Leaving Imala... Hard Times

I’m back, and living with energy. Get ready to have frequent blog posts. I would like to have one every day, but we will see how that goes. It will most likely happen every other or third day. First of all, let me explain what has been going on in my life. I was living in Imala for 7 months. This was an administrative post out in the bush of Nampula Province. I lived with a volunteer that had arrived last year. His name is Ari, and he teaches English at Imala Secondary School. Our entire town did not have electricity, except at our school. The school was wired to a solar system that was not properly taken care of. The result was weak system that could, kind of, charge cell phones. This has been the reason for my disappearance, and why my blogging life had lacked. Due to administrative problems at our school, and a lack of student participation, our supervisors decided it was better to move to a school that really wanted to utilize some outside help. My roommate Ari closes his service in November, so he is to remain in Imala until then. I, however, was transferred out of the bush of Nampula, and to a neighborhood just outside of Lichinga. It is the capital of Niassa Province. Niassa is the largest province in Mozambique, but it is also is the least populous. My life has drastically changed over the past week, and I am still getting used to electrical appliances and easy access to water. My life in Imala was as such… I taught art to 8^th graders, and Physics to 10^th graders. We carried water a quarter mile or so. This was water for cooking, drinking, and bathing. We lived in a mud house with a light layer of sand/concrete mix. Our roof was made of zinc, and got extremely hot. The yard had a mango tree and cashew tree. We had transplanted 3 orange trees, an ata tree, and 3 banana trees. There were also 3 papaya trees beginning to grow. I turned most of the yard into a garden, and had grown pumpkin, beans, manioc, lettuce, and tomato. The house was on the property of an elementary school, and was never quiet. We had people at our house from sunup to sundown. I learned Portuguese extremely quickly, and became very integrated into the community. We had a group to teach youth about health and sex, Ari had a literacy group, and we had opened a library at the secondary school in one of the empty rooms. I ran a science fair group, and painted a mural on the side of the school with Ari. It was to reinforce education to the community and students, because motivation completely lacked. At times we would visit our friend’s farms and help them collect products, or weed the area. For the most part, everyone focused only on their farms, and took education as a joke. I loved the town, but it was difficult to work at the school when we frequented days with 0 teachers, no director, and around 25 students for the entire school. It is a very sad situation, but I truly believe the town needs time to adjust before they can take education seriously. My last few weeks in Imala were difficult. Ari and I discussed, constantly, the effects of us in the community. How we were helping. If our presence even meant anything. If me transferring to help another community and school was worth it. It was so difficult to look at my life in that aspect. It seemed very egotistical, and I felt like I was letting my friends and students down. I still do not know the right answer, but what I tell myself is that Peace Corps has limited resources and a limited number of volunteers to fill in communities. Why not utilize our temporary 2 years at a school where we can make the most impact, and hopefully help people help themselves. It may be a very selfish way to look at it, but it has already proven to be a much more productive was of service here in Lichinga, after only a week! I am not 100% sure if our decision to leave Imala was extremely credible or honorable, but it is done and I have around 16 months to make Lichinga my new home. I am grateful for this opportunity.