Settling in....

Hi All, 

Ive now decided that my spelling and grammar is so bad that I am going to type my blog out first on my laptop, carry my hard drive to the internet cafe then just copy and paste what Ive written into the blog. 

So any who this is now blog three!!!

This week has been really good. A lot has happened so this might be a long one.

 I moved in with my host family on Monday. They are a really nice. My host parents are grandparents to one grandson called Willy who is 18 months old. He is very cute but he can eat an adults sized portion of food with no problems. He is here every day so Im getting to know him and another little boy called Whitey who stays here but is of no relation to my host Mum or Dad. My host Mum is called Dona Isobel and she is lovely. She speaks broken English which can be very entertaining at times but I think she’s just decided to talk to me in Portuguese now that Ive settled in. The language is problematic at times.  I cant really express myself very well yet and so I don’t really say much which is not like me at all. Im not sure what my host Dad is called. He came to collect me with Dona Isobel and the co-ordinator thought he was a work colleague of Dona Isobel’s....Dona Isobel doesn’t work so its shows he’s really clued up on the hosts and what they do!!! So anyway, he works away a lot and comes home every few weeks. He seems very nice and gave me a lovely welcome. 

Host Grandma

Mi Casa

Host Mum Dona Isobel

Willy and Whitey

Carlton

Mi Casa

Inside the belly of a Chapa

Mozambique

Mozambique

I don’t remember what happened on Tuesday to be honest. I think we had a lot of Embassy stuff to sort out. Oh, actually, I think this was the day that I used the chapa (bus) and nearly had a nervous breakdown. Firstly, I hadn’t been shown the ways of using the public bus. Its defiantly and art form which lends itself to the phrase ‘every man, women & child for themselves’. The chapas are 15 seater mini buses but somehow you can squeeeeeeeeeze about 23 people inside and thats no joke. The day I got the chapa with another volunteer we were one of the people standing but its not really standing because your legs maybe be straight but your upper body is cutting all sorts of shapes. This particular day my back was arched up against the roof  with my head balanced on the top of another mans head because he was sitting with his legs against his chest in front of some women who had her shopping on her lap. Ive never suffered from claustrophobia but it washed itself all over me that day. The comprador, ticket man, was speaking to me in Portuguese, telling me to sit down I was later told. I said ‘Noa fala Portuguese...Sou Ingles!’ (I don’t speak Portuguese...Im English). The whole bus started laughing.....  I smiled and sort of laughed too. The journey started and I would have said that the bus was COMPLETLY full. I was in a very painful ‘yoga like’ position but somehow more people got on at the next stop. I didn’t have anything to hold onto....it was so hot...I was sweating....music playing and my head was banging against the roof with every pot hole the driver didn’t avoid! Then I thought I was going to be sick and I think I looked like I was about to much to the horror of the women I had my face up against. I think the whole bus could see I was in distress....I called out ‘Comprador, Chica Chica’ which means get out....he didn’t stop. I managed to calm down and breathe through it. My stop arrived about 40mins later and I got off with the other volunteer....I was shaking and so was she. We walked to my house and had a drink and told my host mother who, by the way,  NEVER travels by chapa as she has a car. She was distressed for both me and the other volunteer and gave us cold drinks and a warm smile.

I started work on Thursday at the centre for street children. Its a really nice place and there are about 30 boys there. There ages range from 8 – 14. On my first day I was greeted by Carlton who is one of the newest arrivals. He is eight and one of my favourites! The boys at the centre go to school on half days only. Some days there is no school so the volunteers have to keep the boy entertained. Half of the boys cannot read or write and struggle with writing the ABC. The Director asked if I could teach English but if they don’t even speak Portuguese why on earth would you want to throw that spanner into the works!!!

               

ThurToday was the first day I think I got a true understanding of the level that I will be working at. There is a 14 year old who was thinking he was too cool to do any work so was just messing around in the classroom. I decided that he and I should play noughts and crosses. He’d never seen the game before but I somehow managed to explain the rules with lots of pointing and diagrams. We had a good little run and his concentration was good. I thought we should switch it up a little and do a word game so I decided Hangman was a good option. The word I selected was casa (house).  I did the blank spaces and advised him to guess some letters from the alphabet....he couldn’t think of anything but I could see he was really trying to come up with something. I decided to write the alphabet for him and said he could select from the letters listed. I would cross the letters off that he already guessed but I decided against the hangman as it was complicating things. Im not sure he really even recognised the letters and when he tried to copy them into the blank spaces it was a big problem. The challenge is tough but I would like to think that I would be able to make a difference here. Whats nice is that you can see there is a really willingness to learn which is really good. I think it has to be made more fun for them as the level of concentration varies.

  

Today, Friday, I was tutoring two boys which was really good. They were helping me with my Portuguese and I was helping them with there handwriting. Both wanted everything to be perfect and concentrated really hard. I was very impressed with them both and gave them smiley faces which they thought were brilliant! Im looking forward to doing some art with them but resources are low. I just need to work out exactly whats possible with whatever is available!

The other project has not yet started but hopefully in the next few weeks it will.

The weekend has now arrived and I feel like everything is going well. I feel confident now on the chapa after the disaster of Tuesday. My work is over an hour away on the chapa so I had to get over myself sharpish! The people are really nice and have a lovely willingness to help. I get stared at a lot because people know that Im not from Mozambique and also when I wear a skirt my legs are soooooo pale its shocking.....I just need to get down to the beach and tan them up a little.

Oh, Im going to do some hand washing tomorrow. One of the  other volunteers said it was too much for her, she hadn’t tried it yet, and decided she was going to use her friends washing machine two hours away....JOKER! Im gonna give it a go..... Peoples whites are sparkling here at I reckon its mostly a hand was so they must be doing something right....

Ok, Im too hungry to type anymore. Dinner in Mozambique doesn’t normally hit the table till around 9ish so Im STARVING right now (8.30pm). Im staying away from the snacks...trying to get rid of some of this junk in my trunk. That’s after I had a delicious chocolate roll from the cake shop in town.....delicious!

Love you guys

PS. The pictures are a little all over the place.....I cant work out how to move them to different places.....give me time and I'll be a pro at this.