The day started with my roommate and I getting all dressed
up and heading to the village with all our colleagues. In the village, the
ceremony had already begun. A line of women were singing a song in their native
language as the townspeople waited in a line to leave flowers under the flag in
honor of a past president Samora Michel, who lead them into independence.
Then the ceremony moved to the town square and many
different cultural groups performed different dances and songs. There was also
a speech about health and HIV/AIDS and a speech from the mayor.
My students
Some other students
Theresa and her students
Our students performing...
Women from the village performing
Theresa and I in our Women's Day capulanas
After the ceremony we headed home for lunch and a little
break and later that afternoon we watched our students play soccer- women and
then men. The women’s game was entertaining to say the least. They looked like
a group of 5 year olds falling all over the place! I guess they don’t play that
often! The men on the other hand were serious about the rules and the game.
They were amazing. It’s crazy what these guys can do with their body to hit a
soccer ball. I really enjoyed both games and chatted with students in English and
Portuguese on the sidelines. After soccer Theresa and I headed to start up a volleyball
game with some students. Now, I am not a very good volleyball player- like at
all (right Kyla?!) but we had so much fun! Every time the students kicked the
ball or used their head like it was soccer, we made them do push-ups.
My beautiful students
My Colleague playing some jams...
After that we went home to bathe and get ready for the show.
Our students prepared skits and songs all about women and women’s rights. They were
awfully entertaining. Mozambicans sure like to perform! My group of students chose
to do some songs and dances. Here are some pics:
My capulana dress to dance the night away
My student is the MC...
My class performing
After that we danced the night away with the students. They were surprised to see an American teacher shake her ass! However my ass shakin’does not even compare to how Mozambicans can move their bodies. Both men and women have crazy dancin’ skills. I am so jealous! I tried to learn, but I probably just looked more like an idiot flopping around in comparison
The next day (Monday) school was cancelled because after so much celebrating the day before, we needed to rest, of course. All in all, it was a very culturally charged experience that I was delighted be part of. Can’t wait until next year!
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Mozambique? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Mozambique in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez