Different in Mozambique

School Supply Shopping is Different in Mozambique.
There are other things to like school clothes shopping, and well....you'll see what I mean. It's different!

We finished school supply shopping for our boys on the weekend before their first day back to school. We had to get the final details, like a protractor and ruler, markers and more dry-erase markers for each of our three boys.

It’s so different shopping for three kids in Colorado, instead of shopping for notebooks and pens in bulk in Chimoio. In Chimoio, we know some of the shop owners where we frequently bought materials for the Iris Chimoio ROG children center, missionary house, and annual school materials. We spent time making sure that the notebooks would be enough for the children according to their grade. That seems similar to school supply shopping here. Then there were textbooks to buy, not for first through 6^th grade. But, we did have to purchase books for the kids who had passed primary school grades. That is very different from what I see here. The shopping process is very different too!

I remember walking down dusty roads looking at the books laid out on the sidewalk. Some of the vendors had a stand with books up off of the ground, others laid a tarp on the edge of the street to mark their ‘area’. We tried to get enough books for our kids to have one each if they went to school at different periods.

The public schools in Mozambique have early morning period, late morning period, and afternoon classes for minors. There is also an evening class offered at most schools for adult learners. We requested many times that our children have the same class periods, but sometimes that wasn’t available. Our kids who have morning classes would pass their textbooks over to the kids who have afternoon classes. They shared their textbooks to do homework. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to purchase more textbooks, there were lots of shortages in textbooks. The textbooks were also renewed pretty regularly, so older versions were no longer wanted in the classroom.

I just ordered my university textbook online, it will be shipped for free by the website to arrive on Saturday. There weren’t enough textbooks in my campus bookstore, so I bought it online. I don’t have to wait into the semester until a shipment of textbooks arrives in our city. Its so convenient.

I didn’t have to barter with a vendor, or find a student who took the class last semester to wrangle a deal with in order to secure a copy of the text. Its actually kinda refreshing. I miss the dust sometimes. I really miss the smells in the air, but only some of them.

I really miss the children. Their laughter and smiles as they opened up new backpacks filled with new notebooks, pens, protractors and colored pencils. It was always a highlight of our year gathering backpacks from the market.

We tried to find the least worn, newest looking second hand bags available. We wanted sturdy bags – hoping that some of them would last more than one school year. We would beat off the dust and make an offer to the seller. Some of them were students themselves, or the age of other students. They sold merchandise that comes in large bundles from shipping containers. We buy from them.

This year my hubby and I bought three brand new backpacks for our boys, from a store. We only bought three backpacks and school is just starting over here, while the school year is moving into a final trimester in Mozambique and soon enough exam season before summer (December) holidays.

It’s so different, yet so much the same. Summer break. Fall Start to new school year. Kids anxious to get back to their friends, some kids a little timid about making new friends. They’re happy to have a nice backpack with school materials inside. Their thrilled about new shoes for the new year. Our kids have a few new outfits to wear to school, but no uniform is required. We have to have our kids in Mozambique fitted for a new school uniform every year. If they change schools, we need to buy two new uniforms. The kids wash their shirts every afternoon since they are required to wear a button up shirt with the school emblem on it, a tie, a pair of long pants, or a skirt for the girls. Its routine to hand wash the shirts, and trade them out each day.

Our boys are really happy they don’t have to wear uniforms. And the other thing that is really different about the schools in Colorado and Chimoio is haircuts.

Our youngest son has a Mohawk/mullet. It’s not a problem. I remember getting notes from the schools in Mozambique about hair length. One of our Mozambican sons came home from school with a chunk of his hair cut out by the professor. They are only allowed to have short trimmed hair – no flat tops. His professor turned his flattop into a mess that required short hair all over – acceptable for the school he attended.

It’s different.

I like the liberties we have here with the school. The clothes, haircuts, and available textbooks are something to celebrate. They don’t replace the joy of bulk shopping, market strolling, dust battling, Matewe learning, and a successful barter, but they are worth celebrating. Of course I miss it, I will miss here when I'm gone...

Where ever you find yourself, there is something worth celebrating. It may be really different than somewhere you spent time before or not. Celebrating doesn’t require a list of comparisons and contrasts; but it does require stopping a few moments and recognizing the smooth things, the easy comforts, and the conveniences that give you more time to do the things you really love.

I really love our kiddos enjoying school. I really love our opportunity to gain a broader education in Colorado. I really love that our kiddos in Mozambique are enjoying their holiday as our kids holiday ended. I love that we get to chat with them on facebook, because the contrast of realities isn’t so distant. Our teenagers have cellphones with a facebook app installed on them. They ask us for help with their school work, their issues, or just say, “Hi, I love you.”

I really love that our kiddos are so well cared for, and so loved. I’m so thankful that there are hands to hold them when we are far away. I’m learning a lot more than just textbook material. I’m learning to celebrate the good things and get back to the essential things that I wanted to do in Mozambique, but just didn’t have this kind of internet connection…..I did what was essential there, now I want to write about it.

I’m posting a blog again, and it’s random. I’m just writing to celebrate, to remember, to evaluate, and to encourage. You are more blessed than you know.

Me too.

Lots of love and blessings,

Missionary Momma Mia 

Back to School is upon us...

School starts in a little over a week, and we need to get ready.

Tomorrow we hit their next school year prep books with a strict schedule just like a school week. Play time is a reward for successful learning time. Video games or tv are a timed activity that can’t happen in the same day. We don’t have access to some of their learning websites, but books and review of last year’s homework will do perfectly.

They are all so excited about going back to school that this week of school prep was exciting for them. They are a little bummed that going back to school means less pool time, and less video games, but they really miss school. Yay! We parents are so thrilled to hear that!!!!!

So back to school is more than school shopping for this family. Its time to hit the homework and new grade work books so that their brains are not only mush when the teachers try to get them thinking again.

I know my brain was mush after I finished my summer class, its like a switch that says thinking can turn off and on. I wonder if we are hard wired to take ‘the path of least resistance’ when school breaks means that other people or systems can think for us?

Anyway, it’s back to getting those gear moving, and expanding intelligence horizons for this international family.

Hoping your summer was AMAZING!!, and I would love to hear some fun stuff you did.

We spent days in the mountains, splashed in pools and rode slides in a Water park. Now we got the sillies out, and are ready to get back to full time learning.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Celebrating our brain's quirks

‘Well this happened’ is a pretty common phrase, and it's ok to say.

We all learn how to edit out mistakes that our brain previously thought was okay as we gain more education and experience. Our societies have certain standards that help maintain order, such as language spelling and grammar rules. We learn to speak our national language according to the standards that will produce the greatest ease of communication. However, as children and babies, the majority of us were probably allowed to say words with ‘baby sounds’ or our own baby words for various things like bottle, mother, father, food or pets. Lots of parents help their children edit out baby words before heading to elementary school. We expand our vocabulary and understanding of grammar in order to be better more mature communicators. Our brain edits out the habit of saying, “me want numnums” to “May I please have a snack.” Why? I think it’s because after a certain age,  one form of communication produces the desired result much more rapidly. (I think its because of the use of the magic word).

Some of us would rather not have communication norms and spelling and grammar rules. But, it would be really hard to understand other people. So, what am I trying to say? Every once in a while an adult has published a post, article or blog with a few small grammatical mistakes, or even left out an entire thought that caused a book to be revised only a year later. This stuff happens. It could be because word did or didn’t automatically change something. I tend to think that it is our brain being quirky and reminding us that we were once children. The learning process was, and is amazing. At the same time, our brains might need to edit out more childish thinking.

I think of spoonerisms or accidental ‘tongue twisters’ more like a quirk, a twitch, or a need for editing. It’s probably not so far out there that a spoonerism would interrupt our lives and be a major concern. It could be weird if someone hears the speaker switch sounds for the first time and it is considered ‘no laughing matter.’ Someone might throw out that is a sign of impending doom. I think that you are not necessarily on your way to a nervous breakdown because you said “spork and foon”. If someone said that to me, then I would have to say, ‘So that happened.’ or  “I’m sorry that’s not what I intended to come out of my mouth.” I usually laugh or argue that is not what I wanted to say!….

If it happens to you, learn your stuff! Know your stuff! And also admit when you aren’t sure and need to learn more about your stuff. Do some research about your quirk. My dad told me that a college professor was famous for switching the starting sounds of words around in a phrase, so that little quirk was given his name. That brain quirk became a ‘spoonerism’. Talk about celebrating his brain quirk! This is like fifth hand information. I don’t remember if I properly researched it. I was around twelve or thirteen the first time I was emphatically explaining something and it poured over my teeth incorrectly. I argued that that is not what I said. Dad helped me through it. Was there a college professor named Spooner? I think so. I believed him, and it calmed me from thinking my quirk was singular and a sign of doom.  

I mean seriously, does your leg twitch? Your nose tickle, or your eye blink rapidly? There could be some much deeper explanations for these things. But, if it is not interfering with normal routine or your life in general, it is probably something to look into in your spare time for curiosity sake and to learn something new about yourself.

If a little quirk becomes intrusive in life then it is probably time to celebrate it enough to let your friends know: “Hey, sometimes I get super excited when I’m talking and this happens…..” When friends are aware of your little quirk it might become more clear if that is actually something that is intrusive, or was only a little bit embarrassing but not really a big deal. Celebrating a quirky brain, a little tick, or a bouncy knee might just ease the situation. It also give our friends and family permission to say something like, “I’ve never heard you stutter before, is that normal and I never noticed it?”

We might be able to identify real ‘red flags’ or warnings of too much mental stress, an oncoming migraine headache, or an indicator that our ‘mental wellbeing’ might be on the downslope.

I love to celebrate my little quirks called “spoonerisms”, but if I stutter I want to be told so I can figure out why I would do something I’ve never done before. A quirk could become a source of immeasurable concern if someone makes a big negative deal out of it. If we celebrate the way our brain works with it’s quirks and all, we might not be caught off guard by a little brain quirk mistaken for a red flag or vice versa. We could be spared from having an actual breakdown.

My point is, talk about how you understand what’s going on in your mind with friends and family. We all process things in an individual way, pretty similarly, but we have different foundations, languages, analogies, and belief systems. It is important to know and identify more about how we understand our own thought processes in order to weird, I mean weed out quirks and warnings or ‘red flags’.

I do believe it is better to be safe than sorry, so as a mommy, I would suggest celebrating and looking into your brain quirks and learning more about them. Don't be afraid of what you find. Take care of you, Love you!

That’s enough thinking for now. Well, its not a very missionary-ish blog. Its from my experience of missionary living though. Anyway, I’m not editing this again tonight….take my word for it. Missionaries need to research things like what culture shock and compassion fatigue does to thought processing and emotions.  We can get really quirky.....it's probably still ok for most of us....At least my friends and family can laugh with me. 

Here's to JOY and Lots of love!

Missionary Momma Mia

Finish what you started

Ok, time to face tomorrow with a clear head. How I face today and tomorrow will affect my future.

Tomorrow is the last day of one of my classes this semester. I’m so happy to be closing this chapter. Well almost. I still need to get into my final class/or classes for the fall. Then, I can really close the BA student chapter in my life. My little brother is graduating May 14^th and I’m super proud of him. We registered for the spring 2016 semester together –with the plan of graduating together. I had to take a step back and be real about my responsibilities as a wife, mommy, children’s center co-director, and University student.  

All of the time that each aspect of my life requires had to be considered. I couldn’t jump ahead of myself. I had to rethink what my week would really look like if I had one more day on campus starting bright and early on Monday and going to school through Thursday. It’s about a 45 minute drive each way. With all that in mind, and a few other details, I withdrew from one of the most important classes for my degree this spring, because they do offer the class in the spring and fall semesters. Well, I’m not going to graduate with my baby brother.  And now not only do I have to think about my final exams and final week of class (that is half way over!), I have to register for the same class that I withdrew from this spring. It doesn’t promise to be as easy as it was last semester. That’s ok. I’ll have to figure out what I need to do, and get it done. Thankfully there are professional counselors to help me with this!

I have very little idea of what I have to do next...This spring I was able to register for the class without a hitch, but I guess there are some glitches after I drop a class and try to register again the next semester. I need to talk with the dean of the department - and get approval. That might take more time than filling out a form online.

Now I need to meet with a professor from my past. I haven’t been his student for over a decade. Should be interesting. I wonder if the light-bulb will flicker on and he will remembers me. That might help me get back into the class, might not....Who knows?

My degree plan is individualized, so its not like I am the typical student at my Uni. I’m not going to the dean of my department asking him to help me get past a computer glitch. I have to convince him that this class is important for my entire degree. Maybe I should try talking with him after I finish my finals, but I gotta register right away….sweet Jesus, I need a whole bunch of wisdom.

Its about time that I face one of my professors that I still haven’t seen since I walked away just before finals week in spring 2004, to go get married to my handsome Brazilian husband. People do kinda make fun of people going to school to find Mr. right, but I didn't meet my husband at Uni. I met him on the mission field. I totally digress....Its late here. 

I have no idea how he will respond if he realizes or if he remembers, who I am as a returning student. I might have really disappointed this professor when I didn’t finish classes over ten years ago. I might have proven to be one of those students who didn’t know what they wanted. I’m not sure what he thinks. Maybe I need to ask him? Whatever he thinks or doesn’t think about me, I need to have a conversation with the dean of one of my departments.

Well, it’s time for me to finish what I started, and it isn’t about the end goal. It’s about people, and honoring the investment that people put into my dreams. There was a time when that dean was very determined to help me finish my IDP degree. No matter what happens, I do kinda owe him an apology for just splitting when all my professors worked so hard to help me graduate. I know that my kids teachers celebrate their success. I never really thought of that before today. Irregardless of what he thinks. I need to do the honorable thing.

Maybe I will sort this tomorrow or Thursday and get somewhere with what really should be my final semester at this Uni as a BA student.

Oh the thoughts to think.... and maybe I will get a better perspective in my dreams! I love to tell my boys to dream with Jesus.

lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

  

My day….

My morning started slow with my hubby bringing me coffee and toast in bed. Then I was occupied with supervising kid chores until their bus came late today. One Wednesday a month the children have a ‘late start day at school’ That was today. So some parents spend lots of time cleaning up after their kids, the other parents spend all of their time cleaning up after their kids. In an effort to clean up ‘less’ I supervised my three boys cleaning efforts until their bus came. 

My husband asked me to watch the computer screen as he practiced an online Colorado Drivers test. Some of the answers literally changed every practice test. So we laughed at the results that are skewed to make you think you failed, and understood why the website has a link that says “noticed any errors on the test” We noticed….We spent some time on international communication with our kids in Mozambique. 

After that, I ate some left over pizza with him, and headed to Downtown Denver where my school campus is located. My drive is usually under an hour. My Wednesday class is only once a week, so it is extended. When my class was over, I talked with one of the moms who is coming to our boys’ birthday party this weekend as I walked from the center of my campus to my car parked in the cheap car lot. Saving dollars and cents, and getting a little bit of cardio. (I will keep telling myself that)

The party call was nice. We discussed a back-up plan if the weather doesn’t permit an outside celebration. Spring in this part of Colorado can be full of surprises. I’m hoping and praying that we are surprised with sunshine! ;-)

I got home around 5:20 had dinner. Helped my boys with homework. Wrote some important emails, and tried to ignore that fact that I still have homework of my own to finish. My loving husband asked me if I was working on my homework a few minutes after I got out of the shower.

I spent some time studying and working on homework. Then decided that sleep will help me more than crunching in this sleepy state. So I’m off to bed.

In my efforts to make you sleepy I have written about my day. I would like to include a yawn here to help you take a nap or get some sleep. 

I chuckle….well, this is me. This is what I left Africa for. To further my education and that of our entire family. So that's kinda what we do, or something like that almost every weekday.

Missionary Momma Mia