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!
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!
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!
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