24/03/10

Sorry for the break, I have been out of town for a Peace Corps conference! On Friday the 19th all of Moz 14 headed to the reconnect conference, a little check-in after our first three months of service. Mozambique is divided into three sections, north, central, and south. The 16 south (Inhambane, Gaza, and Maputo provinces) education volunteers were in Xai-Xai at a hotel on the beach, so really nothing to complain about. But every single other person in our group (south health, and north and central health and education) were all together in Nampula for their conference, so the 16 of us (while happy we got some serious quality bonding time together) felt a little isolated and left out. We had four days of meetings and sessions, but getting to see everyone and hear their stories and their methods for dealing with poorly-behaved students made it a very fun four days. Plus we got to go to the beach every day after our meetings were over. I am not the only person teaching a subject I wasn’t trained for during training, two chemistry volunteers are teaching physics, one is teaching physics and English, one’s status is still up in the air, one biology volunteer is teaching English and computers, and another is teaching English in addition to biology. Flexibility is a very important quality for Peace Corps Volunteers. Most people are doing incredibly well, are happy, and are making many new friends. We all have our share of frustrations and challenges, but I don’t think that will be changing anytime soon.