October 2, 2016
Okay. Admittedly, I have a lot to get through in this update.
1st this was a rollercoaster of a week for me! I had a good, a bad and a bad that turned out pretty okay kinda week.
First, the bad. (Duh-duh-duh) I had to do my 1st lesson this week on Meioses… in PORTUGUESE. To begin with, science is often difficult to explain in English; the difficulty only compounds with the language barrier. Secondly, I was told the week before while planning my lesson that it was a 10 minute lesson… On the day of my presentation, mere moments before presenting, I found out it was actually only a 5 minute lesson. Let’s recap. I’m explaining a somewhat difficult science topic in a foreign language (where I had to practice and memorize things I wanted to say to get all of the information across) and, now, I’m on a time crunch with said explanations and memorizations…. Long story short, my first lesson was whelming at best.
Second, the bad turned good. We had our first oral language exam this week. I was resting confident that I was going to do fairly well, since I was certain that I had been improving in Portuguese. I reviewed all of my verb tenses, rehearsed all of my newly acquired vocabulary, and recited some common phrases I was sure would buy me time to think during the interview. I showed up to a smiling staff member (who was very nice by the way), who, little did I know, was about to mentally pummel me. He began by asking me what I majored in in college. Neurosceince. Then he said to describe why the field was so unique. Ummmm…. We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post reading with the following Peace Corps Mozambique broadcast: We join our favorite goofy-white kid protagonist navigating his way through Struggle City at the intersection of something hard to explain with minimal Portuguese knowledge while trying to avoid a head on collision with the semi-truck of utter failure… Nonetheless, the results came in and, though I was certain I was run over by said semi truck of utter failure, I passed my language exam. (Can you say RE-LIEVED?)
Lastly, the good! I got to go to an orphanage for half a day to learn about informal and non formal education techniques. We taught the kids probably the worst translated version of the Hokey-Pokey in the history of existence. But, they loved it! Also, they shared some of their sing-song games with us, and I must say some of them really touched my heart. They incorporated giving hugs and bowing out of respect to one another as integral parts of some of their songs. It felt like such an open and welcoming environment.
That day, I was the first pick in soccer! At last, I was finally being recognized as the paragon of soccer prowess…. Wrong! They chose me because I was the biggest and could take up more space in the goal making it harder for the other team to score… oh well. It was a good time either way.
The most tender part of the day for me came at breakfast time. All of the kids sat aligned in rows to receive their portion of the meal. There were two kids with mental disorders who wanted more food after they eagerly scarfed down their serving. It was uplifting to see a multitude of kids offer parts of their meal to these two individuals. It was refreshing for me to see the love and support shown to their peers despite their differences. It appeared that each of the children was valued as a contributing members making up their community. I don’t know that I wrote sufficiently for this experience, but either way it really warmed my heart.
Today also marks the end of my first month in Mozambique!! And, I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about the sense of accomplishment I feel when I can proudly say I have completed one month of this 27 month journey. Finishing one month makes this experience feel that much more attainable when 27 months seemed way to daunting in the past.
MOZ likely to sunburn 