Sunday, April 26, 2009














































Hi all! All is well here in Mozambique. I finished up with my first trimester of teaching 2 weeks ago (YAY!) and that was quite the learning process...it was very frustrating to be a part of the test giving and grading because I had no idea what I was doing! I had to pester my fellow teachers to explain. Eventually, I got the hang of it. It just makes me all the more excited for second trimester because I'll know what we're supposed to be doing. We had 2 weeks of "vacation" that wasn't really vacation at all...the first week we were doing grades. This involves the directors of turma getting together and exchanging grades. For example, I'm director of turma 8-10 (eight grade, group 10), so I had to collect all of the students grades for every subject (chemistry, physics, biology, math, Portuguese, history, English, physical education and geography). All of our grades are recorded by hand on charted paper. I then had to transfer all of their grades onto a huge piece of paper called a "pauta." It's about the size of A4 paper in the states. After all of 8-10 grades were recorded the fun part began. I had to figure out how many males passed, how many females passed, how many males/females failed, how many scored between 0-4, 5-9. 10-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18-20. Then I had to figure out the percentages for all of these. 60% of my turma did not pass the trimester...not really too shocking considering their course load. Anyway, I learned a lot that week and I must say it's my least favorite week of the school year. Well, that and controlling the ACP (trimester finals). That was pretty awful. I had to control the turma that I'm director of and they all cheated so much...I think I took it personally because I'm closer to that turma than my others so every time I caught them cheating (I caught the same student cheating 3 different times in ONE test) I felt like they were deceiving me directly. I obviously can't take that approach next time- much too stressful.
During the last week of break I was helping out at a Peace Corps conference with the groups REDES and JOMA. These are groups started by Peace Corps volunteers that are throughout Mozambique. REDES, which stands for Raparigas em Desenvolvimento, Educacao e Saude (Young Girls in Development, Education and Health) is just for young girls. It's about gender equality, dealing with gender issues, and HIV/AIDS awareness. The girls made dolls for orphans, baked cake, we discussed their relationships, safe sex, etc. JOMA is, now, for boys and girls. This was the first year that girls were allowed at the conference. The JOMA groups are journalism, photography, theater and art. The focus is also on HIV/AIDS and gender equality. JOMA stands for Jovens para Mudanca e Accao (Kids for Change and Action). It was a really fun experience and I plan on being more involved with the programs this coming year. I'm trying to start a journalism group at my school so we would have a school newspaper! I'm also doing an English club which is going pretty well. Some of the teachers at my school are coming to the meetings. :)
I have my computer now (thanks, Mom!!) so that has made my life SO much easier. I've made spreadsheets for all my turmas and that makes grading a lot more simple. It's also nice to have ways to take other peoples music and movies...I was getting a little tired of reading. There's Peace Corps software that helps with grading, class schedules and learning local dialects so that's been really nice.
I had quite a scare 2 weeks ago...someone tried to break into my house...when I was home. As my Dad can testify, I was a wee bit freaked out (that's a lie- I was INCREDIBLY freaked out). The guy tried to just open my door! I blew my air horn and yelled out, in Portuguese, that I had a gun and was calling the police. He continued to loiter around my yard for a couple hours. I finally went to sleep around 23:00 and when I woke up and examined my yard I saw that he had tried to get in my bedroom window after I had gone to sleep. Very creepy. I haven't had any incidents since then, though. I sleep with my air horn tucked under my pillow now and my front door is always locked even if it's midday. So, no worries.
Oh! Some random tid-bits of information: I saw a wild monkey last week! My first since arriving in Africa. It was running across the road as I was riding in a crazy safari jeep. Very cute! Also, as I'm sure most of you already know, my WONDERFUL Dad and LOVELY Gail are flying me home for Christmas 2009. I'm excited to come home and recharge before my second year.
Ok, well I'm signing off. Please keep writing (or start)! I miss you all very much and hope all is well back home.
Beijos! Tchau.
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