Thank you, thank you, thank you to Mrs. Strayer at Thomas Jefferson Middle School and my parents and everyone else who donated books. Over 400 books, cassettes, magazines, and other resources are catalogued and tagged. Things often take a long time here, and in that line we´re still working on negociating a fitting space for this marvelous collection so that we can have a grand opening. But already we´ve let students use some books. It´s awesome to see how some students devour the books. Books here are expensive, so our students haven´t had the same experience as me and Jesse who grew up surrounded by books (and we still love and devour them, especially the great ones in this collection!). Jesse and I will let you know when we find a good room for the books and then we´ll request even more when visitors come. If you´re in college, please tell your classmates to save their education methodology textbooks and other books as they´re difficult to come by here.
We have successfully completed our first semester of teaching in Mozambique! Soon we´ll have a couple weeks of winter vacation before the second semester begins at the end of July. (By the way, our winter here is in the upper 60s. It´s perfect.) I feel like we´ve done a lot this semester.
Jesse´s journalism group posted the first official edition of their newspaper last week. Students swarmed the bulletin board to read it as it was put up. Five articles addressed the critical issue of the school needing to feed the students well. Other articles educated about health issues, community events, and there was even a culture/arts section with poems and humor.
My REDES group developed a core of interested women who are enthusiatic to continue next semester. We´ve bonded with baking banana bread, a dance party, etc and talked about issues like women´s bodies and reproductive health. They´re aware of information to share with their students. It was eye-opening for me to see how important it is to educate and talk openly about potentially taboo issues because girls really don´t know things if they´ve never been told.
Jesse has begun an English Theatre group. They are developing a script on the theme of HIV/AIDS, and will prepare to compete in the Peace Corps organized competition in September.
We´ve hooked a bunch of students on Frisbee. We had a listening class activity about the rules of Ultimate Frisbee and Jesse is meeting students regularly to practice and form an Ultimate Frisbee team. Frisbee is such a great game because it just takes a little bit of practice and anyone can join in no matter what their athletic background. So it´s a good sport where girls are on the same playing field as the guys. We want to try to give frisbees to the students on the Ultimate Frisbee team at the end of the year so that they can share the game with the communities where they´ll be teachers next year.
In other news, we got a second kitten who we named Mhaka which means Trouble in the local language. He´s cute when he´s not clawing up my leg and stealing food.
We´re continuing to enjoy cooking for ourselves and others. One day a man selling crabs walked through our backyard so Jesse got to buy some for an impromptu dinner party. But first the cats and the puppy we were pet-sitting tried to make friends with them.
Several weekends we´ve gotten to visit other Peace Corps volunteers at their sites. It´s inspiring to see what their doing and also to share experiences. For example, I´m not the only one frustrated with one particular administrator. Here is a photo with our friend Paul at his rural site.
Though classes are over, the school director is holding the students on campus to work in the gardens and clean. Yesterday we learned how to play a strategy game similar to Mancala from some of our students who had dug little holes in the sand and were taking a little break from their labor. (You can notice the piles of burning trash that they´re working on in the background of the photo.)
Jesse and I will hopefully have the opportunity to use the break to see a lot of the country by traveling North up the coast. So our next blog entry will probably be about the beauty and diversity of this big country. Thank you again for your interest and support and prayers. We´re thinking of you!
We have successfully completed our first semester of teaching in Mozambique! Soon we´ll have a couple weeks of winter vacation before the second semester begins at the end of July. (By the way, our winter here is in the upper 60s. It´s perfect.) I feel like we´ve done a lot this semester.
Jesse´s journalism group posted the first official edition of their newspaper last week. Students swarmed the bulletin board to read it as it was put up. Five articles addressed the critical issue of the school needing to feed the students well. Other articles educated about health issues, community events, and there was even a culture/arts section with poems and humor.
My REDES group developed a core of interested women who are enthusiatic to continue next semester. We´ve bonded with baking banana bread, a dance party, etc and talked about issues like women´s bodies and reproductive health. They´re aware of information to share with their students. It was eye-opening for me to see how important it is to educate and talk openly about potentially taboo issues because girls really don´t know things if they´ve never been told.
Jesse has begun an English Theatre group. They are developing a script on the theme of HIV/AIDS, and will prepare to compete in the Peace Corps organized competition in September.
We´ve hooked a bunch of students on Frisbee. We had a listening class activity about the rules of Ultimate Frisbee and Jesse is meeting students regularly to practice and form an Ultimate Frisbee team. Frisbee is such a great game because it just takes a little bit of practice and anyone can join in no matter what their athletic background. So it´s a good sport where girls are on the same playing field as the guys. We want to try to give frisbees to the students on the Ultimate Frisbee team at the end of the year so that they can share the game with the communities where they´ll be teachers next year.
In other news, we got a second kitten who we named Mhaka which means Trouble in the local language. He´s cute when he´s not clawing up my leg and stealing food.
We´re continuing to enjoy cooking for ourselves and others. One day a man selling crabs walked through our backyard so Jesse got to buy some for an impromptu dinner party. But first the cats and the puppy we were pet-sitting tried to make friends with them.
Several weekends we´ve gotten to visit other Peace Corps volunteers at their sites. It´s inspiring to see what their doing and also to share experiences. For example, I´m not the only one frustrated with one particular administrator. Here is a photo with our friend Paul at his rural site.
Though classes are over, the school director is holding the students on campus to work in the gardens and clean. Yesterday we learned how to play a strategy game similar to Mancala from some of our students who had dug little holes in the sand and were taking a little break from their labor. (You can notice the piles of burning trash that they´re working on in the background of the photo.)
Jesse and I will hopefully have the opportunity to use the break to see a lot of the country by traveling North up the coast. So our next blog entry will probably be about the beauty and diversity of this big country. Thank you again for your interest and support and prayers. We´re thinking of you!
