MozamWeek

I mentioned in a recent post (click here ) that I was involved in a group looking at the Primary school in Mufa-Caconde. I was supposed to visit this school today, but the trip was canceled. I'm still looking forward to the visit and I' ll keep you updated. In the meantime, I was invited to visit the new primary school in the re-settlement of Cateme. Now, I've always thought of re-settlements as a result of refugees in times of war or something like that. This re-settlement is the result of economic "development" in Tete province. It is hard to describe the impact of the recent invasion of foreign companies in our neck of the Zambezi Valley. We have huge Brazillian, Australian, Portuguese, and International companies coming to town to explore the hidden riches beneath the blazing African sun. One company has a 30+ year contract to extract top-quality coal in Moatize 20 km from Tete. In order to do this, they have to remove the local population... to where? Cateme....

Querino came to work this morning with a gift from home: ntswaya-- termites, flying ants! Mikael took one and nibbled half of it. They are little black and brown wingless crunchies. I’ve heard that they taste like bacon… BUT, on an empty stomach, before my coffee… sorry, I just don’t eat bugs before breakfast. “Give me one after my breakfast… or in the afternoon,” I replied. Well, the “Tete shrimps” where gone by the time I got home at 3pm. So, I still haven’t eaten ntswaya. Pretty good, huh? Over 10 years in Mozambique, and this is the first time I’ve been offered this delicacy. I suppose it is just too good to waste on people who won’t really appreciate it; I say the same thing about good chocolate, real butter, and cheese. My African friends aren’t very impressed with these things we nibble in small quantities to make them last. I won’t be offended if they keep their best things to themselves, if they don’t ask me to part with my chocolate. Maybe we are more alike than it seems…

I have been invited to attend a seminar at the Provincial Dept of Education. The theme is something about creating a project to improve local schools. Very important. Much improvement needed, but ruts are deep and this might give them a push to help them out. I'm invited as an "Educational Partner"... the other 20 participants are school directors, district supervisors, inspectors, etc. I've been placed in a group to study the reality of a village school about 50km from Tete: The complete primary school of Mufa-Caconde. I was interested in this school because it is one of 6 schools in the province that have bilingual education in Nyungwe. Kids are learning to read and write in Nyungwe and then transition to Portuguese by the 4th grade. I wanted to know what really happens in these Bilingual programs. I'm learning a lot about Mozambican schools! We have been analyzing the current "reality" of the school. Filling in questionnaires about the physical condit...

Usually the sky is blue... today it is gray, but inside my new Tete house everything is BLUE! We moved to a house in town... I've mentioned the challenges of living on the "wrong" side of the Zambezi River during the bridge renovations... we looked for a house for over a year and finally have found something to move into! There are problems: for $500/mo in Tete, you don't get much. In Chimoio, you get a palace for the same price! But here in "boomtown" things are different. We have a downstairs 3 bedroom 'duplex". We have quiet neighbors upstairs who have a pretty tropical garden, but we have a sandy, patchy grass, flooding when it rains... sewer-smelling garden. We've had the plumbing worked on, but there is more to do. The upstairs very effectively blocks the hot sun from baking our roof! So we are quite comfortable without air-conditioning... as long as a fan is blowing! For now, we are enjoying living and working on the same side of the brid...