31/03/10

This week is final exam week so we haven’t had any classes, instead the students take two classes per day. Eighth and tenth graders take two exams in the morning, there is a short break, and then ninth and eleventh graders take two exams in the afternoon, and the schedule is such that at any given point, all the kids in the school are taking the exam for one discipline. Teachers are randomly assigned to control the tests so I am seeing some new faces. This could possibly be fun in other circumstances, but here where I am the only white teacher in the school and some of these have possibly never even spoken to a non-Mozambican before, it’s a bit of a pain because they have to test how far they can push me and how much they can get away with. A couple of times I heard something as I was approaching the classroom so when I walked in I asked, “does anyone here know my name?” Eventually one brave soul would raise their hand and answer. And I would respond “yes, my name is Professora Anata. It is NOT mulungo. Understood?” At this a couple of boys would giggle until I glared them into silence.
As the classes are so large and the ability range is so great, some kids will finish their tests in the first 15 minutes, while others are still scribbling as I grab their tests away from them after an hour. These kids who finish early are generally bored out of their mind and spend the next 45 minutes looking for something to entertain them. And that is usually me, the strange white lady with a funny accent. So I have to be careful to not register any facial emotions whatsoever, or all of the class will look around to try to find what I was looking at. This was rather difficult today though when I saw one of my students, bored out of his wits, having a thumb war with himself.
Mail is once again coming to Inharrime! The rumor amongst PCVs is that America and South Africa were having a little spat and thus Johannesburg was holding all American mail for about a month. We are all still missing a few packages, but after over a month of no mail at all, it’s nice that it’s moving once more.