A cidade depois do mato!

Title translation: The city after the bush!

So, I am in Maputo. Why, you might ask? In short, I am Mary's escort. In long......

It all started Thursday morning. Mary had been feeling unwell, but she's been sick a lot, and was talking with our PC med staff, so I wasn't too concerned. But then I heard some very strange noises from her room, and rushed over to investigate. To my immense alarm her whole body was convulsing violently with her eyes rolled back into her head, and she was making a strange choking noise. She didn't respond whenI touched her or called her name, and no one was picking up the med staff phone when I called....she really looked like she was dying hollywood style, and I've never been so terrified in my life. As the panic set in I turned Mary on her side and sprinted for MedicusMundi, the NGO conveniently located across the lane from my house. Outside was Patricia, who does logistics there, but is actually a Spanish doctor. So, responding rapidly she ran back with me, calling for the others to bring a car. So they carried Mary to the car, and off we rushed to the hospital. As we were getting her out of the car our med staff called me, and started a dialog with Patricia that continued throughout the day. Dr. Alec, the Russian doc from MedicusMundi, was the attending physician and he came promptly. By this point Mary's convulsions had slowed, and she started to become aware of her surroundings. She was extremely confused, not knowing where she was or what had happened. Patricia and Dr. Alec took fantastic care of her, and I was really impressed by the level of care that they were able to provide in the-middle-of-nowhere Africa in a town with no electricity or running water. They ascertained that she didn't have malaria, and made sure the generator was running long enough to do some blood tests, printing out a surprisingly sophisticated receipt with white count, graphs, etc. Mary was moved to a private room (prob. the only one) in the women's ward, and I stayed with her until she was discharged at the end of the day and Dr. Alec gave us a ride home. I don't know if my standards have just gone down, but the hospital conditions were pretty good. Granted we knew all the docs and probably got better care and attention than anyone else. You had to bring your own water to drink and bathe, and buckets if you need to use the "bathroom''. But, they provided food (xima and beans for lunch and rice and beans for dinner) though you had to provide your own plates and silverware, and everything was pretty clean, I only saw one cockroach (the little ones don't bother me anymore).

So, Friday Peace Corps told us to get ourselves to Nampula to fly down to Maputo. (Very conviently someone else from MedicusMundi was catching the same flight) They didn't want mary traveling alone, so here I am! Thank goodness I have competent doctors a one minute sprint from my house! I don't know what I would have done if I really were out in the bush. So very glad this happened now that my Portuguese is pretty good. Answering medical questions and translating back and forth would have been a lot harder a few months ago...

So, now they will run some tests, see how mary is and decide 1. If she can stay in country and 2. If she can return to site. There's a pretty good chance that I'll lose my site mate, as they may well want to keep her closer to more sophisticated medical facilities. Oy. Alone in the bush. Not a prospect I relish. But if that's what happens C'est la vie, mary needs to be where she's going get proper care if she has another seizure, and I have plenty of projects to keep me occupied. Not only do I have my Bio classes, but my students also want English classes, so I'm going to start teaching english informally, plus the other teachers want their own english class. And we want to work on getting some more books for town library. The two things they really need are textbooks in Portuguese, and reading material in English. The latter I think we'll be able to help with without any difficulties. Let me know if you want to send anything our way! I will be able to use the Administration's P.O. Box in town both for this and for personal mail, so if you want my new address, send me an email or ask my mom. I was actually rather impressed by their collection of portuguese novels--maybe 50 in all, and including two Harry Potter books, the Wizard of Earthsea, some Shakespeare and even Don Quixote. Am 2/3 of the way through Harry Potter e o Prisoneiro de Azkaban, my very first book in Portuguese.

So, that's ''mas ou menos'' the state of affairs here. I fly back into Pemba tomorrow, and already have a ride back to site from there. I treated myself to a lovely Thai lunch, and will soon indulge in an obscene quantity of ice cream. Then I think I'll buy some balsamic vinegar. It's the little things in life....I'll probably check internet (a free hotel internet!) again tonight and tomorrow morning, and then again next weekend when we have our first IST (in service training) in Nampula. I hope to get things back on track at site (I was supposed to give my first exam Thurs/Fri, but that obviously didn't happen), and will keep hoping that Mary is well enough to come back.

It's amazing how BIG Maputo seems to me now. The first day I arrived I remember thinking "this dinky airport is for the capital city?" but now it's ''WOW they have a control tower and everything!'' and the city just seems to have EVERYTHING. Will probably die of shock when I get back to a U.S. city, because the rational part of my mind keeps reminding me that maputo really has about the equivalent of small-town america :) A GROCERY STORE! Wow! Ok, enough for now. Ice cream time....

School!

Homework will be the death of me. I graded 6 out of 7 turmas' homeworks (about 450 out of 525 kids) and it took me all week....this involved collecting all their notebooks where i have them write their TPC (trabalho para casa) every day. The tricky part is my gigantic backpack can only carry one turma of notebooks at a time, and everyone always thinks i'm traveling ''a senhora professora, esta a viajar?'' no! just carrying notebooks! Oy. So I am limited to two turmas a day, doing one in late afternoon at school after teaching, and taking the other stack home to do in the morning. Each turma took between two and three hours. I still don't have class rolls (they'll be finalized monday) but my class average is probably around 75, maybe as high as 85.

I've been ploughing through the material with determination, from procariots and eucariots to types of tissue. It's tricky to get the kids to actually think about and internalize the material, but it's easy to engage them with silly little things. They gasp and giggle when i wiggle my nose talking about cartilage, which they've never heard of, and i feel satisfied when i see them fingering their own noses with pensive looks on their faces. Ah, the analogies i've had to some up with to make these abstract concepts real to them (bacteria in the body like weeds in their machambas, etc.).

Overall they're well-behaved, funny kids. Only Turma 2 is a headache, making fun of my Portuguese if I make some silly little mistake like dois (masculine 2) instead of duas (feminine 2). It irritates me because my written Portuguese is already far better than theirs, even though I'm not as conversant as they are. I was rather appalled by their lack of fluency when I graded homeworks! But most of my turmas are a lot of fun, and i can play around with them without them getting too out of hand, and they love trying to impress me with their English, giving me lots of examples like snake and monkey when i ask for organisms from the Reino Animal (animal kingdom)--they would all love me to teach them Biology in English, maybe I'll start a bio in english club alongside the science experiment club I had been thinking about (labs don't exist here, and i'll have to be creative with my resources!)

I'll be giving my first test next week, and am already alarmed by the prospect of rampant cheating with 75+ kids crammed in three to a desk. I'd make different versions of the test within each class, but photocopying in the city would cost a fortune alas. At least I can make a different test for each turma, as talking between class is extremely common. If you ever thought cheating was bad in the U.S. imagine the difference in a Collectivist culture and not an Individualist culture....there is no spirit of competition or ''beating'' your classmates to discourage what they just consider ''sharing''.

On to a different subject. I have been prancing around with delight as things have started to sprout in my garden. The squash, corn and watermellon i planted outside is looking very happy, and some of the tomatoes and herbs that i'm starting inside as seedlings are beginning to show some stirrings of life, although this morning i planted some tomato, pepper, and various herbs outside to see how the outside world treats them (as the squash, etc., has been so enthusiastic). Lets just hope they never actually finish the teacher housing they've been building--this is probably a long way off, and mary and i plan to fight for the house we're in particularly for the tile roof, which is the only reason we haven't died of heat exhaustion. I laughed when i read mummy's comment in an email cautioning about tomato seeds having trouble if the temperature drops below 70......I don't forsee that for a few months, the very thought of such cool weather is alien to us here!

Well, I suppose that's enough for now. We have our first IST (In Service Training) in two weeks in Nampula, so I'll not only get back to internet but have all your lovely mail and packages delivered, so thanks in advance!
Special Email thanks to: Mummy, Daddy, the lovely Laura, Connie girl, Uncle Jon, and Victoria. Keep the email and snail mail coming as it is what keeps me sane!

xx

Laura

Lions and Tigers and Students Oh My!

Jan 25, 2007
A third of a year. That´s a long time. It doesn´t feel like I´ve been away for quite so long.

As I draft this entry I am sitting on the verandah of my house. It is pouring rain, ans so it is FINALLY cool enough to make tea and teh Christmas pudding and custard that clever Uncle Dave sent! Ah the bliss of being cool, almost cold. Most days we just sweat. We have become adept at moving very little and sitting so that the most surface area is exposed. And still the sweat pours off of us every waking moment and most sleeping moments.....It´s a very cool night when i want a sheet over me. But, only one more month of blistering heat, another of uncomfortable heat, and then it should become tolerable. I think winter here will be lovely, like a pleasant spring day.

Mary and I have gradually settled into our town. Our market vendors say there will be a lot more next month when the heat slacks off--cabbae(!!) lettuce(!) local tomatoes(!). Plus we´ve found one of them who goes weekly to Nampula to bring tomatoes, so we´re arranging for him to bring us more extremely exciting things like eggplant, papaya, carrot and cucumber. We´re finding that as we get to know more people in town there is a lot more at our disposal--I´ve been able to track down a number fo things not sold in the market including tongs for my charcoal stove, much better than two sticks that continuously light on fire when i move coals!

We are still stared at everywhere we go, but there are more and more greetings of recognition. As I walk the streets there is a constant chorus of "Bom Dia Senhora Professora" or even "Professora Laura"! The guys in the market know us well now, and Mary has a running joke with them that I´m her wife. They´re highly amused but not 100% sure she´s joking so it´s laughter tinged with shock, as homosexuality is not widely accepted here--although the teachers in our school were all passing around "A Homosexualidade Feminino" a book of interviews of Portuguese lesbians--this is the first book that I´ve seen in my town outside my own books.

Finally having a schedule and a routine will be nice and teachign should be both challenging and rewarding--finally doing what i came here to do! The next few weeks should bring many changes.

Continued Feb 1, 2007

The two weeks proceeding school we spent hours every day organizing stacks of student files into turmas (a turma is a group of kids who have all their classes together), they are separated by grade and then by age, and then alphebetized. Then the names are written out by hand with carbon paper to make copies (no electricity = no photocopiers)....a tedious process.

The Saturday before school started I learned what grade I´m teaching (8th, human body!) and received my teaching materials: a pencil, a notebook, a blue pen, a red pen and a box of chalk. No books, nada. Good think i have my own copies of the curriculum and the 8th grade text book along with the US book that Lauren gave me which supplements the new parts of the curriculum that aren´t in the text book, but which I´m still expected to teach....oy.

Monday, the day before class started I learned when during the week I´m teaching (afternoons mon-fri) and how many turmas (7).

I have now succesfully completed my first week of school, and have given my Intro lesson plus the first (and smallest) unit. Next week I start on A Posicao do Homem no Reino Animal. My seven turmas will each have between 70 and 80 kids, though only a between 45 and 60 showed up in each class the first week), and they range in age from Turma 1 of all 14 year olds, to Turma 7 with 18-19 year olds. They want to know how old I am and laugh when I tell them I am 88 and exclaim "Nao e!" The kids are friendly and so far under control, let´s hope it stays that way! Wish me luck! I was surprised how easy it was to teach 60 kids....we´ll see how it is with 80 next week. I assigned homework for monday.....we´ll see what i´m getting myself into, as one assignment means over 500 papers to grade.....oof.

Thanks to all for your love and encouragement. Three sets of PC staff visits brought lots of mail and packages:
Packages: LOTS from fabulous Mummy, two from uncle Dave, and one each from Grandma, Auntie Marie, Uncle Jon and Marie Hewitt. Twizzlers and m&m´s were a gift from the gods
Letters: Mummy, Daddy, Trev, Laura, Marie, Frank & Lisette, Emily, Travis (postcard from Thailand!) and Uncle Jon.
Emails: Mummy, Uncle Jon, Trev, Erin, Daddy and Sarah P.
Many thanks to all of you! I´m sorry I never have time to properly express my thanks.

Lots of love,

Laura
ps. We have successfully made: chocolate chip cookies, carrot cake cookies and choc chip banana bread, all on CARVAO! We have been grinning like idiots, and planning our next brilliant experiment. Alas we´re almost out of the chocolate chips that mary got in her last package, but we´ll make due. Too bad marshmallows don´t exist out here, they´d be fun to roast over the stove :)