Lets see...
Monday I went to work, and lemme tell you I learned two things about myself. First, that I really like teaching but really have no clue what I'm doing (that comes with practice I guess) and the second thing is that I can chew kids out in Portuguese just as well as I can in English, which was surprising even to me! I had some kids during the afternoon that were being disruptive while I was teaching. Then I found out they really weren't in my class. I guess kids isn't the right term to use, most of them were about 20-22 years old. I told them to get up and get out and none of them moved an inch. Then I told them "seriously, you have ten seconds to get your butt off that chair and get out, I'm not playing" but in portuguese...and that did get them out quick. Before shutting the door I told them they wouldn't want to find out what would happen if they tried that again. Hmmm...good times
Tuesday-That was a good day, the kids I teach in the morning are younger and they are all so cute, they call me "teacher kris". None of the kids have books at this school because as one of the other teachers puts it "they are much too expensive, they cost 100 meticais" which translated into american dollars is around 4 bucks. So, sad as that is, I will have to be creative with the kids in giving homework when there is no book. Most just come to school with one notebook and a pen or two. But teaching on tuesday went well for the most part, no kicking anyone out of class and it went well.
Wednesday- I was done teaching around noon and I walked up to the house where our food is prepared for us, as I was walking up there in my flip-flops and capris one of the grounds keepers stopped me and said "don't walk any further, there is a cobra in the grass" and sure enough as i looked a bit father there were some other men throwing stones at a straight up cobra, not a regular snake, but a cobra-like the kind old guys from bangladesh hypnotize in baskets and stuff...it was hissing a ton, obviously not too happy! They got close enough to smash its head with a stick. It was obviously venimous and they showed it to me after it was dead, I thought the whole scene was surreal.
After that adventure we went (well me, Kaylee, Heidi, Jessica and Paul) put on our swim gear and headed to the nice part of the city where the UN, all the emabassies, and rich people in general are to go to the beach. It was absoultely beautiful and not I can say I have swam in the indian ocean!
Then Me, Lana, and Jessica taught country line dancincing as a young adult activity at the branch we attend here in Maputo. There were probably close to 100 people there and it was cool getting to teach dancing in a new language. Then we turned on some Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Chris Brown, and Usher and lemme be the first to say that everyone there got up to dance. even the litte 5 year old kid that stuck to my side like glue all night busted some sweet moves. And this other woman how is 6 months pregnant danced too. It was awesome! Everyone had a good time and Elder and Sister Davis took us home again to our house. They are truly angels for us, because catching a chapa (the little VW wagons that they squish up to 30 people in) at night isn't exactly super safe.
Today-I went to teach this morning after finally getting a shower. We have had no running water for the last 2 days, but it is back! Hooray, I will enjoy a nice warm shower upon my return to the US, of that I am certain! So, anyway I went to teach and 15 minutes into my lesson a teacher shows up at the door and says "I'm supposed to me teaching right now" which I guess he was. The schedule me and Blake, the other BYU intern I work with is all messed up and I have been kicked out of class 5 times now! I will talk to someone tomorrow to try and get this straightened out...
Right now I am in an internet cafe in the mall here in Maputo. The mall is super nice, just like one in the US complete with a multiple screen movie theater. It is nice to know where I can go if I am going absolutely crazy here in Mozambique, I can come here, get some ice cream, and see a movie. good to know. Anyway the time is almost up and we have to go fight to get on one of those Chapas during rush hour, wish me luck!
I'm working on the photos thing. They'll be up soon!
3 comments:
Hello NUHHHHHHHHHH! I miss my nuh so much! I am glad to hear that you are alive and having some sweet Steve Erwin experiences. I think you should have gone over to the cobra and played with it like Steve Erwin. Nuh, I have some sweet pictures from Mexico. You will lufffffff them so much! I will email them to you. Please to keep having fun and be super duper safe!
Lufffff,
The Other Nuh
So far it sounds absolutely amazing. Well, except for the snake thing. That I could do without. Stay outta trouble and give Heidi a hug for me!
Beijos!
Hi Kristin,
The snake thing brought back memories from the Philippines. We didn't have a cobra in the grass field near our house (at leat that I knew of) but in every area there was at least one charmer dude. The first time I saw it I was like, are you crazy? But that's how he made his money. Ah well.
It was great to talk with you last Saturday. Thanks for getting a calling card so that you could call home. It was good to hear how things are. Minus the HIV component it really does sound like the PI. We had areas in the PI that were poorer than many areas of India so I identify with what you are going through.
Did you get your mosquito net yet? I know my net was my constant friend in the tropics. Hopefully you are covered up by now.
Here at home...Dad was in San Antonio the whole week at a real property training. You went there as a little String Baby and saw the Alamo. Dad is home tonight and tomorrow then Sunday morning leaves for Hawaii. He will be on Oahu for a week while the units are having annual training. He hopes that he will have time to get over to Pearl Harbor and see the memorial. They are working 12 hour days so I don't know if that will happen though.
Gary is still getting better from the same thing that had him down at graduation. He will be going to a specialist on the 27th 'cause when Craig examined the sample, Gary has a really bad type of infection that can actually be fatal. We're trying to not head in that direction. He's feeling well enough that he went to HALO night over at Sagan's house tonight. That is a huge improvement. He hasn't even been over to Greg's lately 'cause he's felt so bad and needed to stay near the facilities.
Doug and Sally went hiking over on Mt. Tamalpais today. They had a good time. It's been very hot and I thought they would have seen some rattle snakes but they didn't. Guess you have to go to Rockville for that kind of action. They're hanging out with some other kids tonight.
Tisha got interviewed by Penn this week. Things went very well and she should be hearing within two weeks. She hasn't told Chancho about the move yet. She says he would be concerned about the parking in the city. The program sounds great and for six weeks of her clinicals she would be able to work and get paid back at Primary Children's. This is great to her.
Hillary is doing fantastic in D'land. But what else would she be doing. She got hired for teaching 101. Weird to look on the schedule and see Aten, H. I hope you've been able to read some of her posts.
Quentin's egg experiment totally worked. Like hugely totally. He will do another trail in a couple of weeks and that will finish things off. The university is going through the patent process and maybe he will get a few cents for his hard work. He is also going to prepare a paer on his work and submit it to Science. If that gets published, it would be like WOW! Science, as I'm sure you know, is the premier journal in America for research. That would be nice. Med school /' nursing school update...May 15th was the day that all the prospective students had to just keep one medical school so now names on waiting lists start shuffling around. Quent is going to send Vanderbilt and Washington an update on his research and maybe that will help. His research is a seven fold increase in eggs that make it through the process and a 15 fold increase in eggs that actually accept and generate the implanted DNA. These increases are compared to current industry standards, so I guess you can see why it is such a big deal.
Me...I'm just teaching German. Oh, I get to play three of my least favorite hymns all on one Sunday...Scatter the Sunshine, Truth Reflects upon Our Senses, Have I Done Any Good in the World Today. I am going crazy with the hymns. Joel Gillespie has talked with me about it too. He misses the good old songs by Phelps, et al.
I guess I had better go so that Dad and I have a chance to talk while he's home. He's over filling out his paperwork for the REI trip kayaking with Tisha. Should be fun.
I love you lots. Hope you are having success helping others learn a bit about our language.
Love,
Mom
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