Month: December 2016

December 27, 2016

While in Mozambique, many PCV’s trade in their white snow for white sand around the holiday season, and this year was to be no different. Since Ari and I have a site very close to the beach, we naturally wanted the ZamBAE’s (PCV’s stationed in the Zambezia province. At least referred to as such by yours truly.) to come celebrate the holidays with us at our site.

We hosted about 10 fellow volunteers in our humble Mozambican abode. It was a refreshing 3 days with a blend of Christmas and Hannukah themes. The weekend was filled with Christmas in July weather, pineapples, friends, hammocking, dirty Santa (I was informed this weekend that other places call it white elephant…. Clearly not from around these parts now are ya…), Michael Buble’s Christmas album, latkas, fishbowl, the Hannukah lighting, mangoes, a makeshift projector (originally intended for Christmas classics, but ultimately used for holiday budget meetings and The Office), wonderful Mozambican hospitality, and, most importantly, a sense of family.

This was my first Christmas not celebrating with my immediate family and I was worried it would be difficult for me. Despite being a good distance away from my own family, I really appreciated the support of all of the volunteers being here. It was relaxing to feel at home rather than homesick. For that, I am very thankful.

 

P.S. Ari and I got a fridge last week. It was my first official purchase as an official Mozambican homeowner. I felt like I was actually adult-ing for the first time.

December 13, 2016

If the epitome of an ideal Peace Corps Service is to plant a tree under whose shade you will never sit, what does it mean if, during your second week of service, you break a papaya tree that’s been providing food to the village for the last 20 years?… … …

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Do I just go home? Should I plant a forest of papaya trees as my penance for undermining the proverbial Peace Corps goal? Any insight that you all could provide would be greatly appreciated.

So now the actual story of what happened. It was a hot Monday afternoon and the thought of napping in my hammock had been tantalizing me all day. I finally conceded and sprung out my hammock and cocooned myself with my pillow in between a papaya tree and a mango tree. I set my alarm for 1 hour and 20 minutes. 20 minutes to fall asleep and a 1-hour nap. Sufficient time to recharge.

Next thing I know, 2 minutes before my alarm was to wake me, I hit the ground and a part of the tree (the smallest of the 4 pieces it broke into) fell on top of my left knee. There was an uproar of laughter on campus which I accredit to two things. 1. The foreigner was using a hammock (something I’m pretty sure very few people from my town have come in contact with) when the tree broke. 2. The foreigner was a soon to be teacher. Imagine your high school professor came tumbling out of a hammock… It would’ve been a contender on AFV, amiright? Essentially, I’m saying, no hard feelings to you students who laughed at me and didn’t rush to my rescue.

I limped inside in shock form the whole experience and unsure of how badly I was injured. I laid down on the couch to rest and to elevate my bruised leg. I asked my roommate to retrieve my hammock. Upon his re-entry, he said, “I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t previously self conscious about your weight or anything.”… … Thanks Ari.

My host mom echoed this sentiment after I recounted the tale to her. She teased, “Meu filho peso muito. Esta a engordar” – “My son weighs a lot. He is getting fatter.”… … Thanks mom.

Thanks a lot support system. You all are too kind. What would I ever do without you. (On the real though, I’m thankful for your help in this endeavor.)

After a check up with the doctor, I know now that nothing was broken. And the swelling around my knee has been steadily declining (accompanied by my self esteem.)

 

Pictured below: The battleground.

 

December 5, 2016

I woke up this morning at my health site mate’s house, since our house was not quite fully prepared when we arrived. We started our day by greeting his neighbor. After he offered us some mangoes to eat, we were on our way to hang out with some ethnomusicologists from the University of Wisconsin. I know… How did I end up in a place with so many Americans, right? I still have no idea. They have some Mozambican friends (Dona Domingus) who live atop a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. We went to have lunch there. We took a walk along the beach and bought some lobster to take up to Dona Domingus’s house. After the emotional stress that was my and Ari’s journey yesterday, it was nice to have a picturesque relaxing day at the beach. Not going to lie, this is about the polar opposite of my expectations for a site in Peace Corps Africa. After a great lunch, I accompanied Ellen, the aforementioned ethnomusicologist, to her observation of one of the dance troupes local to our site.

I thought I was there only to observe, but, lo and behold, after I expressed interest in dancing, the women in the dance group wrapped me in capulana immediately and thrust me into the middle of their dance. As an outsider, this style of dance reminded me of an old-school jump rope routine. These women could express themselves with their own unique styles and pacing to the rhythms of the accompanied African hand drumming. (it’s best you see it for yourselves in the video below.) I was very thankful that the women accepted me so willingly into this tradition and shared their culture with me. I was reminded that dance can be something that crosses barriers.

December 4, 2016

After swearing in, each PCV faces the unique challenge that is arriving to site alone for the first time. Here is a brief recap of my adventure for the last 3 days accomplishing this task.

• I flew into our provincial capital after a phone situation nearly made me late to catch my flight out of Maputo.
• I overnighted in a hostel here.
• I had an amazing breakfast with what was on par with a half dozen walmart doughnuts.
• A couple PCVs’ and I hitched a 2.5 hour ride to the next biggest city closest to my roommate and I’s site.
• We stayed the night there waiting for another ride which was promised to take us to site. (Plot twist: it was supposed to be an ambulance.
  • Meanwhile, my roommate and I bought a gas stove top, a gas tank, and several other supplies need to help us open our site.
• After 2 days, we gave up on our ambulance ride and took an open back truck instead.
• After 8 hours on the road in this truck, we arrived at our site at midnight.

Given the list as is, nothing seems really out of the ordinary, right? Let me take a moment to highlight the last bullet point in detail.

Since we couldn’t get a free ride with some friends (which we were hoping for since they would definitely have enough room to fit all of the stuff we were taking to our site), we went to the bus station and serendipitously encountered an open back truck that could carry us accompanied with all of our things. They even drove to our fellow PCV’s house to pick up our cargo. (How sweet of them!) We had to negotiate the price of the ride down a little bit, but nothing too difficult for newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers! We were a bit proud to flex our Portuguese language skills, anyways. It’s a bit funny I chose the word pride there, because my momma always taught me that pride cometh before a fall… (Oh how right you were momma…) They loaded all of our stuff into the bed of the truck.

Here marks the beginning of what shall henceforth be known as “The four treacherous trials of the initial journey” – I apologize for the ensuing melodrama.

1. We realize quickly that our seats will be in the bed of the open back truck. (Coming from small-town Alabama, I am no stranger to riding in the back of a truck. During hayrides or on summer nights, it is actually my preferred method of transport.) However, my red neck rear end has never experienced the peril that is an 8-hour trip on a Mozambican dirt road… Upon arrival, I couldn’t feel my hindquarters at all.
2. My roommate and I were sitting behind a refrigerator, which was “secured” by two ropes entrapping the fridge at about the vertical median on either side. One of the ropes had a second job. It seemed to be holding one of the left side panels of the truck bed in place… and that panel wasn’t even flush with the rest of the side of the truck… by the way, did I mention the Mozambican bumpy road (reference “The four treacherous trials of the initial journey – trial 1”). There were moments I questioned whether we were to be squished like flies beneath a flyswatter. Another recurring thought was, “if worse comes to worse, there was a point in my life where I could leg press the weight of this empty fridge… we should be fine…”
3. What is the most cliché thing that can happen when someone says this can’t get any worse? Ding, ding, ding. It starts to rain. About 2 hours into the trip, there is visible cloud to ground lightning… and we are conveniently located next to the tallest part of the truck, which, I presume to be a good conductor on top of a metal truck bed. At this point, my roommate and I start talking about the various scenarios that could lead to our impending doom.
4. If your guess to my leading question in trial 3 was the car breaks down, then you too are a winner on tonight’s version of “What could possibly go wrong?” Shortly after the sun sets, the truck breaks down for a 2 hour period. My roommate and I wait there in the pitch black. (Slight funny anecdote: my roommate who undeniably looks like a stereotypical Jesus, keeps alluding to the fact he will bless the car to start moving again in hopes to rally the Mozambican morale.) Eventually, 6 or 7 Mozambican men get the truck going with enough of a push that the momentum helps the engine turn back over.

Thus concludes the treacherous trials. After another hour or two on the road, we arrive safely to site a little past midnight

Long story short, I made it to site! I’m alive and well! I have a great story to tell the grandkids.

P.S. If you would like a video depicting part of the journey, you will have to send me an email… Apparently the free version doesn’t let me post videos….#littlesalty