April 12

The weather is changing here in Gondola, and since I am in the southern hemisphere it is getting colder (I apologize for the geography lesson). I always use a blanket at night these days – and on several occasions I have felt the need to wear a sweatshirt.

I am currently at the halfway point of the two-week school holiday that falls between the first and second trimesters. The trimester ended with the archaic system of writing down everyone’s grades in at least three different places (first in pencil than over the pencil in pen) this is necessary because the computer (or really any type of machine that is conducive to efficiency) has failed to reach central Mozambique in force. You can imagine how long this system takes with 400 students. The end of the trimester is also the time when you get students trying to bribe you with a Fanta to give them a passing grade, or colleagues (almost always male) asking you to change the grade of a student (almost always female) for whatever reason (almost always because they are sleeping together). All those aside, there were some positives that came out of the first trimester. For instance, there are some students who really understand, care about, and are willing to study what I am teaching. These students earned good grades and it is these students whom I focus on when I think about what I am doing here and whether I am actually making any impact.

Prior to the end of the trimester I took some days off from teaching and attended my Peace Corps Regional Conference (for the central region of Mozambique). I got to stay in a hotel, take hot showers and eat meat at least twice a day – it was glorious. I received training in education and project development as well as a refresher course on Peace Corps Policy. It was also an opportunity to socialize with my fellow PCVs . We had an 80s party (it is really easy to have 80s parties here because almost all the clothes in the markets are donations from developed countries – mostly the US). When I walk around town I might see an 80-year-old grandmother wearing a shirt touting the 4-H fair in Crawfordsville, Indiana or 25-year-old guy wearing a girl’s soccer uniform from Towson, Maryland. The bottom line is that it is easy to find 80s gear in the market so we had some excellent costumes.

I mentioned before that I had just completed my first week of holiday. My roommate and I decided to spend our week on a trip to Tete. Tete is the province directly north of Manica (my province) in Mozambique and widely considered to be one of the hottest and least attractive tourist destinations in all of Southern Africa. Tete City itself is considered by some to be the hottest city in the world (in terms of year-round mean temperature). We knew all of this prior to planning our trip – and we still wanted to go. It turned out to be an interesting trip – Tete City (though very hot) is currently awash in money, (apparently the province is floating on coal and Brazilian and Australian mining companies have recently leased large plots of land). It was unlike any other city I have seen in Mozambique – in terms of modern buildings and amenities. We also visited Lago (Lake) Cahora Bassa where we hung out with Nick the Afrikaner fishing lodge manager and Gary the Zimbabwean Crocodile Hunter (this guy actually hunts crocodiles). While on the lake, we were surrounded by hippos and crocodiles and a variety of exotic African birds. It turns out hippos are the most dangerous animals in Africa and since I am not a fisherman – the hippos made fishing exciting for me.