Not a whole lot new to report from Mangochi. The new term started last Monday, and I’m back to teaching. (MCV actually provided classes during the summer term as well, but I was busy being selfish and traveling.) We’ve gotten a few new students, but mainly it’s the same kids. It’s nice having their names down already. Now my main struggle is to try and finish the curriculum before the Form 2 students take their Junior Certificate Examination. Although the government syllabus contains 3 terms, you only have 2 to teach it, since the test will be at the beginning of the third term. Of course, this being Africa, we still don’t know when the test will be exactly. Last year it was early September, so that’s what we’re planning for.
When I’m not working at MCV, I sit around and read. There’s not really anything to do here, so I read a lot. The rainy season is over (supposedly, but it still rained again today), and we are entering the coolest months of the year, (May and June). It really has started to get pleasantly cool; I even put on jeans and a sweatshirt at night! I suppose that the weather is actually fairly similar with what you east coasters should be getting this time of year, (hopefully, not sure if spring really arrived there yet).
I’ve started to run again. I had tried before, but was scared away by all the yelling. My new strategy is to get up at 5:00 and go running then. There are fewer people out, and the ones that are don’t seem up to yelling in the early hours. Mind you, people still seem completely baffled by my voluntary exercise. Their looks seem to say, “Why don’t you just walk 5 miles with 10 gallons of water on your head? It works for me.” I also started listening to my ipod, so that I can imagine the shouts I do hear are simply people cheering me on.
1 comment:
So glad to keep up on your adventures over there. It was really great to get to talk with you before you left and to profile your trip and efforts in Messenger Post Newspapers.
I laughed out loud at the people shouting at you running and being completely baffled by the exercise. On the research boat in Peru, I was dying for dry land, so I could get out and just run. walk. Jump. for longer than the length of the boat. I wanted calisthentics on the deck; the guides, who grew up on the river, thought I was nuts. they always chuckled, like they were thinking why don't you go paddle that canoe upstream in the Yavari River and spear a fish or two for dinner?
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