At this rate, I'll be home in no time

               Okay, so here it goes!  I woke up today and looked at the calendar on my computer: January 10^th. Wait, JANUARY 10^th?!?!?!?!?!  Yep, school starts in 4 days.  Here, let me write that out-four days, as in 1,2,3,4.  Damn, what happened.  I came to Invinha a month and two days ago.   While the days pass slowly (you know, 6 hours of paper snowflakes one day.  The cooking takes an hour to prepare a meal between lighting the charcoal stove or bleaching all the vegetables.), the month(s) pass quickly.  Hannah and I don’t know where the time has gone. 

                So that being said, half of the neighborhood (all professors housing) hasn’t moved back in from the holidays.  Many teachers don’t know what grade they are teaching; some don’t even know what subject they are teaching.  A few math teachers from last year are under the belief that they are still teaching math, but according to my school director and director of  pedagogy, that is definitely not the case.  Currently I am the only math teacher for 11^th and 12^th grade.  Since the school Director, Irma Isaura has been away on vacation (and still isn’t back yet) we have to ask our questions to the next in command.  My pedagogy director today said I would only be teaching 11^th grade.  Hallelujah!!!!!  I don’t have the added pressure of preparing students for their 12^th grade national exams.  AND I don’t have to lesson plan for 11^th and 12^th grade, only 11^th.  Double hallelujah.  Yet, the school still doesn’t have a math teacher for 12^th grade.  I also asked him if he knew when the school holidays would be, he doesn’t.  Technically, the school year is already set, but I’m in Mozambique.  This means that the holidays marked on the calendar aren’t actually correct, it’s more of a ballpark and then people just let each other know when they’re going to be without actually changing it on paper.  For those waiting on dates for me, I truly am sorry, this is just how Mozambique works. 

Quick side bar: poor Hannah knows she’ll be teaching English and TICs (computers) but has no idea what grades, so she can’t lesson plan yet!  Anyone want to apply for our school?!  I heard there’s a math opening available. 

                Even better, the school is going to give us all the professor’s names and what they’re going to teach (grades included) on Saturday.  Our assignment: to make the schedule for the entire school.  What professor is teaching in what classroom at what time…oh goody!  This will take the better part of the entire weekend.  That means we won’t really have time to lesson plan this weekend either. 

[Enter nice and smooth transition here.]  In Mozambique it is summer, also known as the rainy season, and by rainy season, I mean rainier season.  (We have two wet seasons here, but summer is more so.)  The past four days have rained, but that’s normal.  What isn’t normal is having it constantly rain the entire day with maybe 15-20 minute breaks of blue skies.  Before that it would be blue skies all day and then two quick, but powerful rainstorms.  The neighborhood is talking about the amount of rain coming in.  Man are things green here!  I have a few pictures of what Invinha looks like in the rain. 

                                                        

On the right are a little brother and sister playing in the rain.  Side note: Many children (and adults) bath outside during the rain storms to conserve the water.  

    

Here's an after-shot of my escapades in the rain.  Sweats, mismatching colored socks, and hot cocoa.  Yes I will!  

     Here's Invinha's one road...and that's me standing on it, or
                 should I say, in it? 

               Today is just not my day for creative transitions; I keep on coming up with blanks.  Maybe it’s because my mind is going a million miles a minute trying to make lesson plans, translate them into Portuguese, realize that my dictionary doesn’t have the math vocabulary I need, searching for it in the textbook, thinking about the scheduling, etc.  Anyways, another side note.  I’m learning how to cook, and I’m having fun!  A few times I’ve made some really great soups where I just sort of throw things into the pot and then I dash (or dump) in a few spices and voila!  Today was especially fun where I made caramelized onions and pepper sauce for spaghetti and then also stuffed peppers with a nice colorful salad on the side.  Yum!  Anyways, for everyone at home, if you like making things from scratch and have the recipes written down, send them my way!  (walker.akw@gmail.com) I have plenty of downtime to try them out! Also, this downtime is not referring to the first few weeks of school! 

Oh look, a pretty moth!