Provincial elections are today and as a result all of us are
on lockdown for the day. So since I’m stuck in the house faced with laundry and
lesson planning I thought it would be a great time to write about site
placements.
Last week was the most stressed I’ve been since I arrived in
Africa. After arriving from site visits we all had a long weekend of relaxation
to look forward to with ample time to wash the pile of dirty clothes we accrued
over the week--OH WAIT, I was thinking about an alternate universe where I have
enough hours in the day. Let me start over.
After arriving from site visits we all had a long day of
classes and then an entire weekend of permagardening to look forward to. What’s
permagardening you ask? Well, I couldn’t tell you because I was so tired and
hot and over it Saturday morning that I hardly paid attention. It has something
to do with sustainable vegetable gardening and composting. Probably useful
information but half of my group spent our time deliriously doing ridiculous activities
like fruit ninja with real fruit and machetes, mango baseball and chasing
chickens. Let me just say that real life fruit ninja is much more fun than the
app.
The following week we were all supposed to be planning to
teach model school (basically kids are bribed with food to come be our guinea
pig students for a week), but with site announcements on Thursday everyone was
on edge. My week went about like this:
Lesson plan. Panic.
Lesson Planning and panicking. Try to think of ways to make genetics fun.
Realize that’s pretty much impossible. More panicking. Get sick. Puke for 8
hours on the hour. Spend the day dying in bed in a concrete house that’s kin to
an oven in the African sun. Recover and lesson plan some more…also more
panicking because site announcements are tomorrow!
When the day finally came to find out where I’ll be living
for the next two years, we had our long day of core classes and they of course
waited til the very end to hand out our site packets. We all lined up on the
sidelines of the basketball courts outside of the school. On the court was
drawn in chalk a giant map of Mozambique and all of its provinces. They handed
us our envelopes and we all stood there like kids on Christmas Eve waiting to
open them.
And the verdict is………
PANDA! In Inhambane province in the south, which is
affectionately dubbed the Peace Corps Playground because of how close all of
the volunteers are placed together. I am actually really close to a lot of
great people, and I have a roommate and a site mate so I’m very happy with my
assignment. I am teaching technology, which is not what I expected to be
teaching or feel prepared for at all but in the Peace Corps there’s no way to
know what you’re actually going to be doing until you’ve already done it. Also,
I had a long conversation with one of the volunteers I’m replacing and he says
that technology teachers are seriously needed in Panda so I’m happy for that. Also
they apparently have a state of the art computer lab that was recently donated
to the school so I’ll actually have computers to teach with, which is a serious
advantage and a rarity here.
Some other things about my site: it’s kind of in the matu
(bush, middle of nowhere, etc.) but only an hour and a half away from 2
beautiful beaches and an hour away from a large city where I can get things I
can’t find in the markets. My house has electricity and is in a neighborhood
with all of the other teachers at the secondary school. We have a latrine and a
yard and I fully intend on having a dog, a chicken coop and a pig that I will
fatten up over the next two years and have as barbeque at the end of my
service. It’s also apparently very safe and the community is very welcoming.
Overall I can’t wait to be there and settle in to my new home!
That’s all for now, I’m going to continue demolishing a bag
of Jelly Belly’s that my family sent to me in a care package with two of my
friends.
