so, a new week has begun. i'm trying to figure out what is it that i'll be doing. i should be lesson planning, i should be fixing the house, but i think i really just want to lounge around. its been hot as piss here, but i love it. we cemented the floors and there is 97% less dust in our house. which is a very, very good thing.

i found out this week that i'll also be teaching 11th and 12th grade english classes this year. my 12th grade class will be more advanced students and i think it'll be alot of fun. i also am going to only teach 12th grade english next year. but who knows. so....

not much else to report. going to the beach this week. and i promise that i'll post pictures soon. well, i'll try

so. once again, i'm sorry for now writing that much. i've been at site for almost a month. not too much to report. mocuba is hot as piss. but it is a big city with over 78000 people. so, there is lots to buy.

we are currently cementing all the floors in our house. hopefully this will cut back on some of the dust. who knows?

but, i have an address, if you email me. i'll send it to you. or you can ask mom. i just don't know how i feel about posting it on here.

i think this is working now!

so, its been over a month. well, its almost been two months sin i've written anything on here. for that, i am sorry. but today i have officially figured out how to work the internet from my phone. it doesn't work very well. but, it does work. so, as this week progresses, i will try to be on here more to keep you all updated on my life. alot has been happening, and it will take some time to catch everyone up. i mean, lets admit it, some of you are much slower than the others. yes, i'm looking your way right now...


so, the last few glorious weeks here in Namaacha, Mozambique that i've spent with the Munguambe family and with my fellow trainees will be referred to only in the past tense, and in very vague ways. why, well, that is how i write. more to come later.


oh yeah, this internet thing only works for a few minutes at a time. so don't expect too much from it. seriously.

i think this is working now!

so, its been over a month. well, its almost been two months i've written anything on here. for that, i am sorry. but today i have officially figured out how to work the internet from my phone. it doesn't work very well. but, it does work. so, as this week progresses, i will try to be on here more to keep you all updated on my life. alot has been happening, and it will take some time to catch everyone up. i mean, lets admit it, some of you are much slower than the others. yes, i'm looking your way right now...


so, the last few glorious weeks here in Namaacha, Mozambique that i've spent with the Munguambe family and with my fellow trainees will be referred to only in the past tense, and in very vague ways. why, well, that is how i write. more to come later.


oh yeah, this internet thing only works for a few minutes at a time. so don't expect too much from it. seriously.

manager's office

so, i'm sitting in the manager's office in Maputo, Mozambique at the Kaya Kwanga hotel. seriously. this place is amazing. learning the PC lingo, and using it already! seriously. did you know the correct term for an STD is an STI!?!? yeah, there throwing the mega-stuff at us here in the 'bique.

seriously though, i know i'll be making fun of this in a few years. so, i'll write more later.

talking to laura right now. on skype. its awesome!

its happening

tomorrow is the day. we leave philly at 7:30 in the morning. we have an amazing group, with some truly amazing people. i know that we will do good in this world. we will.


not much else to say now. but i will post more at the airport in new york.


and as sarah said...

"peacing out"

-gabe

i'm leaving tomorrow. and i'm going crazy. there is still soo much to do. and yeah, i did just add an extra "o" to the word 'so'.

thanks are in order

i would like to thank any and everyone who has in some form told me goodbye in these last few weeks. it has meant alot to me to hear from and see all of you.

its strange that i've spent the last five years of my life trying to find a way to move away from all of this. and now that i have my way out, i'm finding millions of reasons to stay. i am not staying. so, don't go about and try to make that happen. i'm just saying, hey. i love ya. yeah, ok, there. i said it.

i love you all. and i'm gonna miss you. ok. you happy now? and don't tell mom i said that, because she'll use it against me. you know how she is.

but yeah. its been a rough weekend. the visit to baton rouge was amazing. i do believe that i have the best friends that anyone on earth could ever ask for. they are them. i am me. and we are, well, us. i'll miss them the most. it was rough to let that go. it is strange. i've called baton rouge home for over five years. and now its just a place. it isn't home. not anymore. i am now simply a visitor.

and then, the party here at mom and dad's house was amazing. the turnout was much better than expected. especially since the original party was all but cancelled because of Hurricane Ike.

there is still much to do. and i'm sure more that won't get done.

but i'll keep everyone updated as the insanity unfolds.

ten days

so. my passport went through! it came back from the state department and i'm still going to mozambique. so, i'm guessing thats a good thing. what else is new. not much. still stressing out. still buying shit i probably won't use. and still waiting around to leave.


earlier in the week. monday it was. i had received a call from SATO, the travel agency that handles all of the Peace Corps passports, visas, and tickets. well, apparently when i had lost my passport three years ago in South Africa, the embassy that issued me a temporary passport never told me i still had to report my other passport as missing.

so the american end of this deal has been waiting for me to send in my current passport for the past three months. and they just decided this week to have me send it in. well, one DS-64 form later. i'm scot free and the new passport has been made.

also, do you know how much it costs to overnight a piece of paper?!?!

guess...

just do it.

$37

yeah. put that in your pipe and smoke on it

Seriously.

so, i'm about twelve days away. yeah. i know. gabe has an amazing ability to keep an updated blog. you can tell by my last post being over a month ago. perhaps i'll just say i'm trying to get everyone used to me not posting alot. yeah. thats it. i'm getting you used to not hearing from me...

so, whats new?!?! well, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have messed up my Portuguese learning abilities. well, they interrupted my schedule. the Rosetta Stone program was great, but i know the way i learn languages. i need the actual use of the language. but it did give me a solid vocab base. which will be really helpful.

i've also started to realize how much shit i have to pack. too much. i know i won't need it all. but i'm a "just in case" kind of packer. what if i need this? what if i need that?!?! oh well. we'll see when i get there.


not much else to report. i'll keep this updated more when there is more to report.

why am i so bad at this?

so, i probably should have been keeping this blog more up to date. so much has happened. I recently found out that I'm being placed in Mozambique for two years!! so exciting i know. I'll be in Africa and get to see some of my SA friends while I'm there. should be fun.

anyways, I've just finished typing up the first draft of my aspiration statement for the peace corps. This is the only thing that the country directors see from us before we leave. none of the NINE months worth of application information and medical forms and such get sent off. why? i don't know. anyways. i thought i would send this out so everyone could have an idea as to what it is that i aspire from the PC. lol.

Aspiration Statement

Gabriel Vander Hey

Mozambique

September 29, 2008

As I began thinking about which way I would present this aspiration statement, it occurred to me that I had two choices as how to go about this. I could write about me and my hopes for my Peace Corps service in a way that tried to express a bit about who I am, or I could simply send off a bulleted form answering the questions in a mundane way. I’ve decided to let this statement speak a bit about me, without ruffling up too many feathers.

At this point in the game, it is a bit strange that I am sitting here writing about my aspirations and hopes about what I will get out of the Peace Corps. Along this journey, I’ve been told by PCVs and RPCVs that flexibility is the key to success during my Peace Corps service. I’ve tried to go into this with few expectations, but it is impossible to do.

I expect many things. I expect that I will be lonely. I expect that I will be frustrated. I expect to be submerged in cultures that are foreign to me. I expect I’ll complain about the heat. I expect to learn a new language. I expect that I will have students who may not want to learn. I expect the food will not always agree with me. I expect that I’ll wonder what is happening on the other side of the world. I expect my family will be concerned about me while I’m in a country on the other side of the world that most of them have never heard of. And I expect that I’ll grow to love all of these things before I have to leave Mozambique.

A: The Professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfil, during your Peace Corps service.

During the course of my Peace Corps assignment, I plan to use qualities such as organizational skills, creativity, and resourcefulness to improve the quality of the English education for my students and working environments for my colleagues. I currently work with children at a summer camp and have become accustomed to working with very little and making what little is given to me into fun and innovative activities. It is also this work environment that has taught me the importance of cultural acceptance in the work place. My co-workers come from countries all over the world. From countries that are English speaking and some non-English speaking. I have fallen in love with working in an environment that is filled with varying languages and social practices. Working with others is a passion of mine, but it is what I learn from them that is my true love. I hope that the strenuous working conditions of the Peace Corps will push these skills that I’ve learned further than they’ve ever been pushed before and allow me to improve upon those skills that I will be using during my service.

B: Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

For me, the two most important strategies to use when working with host country partners are flexibility and patience. Having worked with many people from many different cultures, I understand the capacity for miscommunication and the effects it can have on working environments. It is because of this reason that flexibility is so important. I plan on listening to host country partners as I will be the one out of place and they will be my greatest asset when meeting the needs of my assigned program. It is their country, and they are the ones who will give insight on how to implement new plans and improve upon older practices. Ultimately, it is working as partners while using flexibility and patience that will benefit everyone in the end.

C: Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.

Growing up in a small southern town in a middle-class family never exposed me to many new cultures. As a child, I thought my Creole/French speaking Cajun family were some of the most interesting people that I had ever met, and I never imagined that there was anything else on earth that could captivate me as much as they did. As I grew older, I began to see the world outside of our little bayou towns, and the more I learned about other peoples and the ways they lived their lives, the more it seemed that I appreciated they ways my family lived its life. When I travelled off to college, I made the decision to get to know as many people from as many different backgrounds as possible. Not by studying them, but by making as many friends as possible and by volunteering with several different minority clubs on campus. It was my appreciation of other people that eventually led to my being chosen as the first Caucasian chairperson of LSU’s black student recruitment program. During this program, called SpringFest, I was chosen as a student leader on a panel whose discussion was based on student life at LSU. One girl stood up during the discussion and said that she thought it was amazing that I was “breaking down walls.” I replied that I thought the problem was that people thought there were walls. It was that moment that I realized that the differences between people, the differences that I had loved for so long, were merely superficial and that looking beyond them was what I truly loved. I understand that I will never truly be a part of someone else’s society, but acceptance into one is not impossible. So when asked what strategies I use for adapting to a new culture, I have to say that an accepting attitude, a willingness for change, and the appreciation for what makes cultures unique are what I use to adapt but still appreciate the strong cultural background that I grew up with.

D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.

During pre-service training I hope to gain an understanding of the language of my community before anything else. Whether or not this is realistic, I cannot say at this point. Language will be one of the most important skills from a teaching standpoint. It is unrealistic for me to expect to walk into a classroom and have chairs filled with students who will know what I’m saying. Or to even have chairs for the students to fill at that! I also hope to further my teaching skills. I’ve spent numerous summers filling out lesson plans for theatre classes at summer camp and countless hours planning activities that peak the interest of my campers, but have never worked in a classroom. I hope that during my training, these skills can also be furthered and translated to the classroom setting. I do learn things like this quickly, but training in these areas will greatly boost my confidence and skill level and will be a better asset to my community of service.

E. How you think the Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

It would be dishonest of me to write that I knew how the Peace Corps will influence my personal and professional aspirations after the end of my service. I cannot begin to imagine the personal growth that I will experience. There is a large part of me that would love to return to school, earn my graduate degree and pursue teaching until I reach senility or retirement! But my teaching experience in Mozambique may be the catalyst needed to pursue another route. Perhaps international relations, law, volunteer work, who knows? It will be these two years that will show me my strengths and weaknesses, my abilities, and the things in my life that I most value. I refuse to be a volunteer who uses their period of service as a waiting time between graduation and real life to figure out what it is they should be doing in life, but I will be a volunteer who uses their service as a time to reflect on whether or not his current aspirations are the ones he truly wants to follow.

The Greatest News there ever was...

Today has officially been a very good day. not that it started out like any other day, because it did, but i found out some amazingly great news that just may help me along this peace corps journey that i've been on for the past few months.

Since i began this application process, i knew that they(the peace corps) would make me have my wisdom teeth removed. This was all good and dandy, and something i had been told needed to be done, but the catch. And yes, there is a catch. My dental insurance expired when i graduated back in December.

Needless to say, I've been trying to find the means to have my teeth taken out for several months, even going as far as saving up a good bit of money for the costs that would be accrued for the service. yesterday, after Dr. Abbot(the periodontist who performed my initial dental exam for free!) gave me a copy of my panorex x-ray, she wrote me a letter of recommendation for the local charity hospital's oral surgery unit to possibly admit me as a patient. I called, they wouldn't accept it. I called Dr. Abbot and told her that there was a two week waiting period and that she had to fax over some form, and blah, blah, blah. Dr. Abbot, who happens to be the nicest woman ever, said that this wasn't good enough and called a few of her oral surgeon buddies to see what could be done. At the end of all of this, i have an appointment tomorrow with a Dr. Hornsby for a consultation and will be having my teeth pulled on Tuesday for FREE!! yes, that is right. for free. Granted, i may still have to pay the anesthesiologist and such, but its amazing that this doctor, who doesn't even knot me would do something like this.


life is good.

not to mention that Cara and I just received emails from camp saying we are getting administrative polos for the summer! we are officially in the big leagues now. its gonna be a good day.

So, i've started this adventure...

i think i'll post on this little blog as i make my was closer to another summer at Camp Canadensis, and eventually to moving to africa in september. If that even happens. Much more to come soon