Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The goings on in rural sub-saharan Mozambique
A lot of things are happening at the same time here, most all of them good (we think). Last weekend we were at the Peace Corps regional meeting in Nampula, which was a lot of fun for us- it’s a real vacation being somewhere with hot showers and, if not good, at least regular meals. It’s also nice to see all the other PCVs and see how things are going in their sites. The recent groups of volunteers is a great group of people who seem to be doing very well in spite of some tough conditions up here in the north. We also had the ¨pleasure¨ of making two 10 hour bus trips from hell with the other zambezia volunteers. Coming back from Nampula we had to get on a bus at 4:30 am- and getting on the bus itself was a challenge since there was a small crowd of people all pushing to get onto the bus (less seats than there are people), and it was starting to rain. We managed to get our seats, but a lot of people didn’t have a space- no problems there, they just kept getting into the bus, filling the aisle until there wasn’t room to scratch your back with out touching someone. For the next ten hours the bus went over some of the worst roads in the country (technically the national highway), dirt roads which I’m sure would constitute a motor bike race track in most other countries. It started to get hot, and the windows on the bus were very small; before long we PCVs were all dripping sweat. The body heat of everyone pressed in around us added a lot to the temperature- we noticed a substantial drop once when everyone got off the bus for a break (due to a blown tire). When we got off the bus, finally, we all stank; probably, I have never smelled as bad in my life. I feel bad for everyone that had to smell us.Speaking of more pleasant things, the school has met with our missionary friends, written up, and signed a contract with them to pay for our housing for the rest of the year. We are planning on moving sometime this week. Hopefully everything works out- we’re not there yet and things have a way of not working out just as planned in Mozambique. But things do look good.
I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I think I may coach basketball. There are a lot of kids interested, the school is supposedly working on making the basketball backboards (I have seen one, although it hasn’t been paid for) and I actually received a nice leather ball from the phys ed teacher. Those of you who watched me play basketball in high school may be laughing now.
Eli and I have been working a lot with our HIV/AIDS activist group, and things are going really well. We have meetings at least once a week and are working on a lot of activities. Every Saturday we try to make a presentation from the Peace Corps Life Skills handbook. The idea is to work on behavior change, since most people know already know all the important facts about AIDS, they just don’t follow through on making safe decisions. On top of that, they’re working on making short skits about HIV/AIDS that we’ll film with Eli’s digital camera, then edit into short videos (we have a DVD of short AIDS films which they’ve watched for inspiration). I’m training a group of kids to do photography; in April I’m taking 2 kids and another teacher to Chimoio for a JOMA boys’ conference (I went last year, remember?) where the micro project this year is photo-journalism. It should be really interesting! Eli is also preparing to take 2 girls to the girls’ conference in April. There are a lot of other little side projects, and the kids seem genuinely interested. We have between 20-25 kids most days.
Eli is pretty bummed out because the school just got a new history teacher, who took all the history classes she had. She’s only teaching English now, but having had a taste of history she prefers that a lot more than English! (Despite that, she hasn’t shown much interest in my history books… I’m reading one about the naval build-up to World War one that’s pretty good).
Our cell phone tower is finished- however we’ve heard from a reliable source that it will take 4-6 more weeks for them to actually activate the tower. So expect late April.
I’m including some pictures from one of the classrooms that has almost no desks for over 80 students. This was after all their classes for the day were over, so many of them had gone home before I got there with my camera. Last time I gave an exam at least 33 students were sitting on the floor and 13 more were sitting on top of desks but didn’t actually have a chair (you can see a lot of the desks are broken). It almost makes me feel bad for stealing a desk to use as a kitchen counter in my house.
The first picture (above) is the school bell.# posted by Paul and Eli @ 2:05 AM 
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Sounds like you guys are doing great there. I'm just glad I wasn't around to smell you when you got off that chapa! Also can't understand why Elisabeth would not be interested in your book on the naval build-up to WWI - or was it II? - oh well, on of those big wars, anyway - gripping stuff, I am sure!! But then, I liked Gone with the Wind, so who am I to say :)) Love, Renée
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