So after a 7 month hiatus, I suppose it's time to get back to blogging. I did indeed extend my Peace Corps service by 6 months until June 2013, so after a trip home over Christmas I was back in Mozambique! The trip home at Christmas was everything I dreamed it would be. Francelino came home with me over the holidays which was amazing. We had a great trip with lots of firsts for him: first time on an airplane, traveling out of the country, seeing snow, SKIING!, and much more. It was great that he was able to meet family and friends and spend Christmas with us. He was a real sport and survived the cold New England winter. He even went skiing with me and loved it! I was a happy girl.
We are now back in Mozambique and I have just 3 more months of service. Where did the time go?! I won't lie, I do miss the luxuries of the first world and I am eager to get back and get paid for the work that I do, but I am enjoying each day here because I know I will miss it a lot.
Since I won't be here for a full school year I am no longer teaching at the secondary school. I am working at an association in my community called AREPACHO. It is an agricultural association that works to support impoverished families, orphans, and members of the community affected by HIV and AIDS. I am working with a youth group at the association. We meet 3 times a week and during that time I educate them on important topics like family planning, HIV and AIDS, malaria, gender equality, and others. They then take the information that I have given them and prepare some sort of informative presentation and/or theatrical skits to communicate the information to other members of the community.
So far the biggest battle has been with consistency in attendance. One day we'll have 7 kids and another 17 so it's hard to get work done! Otherwise the kids are active and lots of fun and I really enjoy working with them.
Life here goes on as usual. I'm so far past getting used to taking bucket baths and hand washing clothes that I barely think about it, although 3 weeks of hot showers, dish washers, cars, and washing machines was amazing in Dec/Jan.
More updates to come!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Nothing's easy
One chore that I absolutely dread here is getting my gas tank filled. I use a gas tank for cooking in my house and it runs out about once every 6 months. When that last bit of gas comes out and the stove stops working it's a sad moment since I know that I'll have to get it filled.
I can't get a gas fill-up in my town so I have to go all the way to Xai-Xai. The problem is that when the tank is empty I can carry it all right by myself, but once it is full, it is far too heavy for me. It takes some strategic planning to make the full trip. After unhooking the tank I brought it by myself out to the street. In little time a car came and I negotiated a price for him to put the gas tank in the car. Usually you pay the price of an extra person so since I pay 15 mets to get to Xai-Xai, I paid 30 with the gas tank. There's a gas station about halfway between Chongoene and Xai-Xai so I had the chapa drop me off there. After getting out, paying, and lugging the can across the street, the gas station attendants waved me away and told me there was no gas there, sigh, onto the next place.
I went back across the street and waited for the next car, negotiated a new price, and I was off to downtown Xai-Xai. I was dropped off a little ways from the gas station so I tested the strength in my arms carrying the gas can down there, but I finally arrived, and was pleased to see that they had gas cans available for me. I paid and then left the gas can at the station to find someone to help me. Lots of young boys hang around Xai-Xai with wheelbarrows, willing to help out any shopper with a heavy load. I ran across the street and recruited one to carry my gas can to the chapa stop so that I could return home.
After having my gas can wheeled to the chapa stop and paying the boy 5 mets (20 cents American), I waited for a chapa back home to Chongoene. When one arrived I asked how much I would pay for my gas can. His answer? 150 mets which is BLASPHEMY! As I was trying to negotiate a better price I feel some movement near my arm (and purse). I spun around and grabbed a hold of what happened to be some guy's wrist as his hand was inside my purse trying to steal my phone. The chapa guy asked what was going on and I told him that this guy was trying to rob me.
The guy just stood there! I was still holding onto his wrist but he didn't resist or run away or anything. He just stood there and when I accused him of robbing me, he promptly denied it. (Then why was I holding his hand?!?!) Anyway, he finally went off and I got in the car, a little shaky from my recent encounter.
Unfortunately this isn't the end of the story.
Halfway to Chongoene, the car decides that it no longer wants to go to Chongoene, but that it is going to Maputo, which is 200 km in the other direction. So the car decides to leave us anywhere on the side of the road and I start making noise and demanding that they leave us at a legitimate chapa stop and that someone help me there with my gas tank. Luckily at the new stop a chapa showed up with no intention of over charging me and brought me and 5 others to Chongoene.
I had arranged for Francelino's sister to meet me at the stop with a wheelbarrow to take the can the rest of the way to the house. I was never so happy to arrive at home safe and sound with all of my belongings. And I arrived at the right time because then it poured for the rest of the day.
I can't get a gas fill-up in my town so I have to go all the way to Xai-Xai. The problem is that when the tank is empty I can carry it all right by myself, but once it is full, it is far too heavy for me. It takes some strategic planning to make the full trip. After unhooking the tank I brought it by myself out to the street. In little time a car came and I negotiated a price for him to put the gas tank in the car. Usually you pay the price of an extra person so since I pay 15 mets to get to Xai-Xai, I paid 30 with the gas tank. There's a gas station about halfway between Chongoene and Xai-Xai so I had the chapa drop me off there. After getting out, paying, and lugging the can across the street, the gas station attendants waved me away and told me there was no gas there, sigh, onto the next place.
I went back across the street and waited for the next car, negotiated a new price, and I was off to downtown Xai-Xai. I was dropped off a little ways from the gas station so I tested the strength in my arms carrying the gas can down there, but I finally arrived, and was pleased to see that they had gas cans available for me. I paid and then left the gas can at the station to find someone to help me. Lots of young boys hang around Xai-Xai with wheelbarrows, willing to help out any shopper with a heavy load. I ran across the street and recruited one to carry my gas can to the chapa stop so that I could return home.
After having my gas can wheeled to the chapa stop and paying the boy 5 mets (20 cents American), I waited for a chapa back home to Chongoene. When one arrived I asked how much I would pay for my gas can. His answer? 150 mets which is BLASPHEMY! As I was trying to negotiate a better price I feel some movement near my arm (and purse). I spun around and grabbed a hold of what happened to be some guy's wrist as his hand was inside my purse trying to steal my phone. The chapa guy asked what was going on and I told him that this guy was trying to rob me.
The guy just stood there! I was still holding onto his wrist but he didn't resist or run away or anything. He just stood there and when I accused him of robbing me, he promptly denied it. (Then why was I holding his hand?!?!) Anyway, he finally went off and I got in the car, a little shaky from my recent encounter.
Unfortunately this isn't the end of the story.
Halfway to Chongoene, the car decides that it no longer wants to go to Chongoene, but that it is going to Maputo, which is 200 km in the other direction. So the car decides to leave us anywhere on the side of the road and I start making noise and demanding that they leave us at a legitimate chapa stop and that someone help me there with my gas tank. Luckily at the new stop a chapa showed up with no intention of over charging me and brought me and 5 others to Chongoene.
I had arranged for Francelino's sister to meet me at the stop with a wheelbarrow to take the can the rest of the way to the house. I was never so happy to arrive at home safe and sound with all of my belongings. And I arrived at the right time because then it poured for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Daily Challenges
Yesterday, I was headed into
Xai-Xai on a chapa and an Asian man entered at one point on the way. There are a good number of Chinese, Japanese,
or Korean people here working in Mozambique.
After about 15 minutes I realized that a man in the front row was trying
to talk to him and basically harassing him in the process: “Hey China! Hey
China! Why you have no car? In China car cost 2 dolla!”. I realized after a bit
that this man also didn’t speak any Portuguese.
The man in the front row then asked me to translate for him, inviting me
into the conversation (bad move for this Mozambican). I then told the Mozambican to leave the other
guy alone and asked him if he’d like to be treated that way. The poor foreigner was just trying to get
from point A to point B, and ended up being harassed by this guy because of his
ethnicity. I think it reminded me of the
way that I am sometimes treated for being white and a woman. At least I have the language skills to try
and stand up for myself, but I felt bad that this guy didn’t.
Since I do all of my teaching in
Portuguese (local language is not allowed at school), I haven’t learned too
much of the local language. It is spoken
within Francelino’s family and other families in the community and it is the
first language that children learn when they start to speak. I have learned
many words and taught myself to understand many things in Changana, but it’s
more of a task to speak it. So I was at
the beach yesterday making arrangements for a group of volunteers to stay there
and I was waiting at the bus stop for a really long time without sign of a
chapa. After about 40 min I decided to
climb the hill and start walking to another stop where I might find more
chapas. As I was walking away a group of
older ladies shouted at me “there’s a chapa (bus) coming!”. They shouted at me in Changana, but I was
able to pick up the words and understood and turned back around. When I turned around to head back and they
realized that I understood them they started laughing and really got a kick out
of it. Here’s to local language skills!
This weekend I put together a
weekend get together because Gaza province is welcoming 9 new health
volunteers! We plan to go to the beach
and all get to know each other—so exciting!
So the past few weeks it has been
pretty “cold” here. Okay, I know I’m in
Africa—how cold can it be? Right? Well
it has been in the high 40’s, low 50’s every morning, which in New Hampshire is
certainly not considered cold, however the living conditions here are
different. Consider this: the houses are
not insulated, so if it’s 50 degrees outside, it’s probably 55 in the
house? Also many of the classrooms at
school don’t have doors and the windows are broken so when it’s 50 degrees and
windy outside, it’s 50 degrees and windy inside too, rough. Some of the kids just use their short-sleeved
uniform shirt at school, which is not enough in that weather and you can’t just
ask a kid why he didn’t bring a jacket because it’s possible that he doesn’t
have one. It’s so tough! That being said, I personally wouldn’t mind
if the cold weather sticks around because in a few months it will be 100
degrees every day, and that isn’t exactly the most enjoyable weather either!
Other than that, things are going
well. School wraps up October 26th
and then we have testing and other things going on at school, but I won’t lie,
I’m looking forward to the school year ending.
The big classes, lack of books and other resources, and being under
appreciated at school is starting to get to me.
10 weeks left until summer break!
Peace Corps Extension
Earlier this year I got a community project funded here in
Chongoene to build a literacy center to educate illiterate adults who were not
given the opportunity to finish school as children. The project is moving along slowly but
surely, but if it finishes on schedule, it would open in November of this
year. That would also be around the time
of my COS (Close of Service) date, when I would head home to the United
States.
I want to be there during the first few months of operation
to be able to develop a curriculum, find competent instructors, and make sure
that the center is sustainable and can continue operating when I do return to
the United States. As a result, I
requested an official extension of service through Peace Corps for an extra six
months. My request was accepted, so I
will officially stay on as a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Mozambique until May
2013! I am very excited to have the
opportunity to stay on and work more as a community volunteer in Chongoene, as
I will no longer be teaching. There will
be another volunteer coming in December to replace my teaching position at the
Secondary School, so it will be nice to have another volunteer around also!
I am also very happy to be staying on for extra time to
spend more time here with my boyfriend, Francelino. He is at a boarding school this year which is
about 6 hours away and we have only had the opportunity to see each other once
a month. His program finishes in
December, and he will be certified as a primary school English teacher (6th
and 7th grade)!
Those who know me know how much I love Christmas, cold
weather, snow, and most things related to winter in New England, so missing
another Christmas at home would be devastating for me (and my family :) ). As a result, I will be coming home for three
weeks over the Christmas holidays. AND (drum roll)….I will be bringing
Francelino with me to visit the United States and meet all of my family and
friends! We are so thankful and excited
to have this opportunity and it will surely be the trip of a lifetime (for both
of us!). We will be in the U.S. from
December 24th to January 13th; hope to see some of you
then!
JUNTOS WORKSHOP 2012
JUNTOS workshops happened in June and July. I was fortunate enough to be able to work and
help out with two workshops, one in Gaza province and one in Maputo province.
At each conference participants from 5-6 local JUNTOS groups were invited to participate. At the Gaza conference we had 8 participants
from each group, 5 facilitators, a tech trainer, and an enthusiastic group of
volunteers present. The weekend consists
of educational and informational sessions on topics like self esteem, leadership,
HIV and AIDS, gender equality, sexual health, and more! The workshops are a lot of work in the weeks
before: buying all of the food, arranging someone to cook, getting the t-shirts
made, and making sure everyone is prepared!
At the workshop each group leader facilitates some of the
sessions and the tech trainer deals with the more information sensitive
sessions (HIV and AIDS, sexual health, gender).
The tech trainer was wonderful in terms of technical experience. He is a musician and works at a music school
so taught the kids songs about HIV and got their creative juices running in
terms of other art projects. In terms of
the HIV and AIDS education part, he wasn’t completely prepared and I had to
jump in and run some sessions, but in all it was fun! I used to have such a fear of public speaking
especially for a large number of people, but I think that my two years of
teaching (in Portuguese) for classes of up to 80 kids has cured me! The kids had a really great time. The only down side is that we have so much
information to cover, that the kids don’t get as much free time as they’d
like. The solution? A group of the participants woke up at 4am
every morning to get a game of soccer in before breakfast (seriously).
Catching up!
So I realized that I have completely abandoned my blog over
the last few months so I am going to attempt to redeem myself with multiple
blog posts today!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Happy Children's Day!
Today we celebrate Children's Day here in Mozambique. The primary schools don't have classes, but the kids usually still go to school and play. For Francelino's siblings and other kids in the neighborhood I bought them some candies and we're currently we're having a dance party in the living room. Later the plan is to make popcorn and watch a movie (probably Shrek or Puss in Boots; those are their favorites at the moment). Why don't we have a Children's Day in the US? (I think my parents used to say that every day was Children's Day, and thinking about all of the opportunities that many kids have in the U.S. growing up compared to kids here, I'll take that answer).
My JUNTOS workshop is coming up in a week so little by little I have been buying materials for the students attending. I went and signed a contract with a nearby school to be able to have the event there and I am going shopping with a woman from the school on Tuesday to buy food for 60 people for the weekend! I'm getting really excited for it!
Yesterday was Tobacco and Drug Awareness Day so my JUNTOS group presented a skit and dance for our school. They did a GREAT job! I'll add some pictures of their intro dance below I tried to upload a video but the internet is just not strong enough. They did a skit about peer pressure and the consequences of drinking and smoking. It was a hit! Working with them is really fun and usually a bit more interesting than just teaching classes.
I gave a test to a few of my classes today. With 70-80 kids per class and 3 kids sharing a desk, you have to be strict and creative to prevent kids from cheating! I made two versions of the test that looked almost identical but had slightly different questions and slightly different answers. It took the kids a while to catch onto this and on the way out many kids said to me, "teacher you are very clever!" because some of the cheating kids did not catch on that they were cheating off of tests different from their own. GOT 'EM! I have been tough enough on them that at least now they don't try to use cheat sheets, dictionaries, or their notebooks as much, but cheating off of each other is still a problem!
Hope you enjoy pictures of my cultural group dancing below!
My JUNTOS workshop is coming up in a week so little by little I have been buying materials for the students attending. I went and signed a contract with a nearby school to be able to have the event there and I am going shopping with a woman from the school on Tuesday to buy food for 60 people for the weekend! I'm getting really excited for it!
Yesterday was Tobacco and Drug Awareness Day so my JUNTOS group presented a skit and dance for our school. They did a GREAT job! I'll add some pictures of their intro dance below I tried to upload a video but the internet is just not strong enough. They did a skit about peer pressure and the consequences of drinking and smoking. It was a hit! Working with them is really fun and usually a bit more interesting than just teaching classes.
I gave a test to a few of my classes today. With 70-80 kids per class and 3 kids sharing a desk, you have to be strict and creative to prevent kids from cheating! I made two versions of the test that looked almost identical but had slightly different questions and slightly different answers. It took the kids a while to catch onto this and on the way out many kids said to me, "teacher you are very clever!" because some of the cheating kids did not catch on that they were cheating off of tests different from their own. GOT 'EM! I have been tough enough on them that at least now they don't try to use cheat sheets, dictionaries, or their notebooks as much, but cheating off of each other is still a problem!
Hope you enjoy pictures of my cultural group dancing below!
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