Don't be too proud of this technological terror

I have mentioned before about the attendance and punctuality here in Mozambique. Two of my students are from a small farming village near the river outside of Mabalane called Maitze. These two students are always really late to class, usually 30-60 minutes. Side note: Maybe I mentioned this before but I give stamps in my students notebooks for their homework every class. As childish as this sounds my students are highly motivated by this and it makes it very easy for me to grade and check. Normally if students come in late and they have their homework done I give them a stamp but recently the students have all been too late too often so I stopped giving stamps for late homework. This really pisses the students off and guess what? The tardiness has improved a lot. Ok back to my original topic. My two students Armando and Ismael. Both are good students. Ismael is one of the few students who speaks, understands, and tries to learn English outside of class without my motivation. Armando is a really good kid(I’ll write more about him). So they are always trying to explain and reason with me why they are late and should get a stamp when they show up really late.” I’m sick teacher”,” it’s far teacher”, “teacher I had to help get water” ect. I do sympathize for them and understand the difficulties they face. They have to leave their houses when it is still dark to arrive on time. But I tell them part of being a student is being on time and maybe someday they will have a job they have to be on time to. Although I don’t know of any jobs in Mozambique you have to be on time to, I still think it is important and I want to teach my students to be responsible regardless of how far away they live. So I show no mercy and tell them to wake up earlier next time. Armando is one of the brightest students in the school and was the only 10th grader to pass all the national exams on the first try last year. He studies hard, has a daughter and wife at home, his father has passed away, and he has to work in the fields to produce food for his family to live. He is 20 or 21 and has never left Mabalane before. Last week Armando asked me to come to his house to meet his family. I told him I would and last Friday after school we walked to Maitze. Another side note and African Milestone: I finally walked to the river to do my laundry after over one and a half years in Mozambique. I filled my bag with a month’s worth of dirty clothes, soap, water and fruit, strapped a bucket to my pack, and then I left on the 6-7 kilometer hike to the river through the bush. This is what the Mozambican women do in the villages. And on my walk back I felt proud to be like a Mozambican women for an afternoon. After my laundry hike I thought the Maitze hike would be a piece of cake. I walked with Armando and Ismael to Maitze. This walk is no joke! The 8km must be from the market and not the school because it took us almost two hours to walk there. We got near the river in about an hour and I thought we were getting close then I seen a small village off in the distance and I asked, “is that it up there?”  They replied, “no teacher that’s zone 8.” After about another hour along the river in the sun and through the fields we arrived in Maitze. My compassion significantly increased for Armando and Ismael. I had more than a liter of water which was more than enough for my river hike and back. But we drank all that water on the walk. The students never take water to school and they ride their bikes which Ismael was walking and Armando’s brother was using on this day. But they were impressed that I wasn’t tired. But I was I just didn’t let them see that I was and very thirsty. Needless to say I drank a lot of untreated river water that afternoon. The little village was very nice. It looked peaceful and was full of big green trees, unlike Mabalane. There is no energy and all the houses are mud huts except for a couple brick foundations being built and the primary school. But the village looked beautiful. The yards were all swept and well groomed. People were surprised to see a white person without a car and especially shocked to see I walked out there. Armando’s family was waiting for me and very excited to welcome me. (Most people in Maitze speak the local language Changanha (spelling?) so I had to have Armando and his brother translate for me) They welcomed me with hugs and kisses and told me I was at home. It felt good to be appreciated and accepted by Armando’s family. They were disappointed to find out I wasn’t staying the night because I still had classes that evening. But I hung out for about an hour and drank tea and had lunch. It was really nice. But then I had to head back and it looked like I would be cutting it close. The walk back was just as long and I barely made it to class on time, haha. I had about ten minutes to drink some water and change my clothes before class. That would have been ironic having to explain to my students that I was late because I went to Maitze and its over 8km. I’m reading Gone With the Wind, which is surprising good. Reading about the South and the Civil War is very interesting. Reading this got me thinking about Southern Hospitality and Mozambican Hospitality. It was crazy reading about how generous the Southerners were( at least to the other rich plantation owners). Mozambique is also a very hospitable. People go to stay and live with their families for weeks or months. It is socially acceptable to ask for water and food when traveling through places. I often am invited to stay with people and asked to eat lunch or dinner when I am traveling around. Except the Southerners had a lot: lots of money, nice food, slaves to do all their work, and just tons of free time to enjoy life. But many Mozambicans have little and they seem just as generous. They are proud to offer you what they do have. I was asked by one of my loyal and exquisite readers about life with Forrest. For those who do not know Forrest. Forrest is a very easy going guy and I think both of us feel really happy with our roommate placements. Out of all the volunteers in our group Forrest is most similar to my friends back home. He is a 23 year old male who parties, chases girls, curses, makes fun of people, and is crazy by many people’s standards. Forrest tries to act like he doesn’t care about anything but he is a good person and every once in while I catch his soft side. Ok that is enough of me fluffy Forrest for now. We both read a lot and have a lot of time to ourselves. We share the cooking roles and often eat together watching a tv show or movie. Then we jam most days, less recently though probably because I’m reading a lot. And then we make fun of each other, tell poop and fart jokes, make up foul “would you rather” situations, and disgust all the crazy things we would do for Burger King or a burrito. Drew and Eddie, the other two male volunteers from the Southern part of the country are jealous of us. Forrest and I are chillin to the fullest and taking full advantage of your free time and solitude. If you want to know what we are doing? We are probably reading, jamming, laughing, eating, sleeping, or some combination of those things. I finally got my package from parents. I wanted these cd’s to show my students photos from America, Iraq, and Okinawa. The packaged turned into a box of goodies. I was a little upset to see how much it cost to send. But quickly forgot once Forrest and I busted into those chocolate cover graham cookies! O my I never remember those things being so good. And the ranch on our sandwiches has been a perfect replacement to avocados which are no longer available. We joke about quitting our service early because life in Mabalane without avocados is unbearable. But ranch stepped it up maybe we can hold on another week now. So thanks mom and dad! Jodi, the ring looks really nice. I am going to a concert in Swaziland this weekend and going to show my students the photos next week. So you all can look forward to my next post. Forrest finally updated his blog after a year, forrestinmoz.tumblr.com Peace, love, ad do good things Jimmy