Saturday, October 22, 2005
my first post!
Hey guys,
This is the first chance I've had to write in our blog (two weeks ago the internet died before i had a chance to even check the blog). But, Paul's been doing a good job writing about our experience. So far, everything is going really well. Everything that we do is new and interesting. For example, just the other day we found a foosball table (futbolin), and decided to play. Suddenly more than a dozen Mozambican kids appeared out of nowhere to play against us, and watch us play (they even cheered for us, it was pretty cool). I guess you kinda had to be there, but it was a highlight of my stay here.
The town where we live (Boane) is a really nice town, the people are amazingly nice (and they go out of their way to be nice too). I don't really want to repeat myself from what Paul wrote, but it's cool to be greeted by everyone when i walk to class (sometimes in english, sometimes portuguese, or sometimes shangana - the local language). And although Peace Corps emphasizes on being smart about your safety (never go alone, don't go out at dark, etc), i feel really safe in Boane. The only unsafe part is walking in the dark, but not because of someone attacking me (or "ninjas" as they call them here), but because I can't see a thing, and i might fall.
Anyhoo, the weather here (since you asked Daddy) is really weird! We never know when it's gonna be unbelievably hot, when it's gonna be cold (i actually wore my coat the other day), when it's gonna rain (every morning it looks like its gonna rain, but so far, it rained one day), when it's gonna be really windy (Boane is really dusty, so windy kinda sucks)... But it's funny, because, every morning we wake up (at 5:30am!!!!!!!!!!!), and it looks like a cool, rainy day. But, once we get to 10am, it can be really hot, and then at around 16:00, it can be really windy, etc. Mozambicans say that they have every season in one day, and it's true.
Changing the topic a little, we've been writing a lot of lesson plans. I dont know if Paul told you, but in a couple of weeks, we're doing something called "model school", in which we will teach a real class, and have other volunteers, PC people, trainees evaluate it. So, now, we've been practicing on lesson plans. I find it really hard, especially since i have no idea what level my students will be, so i'm not sure if my lesson plan is way easy, or way hard. I'll be teaching 8th, 9th and 10th grade, and they say that sometimes you have 50 students in a class!!! I think model school will be pretty cool, but intense.
Aright, i think i'm done for today (tomorrow we're also coming to Maputo, so i can write some more). I hope you are all doing well and healthy.
Love,
Eli
This is the first chance I've had to write in our blog (two weeks ago the internet died before i had a chance to even check the blog). But, Paul's been doing a good job writing about our experience. So far, everything is going really well. Everything that we do is new and interesting. For example, just the other day we found a foosball table (futbolin), and decided to play. Suddenly more than a dozen Mozambican kids appeared out of nowhere to play against us, and watch us play (they even cheered for us, it was pretty cool). I guess you kinda had to be there, but it was a highlight of my stay here.
The town where we live (Boane) is a really nice town, the people are amazingly nice (and they go out of their way to be nice too). I don't really want to repeat myself from what Paul wrote, but it's cool to be greeted by everyone when i walk to class (sometimes in english, sometimes portuguese, or sometimes shangana - the local language). And although Peace Corps emphasizes on being smart about your safety (never go alone, don't go out at dark, etc), i feel really safe in Boane. The only unsafe part is walking in the dark, but not because of someone attacking me (or "ninjas" as they call them here), but because I can't see a thing, and i might fall.
Anyhoo, the weather here (since you asked Daddy) is really weird! We never know when it's gonna be unbelievably hot, when it's gonna be cold (i actually wore my coat the other day), when it's gonna rain (every morning it looks like its gonna rain, but so far, it rained one day), when it's gonna be really windy (Boane is really dusty, so windy kinda sucks)... But it's funny, because, every morning we wake up (at 5:30am!!!!!!!!!!!), and it looks like a cool, rainy day. But, once we get to 10am, it can be really hot, and then at around 16:00, it can be really windy, etc. Mozambicans say that they have every season in one day, and it's true.
Changing the topic a little, we've been writing a lot of lesson plans. I dont know if Paul told you, but in a couple of weeks, we're doing something called "model school", in which we will teach a real class, and have other volunteers, PC people, trainees evaluate it. So, now, we've been practicing on lesson plans. I find it really hard, especially since i have no idea what level my students will be, so i'm not sure if my lesson plan is way easy, or way hard. I'll be teaching 8th, 9th and 10th grade, and they say that sometimes you have 50 students in a class!!! I think model school will be pretty cool, but intense.
Aright, i think i'm done for today (tomorrow we're also coming to Maputo, so i can write some more). I hope you are all doing well and healthy.
Love,
Eli
# posted by Paul and Eli @ 3:00 AM 
