My Colleagues
I teach eighth grade at Escola Secundaria de 25 de Junho four mornings a week. There are 24 teachers at my school, four of them women, the rest men. It's my colleagues who make my world at school go 'round. Introducing them to you has been long overdue and I hope that now you all will be able to become familiar with their lives and have a better understanding of Mozambicans that are really working to better their lives, care for their families, and develop their country.
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| Professores (lf-rt) Maurelio, Sergio, Osvaldo, Etivaldo, Adercio, Hermenigilda, Gloria, Panga |
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| Took a second picture to crack the stoic looks of my first shot. This is more how we are at work. Always brincar-ing :) |
Adelino Panga – A quiet, sheepish Chemistry teacher, who has
a huge and thus incredibly contagious grin (when I can get it out of him!) ;)
While I don’t see Adelino every day because we teach different grades, when I
do see him, he’s generally plugged into his headphones. Even when we proctored
provincial exams last trimester, he was walking around the classroom, bopping
his head, listening to music. Cracks me up!
Adercio – Tall, suave, describes himself as a "cavaliero" (or gentleman).
Business skills teacher. It’s a good
thing I didn't write off Adercio on first impressions because now he’s really a
good friend of mine. However, the first thing he exclaimed to me EVER, in front
of everyone during a staff meeting was “Teeeacher! Why is your bata SO dirty!?”
NOT the usual, “Hi how are you” “My name is…” “I’m a teacher of…” NO. He chose to pick on the young, new American
teacher in front of everyone. And then make fun of my Portuguese. In my
humiliation, I fervently vowed to forever banish him to my sh*t list. However, as
I’ve gotten to know Adercio, I understand now that that first encounter was
very reflective of his personality – a harmless prankster and constant joker whose
behavior can be likened to a boy pulling the pigtails of the girl in front of
him just to have something to do. Random fact? Adercio wants to move to Spain to study. (Oh, and just for the record, my bata was NOT
dirty thankyouverymuch!!)
Angelica – Short, plump, P.E./Health teacher. My closest
neighbor and the mother of Junior (the 3 year old that makes frequent
appearances on my Facebook). Angelica is wonderful
- sensible, empathetic, kind, and works very hard to make a living for herself
and her family. Considering the borrowing-lending culture here where often
things never come back, I have given Angelica medicine, spotted her cash,
helped her pay for food a few times, and she’s always paid me back or if she can’t pay me, given me something else
in return. Not that I need to be repaid all the time, but the gesture is
incredibly unique here in that she’s not out to take advantage of someone’s
generosity. As such, we've built up a
very trusting friendship where for example she can hand me her credit card and
pin # to withdraw money from the bank for her, and the next week she’ll bring
me a pretty necklace or some yummy food from her hometown of Maxixe. Plus, I benefit from an open door policy if I
never need help, assistance, or companionship, she’s always right there. I’m
very lucky to have Angelica as my friend and neighbor!!
Elsidio – Thin, goateed, middle-aged professor who teaches
history. He loves talking politics, which tends to make every other professor
in proximity fidget uncomfortably. While grading provincial exams last
trimester, we got into a big debate about whether the United States should intervene
militarily in other countries conflicts (ie, Libya). He was adamantly against
the U.S. war in Iraq and essentially views the American government as a hawkish
warmonger.
Overall, I really want to like Elsidio. He’s always very
warm and teasing with me. I personally have no reason not to like him. BUT,
there’s another side of his that I cannot stand. Prof. Elsidio regularly beats and
verbally assaults his students at the first sign of misbehavior or problems. The
first time, it took me completely by surprise. When he caught a student copying
from his neighbor, Prof. Elsidio literally cornered a tenth grade boy taller
and probably stronger than he was (yet who was still scared enough to try and run),
and started kicking him, 1…2…3…4…5 times before shoving him back into his
seat. I couldn’t believe it. Fellow students laughed at the incident. I on the other
hand, not having really seen much violence in my life, I had an overwhelming
urge to cry. The next time I encountered Prof. Elsidio, aka Dr. Jeykll/Mr. Hyde,
he requested permission to enter my classroom and make an announcement. I
stopped my lesson and acquiesced. As he was speaking to the class, he spotted a
student sneaking peanuts into his mouth. Immediately, he charged over there and
gave MY student in MY classroom, four back-and-forth slaps across the face,
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP! SLAP! and started barraging him with insults. I froze. Every
fiber in my body wanted to run over there and step in-between Prof. Elsidio and
my student (who somehow had molded his face into a zombie-blank, completely expressionless piece of
clay), but I was rooted and a voice in the back of my mind (I’m not even
kidding you) thought that Prof. Elsidio just might turn his beatings onto me if
I undermined him in front of everyone. It was one of the suckiest most powerless feelings I've
ever experienced. I couldn't shake the incident, and thought about it guiltily
for days. Next time, I’m doing something. I don’t care, ANYTHING. Just not
freezing up like last time.
The plus side is that in response to the beating incidences,
I appealed to my students to take care of and stand up for each other. “Instead
of laughing next time, empathize.” I told them. “How do you feel when that
person getting hit is you?” Total silence. And because I refuse to beat my
students, I've also forbidden them to beat each other (which is a surprisingly
frequent occurrence as well) when I am in the classroom. Hey, you gotta break
the chain of violence somewhere…
Elodio – Portuguese teacher, average height, young family
man. Elodio cracks me up because he really thinks he’s hot stuff. He’s a
wealthier than many of the new profs because he’s been teaching longer and can financially support his family four hours south in Maxixe. He apparently can also support a healthy obsession with everything that's cool and fashionable. Whether he’s toting around the newest Mozambican iPad, or bringing in some new gadget to
blast music in our "sala dos professors" (Teachers’ Lounge) he’s the definition
of too-cool-for-school. And to emphasize the point, he always wears really chique clothes,
that frankly are probably suuuuuper uncomfortable. Hey, pain is the price for beauty
I guess haha ;)
Etivaldo – Physics teacher, average height, GREAT soccer player. Prof. Etivaldo really is awesome. He's always making jokes, for example calling people "comrade" to comically resurrecting the old communist influence that died out with the civil war. He's not only a physics professor but was coaching the girls soccer team last trimester, so I expect to be around him alot more come next trimester when we try to revive team practices.
Gloria - Biology professor, hot-headed, single mom. Ohhh Gloria. How do I sum up not only this incredibly complex woman but all my mixed feelings about her. For one, she's my other neighbor and so whether I like her or not as a friend, I have to get along with her. And, most of the time, she's a really nice person - incredibly witty, funny, doesn't take no for an answer type of woman. BUT. Dear lord, do not double-cross Gloria or get on her bad side. In the two primary experiences where I've accidentally gotten myself into the scope of community criticism, not only has she not stuck up, waited to hear me out, or spoken up for me, rather she's thrown me directly under the bus of public opinion. And so, unlike Prof. Angelica, I do not trust Gloria at all, yet have to respect her nonetheless as my colleague. It'll be an interesting time.
Hermenigilda- History professor, cute, petite, very fashionable, outspoken. Hermenigilda is a wonderful, smart, kind, young teacher who I've also asked to be my counterpart for the USAID Books for Africa program. She's badass. Why? Because last week she took on my school admin about the falta forgeries without hesitation, calling out plain and unabashedly the reality that certain professors have more privileges than others. BOOM. Get it girl.
Julião - English
profesor, veryyyyy tall. He always looks at my chest or anywhere but at my face when he talks to me, lol! I think he's just really shy and awkward, but for the first few times I actually glanced a few times at myself to make sure nothing was, ummm... hanging out of my shirt or something. Nope. He just stares at my chest. Aight. Loaned him "The Hunger Games" to practice his English.
Kalenga - French professor from the Congo. Arrogant, often loud, but he likes me because I taught him how to use his iPad so we’re homies I guess :)
Lourenco – Older professor who rides a motorcycle to school.
‘nuff said.
Osvaldo - Biology professor. Tall, young, athletic. Always hits on me in English which usually
ends badly haha! He says “thanks be to God” a lot because he doesn't know how to
respond to things any other way. Comes over to my house for tutoring too, and I didn't take him seriously at first because I thought it was just another move to try and get with the new American prof. But, much to my surprise he kept coming after the first week and actually studied, so he won over my skepticism. Very nice guy, incredibly smart, good colleague all around.
Sergio -
Titos – Agrarian/Horticulture prof. The only professor in school who owns a car. Lives in Vilankulos and commutes every morning. I think he pedals a part-time job with Movitel, the cellphone company because he's always wearing orange things with "Movitel" stitched on, haha!
There you have it! The best and the brightest of Escola Secundaria de 25 de Junho!! Stay tuned! :)
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