Hello from Vanduzi

I don't know where to start, I absolutely love my new site.

The people in Vanduzi have been beyond wonderful helping me to feel welcome and at home here. My house is slowly coming along (there is still very minimal furniture but that's okay). And I started school last week and it was just great.

At school, I am teaching two 11th grade classes and one 8th grade class. My 11th graders seem to understand a pretty decent amount of my English, which is awesome. And they seem to appreciate my attempts at speaking Portuguese. Yesterday though they played a little trick on me. At around 9:30 AM yesterday, while sitting at my kitchen table going over my lesson plans I heard Amendoim growling and barking like crazy from the porch. I walked outside and saw one of my students standing there. He told me he couldn't make it to my class today but he wanted to copy my notes if possible so that he wouldn't miss the lesson. He is a really good student, he always participates and seems to understand what is going on so of course I gave him my notebook to read my notes. BIG MISTAKE. I go to class an hour later and find that none of my students were there. A few straglers were hanging outside the classroom but they explained they had already copied my notes so everyone left for the day instead of actually showing up for my lesson. So, I was in a sense schooled by my students.

Today I was tempted to give them a pop quiz on the notes but that seemed too mean, I instead lectured them a bit on coming to class and then just moved on with my lessons. Hopefully it won't happen again!

Jokes aside though I really like the school I am teaching at. My classes each have around 50 students and are much more managable than the classes I had in Guija. Every child always has a seat to sit in and the blackboards are big so I can write lots of notes for them to copy. I haven't given any tests yet though so I can't be too optimistic about everything but I'd say for now, work is going great.

The teachers at my school are so nice too. The first few days that I was in Vanduzi many of them came to my house to introduce themselves. Since classes have started two teachers at the school have sort of adopted me. One of them, Beatrice, teaches English (and is from Zimbabwe so her English is actually very good) and the other teacher, Sophie teaches French. Both of these women speak pretty good English and have basically welcomed me into their families. Every time I go over to visit them I am offered a meal or a snack and some good conversation. I really like that I have already found two people in the community who I trust and can also talk to about teaching.

Aside from school the town of Vanduzi is pretty sweet. It's much cooler than living in Gaza because the town is surrounded my mountains. So although I am now a lot farther from the beach I am happier, my runs have been great and I don't feel the need to take 3 bucket baths a day anymore. Everyday I run in the morning, then go to school to teach. In the afternoons I try to walk around, sometimes with Amendoim-who has become more of a celebrity here than I am-and sometimes alone. It is when I am just walking around town that I learn the most about Vanduzi. I always try to greet everyone, small criancas included and people here actually respond and ask me how I am doing. A lot of the time people will just walk up to me and introduce themselves and ask me where I am from or what I am teaching at school. Countless people have also asked me help them with their English but luckily no one has showed up at my door yet asking for lessons.

This past weekend while passearing (wandering around aimlessly with Amenoim) a lot of drunken men decided they wanted to talk to me. As a disclaimer these guys are completely harmless and really just want to chat, and because they are drunk they feel a little braver with their english so they approach me. I'm usually patient with them, if anything, when they speak Portuguese to me it's great practice trying to understand what they are saying but this has just reminded me of the overall issue of drinking here. A lot of men drink, and on the weekends most of them spend all day drinking and not doing much else. I did make some good friends though when they were in their drunken slumber--one of whom came to my house yesterday and brought me some pumpkin leaves (which can be boiled and used in a delicous curry) So you see, it pays to be polite to everyone, even the drunkards.

I know I am rambling now but I feel like there is so much to share! So I'll stop here and just share some pictures....



Here's a picture of the school where I am teaching. The picture is a bit deceiving, its a shot of one of the buildings which has two classrooms but there are actually five of these buildings that make up the school.



Here's the water pump at school where I get my water. Lucky for me when I show up the kids just pump the water for me but then I always carry it back so at least I do half the work?



HERE'S MY HOUSE. well my temporary house, I'm living here for 3 months until I can move to a house on school property. It's really nice though, it has 3 rooms. A small room that I use for my bedroom, another room that I can take bucket baths in and the middle room is where I cook and hangout. So far there is just a mattress in my room and then a table in my common room but its a work in progress...



HERES THE VIEW FROM MY HOUSE!!!!! isn't it so pretty??




And here's the most famous guy in Vanduzi, no joke. I think maybe people things its so funny that I walk him around on a leash but I have to do it, otherwise he'll chase the chickens. People always ask me his name instead of my own...funny


Okay that's it for now, I'll update again soon I just wanted to take advantage of the free wireless in the PC office!

VANDUZI. My new home.

Hello!

So I am all moved into my new site in Vanduzi and so far everything is going great! I don't know what else to say besides that it is really nice here.

I flew yesterday morning from Maputo to Beira, then met a PC staffer at the airport to drive from Beira to Chimoio. In Chimoio I met up with another PCV from my training group who was wonderful enough to lend me some household items I would need for my first few days at site. Most stores are closed on Sundays so it would have been difficult to find things like utensils, buckets, and even a stove but these are all things that are pretty much crucial to doing things somewhat easily here. Utensils are self-explanatory, buckets are used for washing dishes, laundry, taking a bucket bath and sometimes just for storage...and the stove, well I didn't expect to borrow a stove but Anna offered so I took it :) so much for my goal of never cooking on carvou again (I should have known that was an unrealistic goal!).

I finally got to Vanduzi late yesterday afternoon and a few teachers from the secondary school were waiting at my house to greet me. I got a small tour of my house (its really nice!) and then met my landlord, who explained what kind of work still needed to be done to the house. I then sat outside and talked with two of my colleagues and my school director. When everyone learned I hadn't actually eaten all day I was taken to a colleagues house and given a late lunch. Her neighbor, another teacher and clearly a good friend, then invited me over for dinner too. The teachers insisted that after a day of traveling I would be too tired to cook, which was probably true, I was in no way motivated to try and cook on carvou last night. So between meeting people, running errands (to buy a lock for my door, and some bread for Amendoim) and a small bit of unpacking I had a pretty productive afternoon.

I can't emphasize enough how friendly people have been here. Other teachers from the school have been stoping by throughout the day to say hello and introduce themselves. Everywhere I go people try to stop and talk to me and welcome me to Vanduzi, its really nice. I am the first PCV to be working at the secondary school here; there were some PCVs in Vanduzi a few years ago but they worked at a different school-so I have been told by a number of people that for most villagers I am the first white person they have ever seen or met, isn't that crazy! I guess when I went to Guija I expected it to be like that but it wasn't so I forgot that it could be like that at my new site. It's okay though, because I'm so new everyone wants to say hello and show me where things are, apparently there was a rumor that a new english teacher was coming but no one knew it would be an American so this is all very exciting.

If only my Portuguese wasn't so rusty.

It will get better though and I am happy...to be able to finally unpack, to have my own space, to cook my own food and to once again enjoy the slow-paced life that exists outside of the city. Of course once I start teaching again, probably tomorrow, I'll be busy again, but I can say now that it is great to be back at site, even if its a new site. I think these next few months are going to be really tough but I'm excited for the challenge and so far, things are good.

IF ANY ONE WANTS TO SEND ME MAIL HERE IS MY NEW ADDRESS:

Haleigh Duggan, PCV
Corpo da Paz
C.P. 331
Chimoio, Mozambique

*packages are really expensive BUT if you send a card or letter or something else small I would be incredibly grateful. I brought a bunch of pictures and small trinkets to decorate my house with but most of them were destroyed/lost in the flood so I'm starting from scratch. It's pretty much guaranteed if you mail me something it will go on my wall. THANKS SO MUCH. I'll post pictures of my new site soon....

And a website about the Guija Fund is in the works, my sitemate Elisabetta, is working on it!

3 weeks and counting in Maputo

These past few weeks have been crazy. There is no other way to describe it. I have spent exactly 3 weeks away from site, and 20 of those days have been spent here in Maputo, where I’ve enjoyed things like running water, pretty reliable electricity, air conditioning, and lots of great food. I just want to say that I am doing so much better and things have really picked up.

First, I will tell you all that I am being moved to an entirely new site-Vanduzi. It’s in central Mozambique (in Manica province) and I will be the first education volunteer to be sent there in 3 or 4 years. My town is about 30 k from a much larger town called Chimoio. I’m supposed to be moving there Sunday but its all pending on some renovations for my new house there (renovations sounds fancy but my house needs windows and a front door…kind of important don’t you think?) I’ll still be teaching English once I get there.

Second, yesterday I went back to Guija to do one final sweep of my house. I was able to salvage some things, like my trunk (which was filled with lesson plans and electronics chargers) my teddy bear and pillow (my mattress must have floated!) and some cooking essentials that weren’t actually in the thick layer of mud that still covered my floor. I also grabbed whatever clothes of mine hadn’t fallen on the ground and gotten soaked in the dirty/contaminated/idk what was even in it but it smelled terrible mud.

On the way back from Guija we also stopped in Chissano and I got to pick up my dog, Amendoim! He is coming with me to my new site and I could not be more excited about it! I’m going to be the only volunteer in my village so I really wanted to bring him for safety reasons—plus he is my buddy.

Third, I have spent the last week staying at apartments/houses of different ex-pats here in Maputo. First I stayed with a couple who worked at the US embassy and now I am staying with an RPCV who works for the CDC. Peace Corps moved us in with these families and it has just been so fantastic. For once thing, its just a lot cozier. Who wants to sit in a musty old hotel room all day?? Not this girl. Plus eating out for every meal was kind of taking a toll on my stomach. Now that we are staying in actual houses with American families the four of us who are still in Maputo have been able to really relax-or at least I have. For example, last night, after coming home from our long trip to Guija and being dropped off at a new house, our host came out to greet Eisabetta and I. She has 2 dogs and was perfectly fine letting Amendoim stay here too, which is just great. We came in, got a short tour, I took a shower (in a shower with actual water pressure and hot water oh my god I almost died….this was so nice though because after cleaning through my hosue I was so muddy and smelly and also covered in dog fur because of course Amendoim sat on my lap the whole ride back to Maputo). Anyway so I showered and then sit down to enjoy this delicious Indian take out that Elisabetta and I ordered and Mindy, the woman we are staying with, gives me an American beer and then also tells us there is ice cream in the freezer if we want any. I actually feel so spoiled to be staying here but its really just much cozier. I can sit around the house during the day, use the internet, cook my own food and just stop worrying about the flood. I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful its been staying with these families.

When I went to Guija last week and saw my house for the first time I was just shocked. I knew to expect a lot of damage but I really didn't imagine it could have been as bad as it was. The flood water basically engulfed my entire house, the water line was just below my roof and to make it even worse (if thats possible) the water must have entered my house really quickly because all the furniture was knocked over and/or broken. My huge fridge was flipped on its side, an entire bookshelf was knocked down (and I couldn't see any books because they were all hidden in the mud) and my couch and chairs were knocked on their sides. My water basilla (basically a huge trash can) that I had filled with water before I left was knocked over--and that thing is heavy. Everything was just a mess and there was a good 5 or 6 inches of mud on the ground and it smelled so bad. My bedroom door was pushed open and my dressers were knocked over, my bed was kind of on top of them and everything was just covered in smelly mud. The only thing that looked clean was my mattress, which floated, and my table, which also floated. So yea, I was just really upset when I realized I had to accept that every single thing I brought to Mozambique had been destroyed by the water. It sucked and it made me want to give up on Peace Corps. I didn’t want to go home but I just felt so lost, I remember sitting in the car going back to Maputo thinking that I actually didn’t have a home here and it was so depressing. Well, now I have a new home to look forward too and a current place to stay in Maputo, where I feel so welcome and relieved. I can finally just relax and enjoy these next few days because I know once I get to my new site there's going to be a lot of adjusting to do...speaking Portuguese and living in the bush are going to be tough but I can't wait to get back into it!!

So here are some more pictures because I have wifi :)

Tent camps on the way to Chokwe-sadly the camp was actually larger this time we passed through but there is a good amount of relief aid being sent there too. Elisabetta and I thought this camp might turn into a a real town (with permeant housing) if it keeps growing with tents....

Here's a picture of my room that I took last week when I went to Guija...LOOK AT HOW DIRTY EVERYTHING IS!!!! My clothes were covered in so much mud I couldn't even roll them into a ball to throw them in a garbage bag they were too stiff and crusty (see the brown blob to the right of the hanging clothes, yea those were cardigans). .....drumroll please

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU OWN A LAUNDRY MACHINE!!!!!!!!!! seriously, I will NEVER EVER EVER complain about doing laundry again the states, I have no idea how my clothes got clean but they did and they even smell clean. I actually cried a little when I peaked into the washer and saw that they were clean. Seriously best day ever. I wasn't able to get much from my house, most of my clothes had fallen into the mud and as a result were moldy and black but these clothes didn't they fall so they didn't get moldy and now they are clean!!!!! Okay enough about clothes but really I am SO HAPPY. A good friend of mine also gave me two bags full of clothes which was basically one of the nicest things to do in the world! I can buy clothes here but they are pretty expensive, the alternative is to buy used clothes in the market which I am going to do tomorrow...Also those are my sweet new kicks-of course I bought new running shoes before buying anything else but hey, they're important!

This is what happens when you get to live with ex-pats in the capital...they have real kitchens with things like food processors and refrigerators and you can actually cook! Tonight we made homemade pesto sauce with pasta and then had ice cream for dessert. I know any PCVs that are reading this are hating my guts right now....sorry guys!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST....

My little buddy who is coming all the way to Vanduzi with me.

OH AND I LIED ONE MORE.

I went back to Namaacha to visit my host family because they live just 90 minutes outside the city. I'll admit I was a little nervous to go at first-mainly because I didn't know if I could speak Portuguese well enough to spend the whole day with them alone-but it was actually the perfect little trip for me. I spent the day just hanging out at my house catching up with my mae, host brother and sister. My mae bought a bottle of wine, and we shared that and cooked matapa and I told her all about Guija and the flood. She surprised me by telling me that she was learning English, and then proceeded to say the phrases she had learned so far, it was so great. My little sister even got out the barbie dolls I gave her as a farewell gift, and Cleiton was wearing the shirt I gave him it was all just really really nice. I know I'll be back to visit them again next time I am in Maputo.


TO END-- my sitemate Elisabetta, has been working with some other RPCVs to create a fund to organize donations to help with the reconstruction effort in Guija. I will post details for this next time I write as the fund is still being finalized. Generally speaking I can say the money donated will go towards the hospital in town, to fund medicine and supplies, or to the school, which is still standing but suffered a lot of damage from the flooding. Let me know if you are interested in learning more about this or just wait until I post again soon!

A Visit to Guija

Today I got to visit Guija to see the damage from all of the flooding and it was not pretty.

Instead of posting a lengthy, drawn out or long-winded description of my day I'm just going to share some pictures and promise another post later this week.

Temporary camps set up between Macia and Chokwe. We saw the red cross or doctors without borders at the camp and also saw a South African NGO passing out food. We also saw WFP vans and World Vision working in the flood affected areas to deliver aid but all in all the situation did not look good. Entire families were living under single plastic sheets, and many had placed all of their belongings out in the dirt to try and salvage what they could from their homes. We also saw people walking along the road to get supplies from Macia to bring back to the camps. Many areas between the two large towns were still flooded.

Some areas are still flooded, and in this picture you can see the water rose to just below the windows of the houses. At my house in Guija that water was actually above the doorway (I didn't get a picture of that though!)

Here is a picture of the road between Nick's site, Manjangue, and another town before actually getting to Guija. As you can see the water completely tore up the pavement and just left piles of asphalt and rocks.

Here's a picture of the school where I teach, the water rose above the windows and door and because of that everything inside was caked in mud. I didn't actually get to look inside but the desks were being moved out to be cleaned.

Here is a picture of the front door into my house. I did not post this to make people feel bad for me I just want you to be able to see the extent of the damage inside. All of the furniture was turned over and most of it is broken and there is also mud on the ground that is about 4 or 5 inches deep. In fact everything is covered in mud or mold. I had one of the stronger houses in my community because it was raised a meter above ground and made out of concrete blocks. Many other people live in mud or straw huts which were completely washed away in the floods.

And to end on a more positive note, this little guy showed up in my house while I was trying to salvage things, he was really excited to see me (I am pretty sure he was the previous volunteers cat). I gave him some crackers and water and then said goodbye, I think he lives with a neighbor and if he made it through the actual flooding he doesn't need my help now :)

I will write again later this week I'm just really tired and can't quite write what I want to say right now about everything that is going on. Thanks again though to all of you who are keeping up with me and checking in, especially right now when things have been so difficult.

The Flood.

I want to write a blog entry about all the flooding in Gaza but now that I am sitting down and trying to write, it is proving to be incredibly difficult.

The overall situation is that last Tuesday night (after weeks of rain) the Limpopo River, which is just 1k from my house flooded. The water was really high and the river was humongous, it looked so swollen and enlarged by this point just from all of the rain BUT the rain in Mozamnbique is not what actually caused the flooding. It has also been raining a lot in South Africa and Zimbabwe and basically there are two main dams that were so full of rainwater they could burst, in order to prevent that, the government opened the dams to flood the rivers and because the dams are so close to Chokwe, that was the first town to get hit. The water in Chokwe was up to the roof level of many houses, and because the flooding happened so quickly many people did not get out of town in time and were thus stranded on their roofs or in trees. People that did get to flee set up camps about 20-30k outside of the city and are now living under tents but the camps are short of supplies and cannot accommodate everyone. The flooding in my town has apparently gone down (it was also at roof level) but I just read a news article, which stated that the bridge to get into my down was destroyed, and my village is currently only accessible by boat. The people living in Guija have been without food or clean water since last Wednesday and as a result have resorted to eating dead livestock, bugs, basically anything you can find and drinking dirty water…which of course could lead to the spread of diseases, such as cholera.

Overall around 40 people have died, and over 100,000 people have been displaced. Because the water level was so high, many people lost family members during the flooding and have not been able to get in contact with them. There are crocodiles and other dangerous animals that live in the Limpopo, and have killed people in the past, with the water levels so high, they just add to craziness that I am sure has now ensued in many areas affected by the flooding.


Last Tuesday my sitemate, Elisabetta, sent me a text saying that the Limpopo River was really high and she was afraid it might flood that night. We had already planned to go to Macia, the next closest town, the following day but she thought leaving the next day would be too late, so even though it was already getting dark out (and therefore not too safe to travel) we agreed to pack quickly and try and get out. I threw a change of clothes, my macbook, camera and a toothbrush into my backpack and also grabbed some food for amendoim and we left. I got quite a few funny looks from people while walking to meet Elistabetta; people did not understand why were leaving, it wasn’t even raining. I did not take many precautions for potential flooding because I had no idea how bad it could be and frankly I did not have time. So Elisabetta and I were able to get a bolea out of town (which was perfect because I had Amendoim) and once we got to Chokwe we caught a chappa to take to Macia. When we left Macia I was shocked to see so many people out and about; everyone was trying to leave that night. The lines to get into the gas station wrapped around street corners and people were running around the streets with bags of their belongings. It was around this time that I got a little nervous about the threat of flooding. Like I said I had absolutely no idea and could never have imagined that the water would get so high.

On our chapa to Macia, Elisabetta and I sat upfront and Amendoim sat on my lap. He wasn’t too excited about the chapa ride though and he kept trying to move around and jump at the window, finally after about 45 minutes he sat on my lap, put his head on my shoulder, and sat perfectly still the rest of the way. We got to Macia late that night and stayed at another PCVs house. The next day I decided to try and go to Chissano where another one of my friends lives. There were already 6 of us staying in the house in Macia and I knew more volunteers were likely to show up as the floodwater moved to other towns. After waiting for 3 ½ hours on the side of the road I was able to catch a huge open-back truck bolea to Chissano. The bolea was awesome and I was so happy to get Amendoim somewhere safe. If I had left him in Guija he would have died, there’s no doubt about it.

I stayed in Chissano with a friend for a night and the following day Peace Corps told us we were going to be evacuated to Maputo. It was predicted that another town, Xai Xai would flood, and if this happened PCVs would be stranded at their sites, safe from the water but unable to move north or south. Many people living in villages between Xai Xai and Chokwe (the two towns that were flooded) get food, and produce from those towns, or need to go into those towns to use the bank or buy phone credit..etc So PC decided that in order to ensure we were all safe it would be best for us to be in Maputo together and close to staff. This meant I had to say bye to Amendoim (I am paying someone to take care of him while I’m in Maputo so hopefully that is going alright) and since last Thursday I have just been staying at a hotel in Maputo with a ton of other volunteers.

Being in Maputo is really weird. I feel like I am on vacation because I am staying at a place with running water and electricity and I am getting an allowance while I’m here to pay for things like food, bottled water…etc. A lot of other volunteers are in Maputo right now too and this has been a great distraction from the events back at site. I can’t help but feel incredibly guilty that I was able to be picked up and dropped off to in a big city with so many amenities while many other people from my village are either stranded in Guija or trying to get by in an overcrowded tent camp. I also feel terrible because I can’t stop thinking about all my stuff that had to have been destroyed at site. I’ve gotten over the shock that all of my clothes and shoes and things like spices, decent pots and pans and cooking knifes, and even stuff like good hair products and tampons are all likely to be destroyed. My electronics chargers, my iphone, my other phone sim cards, and all of my books are surely ruined from the water damage but the things that make me most upset are the things that I can’t replace even when I go back to America. Things like my journal, photos and letters from people back at home, my baseball gloves, my running sneakers and my teddy bear---I left all of those at my house and I don’t know how they could be salvaged BUT I still have some hope that not everything is gone.

I go back and forth between feeling incredibly guilty for being upset about all these material objects because at the end of the day they are just things but when you come to the Peace Corps you don’t bring much. Two overstuffed bags and whatever you start to collect in country are all of your belongings so to have them destroyed so quickly is just shocking. Even worse I can’t stop thinking about my village and everyone living in the Chokwe district. I have never witnessed a natural disaster first hand before and it is so scary. These people that were affected the most, the ones stranded on roofs or in trees, no one cares about them. Maybe you read a news article and feel bad for them, maybe someone feels so guilty they donate money to an NGO but at the end of the day there is no way all of these people can be compensated. Aside from losing their homes, having their land destroyed (the majority of people here rely on agriculture to make a living) and being torn apart from family, I am sure that not much will be done to really help them, it would be impossible. I can only hope that after the waters recede that the government is able to do something to help people get back on their feet. Their livelihoods have been completely destroyed and because they live in more rural areas no one sees it, no one has to see it. When food prices increase over the next few months, and there are shortages of products it will become more noticeable how much the province was hurt by the flooding but until then this just another news story about some crazy catastrophe that happened in Africa. You have to dig to find the news on it and that is just so incredibly frustrating.

To end on a more positive note, thank you every one who has gone out of their way to send an email or a message. I really am doing fine. It is nice to be in Maputo right now with friends, and I’ve gotten to eat some really great food :) I have come to terms with the fact that I have probably lost everything from the flooding but I know I am very lucky that I was able to get out safely. I might even be moved to a new site and although that will have plenty of challenges it could also be really exciting. I promise to keep you all updated with news over the next couple of days as I learn more about the actual damage in Guija and how it will affect my Peace Corps service.

Thanks again everyone for thinking of me and for reading this. If anyone is interested I am including a few links to articles about the flooding:

Al Jazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/01/20131268208905951.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/africa/2013/01/201312622523811225.html (video)

BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21206347

African Sources: http://allafrica.com/stories/201301260402.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/201301250264.html

MANGOS.

I feel inclined to write a post about mangos because they are now a very large part of my life.

I eat 6 to 10 mangos a day, not even kidding. They are small though, and stringy, so when you cut up 3 or 4 its maybe how much fruit you’d get from a large mango back in the states. Mangos were already one of my favorite foods to eat back at home, I’d splurge and buy them when they were on special at Whole Foods; 10 mangos for $10, so good! Well here they grow on trees right in my back yard and its awesome! So far I have made mango chutney, mango salsa, mango curry…and I eat mangos for breakfast, for snack and after dinner as dessert. There are always plenty of mangos to go around. The kids that live around my house come by everyday to raid the mango trees of their ripest fruits…everyone here loves mangos. Today while I was running I met a guy who was walking into town with a basket of mangos on his head, he tried to give me a bunch but I just took two and explained I didn’t want to carry them. He smiled and said okay but then I felt dumb…because he had to carry them all too.

The end.

Tomorrow I start work! Well kind of, I am meeting with the other English teacher at the school so we can coordinate or schedule and start planning the curriculum. So far I know that I will be teaching 11th grade, and then next year I will teach 12th grade, this way I can work with the same group of students both years, COOL. Hopefully there won’t be too many troublemakers because I’ll be stuck with them for 2 years :)

The Holidays in Mozambique + A Big Snake.

You know you are in the Peace Corps when it’s 7:30 PM on a weekend night and you are eating dinner alone, by candlelight, and that after dinner you will probably take a cold bucket bath, read a little or watch a TV show and then be in bed by 9. I guess I’m not techinally alone because Amendoim is sitting right beneath my chair but still, all this alone time is nice but it does take some getting used to.

Today was pretty eventful, I woke up around 7 (that is LATE!) and while eating some bread on my front porch a visitor stopped by to come chat, his name was Junior and he was definitely drunk. He used to be a teacher and knew some of the previous PCVs in Guija, and he spoke great English so I chatted with him a little but then told him I was busy. He promised to come back later in the day so we could talk. Shortly after he left a kid ran into my yard and said ‘consensa mana, consensa…cobra!” I didn’t really understand what he was actually saying but I caught the word cobra and got nervous, he was afraid to come in my yard because of my dog so I put amendoim inside and then walked out to meet him and asked him if there was a snake, he said yes, and I asked where, he said the trees…well my yard has a lot of trees.

So I got my neighbors to come help and sure enough we spotted the snake that had scared this boy and it was HUGE. Not only was it a big guy, 4 or 5 feet he was also fat and everyone was terrified of him. By now there was a nice-sized crowd gathered in my yard staring at the snake. I started to feel uncomfortable standing outside in my running shorts (totally inappropriate) because lots of people were all dressed up as they were coming from church. Aside from feeling awkward I was anxious to prove to my neighbors that I was not scared of the cobra and asked if I could kill it by throwing a large rock at it, one of my neighbors nodded. I walked closer to my house to try and find the perfect rock but then two men came running, literally out of nowhere, and they each had very large sticks…one of them ran right over to the snake, yelled and them BAM slammed the stick down and ended that black cobra’s sad little life. Everyone gasped a little and the guy continued to whack the snake to make sure he was good and dead. Then he picked up to now-dead snake to show everyone and threw it onto a pile of dead weeds. Problem solved, everyone went home, but not before telling me that I needed to cut my front hedges and weed around them.

I already knew I needed to weed these hedges and I actually paid someone to come clean my entire yard last week but there was a clear language barrier (the woman I hired didn’t speak any Portuguese) so somehow my attempt to ask her to trim my hedges and weed under them got lost in the crazy sign language/having another neighbor translate all of my requests into Changana for her. So I was a little reluctant to have to start this large project because I felt like someone else should have done it for me…but yea I didn’t want any more cobras so I got out my wheel barrow, broom and machete and got to work. I did a good hour or so of weeding (the machete was too dull/I am not strong enough to use it to cut hudges) and then the kids that live next door showed up. They didn’t even ask if I needed help they just started raking weeds, picking up branches and the oldest one started whacking away at my hedges.

I was shocked, I kept trying to talk to them in Portuguese and they just smiled but were pretty quiet…I kept thinking that tonight, when I was done, I’d go inside and make them some delicious cookies as a thank you and I could also give them a little money for all their hard work. When we were about halfway through all the work one of the kids asked me if I was going to pay them, I hate talking about money here, especially with kids, because EVERYONE thinks that because I am white (and therefore either American or South African) I must be rich. I was planning on paying the kids for helping but it did sour my mood a little that they just expected it. I told them yes, but also said they had to help me finish and then I would pay them tomorrow. They smiled and got back to work. By the end of the day they had helped me chop away almost all of my front hedge, which was awesome; now it doesn’t exactly look aesthetically pleasing but I could rake out all the dead leaves and weed easily, and it’s a hedge so it will grow back a lot nicer. I am a little bummed because the hedge offered a great buffer between the school and my house and gave me some privacy and now it is completely gone but I’ll take a lack of privacy instead of cobras any day. It was also fun to work outside all day with my neighbors, even if they were motivated by money.

Throughout the day, random neighbors would pass by and say how great it was that I was cleaning my yard. I thought my yard looked good before but people here like things different I guess and now that my front hedge is lower and looks all choppy and weird it apparently looks better. I also learned this week that I HAVE to sweep my yard everyday or my neighbors will really not like me. My front yard is dirt but Mozambicans sweep their front yards, I think its so strange…sweeping dirt? But its okay its brownie points at this point and need to do these little things to be accepted in my community.

Also random fact, by the end of the day I noticed the dead snake was gone and I’m 99% certain someone took it to use for traditional medicine, COOL.

Oh and at around 5 PM Junior came back to visit. He apologized for being drunk this morning and said he wanted to talk. We ended up sitting on my front porch talking for a while IN ENGLISH WAHOOO about Mozambique, America and South Africa. Junior used to teach at the school where I will be working so we talked about teaching and he asked me all about my experience with PC so far. Apparently he was friends with previous volunteers so he knew a lot about the organization. It was so nice to have a real conversation with someone about things in Africa but to be able to speak in English. Guess I have a new friend.
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On a lighter note I will say that Christmas here was so much fun! It was really really hot though, I thought everyone’s sites were hot in Gaza and then my friends came here and told me my site was the hottest. We woke up pretty early each day because it was so hot you couldn’t sleep and slowly everyone would move outside to lay on my straw mats under the big tree in my front yard and just pray for a breeze. Between the hours of 9AM and 4PM it was literally too hot to move, unless you were moving to go get an iced cold refresco (soda). Heat aside it was fun to have people around, we told stories, played cards, wandered around town and made some delicious food. On Christmas we even managed to make a traditional meal with green beans, mashed potatos, chicken (I bought it frozen we weren’t going to kill any chickens at my house) and sweet potatoes. We even had no bake cookies for dessert, wahoo! Overall it was just a great couple of days spent with some friends.

So aside from Christmas things have been pretty slow here. I’ve been doing a lot of work around the house and outside because I am trying to get all these little projects done before school starts, which I am so excited for! These last few weeks have been great, I’ve gotten to relax a ton at my house, I’ve read a couple books, made some good food and overall felt like I was on some weird vacation. I also got to travel a little and visit friends BUT I am ready to start my job and to really start teaching. I am also so anxious to meet people at my school, so hopefully next time I write it wil be about that!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas/happy holidays and a really fun new years, here’s to 2013 [hopefully] being a year full of lots of adventure and lots of learning and reflection, can’t wait!

Until the next time!

Oh and I should add my new years resolution was to be fluent in Portuguese by next years New Years, think I can do it?