Teaching in Mozambique

I know that many of you, my dear fans, are teachers. I’ve always thought I’d enjoy teaching as well, therefore it is hardly surprising to me that I´ve landed a teaching position here in Mozambique. Here is a story of a typical day teaching in Mozambique.  However, it turns out this is less a story about teaching than about learning.

I teach English and Conservation Agriculture courses a couple times a week in various communities around the rural district of Machanga. This is a project through the local church, and my students are all farmers from the community.

Getting to class. After being here a couple months, I learned that the way to get around in Machanga is by the corta-matos (short-cuts, or literally bush-cuts). Narrow dirt tracks that cut through fields and skirt cleanly swept yards. Paths which have been in use long before there was a “proper” road, district offices, or government school in the area. I’m not convinced that these winding and bumpy tracks are any quicker or easier than the dirt road, but the path you know is always the shortest. These “short-cuts” do have two distinct advantages over the main road- there is much less dust, and the scenery is lovely.  

Taking attendance. In Canada, attendance is always taken at the beginning of class. I soon realized that would be a hopeless exercise with my students. I am lucky to have five students show up half an hour after the agreed start time. Throughout the hour long class people continue to dribble in. In a desperate attempt to get students to show up on time I even started passing by their houses on my way to class to let them know it was time. It didn’t really help. Once, I threatened to start taking attendance at the beginning of class to encourage them to show up on time. There was a pause, and then we all burst out laughing like that was the most ridiculous idea.

Mrs. Teacher. It is normal here for teachers to be addressed as Teacher or Mr./Mrs. Teacher (Senhora Professora), not using their name at all. This has always sounded so formal to my ears, but I am getting used to it. Machanga is a small town- everywhere I go I hear it: “Senhora Professora!” I tried to teach my English students to call me Miss Rebecca, but it hasn’t stuck. One of my agriculture students is a farmer and leader in the church, old enough to be my grandfather. I’ll never forget the day he started addressing me as Menina Professora (Girl Teacher) instead of Senhora Professora (Mrs. Teacher); it always brings a smile to my face, and makes my other students laugh. For anyone else to say that would be so disrespectful. Being an outsider, I don’t automatically fit in to the normal social structure that governs how people relate to one another, and thus address one another. There are three criteria that make you a senhora instead of a menina. To be married, to have a child, or to be over 35. I am none of those, so I guess he is right.

Teaching and learning in a second language. Though Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique, brought here by colonialism, it is spoken at home by very few, especially in the countryside. There are nearly 30 languages or local dialects recognized in Mozambique. In Machanga, kids learn Portuguese in school, but without the need or opportunity to practice it outside of classes, it is little used. A good number of my students, especially women, speak very little, if any, Portuguese. I often get someone to summarize what we’ve been discussing in Ndau. Explaining in Ndau without the benefit (or crutch?) of technical terms shows that my volunteer translators understand the concepts well, and ensure that everyone is following along.  There is always a round of laughs when they teach me a Ndau “word of the day.” Though I can’t make a complete sentence in Ndau, I know many useful words, such as planting, hoe, grasshopper, and cow manure.

Chalk, string, and a handful of seeds. These are the things I bring with me to teach class. I write key points for my students to copy on a chalk board, when I have one (which is not always). I make sure to keep it to the point. Many of my students never studied past grade 5; though they carefully copy every word, I know the majority will never go back and read their notes again. Of far greater value are the analogies and stories I tell, and of course, our practical lessons in the field. You’d be surprised how many cooking and family references you can make in an agriculture class. If too many people eat from the same plate, there won’t be enough food (don’t plant maize and beans in the same hole). In June we headed out to the field. The string we used for making straight lines and measuring- using our limited space efficiently while giving everything enough space to grow. The handful of seeds were used many times on the soft dirt floor of our classroom to imagine different intercropping and relay cropping scenarios (how can we grow more than one thing in the field to ensure the ground is always covered? to improve the soil? to reduce risk of crop failure?). No textbooks. No curriculum. No Smartboards. I had to google my own teaching resources. Every day, every class, I am learning.

It is incredibly humbling and challenging teaching something my students have been doing for longer than I’ve been alive. For longer than my parents have been alive. How do I even begin? They look at me expecting answers for their agriculture woes, of which there are many. How do I bring them to believe their knowledge and experience is not only valuable, but vital if they are to have any success increasing food production? I have read of and seen conservation methods that could take steps towards improving the soil and increasing yields on small farms, but how do I introduce these techniques in a way that honours what people know, recognizes where people are at, and is meaningful enough to adopt?

I often feel inadequate to the task. But someone told me teachers do feel that way. Maybe that is what makes a good teacher, someone who is never satisfied that they’ve got it figured out- whose driving passion is not in teaching, but in learning.

All of these photos are from my students in the community of Chinhuque. They are some of the most dedicated to applying conservation agriculture methods we learn.  It's not all fun and games in my classes- we work hard in the field too! 

Felismina and I in front of her plot. Once the lettuce is ready to eat, she'll pull it out and the cabbage will have more room to spread out- vegetable intercropping!

I'm not sure what I'm more happy about- the beautiful nutritious kale that my students are growing, or the lovely mulching! 

Papa Mandevo, the one who calls me girl teacher. He worked really hard on mulching as well and is proud of his garden. 

Agriculture is for everyone. Though agriculture is not typically the work of young men here, Paulo has really engaged in the agriculture classes and did not give up on his garden even when cows invaded the field, water became scarce, and almost all the others left.