It's been one really long rollercoaster!...and yes I've definitely thown up a few times

So it’s certainly been a crazy rollercoaster ride for the past two months, and I still haven’t quite bounced back to what you’d call an equilibrium state of being. This might explain why…

Quick summary of the occurrences for the past 2 months:

Got to site in Magude in the Maputo Province in early December only to find out my house wasn’t ready. They put me up in a room inside the school next to the Internato (dormitory), sharing a public bathroom with all the other teachers, and having to do pretty much everything like washing clothes and dishes in public. Thankfully it was holiday time and I got to spend nearly an extra month with my beloved host family and got to spend an awesome completely luxurious weekend with Nadia in Maputo (thanks again for the treat my friend!). My host sister, Meriam, and I had a great time going to the pool, dancing, watching movies, reading Harry Potter in Portuguese, joking, talking, and just spending time with one another. I was really sad to leave my host family, but didn’t know that it would be a permanent thing when I got back to site. When I returned to Magude in early January, no work had been done on my house. They still needed to put nets on the windows, paint the inside, build a bathroom, put bars on the windows and doors, and build a fence because my house was situated on the main road. The directora of my school had promised that the minimum would be done by the 28^th, but considering that it was already the 16^th and nothing had even commenced, that was highly unlikely. Peace Corps came to look at my house and my situation and said that there was a lot of work to be done, not to mention that my school wanted PC to pay for some of it, and that it would probably be another month before it got done. PC had another available site with a house already ready in Carapira, Nampula. I didn’t really have time to think about all the details, but made the decision that day to move to Nampula. We packed up all my stuff, didn’t really get to say any goodbyes to the friends I had made, and found myself in the tiny little town of Carapira, Nampula within the week.

Here is the hard part. I don’t know if I made the right choice to move.

Mostly because I loved being so close to my host family (only 3 hrs away). I grew to love them even more over the holidays and truly felt like they were my family. I would do anything for them. People started saying that my little sister Meriam and I were twins because we knew what the other was thinking without having to say anything. That is how close we had become. I had already made plans to go to my brother and his girlfriend’s presentation ceremony (kind of like an engagement party) and my little sister was going to come and visit me for a weekend or a week during the holidays. And now none of that is a possibility because I moved so far away. I cry every time I think about not being able to see them soon, and not knowing when or if I will get to see them again. My heart is broken. They are and always will be my one and only Mozambican family.

Also, in the short time that I was in Magude, I got to know some of the nicest, most hospitable people at the school and in the community there. I absolutely ADORED my fellow teachers who were so inviting, friendly, nice, funny, fun, and made me feel so welcomed and wanted. They invited me to get to know them and their families and treated me with such kindness and respect. The people in the community that I had met were also incredibly nice and were so genuinely excited at me being at the school to teach and just being in the community to help encourage young girls to study and finish school. Thank you to all my colleagues and people who befriended me in Magude, who invited me into your homes to get to know you and your families, and for treating me so well while I was there!

If I could take it all back to be near my host family and to get to work with the teachers and the people I had met in Magude even without having a house, I definitely would. Hindsight is the death of me right now.

Contemplations:

I don’t know if this was God’s plan all along, or if He was trying to tell me to wait it out at my old site and I just wasn’t hearing Him. If I chose wrongly…well I’m certainly feeling it. If this was His plan, why on earth did I have to go through all of this! Only time will tell. I’m still trying to come to terms with the whole transition: that this is my new home for the next two years. Right now it is hard for me to forget what is behind and to strain toward what is ahead. I’m just making it one day at a time and try to remember this:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4

I know that God is growing me through this whole process, even though it’s extremely difficult right now. His purpose is always accomplished whether I can see it or not. The fact that He has chosen to use me here in this country and in this place where there is so much need for hope is more than I can wrap my head around. I am so thankful for my life, my upbringing in the States, my family and friends, and for this opportunity to serve Him. Sometimes I forget this when things get really tough and aren’t going the way I had imagined or hoped they would.

I’ll leave it at this.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  - Galatians 6:9

Carapira – My new site

My new site is situated in a tiny village about a 15 minute ride on the EN1 from the district capital of Monapo. There is only the Catholic Church (which is beautiful and you can see it from the road), the school where I teach, the neighborhood, and a tiny market which has nothing. If I want to buy anything (like food) I have to hitch a ride to Monapo on the weekends to do my shopping for the week.

The people here are very poor and for the most part generally uneducated. There are so many many many children EVERYWHERE! Babies with flies swarming their poor sweet bodies too weak to cry, tiny todlers with swollen bellies, dirty children with rotting torn cloths. Things which break my heart, are normal everyday life for these people. My house is located on the road to the primary school so I get a flock of kids who hound my front door and window, sometimes asking for money, sometimes asking for pens and notebooks, sometimes just staring at me, and sometimes just annoying me. When I try and talk to them they run away, or play annoying jokes, or just stare blankly because they still don’t know Portuguese. I finally felt like I had a break through yesterday with three girls who didn’t run away when I tried to talk to them. I told them I couldn’t give them money, but that I am a teacher and that if they wanted to learn I would be more than willing to teach them. They are in the 6^th grade, and still don’t know how to read. I was shocked. I told them to come back and I would help them learn to read. I hope they will take me up on the offer and are actually serious about doing it.

I teach at the Escola Industrial de Carapira. And let me tell you, it’s an engineer’s paradise! They have a full mechanics workshop all from building a car from scratch down to doing all the repair work. They have a full carpentry to do all the work from tree trunk to finished products of chairs, tables, shelves, and furniture. They have a metal workshop, an electronics repair lab, etc. It’s really great how much practical experience the students get, and I sure hope that it helps them secure jobs once they are done. The school is run by Italian Padres, and they have a few Portuguese and Brazilian missionaries who also work at the school. It’s very small. Only about 150 or so kids (only 4 of them being girls). The students are very bright…or so I’ve heard. They pay a fortune to attend the school. Class sizes are like that of American schools about 20-30 students, which is unheard of in Moz or in most of Africa in general.

I am going to be teaching computers or what we here call “Informatica.” Because there is no curriculum I can teach whatever I want! It’s still my first week and I have yet to gauge how much my students already know and how quickly they learn and comprehend. Hopefully I am not being too ambitious to try and teach them PowerPoint and Excel. I’m also toying with the idea of them writing a screenplay and doing a movie project…but that maybe pushing it.

Because my school is pretty much an engineering prep school, I have a request to make. I would LOVE to be able to teach my students how to design on CAD, or SolidWorks, or any other design software. I think it would greatly add to their learning and set them apart applying for jobs or for university or even attending school in the States. If anyone has any of these programs and would be willing to send any one of them to me including an adequate instruction manual or brief tutorial on a flashdrive or CD, I would be so forever greatful!!!

My new address is:

Sister Saranya Sathananthan

Rua Dar-Es-Salaam, nr 14

Caixa Postal 526

Bairro Central

Nampula, Mozambique

If you would like to mail me a care package or a letter or anything, here is a list of things I’ve come up with that I would love to receive:

Ø      Photos of you all back home (in physical form, I can’t download photos online…uses too much MB)

Ø      Updates of how things are back home (Everything from pop culture, sports, new technology, and of course the happenings in your lives!)

Ø      Funny stories – I can always use a good laugh

Ø      Encouragement, wisdom, advice

Ø      Tea

Ø      Cheese Sauce/ Pasta Sauce Mixes (in the little paper packets)

Ø      Candles (with smells of home)

Ø      Oatmeal

Ø      Health food stuff like protein mixes, nuts and seeds, etc

Ø      Easy light weight childrens books to help the kids learn to read here

Ø      Stickers, crayons, paint, construction paper, or any creative artsy thing that I can use to teach the kids in my neighborhood

Ø      Tampons (always the best gift)

Ø      Drink mixes

Ø      Soup mixes

Ø      Mrs. Dash/ Cormicks Spice Mixes

Ø      Flash drives with any current music, or movies, or shows.

If I can think of anything else, I will post it.

Love you all back home and missing you all like crazy!

Saranya

P.S. My site mate is Jill who is starting her second year here. She’s really nice, friendly, hospitable, and loves the kids here. She also has a great blog which she updates way more often than I do, so if you’d like to learn more about my site and my school, check out BuffaloJill.