay in Mozambique for the 2 years knowing I was going to miss all of these big events. Thankfully, I have really great friends/family both at home and in Moz who put up with me during my craziness.

Someone gave me good advice last week when I was having trouble thinking about being gone for so long and whether or not I could do it. They told me that whatever I feel peace about (whether that be staying in Moz or going home early) I should follow that peace and trust in God. I have been thinking about that and praying lots these past few weeks about this and I think I finally know what I feel peace about. I know I’m missing events in America but I truly feel peace about staying in Mozambique. I was struggling with feeling like I’m not doing much at site and didn’t know how I would change things in the future. After some time….and lots of phone calls with my PCV friends I realized I need to give myself more time. I have been at site for 3 months now and I still feel like I’m just getting used to Nacucha and trying to start secondary projects—I need to give myself more time to accomplish these groups. When I am having hard days I like to read this quote to help me remember to give myself time and the courage to keep going.

“There will be good days. And there will be bad days.
There will be times when—
you want to turn around, pack it up, and call it quits.

Don’t give up at that time. Don’t quit.
Its an opportunity to prove your worth.”

Life in Mozambique gets easier when I have plans to travel home and see family and friends. Now that one of my best friends is getting married I’ll be home twice—in October (yay for fall weddings!) and in December for Christmas—it’s given me lots of things to get excited about. I’m still trying to figure out how to make all the arrangements work out with my classes and supervisor but I’ll get it done. Better talk to my nun supervisor and ask for more time off…hopefully she understands me and my Portuguese this time :) 

So all that rambling was basically just to say that I’m sorry for all my craziness lately but I’m really determined and staying these 2 years. I really want to start secondary projects and help my students learn English. I need to start these projects so I have things to look forward to outside of classes!

Anna and I have found a counterpart to start our REDES group in April. REDES is a national organization that promotes the future of women in Mozambique. The group talks about sexual health, the prevention of HIV, equality between genders, the importance of education, self-esteem, and other important themes that promote independence. I also want to start a project at the primary school or start helping out there. We have a break during the second week of April so I’m going to visit the primary school and get acquainted with the teachers and students. I miss teaching elementary aged students so I’m really anxious to get started with a project there. As far as I can tell they have no resources besides chalkboards, desks and chairs. They need lots of things and I’m hoping I can help them out with that.

Today after sitting at home grading all day and cleaning around the house, Alfredo, our Safety and Security officer from Peace Corps made a surprise visit to our house. He looked around our house, took us to Nacala to look for a hotel for him and went out for dinner to catch up. We had chicken burgers (first real meal I’ve had in a long time!) and got to update him on our site—the challenges and positives of Nacucha.

We haven’t been to Nacala in a few weeks so it was really nice to get out of Nacucha, speak English and enjoy good food. Alfredo is so nice and told us that he thought we should leave site every 2 weeks for a break. It was really nice to have a Peace Corps staff member tell us that since we don’t leave much because of transportation difficulties. Nacucha is out of the way for PC visitors so it was a really great surprise to have Alfredo show up and take us out to eat! Peace Corps really does have good timing….Anna and I were both wanting to go to Nacala and eat food besides just bread and peanut butter for a change and then out of the blue a Peace Corps car shows up outside our door. Little surprises like that show me Peace Corps really cares about their volunteers and gives us a nice change to our boring life in Nacucha.

One more week of classes and then (hopefully) a week off of school! Let’s hope I can get all my grades finished and turned in on time (whenever that is…I’m hoping the other professors can fill me in on those little details). Happy Easter! :) 

Next month is World Malaria Day so PCVs all over will be blogging about Malaria—get ready to learn some facts and stories of Malaria!  

Palm Sunday-Domingo de Ramos

This week went by quickly yet again. I tried to prepare my classes their tests next week. I also caught quite a lot of cheaters during the tests this week. I think they are scared of me now that I walk around with an orange pen and take off points every time I see them cheat. A lot of times they’ll look at me with sad eyes and just say “Teacher, no, please!” I just tell them sorry you shouldn’t have cheated…maybe next time you’ll think twice. I know I’m a tad harsh.

I found out that the Ministry of Education is coming this week and all the new teachers have to attend a mandatory training Monday-Thursday. I can’t teach any of my classes this week since I have to sit in at the meetings so this weekend I’ve been trying to prepare tests and assignments for my classes. I also just found out that we only have 1 more week left before grades are due. Seeing as how I just learned about this I do not have enough grades for some of my classes. So, this week they will be busy writing assignments for me to grade so I don’t get in trouble for not having enough grades. Oh Mozambique…if only you could give me a little bit more warning than that. :)

When I was walking into my 8^th grade class on Friday two students came up to me and asked if they could come over after classes to speak English and ask questions. Friday afternoon the two students showed up and we started speaking in English and I asked them what kind of stuff they wanted to work on. A few minutes later another student shows up and asks if they can come and talk with us….and another…and another. None of these students are in my English classes—I do know two of them from my Informatica classes though. They seemed really enthusiastic about learning English and practicing to speak. Most of them even came over on Saturday and stayed for over an hour! It wasn’t exactly an English lesson—we looked through magazines, they had questions about words they didn’t know and we just practiced speaking.

They are a really good group of students and they even asked me if I had questions with Portuguese words to write them down and they would help me with them. I think we’re going to make it a weekly thing to come over, read magazines, ask questions and practice speaking English. One of the boys, Quizito, really wants to study at a University after he’s done in Nacuxa so I want to help him practice and get better with English. Having time with these students outside of class made my week. I felt good just sitting with them speaking in English and getting to know them better. I’m excited to get to help them speak English and they are going to help me with my Portuguese and also to learn Makua!

Today was Palm Sunday in Mozambique—it was a little different than in Omaha. We started over by the seminarians’ house where they distributed palms to everyone and blessed them. Then we processed over to the church with three students in the front carrying a large cross and all the community members following with their palms. After communion a lot of the students started singing loudly in Makua (the local language) and waving their palms around. It was really nice even though I had no idea what the song was about. The music and the spirit of the people at church every Sunday reminds me a lot of Sacred Heart  :) I do miss church in Omaha a lot but it’s nice to be reminded of it by the drums and the people singing and dancing.

This week since it’s Easter we have Thursday afternoon and Friday off of school and will be having church services. I’m excited to see what Easter Sunday mass will be like—I’ll try and take more pictures! I also talked to the nun in charge of the primary school and she told me I should come over one day and check out the school. I told her in the U.S. I used to teach at a Primary school and I’d love to come over! I’m hoping one day this week or maybe when we have a break in April I can go hang out at the primary school!

Starting next month I won’t be teaching Computers anymore! I didn’t feel like a good teacher and my Portuguese really needs some work. So now I have time to practice Portuguese with my students/a tutor and won’t be teaching Informatica until next year!

Best news of the week: 268 days until I’ll be home for Christmas!!! I got my dates approved by my Peace Corps Program director (APCD) and will be traveling home December 17^th until January 7^th! I’m very excited to see everyone back home and to celebrate Christmas with my family! Can’t wait to make those Christmas cookies :)

Some pictures from the past couple of weeks....

My roommate, Anna, and Irma Sandra enjoying the hammock.

On the drive back to Nacuxa...Mozambique before the sunrise

The crianças love their new coloring books!

My room...I think I'm going to feel lost without my mosquito net when I go home.

Elsa showing off her Dora picture :) She is one of my favorite crianças!

Picture from Gurue (at my friend Hannah's site) in Zambezia 

“I Will Survive”

This week in my 11^th grade English classes we were learning about the simple past tense. I wanted to make it a little more interesting than just taking notes and doing practice exercises so I started looking online for some ideas. I came across ideas to use songs to help teach grammar topics—and of course for the simple past tense it said to use the Gloria Gaynor song, I will survive. I absolutely love that song and already had it on my iPod so I thought hey why not try it! I had no idea if I would be making a huge mistake or if the class would get out of control but I wanted to try.

I have now played it with all four of my 11^th grade classes and they loved it. Most of them even heard the past tense verbs that she said in the song. Other students just wanted to dance but that was okay too. It was funny to hear them later in the day walking around singing “I will survive”…it made me smile. One of my students requested Nicki Minaj for the next class. That is not likely to happen but they can hope!

My APCD, Assistant Peace Corps Director, came to visit my site this week and he was so kind—he brought us chocolate and ice cream! I didn’t even remember the last time I had ice cream so it was a very nice surprise. I haven’t been eating the healthiest of dinners….last night consisted of cinnamon roll oatmeal (from America!) and ice cream. 

This weekend my roommate and I are traveling to Gurue for a St. Patrick’s day party with other PCVs. I’m really excited to get together with other Moz 19ers and eat good food! I’m also happy to have a long weekend away :) 

Last week marked 3 months in Nacuxa. Some days it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long and other days it feels like it’s been much longer! I do feel pretty proud of myself for getting through these first 3 months at site. They say it is the hardest time for PCVs since you’re trying to get integrated into site, teach in Portuguese, make new friends and are still improving your language skills.

When I look at the big picture of being here for 2 years I start to get very overwhelmed…it feels like an impossible task for me to be away from my family and friends for that long. To give you some perspective I have never traveled out of the country or away from home without my family. The longest I had ever been away from home was during college….which still was probably only a month since we had lots of breaks. I’ll admit I was that kid at summer camp that would cry because I missed my mom and being away from home. It just so happened that the camp was in Omaha (my hometown), my sister was also in the camp sleeping a floor above me and yet I still made my mom and Sittee (grandma) come to see me twice during a 5-day overnight camp. Yes I can look back now and realize how lame that sounds…what can I say I was/am one weird girl.

I’ve been gone now almost 6 months and I’m pretty proud of myself that I have yet to call my mom and make her come take me home like I used to when I was a kid. Some days are hard but I have to keep reminding myself to take it day-by-day. When I look at the big picture of being away from home for 453 days before visiting at Christmas (yes I counted—don’t judge) it does make me a little sad. But when I take it a day or week at a time it seems to go faster than when I think in terms of two years.

So I’ve been taking it a day at a time and trying to think of fun things for my students to do in class. I don’t think I’ll be playing them Nicki Minaj anytime soon but I’ll try to make it interesting for them. Happy early St. Patrick’s day! I’ll be celebrating a bit early this weekend but I’ll be wearing green!

P.S. Don’t worry mom I won’t make you come and bring me ice cream and eat lunch with me like I made you do at camp. No matter how much I’d like that I think the flight would be a little pricey for a lunch date. :) 

Maggie—1 Mozambique—0

This weekend after a crazy week of school and lesson planning and confusion I decided to travel to Nampula to visit my friend and get my packages. I was really nervous to be traveling by myself and wasn’t quite sure how it would go…but surprisingly it didn’t go half bad!

The part of the trip I was most nervous about was the 15Km stretch from my site to the highway where I would catch a chapa to Nampula. Normally we don’t see many chapas driving on that stretch of road, only motorcycles. On Friday, I was able to drive with the students and professors heading back to Nacala and they dropped me off at the highway. On the ride to the highway we saw a mother with her baby fall off a moving motorcycle-we kept driving so I’m not sure if they were all right but it didn’t look good. Then 5 minutes later we saw that a student had fallen off a motorcycle as well and hurt his foot so we picked him up. Between the 15km of a washed out road and people driving way too fast on their motorcycles it can get dangerous.

Another student and I caught a chapa from this nice family to Nampula. It was dark by the time we got there and they didn’t want to drop either of us off at a random spot so they drove us both right where we needed to go! They were really nice people but I will admit I was hesitant during parts of the drive. One of the ladies I was sitting next to, Amelia, was trying to teach me some words in Makua during our drive. Of course the question of whether or not I was married/had kids came up as usual. When I said I didn’t have any kids and wasn’t married the guy driving asked if I wanted to have a baby with him….I politely told him no thanks. Later on during the drive they asked me if I liked the music and when I said yes they told me that I should sleep in the car with the driver for the night. I really don’t understand that train of thought but thankfully I think they were just joking!

During the 3 hour drive to Nampula we stopped to “passear” (hang out) on the side of the road a few times. At one of these stops the women in the family bought beer-by some miracle only they started drinking and not the driver. I was really thankful I got there without any problems and in one piece :)

Being in Nampula was so different than Nacuxa! They had actually stores that sold bread (I even bought some sliced bread)! And places where you could get chicken take-out and grocery stores with so much food it was overwhelming. And of course I was able to hang out with one of my really good PCV friends, Hannah, while I was there so it was a very good weekend!

I also got 2 care packages from my mom and one of my best friends from back home! Now I have some good American cereal and Sunday Comics I can enjoy while I lesson plan today! They were absolutely perfect and are helping to keep my sanity for a few more weeks :) Thank you Schu and Mom for those wonderful care packages!!!

The trip back to Nacuxa was a little crazy. On the way to the bus stop I needed to buy another phone charger but we couldn’t seem to find a store that sold them. Finally I asked a nice older Mozambican woman where a store was that sold phone chargers. She was so sweet and actually walked us all the way to the store and helped me pick one out then took us to where I could catch a ride to the bus stop.

I don’t practically like taking chapas out of Nampula because you have to wait a long time for them to fill up before you can actually leave. But, since I was traveling by myself I didn’t really want to try and boleia (hitchhike) alone and had no idea where to find a boleia inside the city of Nampula.

As I was sitting on the chapa waiting for it to fill up I was texting some friends when out of nowhere some guy reaches in my window and makes a grab for my phone. Thankfully, (I’m sure it was a small miracle), I held on tight and he gave up and didn’t succeed in stealing my phone! I was a little nervous after that but I shut the window (even though it was sweltering inside the bus) and waited for an hour before we actually left Nampula.

The trip went pretty fast and when I was dropped off at the highway I was trying to mentally prepare myself to have to walk 9 miles back to site if no cars drove past me. After only a few minutes walking on the road a truck passed me and then stopped. It was a car full of some nuns and a new student heading directly to my school! Seriously, I don’t think I could have had better luck with my travels yesterday! You can bet that I prayed extremely hard and am thanking God for all those miracles that helped me travel to and from Nampula safely (still with a phone and without walking 9 miles)!

At least now I have another traveling experience under my belt and hopefully won’t be as nervous next time. Now to crack down and lesson plan for the week….maybe I’ll treat myself to a Nutty Bar from one of my packages! :) Happy March!