1. In this classroom, there are very few
desks and chairs. Most of you are
sitting on the floor. We will be in here
together for most of the period.
How do you feel right
now?

2. What if this was your classroom?

3. This was your gym?

4. You spend all day in this one
classroom, with 100 other students.
There are no textbooks. You may be
lucky enough to have paper and a

5. It takes you over an hour to walk to
school. There is no running water,
electricity, school bus, lunch, gym or art
class.

6. Your family sacrifices what little money
they have to be able to send you to
school. Many families that you know can
not afford to send their children to this
school, so you are grateful for the

7. This is how life is at
my cousin Ben’s
school in
Mozambique. Ben
teaches 11th grade
Biology and
Chemistry. He
teaches up to 70
students at a time in
one classroom and
he has only one
textbook.
He is a Peace Corps
volunteer.

8. •struggling to rebuild
it’s educational
system
•intense civil war that
lasted for almost 30
years.
•Almost 60 percent of the country's
schools were either destroyed or closed
during the war.
•Many teachers left the country during
this time.

9. •Education is compulsory for boys and girls but is not
free.
•Less than half of children actually attend primary
school
•22 percent reach secondary school.
•Many families cannot afford to send their children to
school and need the children to work on their farms.

10. •Ben has volunteered to
teach at this school for at
least two years.
•Most of the students at
his school, end their
education at 8th grade.
•The students that
continue with their
education hope to go to an
university and become
teachers, nurses, doctors,
or own their own business.
•Only 4 out of 10,000
students will move on to
higher education.

11. Info about the Peace Corps
• Volunteer program established in 1961 that is
run by the U.S. Government
• Volunteers are typically college graduates
who work in a country for two years, after three
months of orientation
•There are three goals of the Peace Corps
program:
1.Training and education
2.Promote a better understanding of
Americans
3.Promote a better understanding of other
peoples

12. Currently there are almost 8000
volunteers serving in 77 countries.

13. What do Peace Corps
Volunteers do?
•Work with local farmers to increase food
production and to conserve the environment
•Help people start businesses, use technology,
and offer workplace training
•Volunteers work with communities to improve
water and sanitation facilities.
•Education
•35% of all Peace Corps Volunteer assist with
education
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatvol.edu_youth

14. Peace Corps Volunteer
Stories
Two stories from volunteers
in Benin

15. Ben’s Story
•Ben’s school is in a town called
Chiure, in Cabo Delgado Province of
Northern Mozambique.
He lives in a
thatched roofed hut
with another Peace
Corps volunteer.
He cooks his food
on a open flame
and sleeps outside
in a hammock.
(There are bats in
his hut)

16. Chiure
Chiure is divided into two parts, Chiure and Chiure-
Velho (Old Chiure).
The school lies between the two towns.
The village contains several small markets where
farmers sell goods, as well as a cashew processing
plant.
The nearest large city is a full day’s walk. Chiure is
located between the cities of Pemba (coast) and
Nampula (inland)

17. Chiure Center
and SDMS
What differences can you see?
These pictures are at the same
scale.

18. Classroom Exchange
Project
•This month we will be creating a portfolio with
artifacts illustrating our culture
•Ben’s students will be creating their own portfolio
which will be able to see in December when my
Aunt and Uncle return from a vacation with Ben to
South Africa
•During the school year we will be talking to Ben
and his students using Skype

19. Ben’s Letter
Greetings,
My name is Ben Van Arnam. I am a Peace Corps volunteer
serving in Mozambique in Southern Africa. I live and work in a
town called Chiure, in Cabo Delgado Province of Northern
Mozambique. Chiure is a rapidly developing town situated
along the main North-South road through the country. The
town received electricity just two years ago, a development
which has stimulated much new growth. Under construction
currently is a new district hospital, a new secondary school,
and several stores in town. Chiure's enduring symbol is a
200-foot-high, domed rock formation, located just outside of
the center of town but visible from anywhere, that has
ancestral, spiritual significance to Chiure's inhabitants and

20. My primary assignment here in Chiure is to teach high school
science; I teach 11th grade Biology and Chemistry. The secondary
school of Chiure is located an hour and 15 minute walk from town
and was built in the 1960s by colonial, Portuguese missionaries. It
is a complex of buildings most of which are falling apart from 50
years of no maintenance; a third of the classrooms cannot be used
because the roof is falling in. But Chiure Secondary School boasts
a rich history (it is one of the oldest secondary schools in the
province) and a vibrant school community. Over 3500 students
from 8th to 12th grade daily make the hour-plus walk from town to
school to study. Students only study for half the day, with 9th and
10th grade studying in the morning and 8th, 11th, and 12th grade
in the afternoon. My students in the 11th grade, at 60-70 students
per classroom, are a dedicated group, because so few
Mozambicans actually continue their education through 11th and
12th grade. Many of them want to continue their studies further to
become doctors, nurses, teachers, and business managers. There
are few opportunities for higher education and well-salaried
employment, so their path is a difficult one.

21. To speak a little of my life here in Chiure, I live in a thatch-roofed,
mud-brick house in a village just beyond the school. All my
neighbors are subsistence farmers, who during the rainy season,
cultivate large plots of land out in the bush, hoping to grow enough
food to get by until the next year's harvest. After March it stops
raining (it won't begin until Nov or Dec) and water becomes scarce.
People hand-dig wells in the low areas in the bush, then wait in
long lines to fill buckets with milky-brown water. Cholera is a huge
problem. Life here in the village is at times loud and turbulent, at
times tranquil, but always warm and friendly. Meals are a time of
togetherness and community. The whole family, inviting as well any
neighbors who happen to be walking by, sit in a circle around two
plates. One plate has xima (pronounced "shee-ma"): a thick, corn-
meal paste, the other is caril (curry): usually cooked pumpkin
leaves, sometimes with beans or dried fish. One grabs a clump of
xima with the right hand, forms it into a ball, and then dips it into
the caril. Everyone eats together. It is a tradition of daily life that I
have come to love.

22. My service in Peace Corps has provided me with a rich
understanding of a people and culture different from my own.
It is an experience that celebrates both cultural differences
and the universal humanness that we all share. I hope that the
collaboration between your classroom in American and mine
here in Mozambique can enrich this cross-cultural
connection.
Sincerely,
Ben
On Oct 2, 2010, my one-year anniversary of arriving in
Mozambique