Life after two weeks

Firstly, all is well here. The weather in Namaacha is so bizarre. On Monday it was about 90-95 degrees and so humid all day. Last night? It was 40 degrees. Incredible. We had one hot day and the rest of the week has been cool and rainy. The red mud, which they call “matope” sticks to everything. Literally after it rains and the ground is wet, if I go running, I get 2 inches thick of mud on the bottom of my shoes. The people here hate to be dirty too so I end up cleaning my shoes daily so that I’m not scolded by my host sister.

Last Saturday we went to Maputo, which is the capital of Mozambique, with our language groups. We went mainly to buy cell phones and do other errands. Maputo is only about an hour and a half away from Namaacha, depending on how fast your chapa driver goes. Chapas are the main form of transportation here within cities and long distances. They are basically small 12 passenger vans that drive along designated routes and you can flag them down anywhere. You are also expected to squeeze 20ish people inside, which gives each person VERY little room, but transportation is cheap and we only paid 50 meticais to get to Maputo (about $1.40).

In Maputo we bought phones , walked around, and went out to lunch. We all had pizza at lunch which we were craving because cheese is not easily accessible in Namaacha. It will be nice to go back to Maputo when I am not in such a structured group so that I can get to know the city better and see more things.

On Sunday I was told that we were going to church, which turned out to be a mass of about 20 people that was held in our garage next to the house. The service was also held completely in Changana, the local language in this part of the county, so obviously I did not understand one word.

This week my host sister has been starting to really teach me the household chores and how to do everything. Unfortunately there are no washers or dryers here so this morning I washed all of my clothes by hand. It’s a long process of washing and rinsing and transferring clothes from bucket to bucket and it is VERY TIRING. It took me three hours to wash my clothes and the knuckles on my hands are cut and raw. Also, most people here do not have gas or electric stoves. My family, like many others, cooks with charcoal or over a wood fire, which makes cooking slightly more challenging.

Yesterday I saw a chicken have its head cut off and then we cooked it for dinner. Apparently my host sister says that that is my next task, to kill my first chicken. The volunteer who killed it accidentally let go for a second after cutting its head off and it jumped around for a minute until someone stepped on it and held it down until it was really dead. Chickens really do run around with their heads cut off.

I have yet to take many pictures, but I will take some soon so that I can post them and everyone can see what it looks like here!