the countdown begins and the to do list only gets longer

books: don't take them for granted. especially when they are in a language which you happen to speak.

it has been some time since my last update. much has happened. i was briefly in austin, texas to visit jamie. the word from there is that it's hot and malaria can follow you anywhere. i was out of it for the first week. after spending an afternoon on an iv, i was forced to convince the texas department of health that i was not a threat to their fine (and big) state. i arrived safely back in mozambique only after an extra week of u.s. time, mandated by peace corps. a bitter sweat turn of events. i made the rough transition back into life here in inhamussua and things are great. some might say that we are on the right track (you know who you are).


below are a couple of updates on the work we're doing here. not pictured but just as important is that the newly formed art club of inhamussua has been studying the fundamentals of drawing and we hope to move on to painting next week. we are working hard to get our group ready for our end of year finale when we will paint two giant murals on our campus, one to commemorate our agricultural efforts, and the other will display HIV prevalence rates throughout the world.

i am also happy to announce that after a year of sewing and selling goods our sewing club has finally been awarded a match grant to purchase a new pedal driven sewing machine and table. thanks to their hard work, the school's and another private (thanks mom) donation, we will be bringing the machine home next month.

further, i have been corresponding with Books for The World, an american organization that supplies books to schools in many parts of the world. Park Burroughs, a representative of Books for The World, arranged to have two boxes sent to inhamussua (not a cheap task, i'm sure you can imagine) as a bit of a test run. it seems to have gone well. the students were thrilled to get a hold of some new books and the administration received them gracefully. here are some pictures of the students opening the boxes.

on behalf of the Agrarian School of Inhamussua,
thank you Books for The World.

this is the initial opening of the boxes.

Books for The World sent a variety of english books.

including some books with great visuals.

below are some thank you letters sent to books for the world as well as pictures of their authors.

My name is Silvério Francisco.

I am Mozambican. I am from Inhambane city, I am 19 years old and I am a student of the agrarian school of Inhamússua.

For you, we will study English, because your offering will help me to be a man of future. I’m very glad, because that is something difficult to see here in my country. I say thanks and I congratulate the project because I want to study English. I want to give you certainty that this project will be fantastic and will help many students to speak and write the English language.

Thanks Books for The World for help me to be a man of the future.

Silvério Francisco

I am Paulo Manuel Macucha.

I was born in 1987 and I am a natural of Maputo city. I am 22 years old. I am a student of the agrarian school of Inhamússua in the province of Inhambane. I frequent the first year of the husbandry and livestock course.

I would like to thank you for the books we received and for your offering with whole goodness. I promise the good use of books, good advantage and good preserve, because they are very important to us and our future generation to the development of education and the world.

Thank you very much Books for The World.

Paulo Manuel Macucha

let's not forget about the daily work of spreading the good word which is english.