Hello from Vanduzi

I don't know where to start, I absolutely love my new site.

The people in Vanduzi have been beyond wonderful helping me to feel welcome and at home here. My house is slowly coming along (there is still very minimal furniture but that's okay). And I started school last week and it was just great.

At school, I am teaching two 11th grade classes and one 8th grade class. My 11th graders seem to understand a pretty decent amount of my English, which is awesome. And they seem to appreciate my attempts at speaking Portuguese. Yesterday though they played a little trick on me. At around 9:30 AM yesterday, while sitting at my kitchen table going over my lesson plans I heard Amendoim growling and barking like crazy from the porch. I walked outside and saw one of my students standing there. He told me he couldn't make it to my class today but he wanted to copy my notes if possible so that he wouldn't miss the lesson. He is a really good student, he always participates and seems to understand what is going on so of course I gave him my notebook to read my notes. BIG MISTAKE. I go to class an hour later and find that none of my students were there. A few straglers were hanging outside the classroom but they explained they had already copied my notes so everyone left for the day instead of actually showing up for my lesson. So, I was in a sense schooled by my students.

Today I was tempted to give them a pop quiz on the notes but that seemed too mean, I instead lectured them a bit on coming to class and then just moved on with my lessons. Hopefully it won't happen again!

Jokes aside though I really like the school I am teaching at. My classes each have around 50 students and are much more managable than the classes I had in Guija. Every child always has a seat to sit in and the blackboards are big so I can write lots of notes for them to copy. I haven't given any tests yet though so I can't be too optimistic about everything but I'd say for now, work is going great.

The teachers at my school are so nice too. The first few days that I was in Vanduzi many of them came to my house to introduce themselves. Since classes have started two teachers at the school have sort of adopted me. One of them, Beatrice, teaches English (and is from Zimbabwe so her English is actually very good) and the other teacher, Sophie teaches French. Both of these women speak pretty good English and have basically welcomed me into their families. Every time I go over to visit them I am offered a meal or a snack and some good conversation. I really like that I have already found two people in the community who I trust and can also talk to about teaching.

Aside from school the town of Vanduzi is pretty sweet. It's much cooler than living in Gaza because the town is surrounded my mountains. So although I am now a lot farther from the beach I am happier, my runs have been great and I don't feel the need to take 3 bucket baths a day anymore. Everyday I run in the morning, then go to school to teach. In the afternoons I try to walk around, sometimes with Amendoim-who has become more of a celebrity here than I am-and sometimes alone. It is when I am just walking around town that I learn the most about Vanduzi. I always try to greet everyone, small criancas included and people here actually respond and ask me how I am doing. A lot of the time people will just walk up to me and introduce themselves and ask me where I am from or what I am teaching at school. Countless people have also asked me help them with their English but luckily no one has showed up at my door yet asking for lessons.

This past weekend while passearing (wandering around aimlessly with Amenoim) a lot of drunken men decided they wanted to talk to me. As a disclaimer these guys are completely harmless and really just want to chat, and because they are drunk they feel a little braver with their english so they approach me. I'm usually patient with them, if anything, when they speak Portuguese to me it's great practice trying to understand what they are saying but this has just reminded me of the overall issue of drinking here. A lot of men drink, and on the weekends most of them spend all day drinking and not doing much else. I did make some good friends though when they were in their drunken slumber--one of whom came to my house yesterday and brought me some pumpkin leaves (which can be boiled and used in a delicous curry) So you see, it pays to be polite to everyone, even the drunkards.

I know I am rambling now but I feel like there is so much to share! So I'll stop here and just share some pictures....



Here's a picture of the school where I am teaching. The picture is a bit deceiving, its a shot of one of the buildings which has two classrooms but there are actually five of these buildings that make up the school.



Here's the water pump at school where I get my water. Lucky for me when I show up the kids just pump the water for me but then I always carry it back so at least I do half the work?



HERE'S MY HOUSE. well my temporary house, I'm living here for 3 months until I can move to a house on school property. It's really nice though, it has 3 rooms. A small room that I use for my bedroom, another room that I can take bucket baths in and the middle room is where I cook and hangout. So far there is just a mattress in my room and then a table in my common room but its a work in progress...



HERES THE VIEW FROM MY HOUSE!!!!! isn't it so pretty??




And here's the most famous guy in Vanduzi, no joke. I think maybe people things its so funny that I walk him around on a leash but I have to do it, otherwise he'll chase the chickens. People always ask me his name instead of my own...funny


Okay that's it for now, I'll update again soon I just wanted to take advantage of the free wireless in the PC office!