Ihla de Mocambique

I don’t know where to start.

After PDM, I traveled north to meet up with some friends at Ihla de Mocambique—and it was absolutely wonderful.

(Some of the group standing at the pier in Ihla--Lisa get's photo credit for this one!)

The trip to Ihla took 2 full days. Two weeks ago, Kristen (another PCV) and I left Chimoio at 5AM in a chapa that took us to Inchope, the crossroads between north, south, east and west (north to Nampula, south to Maputo, east to Beira and west to Chimoio). This cruzamento is where central volunteers go to start our hitch-hiking. Well, by 7AM Kristen and I were camped out on the side of the road, optimistic that our early start would bring us some luck from the bolea [hitch-hiking] gods. We could not have been more wrong. In the first few hours just 4 other cars drove by, one of which stopped and tried to charge us $20 to go a couple hundred k north. We declined, we didn’t have the money, if did we would have taken a bus, so we waited, and waited and waited. After 5 hours, feeling pretty desperate and not wanting to return to Chimoio, we waved down a semi (a large truck) who stopped and agreed to take us all the way to Zambezia for approximately $6. We agreed and go in the van. So begins my 10 hour journey in a truck with little water, no food and no bathroom breaks (we did pack snacks but we ate them all on the side of the road.) After 10 hours we rolled into Mocuba, Zambezia around 10PM, our driver dropped us at bridge, which we crossed on bikes to meet our friends on the other side who had been waiting for us all day. Thankfully, PCVs are kind of awesome, our friends had waited up for us and had dinner saved for us to eat when we arrived disheveled and exhausted at their house.

(Kristen and I started in Chimoio, and finished our journey at Ihla...it doesn't look to far on the map but it was "la!")

We slept maybe 6 hours that night then woke up to continue traveling north. We got a little luckier that day and got a bolea to the cruzamento for Gurue (a beautiful area in the north I will return to visit!) From there we got picked up by a wonderful French man who drove us all the way to Nampula City. In Nampula we ended up taking chapas/open-back trucks all the way to Ihla and we finally arrived at our destination around 8PM that night. After 2 full days of travel we were beat, but also really excited we made it to the island and were reunited with our friends, some of whom we hadn’t seen since last December.

(A window to paradise, mom and dad are you sure you don't want to visit?)

The next 3 days were just wonderful. Ihla de Mocambique is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it served as the original capital of the Portuguese empire in the region and was a major trading port between Portugal and India. Aside from having pristine beaches with beautiful, turquoise water, the town itself is pretty magical. Unlike most of the country, the Island has a clear Portuguese influence. The roads are narrow and cobblestone, the buildings perfectly white (or faded colors from long ago) and although most of the architecture appears to be crumbling it really is beautiful.

We spent those three days exploring the old Portuguese fort, wandering town and spending lazy afternoons on the pier that extends into the Indian Ocean. At night we ate delicious food (the cuisine is easily the best I have had yet in this country; incredibly fresh seafood, coconut rice and curries seasoned with Indian, Mocambican and Portuguese flavorings, it was truly to die for). And basically just enjoyed our time on the sleepy island of ihla.

The trip back took another 2 full days of travel but I can happily report is was definitely worth it and I can not wait to travel back north and visit this island and the rest of that region again.

(Fresh Fish)

So now I am back at school, starting the third (and final!) semester of the year but I can’t focus much on teaching because I am leaving for vacation THIS SATURDAY and will get to see my family (and some friends) after 11 months away from home! I could not be more excited. So apologize ahead of time if I don’t update my blog until I’m back, but I’ll be traveling without a computer…but I promise to return with pictures and stories!

PDM

(Does anyone actually know what this acronym stands for?)

I attended PDM with 9 other Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts, in Garuso (about 15k from Vanduzi). The purpose of the conference was to learn about secondary projects that volunteers can start/continue in their communities. We each brought a colleague from school, who ideally we would work with on these projects, and who could continue them once we finish service and return to the states. Overall, it was incredibly successful, and was the exact forum I needed to show a colleague of mine what Peace Corps really is, and the potential I as a volunteer, have to start projects in our community. It was also great to finally learn about grants that are available for volunteers.

At the last minute I asked another English teacher, Simao, to come along with me to PDM and he agreed almost immediately. The weekend before the conference he insisted on meeting up and discussing potential project ideas-because he only had a few days notice to prepare, he was worried others would think we were weren’t prepared (note: there was no required prep for this conference). Still, his desire to prepare made me even more excited that I was bringing him along. During the conference Simao and I brainstormed a number of different ideas for projects we could start in Vanduzi. We made a list and then decided to focus on one of the easier/more short-term projects, and agreed to return to our list at the start of the next school year, when there would be more time.

We decided we will form a student group at school and together will teach them more about HIV/AIDs. These students then, will have the chance to educate their community about HIV/AIDs through theatre, dance, music and poetry. This group will be very similar to JUNTOS—a nationwide group that many volunteers are involved with in Mozambique. We set meeting dates and agreed to talk to other teachers about our group when we returned to Vanduzi. We also agreed to form an English club and really get started with our English theatre group (today I got a list of interested 8th graders who want to participate!)

Overall, the conference was a huge success. For me, I was able to share with a colleague more about what Peace Corps is, and because the conference was so professional, my colleague was able to trust or understand better what kinds of projects would be possible if we worked together. More importantly, I was able to chat with Simao about what he thought was really needed in Vanduzi, and through these conversations gauge a better idea of what the community wants and needs.

Now that I’m back at site, I’ve met with Simao and we are still planning to meet with our colleagues---it’s the first week of the semester and unfortunately very few teachers, and students have returned to school. I’m excited though I think our student group, along with our English club, is going to come along great. Simao is well-liked as school and the students really respect him, so I think together we will be able to get more participation and excitement from our students. Wish me luck!

Peace Corps Friendships

When I applied to Peace Corps two years ago one of the things I did not think about was the friendships I would make with other volunteers. I always imagined myself living in a rural, African village, teaching high school students and hopefully making some friends along the way. My goal was (and still is) to learn more about international development from the grassroots level, and I simply didn’t consider the role other Peace Corps Volunteers would play in that learning experience. Since arriving to Mozambique, and first being thrown into training-where 67 other volunteers-in-training became my immediate family, and then being placed at site (first in Guija, then again in Vanduzi) I have come to depend so much on the other volunteers in country. So although I am happy to say that I have made friends here in Vanduzi (mainly my collegues at school, my neighbors and their children, and the random, yet curious people in town who want to be my friend because I am different,) I will admit that my closest friends here are my fellow PCVs.

So my blog post is not just to write about how great my friends are here, but to comment on how strange it is when one of your closest friends finishes their service and leaves the country. I no longer have that one person who I can text when I have had a really frustrating day at school (or even better, a GREAT day). I also no longer have that close friend who I cook with on the weekends, and enjoy a cold Manica with at 4 PM on a Saturday. These are also the people who you turn to for advice with teaching, secondary projects, or just to talk to when your lonely and alone in your village. In Peace Corps, you become friends with your fellow volunteers almost immediately, and those who live closest to you become your family. It’s kind of a weird social experiment because throughout your service these friends change (as you move from training, to a new site, and then as volunteers finish service and are replaced with new ones) and almost immediately you become friends with the new people that replace your old closest friends, it really is quite strange.

This post doesn’t really mean much, but while passearing (walking aimlessly around town) the other day in town, thinking how weird it will be when I go in town to visit another volunteer but my old friend will be missing, and basically feeling sad about all of this, I realized that I can sit in my house all day reading, cooking or doing whatever passes the time or I can get out and be active in my community. Sure I don’t have a lot of work right now (its actually the semester break and I won’t teach again for 3 more weeks) but every time I walk outside my front yard I am reminded that people are happy to see me, and grateful that I have become a part of their community.

On Sunday, I stopped to visit a friend, and she, and her neighbor were so happy to see me that after talking for a good twenty minutes they each gave me some produce from their farms. Then today, while walking back from the market I was followed by 3 criancas (small children) who just wanted to skip next to me and repeat everything I said to them because they didn’t understand Portuguese, and I guess I’m just their daily entertainment because I am different. I’m not really sure where this post is going but I think it’s a reminder to myself (and other volunteers who read this) that although we do depend on one-another, the worst thing to do is be a hermit in your community, because the people here really do appreciate us, and if you are having a bad day my advice to you is to take a walk and see how many smiles you get from strangers who are just happy to be greeted, or see how many children just want to walk with you because they’re bored and you’re exciting and fun.

Although I’m pretty bummed that one of my site-mates, and closest friends has finished service and will be returning to the states soon, I know that I will be okay because I have a wonderful support system in the rest of my fellow volunteers, along with an incredibly grateful (and warm) community who will continue to look after me until the day comes in a year and a half when I have to say my goodbyes.

As previously noted, I’m about to be on break for the semester, and I won’t start classes again until August 6. A lot of volunteers travel over this long break but I haven’t decided yet if I want to leave site. For one thing, my dog will be terribly depressed if I leave but on a more serious note, I’m lucky to be going on a 3-week long hiatus to Europe mid-August. So I can’t decide if it is a good idea to leave my community for a week now, when I’ll be leaving for so long next month. I have a conference next week with some other fellow PCVs so I’ll have to see how good they are at convincing me to travel. Staying at site during the break might be exactly what I need to be reminded why I am here and why I am truly happy in my community.

We shall see, until the next post, be well!

Tchao and Boa Sorte Shane, you will be missed in COESAO but I am so excited to see what great things you do in law school....and also just excited to laugh over your adjustment to nyc life. Ate America!

Teaching, Hiking and wait I'm 24?

Not much is happening right now in Vanduzi but here are some photos…

Teaching superlatives to my 8th graders (this might be my favorite class).

They got really excited about the camera…when the bell rang to signal that class was over, no one wanted to leave so I told them we would take one group photo and then they had to go (because I wanted to go home!) This is the picture that resulted:

Also the kid right in front is one of my favorite students-he always participates and is asking questions. When everyone got together for the group shot he was telling me it was bad because everyone was jumping and yelling and they needed to sit down. When it was clear that I wasn’t going to try and control them he literally jumped right in front of the camera so that he could be the star.

Over the weekend I celebrated my 24th birthday in Chimoio with some other PCVs. The weekend included a home-cooked Mediterranean meal in Vanduzi complete with movie watching and just relaxing (thank you shane!) a  nice “family” dinner Friday night  (with birthday cake!) a hike on Saturday morning followed by a cook-out at a friends house, and then a night of festajaring with some cool British ex-pats we recently met. It was a really fun weekend.

Hiking outside of Chimoio 

Hanging out at our friends house in Chimoio celebrating my birthday and just having a good time.

Like I said not much is happening right now. School seems to be going well but I still have way too much free time and can’t figure out what to do with it yet…but in time I’m sure I’ll figure it out!

Also-I found a teacher to work with as my counterpart, we'll attend a conference together mid-July and I think taking her to learn about potential projects/available grants and what other PCVs are doing for their schools will be a great way to brainstorm what I can do here in Vanduzi!

Secondary Projects?

Hello! I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve updated this thing but honestly it’s been difficult finding things to write about. My hours recently got cut at school, so I am now just working 2 afternoons a week and it’s a serious bummer. The district essentially made a new rule that all teachers needed to teach a total of 24 hours, well because I am not a paid employee (I’m just a volunteer) every teacher was assigned 24 hours and I got the leftover, measly 9 hours a week. It stinks, it really does. But after talking to some colleagues I realized that most of them wanted to work even more than 24 (some had been working 30+ hours before) and because everyone gets paid based on the amount of hours they work, if I request more hours it takes away from another person’s salary---clearly not something I am trying to do. So this means that I have just been incredibly bored. And when I say bored I mean I’ve actually started watching TV episodes on my computer and re-reading old magazines I collected when I was in Maputo last January-it's that bad.

Initially I thought all this free time wouldn’t be that terrible because it would give me more time to work on secondary projects (any type of project outside of professional teaching). Well, starting secondary projects is not an easy task-especially when you live in a village that has never had another volunteer. People are justconfused when I try to offer tutoring or any sort of extra volunteering activity. So far my attempts at secondary projects have included:

-Helping organize our school library; re-arranging an old textbooks by subject (and grade) and then cataloging every book in the library so that when students borrow them we can trace where they’ve gone. This was a fun little project but I finished in about 3 days.

-Helping out at a colleague’s orphanage. Now this was a very exciting potential project for me. Another teacher at school mentioned that he helps out at an orphanage and after expressing interest in going he took me one morning. When I expected to walk to an orphanage in town, I was wrong. He led me on a 20-minute walk into the matu (farmland area) until we got to a very large field. He explained to me that the government of Mozambique donated 10 hectares of land to his organization, but gave them no funding to actually build an orphanage-all that has to come out of pocket. Some women met us at this field and he passed out some cove (kale/collard greens) for the women to plant in there homes. The plan is for these women to start their own small farm at home and use the cove when they cook to add more nutrients to their meals and thus help fight malnutrition (a huge problem here because everyone just eats carbs!) So that little piece was cool but overall I was kind of bummed out. I thought there was an established orphanage where he was helping teach/take care of kids but the fact is it hasn’t been built yet. The children are living with foster families. He was hoping I could help him get a grant or some type of funding to start building. That sucked. This teacher is a really genuinely great guy, and luckily he speaks some English so when I explained that I can’t just donate money to him because I have none he was just curious to learn more about what I can do, which is basically volunteer when the orphanage is going, and I also offered to help clean up some of the land but I don’t think he took me seriously at that offer.

-Finally, I found out another colleague at school wants to start a pre-school. Apparently there used to be a pre-school in Vanduzi that was volunteer run by some NGO but it stopped a few years ago and now there is no pre-school. Arguably worse, there is only one primary school in town, so children that aren’t fortunate enough to go to this school go to your stereotypical, African children sitting under a tree, drawing in the dirt trying to learn kind of school. So basically there is no preschool and limited primary school education available, which helps to explain why when students get to the secondary school (where I teach) they’re abilities are all over the place. I told this colleague if she starts a pre-school I will happily teach there in the mornings. I love kids and seriously need to find something to do to fill up all this free time! But things move SO SLOWLY here and I would be shocked if the pre-school starts up by the end of the year…

-I am also really going to start an English club. I’ve been talking to some other volunteers for advice on how to get it started and plan to really jump in with it in the next week or two so hopefully that will fill up some time and branch into other new projects!

That’s really it for now, I will say that even though I am just teaching 9 hours a week I really value my teaching time and think I spend a lot more time lesson planning, giving assignments (and grading them) and essentially just give my students more attention because I have less of them now, so that could be a good thing!

I’ll try to post again in the next week or two if there’s any new news, but hey, in my case I think no news is always good news :)

And here are some pictures:

Last weekend I went to Chimoio and hiked Cabesa de Velho with another volunteer. The “mountain” is maybe 3k outside of town and the hike to the top isn’t too tough. It’s really neat though, from the top you can see the entire town of Chimoio on one side, and then on the other side its just open fields/trees, a pretty cool contrast! Here’s a picture of me from the top of the mountain.



Two weekends ago a bunch of the PCVs that live in the central region of the country traveled to Vanduzi for a get together. It was a ton of fun, even though it rained all day for the one full day that volunteers were there we still had a great time cooking good food, telling stories and festajaring. Some wonderful person in America sent a box with peach rings in it to another volunteer so we ate those, along with some other great care package food! Here’s a funny shot of mostly everyone crammed into my kitchen posing with their peach rings:)



And I still can’t decide who had more fun that weekend, the volunteers or the kids that live in my bairro (neighborhood). They stood outside my porch watching us all weekend, even when it was pouring. They danced and sang outside, occasionally asked for food, but for the most part were just happy to watch us (and talk to whoever came out to say hello to them)


About a month and a half ago the country director came to visit me at site in Vanduzi. He took me, and two other volunteers out for lunch to talk about teaching/site...etc. Here's a picture of us in front of another PCVs house in Messica.



And I will add another quick story. I wait to bolea (hitch hike) out of site from the same spot everytime I leave. There is this house right on the outskirts of town that has a big tree in front that offers great shade to wait in while I try to flag down cars, and the family that lives there is really friendly too, which is always a bonus. Well today when I got to my spot, the teenage girl who lives at the house waved me over and said she wanted me to come into her house to meet someone. I followed her inside her incredibly small one room hut (which had a straw mat on the floor and then stacks of corn filled the rest of the house) anyway she had just had a baby boy, he was just TWO DAYS OLD. She insisted I pick him up and meet him but he was sleeping so I told her next time I visit I will hold him but he was so tiny! She also asked me to give him a name, at this point I told her I don't know any Mozambican names and that she should name him but she said she wanted to give him an America name...so i gotta start thinking. She invited me back for dinner next week and I think she is hoping that I will have a great name by then-any ideas?

The end.

Beer Olympics and the BEACH.

These past two weeks have been so fun, the only thing is I haven't been doing anything remotely related to my Peace Corps assignment unless it includes teaching Mozambicans some new drinking games. But hey, every once in a while PCVs need to take a break from living in the mato
(bush) and speaking Portuguese, and just relax.

Last weekend was the annual BEER OLYMPICS. An annual tradition, going back I have no idea how long but it is a tradition. Beer Olympics is basically like middle school field day, but with drinking mixed in. Volunteers from across the country escaped to Vilankulos beach for a weekend of relaxing and festivities. We were divided into teams based on our geographic regions in country, and well, the rivalries here run deep. Last year, my team, Central, won Beer Olympics, and we were hoping for a repeat victory and guess what WE WON. For the first time ever, there was a repeat victory! I know it seems silly to get so excited about drinking festivities but Beer Olympics really was a great way to channel some friendly competative energy, and just unwind. The day started with the carrying of a burning torch onto Vilankulos beach, then we all sang the [American] National Anthem, and after that the games began. Games included a shotgun relay, a relay race, dizzy bat, flip cup, beer pong and slam ball (delt ball!) And Central won, which means we get to proudly display the crazy little monkey statue (that has been in our office for the past year) for another year.

Here are some pictures from the event:


The wonderful, beautiful Vilankulos beach---mom and dad are you sure you don't want to visit?


Everyone getting ready for the days festivities.


Just some COESAO cheering to get everyone pumped up for the days festivities!!!


Team picture celebrating our victory!!! (Shane's holding the monkey trophy!)

After beer olympics, instead of heading back to Vanduzi I decided to travel a little further south to Tofo beach with some friends...I was already out of Manica province, and well once you're that close to the beach it's pretty tempting to stay.


Sunset over Tofo Beach.

And while in Tofo, I stayed with some other PCVs in Inhambane City, which is a city unlike anywhere else in Moz...there's a clear Portuguese influence, the town is much safer, and prettier and it was definitely like being on vacation.

A mural in Inhambane City.

And that's it for now---hope you enjoyed the pictures. I'm back to school tomorrow to start the second semester, my students haven't spoken English is almost a month it's going to be rough but I am excited to see their smiling faces again.

Until then!

-H.

Remembering Boston

This past week I've been staying in Chimoio for a Peace Corps conference. The conference was really beneficial because I was able to meet with other volunteers from my training group to talk about integration, lesson planning/school, and any other issues we have faced so far at site. The conference started Tuesday morning and finally ended this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll leave early in the morning to travel to the beach with some other volunteers and enjoy a really fun long weekend in Vilankulos.

I want to back track a bit just to write about the tragedy that happened in Boston on Monday. I was sitting in a hotel room, enjoying some libations and good conversations with friends that I haven't seen in months when one of my friends handed me his phone. I looked at it and saw the headline about the bombing in Boston. It was almost as if the world stopped. I swear, I sobered up, I couldn't hear anything anyone was saying, I couldn't even think. Thankfully I am so close to the PC office so I grabbed my computer and ran to the office to try and figure out a little more about the sudden catastrophe at the race. I sat in the office for the next two hours with another volunteer trying to read news headlines, look at pictures and get in touch with people from home. It was really scary. People always say its the sudden tragedies that make you appreciate what you have, but seeing something (on the news) so outrageous, happen in a place that I truly love was really difficult. Being so far from home, from family and friends, was also really difficult. I am so glad that I was here, in Chimoio, with my PC family when these events happened, because I was able to try and understand what actually happened and I had a great support system.

I'm not trying to write a post so that you can feel bad for me, but I think this sudden tragedy really puts things in perspective. I'm really far away from home, and when something scary happens it's very easy to feel helpless, and its difficult to even begin to understand why/how these kind of events occur.

I just wanted to thank anyone who sent an email or a text and kept me up to date with the current events in Boston, and thought to check in on me. I hope that everyone back home is safe, and is able to begin to register and try to make sense of what happened on Monday. I am really sad to know that the Boston Marathon, America's most famous race, is forever going to be changed, and looked at differently.