Graduation Day

It’s been about a month since I last posted and boy has it been busy! School started two weeks ago and my new schedule has me teaching every day—22 hours each week. Thankfully, I have Tuesdays and Thursdays free in the afternoons so I can go to the primary school and start the library/keep it open then. I’m no longer teaching my favorite English turma and miss those students. This semester I’m teaching the English classes for the new Lab Tech program that just started in Nacuxa. All the students seem to really be interested in learning English—it’s been fun being able to get to know all the new students in that program.

Last Saturday was Graduation day here in Nacuxa. Classes were cancelled Thursday afternoon and Friday so the students could clean up the school for all the visitors. The graduation started in the morning and last all afternoon. The graduates all got sashes and diplomas. I was surprised by how many people were at the ceremony—it wasn’t just students but a lot of families came for their children. There were also a lot of chefes present—the ministry of education was there as well as important people representing the diocese of Nacala and TV1 (the Mozambican news channel) all came to the graduation.

Most of the ceremony reminded me of a graduation from high school in the States. The students received their diploma and a sash, student speakers and they had some cultural activities—two student groups performed a theater piece and they had a few groups perform dances. After the ceremony there was a lunch for the students, their parents, professors and the important visitors. Anna, the 7 Boy Scouts from Portugal and I helped serve the students and visitors. It was a mad house trying to serve everyone platters of chicken, goat, salads, rice and cake! The day ended with Anna and I hanging out with Irma Sandra eating chicken and cake in the kitchen and drinking a beer together.  It was a really fun day!

Some of the graduating students and the graduation banner

Just one of the cakes Irma Sandra made for the party 

One of the cultural dances performed by my students

Padre Eugenio giving out the diplomas 

Just some of the family, friends and students present for the graduation

This Thursday we had some visitors come to Nacuxa. Our Country Director and the Program Coordinator for EGRA came to visit to talk about the project and make a site visit. They brought Anna and I packages from America and cheese and chocolate! They took us out to dinner in Nacala and we talked a lot about the EGRA program and about life in Nacuxa. It was really nice to have visitors! 

We had another visitor on Friday…

The biggest spider I think I have ever seen--it was bigger than our hands! 

I really had thought I was getting over my fear/dislike of bugs and spiders until I saw that on our door Friday morning. Thank goodness my roommate is very kind of didn’t make fun of me. I did not want to go into our house afraid that if I walked past it the spider would jump on me. After 5 minutes standing outside the house looking like a fool I ran in while Anna stood in front of the spider. I have such a nice roommate! After class I asked my students if they could help me get the spider off the door since I was scared of it. They got a good laugh about that but they were so nice and moved it very far away. So thankfully I have such nice students and a wonderful roommate that puts up with my weirdness.

Here’s a story that will make you smile—Yesterday Anna got a visitor who asked if he could talk to her. She went outside to see what he wanted and he handed her a letter. It was a love letter he had written to her asking if she would marry him. We had no idea who this guy was and didn’t even know his name. Turns out he’s a worker at the school and comes in everyday from Nacala. I think she was pretty shocked this guy who neither of us knew was asking her to marry him in a love letter! We’ve had people propose before but never like that. Poor guy got turned down—which shouldn’t have been a surprise but I think he was hoping for a better turn out. It sure has been an interesting week! 

America bound in 2 days!! See you soon Omaha :)