Every so often, Violeta comes over from her house next door to sit down on the ground and have Albertina do her hair. They speak in Changana every so often about random topics, but mostly it's silence interrupted only by the rough brushing of hair. Violeta maintains a calm, collected demeanor, fooling around with her fingernails or something else mindless. Every so often, she'll fall asleep because of the massage she's receiving through the wrestling of her hair. Albertina just keeps on tugging away, just as automatically but not without intention and care. It's a ritual, for sure, and can be seen indoors and out at any time of day.
And then there's Cesar. He's a very passionate, optimistic, idealistic man, but unfortunately has a habit of talking without...stopping. He came over today and managed to do just that for about half an hour. He's got some great ideas about HIV/AIDS projects and is incredibly motivated to get funding for them, but he needs to learn how to take things one step at a time.
Dona Flora, one of the women at the market, always speaks Changana to me. Today we spoke about the usual - weather, family, health. But today I had a request to borrow a Changana book. She furtively grabbed the book so nobody could see - hidden among rice sacks in her stall - and made sure she passed it to me with care. She said she was afraid of the other ladies stealing it. She's funny - a mother of at least two children, but she admits to being lazy and acts like a little kid quite often. But she's got a bona fide heart of gold.
And then there are my students. There is a certain collective consciousness they have. They want to be told what to think and when to spit it back out...and how. They want their papers to be neat, their notebooks well taken care of, but they don't care as much about the actual content of said papers and notebooks. They were only ever told to keep everything neat, not be critical about what they're told. They are used to a couple of major learning styles, but adapt to new styles amazingly quickly. However, they have problems in assimilating information in different ways. They are generally enthusiastic about new information when it is accessible - relevancy doesn't seem to matter. As long as it can be understood, the Mozambican student is typically excited by the information. They're motivated.
Among these students are the wise-asses who keep any lesson light but are always dancing the line between being a big help, and getting kicked out; the smart kids who want to answer every single question (but I don't let them); the smart kids who take Mark Twain's advice: "Better to remain silent and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"; the kids who try REALLY hard, but only rarely does it "click"; the kids who are of average aptitude for Biology and only speak when called on; and the kids who are still learning Portuguese and whose presence continually awes me. All in the same room, 5 days a week, 5 hours a day.
Peace
John
