Computer classes here are out of control. Mozambicans have no computer skills and those that they do have include playing music and DVDs and giving every computer every virus possible. In a country with minimal technology they sure do have their share of viruses. Hence, the teacher computer that has the projector is infected with a virus that makes a pop-up window block everything that you try to do, making it impossible for them to see anything I want them to do. Luckily enough my school is equipped with a large nice computer lab with A/C and about 50 computers. Unfortunately there is no specific program for me to follow and only about half of the computers are usable.
Then all the kids do is bring in zip drives and cds of music and dvds. There were boys watching rap videos with topless women dancing. Plus due to a scheduling confusion we had about 4 classes worth of kids coming in. The professor that got the scheduling confused then decided to leave since there were so many kids. I caught him going out the door and jokingly said “Esta a fugir? (Are you fleeing?)” and his response was “For sure. This is out of control”. Well, thanks a bunch for the support.
Oh, and I am also the “Delgada da disciplina” aka head of the department, so I’m thinking of abusing my power and laying down some laws. I’m going to go into the computer lab and re-organize all the computers so the functioning ones are together in one area. Then I am deleting all the downloaded music and videos off the computers and banning all CDs and flash drives from entering the room. Then maybe I could actually teach them some useful skills. Now I just have to get up the nerve to tell my fellow professor and get the time to do it. Ugh, and explain it all in Portuguese.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I'm a Teacher!!
School is in full swing now. I have almost got everything figured out except for one scheduling conflict. I’m actually amazed that there was only one conflict considering that the schedule for 60 teachers was arranged by hand. And that’s 60 teachers over 3 different time periods (morning, noon and night) and 5 classes (8-12 grades). Scheduling is like a giant mind-blowing puzzle getting all the teachers teaching the correct subjects for the correct grades and not overlapping with others they’re teaching. Next year I will be bringing in the scheduling program that PC gave us to make it a much simpler process (and hopefully leaving me with Fridays off).
Each of my classes have 50+ students. English is going well and at times hysterical. Some of my favorite moments so far:
Talking about future professions and one student said “Pirate”. I thought well, we are kind of close to Somalia, laughed and added it to the list. Then the next class they said “pirate” again and so I asked what a pirate does, wondering if they meant something else. Sure enough my student says “Teacher, that is not how it is spelled”. They were actually saying “Pilot”.
I asked “What did you do this weekend?” and one student said “I went to Musacama to eat chicken and po-taw-toes” and I said “no, it’s po-tay-toes. Well, actually po-tay-toe, po-taw-toe, to-may-to, to-maw-to” and laughed hysterically while the entire class just stared at me.
One day was about traditions and customs and when I asked for examples they kept throwing out all these local language words that I didn’t know, laughing at me the entire time. The first one was “Ngoma” and after I got it spelled right I said “Well, that’s a new word for Teacher Amanda”. About 5 minutes later I looked again and exclaimed “Ngoma!!” and started laughing (please see previous blog post) saying I didn’t realize that was a real word Mozambicans used. Their blank looks were priceless.
During my first day of computer class I was not really prepared since it was the first time I had been in the computer lab and I had no idea what to expect. I ended up making them draw pictures on paint to practice using the mouse (trust me, double clicking is hard for them). I walked by one kids drawing and it said “lame” over and over. I was offended, and asked him if they knew what that meant in English. His response was “Teacher, it is my name” pronounced “La-may”.
Just some of the gems I’ve experienced so far, with a ton more to come I’m sure
Each of my classes have 50+ students. English is going well and at times hysterical. Some of my favorite moments so far:
Talking about future professions and one student said “Pirate”. I thought well, we are kind of close to Somalia, laughed and added it to the list. Then the next class they said “pirate” again and so I asked what a pirate does, wondering if they meant something else. Sure enough my student says “Teacher, that is not how it is spelled”. They were actually saying “Pilot”.
I asked “What did you do this weekend?” and one student said “I went to Musacama to eat chicken and po-taw-toes” and I said “no, it’s po-tay-toes. Well, actually po-tay-toe, po-taw-toe, to-may-to, to-maw-to” and laughed hysterically while the entire class just stared at me.
One day was about traditions and customs and when I asked for examples they kept throwing out all these local language words that I didn’t know, laughing at me the entire time. The first one was “Ngoma” and after I got it spelled right I said “Well, that’s a new word for Teacher Amanda”. About 5 minutes later I looked again and exclaimed “Ngoma!!” and started laughing (please see previous blog post) saying I didn’t realize that was a real word Mozambicans used. Their blank looks were priceless.
During my first day of computer class I was not really prepared since it was the first time I had been in the computer lab and I had no idea what to expect. I ended up making them draw pictures on paint to practice using the mouse (trust me, double clicking is hard for them). I walked by one kids drawing and it said “lame” over and over. I was offended, and asked him if they knew what that meant in English. His response was “Teacher, it is my name” pronounced “La-may”.
Just some of the gems I’ve experienced so far, with a ton more to come I’m sure
I heart Tete
Hello!! First of all, disclaimer—my province is pronounced like “Tet”, not “teat” as most of my friends and family like to snicker at back home
Our little crew up here is the best. Not only do we have the seven of us in my group, but we also have a married couple that has been here for a year already. This past weekend we went down to visit Luke and Janet in their village about 2 hours from mine. First, in pure logical Mozambican form, the only chapas aka public transportation out of Angonia (where I live) is to the border about 20 km away or to Tete City. So our options to go visit their village was to pay a chapa and get out half way (big waste of money) or to hitch-hike. Option #2 it was. Hitching is actually very common here among the volunteers and is often a safer and cheaper way to travel. Many times the cars you hitch in are in much better condition and sometimes free (which when you’re living on less than $200 a month is a huge plus). We jumped up into a semi on the way down, grabbed another truck to the border and were there.
They live way into a neighborhood through all these twisting paths. They have a cute little house, not on a school campus like my duplex. As a consequence/bonus of this they constantly have Mozambican children in their yard hanging out, and their helper around the house is an 8th grade student Ramão that is there constantly. It was super fun to be there for the weekend, and Janet is an amazing cook. When we got there we had a lunch of homemade hummus and gazpacho with salad; dinner of bean burgers and fries; breakfast of coffee and cinnamon rolls; lunch of fajitas that really made me crave sour cream. Plus care packages from their holiday in the states. Mine had Jr Mints, a granola bar and Jelly Bellies!! Throw in a poster of Puck from the “All about Glee” special edition US magazine and I was in heaven. I sweated off the 5 pounds I gained from eating so much scaling a mountain to take some photos at the border marker between Moz and Malawi (my 4th African country!!). And by scaling, I mean I was looking for footholds on some of those rock faces—the closest I ever want to get to rock climbing. It’s Wednesday and my quads are just starting to feel not sore.
It was a great weekend of bonding with my Tete crew, swapping stories of the first week of teaching, comparing what lessons we were planning, lying on a grass mat in the shade reading, enjoying a beer, and sharing squatty potty maneuvers for aiming (my first experience with the squatty potty and aiming is hard when you’ve never had to do it before, trust me). I’m really enjoying my replacement family this side of the ocean
Our little crew up here is the best. Not only do we have the seven of us in my group, but we also have a married couple that has been here for a year already. This past weekend we went down to visit Luke and Janet in their village about 2 hours from mine. First, in pure logical Mozambican form, the only chapas aka public transportation out of Angonia (where I live) is to the border about 20 km away or to Tete City. So our options to go visit their village was to pay a chapa and get out half way (big waste of money) or to hitch-hike. Option #2 it was. Hitching is actually very common here among the volunteers and is often a safer and cheaper way to travel. Many times the cars you hitch in are in much better condition and sometimes free (which when you’re living on less than $200 a month is a huge plus). We jumped up into a semi on the way down, grabbed another truck to the border and were there.
They live way into a neighborhood through all these twisting paths. They have a cute little house, not on a school campus like my duplex. As a consequence/bonus of this they constantly have Mozambican children in their yard hanging out, and their helper around the house is an 8th grade student Ramão that is there constantly. It was super fun to be there for the weekend, and Janet is an amazing cook. When we got there we had a lunch of homemade hummus and gazpacho with salad; dinner of bean burgers and fries; breakfast of coffee and cinnamon rolls; lunch of fajitas that really made me crave sour cream. Plus care packages from their holiday in the states. Mine had Jr Mints, a granola bar and Jelly Bellies!! Throw in a poster of Puck from the “All about Glee” special edition US magazine and I was in heaven. I sweated off the 5 pounds I gained from eating so much scaling a mountain to take some photos at the border marker between Moz and Malawi (my 4th African country!!). And by scaling, I mean I was looking for footholds on some of those rock faces—the closest I ever want to get to rock climbing. It’s Wednesday and my quads are just starting to feel not sore.
It was a great weekend of bonding with my Tete crew, swapping stories of the first week of teaching, comparing what lessons we were planning, lying on a grass mat in the shade reading, enjoying a beer, and sharing squatty potty maneuvers for aiming (my first experience with the squatty potty and aiming is hard when you’ve never had to do it before, trust me). I’m really enjoying my replacement family this side of the ocean
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