I'm in Nampula City for the week for a conference. I took an amazing warm shower with running water last night. I'd forgotten how nice things like that are! And the food here...it's a buffet with all sorts of exotic food, like meat, fruit, yogurt, ice cream, and salad! Ok, so it's not exotic per se, but it's stuff I can't/don't eat at site. There is also air conditioning, electricity, and all sorts of frivolous things like that!
Work is going well. I really like the other teachers I work with, even though I do sometimes see them accepting bribes and doing things that are "really bad" by American standards, but here it's so common that you can't really judge the individual because it's really a societal thing. I'm in the process of trying to get an English club going, and there seems to be a lot of interest in it. I'm not sure how interest will translate to actual attendance, but we'll see. I've been having such a great time just hanging out in the afternoons (I only teach in the mornings), visiting friends and colleagues, watching soccer games in the community, etc that I've been really unmotivated to get other projects going, but I know I should, so English club will be Secondary Project #1.
I've started trying to learn Macua, the local langauge. There is a teacher at the elementary school who really wants to become and English teacher, so I teach him Engilsh, and he teaches me Macua. I let him borrow an English self-learn book that I have, and he skipped school the next day to do a bunch of exercises in it.
My director has finally admited that my roommate is not coming this year. I'm thinking about getting a student to come live with me. A lot of teachers and other people do this with orphans or students with other family problems. The student does all of the cleaning, cooking, washing, etc in exchange for a place to live and food to eat. So that would be helpful, and I think worth the additional cost of food, especially since I don't spend nearly all of my monthly salary, cuz there's really not a whole lot to buy.
Some price/other examples:
1 kilo of beans: 10 mets/$0.33
a good flashlight: 100 mets/~$3
getting to the capital: 100 mets/150 kilometers/ ~100 miles/ 3-4 hours
a decent sized lime: .5mets / 2 cents
a large roll (bread): 2 mets / 7 cents
1 egg: 6 mets / 20 cents
a lot of okra: 5 mets / 17 cents
too many (fresh) peanuts to eat in one sitting: 1 met / 3 cents
Exciting news from Mike: He got an invitation to be a Volunteer too! He should know the exact location and leave date soon, but for now we (think) we know Africa, and leaving in June.
Look for more posts in the next few days
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