July 10, 2012
I’ve just returned from
Inhambane, and I’ve got a good bit of catching up to do! I’m going to split
today’s report into two posts, actually, so bear with me.
As
some of you may know, I was planning to sub in for an English teacher at an all
girls’ orphanage during my stay here, but as it turned out, the girls were
supposed to go on holiday for the month of July. I was told, however, that it
was possible that there would be an opportunity to volunteer there for one day
before the girls left. On Wednesday night, my friend Cinthia, who is Peruvian
but grew up in Mozambique and is now in college in the states, called me to let
me know that Thursday’s classes were a go.
I met
Cinthia at her house Thursday morning, and from there she, her mom, and I
headed to the orphanage. When we arrived, one of the nuns who work there told
us that it was a cleaning day, so they would not be having classes; however,
since we were already there, they decided that the girls could spare a little
time for an English lesson. Cinthia and I taught them a few verbs, quizzed them
on the alphabet, and did our best to teach them to express their feelings. It
was a challenge because Cinthia had only been there once before (I think), and
I had only been there once, so it was difficult to gauge where the girls were
in terms of their English speaking prowess. It was also very difficult to explain
grammar rules, since I don’t speak Portuguese, but fortunately Cinthia was
super at explaining both herself and me. I think I bored them with my endless
examples of when to add an “s” to an English verb, because by the end of the
class, they were getting restless. When the class ended, though, we had some
nice time together to chat (even though I for the most part stayed quiet and
tried to understand what was being said) and the girls became more comfortable
around us. One girl asked me (in English) my nationality.
“American,”
I said.
“Oh,”
she said, and then, in Portuguese, “do you know Justin Bieber?”
I had
to disappoint her by not personally knowing Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, or
Beyoncé, but all the girls still showed us plenty of affection with hugs and a
tour of their vegetable garden. As always, it was lovely to enjoy the
hospitality of such smart and cheerful kids.
On
the way back into the city, Cinthia invited me to come with her family to a
Venezuelan Independence Day celebration at one of the hotels. The celebration
was held outside, and after the Mozambican and Venezuelan National Anthems were
played, two men gave speeches in Portuguese, and then everyone was left to
mingle. With most of the guests speaking Spanish, the hotel’s employees
speaking Portuguese, and various people speaking English, my head was spinning.
But, it was an enjoyable evening during which I got to meet a lot of splendid people,
including Susana and William Diaz, who are both college students studying in
the UK and who knew Cinthia when they were small children.
It’s
now eleven forty-three and I am quite ready to turn in for the night. I’ll be
writing a post tomorrow, though, to tell you all about my adventures in
Inhambane. Until then, goodnight!
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