We Painted a Map!

Last weekend, my REDES girls and some interested boys from the English Theater group joined together and painted a giant world map on the side of the school! This project was a long time coming -- I've been thinking about doing it since I first got here -- and it finally happened, just two short weeks before my departure!

How to Paint an HIV World Map in 10 Easy Steps

1. Submit a grant request through Peace Corps Grants Online portal. The ridiculously horrible interface may make you want to kill yourself. Do not listen to the urge.
2. Once approved, buy paint, brushes, pencils, etc.
3. If you can, borrow a projector. At night, set it up and trace the world map image onto your selected wall. Expect LOTS of onlookers.
4. The next day, trace the outlines of countries in the colors you want them. Carefully prepare little doses of paint and teeny-tiny paint-brushes for students to use, so they don't make a mess. Nothing could go wrong!
5. CHAOS ENSUES!
6. After everyone is covered in paint, hopefully the wall is also covered in kind of the right colors in more or less the right areas. 
7. Don't forget to paint the Peace Corps symbol in the corner! 
8. Have each student "sign" their name by making and signing a hand-print next to the map. 
9. When the paint is dry, go back and label all the countries with a permanent marker with the HIV/AIDS infection rate. As much as you try, you will label some countries wrong. ("Oh, that's Guatemala!?)
10. MAP COMPLETE! Throw a party! Play some games! Let everyone feast their eyes on the glory of everyone's hard work.

Our map was a lot of fun to make. We did it all within one weekend, starting Thursday evening and finishing Sunday morning. The next Saturday (yesterday), we threw a big party, cooked a delicious meal of rice and beans with salad and grilled chicken, and then played a Geography/AIDS trivia game, sang songs, and played other games. It was a HUGE success, everyone enjoyed themselves, and while they were singing their favorite song (which involves stomping as a group in a big rhythmic circle) I got a warm fuzzy and sad feeling regarding the fact that I'll be leaving this wonderful place in just two weeks. What a wonderful place to live.

Phase 1: Green paint

Starting to fill in the ocean!

Everyone takes turns to paint.

Peace Corps symbol!

Suzeta signs her name.

Redi writes in AIDS info.

DANCE PARTY!

The final product.

Isn't our school pretty now?

Moçambique!

The whole team!

Elephant vs. Human

Today, is presidential election day in Mozambique.Weeks of intense campaigning for the three major political parties (Frelimo, Renamo, and MDM) have all been leading up to this day.

We knew it was going to be a big day. We didn't think it would be because of an elephant attack.

Just before noon today, a wandering elephant, descended from the nearby mountains, came across a group of kids fishing at the riverside. The kids screamed, the startled elephant charged, and the kids fled. Unfortunately, the youngest tripped and fell on the rocky riverbed, and the elephant scooped her up with his tusks and flung her onto the hot rocks. She died in the hospital shortly thereafter.

The first inkling I had that something was wrong was all the people running by our house, shouting "Ndzou! Ndzou!" (Elephant!). My colleagues were all frantically searching for their kids to make sure they were OK. In a community where everyone normally moves at a snail's pace -- why hurry when there's nowhere to go and nothing to do? -- it was weird to see so many people running all over the place. Some were running toward the elephant, some were running away.

"Stay inside!" Our colleagues said. Laura and I, of course, having heard about how dangerous elephants can be, made the responsible decision and... grabbed our cameras and went to see what all the fuss was about.

By the time we got there, the elephant was pretty far away. I saw it from a distance, a black splotch in the distant foothills. Laura went with a group of people to get closer, and I stayed behind to talk to some people about what happened.

The girl that was killed was a first grader, the youngest of four siblings. She was sickly and weak, and couldn't run well. As I walked home, I passed the family's house, surrounded by crying people with their heads in their hands. The father was sitting on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

The death of an elephant is sad, especially in a country like Mozambique, where the majority of the wild elephants were killed during the wars. However, the heartbroken, inconsolable wailing of that girl's father was the saddest sound I've ever heard, and I understood why a bunch of men immediately went to get their guns.

Laura ended up following the hunting party, an watching them shoot and kill the elephant. It was a traumatizing experience that I'm glad I didn't witness.

The death of such a majestic creature is sad, but there were no better options. The aggressive male could have easily come back and killed more people. Additionally, the meat from the dead elephant will feed the whole village for weeks, during a time of year when many peoples food stores have run out.

They say there were three other elephants that ran away back into the mountains. I hope that they stay there, both for their own sakes and that of the Mavudzi population. Unfortunately, their world is slowly disappearing due to expanding human settlement, and this kind of tragedy will surely repeat itself.

My thoughts today are with the child's grieving family.

The dying elephant. (Photo by Laura Mandel)

Pictures

Today, I'm posting photos. I have less than one month left in Mavudzi, and I want to spend every minute of it soaking up all the things I'm going to miss and not blogging. So, without further ado, here are the novidades.

Our REDES girls learn about women in the workforce.

Taking the baby for a walk.

Love this "translation"

Quizito rides with a student of his.

"Teacher, I brought a dead birdie to give the cat."

Crianças and kittens

D'awwwwww

Learning about geography!

This little dude was still in his momma's belly when I came here.

The kittens are growing fast!

"My little buddy." (Kid looks a little scared...?)

Books

Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember. In fact, one of my earliest memories is of sitting on my dad's lap, reading a book about sleeping animals and stumbling over the phrase "Sheep sleep" -- well, you try saying that three times fast! One time, after my brother and I had spent all day inside reading, my mom kicked us out for some "fresh air," and we  just plopped down on the front lawn on top of our sleds and continued to read. I must have read my favorite book, The Giver, at least two dozen times.

And yet, when I got older, something happened to me that has happened to a lot of people: I stopped reading. Well, not really -- I was studying at Rice, and I reading more than ever before. But after hours or poring over badly-scanned PDF pages about Finno-Urgic agglutinative morphemes or vowel length in Bantu languages, all you really want to do is sink into the couch and watch Friends until your brains slowly ooze out of your ears. Coffee, TV, an friends slowly monopolized my increasingly limited free time, and books fell by the wayside.

Then I joined the Peace Corps, and everything changed. For the first time in many years, I had no coffee and no TV, but I did have enormous amounts of free time. So I picked up a book (I, Robot) and read it. I liked it, so I read another one (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and I liked that one too.

Then I set a goal for myself: A hundred and one books in two years. And I got to reading.

This morning, two years and many pages later, I closed the cover on the last book. Yes, I've finished, with 29 days to spare! I've read fiction and non-fiction, history, biography, comedy, tragedy, short stories and monstrosities -- and all were first-time reads.

Phew!

I'd like to take a moment to thank Mrs H., who, aside from sending me several books that I particularly enjoyed, has always been so supportive and kind. She taught me from a young age to love books, and always has fantastic book suggestions. Thanks for teaching me to love reading!

I hope that, wherever life takes me from here, I will be able to make time to keep reading. I probably won't be able to read quite this much, but I'd like to think that I'll be able to take an hour out here and there for a good read. There really isn't anything else like it!

Hey, when was the last time you read a good book?

English Theater Competition 2014

OK, maybe they don't look that riveted...

A nervous murmur filled the air as one hundred expectant secondary school students sat, waiting. After months of preparation, finally the big day was here!

I took a breath, stepped onto the stage, and took a deep breath.

"Welcome, everyone, to English Theater 2014!" I said, smiling broadly.

I, too, had been preparing for the big day for months. This year, in addition to helping Laura coach our kids with their ten-minute skit, I was in charge of coordinating the whole competition.

"Scene One: At School"

Though I was paranoid that something terribly awful would go wrong, the day actually went really smoothly. The groups presented their skits -- some of them funny, some serious, some...well... a bit boring, but they all worked hard and showed off their skills with pride. One skit was about a group of siblings trying to convince their parents to let them finish school.  Another dealt with a girl whose family forces her into prostitution, and she eventually gets HIV. Heavy stuff.

This guy very reluctantly ended
up playing the leading lady.

My own group's skit was about a young couple who, after a disagreement on whether or not to use condoms, go to the hospital and find out one of them is HIV positive. This was particularly challenging for our kiddos since all two girls in our club dropped out two weeks before the competition, so we ended up having some cross-dressing. Still, they dealt with it like champs, and this year we had no line-forgetting disasters like last year. I hope those kids that don't graduate this year continue to do English Theater again next year.

After all the skits had been presented, we had lunch while the judges deliberated, and then everyone came back for prizes and certificates. While my group didn't win, or even place, I was very proud of them anyway. They competed against pre-university schools with 11th- and 12th- grade students who practice English on a regular basis, and they held their own. Pretty impressive for a super-mato school. Laura and I gave them a pep talk afterwards, telling them that if they study hard and work well, they could someday attend one of these big-city schools that won.

Everyone, winners and non-winners alike, received miniature English-Portuguese dictionaries, which were a big hit, and everyone went home smiling. Personally, I went home and fell asleep for 14 hours, but that was just me.

English Theater 2014: Success!

Mavudzi-Ponte's 2014 English Theater Team:

Me, Laura, Redi, and our nine boys. Love Izaquel's face (brown shirt)

Spring is in the Air!

Too much cuteness has been going on here lately. First, my neighbor Quizito got a puppy. Then, my cat had kittens. Finally, all the kids have been out and about at play. I figured it's about time to share some of the adorable goings-on from recent times.

2-day-old kittens

Bella, Quizito's new puppy

Simpo has his first bike ride.

"Mommy, wake up! I wanna play!"

D'awwwww.