Sarah...I mean Thelma Sarah Alvarez

Month of May was a month of pretty much traveling to different parts of Mozambique. Well my first stop was Tufo beach which is located in Inhambane Province. I went down a few days before our reconnect conference to see some of my best friends. The last time I saw them was the day after we swore in. So traveling in Mozambique usually doesn't go the way you want it to go, especially when you are going to be taking an airplane. LAM airlines is well let's just say preguicoso (lazy). I was traveling with two other people from the Manica province. We left May 1st which is a holiday, Dia os trabalhadores, also known as ehhhhh I don't want to work because it's my day. We get to the airport on time and our flight was supposed to arrive in 30 minutes until all of a sudden a voice comes on the loud speaker telling us that the flight was canceled. Really?!?! You didn't know the plane didn't leave 2 hours ago. Everyone and I mean literally EVERYONE was so angry they could of flipped the chairs over and smashed the windows. So they decided to accommodate everyone and got us on the next flight as soon as possible. After a full day of bad luck we finally arrive in Maputo (south of Mozambique), tired and just wanting to crawl in a bed we finally got to a hostel but had to wake up at 5am for the morning chapa to get to tufo.

 (Steven, Wendy and I at tufo beach)

(Erin and me, one of my friends since training)

(some people from Moz 21)

 

(The beautiful beach in Tufo)

 Which was well worth it! We got there and it was beautiful! Living in California and now being cut off from a beach, I was literally in heaven. I jumped in the water had my toes in the sand and just enjoyed the warm beach sun for the whole weekend. We did have a special event (hence why we also went down). It was beer Olympics, which was so much fun. Then we made a pit stop at my friends beautiful site Quissico. We went to a lagoon that is a good 45 min walk from there house but well worth it.

(Quissico Lagoon)

(Fei my central travel buddy to the south)

(Sean who lives at this beautiful site)

(I want to see you guys walk in beach sand and carry things on your head)

(Laura and me)

So pretty!

So after spending a weekend on the beach, all of us 21ers were off to maputo for reconnect.  Reconnect is a conference we go to when we have been at site for 3 months and we all get together for a refresher, reflection, and of course discussing secondary projects. It was nice to be around everyone from training. As many of you know my computer was fried by lightening, yes I said it lightening, and I haven't had a computer since December. That's why it's been hard to blog and email everyone back. Besides that during reconnect, as much as I loved my computer I learned that without it I was well integrated in my community. I would go out for walks more and visit friends. I didn't really need technology as much as I thought I needed it. I should literally go out and smell the roses. So I'm telling you, don't let technology suck you in there’s so much more around us.

Sorry no pictures from that conference.

After I believe it was 3 to 4 days of reconnect I was flown out to nampula for a JUNTOS conference. I think I talked about JUNTOS in my last blog. But just in case, I am working with youth and making them leaders in their community. They spread awareness their community about malaria or HIV, things that affects their community drastically . I am actually a coordinator for JUNTOS in the central province. So I went to this conference for the old officers to handover everything about JUNTOS I needed to know. It was a lot of fun and I am so ready to get this year started.

(Talking about the central coordinators of JUNTOS)

(By far my favorite person Mark)

After all that I finally made it back to site, I was gone for way to long and even my market ladies told me they missed me so much. And you can't forget our dog who literally cried so much you could hear him all over town.  Except once I got back I had a terrible eye infection! So I was sent back to Maputo to get checked and don’t worry it was an easy fix. Once I could finally see through my red eye I decided to visit my host family because I needed a good smile and my host mother was so happy. She even showed me her new tiled floor. How I love my host family they were amazing.

                                                        My host mother and I

There were other Peace Corps volunteers in Maputo also for other reason and they kept me company even if my eye looked gross haha. Maria joined me on this trip to see our host families, she is an amazing volunteer and an amazing friend!

(Maria and I learning about Maputo)
Also special shout out to my amazing cousin graduating! glad I made it to your graduation love you!

Rony, my sisters and me on the phone!

Last but not least the title of my blog, the market ladies think my name is sarah for some odd reason, so now I am Thelma Sarah Alvarez. I respond to Sarah and Thelma. Love my site

Cabeca....wait what's the rest...

Hello everyone, I know what you are thinking “Where the heck is Thelma” or like my market lady friends say  when they don’t see me for a day “Você estave desaparecido” (you’ve disappeared). Well Last time I updated my blog was in March and well now we are in….July….Like I said I am really sorry. Well lets get to it I will update each month. Don’t worry they will be in separate blog posts.

So it’s April….well best month ever because it is my Birthday month! April was a busy month because the first trimester began to wind down. So of course we have provincial testing at the end of the trimester. Each school in the province will receive the same exam like US standard tests to test the students. This whole trimester I have been working really really hard on trying find ways to get my students attention and love biology as much as I do. I tried doing some experiments for each class which they loved!

We worked on a diffusion and osmosis lab with our limited resources. I gathered old cans, plastic cups and of course the red solo cups that were in our house. I am still trying to find short low budget experiments to do for them but meanwhile I will still bring displays for them to understand what they are learning. We will see how much I can improve on this.

My students working hard on a test.

One thing I do struggle with is the cheating that happens in my classroom. Students are slowly learning that it is unacceptable in my classroom. I do have to take in consideration many of these students do not even know they are doing it because they are so used to it and grow up learning how to copy. For example a young girl will learn how to copy the tasks of a mother for example : care for a child, wake up early to help cart water. I am trying to teach them how to study and they are capable of passing the class if they have confidence in themselves. Do not get me wrong though I do have some wonderful students who try and show me they want to learn. The only struggle is making two versions of tests and making them sit in twos. There is limited space in some of the classrooms since one of my classes is filled with 48 students which is considered small here. Maybe by the end of my service I won’t have to make 2 versions of test.

Here’s a cute picture of me grading papers meanwhile I was cat sitting for another fellow volunteer. He’s name is Mata-Bicho (Macho) means bug killer!

Another good thing about this month is that it was also one of my good friends birthday to wonderful little Wendell (wendy).  It was nice to get every volunteer in central Mozambique to celebrate birthdays together. I have to say these volunteers are like my family and make days better!  

So one thing me and my roommate like to do is always make good food and go passear(walking) around our town of Vanduzi. 

Our yummy Easter Brunch ( banan bread, pancakes with chocolate, scrambled eggs and REAL coffee)

Our pretty site can always make me smile. You see kids always so happy and playing. Running up to us just to say hi. Many calling us Amendoim (our dogs name), calling Haleigh- hell or Helen since they can’t say her name and then my regular telma or sometimes Sarah. I will explain that name in my next blog post. One day my roommate and I decided to do a day trip to candandica which is an hour away from our town. We went to visit a modista(a female that makes clothes). We decided we should eat lunch there and we do what we do best wonder around and find a place that looks good but affordable.  Haleigh is a vegetarian which is awesome cause we get to find places that make couve or folha de abobora(which are yummy dishes) We found one market food place that welcomed us with open arms. I am pretty sure these people made us part of their family within seconds and we had yummy market food! The owner spoke English and was enjoying the practice he was getting with us…even though we wanted to practice our Portuguese. We enjoyed the day with hima nd his wife as we ate lunch. 

 

Our day ended really well!

So I am working on my secondary projects! I know finally, I am not just a teacher but a leader in my community. I decided to work with a group called J.U.N.T.O.S that works with younger students and help them become better leaders in their community. They teach their community about different subjects related to health and education. The best part about it is that they get to show this awareness and education through art. We recently started ours this month with our counterpart.

So now my month is slowly ending, but before april ends me and my roommate decided to go visit and escolinha (preschool). We all know I love teaching things to children and somehow children love me 

 

They were learning their ABC’s in portuguese. They had so much energy but they were still writing their notes and repeating the letters to the  teacher. One thing I did get to teach the kids was head shoulders knees and toes in Portuguese. They loved it! Sorry I don’t have a picture of it. I swear it did happen though! This is when I realized I really wanted to start working with a younger group of kids again. I started looking into other secondary projects too. 

Now the month has ended but so did the trimester which means I get to travel and we have our Reconnect meeting where Central and South volunteers get together with PC staff and discuss how everything is going at site. I decided the month f May i will be going to the beaches in the South. So since majority of us were traveling the first of may we all celebrated my birthday with a card and dinner before we all left for the month of May. 

My Neighborhood Children they always come over to play

Thank You for All the cards! I feel the LOVE

But Teacher....

I am long overdue on updating my blog…..I am very sorry! Keep in mind my computer is not working and I have been really busy but this one will be enjoyable….hopefully? So I love site and everything about it.  My roommate and I are doing quite well. We are usually kept busy. We have visitors over at our house constantly. We are usually busy tutoring, helping with homework, or just having a conversation with friends/ colleagues. We had a our friend Anna (another volunteer in Messica) who visited and she witnessed our busy life. 

This is our neighbor/ Best Friend Causha, with students all our around in our little kitchen.  We were reading books during break on our porch but now time flies with teaching and students constantly visiting. Which is a good thing, I get to tutor students in Biology which also helps refresh my memory on many subjects. We are never alone or get lonely. We have many friends and visit other people also. I have been teaching since February 4th. I do teach Biology in Portuguese, which can be a little rough but some days my Portuguese just seems to come out. My students just had their first exam. It was a little intense keeping an eye out for cheating in a classroom of 40-45 students. Yet, many were actually trying to put an effort and remember the things they learned. Many passed and some did not but you have to remember some people do struggle with Biology, it is not an easy subject. I am enjoying teaching and seeing students enjoy biology as much as I do. It's a little funny because sometimes they try to give me answers in English or if I give them homework they will always say... "But Teacher..why".....Gotta love my students.

Some of my free time, I usually get caught up playing with my colleagues’ children. Yeah me of all people playing with kids, weird. Yet they are the cutest things ever and they all seem to love to color! One of my colleagues always tells his son “It’s time for art class” in Portuguese of course. So we color pictures for his mother of course.

 Besides all the hard work of lesson planning, correcting homework, tests, and other school stuff, my roommate and I still manage to make time for ourselves and go exploring. We decided to go on a hike on some beautiful mountains that were near our site. We ended up getting a free ride to at least the village closest to the mountains.

It’s a good AC on a Hot day.  We walked through large grass, we crossed a little river, and some Avocado Farms. People from the little village were happy to help us find our way up the mountain.

We eventually were on our own and meet a little girl who showed us our way up the mountain. It turned out this mountain had hidden waterfalls and this little girl took us straight to them.

 Talk about the best tour guide ever! We gave her a peanut butter honey sandwich.

Pretty waterfall…

Yet that wasn’t the only pretty site we also got to see all of Vanduzi  (where I live) and other smaller villages near it…it was well you can see

Beautiful…….I love everything about where I live.

Little Ranger Me.

My site has the perfect location. I am in a town but I am still 30 minutes from the main city Chimoio. We have volunteers there too and my two closest friends live there.  We also go on adventures too. They took me to the roof of a building to see the beautiful site of Chimoio.

Trifiesta ( Wendy, Steven, and I)

We went to see Chimoio’s Carnival, where many dress up and there is a lot of music and dancing, it’s a huge celebration. We all decided to head out and experience Carnival in Chimoio. We had an amazing time, except we never made it into the festival just because there was a price to pay to get in….and lets be real we are on a PC budget we rather use the money of cheese when it is available…I’m kidding but not really. We ended up going to a place across the street to eat dinner, and supposedly the crowd from the festival was going to end up there…which in fact was true. SO my friends and I got to see more masks and crazy outfits where we were located. Maybe next year I’ll pay the fee to see dancing but we will see.

So recently this weekend all of the central volunteers got together for an event called Coesao. This is when we all get to see each other to discuss secondary projects, ups and downs at site, and just to see everyone that you haven’t seen.  Which I was pretty happy to see everyone since my Moz 21 group isn’t allowed to travel outside of province for 3 months. And that weekend meant the 3 months were over. We were all excited to see each other. We all got together at a place called Casa Msika, which was beautiful and known to have some wild life especially Girafees!

My Central Family!

Since our families are so far it’s nice to know this is our family and such a great support system when we face the bad and the good.

Besides seeing everyone I actually got to see real life Giraffes during the sunset. Also it was a cute little family which made it that much better.

The cute little family!

We needed a picture….

Yes this is real LIFE!

I also got to see some other wildlife……

Prince Charming??

I do miss my family only cause I wish they could see the things that I see, but I am happy to know they are doing well and we can skype at least once a month.  

This is one of our skype sessions that my brother in-law took a picture off. We are always laughing.

Overall I am doing really well, making friends at my site and enjoying the other volunteers who are around me. My site is quite beautiful and whenever my roommate and I head back home from the city or Manica we always say we are seriously so lucky to be where we are located. Sometimes it’s even rough to leave home, not only because of Amendoim our dog but because we get along with many people in our town and they love when we are around.

Such a prince….

until next post……..

Just some Pictures, i'll update soon

Always visitors at our house learning English!

Adventures in Chimoio with friends

Amendoim IS guarding so proper

Coloring time with

Eva and her Brother

Cow vs Dog, amendoim just wants to play with him