Palm Sunday and some YAMS!!!

FIRST---here is the website that my sitemate set up about the flooding in Guija. She is organizing a couple of different relief projects because she is still working in the area, please take a look at it (even if it is just to read a little) to find out more about what happened in January...

http://www.theguijafund.org/

Last Sunday I went to church and I'm going to tell you all about it...

Another teacher at school preaches at a Christian church in Vanduzi and for the past couple of weeks he has been pleading for me to come to a service. On Saturday we had a meeting at school and he told me he was very worried because I have not come to church yet (I've been away from site the past 3 weekends) and he also reminded me that I promised to come, so not wanting to break a promise I decided to go on Sunday.

The service was so different from any church I've attending in the states. For starts, the majority of it was just singing. THERE WAS SO MUCH SINGING. and that was cool because the singing was beautiful and fun. Everyone sang. The young people (students) sang, the women sang, the men sang...even the little kids stood in front of the congregation and sang for everyone. There was also lots of hand clapping and dancing. People were just really happy. After about 2 hours of singing the actual service began. The paster made me come to the front of the church while he introduced me to everyone and told them that I was from America but now lived in Vanduzi. He told them I was his friend, and was visiting the church, and he wanted everyone else to treat me as a friend, it was really nice.

The most interesting part of the service though was the sermon. It lasted maybe an hour and was more like watching a dramatic play. The paster walked around preaching and another younger boy (actually one of my old 11th graders!) walked around behind him repeating everything that he said in Shona (the local language) and translating it into Portuguese. The two of them were walking in circles around the congregation and they were acting out whatever verses they were reading from the bible, and using different voices and really just getting very into whatever they were saying. It was pretty cool to watch. Someone else from the church sat next to me and translated the entire sermon, so that was also very nice because I think otherwise I would have gotten bored. (My portuguese is getting better but its still hard to focus after an hour of translating...). The main message of the sermon was that even if someone isn't accepted in their community today, or if their life is hard, to remember that they are already a member of god's community, and to remember how special that is.

I don't want to get all preachy but it was just an interesting message to hear in a poor, rural village in the middle of Mozambique.

Overall, the service was 4+ hours long, and there was a meeting after the service but I left before that started. I had lots of work to do on Sunday and by the time church ended it was almost 2 o'clock!

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Story number two.

I went to church with another teacher at school, Sophia, who has become a good friend of mine. I walked to her house at 9 AM and waited outside talking to her neighbor, Beatrice (also another friend and collegue). Beatrice's empragadas were busy preparing breakfast and when I asked what they were cooking, she told me 'yams'. Well I got very excited about this because I love yams and the sweet potatoes that we have in Vanduzi are nothing like American sweet potatoes, so when I realized that I had been missing out on the real thing I was just so excited. Beatrice must have noticed my excitement because when I was walking home from church one of her empregadas came running up to me saying "Tia Haleigh, Tia Haleigh..." and then waving me to towards Beatrice's house. I walked over and Beatrice handed me a container with cooked yams, she said she wanted to share some of her food with me because she knew how much I like yams. How nice?

And guess what the yams were delicious.

This is the last week of the trimester. Next week, I'll have to give my students a huge exam (its actually the provincial exams, similar to standardized, state testing back in America) so this is very exciting but also kind of nerve-wrecking. Apparently lot of students try to cheat on these tests and even more students will fail...gah, wish me luck!

Here are some pictures!

The road into Vanduzi...



Well, this is the busiest area of town (markets and small stores line both sides of the street, and people are always out and about, this is also where I can catch a chappa to Chimoio!)


Here is the magical fruit truck (that's actually not a truck but I like to call it that) which is on the outskirts of town and sells produce from south africa. Yesterday I bought peaches and grapes...something you usually can only find in the capital way down south!



Here is a picture of my kitchen/common room! Take note of the nice little fridge that I bought last month...it cost almost my entire monthly allowance but the fact that I can now eat leftovers (after slaving away cooking on charcoal for hours) made it all worth it! Also Grace look your card is hanging up! As is your postcard but you can't see it from this picture...



And here are two pictures of my bedroom...I had to take two shots because my room is tiny and if I take just one my bed just takes up the whole shot...



Taking the expression "living out of a suite case" quite literally...



Okay I promise my next post will have pictures of people and new friends I just have been reluctant to get my camera out...but it will happen! Have a great day everyone!

Back to Site/COESAO

Well, I am back at site and things are pretty much back to normal. I went back to school on Monday and it was torture trying to get my students to speak English, but I can’t blame them, I remember after doing site visits last fall (and not speaking Portuguese for 5 days) it was impossible to speak the language…so I guess after 10 days my students complains that ‘it (English) is too difficult’ were true. So Monday was a struggle but by Tuesday class went a lot smoother. Next week I will be testing both of my classes and I am pretty nervous. I wrote up the tests already and they are pretty easy, in fact I took examples almost directly from my notes and their homework but the problem is my students don’t actually do their homework. Some of them do the homework and participate but a lot of them just sit there quietly and with a class of 50+ individuals it is easy to overlook those that just do not want to try. I offered ‘office hours’ (which I sneakily called English Club or Tutoring) but no one came for help, so that was kind of a bummer but I think they will come next week, or in two weeks, or maybe once the national exams start. One of the other teachers said my students are just kind of afraid of me because I am fluent in English, so they are afraid to ask for help or feel embarrassed. At first I was offended by this, I try to be polite and supportive when I teach and have been told that I smile the entire time I lecture but I guess it is also intimidating to ask me for help, since I am so different. We shall see what happens next week when I test them!!

In other stories, since returning to Vanduzi a million people have asked me how I am doing and if I am better. Most people think I got bit by a dog, and had to get rabies shots, while other people think I had Malaria, and a few colleagues just smiled and told me I got sick because I am new but now that I have been sick I will be used to Vanduzi and can live here. Almost like getting sick was my initiation to this town…cute huh? I tried to explain to people that I had a parasite but then they started advising me on drinking better water (I filter and bleach my water) or avoiding vegetables because they grow in the ground….it is nice though that in general, people were concerned about me and are happy to have me back. I think the most excited people though are the little kids here. They are just so cute. I know its cliché to say but they are adorable. Whenever I walk anywhere (or run) they come running out to the road to jump up and down and wave and yell “Ola, Ola, Ola Menina;” and they are always smiling and laughing and so excited. I probably should be a little concerned about the fact that I’m so amusing to them but they’re just too gosh darn cute for me to care. When they say ‘Ola’ I usually great them back in Portuguese or English…it would be pretty cool if all the little kids in Vanduzi started saying English greetings.

Two Random Stories:

There is one man who works at the school and wants to learn English. A lot of people ask me to teach them English but this man is very persistent. He is really nice and he means well but I honestly have no idea how to teach him…he knows zero English. He has come to my house twice now to ask about lessons and I just have no idea where to start. Yesterday he came to my house while I was sitting outside reading the Economist (one of the perks of being in Maputo is buying English-printed news!). Anyway he sits down on my little stove, picks up my bowls from lunch and starts eating my food that I was clearly done with…it was the strangest thing. He didn’t even ask to eat it, and frankly I don’t know what I would have done if he did. I guess I wasn’t going to eat it so at least it didn’t go to waste but it was weird. After eating my food he then asked me about English lessons and I told him I needed to get caught up with work first and think about how to teach him because I don’t know how.

Story number 2…My first week here in Vanduzi I went to a funeral with two other teachers from my school. I’m not even sure who exactly died because it was my third day in town but the teachers said I should go with them out of respect, so I did. It was so different! As we walked up to the house I could hear woman singing and drums beating---a strange mourning sound? At the house all of the women were outside on one side, some of whom were sitting quietly morning, but most of them were standing in a big circle singing and dancing. My friends told me the women will dance until the body is brought to be buried, which meant they were going to dance through the night until the early hours of the morning. All of the men were sitting on the other side of the house in a quiet circle under a tree. None of the women and men were interacting…and actually none of the men were talking. I asked why they were separated but didn’t really get an answer. Also I should mention, I was wearing a long skirt and t-shirt but when we got to the house an older woman said something to me in Shona, and one of my colleagues gave me a capulana* to wrap around my legs because even though my skirt covered my knees it was too short, or maybe just not conservative enough. A lot of the woman were wearing capulanas, which is the traditional thing to wear to a funeral, but we had walked over from school so I was in my work clothes. We sat for a good twenty minutes and then left, and that was that.

So those are my two interesting cultural stories from Vanduzi so far.

Last weekend, after coming back from Maputo, I went straight to Messica for a Peace Corps get together, known as COESAO(a blend of the work central and the portuguese word meaning together...because we all living together in central and are like one big family) with all the volunteers from the central region (Tete, Sofala and Manica provinces). It was really fun. We camped at this lodge called Casa Masika, which was right outside of town but the family that ran the lodge owned hundreds of acres of land. There was a crocodile farm, and apparently other wildlife (like giraffes and gazelles and monkeys and pythons!!!!) but I didn’t see any of those animals. We spent the weekend telling stories from site, learning about the older volunteers secondary projects and we even went for a “little” hike. The hike turned into scaling the side of a small mountain and it was kind of crazy but lots of fun. Overall, it was a great weekend, and it was really nice to meet the rest of the volunteers that live in this region.

Here’s a picture from our hike to the top of this small mountain:



To end, I am completely recovered from my parasite and back to normal. I finally went for a run on Monday night, my first run in two weeks and it felt great! So things right now in Vanduzi are just fine. Oh and I also got a front door on my house so now it is actually safe.

Bolea-ing (halfway) Across the Country + An African Health Problem

Last week, my friend Wendy told me that she was planning to travel South to go to a friend's birthday party in Southern Inhambane. I got very excited about this and told her I wanted to come too. I miss my friends that live down south, and also had TWO packages waiting for me...making the trip there is kind of exhausting but traveling with a friend is much more fun, so I agreed to tag along. Our friend Shane decided to come too.

Wednesday night I went to Chimoio to stay at Wendy's because we wanted to leave really early the next day (5 AM). We left by 5:30, caught a chapa to Inchope (took about 2 hours) and from there we set up camp on the side of the road to try and bolea (hitch hike) south. After almost 2 hours of waving down cars with no success a car stopped for us. Sadly it was just a cop car, he wanted to take our nice spot in the shade to set up a check point (to monitor speeding, check cars...etc) so we moved. A random drunk guy that Shane had befriended decided to move along with us--he was having way too much fun talking to us white people so he wasn't going to leave. We moved to a new spot farther along the road, our drunk friend got tired and left, and shortly after we got picked up by two Mozambicans who worked for Coco Cola. They offered to take us about 2 hours south to a town called Muxungue. We of course accepted their offer and climbed in to their nice, cozy, air conditioned car--where we could use seatbelts and relax a bit. That drive went by pretty quickly, we took turns napping and after about 2 hours got to our destination. We got dropped off on the site of the road, were wished safe travels and our new friends drove off to work close by.

The three of us wandered to find some snacks (we hadn't eaten since 5 AM and were kind of hungry), we bought some bread and bananas and found a new spot to camp out at to eat and try to hitchhike. We were sitting down for maybe 5 minutes (I hadn't even finished my banana yet) when we saw a Land Rover down the road, driving in our direction. Wendy and I jumped up, I remember saying 'there's no way we'll get picked up this quickly but we have to try' and we both started trying to wave the car down. When the driver actually stopped right in front of us were in shock. I remember seeing a small American Flag on the inside of the window and was just thinking, oh my gosh, a bolea that speaks English this is too good to be true. The driver got out of his car, asked us if we were Peace Corps volunteers, then asked where we were going and told us to get in. His friend who was in the passenger seat also got out and they both started moving stuff around so we could fit in the back seat.

Turns out our driver was a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from the Gambia and was now working in Mozambique, doing medical research and his friend was also a doctor in the states; he was just visiting for a few weeks. We talked a bit, and then basically got to enjoy taking an awesome bolea all the way south to inhambane city where we could stay with friends for the night and then continue our journey the next morning. At one point along our drive we stopped at a small baraca on the side of the road to get refrescos. Wendy asked the Americans if they could look at her burn wound on her leg, they happily agreed and checked it out and then offered some advice on how to keep it clean and care for it.

We'll back track a little here, so about a week ago, I noticed a small red bump on my stomach. It looked a lot like a mosquito bite but it didn't itch at all, it actually kind of tingled. After a few days though it started getting really sore, and slowly got more swollen and more sensative each day. I called the PCMO (my doctor) and sent her a picture of this bump, and was advised to keep it clean, and start taking antibiotics. We thought it was just an infected bug bite and that with the antibiotics it would go away. So this "bug bite" hadn't really gotten better but I was taking plenty of ibeuprofin and that definitely helped the pain, and after being told it was a problem that would take care of itself I decided to travel with my medical condition. I decided to ask the doctors to look at my bite too and well when I showed it to them they kind of were really surprised and told me they would take care of it as best they could when we got to a better spot for them to work but that I needed to go to a hospital.

After a lot of hours of driving we get to Inhambane City and meet up with our friends. One of the doctors cleans his hands, puts on gloves, then goes to touch my now incredibly swollen bug bite, and by touch I mean he actually just grabs it and squeezes and lots of really colorful liquid comes out. I almost passed out from shock and pain and started crying and had to sit down. The doctor continued to drain my very infected bump and then gave me some antibiotics. He explained to my friends everything I needed to do since they were in a much better state than I was was, and when I finally calmed down, we thanked them and went on our way.

This bug bite thing was no longer sore the rest of my trip but I was carefull to keep a close watch on it and to keep it clean and bandaged. After a night in Inhambane City, we left the next morning to travel to Quissico, which is thankfully just a 2-3 hour chapa ride away. Of course we wanted to bolea and figured that after bolea-ing almost 1000k another hundred should be easy right? wrong. after three boleas (one of which was a huge truck that we sat in under a tarp while it poured and then had to vacate when the driver decided to pick up a million coconuts) and a short chappa ride we made it to Quissoco and got to see all of our friends!

Catching up with friends at the lagoon. So much fun.

I enjoyed my weekend in Quissoco and had a great time catching up with my friends. On Sunday morning, Wendy and I both got up early to catch a bolea to Maputo. Some really nice South African picked us up and we spent the next 5 hours camped out in the back of their pick up truck. We joked because when they picked us up it was really hot and we figured we'd probably get sunburned in the bed of this truck but after about 20 minutes it started raining, so we used Wendy's sleeping bag to make a tent to try and stay dry. The entire drive was pretty crazy, it kept switching between being really hot, and raining, but atleast we got a nice ride with some very friendly people. We were even given some bottled water and sandwiches!

When we got to Maputo, we went right the PC office and then from there we went to see the doctor. I showed the doctor my bug bites and guess what they actually turned out to be...I'm warning you its incredibly disgusting...it was insect larvae, under my skin!!! The doctor explained that when I hang my clean laundry up to dry, there is a kind of fly that lays eggs in clothing, so in this case it laid eggs in my underware. When I wore my what I THOUGHT was clean underware, I was actually just infecting myself and made it possible for these microscopic eggs to go through my pores in be laid under my skin just below my belly button. DISGUSTING. I asked the doctor how I could prevent this from happening again and he told me I should go back to America. He laughed and then said ironing my clothes should get rid of them. So the doctor cleaned me up and now I am still here in Maputo, totally fine and feeling much better, just waiting for these wounds to heal up so that I can go back home to Vanduzi.

Wendy and I basically traveled half the country this weekend but hopefully we will just get to fly back or take a nice, safe bus all the way up to Chimoio. No more bolea's or chappas and hopefully we'll both be healthy.

The end.

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.