· Shockingly I now speak Portuguese (more or
less). I’ve even stopped saying pero instead of mas (but is different in
Portuguese than in Spanish) and am really trying to say ajudar instead of
ayudar. It’s a learning process. Am attempting to learn basic Xitswa, but this
is definitely an uphill battle.
·
In other news, my students now know what chill
out means and use it on a semi-regular basis. They also know “stop.” Not quite
as cool as “manda hollas,” but I’m working on it.
·
I am a Chemistry teacher (don’t worry, this fact
makes me laugh too). While it’s only basic chem., it’s still something I was
completely unprepared to do a year ago (plus most volunteers who are told
they’re going to be science teachers end up teaching English anyways – still
haven’t met anyone else who came as an English teacher and is now teaching a
science). Still not sure how skilled I am as a chem teacher, but at this point
if my students have finally realized that they don’t need to use their phone or
a calculator to divide 7/14, I’m a happy camper.
·
I lived with a Mozambican family for 3 months.
Really wasn’t bad (although they didn’t have Costco-sized jars of Skippy peanut
butter – thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) except for the whole lack of personal
space thing. Which I’m still not great at dealing with.
·
On a related note, I’ve eaten almost 12 pounds
of said Skippy peanut butter. This is somewhat concerning.
·
I’ve survived three rat invasions and even
managed to sleep during the last two. Also, cockroaches no longer scare me, but
I hate ants with every fiber of my being – the other day I was washing dishes,
turned around for 2 seconds and when I looked again the entire wall was covered
in hundreds of migrating ants carrying their eggs. Ew.
·
Mosquitoes suck. And I’m pretty sure I’ll end up
with whatever nasty long-term effects DEET causes. Also, putting bug spray on
right after every shower is just depressing. But I’m fairly positive that
malaria would suck more.
·
I still pretty much dance around the post office
every time I get a care package or letter (on that note, I’d love some more
letters – they only cost about one dollar to send, unless you’re Anna and
somehow get the post office to send a letter to Mozambique from Boston with
only one stamp).
·
I am on my way to becoming a master bagel maker
(Vilanculos has cream cheese! A Mozambican miracle). And I know just about
every possible sour cream substitute.
·
I’ve sat on a bus for a 27 hour journey, spent
innumerable hours on a chapa with a broken seat coil poking me in the butt, and
have become a discerning hitchhiker.
·
This past month (perhaps to make up for the fact
we didn’t have electricity for 8 days) I started getting 3G in my house (not
even sure if we have that in Sequim) – it’s not America-fast, but I did watch a
short youtube video yesterday. Woah jeez.
·
I’ve made it to nine of the eleven provinces and
been on more white sandy beaches in the last year than in the previous
twenty-two. Sorry Washington, your beaches just aren’t quite up to Moz standards.
Plus I would probably go into instant hypothermia if I stepped foot into the
Pacific.
·
I just finished my first year of teaching and am
now more or less free from school between the end of October and the end of
January (minus some days of testing monitoring). Still trying to figure out
what to do with this time so that I don’t go crazy, although I do have a number
of Kindle books as an emergency back-up.
Per usual, I miss you all (as my parents’ google voice bill
can verify). I hope the weather is beginning to get “crisp”, Starbucks’ chai
tea lattes (grande-extra-hot-no-water) and pumpkin bread is as awesome as
always, and that everything smells like cinnamon (this is my somewhat
delusional idea of what fall in America is like, as this will be the second
time I’ve missed it, please let me remain deluded). It’s starting to heat up
here, although the weather granted us a bit of a reprieve this week – it actually
got a little chilly (under 75 degrees) at night. But summer is definitely on its
way . . . with all the accompanying joys of humidity, cockroaches, MANGOS,
AVOCADOS, and drinking over 2 liters of water a day (I’m still working on this
metric thing). As long as this eight days without electricity thing doesn’t
become a trend, my trusty fan and I will most likely survive until March