I have been here for 1 month!!! OMC!

Boa Noite!

I have been in Africa for more than a month! I doesn’t seem like it has been that long… probably because I am sooooo very busy!

Week 4 was tough for me. My group was working on 45 minute lessons. It is not easy teaching biology in Portuguese for 45 minutes! I know the material but I don’t feel like I know the language well enough to teach well. My professor says we are all doing great, but sometimes I think she is just being nice. J

My language class is going great. I feel like I am learning soooo much! I am now having REAL conversations with my host family and they understand what I am saying!! And you all know how much I love to talk!

My host family is taking great care of me! I actually think they are spoiling me sometimes. My host mom makes frequent business trips to Maputo. Every time she goes she always brings me something. Usually it is a food item for my lunch or launche (midmorning or mid-afternoon snackage). This week I got Laughing Cow Cheese. Except here it is called “Vaca que ri”. Yes, I was excited… You don’t know how much you love dairy products until you have none!

Saturday was Halloween. PC gave us permission to have a Halloween party. It was AWESOME! All the trainees were supposed to dress-up and bring a family member. Since my host sister was in town I took her. We both dressed up as ladybugs! It was fun trying to explain the concept of Halloween. They don’t really have any holiday that is similar. My family thought I was crazy when I was explaining trick or treating. It was fun though. After the party we were supposed to take our family members home and then all the trainees were going to meet up at a barraca for some fun… it was SOO much fun! I am not really a party person but my friends made me dance! I am pretty sure I was doing the Chandler dance!! What can I say… I am white girl with no rhythm! It is ok though… one of my friends was dancing with me and neither of knew what we were doing… maybe he just felt sorry for me J ha ha!
This week is going to be awesome! Tomorrow we are going to talk about classroom management and how to deal with large class sizes. (Usually the class size is about 70) After lunch we are going to tour the orphanage here. I am not sure how I feel about that yet. On Wednesday, we find out where we are going for site visits on Saturday!! I cannot wait for site visits! Friday I have a language proficiency test… let’s pray I do well! I don’t want to be that person who fails… that would be sad! L

I miss home like crazy, but I am having soooo much fun!

MozMeg