05/04/10

The way the Mozambican school schedule is set up, we had final exams last week but then we still have two more weeks of classes before the trimester ends. So you may be wondering why kids would even bother going to class these last two weeks then, and what I have been told by other volunteers is quite simple, they don’t. I think that because I have the youngest of the young kids, my attendance will be better than, say, the 11th graders, but I am still planning my lessons to keep the kids occupied for two weeks without covering any new material. It actually works out okay because most of my kids are failing so I will use these two weeks to give lots of exercises and group work to give them the opportunity to boost their grades.
I have gotten so accustomed to the power going out every day, multiple times per day that I often forget that this didn’t used to be normal for me. Now I have learned to keep everything as charged as possible and always have a backup plan when breakfast is coffee but your electric water boiler is useless. And I know I shouldn’t complain because many of my friends have no energy at all, but expecting to have light and then having to grade 90 exams by candlelight is literally a headache.