First Week of School

I walk into my first class wearing my bata and the students immediately stand up and greet me with a chorus of:

“Boa tarde Senhora Professora.” Good afternoon Mrs. Professor

“Ola turma, como estão?” I respond. Hello class, how are you all?

“Estamos bem, dispostos para estudar,” they chant. We are good, ready to study.

“Obrigada, podem sentar.” Thank you, you may sit.

This is how I am greeted every time I enter a classroom.  The students are expected to be in the classroom before the teacher enters so as I am approaching a classroom, students start running to get in the door before I do.  I usually wait for a minute or so at the door before entering to allow any stragglers to make it in before I do.

In my first class I introduce myself as “Professor Sienna.” I tell my students that I am from the United States and that I am here in Zobue to teach math for two years.  I talk about the rules of the classroom and what my expectations are for them as students.  I ask them to each stand up and tell me their name and I walk around and shake hands with every student.  Then I begin to talk about natural numbers, the topic of the day.

The chalk the school provides is incredibly dusty and breaks every time I try to write with it on the board.  It also runs out very quickly.  By then end of class I am writing with bits of chalk as big as my finger nail and covered in white dust.  I don’t have an eraser so I’m using a piece of paper to erase the board.  I have no idea if my students understood anything I just said, as most of them speak ChiChewa or Nyungue as a first language and some speak very little Portuguese.

I walk into my second classroom and it is dark.  There are only two windows in the whole room and the electricity is out so the sole light bulb isn’t offering any additional light.  The previous teacher had written on the board with oil pastel and my piece of paper eraser can’t really get it off (not that a real eraser would probably succeed either).  Not only can my students barely see their papers because of the darkness, they can’t really see what I’ve written on the board because the writing from the previous class is also still up there.

By my third class, I am exhausted, my feet hurt, and my voice is tired.  But I make it through, trudge home and put my feet up.

On day two I come to school prepared to teach two single lessons and a double lesson.  After my first lesson I find out the schedule has changed and I am actually teaching three doubles.  I have missed my allotted time slot with one of my turmas (classes) because it was earlier in the day and I didn’t know the schedule had changed. 

By day three, I am exhausted and can’t face talking for three hours straight.  Instead, I give a small test to see whether what I’ve been teaching this week has sunk in at all.

Teaching at a Mozambican school is challenging.  But there are lots of good things about it too.  The students are respectful and eager to learn.  They take initiative to clean the classroom (the second day I came into my second class and the blackboard was perfectly clean) and reprimand each other if someone is talking out of turn.  I started using some chalk I got in a care package and it is much stronger, lasts longer, and is less dusty.  I graded the tests I gave on Thursday and it seems like most of the kids are understanding the concepts I’ve been teaching.  So far, even though it is exhausting, I am really enjoying teaching.  Preparing and giving lessons is a lot of work, but I welcome having something concrete to do after two months of no schedule.  I am looking forward to this next week of class as a chance to get to know my students better and get more familiar with my schedule.  Hopefully, it won’t change again, but you never know.

This is part of 8F turma.  It's supposed to be about 55 students total.

The other part of 8F.  This is the dark classroom because it only has these two windows.

The blackboard in one of my classrooms on the day I was teaching about number lines.

This is part of the 8E turma.  These classrooms are lighter because they have windows on both sides.

The other part of 8E.