I suppose that by now, it should be understood that my blog updates are pretty rare, but I must comment at least once more: Gee whiz, it’s been a long time since the last time I wrote.

Guebuza’s visit (wow, it really has been a long time!). He came 2 weeks before Mozambican Independence Day, and it was a BIG deal. Guebuza arrived in a convoy of helicopters- 6 in total. I had never seen that many helicopters that close up and thought it was pretty cool. Needless to say, the crianças who had never seen a single helicopter went nuts. My fame was challenged that day, though the pack of kids that crowded around me when I pulled out my camera affirmed that the Americans are still pretty neat. We met some Italian volunteers that morning and later had lunch at their house- a real Italian lunch, complete with lasagna and little bowls of grated Parmesan cheese on the table! (Lasagna is quite a production- it requires cheese, big noodles, and a good oven—none of which are readily available in Catandica… well, except for the Italians’ compound.)
A Sua Excelência Senhor Presidente da República de Moçambique Armando Emílio Guebuza stayed for two days to see the villa, school, and the surrounding areas. The highlight of his visit was meeting the two American teachers during his tour of the school. President Bush is old news now that I’ve met President Guebuza!

25th of June/ 4th of July. Catandica saw a little action for American Independence Day. Our 4th of July happened just a week after the 25th of June, Mozambican Independence Day. Mozambican Independence Day was celebrated with a day off work/ school, dances, speeches, and American Independence Day was celebrated with a bonfire, a couple cervejas, and a hodgepodge of American-ish foods.

Feira de Ciências. On the 5th of July, I ran our school’s 2nd annual Science Fair. I had about 12 students participate (most of which were my 12th graders), and I was pleasantly surprised at how high the attendance was. Many of the projects were simple and included a lemon battery, chemical reactions, magnetism, homemade radio, etc. I had prepared the students for a laid-back morning of people wandering through for a couple hours. Instead, the director changed the format the morning of the fair to public defense of their work. If that’s not bad enough, the a-hole judges and school director asked them impossible questions and criticized their projects in front of the audience, just to make them feel stupid. It got so bad at one point that I pulled the director (principal of the school) out of the room and gave him a “the science fair is supposed to be fun and should encourage the students in the sciences, and all of your criticism is NOT accomplishing that” talk. Sadly, that was not one of my more successful “talks” I’ve given as a teacher because the assault continued. I think that next year, his invitation might have to get lost in the mail.
The local fair ended, and a few weeks later, I took a girl who did a project identifying the release of a gas in a chemical reaction and the boy who made a radio to a regional fair of about 10 to 15 schools. Catandica cleaned house that weekend by winning 1st (the boy, Carlos) and 3rd (the girl, Sillén) places. They got good prizes (a CD/DVD player and camera, respectively). Better than that, Carlos gets to go to Maputo, the capital of Moz, at the end of August, to present his experiment and do other science-y stuff. I’m incredibly excited for him. It will be his first trip to Maputo- to pretty much anywhere- and definitely his first time traveling by airplane!

Mom in Moz. The day finally came (which just-so happened to be the day I last updated my blog)! My mother came to visit me in Mozambique. It was so great seeing her and being able to show her where I live. She was quite an adventurer, and for the first half of her visit, we travelled by public transportation- machibombos (buses) and chapas. Her first chapa was from Chimoio to Catandica, on her second day in Moz. The motorista (driver) was a speed-demon that day, except for when we stopped to pick up more passengers and buy fish (which was then hung in front of the vehicle, using the windshield wiper as a hook). We stayed in Catandica that night so that she could meet my students who were still in town (a 2 week break had started that same day, so many of them had already left). They were super-excited to meet her. Lindsay and I took her to the school, where the students spoke to her in their semi-broken English. Some of the girls who live in the dormitory did a little dancing for her. She left globe key chains for all of my students, and they went NUTS when they received them. My 12th graders walk around with their globes hanging from their pants pockets like some sort of a fashion statement, and other students and teachers have been asking me if I’d give them one too ever since!
After spending the weekend in Chimoio (at the Science Fair), we returned to Catandica for a few days, at which time I had the awful realization that my passport was missing. I knew I had it when I got on the chapa, but it had not made the trip all the way back to Catandica with me. That afternoon, one of the young guys who “works” at the Catandica chapa stop came to our school to say that they had found the passport on the floor of the chapa. It was delivered to me later that evening. I thanked my lucky stars that night that I live in a teeny little villa where everybody knows me.
We travelled to Gorongosa Park, which is supposedly the best place to go around this region for safaris. Whoever told me that must have called all of the big animals to warn them that we were coming because I didn’t see a single stinking lion, buffalo, zebra, hippo, or elephant. The numbers baboons, warthogs, waterbucks, and impala helped make up for the lack of big guys. One morning, there was a group of maybe 20 or 30 baboons out on the staff soccer field, running around. Some of them even came up into the base camp where we stayed and ran around for a bit.
After Gorongosa, we went to the beach! My mom and I flew up to Pemba, in Northern Mozambique, for almost a week at a stunningly beautiful beach. The water was 7 shades of blue and turquoise, and we snorkeled right off of the beach. I found vibrantly-colored starfish the size of my hand- cerulean blue, jet-black, and a color that seemed to be a mix of fire-engine red and Clemson orange. My only major complaint about Pemba (other than the fact that I neither live there nor is it easily accessible from Catandica) was that we had no real opportunity to rest out on the beach. There were always people coming up to ask for money and to sell crafts or snacks. Tourism is an important industry there, but the number of tourists is very small. As a result, we were easily singled out as tourists (I guess my blindingly white skin in a bathing suit didn’t really do too much to help me blend in).
We spent a night and day in Nampula on our trip back to Beira and were there for the Sunday wood market. There were a lot of hand-carved wood crafts, jewelry, and furniture, which makes me wish it were easier to ship things to America. The market is very busy and attracts a lot of foreigners looking for souvenirs, which makes it a perfect location for theft. While wandering through the market, we got stuck in a little bit of a human bottleneck. I felt a hand go into the pocket of my jeans and grabbed it. The nearby vendors laughed when I caught the man who tried to pickpocket me, who then claimed that he was “just trying to pass by.” Pass by, my derriere!!
Overall, I had a great trip with minha mãe. It was very interesting to be the one who knew what was going on. She commented that I was basically assuming the role of a single parent while she was visiting: I spoke the language and thus could communicate, I made all of our travel arrangements, I ordered for both of us in restaurants, etc. When I finally put my “child” on a plane back to America, I did feel somewhat like a parent sending their child back to college for the semester. And lucky for me, I’ll get to go home in December to visit!

Start of the 3rd trimester. I’ve been sick with bronchitis/ flu/ cold/ sore throat for about two weeks. Last weekend, I spent a day or two without a voice and wrote out everything I wanted to say on a dry-erase board. When some students came by to visit, I realized that writing everything out- in Portuguese- hinders my ability to have any sort of a quick and witty conversation.
As far as teaching goes, my job this trimester (other than the regular curriculum) is to prepare my students for the 12th grade national biology exam. Eek!