Adventures in Africa

THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE MINE PERSONALLY AND DO NOT REFLECT ANY POSITION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT OR THE PEACE CORPS

Name:
Location: Mozambique

I will be in Mozambique with the Peace Corps for the next 27 months. While in Africa, I will periodically post thoughts about my experiences so anyone interested can keep tabs on my happenings.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Hi all. Sorry it's so long since I wrote. Now that my life has settled into some normalcy I don't always feel like I have a whole lot to say. Today isn't really different, but I have been reminded by my mother a few more times than I would like, to update, so I will do my best to come up with some interesting information.
Everything is going well. I love teaching, but like I always say, it really is a lot of work. By the time Friday night comes a long I am really looking forward to the few days that I have off on the weekends. My weekends are usually no less busy, but at least I don't have to worry about making a bunch of lesson plans. I guess the worst part about teaching for me is the discipline. It is obviously important to discipline students and to set expectations for good behavior, but that is also the part that is the least enjoyable for me. I really do not like kicking students out of class, or calling students out when they are bad. In a perfect world the students would all be angels, hang on my every word, and be really excited about learning. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is a lot I can do to make the lessons exciting, and distract the students who are less then thrilled to be at school, by giving them something fun to do, but it does get hard at points. So that is the bad. The good is I really do love my students. Most of my students. I spend a lot of time with them, and I don't think that they are used to having a lot of teachers or adults that do that, so I think a lot of them appreciate me. They want to be around me, and that of course makes me feel good. Yesterday I organized a few soccer games for students of the different 8th grade classes so I spent all morning with them. On the sidelines I had some of the students teaching me Xitswa (okay, trying to teach me), so that was entertaining for them. It is nice for them to get to laugh at their teacher and to have the tables turned on who is teaching who. Of course they teach me a lot every day, but not in such an obvious way. So Xitswa is really difficult. The prununciation is different then any European language, and it is also not really written because it was always an oral language. I'm not great with languages anyway, but I think if I can learn a little they will see I am making an effort. The reason this came about is because as we were sitting on the sideline, and I kept telling them to stop speaking Xitswa because I couldn't understand anything they were saying. This is the language that they grow up with, and it is comfortable to them, so, they decided a better idea was just to teach me. Well it will be a project over the next couple of years.
My roomate and I have tried to plant a garden in our yard. I fear it is faling.... miserably... The problem is, first, that we live in a sand pit. Vilankulo is all sand, which would be okay if we put some sort of fertilizer down before we planted, but of course we didn't. So, while my neighbors gardens are growing really fast and starting to produce fruit, ours is just staying pretty small and not doing much growing whatsoever. I have learned my lesson though for next time... I could probably actually save it by putting something down in the sand, but I will admit I am a bit lazy at this point and have kind of given up on the thing. We still water at morning and night, but that may eventually be stopped too. We do have a ton of pineapple plants in the yard though, and those should be having their first fruits in the summer (maybe starting in November) so that will be nice.
My students are also writing letters to my Mom's youth group in CT. That has been a lot of fun. My Mom's students sent letters from the United States with pictures and the students really loved them. They have been having a fun time trying to write them back. Some of the things that they think to say are really funny. Specifically, two of my boys have big crushes on two of my Mom's blond students, so they are writing asking questions about them to their male penpals... harmless of course, but really entertaining. I think that it is really helping some of them improve their english though, and they are getting to use English in a useful way, so a lot of them are really enjoying the project.
Last thing, I am officially coming home at the end of November. I will be flying in to JFK on the 23 of November and leaving on the 4 of January... plenty of time to pack in lots of visits. Kate (my sister) gets married Dec. 1 and after that I am planning on seeing lots of friends and family, going to some movies, eating good food, and enjoying my Aunt Susie's Christmas Eve dinner that I missed last year. I can't wait!
I hope all is well at home. Happy Father's day, and happy graduation to Emily and lots of others. This is always a fun time of year back in CT. I am definitely thinking about all of you. Email me with interesting things going on in your lives if you have time, as I always enjoy hearing news from home. Take care!