O tempo está a voar! It's been a year!

Today marks exactly one year since I stepped off the plane here in Mozambique. Needless to say, this leads to some reflection about all that I have experienced since arriving and how it has affected me.

One year ago: first views of Maputo from the plane and first day in Hotel Cardoso.

1.     I was raised by a teacher and a principal, a majority of whose friends are also educators, so I have always had a lot of respect for those who dedicate their lives to education; however, working this past year as a teacher has super-charged that respect. Teaching is HARD! Writing a syllabus that covers enough, but not too much; putting together lessons that are challenging, but engaging; earning your students respect while also wanting them to like you; doing what is best for them in the long term without alienating them: every day is an incredible balancing act. Writing tests, grading projects, enforcing deadlines… And I don’t even have to worry about standardized tests or a centralized curriculum!

2.     You don’t have to be fluent in a language to communicate and you don’t have to understand every individual word to understand a person. This is a lesson I first started to learn from being in a relationship with someone who spoke English as a second language, but living in a new language has only reinforced it. My ability to express myself well has always been one of my strengths; whether in speaking or writing, I have always loved the search for the perfect word needed to communicate my thoughts. My father the teacher is also a human dictionary and words have always been a passion for us. The idea of moving somewhere where I would have to start building a vocabulary from the ground up was downright terrifying. But it really hasn’t been that bad. Instead of finding the perfect word, the challenge is now circumlocution: how can I best express myself with my limited choice of words? It turns out this is just as fun. And although it can still be frustrating when I can’t get all the nuances of my thoughts across, it is still possible to get to know people very well when they have the patience to work with you as you learn.

3.     Having fresh fruit growing in your backyard is one of life’s great pleasures.

4.     I have come to appreciate political stability and freedom of the press. I love John Stewart and think he calls out a lot of well-deserving members of the media for not doing their job to hold politicians accountable, but the lack of transparency in the Mozambican government and lack of information provided by the Mozambican media has made me realize how accountable our politicians still are. Over the last six-or-so months, there has been some political instability here and information just isn’t available. Rumors fly and people are left to wonder what is going on or to make up their own versions of events. This situation has also made me come to appreciate how much we are able to take the future for granted in the US.

5.     Sometimes you don’t need to know everything ahead of time or be in control of it all. As I have written before, things around here tend to happen on a much looser schedule. As much as this was an adjustment, I have found that things still tend to work out. And the more I give up my control-freak tendencies, the happier I am. It is just as valuable a skill to be able to go with the flow and adjust as things change as it is to plan things out ahead of time. Similarly, being able to find the right person to take on a responsibility and giving them the support they need to accomplish their tasks is just as important as being able to do many things by yourself.

6.     Making friends with the people you buy things from may get you a better deal occasionally, but will definitely make shopping a more pleasant experience.

7.     When I look over the past year, the times that I have put the work I had planned to do aside in order to have a conversation with a student, go to a cultural event or have lunch with a friend have been some of the most memorable and valuable experiences for me, and I think in many cases, for them. While I am here to teach and to develop secondary projects, I think the times I just get to talk with people are the more important. Peace Corps is about economic development, but it is also about cultural exchange. I am not an engineer who can make a real impact on infrastructure, but I can help get people thinking in a new way. I get to have really fascinating conversations with my students about gender roles, the importance of education, gay rights, responsible consumerism, democracy, freedom of the press… And it is worth turning a schedule in late, straying from lesson plans, delaying replies to emails, etc. to make room for them. The formal activities are a structure to foster these kinds of conversations and, hopefully, to create mechanisms to keep them going once I am gone. Lesson: don’t let your job get in the way of your work.

8.     I am old and that’s okay. No, I am old and I like it. Since I arrived here, I have turned thirty, stopped drinking and I find I spend the little free time I have reading the Economist and knitting hats for babies. Okay, so those last two I have been doing for a while, but I am finding that I no longer need to be out late just because it is Friday night, in fact, I might rather stay in and watch a movie because I have to be up early for English Club. When I turned 30, it gave me a moment to reflect on how much I have grown and changed since college and I realized how awesome getting older is. I find myself to be a much calmer person, able to choose where I want to put my attention and energy, less concerned with what others think of me, able to accept my own strengths and weaknesses. And I feel like I am in a much better place to keep improving as time, hopefully, keeps passing.

9.     I have learned more than I want to about bugs and animals. Including the fact that, when hot enough, chickens will pant. Also, it is possible for dogs to get stuck when doing it.

10. Yoga is the best. I have been living quite happily without sliced bread, but yoga keeps me going every day.

11. You know how everything in the US is fortified with something? Don’t take that for granted. Throughout seven years as a vegetarian in high school and college, I was never anemic. After a few months in Moz, I had to go on iron supplements. Over the years, I have been a proponent of natural foods and a balanced diet, and a detractor of GMO and lots of additives. As a rule, I still prefer food that has fewer ingredients, that hasn’t been filled with hormones and whose genes haven’t been spliced with those of another species. But at the same time, that iron in your flour and iodine in your salt? It’s there for a reason.

12. I have come to appreciate, to a more profound degree, the generosity of the human spirit. First, because of the culture here in Mozambique. Mozambique is the fourth least developed country in the world according to the UN’s Human Development Index. It is ranked 210^th out of 229 in per capita GDP.  People here are poor and their lives can be difficult. But if you approach someone for almost any reason while they are eating, you are almost guaranteed to be greeted with, “Servido!” an offer to help yourself to their meal. The culture here is one in which wealth is shared among family, friends and community. While servido is a clearly generous side of this, some PCVs struggle with the flipside: people pediring constantly. The practice of just asking people for their things is still an expression of the same expectation that what you have should be shared with those who have less, but to us it sometimes just seems like begging. [This will probably be expanded into a whole post at a later date. ]

My specific experience with the amazing kids in my English Club has reinforced this feeling. They have grown up in a tough country, a lot of them facing challenges I can’t begin to imagine overcoming. But they all just want to give back. Some were raised orphans and spend their vacations going back to work with the kids in the orphanage. They are in the process of starting a Rotary Youth group to take on more community service projects. They are spending their Saturday’s writing and practicing an anti-drug, pro-education play to perform for a bunch of secondary school students. Along with these kids, I have had the chance to work with a bunch of women who volunteer their time through REDES, organizing activities for teenage girls, trying to keep them in school and teaching them about safe sex.

But just as much as my experience with people here reinforces my faith in humanity, it is the generosity of my friends and family back home that makes me feel this way. Starting with knee-length skirts donated to keep me appropriate by Mozambican standards; continuing with care packages, cards and letters sent to me here; and more than anything else, the frequent words of support conveyed through these, through emails and Facebook messages, text messages and Skype calls: I have been so supported by you all this whole time. And when I have reached out for contributions – books for kids here, or just yesterday, clothing for a Mozambican student studying in the US – the response has been immediate and generous. I mentioned to my teacher-penpal that students here sometimes can’t afford glasses and she immediately responded with an offer to get her students working collecting glasses to send over. The stories from other PCVs are the same: when they reach out for support to build a basketball court or a preschool, to help a neighbor start a business, whatever it is, their friends and family back home pounce on the opportunity to contribute. And this leaves me with the distinct impression that most people out there really want to help those who are worse off. They want to share their wealth and make the world a better place. They just need to be offered the opportunity.

Since I am living in a site where communication back home is relatively easy, I feel like a lot of you have been on this journey with me and it has been made all the better for that. Thanks to my friends and students here and all of you back home, this has been a wonderful year that has flown by. Thank you so much for your engagement, your support, and your encouragement.