Please Help Bring ENGLISH Literacy to my Wonderful Town

As my time in Mozambique winds down (I've got six months left!) I am organizing one, final project. With the help of two of my colleagues at school I am creating an English-literacy program. I need your help though to get some English books to Mozambique. Today I turn 25, and because I am so far from home and can not celebrate and spend time with my friends and family back home I am asking you to consider buying one book for my school library as my big quarter-century birthday present. It will cost you around $5 and is something I can then share with my new friends and family here in Mozambique. Please keep reading if you want to help!

Confession. I promised myself before starting my Peace Corps service that I would not be one of those people who wrote emails home asking friends and family for money. I had spent 5 years studying International Development and one thing I took away from my studies was that you can’t just give people things in order to help them, they need to have some sort of ownership of the process and feel that they worked for what they have received. This makes work more sustainable in the long run. Well, twenty-one months later, and here I am writing a blog about how wonderful it would be if all of you who are reading this would consider buying one or two books for my community library…

I consider myself to be incredibly lucky because I am teaching English in a community where people see firsthand the benefits of learning the language. Living so close to the Zimbabwean border means that many people from my village work hard to attain jobs across the border-where they have access to a better education, medical care and a general higher standard of living OR they try to get hired by many of the foreign businesses working here who prefer their employees to speak English. In short they've recognized they can be something other than a substance-based farmer. I’ve also had the benefit of working with a few very dedicated, hard-working, English teachers who are truly invested in teaching their students how to speak English, and are ecstatic about the idea of helping create a literacy program. This brings me to my project.

Vanduzi (the village where I live) is very close to Chimoio, in the center of the country, and less than an hours drive from the Zimbabwean border.

When I arrived in Vanduzi I was honestly overwhelmed by the enthusiasm people had to learn English. Outside of teaching ninth grade, I tutor a number of students from grades 10-12, and have also helped to tutor some of my colleagues who want to master the language. I have created an English club, and English theatre group and have been working with my roommate, another PCV, Thelma, to improve our school library. MY DREAM is to have around 100 English-language children’s books donated to my school library. These books would be used for general lesson plans, in my English club meetings, and most importantly, in an English-language literacy program I am setting up with one of my fantastic colleagues. The only problem is, books in Mozambique are SO EXPENSIVE, and arguably worse, English books are almost impossible to come by…this little problem here made me change my mind about begging for help from home. After speaking with other teachers and community leaders, we agreed that if the community in Vanduzi worked to fix up the library (which is a bit dilapidated and over-run) and the director donated some new book shelves/promised to ensure the school librarian looked after the books, then it would be acceptable for me to have books donated because the community would feel ownership of the program.

Students in my English theatre group, along with my colleague Derrek, the teacher I will work most with for this literacy program. He's the once smiling in the tan shirt and khakis.

So how can you help?

Through an organization called Better World Books (www.betterworldbooks.com)! Better World Books is a global bookstore that collects donated books and distributes them in areas in need to “Bring Literacy to the World.” This organization is incredible because you can essentially go on their website, search for a book (as you would on amazon) and then purchase it BUT Better World Books will pay the shipping costs. So you can go online and buy a book for under $10 (most listed below are around $7) and send it all the way to Mozambique for FREE, where I can then use this book to teach children how to read!

Here is how you can purchase the books:

1. Choose a book (or as many as you would like). I am ideally looking for children’s books because the level of literacy is so low those would be best…I’m including a list below of general suggestions but if you have a childhood favorite, please, send away!

2. Go to http://www.betterworldbooks.com and use the search bar to find the book of your choice. If applicable, choose the cheapest, used option. And please put the shipping address as…

Haleigh Duggan
Corpo da Paz
C.P. 311
Chimoio, Mozambique

3. I promise to send pictures and thank you notes from myself and my students as the project gets under way....

Thank you so much for your help and generosity!

HERE IS A LIST OF BOOKS I HAVE ALREADY RECIEVED...

Classic books that have already been purchased...
Baby Tiger Wants to Explore- Alice Greene
Beezus and Ramona- Beverly Cleary
Berstein Bears go to School
Berstein Bears Trouble with Friends
Brave Irene (Sunburst Books)
Bridge to Terabithia- Katherine Patterson
Brow Bear, Brown Bear- Eric Carle
Caps for Sale- Esphyr Slobodkvia
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl
Charlotte’s Web- E. B. White
Cheer Up, Mouse- Jed Henry
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom- Bill Martin Jr
Children’s Visual Dictionary- Jane Bun
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Clifford, the Firehouse Dog
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- Judi Barrett
Corduroy- Don Freeman
Curious George
Curious George and the Hot Air Ballon
Curious George Visits the Library
Danny and the Dinosaur- Sid Hoff
Dishey’s the Lion King
Disney’s Bambi
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
Disney’s Cinderella
Disney’s Finding Nemo
Disney’s Jungle Book
Disney’s Lady and the Tramp
Disney’s Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs
Disney’s the Three Little Bigs
Ender’s Game- Orson Scott Card
Frindle- Andrew Clements
Frog and Toad are Friends- Arnold Lobby
Goalkeeper in Charge- Matt Christopher
Going Long- David Willey
Good Times- Kristen Hall
Goodnight Gorilla
Goodnight Moon
Grimm’s Fairy Tales- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Harold and the Purple Crayon- Crocket Johnson
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes- Child’s Play
Henry And Mudge First Book
Higher than Hope- Fatima Meer
How to Eat Fried Worms- Thomas Rockwell
I Spy Letters
If You Give a Dog a Donut
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
Invictus- John Carlin
James and the Giant Peach- Roald Dahl
Madeline- Ludgwig Bemelmans
Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body- Joanna Cole
May I Please Have a Cookie- Jennifer Morris
Miss Nelson is Missing- James Marshall
Morris Goes to School (I Can Read Book 1)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins- Richard and Florence Atwater
Pickles to Pittsburg- Judi Barrett
Ramona the Brave- Beverly Cleary
Romana the Pest- Beverly Cleary
Sheep in a Jeep
The Absent Author (A to Z Mysteries)
Make way for ducklings
Amelia Bedelia (I Can Read Book 2)
The Alchemist- Michael Scott
The Amazing Spider Man
The BFG- Roald Dahl
The Boxcar Children- Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Bravest Dog Ever, the True Story of Balto- Natalie Standiford
The Cloud Book- Tomie de Paola
The Grouchy Ladybug
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C. L. Lewis
The Little Engine that Could
The Little Mouse, the Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear- Don and Audrey Wood
The Lucky Baseball Bat- Matt Christopher
The Magic Hat- Mem Fox
The Monster at the end of the Book- Sesame St.
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Rainbow Fish- Marcus Rfister
The Little Red Hen
The School Story- Andrew Clements
The Very Hungry Caterpillar- Eric Carle
The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover- Lucille Colandro
The Widwife’s Apprentice- Karen Cushman
The Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum
Thomas the Tank Engines “Big Lift and Look Book”- Rev, W Audrey
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Trucks- Slide and Find Book
Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are- Maurice Sendak
Yawn- Sally Symes

Dr. Seuss
ABC’S
Are You My Mother (P.D. Eastmen)
Green Eggs and Ham
Happy Birthday to You
Hop on Me
Hop on Pop
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now!
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
One fish, two fish, read fish, blue fish
Put Me in the Zoo (Robert Lopshire)
Sleep Book
The Cat in the Hat
The Foot Book
There’s a Wocket in my Pocket

Series:
Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events (books 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12)
The Magic Treehouse (1, 2, 4, 5, 9 and 17)

This is how my kids feel about English. Especially, Dom Carlos, the one front and center; he wants to be an English teacher and is so dedicated to studying, I can not wait to read with him, and the rest of his friends soon!

Estou a pedir a space heater in my next care package...

Hello! I am currently sitting at my kitchen table curled up in a blanket, drinking tea and eating apple pancakes…the cold season has begun here and boy is it cold! I’m not sure how I’m going to manage a Northeastern winter when I come home in December! The temperature here probably is in the low 40s at night/early mornings but because my house is just a concrete slab it doesn’t absorb sunlight very well. Last night I started to type this up and then had to stop because my fingers were so numb it was too difficult to type!

Weather aside, (which as a perk has been great for doing long runs, the cold bucket bath afterwards is torturous though!) things are going great here, busy as ever like I wrote in my previous blog about school…some exciting news though is that my town, Vanduzi, actually became a district, which basically means it is more important now governmentally. In Mozambique there are eleven provinces and each province has its only capital, and is divided into districts. It’s sort of similar to counties within a state back home. Well, prior to last week, Vanduzi, was just a post for Manica district (in Manica province). This meant that all local government and activities for my town were based in a larger town, 60k (and TWO chapa rides) away. Anytime my colleagues had difficulties with their pay, or someone wanted to open a new business in town or apply for identification papers (all local government stuff) they had to travel to Manica. And although Manica town is quite lovely, it’s a pain to travel there and always requires a full day trip. So needless to say, after hearing for over a year that my little town would be upgraded to a district it finally was!

So on Monday, May 26th Vanduzi received their new government officials, and there was a big celebration. School was canceled and most businesses were closed, even the market ladies took the morning off so that everyone could go to our town praza and celebrate. There were even trucks that brought people in from the bush, who live in very rural communities outside of town, but still within our new district lines. There were; a band (with horns and drums!) police and army members, representatives from various churches and community organizations, and of course all the important government people were present. There were also other random ex-pats (NON- AFRICANS) who Thelma and I noticed immediately and didn’t recognize at all. Side-note, volunteers also joke that you know you have been here too long when you start staring at (and pointing) at foreigners the way our community members used to goggle us. We think they might be businessmen who work in the outskirts of our district? Regardless, it was fun day full of people celebrating. Thelma and I spent the morning in the praza standing with our colleagues and listening to people’s speeches and singing, then spent all afternoon with a good friend, Sophia, her husband (who was visiting for the occasion) and their adorable baby. It was a really fun day, which also included Thelma and I teaching some friends how to make guacamole, which was a big hit!

Here are some pictures from the day, I apologize they aren’t that great but it was so crowded it was tough to get good pictures!

The crowd in our town praza.

"Ceremonial handover of the district of Vanduzi" other signs include messages about combatting HIV/AIDS and poverty now that Vanduzi is it's own district.

Some (retired) soldiers who attended the ceremony.

People came in cars, they came in trucks and chapas, they walked and they even came by TRACTOR! haha

Sophia's adorable baby Shanasia, who is just over a year old and is as happy and healthy as ever!

Last weekend, myself and another teacher took some students to Manica town so they could participate in their first ever Science fair. The event was really well organized and students from at least 8 different schools were present which was cool. Experiments varied from students making battery-operated cars, to homemade cleaning supplies…and one student even made his own peanut butter! The 11th grade student from Vanduzi placed first and will be moving on to participate in the provincial fair (the I am organizing!) in Chimoio later this month. So, overall, it was a really great day!

A student presenting his experiment.

Another student presenting his experiment about medicinal plants.

Students, teachers, and organizers of the Manica District Science Fair.

Other news from school, I’ve started meeting with students to prepare for English theatre. Although the competition isn’t until September they really want to practice, so we’ve started brainstorming ideas for the theme and have been doing some fun role-play activities. Thelma and my JUNTOS group is coming along slowly…every week we have new students at each meeting and we haven’t had more than 8 students show up so interest is still low (or students just don’t know we are meeting) but our group of kids are all polite, respectful, and intelligent students and, even more importantly, are very opinionated and interested in helping in their community. One of the girls in our group started writing a song about HIV/AIDS that the kids hope to perform at our workshop with other school groups later this month. The students are also keen to form a journalism project, so today we decided they would produce a journal/newsletter each month or so about a different issue they think others in the community should be informed about. Their first issue will feature four newsletters each about either: prevention of HIV/AIDS, how to live a healthy lifestyle with HIV/AIDS, common myths about HIV/AIDS, and how HIV/AIDS is transmitted. I’m really excited for this project because the students have taken ownership of it, I just voice my opinion every once in a while and bring the writing/art supplies for each meeting. They definitely are good leaders already!

And that’s it for now, I will be posting a blog early next week about a new library project I have started so you can look forward to that, have a great weekend everyone!