It’s the end of August, and a quick look at how September would shape up reveals how swift the school year is wrapping to a close. This coming month we’ve got three holidays (the ones that I know of, at least). Plus, I will be gone for one week of September—from the 6th to the 13th—for our Close of Service (COS) conference. I gave my last quiz last Wednesday, and plan to return the quizzes on Monday, which will be a quiz-revision/feedback class, and Wednesday will just be an easy, fun class. We’ll probably just listen to a song, or, if I can borrow the school’s microphone and portable audio/speaker system, an intro to karaoke. When I return to site after the conference, we’ll only have time for review/practice sessions, then the final test and the national exams are just around the corner.
Our (second) COS conference will take place in Chimoio, the provincial capital of Manica, which is about 1,030 km from our site of Cuamba. It’s a complicated three-day trip by train to Nampula (capital of the eponymous province), by airplane to Beira (the capital of Sofala), and then by chapa (minibus) to Chimoio. I’ve only been to Nampula twice, and never to Beira, so I’m glad Peace Corps is handling lodging in these far-away cities. I’m a little apprehensive but excited to take the trip, since I haven’t left site for the last 18 weeks! And, of course, I am looking forward to seeing Cape Verde transfers and other Moz19ers, whom I haven’t seen in the last 9 months. Most of us are leaving Mozambique on different dates from November to December. Actually, I think two have already left the country. No longer are we the “Dirty Dozen” from Cape Verde. I guess we can dub ourselves the “Tenacious Ten,” though all of us will be wrapping up our service, and returning to the states soon enough.
