First and foremost –
Happy Mother’s Day to the most wonderful mother in the world (next week)! I wish I could be
there to celebrate with you, but I guess I’ll have to make up for it next year J
We’ve just begun our
second trimester of school here in Macomia.
After provincial exams and a few days of very painful “conselhos de notas,” we were able to
take almost 2 weeks to do some traveling.
I met up with the rest of the Northern MOZ 19ers in Nampula. There were there for In-Service Training, or
“Reconnect,” which I did not take part in because a) I’d already done it in CV
and b) I needed to be here to represent myself and Eryn as directoras de turmas during the conselhos
de notas. From Nampula, 16 of us
rented a private chapa to meet the
central and southern volunteers in a beach spot called Vilankulo in Inhambane
province. The ride down was probably the
most painful 30 hours I’ve had so far in Mozambique – both physically and
mentally. 16 volunteers + 3 Mozambicans
+ a cramped car + really bad roads + a 4-hour pit stop to repair the car +
transit authorities out to make a buck off the foreigners + a distance of more
than 1200 km = the recipe for an incredibly exhausting 10-hour road trip. But…it was totally worth it. We were welcomed by nearly 70 volunteers from
the central and southern regions and spent a good 48 hours just being crazy and
catching up and finally descansando
cabeça after a slightly stressful first trimester.
We spent two days with
the rest of the volunteers and then most of them headed back to start classes
again, but since we’d traveled so far, we decided to stay a few extra
days. We relaxed on the beach, read
books, cooked delicious seafood – we made a gourmet crab meal for 3 for about
$8 – and just enjoying not being in a classroom or a car for a few days. The beach was absolutely beautiful, and since
we were staying at a backpackers we didn’t break the bank and we met some
really cool people. All were sad to leave, but we had to get back to school so
eventually it was time to make the trip back up.
The return trip took
us 5 days and approximately 10 different cars/vans/trucks/SUVs. We were lucky to be able to stay with some
PCVs on the way and had a night of relaxation (and yoga!) at a hostel in
Nampula. It was exhausting, but overall
really fun. We got to see a lot of the
country, met some cool expats and some cool Mozambicans, and best of all got to
catch up with friends that were placed far away. A highlight for me was seeing Alexandra, my
roommate from Cape Verde, albeit only for a day. But it’s nice to know we have friends near
and far.
And now we’re back to
the grind. I have to admit, I kind of
missed my students! Classes went well this week and I’m anxious to get my
English club started. That might be all
for me in terms of secondary projects, however, because I just found out that
my teaching load is moving back up to 25 hours.
We lost a P.E. teacher during the break, so I have to cover 3 more turmas of Noções de Empreendedorismo so the teacher who was teaching them can
teach P.E.
Anyway, not a very
detailed update, but since I was getting online I figured it’d be good to post
something. Can’t believe it’s already
May!
