In my previous blog post I had mentioned that I was going to Inhambane to have a meeting with the Moz 14 volunteers to facilitate the handover of jobs and responsibilities to Moz 15 volunteers (my group). In this process, the new group needed to choose who would be responsible for what and hold the coordinator positions (National Coordinator, Financial Coordinator, Regional Coordinators, etc) for the project next year. I really wanted the position of National Coordinator and nobody else seemed to be itching for that responsibility so my peers supported the idea and I will be JOMA National Coordinator for 2012! I am very excited. It's such a great project and I feel honored to have such a big responsibility. I'm eager to get started!
Last weekend Francelino and I went to Chidenguele, a beach town about 60 k north of Chongoene for a little R&R. Once you get to the main road, you have to walk on a dirt road about 8 kilometers to get to the beach. It's also not too hard to hitchhike your way in and since it was a scorching day we decided to do just that. We got a ride from a man who "said" that he was going to the beach, and who then pulled in next to a lake where some of the 2011 African Games were going on. We left the lake area and turned in the direction of the beach. We also asked a few guys if we could get to the beach on that road and they gave us an uneasy yes. In retrospect listening to them was our first big mistake but what did we know!? We had apparently missed the turn for the closest beach in the first car that we were in, which pretty much doomed us for the day. Anyway, we continued on our alternate route and got a ride from a van full of African Kayaking/Rowing athletes competing in the games who were going to another location. We got out there and continued walking. We went up and down and up and down the sandy path and prayed for another car to come and get us. Sure enough a little car picked us up but we didnt make it more than half a kilometer before the car sank down in the sand and we had to get out and push it. We pushed it a little ways until it sank in so far that we had to use the car jack to jack the car up so that it could get out. At this point the driver decided that they should go back the way they came because they were just going to continue to get stuck. We got out and got in a car behind us who drove us to an intersection where he said we could get to the beach. He showed us to the path and said it would be about 2 kilometers farther. We were sweaty, sandy, exhausted, thirsty and hungry and very very eager to make it to our destination! We made it the final two kilometers and I was so happy to finally hear the ocean and make it to the beach! Unfortunately our journey was just getting started. When we made it to the ocean there was not a soul in sight. We had clearly made it to a beach far away from the one where we were supposed to go. Luckily I had a good idea of the direction we had to go in to make it to our destination so we continued on.
We walked and walked and walked and walked... Along the way we passed a few huts up on a hill and some unfinished buildings that we checked out to see if we could find anyone to tell us how far we had to go or give us some water. I have never been so thirsty in my life. We had walked for hours in deep deep beach sand and I was sure that my shoulders, face, and back were quite sunburnt. The ocean water was so tempting to drink but I knew it would only make me thirstier. I was even tempted ro taste the contact solution that I had along but Francelino nixed that idea pretty fast (rightfully so). We stopped a few times (once to take a nap because we were so tired) and I took a dip in the ocean to cool off. I had brought some eggs to make for us in the morning since the place we were staying in was self catered and once when we sat down to rest I sat on my bag and cracked four of the eggs all over my stuff. It was easily the most frustrating part of my day! Finally we saw people in the distance and arrived at a little resort, not our final destination, but at least there was human life, food, and water there. We stopped and ate a big meal and asked about the place we were supposed to stay at. Luckily it was only one more kilometer down the beach so at about 6:30pm we finally made it to our destination. After checking in we showered and pretty much passed out immediately.
The next day was a million times better. The place where we were staying had barely any guests so we really had the place to ourselves. We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the ocean and then we put on our bathing suits to hit the beach. The beach was beautiful and we were really the only ones there. We swam in the water, played frisbee, and rested our poor bodies from the day before. Later on I swam in the pool for a bit and we could see whales swimming in the ocean and jumping into the air! It was so cool to watch and a German man also staying at the same place let us use his binoculars to see.
After lunch we had to head home so we prepared ourselves for the trip back, which turned out to be much shorter. After walking a few kilometers we were picked up by a family from Northern Mozambique in a van. The mother of the family told me she didn't want to pick me up when she saw that I was accompanied by a man, but that her daughter-in-law felt bad for me, haha. Luckily they were headed south to Maputo so they drove us all the way to Chongoene where we only had to find a car to take us the extra 5k home. We didn't even have to pay and she gave me her phone number and told me if ever I make it up north I can give her a call and come visit!
Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday tested our strength physically and emotionally, but we pulled through and had a perfect day at the beach on Sunday. It was a fun and adventurous weekend out of Chongoene for sure.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Summer is in the air...
As a student in the United States as soon as May comes along you can feel the sun getting stronger and the air getting thicker with the promise of hot summer days. Suddenly kids at school are itching to get out of their seats to be outside or go to the beach and everyone is anxious for summer vacation to kick in! Despite the fact that the seasons are reversed and the school year is therefore on a different schedule, the same feeling is starting to set in here. I only have 9 weeks of school left, which means that I already have 29 weeks behind me! The cool "winter" air is slowly disappearing, the sun is feeling hotter, and those pesky, malaria-carrying mosquitoes are starting to emerge.
Despite the desire for summer vacation to come, things are moving along quite smoothly in Chongoene. My JOMA group (theater) are working on their last performance of the year which is a short play in English that they will perform in an English Theater competition at the end of October. My REDES girls (girls empowerment group) are working hard on producing capulana bags (purses made of local fabric) to sell to generate some income for the group to start new projects with. I am starting to look for financing for a project at my school. The idea for the project is to start raising chickens to then sell the chickens for meat when they are big, or raise egg-laying chickens to sell the eggs later on. Theoretically this would be a project that I would help finance and could continue on in the future, but that's if all works out as it should. It costs about 23(90 cents US) meticais to buy a baby chick and when it is a full grown chicken they sell for 130($4.80) meticais so the school could really benefit from this project if it all goes well.
I have a 4 day weekend this weekend because I am going up to Inhambane for a JOMA handover meeting. The volunteers who arrived the year ahead of me are leaving in November or December so we will have some big organizational meetings and they will hand over all of the responsibilities to us. Should be fun to have a weekend away (and on the beach!).
Despite the desire for summer vacation to come, things are moving along quite smoothly in Chongoene. My JOMA group (theater) are working on their last performance of the year which is a short play in English that they will perform in an English Theater competition at the end of October. My REDES girls (girls empowerment group) are working hard on producing capulana bags (purses made of local fabric) to sell to generate some income for the group to start new projects with. I am starting to look for financing for a project at my school. The idea for the project is to start raising chickens to then sell the chickens for meat when they are big, or raise egg-laying chickens to sell the eggs later on. Theoretically this would be a project that I would help finance and could continue on in the future, but that's if all works out as it should. It costs about 23(90 cents US) meticais to buy a baby chick and when it is a full grown chicken they sell for 130($4.80) meticais so the school could really benefit from this project if it all goes well.
I have a 4 day weekend this weekend because I am going up to Inhambane for a JOMA handover meeting. The volunteers who arrived the year ahead of me are leaving in November or December so we will have some big organizational meetings and they will hand over all of the responsibilities to us. Should be fun to have a weekend away (and on the beach!).
Summer is in the air...
As a student in the United States as soon as May comes along you can feel the sun getting stronger and the air getting thicker with the promise of hot summer days. Suddenly kids at school are itching to get out of their seats to be outside or go to the beach and everyone is anxious for summer vacation to kick in! Despite the fact that the seasons are reversed and the school year is therefore on a different schedule, the same feeling is starting to set in here. I only have 9 weeks of school left, which means that I already have 29 weeks behind me! The cool "winter" air is slowly disappearing, the sun is feeling hotter, and those pesky, malaria-carrying mosquitoes are starting to emerge.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Family visit!
I had a two week break between semesters so my family came to visit me in Mozambique! I took a chapa down to Maputo the night before their arrival because their plane was arriving at 11, and there was a very slim chance that I could get from my site to the airport in time the next morning. I got up in the morning and tried to kill some time by walking to a little cafe and getting myself a coffee and a croissant. I then took a chapa to the airport and waited oh-so patiently. I have never been so anxious waiting for someone in the airport before! They don't really update the monitors so I didn't even know if their plane had landed and I couldn't even call them since it would be an international call! Finally they emerged through the door with a cart full of suitcases and it was so nice to see their smiling faces again. We quickly exited and hopped into a van to take us to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel we sat outside and had some beers in the sun while we caught up on life. It had been so long since I had seen them that I kept touching their arms periodically to make sure that it was all real.
We spent a couple of relaxing days in Maputo and saw some of my favorite city spots. We visited the open air fish market down the road from the hotel. When you arrive you have people coming up to you to basically take you in as their "customer". A nice woman named Emilia approached me so I chose her as our cook and waitress for the day.You then enter the market and pick out what seafood you want for your meal. They put it in bags right there and give it to you. We got steamers, prawns, and fish. Then you make your way into an open air seating section surrounded by little enclosed rooms where the cooking takes place. Emilia then took our food out back and cooked it while we sat and sipped on our drinks. I had been there before with volunteers and it's a nice place to spend the afternoon, not to mention that the seafood is delicious! We also visited a craft market where I showed them all of the local wooden crafts, jewelry, and other crafts. We spent a lot of time looking around and then worked on haggling down the prices so that my Mom and sister could go home with some nice gifts and souvenirs!
After our days in Maputo we rented a car and zipped up to my site, Chongoene. My Dad did the driving (it's on the left side of the road here) and did a wonderful job driving. We did get stopped by a police officer on our way out of Maputo for a minor confusion in the turning lanes but I apologized profusely in my best Portuguese and she let us go. On the way up to Chongoene we stopped to buy some passion fruit and tangerines, which are so tasty here and the family loved. We also bought some food for the week in Xai-Xai and bought chairs for my house! I only had one chair before this week because that's all that was there when I arrived and I never had an easy way to transport them there from the city before.
The two days we spent in Chongoene were nice and relaxing. We drank coffee on the porch, had a tour of a town, and they spent a good amount of time getting to know my boyfriend, Francelino and his family (more on that in the post below). They got a good taste of life in my town and I think they liked being finally able to see my house and where I had been living for the last 10 months.
After we left Chongoene, we went to Xai-Xai beach which is about a 40 min drive away. We rented a little beach house on stilts and had some more relaxing games full of book reading, card games, walks on the beach, and yummy seafood. It is "winter" here so the weather was around 60-70 degrees, the wind was blowing, and the water was rough so none of us went swimming, although my mother did get drenched once when knocked over by an unexpected wave. (Sorry Mom, I had to mention it). The sun was out the whole week though and all in all, we had beautiful weather.
On Saturday we left the beach and headed back to Maputo. We spent another night in a hotel there and the next morning got in a van to take us to South Africa! The trip took a total of about 5 hours and crossing the border was quick and easy. We got to our hotel in Hazyview called Hippo Hollow. It was a cute little place and we settled in after an early dinner. We had to eat early dinners most nights because you are not supposed to walk around the area at night because hippos roam around and they're super dangerous, seriously. We were picked up bright and early the next morning by our safari guide, Elvis. Elvis drove us about 25 minutes to one of the gates of Kruger National Park where we entered to start searching for animals! We had our eyes peeled from the start (despite the FREEZING weather) and about 5 minutes in I spotted a giraffe with just its neck sticking out from the grass. It was so unreal and exciting! Over the next few days we saw lots of giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, birds, buffalo, warthogs and lots of other cool animals. We also got two awesome close-ups of groups of lions which is harder to see and caught a leopard crossing the road too. On the third day we opted out of the safari since we had seen just about everything and we went water rafting instead. During the summer the rapids there are a class 5 since it's the rainy season. We hit it at a low point and as a result got stuck on lots of rocks, but it was still a fun activity to end a great vacation. While we were in South Africa I also got a haircut (first in a year!...gross..I know) and two pairs of jeans (also first new clothes in a year). Exciting stuff. After Kruger we went down to Johannesburg for a day and then I flew back to Maputo and the family went back to the States. It was sad to say goodbye again but we had a great 2 week vaca and I think everyone was ready to head home at the end of it.
Any other friends and family members are welcome to visit while I am here!!!
And I will be home to visit at Christmas so, USA, see you in 4 months...
We spent a couple of relaxing days in Maputo and saw some of my favorite city spots. We visited the open air fish market down the road from the hotel. When you arrive you have people coming up to you to basically take you in as their "customer". A nice woman named Emilia approached me so I chose her as our cook and waitress for the day.You then enter the market and pick out what seafood you want for your meal. They put it in bags right there and give it to you. We got steamers, prawns, and fish. Then you make your way into an open air seating section surrounded by little enclosed rooms where the cooking takes place. Emilia then took our food out back and cooked it while we sat and sipped on our drinks. I had been there before with volunteers and it's a nice place to spend the afternoon, not to mention that the seafood is delicious! We also visited a craft market where I showed them all of the local wooden crafts, jewelry, and other crafts. We spent a lot of time looking around and then worked on haggling down the prices so that my Mom and sister could go home with some nice gifts and souvenirs!
After our days in Maputo we rented a car and zipped up to my site, Chongoene. My Dad did the driving (it's on the left side of the road here) and did a wonderful job driving. We did get stopped by a police officer on our way out of Maputo for a minor confusion in the turning lanes but I apologized profusely in my best Portuguese and she let us go. On the way up to Chongoene we stopped to buy some passion fruit and tangerines, which are so tasty here and the family loved. We also bought some food for the week in Xai-Xai and bought chairs for my house! I only had one chair before this week because that's all that was there when I arrived and I never had an easy way to transport them there from the city before.
The two days we spent in Chongoene were nice and relaxing. We drank coffee on the porch, had a tour of a town, and they spent a good amount of time getting to know my boyfriend, Francelino and his family (more on that in the post below). They got a good taste of life in my town and I think they liked being finally able to see my house and where I had been living for the last 10 months.
After we left Chongoene, we went to Xai-Xai beach which is about a 40 min drive away. We rented a little beach house on stilts and had some more relaxing games full of book reading, card games, walks on the beach, and yummy seafood. It is "winter" here so the weather was around 60-70 degrees, the wind was blowing, and the water was rough so none of us went swimming, although my mother did get drenched once when knocked over by an unexpected wave. (Sorry Mom, I had to mention it). The sun was out the whole week though and all in all, we had beautiful weather.
On Saturday we left the beach and headed back to Maputo. We spent another night in a hotel there and the next morning got in a van to take us to South Africa! The trip took a total of about 5 hours and crossing the border was quick and easy. We got to our hotel in Hazyview called Hippo Hollow. It was a cute little place and we settled in after an early dinner. We had to eat early dinners most nights because you are not supposed to walk around the area at night because hippos roam around and they're super dangerous, seriously. We were picked up bright and early the next morning by our safari guide, Elvis. Elvis drove us about 25 minutes to one of the gates of Kruger National Park where we entered to start searching for animals! We had our eyes peeled from the start (despite the FREEZING weather) and about 5 minutes in I spotted a giraffe with just its neck sticking out from the grass. It was so unreal and exciting! Over the next few days we saw lots of giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, birds, buffalo, warthogs and lots of other cool animals. We also got two awesome close-ups of groups of lions which is harder to see and caught a leopard crossing the road too. On the third day we opted out of the safari since we had seen just about everything and we went water rafting instead. During the summer the rapids there are a class 5 since it's the rainy season. We hit it at a low point and as a result got stuck on lots of rocks, but it was still a fun activity to end a great vacation. While we were in South Africa I also got a haircut (first in a year!...gross..I know) and two pairs of jeans (also first new clothes in a year). Exciting stuff. After Kruger we went down to Johannesburg for a day and then I flew back to Maputo and the family went back to the States. It was sad to say goodbye again but we had a great 2 week vaca and I think everyone was ready to head home at the end of it.
Any other friends and family members are welcome to visit while I am here!!!
And I will be home to visit at Christmas so, USA, see you in 4 months...
Francelino
So this is a post that I have been meaning to write for a while but have just not gotten around to doing it! For six months now (almost) I have been dating a guy in my town. His name is Francelino, he is Mozambican and is just wonderful! We are the same age and he lives in a house close to mine. He is finishing 12th grade this year, which age-wise is more normal for schools here. He didn't start school at the correct age because the civil war was still going on in Mozambique and it wasn't safe for kids to go out and attend school. We were introduced by Zach, the volunteer who lived in my town before I got there and left just a few days after I arrived. I spend a lot of time at his house and his family has really welcomed me as a daughter. When my parents and my sister visited Mozambique two weeks ago, he met them and his family invited us to dinner for the two nights that we were in Chongoene. It was definitely an interesting cultural experience for all. My parents, sister, and I are the only Americans that they have ever met and they are the only Mozambicans that my family has ever met. We did have to do some 3 language translating which was definitely a first(Francelino's family said something in Changana, their local language, he translated to me in Portuguese, and I translated to my family in English), but overall it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed the company. More on the family's visit to Africa to come in another post!
When I made the decision to go into the Peace Corps, a relationship was the last thing on my mind, but I was certainly very lucky for him to come along. He makes me very very happy and he makes life here and the whole experience so much easier for me.
4th of July Audrey's Visit
Firstly, sorry for being MIA for so long...life has been busy here! Enjoy the new posts!
Usually the 4th of July is a fun-filled day of barbecuing, beer, maybe a parade, and some fireworks. Here in Mozambique, in the company of many America-loving volunteer, we tried to make the day no different. I went up to a town called Inharrime, about 4 hours north of where I live, where some of the volunteers who arrived a year ahead of me were setting up for some 4th of July fun. WhenI arrived everyone was sitting outside decked out in red, white, and blue clothing, eating popcorn, and drinking beer. Good start right? We all mostly hung out outside in the sun chatting and listening to music all afternoon, and it was nice to be around Americans and speak English for an extended amount of time. For dinner they made cheeseburgers and potato salad. Some of the girls had also whipped up some cakes and brownies for everyone and had appropriately made red, white, and blue colored frosting to decorate the cakes with. One was decorated with an American flag and on the other one they made the Peace Corps logo. It was very impressive. At night a bonfire was made...minus the fireworks we came pretty close to having an American 4th of July party right? I certainly thought so!
My friend and fellow volunteer, Audrey made the trek down from Tete (a province far, far away) to meet everyone in Inharrime at the 4th of July celebration. It was the first time that I had seen her since swearing in in December so it was great to finally see her again. Her parents were visiting in the coming weeks so she was making her way down to Maputo, the capital to meet them. We planned to meet up in Inharrime and then she came back to Chongoene with me and spent 3 days at my site. It was great to have an extended visitor! She attended some of my classes and we had a question and answer session with her and my 11th grade classes, which was great. Audrey and I are basically the same height, have similar color hair, and both of our preferred outfits are usually jeans with a black fleece jacket. EVERYONE we met asked us if we were sisters and were shocked to learn that we were not. She got a few marriage proposals from some of my students, which is nothing out of the ordinary in this country for us. My students really seemed to like her and it was nice having company in my house. At the end of the week I took a couple of days off and went down to Maputo to “play” a little but, so I got a nice 4-day weekend out of it. Three other volunteers that we are close with were also there so going out with them and exploring the city was a great time. On Sunday, I dropped her off at the airport and started the journey back to site!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
JOMA!
Above is a picture of me with my students and their certificates from the conference that they attended
I think that I have mentioned before that I have been working with a theater group at the school through a Peace Corps program called JOMA. The weekend before last I had an opportunity to take 8 of the kids from the group to a weekend conference a few hours away. They get everything provided for them (transportation, food, lodging) which is great because most of these kids have little to no money to be able to travel like that. I was so excited to go and the weekend was a blast!!!
There were about 62 kids representing 8 different schools in Maputo and Gaza province there. The weekend was full of sessions educating the students on topics like domestic violence, STDs, HIV/AIDS, puberty, pregnancy, self-esteem, and leadership. The kids were so dynamic in the sessions. I was surprised that even while talking about some of the less comfortable health topics, students always had something to say. There were also two Mozambican health workers there to test people for HIV. The majority of the kids elected to get tested and it was a nice opportunity for them to do the test in a safe place. Many people here are afraid to get tested in their own towns because confidentiality here isn't what it is in the US and people think that everyone in their community will know their status if it comes out positive. Some travel to other health centers farther away, but most don't have the money to do that.
At night we held activities like musical chairs or dances or other team building exercises. The kids all made fast friends with each other and it was a really positive environment for them. So many students here love to perform! Whether it was dance, song, poems, theater, or jokes, every student had something to share and on the last night we held a talent show where each group presented something and a group of the girls put on a beauty pageant (with judges and everything).
I'm pretty sure the kids barely slept all weekend. I know for sure that the first night a group of kids woke up at 4am to play soccer before breakfast and the second night they woke up at midnight to play for a while. The volunteers there (including myself) also barely slept and tried to keep things moving smoothly all weekend.
The women who worked in the kitchen preparing food did the hardest work of the weekend. The first night they cooked 27 chickens for all of us. That includes killing them by hand, plucking them, gutting them, butchering, and finally cooking them. It's hard work! The last night they also cooked two goats for us (and also had to kill, skin, and butcher them personally...it's just how it works here!). The food all weekend was delicious and I had a great time. I also think it inspired the kids in my group to keep up the hard work so that they can have other similar opportunities!
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