I'm on a chapa coming back from Maputo, getting some pamper therapy by staying in a hotel. It was nice, but I'm anxious to get back to site. I've been sitting in this chapa not going anywhere for about 1 1/4 hours now, reading and talking. Eh pa.
I went to a club last night with another volunteer, Monica, and a local whom we know. It was a club that rivals the nicest clubs in Cleveland - from the inside and from the clientele. It was quite bizarre to see so many European faces and then think of conditions at my site. The juxtaposition was so surreal that I had to keep reminding myself where I was. To some extent, we're really adjusted to life at site and we experience a fair amount of culture shock getting back into Maputo.
In order to help my understanding of the Portuguese that doesn't exist in books, I bought a rare-find book on "Mocambicanismos", or listerally, words that Mozambique uses not in conventional Portuguese. It's in Portuguese, so it will help my language all around. I'm hoping to translate the "definitions" into English for future Mozambican groups, as I think it can be extremely helpful. I've already seen lingo in the book I've been wondering about for some time, but have never gotten around to asking about.
In seeing a few other volunteers here over the past day, I was able to share what happened this week and we could trade discipline stories. It seems to be the same basic problems everywhere, as expected, save for the seemingly excessive hitting at my school. And being told by teachers that I should hit students does not seem to happen with others. I don't know how I can do something about this except by being a role model. This means I need to be careful with my discipline in the face of students who have no respect for me - and probably stop stooping down to silly and belittling discipline, however much it may seem to help. Of course, that leaves me in an even tighter situation than before, but since Laurenco agreed and volunteered to talk to disrespectful turmas for me, I do have another lifeline. Plus, he said he'll be watching some of my lessons soon, which is great for feedback but intimidating beyond belief.
Chapa tip #34:
If your driver is looking tired, and you're stuck in the chapa for one reason or another, insist he drink a nice cold Coke. I've never been so glad to see a sode in my life.
Peace
John
