Year 1 – Week 2: The Great Escape

For all of his ramblings about “diversity” being a wooden ship and bears being attracted to women’s periods, Ron Burgundy does some offer some wise words. At many times during the first week, I found myself saying “I immediately regret this decision.” But for Sunday, no words rang more true than “It’s so damn hot…milk was a bad choice.”

On Saturday night, Richie and I finished off the spaghetti and white sauce that we made on Friday. We had some doubts about it: as we don’t have a refrigerator and the white sauce has a milk base, we thought there could be a problem. I gave a sniff and it didn’t smell bad, but I still had the thought of “I immediately regret this decision” as we began to reheat and eat it.

The regret set it in even further early – very early – Sunday morning. By 3:30, I was awake, my stomach writhing in pain. I really didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom while it was still dark outside, so I fell asleep for a little while. Then the problems began.

Over the course of the day, Richie and I were constantly racing to the bathroom. Luckily, neither of us had to go at the same time – timing is everything, right? Regardless, we were housebound, in pain, and without food, so we didn’t eat in the morning.

By the afternoon, we were feeling well enough to walk into the villa to get groceries. Even though our stomachs were feeling better, we started feeling guilt-ridden as we walked to the market. There were a good couple-hundred people waiting in line, staring at us as we passed, at the World Food Programme tent. The stares were worse as we walked back, food in hand. How could we not feel guilty walking past them with all of that food?

Our lunch helped settle our stomachs completely and we wasted away the rest of the afternoon waiting for the energy to come on. We had our standard spaghetti dinner – without the white sauce – and went to sleep feeling decent.

Monday picked up with where Sunday left off – killing time, waiting for energy to come on. We had a Volunteer coming to visit us before we progressed on our Christmas vacation. We went to the market to stock up on food for the day and once again, people were in line at the World Food Programme tent. The guilt returned, but there was nothing we could do.

I spent the afternoon doing Sudoku – 15 of them on difficult level. There was not a lot else to do. Most of the teachers who were at the school have made their way out to Beira or Chimoio or Maputo for their own Christmas break. Our buddy arrived in the late afternoon. Richie gave him a tour of the place – if you could call it a tour – as I prepped for dinner. The energy came on a half-hour late, as has been the trend recently. We ate, watched another disc of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and called it a night.

It was a crystal clear night, and in the darkness of Machanga, every star came out. The bug quotient was relatively low, but with no clouds, rain, or breeze, it might have been the hottest night we had experienced in Machanga. It’s really difficult to sleep as you sweat. I want so badly to keep wiping the sweat off, but I have to keep in mind that as bothersome as it is, it is keeping me cool.

None of us slept particularly well. And we had a long day ahead of us. By 7:00, the three of us left Machanga by foot to get to the river. We made our first river crossing via canoe; there were no hippos in the river – bummer. From the neighboring town, we took a chapa to the main road. It is much easier to travel on the opposite side of the river because the road is paved, and it’s a shorter road. There are no chapas from the main road, so after failing three times,we managed to get a ride with a couple of Zimbabweans heading toward Maputo. We had hoped to ride for free, but as we stopped for gas, they asked for an exorbitant amount of money. We bargained, and ended up paying 500 Meticais for three of us – not to bad, but still probably too much. From the crossroads, we got in another chapa to Vilanculos.

We tried to reach the Volunteer in the area, but cell service had been spotty for the last few days. Finally, one of us got in touch with her, and we were good to go. Vilanculos was absolutely swarmed with other white people – mostly South Africans – here for the holiday, so we were kind of treated as tourists. I think that we fended for ourselves pretty well just by speaking Portuguese.

The house in Vilanculos is glorious. It was one of the stops that we made on the way up to Machanga, so we knew what we were getting into. This house is the anti-Machanga: constant electricity, hot running water, internet in the house, close to the beach – basically paradise.

By late afternoon, we were ready to experience some of this paradise. We headed down to the beach a little before sunset. The weather was perfect and the ocean was like a bath. We sat on the beach and enjoyed some beers that we brought with us.

Before heading out to dinner with some other Moz Volunteers, we finished off the crate of beer that we bought. We were in for a treat for dinner – pizza and milkshakes. At this point, price meant nothing: I was just ready for something other than eggs or spaghetti. This food was a slice of paradise. Lactose intolerance be damned!

We came home and it was scalding hot, maybe hotter than the night before in Machanga. With no fan and no breeze to speak of, we didn’t sleep particularly well.
With such a poor night of sleep behind us, most of Wednesday was lazy. I can’t really say that we woke up because none of us really slept. After eating breakfast, when we were conscious, we made our way into town to buy some food for the upcoming days. As much as I loved eating pizza and drinking milkshakes, it’s just not financial possible to eat a restaurant every night. Richie and I stopped in a hardware store to see if we could get some screws and hooks for our house, but they did not have any. On our way back into the house, we stopped in a supermarket where we were lucky to find an electric double-burner and some clothes hangers. Even though we didn’t get what we were looking for, we were pleased to find something we had not expected to find.

We returned to the house while two others continued shopping. The three of us didn’t have a lot to do, but there were three beers left in the fridge. How convenient. It didn’t really matter that it was 11:40 AM. Upon the others’ return, we ate our lunch and made our way down to the beach.

It was a hot day and the ocean was hot to match. The water was calm and cleansing. As we sat on the beach, four of us played Euchre. Richie and I decided that when we get back to site, we have to teach a couple people how to play. Sufficiently burnt and rather tired, we returned home. Richie and another Volunteer prepped dinner while I played Scrabble with another Volunteer. And once again, the drinking commenced. As dinner was prepared, we watched “Elf” – it was, after all, Christmas Eve.

Dinner was quite delicious – breaded chicken. It was really nice to get some protein in my system from a source other than eggs. We continued our Christmas celebration with a couple of drinking games.

It was a beautiful night out. The stars where glowing off a pitch black sky. The five of us made our way over to the bar. On the way, were joined by a couple of other MOZ 13 Volunteers. We spent the night talking with some Volunteers from Malawi and South Africa. This city is beautiful, accessible, and relatively cheap, so a lot of Volunteers from other neighboring countries come to Mozambique for their holidays. It was great to get different perspectives and stories, hear about similar and differing struggles, and see some new faces.

Christmas Day pretty much got out of hand. I woke up early to get to an internet café in an effort to upload pictures, but the internet was down. Disappointed, I made my way over to some other Volunteers’ house to commence the celebration. Drinking brandy and cokes at 11 in the morning probably wasn’t a great idea, but we had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

By the afternoon, we were ready to get moving again. We made our way to a bar that was hosting a barbeque. The put together a lot of good food for way to much money, but it was well worth it. We stuck around for the better part of the afternoon and evening, swapping stories with Volunteers from South Africa and Malawi.

The evening is where things got interesting. We went to a different bar with the sole intention of drinking and dancing in a completely straight all-male dance circle (no joke). I ended up learning a game that was similar to Mancala. I lost the first game, and then won the next three against the guy who taught me. The, some random dude angrily said “Welcome to the big leagues” and proceeded to lose three consecutive times to me. After walking around town for a while, in the rain, we managed to get to sleep around 5 AM.

For Friday, we plan on sticking around town and stocking up on money for the next couple of months. There is no bank close to us, so this is out last chance for a while to get money. The long trek back to Machanga will commence Saturday.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Year 1 - Week 1: Through Hell and High Water

Eight of us headed for the northern Inhambane area loaded up into a van around 6:00 AM to get on the road. We knew we were in for a long day: getting to Vilanculos in a day is not impossible but it is ambitious. I think all of us were tired, and most everyone in the car was feeling a little anxious. For Richie (my roommate) and me, the excitement was tempered because we wouldn’t be getting to site for another day. We have the longest driving distance of any site in Mozambique.

We were going along smoothly until we pulled off the road in Maputo. The driver wanted to go to a mechanic. An hour later, after getting something repaired, we were back in the road. We picked up a completely random person – the driver claimed he was his brother – and started cruising along.

The drop-offs began in Morrumbene, a small town near Maxixe. The house was decent – coniço (reeds), but comfortable. It was occupied by a Volunteer for the last couple of years and was left decently stocked. Back on the road, we got to the pothole section. For a solid hour, we were in and out or dodging potholes. The road was also filled with a lot of South Africans headed for vacation. The only thing I can compare it to is the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. The difference is this is real life: the boulder at the end is actually a truck and you might actually die in the end.

After avoiding countless accidents, we stopped in Vilanculos for three drop offs. The first house was spectacular. Running water, internet, and prime location made this place barely recognizably Mozambican. It was night and day compared to the first house. The second house wasn’t so bad either. It was a circular coniço house with running water and electricity that could be in the running with the prior house. The location is just beautiful: right on the water in a big city.

By the time we were done dropping off the first set of people, it was nearly pitch black. 14 hours into the adventure, it was time to call it a day. We made it to the hotel, where we were greeted by…hot water, cheeseburgers, and wireless internet. This is good news. I played on the internet until my computer died and ate more than my share of food. This is definitely a future vacation location. I went to bed, exhausted from the day, ecstatic from the accommodations, and excited for the arrival.

We were back on the road somewhat early. After leaving at 8, we made our first drop off – of two people – in the beautiful city of Inhassoro. Once again, beach front location is amazing. The schools looked beautiful and it looked like it had a cute town area. Considering its proximity to Vilanculos but quaintness, this is a nice balance. After dropping them off, it was just Richie and me for the rest of the trip to our destination -- Machanga.

The first part wasn’t so bad. The road was smooth and we were pretty much sailing smoothly as we crossed into Sofala. Then we turned and so did the trip. The rain started coming, harder by the minute. The road was back to the Indiana Jones ride except this time with water spraying up every couple of seconds. We definitely could have used a canoe to get down the road. It might have been more effective then the 4x4. As we made the trip, we were damning a list of people. For 60 kilometers, we saw almost nothing – just trees, mud, and water. We were waiting to come across civilization.

Finally, we saw some houses. We knew ours was concrete, so we weren’t incredibly disappointed as we passed the mud huts. Our hopes were high: after seeing the houses get progressively nicer over the course of the day yesterday, we thought we had a good chance of having a nice house. Not so much. The house was concrete but small – two small bedrooms, a bigger living area (?) and a tiny bathroom. The bathroom has a sink and a porcelain whole in the ground. After two years of squatting, I’m going to have great thighs.

We were greeted by a couple of teachers, one who taught history and one who taught biology. We wanted to head to the market to get some food, but first we needed some time to get settled. By three in the afternoon, we were ready to get out of the house. We made our way for a couple of kilometers through the rain and the mud. Getting to the market was like ice skating: we both almost fell many times over. We made some initial purchases, met the store owners, and put our Portuguese to use.

The rain came and went the rest of the afternoon. As we were told would happen, our power flipped on right around 6 PM. We had started preparing our food – spaghetti and homemade pasta sauce – before the power came on, so we were ready to go right at 6. We used a borrowed electric burner and were eating about an hour after we started. The lights flipped off at 9, and with that, it was bedtime.

The morning started where the night left off – raining and hot. With nothing to do, I refused to get up until 7:30. It was somewhat nice not to have a schedule, and at the same time, I was in dire need of structure. We went to the market around 9:30 and bought up some food – tomatoes, garlic, and a rather delicious pineapple – and some household necessities. We really wanted some bread, but there was none. Once again, we damned a list of a people. We killed off the rest of the morning hanging stuff – yes, you can put nails into concrete – until lunch, which was pinapple and a tomato-onion salad. On the way to the market, we saw a cart being pulled by two cows. Between the rain and the cows, I feel like we got sent to Peace Corps: Oregon Trail.

The afternoon was quiet. No one is here really, maybe 14 or 15 teachers at most. The most noise we heard was from the pounding rain. So far, after two days in Machanga, we have yet to see the sun. Our world is painted in a pallet of grey and brown. Both of us did some reading and napped in the afternoon while we waited for the power to come on.

Just as it did last night, the power came on right around 6:00. We prepped our food and got cooking…and then the power went out. Crap. Luckily, one of the teachers had brought a little grill and some charcoal for us earlier in the day. We tried to light it up, but with the wind and the rain fighting against us, it was a struggle. Finally, just as we got it lit, the power came on again. Sigh. We ate our dinner – scrambled eggs and French fries – around 8:30 and the power was out at 9.

Over the last couple days, we’ve been asking ourselves a series of questions: What are we doing here? What did we do to deserve this? Is it ever going to stop raining? Does this town really not have bread? We’ve also been wondering how many hours our parents could survive here. The fact that we have made it a couple days without starving, falling in the mud, or going completely crazy is somewhat miraculous.

It’s hard to stay positive, especially since we’re not really doing anything. School doesn’t start until February, so until then it will be slow and the rain is just depressing. The only good news is that with these first few days being so crappy, it can only get better. Right?

It got a little better on Thursday. It was a hot night with absolutely no breeze. And I think I was slightly paranoid about bugs getting into the bednet. I ended up cutting a good chunk of it out to make it fit over my bed when I set it up. While it was a good idea at the time, it has made me uncertain of how well it will work.

After we were sufficiently awake, we cooked up some French fries and scrambled eggs over charcoal. In the few days we have been here, we have realized a couple things regarding food: first, it is easier to eat two consecutive meals of the same food because there is usually leftover from the prior meal; and second, there is no longer any such thing as “breakfast food” or “lunch food” or “dinner food” – there is just food.

The rest of the morning was devoting to making this house feel like a home. We organized our rooms and cleaned up the rest of the house. As Richie cleaned the patio and did some reading, I made some curtains out of some purchased cloth and rope. At least this place finally has some color in it. As the morning came to a close, we started prepping for lunch – spaghetti and a garlic sauce which turned out to be not so good.

The afternoon was a little slow. I made my way through the front page of an LA Times from after the election. Thirty pages of election coverage were enough for me. It also drew the interest of some of our co-workers, who were eager to talk about Obama. It also led into a conversation about how the American people are represented in government. This is the second time I’ve had to explain the Electoral College in Portuguese, and it was definitely easier this time. I was able to use more vocabulary, more verbs and tenses, and they were able to draw comparisons to their own system.

As it was not raining – although still cloudy to the point that we had not seen the sun since arriving – we took a tour around the school. The school is pretty big: it covers first to twelfth grade and has about 1400 students. This is good for the teachers because it means the class sizes will be right around 40 kids, small by Mozambican standards.

Our power came on late which wasn’t a big deal. It’s just nice that it came on. We reheated the spaghetti and sauce, which was slightly better with the addition of some red pepper flakes. The rest of the night was spent watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – ironic considering to this point it has never been sunny in Machanga – and killing all sorts of bugs that managed to get into the house.

We woke up Friday to something amazing – the sun. By 9 AM, this was already a good day. It’s amazing how quickly this place dried out. While there were still some puddles, we didn’t have to worry about our feet sinking in the mud. What a glorious day. And as if that wasn’t enough, the market had bread! Absolutely mind-blowing. It’s like all everything that had happened the first few days was put on hold.

Richie and I returned home – after eating some of our bread, of course – and since it was a glorious day, we threw around a Frisbee. There is nothing like the feeling of having 15 pairs of little eyes stare out you as you throw around a plate. We finished a couple minutes before noon and starting preparing lunch.

Lunch was scrambled eggs and French fries – noticing a theme or a trend? If anything, we are perfecting the art of our meals. Each time we cook the two things we eat, they get better. We relaxed until 2 or 2:30, when we were met by our school director. As it was the first dry day we had, we went around town to meet some town officials. It was a good opportunity to meet the most important people here and practice some Portuguese.

After speaking with my parents about the situation here, we spent the rest of the afternoon talking with some colleagues. For dinner, we had spaghetti – surprise! – but we mixed it up and made the “white sauce” that has been talked about since day one in training. It was actually tolerable, but not as good as the tomato sauce. Still, a little variety was nice. We capped the night with some “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” All in all, the day was good – pretty, pretty good.

Saturday started off like Friday: sunny. We both slept in. It is really nice to not have a schedule. We enjoyed some bread and butter and coffee and wasted away the morning doing nothing, waiting for lunch time.

The best part of the day was right before lunch. A priceless picture sat in front of me: As I heated up lunch and water over charcoal, I watched my computer charge on a solar panel. Two polar opposites of technology working equally well. We had our standard scrambled eggs and French fries – the best French fries we’ve had to date.

The afternoon was a lot like the morning – a lot of sitting and doing nothing. I killed some time tuning my guitar, amazingly by ear. It’s probably not perfect, but it’s as damn close as it is going to get without a tuner. I have plenty of time, so I might as well learn something. The latter part of the afternoon, we went to “passear” around the other side of town. We walked with no end in sight, with no purpose, and o yes, it started to rain as we walked around. So to review, it was hot, it was sunny, it was rainy, and we were walking to nowhere. We returned and added that person to our list.

The night was pretty standard – reheating the spaghetti from last night, watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and dodging bugs left and right. As Richie eloquently stated as our night came to a close, “Today was such a worthless day.” Just another day in Machanga.

So Week One is over. We survived, although probably a few pounds lighter. The saying goes “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Well, I think it’s fair to say that this week – especially the first half – was hell. There is little to do, there are a ton of bugs, we have power for three hours a day, and it’s either hot and sunny or hot and rainy. The funny thing is: we signed up for this. But much like training, I suspect it will move faster and easier as the weeks go on. Right? We can only hope.

Homestay Week 10: From Trainees to Volunteers

I tried to walk a fine line on Sunday morning and I tripped over it miserably. Being sick for the last couple days, I have been spending a lot of time in the house. I wanted to keep my regular Sunday routine – not going to church, getting to the internet café in the morning, and doing housework in the afternoon. I needed to sleep just late enough that I could avoid church, but not too late to lead minha mae to think that I was feeling miserable. When she asked how I slept, I said, “I slept well,” which was true. She was having none of it: “No, you didn’t. You need to rest this morning.” Fine. So I was housebound for the morning. Luckily, there was some work to do. One of my shirts that was “washed” by the empregada came out dirtier than when it went it, so I took some time to wash it, and I ironed the rest of the clothes that were sufficiently clean.

This weekend, a couple of minha mae’s grandchildren came to visit and they are sticking around for the week. She’s very excited to have them over, but it’s probably not the best week because all of us are fighting some sort of sickness. The last thing they need is to have it passed on to them. She took them to church with her and upon their return, we ate our usual Sunday brunch. As we ate, we listened to the CD that I had made for minha mae. There is something funny about watching a sixty-five year-old Mozambican grandmother listen to Pearl Jam.

I was committed to getting out of the house in afternoon, so I went to the internet café just after lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the barraca playing cards and drinking non-alcoholic fluids, hoping to get this sickness behind me.

The rest of the night was pretty standard for a Sunday. I talked to my parents for a good while. I feel like more than any week so far, I let go of my complaints to them this weekend: sickness issues, homestay issues, whatever. It was good to get it out of my system. Now if I can just do something about this sickness, it would be great.

It’s been a frustrating couple days being sick. For one, the symptoms keep moving around. One day it’s my chest, the next it’s a runny nose. And on top of that, minha mae is on top of me trying to get me to take different medications, calling the doctor, calling Peace Corps people. I can handle being sick by myself, but that’s clearly not an option right now.

I had an awkward night of sleep heading into Monday. Maybe it was the meds (plus my malaria med on top of whatever I’m taking), maybe it was the sickness, I don’t know. The sleep I got was great, but I was up every two hours like clockwork. I woke up feeling okay. My nose was still running like an Olympic sprinter, but other than that, I was fine. I picked a good day to feel decent because we have our last language test of training. It should be nothing short of a disaster. Between not having language classes, minha mae being sick, me being sick, and minha mae speaking more and more Shangana around me, it has not been a good recipe for practicing Portuguese. I should care more, but it’s hard for me to care right now. We’re swearing in on Wednesday, and it’s not like they’re going to send us home if we don’t do well enough. Plus, we have all been told by Volunteers that we will learn our most Portuguese once we get to site because we will have no one with whom we can speak English.

Our language tests were running behind schedule, so as we tend to do here, we waited. Thankfully, someone brought a deck of cards, so we were able to kill time playing Hearts. It’s funny how attitudes change in just a month: for our tests five weeks ago, we were trying to cram in as much Portuguese as possible. This time, I think people were pretty comfortable just going in with what they knew. We were supposed to have twenty minute interviews, but mine lasted thirty minutes. Like a gift from the heavens, I was able to speak at a decent level. After the interview, the person testing me told me I was at an Advanced-Low level, up a level from last time. Considering the circumstances, I can’t believe it went up at all.

The downside of all the interviews running late and long was I had little time for lunch. I was finished with my interview at 12:45 and we had a session on corruption at 2:00. With thirty-minute walks each way, I would have to run…or catch a ride in the back of a pick-up truck like a Mozambican would. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, but it certainly was the most convenient. Instead of walking thirty minutes, I was home in ten. Minha mae cooked up an amazing lunch: breaded fried chicken and veggies. Between me leaving next week and more grandchildren having filed in today, she may be trying to put on a good show.

The afternoon session on corruption was slow, but somewhat productive. There are major corruption issues in the education system here and in all likelihood, we will be participating in the corruption. We’ve been told by a couple Volunteers that the best thing we can do is come up with a system that will allow us to sleep well at night. Some people use participation or attendance for grades, some people use extra credit, some people just fall into line with the rest of the school. In the end, though, we’re not here to correct the system; we are here to work within it. Following the session, we received the results of our interviews from last week. The person giving me back the results said that I “was going to make an excellent Volunteer” – didn’t need to hear much more than that. The rest of the afternoon was just hanging around at the barraca, drinking Cokes, and blowing my nose.

Just before going to bed, I got a call from my best friend – good to catch up for sure. I managed to stay up past 10:00 for probably the first time since being here.

We were given all of Tuesday off, which has its upsides and downsides. On the positive side, I was able to sleep in again today, which has helped me feel a little better the last couple days. On the negative side, the long days here feel even longer because we have nothing to do. I escaped the house in the morning to go get some movies from another Trainee. I think just about everybody is stocking up on music and other entertainment for the next couple of months.

The afternoon was just as slow as the morning. After lunch, I had no plans, so I napped for a little and then went to the internet café, just to kill time. I picked a good day to go: in my inbox I had eight emails from my students from last year. They brought a big smile to my face. I returned home and spent the remainder of the afternoon writing responses.

Wednesday was the day that in the eyes of Peace Corps everything changed, but for me (and maybe for others), it doesn’t feel like a lot has changed. Today, we went from Trainees to Volunteers. We’re finished with training and ready to start contributing. And we have something to proud of: all 57 of us that started this adventure are still here. While officially becoming Volunteers is certainly a big deal, it doesn’t feel like we got a promotion or a raise or a new job title. We’re just continuing with what we have been doing all along.

The ceremony was fairly brief. We raised our right hands and pledged to the Peace Corps ideals. We were introduced individually by province, twice. A pair of speeches were given by newly-minted Volunteers, one from Health and one from Education. Both speeches were beautifully written and delivered. Following this, we received speeches from the Education and Health ministries and from the Charge d’Affairs (the acting Ambassador). Following the ceremony, there was a small cocktail party, which gave us the opportunity to talk amongst other Volunteers, especially those who will be near us.

After the events at the Ambassador’s house, we made our way to the Peace Corps office for lunch – pizza! – and some sessions on finances and safety. We also received mail, and although I was expecting mail, I received nothing. This somewhat threw me in a tailspin for the rest of the day. It was not a fun ride home. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone; I just wanted to lose myself in music. The only upside to the ride was we drove right into a beautiful blood-orange sunset.

I woke up Thursday feeling better. I was almost completely healthy, which was nice. I slept well which also helped. We gathered for Hub Day to receive four sessions: one on corruption in business, one on Peace Corps policy, one on logistics of departure, and one on safe sex practices. The sessions went straight through to 1:00 PM and by then most of us were ready to eat.

Before lunch was put on the table, I started packing my bags. For the people driving, bags are being picked up tomorrow – nothing like short notice – so we need to get going. This also put a huge damper on my plan to go to Maputo to buy things for the house at site. So we did what we could: my roommate and I went to the market and bought some household necessities – cups, plates, and a kettle among other things. We didn’t know how much of this will be available at site but we figured that we should play it safe.

A quick stop at the barraca for a drink preceded my return home. The night was calm. The grandchildren were tired; I think they ran around in the oppressive heat a bit much today. I finished sorting out my room and putting away my newly-purchased items and called it a night.

A cool night gave way to a fairly cool morning. It stayed grey for the better part of the morning, which was good since we were to be outside through the morning and into the afternoon. Today, we had our “end of homestay” party. All of the maes and pais organized a final festa with delicious food, some dancing and music, and good company. All of the parents received certificates of appreciation because without them, a lot of these last ten weeks would not have been possible. As a final gift, we all received shirts or skirts. People living in the same general area received similar cloth. Mine is somewhat orange, which really isn’t my color, but I think I can get used to it.

While we were dry for the morning, the sky became greyer in the afternoon and rain was imminent. We tried to dodge it, but by the time we left, it had already started to rain. We walked for a good 20 or 25 minutes to the barraca to continue the celebration. Of course, I was falta dinheiro, so I could buy cervejas. It was probably for the better: I had a bit of a headache and plans to go to Maputo on Saturday. I retuned home for dinner and shower and went to bed.

The trip to Maputo on Saturday was almost perfect. It was definitely better than I expected. We had a somewhat rough ride from Namaacha to Maputo but we survived. Our first stop was to get pictures developed. I had promised minha mae that I would develop a couple of pictures for her from yesterday’s party. They told us it would be half an hour for pictures; I was blown away by this proposed efficiency. I counted on their word and went for a short walk to a bank to check my new bank account. Other than the fact that I was short a lot of money, the account worked just fine. I made one more stop to change out some American Dollars and returned to the photo shop. 31 minutes after I left the shop, the pictures were ready – amazing.

From there, we made our way down to Maputo Shopping Center. I was on a mission to find a new phone charger, but after three cell phone stores and one electronics shop, I was still on the hunt. I met my sitemate at “Chinese Walmart” to buy some things for the new house, which included a guitar to keep me busy and a hammock for comfort. We returned to Maputo Shopping Center for some lunch (shwarma!) and we were on our way back to Namaacha. On the way to the chapa stop, I bought a phone charger from a vender on the street. I had low expectations: I fully expected this thing not to work, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The ride back to Namaacha was smooth. I dropped my purchases off at the house and ate lunch. I tried the new charger and it worked…for five minutes – shocking. I was frustrated by this, but it’s hard to be too frustrated when it’s expected. My only issue was now I wouldn’t have a charger when I get to my site. The rest of the afternoon, and well into the night, was spent at the barraca. Some people are leaving tomorrow, so it was goodbye for them. I managed to stay out until 10:30, by far the latest I’ve been out here. It’s somewhat sad, but between usually waking up before 6:00 and a lack of streetlights, it’s better to be in early.

I slept in Sunday, my last day in Namaacha. I was determined to get my phone charger working and, with the help of one of minha mae’s grandsons, I rigged up something that actually charged my phone. Nothing like a little African ingenuity and know-how. I spent the rest of the morning packing up the last few items in my room. This is the fourth or fifth time this year that I’ve had to pack up my life and move somewhere new. I’m pretty happy that I won’t have to do this for another two years. It´s a two-day drive from Namaacha to my site, so this move will definitely be the longest I´ve had.

It’s pretty amazing to think that these ten weeks are over. Considering how slow the days pass, training has gone by very quickly. We have managed to learn a new language, and although we certainly aren’t fluent, we are definitely more than capable of communicating our ideas. It will make the transition into site a lot easier.

Now the real work begins.

Homestay Week 9: Sickness...Are We at Site Yet?

I woke up around midnight in an ungodly sweat. The night never cooled off and there was no breeze to speak of. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was just too hot. I finally gave in: I opened the door to my room – which I never do at night – and let the air move across from my window to my door. The temperature in the room dropped substantially and I was able to go back to sleep for a little while.

I managed to get through the remainder of the night until about 7:00 – minor victory. I had a lot on my schedule and I could have easily let it get away from me, but I actually managed to get everything important done – another victory, this one a little bigger. The only downside was the lack of internet at the internet café. That would have been just too sweet.

I started my laundry late because we were short bins for washing. Minha irma found one when she returned from church and I was off and running around 11:00. Today was the first time I did laundry sozinho – alone. I felt like I needed to do it solo because I probably won’t have some help at my site for a while. Also, minha mae is seriously under the weather and I didn’t want her to waste her energy helping me on something I could do by myself. It took a solid two hours plus, but I think I did a pretty good job. My whites are white and there are no major dirt splotches.

Following lunch, I ran over to one of the teacher’s houses to get my lesson plan checked for the day. There seems to be less excitement for Model School this week, probably because most of us just want to get to our sites! The rest of the day was pretty typical of Sunday: a soda at the barraca, conversations with my parents and grandparents, good dinner, and an early bedtime.

Two nights in a row now, I haven’t slept well. This time, I can blame it on the malaria medication. Running on three or four hours of bad sleep, I was fortunate again to teach third – I had sufficient time to wake up. We started with almost no students today which is a shame because, being World AIDS Day, all of us had planned lessons revolving the topic. So instead of having two classrooms of four people each, we joined forces with the other tenth grade class to have a room of eight. Over the first hour students trickled in, and by the end of the first class, we had more than 30 students. It was actually really nice to teach to a full classroom.

In the afternoon, we had an extensive session on HIV/AIDS. It was presented by some of the Trainees from the Health group. It was beautifully presented – simplified, relevant, clean-cut. I returned home to a mae recovering from a good cold. Her being sick hasn’t helped my Portuguese education: not only is she mumbling, but she is also speaking Shangana whenever she is not speaking to me. I know that second part doesn’t seem like a big deal, but even when she is not talking to me, I try to listen in to figure out what she is talking about.

With just a pair of weeks left here in Namaacha, I’m trying to learn as much as I can about local cooking. Not that I haven’t been learning along the way, but now I know what I like and I want to make in the future. Tonight, I learned how to cook spinach the way minha cooks it. If spinach is available – which it may not be – I’ll be cooking it up at least once a week.

I continue to learn more and more about my future site. Unfortunately, the Volunteer who is leaving the site is not able to come to Namaacha, as originally planned, but she did leave me extensive notes. It seems that I should get very used to eating pasta, rice, tomatoes, and onions. It also appears that there are hippos – yes hippos – in the river where I will be. Excited? Absolutely. It is also a fair distance, some 65 kilometers, away from the national highway. As she said, I am going to be in the “mato” – the bush. No running water, three hours of electricity a day, hippos and canoes: it’s going to be an interesting two years.

Running off another bad night’s sleep, I was happy that I wasn’t scheduled to teach a lesson. Although I had a lesson planned, I was told yesterday afternoon that I would be off the hook. That was until one of the teachers scheduled to teach didn’t show up. With a lesson already prepared, I was happy to teach, but I would be fighting through a headache. The lesson actually went really well albeit a bit short. Considering it was pretty much done on the fly, I was very satisfied. Following classes, we had a brief session on how to design tests, which we will be giving out tomorrow.

I spent a good bit of my lunch hour at the internet café – which was finally working – to send off some emails and read news. I won’t have a ton of access to internet cafés at my site, so I’m soaking this in. After lunch, we had three sessions – one on pets (I can’t have a pet monkey or hippo – bummer), how to negotiate between American and Mozambican values, and one on the emotional rollercoaster that we have been on and won’t be getting off for the next two years.

For the entire time here, we’ve been working out of one of our two checked bags. We got our second bag today to start repacking for the long haul to site. Even though my province is technical a province to which they would normally fly, my site is far enough south that we will be driving to it. We also received bike helmets for if we want to buy a bike. And a select few of us – myself included – received lifejackets, because we will have to cross a river via canoe to get to our sites. I couldn’t make that up if I tried.

We got an emotional lift when packages arrived. And I got one, from my aunt, filled with Oreos – hello, beautiful! – Caesar salad dressing, ketchup, and magazines. All things that I definitely need. Normally our day would end here – relishing in the glory of American cookies and news, but no, we had a special treat today: the beginning of local language class. I would have been more excited for this if I didn’t (still) have a headache and I didn’t have more work to do after. My head just about exploded. It’s been difficult enough learning Portuguese with little benefit of a translation, so you can imagine how hard it would be to learn Ndau (think “endow” but make the first syllable as short possible). It was a hopeless effort. I was done, but my day wasn’t. I still had to write up the test for tomorrow’s class. Dehydrated and still with a headache, I powered through it.

I got home and cracked into those Oreos immediately. The bolachas here just don’t even come close to an Oreo. This was paradise in blue wrapping. There might as well have been crack squished between those two crispy cookies because I was craving them the rest of the night. But I must restrain myself, for I only have two packages, and I won’t be receiving a package with Oreos for a long time.

I barely made it through dinner, and went to be almost immediately after, hoping for at least one good night’s sleep this week. All in all, a rollercoaster Tuesday

My wish was answered: I slept incredibly. But I awakened feeling less than 100%. Something wasn’t right – my chest was tight, and the headache that was bothering me was still hanging around. I thought it could be dehydration, but I had been doing a better job of drinking more water.

Today, Wednesday, was the last day of model school. The kids received a brief review of the English material and then had a chemistry test before taking the English. As we were told would occur, every single on of them cheated in one way or another. It’s a fight that we are going to face at our site and we’ve been told that we just need to pick our battles, figure out a way to regulate it, and punish when necessary. In the end though, there are going to be plenty of cases when people cheat and they both get the answer wrong. Things probably even out in the end.

Although the students had many questions throughout the test, and the test was a different format than what they were used to, they did surprising well. We only had two students fail the test and a couple got pretty close to 100 percent. Maybe the test was easy, maybe the kids were smart, maybe we just did a good job of preparing them; it was probably a combination of all three.

Following an extended lunch hour, we a couple of sessions on the positives and negatives of working with Mozambican counterparts. I would have paid more attention if I wasn’t feeling so miserable. By the end of the afternoon, my health had deteriorated to the point where I actually called the medical office. I had to put aside my disdain for doctors and medical advice for a moment, and it was probably for the better. With the symptoms I was having – raging headache, sore throat, tightness in my chest – the said I probably had an upper respiratory infection. Fun.

I went home and popped some meds that we have all been supplied since day one. After opening my medical kit, my room smelled like a hospital – disgusting. I wanted to just relax, but that wasn’t going to happen. Minha mae took me out of the house to a tailor’s house to have a shirt made. It looks like we’re all getting matching shirts (for the guys) and skirts (for the girls). Thankfully, the whole thing only took about ten minutes to get measured. We returned home and had tea, followed closely by dinner. I was barely able to eat anything, not because I wasn’t hungry, but because I just wanted to go to bed. Before going to sleep, I burned a CD for the boy who was living in the house last week, and has returned this week.

I was sleeping well through the night when I was awakened by minha mae at three in the morning. She wanted to call someone from Peace Corps to let them know what was going on. I told her to wait – I mean, it’s three in the morning, it can wait. She woke me up again at 6, to tell me that she had called Peace Corps and that a doctor was coming to the house at some point. I went back to sleep until about 7:30, when she brought in coffee and bread for me. I was feeling a little better after popping an ibuprofen, but definitely not close to 100 percent. I was in no condition to go to the party that was being thrown for the model school students. So I spent the rest of the morning packing up my room: Peace Corps cars are coming by today and tomorrow to pick up our boxes for site delivery. Throughout the morning, the music I had put on a CD for the boy was playing. It was very strange to hear coming from somewhere other than my iPod.

I was supposed to have a set of interviews with some of the Peace Corps higher-ups at 2:30, but I received a call around 12:40, saying the interview was at, um, 12:40. Apparently, the schedule was changed in the morning and nobody had told me. It didn’t matter really. I made my way down to the interview, breezed through it, and went on with my day.

I was actually feeling good in the afternoon – almost healthy. I read a magazine, finished packing, and watched some “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with a friend. I was hoping that I had turned the corner health-wise and that I’d be fully recovered by the weekend. The remainder of my evening was spent writing letters to my students from last year. They wrote me letters a couple of weeks ago, and though I have yet to receive them, I can already envision them. And more than that, I already have some idea of the emotion that they will bring out of me: unrestrained joy, joined with tears.

Once again, I was sleeping well through the night when, once again, I was awakened at 3:00. This time, it was the rain and thunder that got me. We got a good rain last night. This place needs some consecutive weeks, not hours, like that. I went back to bed until about 6:30. And continuing from last night, I actually felt pretty good.

All of the Trainees convened for our final Hub Day as Trainees. I felt alright until an hour into it, when my health rapidly deteriorated. The doctor, who gave a talk on malaria today, thought it was what he originally diagnosed, but decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a malaria test. The whole process took about ninety minutes, and it would have been longer had one of the teachers not played the “Corpo da Paz card.” I skipped a line of well over 60 people. It’s the first time that I’ve been uncomfortable here with excessive staring. It was well-deserved though. They hooked my up with some meds and I was good to go the rest of the day.

After popping some meds, I started to feel better. I ate an amazing lunch: samoosas, these fried bean patties of goodness called begias (butchered spelling, I’m sure), and a cheese sandwich. We sat in the shade and enjoyed a cool breeze that blew under the tree.

The afternoon was nothing special for a Friday afternoon. We had one more brief session before making our way to the barraca. I spent a good amount of time playing cards with a couple people, which was good fun, and drank plenty of water (this was no time for anything alcoholic). I returned home, gave myself a much-needed haircut, ate dinner, and called it a night.

I struggled to fall asleep, but the sound of rain hypnotized me pretty quickly. I slept uninterrupted until 6:30, which I can consider a victory, but refused to get out of bed until 8:00. After all, this is the weekend, and weekends are meant for being lazy. Minha mae wouldn’t let me wash clothes, or even help, so I really had nothing to do for the better part of Saturday. Another Trainee I went to “Shoprite” – the twice-weekly open-air market named after a popular store in Mozambique – to buy some capulanas (large pieces of cloth used for anything from skirts to tying a baby to one’s back) that will be made into curtains, table cloths, whatever I need really. On the way back, we stopped in the real market so my friend could buy some water. While there, I finally found a pair of brown shoes that fit my giant feet. The saleswoman, who was happy to see me, wanted 200 metacais for the shoes, but I played the “Volunteer card” and got her down to 150 – about 7 dollars. Now I just need to find a pair of similar black shoes.

After one of my favorite lunches – rice, non-oily chicken, and spicy tomato sauce – I took the most amazing two-hour nap. The doctor said I need fluids and sleep, so sleep I shall. As my clothes dried, the rain started coming again. This is three days in a row with rain, which is good. This place is finally starting to turn green. All the work that the women did the past couple of weeks – tilling the land and planting, all with children on their backs – is finally paying off. We all just hope that, at some point, the rain will stick around. This place’s future in so many ways is tied to the rain. When it rains, there is food, and when there is food people can sell. It’s not just about eating. In America, time is money; here in Namaacha, rain may be more precious than gold.

There’s not a whole lot to do here, especially when it is raining – it’s not like we can just jump in the car (we’re not allowed to drive here) and go to Starbucks (I’m a good 7,000 miles away from a tall chai whatever). It’s just about killing time. The days go slow, but luckily the weeks go fast. And with this week coming to an end, we are left with but one in Namaacha.

As much as I have enjoyed the place and the people here, it’s time to go – for the reasons just mentioned. Even though this place is great, this isn’t “home” for the next two years – our sites are. And even though minha mae has been great, I’m ready to be independent again. A Volunteer told us this week that training is the worst part of Peace Corps; after this, it’s a piece of cake. I can see why. We’re used to living independently. We’re used to having some sense of belonging in a place. Ironically, I’m sure that within weeks of getting to site, I will be longing to be with my “family” again.

Homestay Week 8: The BIG Week

To call this past Sunday strange would be a huge understatement. For starters, minha mae used her Catholic guilt powers to get me to go to church. She had told me last week that she was doing a reading and she wanted to me to go. And I felt like I owed her one: I had to miss my host sister’s first communion because I was on site visit. I think it would have been a more enjoyable service if I could understand what was happening. But it was still a very interesting experience – very musical, a lot of dancing.

With that experience behind me, I had planned to get back on to my normal Sunday normal schedule. I caught up on news and emails at the internet café and returned home as lunch was being put on the table. Just after lunch, I received a text from a couple other Trainees who planned on going for a “walk”. I thought that meant that we were just going to stroll around for a bit; we ended up scaling what I think was the steepest hill in Namaacha. By the end of it, we were all in dire need of cold water. Water in hand, we made our way to a barraca to meet the Volunteers for the week. My conversation with them was happily interrupted by a phone call from my grandparents.

I had planned on returning home to iron my clothes in preparation for the week ahead, but minha mae had other plans for me. She called to tell me that there was a church function going on, but I didn’t understand where she wanted me to go. Once again, my Portuguese had left me. She had to come “rescue” me even though I was only three blocks away. It was quite the event. I don’t know if drinking whiskey is typical for Mozambican church parties, but that’s pretty much what happened. I don’t drink whiskey much in the United States, but I knew enough to know that this was really bad whiskey. Still did the job though: by the end of the night, I was quite buzzed. Of course, my Portuguese came back to me when I was drunk; it always seems to happen that way. As I stumbled my way through the night, my parents called. Good to catch up after a good week.

The ridiculous amount of drinking, paired with a rat-killing in the middle of the night (not by me, by minha mae) and crazy malaria drug-induced dreams made for a fantastic Monday morning. My head hurt and since I had to wake up at 5:45 in preparation for Model School, I was barely functioning. I walked over to the escola secundaria with the two boys living in the house. They seemed to be excited for the classes, especially the English lessons.

I was scheduled to teach third out of the four people in the group, which was a blessing. I watched the first two classes, anxiously awaiting my turn. I have really missed being in front of a group of kids eager to learn. And it was such a good feeling to have back. My lesson focused on conjugating verbs in the present indicative. As tenth graders, these thirty kids probably already knew some of what I was teaching, but it was good to see how quickly they picked up on the pattern. I was especially encouraged by the amount of participation in the classroom. After my class, I had one more to watch, but for the sake of saving time, I multi-tasked and planned Tuesday’s lesson during the session. Following the last class, the four of us met with one of the language teachers to discuss how teaching went. All of the teachers also met to discuss some of the challenges, as well as ways to assess our learners.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just killing time with a couple of Trainees. I returned home to ironed clothes – thank you, minha mae – and a chapter of my dad’s book to read. The night was nothing special, with the exception of a phone call from my brother.

Tuesday started just as early as a Monday, but I didn’t have the benefit of teaching and thus having extra time to wake up. The lesson – on “like” and “don’t like” went very smoothly. The students were very receptive to the lesson and seemed to pick it up quickly. As the class ended, I had to take roll, but I really didn’t want to. It just takes a lot of time – time that takes away from teaching. So I appointed a “chefe” – a boss of the class – who would take roll for me. A broad-shouldered boy wanted to be chefe, but he showed up 20 minutes late, so that wasn’t going to work for me. I went the completely opposite way: my chefe is the smallest girl in the class. The rest of the morning was spent watching the other teachers in my group, who took some good strides forward.

Our sessions got scrapped for the rest of the afternoon. How convenient, since I told minha mae that I couldn’t return home for lunch due to my afternoon sessions – whatever. I ate lunch at a friends house, and then crashed a session that the teacher trainers were attending at the school where we have Hub Days. It was very interesting to watch. What was most interesting to me was the English capability of the professor and the “moral authority” that he had as the class discussed the topic. The other thing of interest was how the class of about 20 had almost the exact same opinion on the issues. There was no argument.

Thanksgiving celebration, which is scheduled for tomorrow, started early. We headed to a barraca, with a lot of talk revolving around site placement, which is also scheduled for tomorrow. By the end of the night, my Euchre group was playing cards. As we played well into the night, my partner and I avenged our losses from last week. I actually had to text message minha mae to tell her to eat dinner without me. I went to bed, somewhat late, knowing that I could sleep in.

Finally, the day that all of us had been waiting for arrived. I wanted to sleep in, but my body wouldn’t let me. I was up at 6:00, but refused to get out of bed until 7:30, even if I couldn’t fall back asleep. The entire group made its way to a restaurant with our site placements and a good meal ahead of us. But before we learned anything, Peace Corps decided to torture us with a two-hour session on safety and security. So frustrating. We just wanted to know where we were going.

Everybody has been somewhat on the edge of our seats in anticipation for site placement. We all tried to figure out where we were going – some of us hit it on the head, others could not have been more wrong. I was almost positive that I was going to be staying in Maputo Province; not so much. I’m heading to the southern part of Sofala, which is toward the center of the country. And I’m actually really excited about it. I have a good sitemate and were pretty close to the ocean and the river. After site placement, we all had lunch together to celebrate Thanksgiving and talk about our sites.

Then the mayhem began. Almost all of us made our way to the local barraca where we enjoyed more than our fair share of drinks. The night did not end up very pretty.

And it bled over into the morning. I woke up bright and early at 5:30 with a massive hangover. And oh, yea, I had to teach. I was barely functioning. Minha mae asked how I was doing, and all I could say was “Nao estou bem” – I am not well. I struggled through the morning. I was lucky to teach third in the group of four, so I had some time to get some water in me. It wasn’t the best lesson – although the Mozambican teacher who was watching it thought it was really good.

We powered through a couple of sessions that were of little consequence. I had expected them to go longer, in the afternoon, so I had told minha mae that I needed to carry lunch with me again. I took a short walk and ate my lunch under some shade. I returned home and planned my lesson for Friday. It should definitely be better than the disaster that ensued today.

Feeling better by the afternoon, I decided that it was time to start drinking again, albeit much more conservatively. I limited myself to two games of Beer Pong – yes, Beer Pong has landed Namaacha. The rest of the day, I just drank sodas. I got home at a reasonable hour; minha mae griped that I hadn’t been home to have tea with her at all this week. At least she had something delicious to offer today – mangoes. Mangoes and litchi fruit have come into season here, and I don’t know which one is better. I guess I’ll just have to keep eating both.

The night was a little out of the ordinary. Half way through dinner, the phone calls started coming in: first my grandfather, then my sister and dad, then my brother, one right after the after. It was good to catch up with everyone on Thanksgiving. The calls kept me up “late” into the night – and by late, I mean a couple minutes after 10:00 – but it’s time well spent.

I woke up feeling good about lesson plan, although not really wanting to give it. Most of the lesson was spent on artwork, which is fine and all, but I don’t think it’s the best way to learn. Especially since it was group work, which meant they would probably be speaking Portuguese, I didn’t think it was the most effective way to learn something. But it was awfully interesting to see the artwork that was produced. For most of these kids, this was something out of the ordinary: I don’t think a lot of teachers use art as a teaching method, so the skills in the art department were lacking a little bit.

We were scheduled for a session on the history of Mozambique. I stuck around the school for lunch with a couple of Trainees – finally, bringing lunch with me actually made sense. I didn’t feel so good during the afternoon; it was oppressively hot today. Toward the end of the break, I bought a monster bottle of water, but it wasn’t enough. I felt pretty dehydrated as I sat and listened to the somewhat boring lecture. I thought that maybe it was just me, but everyone looked pretty exhausted and bored.

I had a quick couple of sodas at the barraca, hoping that it would raise my energy level to something human. The cup of coffee that followed at home certainly did the job. I continued with my dad’s chapter. It’s really hard to edit when I don’t have a pen in my hand and have to make track changes, but it’s better than nothing. As I read, my aunt called. We hadn’t talked in some time, so it was god to catch up.

Tomorrow, we have no major obligations, so I’m hoping to sleep in past 7:00. Just a note – that last sentence sickens me. “Sleep in past 7:00.” What have I become? Sleeping in should mean 10:00, not sunrise. This is the life I lead.

I made it to 5:45. Ridiculous. I refused to get out of bed until at least 7:00 and actually managed to fall asleep for some of it. I was awakened by a text message of little importance around 7:45. I felt like that was a reasonable hour to start moving.

I had planned an ambitious day: room cleaning in the morning, cleaning clothes late morning into the early afternoon, followed by movie-watching with two of my favorite people here. Two out of three happened, so I’d say that was pretty good. I managed to get my room clean, but just didn’t have it in me to wash clothes today. It was really hot today and having the sun beat on me for hours on end just didn’t sound like a good idea. So for the better part of the morning, I read – US News, Time, my dad’s chapter, pretty much anything I could get my hands on.

By mid-afternoon, I was ready to escape the house. I hadn’t been out all day and it was starting to drive me crazy. I escaped to a friend’s house to watch “Juno.” Half way through the movie her bed gave out – maybe having three of us sitting on a shoddy bed wasn’t the smartest of plans. It was a good laugh for all of us, although I did cut up my back pretty well. The rest of the night was pretty standard – shower, dinner bed.

In local insect news, we have been joined here in Namaacha by two lovely friends: mosquitoes and cockroaches. Minha mae said that the head has brought on these lovely creatures, so for the last week or so, I’ve been going on a killing spree. It should be a fun couple of weeks.

Speaking of “couple of weeks,” that’s literally what we have left here in Namaacha – two weeks. I think most of us are ready to high-tail it out of Namaacha. It’s not that we don’t like the place; it’s just that our minds are already on our new locations. I know I’m ready to get to my site, figure out what’s going, and get accustomed to my new surroundings. It’s all very exciting, but it might be a torturous few weeks here.

Homestay Week 7: Last week of Language, Prep for Model School

I reached a level of boredom on Sunday that I didn’t think was possible. I began my usual Saturday routine a bit early, getting to internet café just after 8:00 AM. With my emails pre-written and the internet moving at an early 21st Century speed, I was done early. Too early. I made my way home, but no one had returned, so I went for a stroll into another bairro to bother some people. Luckily, the people who I went to bother were just as bored as I was, yet we couldn’t really find the motivation to do anything of substance. So I returned home again, this time to find that one of my sisters had returned from church. I ironed my clothes just before eating lunch. My family has stopped watching me iron my clothes, which I think means I’m doing a decent job.

I returned to the bairro in the afternoon, once again bored, once again looking to bother people. They put on a movie, which kept us mildly entertained. I didn’t really want to return home, but I knew I had to. I had a feeling that it just wasn’t going to be a good evening.

A good conversation when I got home changed my outlook on the evening. And following dinner, minha mae broke out sweet rice – what a treat! The evening turned out surprisingly well, much better than I had expected. And it was made even better by conversations with my parents and my brother.

I knew that Monday was going to be a somewhat interesting day, for a couple reasons. First, we started preparing curriculum for our fist step of practice teaching. And second, our program directors were in town to talk about site placement. It was exciting to learn about the possible site placements, although it seems that that there aren’t enough potential job placements for male volunteers. I let them know that I was interesting in doing teacher training and not just secondary school teaching. Hopefully, they will be able to fill my request, but I won’t be angry if they can’t.

The afternoon was somewhat slow. As I walked home, a ran into minha mae on the road. Just as it began to rain, she saw a friend, and told me to run home. As I walked in the door, the rain starting coming hard. It would be rainy on and off for the remainder of the evening. When it was quiet, it rained; when there was thunder and lightning, no rain came. Strange place this sometimes is. I prepared a color wheel for my teaching segment for tomorrow, knocked out the rest of my homework, ate dinner, and – exhausted – went to bed.

The morning’s weather left off where last night began – grey. It wasn’t raining but it was clear that rain was on the way. The ground was still wet from last night’s rain. Namaacha is finally turning into the mud pit that we had expected weeks ago. But at the same time, this place is starting to turn shades of green. After an uneventful language class, the English teachers convened to begin “micro-teaching”. Working in groups of three, we designed lesson plans for very basic subjects such as the human body or food. All of these small lessons were taught in front of some of the language teachers and and the other English teachers, which was a little strange. My group taught colors and clothing. This brought back memories of my first weeks teaching English last year with my students. I remembered how long it took to learn thirteen colors, how they struggled with pronunciation, but how they eventually got it. The afternoon was much of the same, but as I had delivered my lesson in the morning, I was stuck sitting for the entirety of the afternoon.

By mid afternoon, the rain began albeit lightly. It was just enough to tease and dampen us, but this place will take any rain it can get. Upon getting home, minha mae was very pleased with how green her garden was. Soon enough, she will have enough food growing here that she won’t have to buy vegetables in the market. In a country that relies so heavily on agriculture, I don’t think it is too much of an overstatement to say that the economic fortune of people here depends largely on weather. Just within a household alone, if a person doesn’t have to spend money on basics like onions or tomatoes, it is money that can be saved.

The evening passed without consequence or event, with the exception of a phone call from a friend in the states. I cleaned up my room, which was in dire need of a good cleaning, ate dinner, and read about the election that has already happened. It is very strange to read articles about election issues and candidates after the fact. But much like a rerun on television, if I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me. So I will continue to enjoy these mid-October magazines well into December.

Wednesday was a big day, not just for Namaacha, but for all of Mozambique. Today, municipal elections were held across the country. It was pretty amazing to see people line up for hours, just for the opportunity to take part in the democratic process. Minha mae was proud to show off her ink-covered fingertip, evidence that she had voted.

We started our language class late, a gift from our language teacher. Today, we learned the future conjunctive. I know: sounds impossible. But it was surprisingly easy for me, especially since I can still barely conjugate some verbs in present tense. After classes, almost all of the language teachers went to Maputo so they could vote. We were left with our Volunteer of the week to help us develop lesson plans for Model School. No, model school is not about teaching Volunteers how to walk down a catwalk – it is an opportunity to practice teaching in front of real Mozambican secondary school students.

Following lunch at home, I met up with my teaching partner to develop lesson plans for the first couple days of the week. Planning went by quite quickly. We both noted that planning with another teacher is much more difficult than planning alone. While it’s nice to have the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another, we also have to make sure that we are getting across a consistent message. For the majority of the teachers here, this will be the first attempt at lesson planning and teaching; it will also be an opportunity to see what works, what doesn’t and learn from mistakes. Even with a year of teaching English as a Second Language under my belt, I’m sure that I will take a lot away from Model School.

I had low expectations for Thursday. The day started early and did not start off well. I woke up at 2:30, courtesy of a pack of barking dogs. I was absolutely freezing when I woke up, so I put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, which were barely sufficient in keeping me warm. I had trouble sleeping the remainder of the night, as I was awakened almost hourly by mefloquine-induced dreams. I mumbled my way through breakfast and certainly didn’t understand much of what minha mae had to say. Thankfully, we didn’t do a whole lot in language class. The majority of our time was spent playing “Vinte Perguntas” – Twenty Questions – which I actually thought was a good way to use language. After language classes, all of the Trainees met up for a session on working with Mozambican colleagues. We mostly discussed very possible situations in the workplace, which was fairly beneficial.

I returned home for lunch knowing that the plans for the afternoon were loose at best. We were told that we might meet at a certain house at some hour to continue lesson planning. I figured we wouldn’t have the session, but I received a text message saying otherwise. I made my up to the house, but before I got there, I was stopped by two other Trainees who said it was cancelled. Shocking. I didn’t want to return home, so I went to a hotel with three other Trainees for a soda and snack. This is where the afternoon got interesting.

As we waited on our food, the owner of the hotel – a white local Mozambican –introduced himself to us. For about twenty minutes, we listened to a small lecture and asked questions regarding Mozambican history and problems in Namaacha. It was probably the best-spent twenty minutes I’ve had here. Following this, we went to a barraca where a lot of other Trainees were hanging out, either playing cards, lesson planning, or just being social.

I returned home around 6:00 and the afternoon became more interesting. One way or another, I got into a conversation about HIV/AIDS with minha mae. I don’t even know how it started, but it was the first time I found myself in this situation. One thing about being here in Mozambique is that almost everybody has been affected by HIV/AIDS in one way or another. As we talked, minha mae disclosed that she lost her brother, at 33 years old, to AIDS. It was physically apparent that it was difficult for her to discuss. And it was difficult to be on the listening side of the conversation too. It is something that I’m going to have to get used to: this certainly won’t be the last time that I have a discussion like this.

Friday was nothing out of the norm. We had Hub Day, which was nice, although we saw all of the health and science people yesterday, so it wasn’t like a usual Hub Day. After a very causal (and final) language class, most of the morning was dominated by health issues, especially for the teachers. First, we all got a lecture on emergencies and benefits. Then toward the end of the morning, we were split into education and health groups. As the education group learned about the national health system, the health group learned about the national education system.

Our afternoon schedule was loose again, which as yesterday set up for trouble. I stuck around at the school for lunch with a couple other people before heading for a scheduled 2:30 meeting. We had the feeling that the session wasn’t going to last more than 20 or 30 minutes and we probably weren’t going to get a lot done. We received two or three pieces of information and we were done in less than half an hour. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the barraca, celebrating the end of the week, talking, and playing cards.

I was awakened Saturday by a phone call from minha mae. She had gone into Maputo yesterday and stayed the night. She probably thought that I had classes today, which had been the norm, but our only obligation today was to continue lesson-planning on our own. With my lesson plan for Monday already done, most of the morning was committed to housework – cleaning up my room and doing laundry. Once again, I was spared from washing by the empregada, who is recovering from malaria. I didn’t ask her for help and, considering her health status, didn’t expect it.

I spent a little time after lunch with a 10th grade boy who has moved into the house this week. I think he goes to school somewhere but is just spending his vacation here. We hadn’t talked much over the course of the week, but we finally found something to talk about – music. He was blown away by the iPod touch and enjoyed the music I played. I’m going to burn him a CD sometime next week.

Following a brief rest, I walked toward the Mozambique-Swaziland fronteira for a game of soccer. With six Mozambicanos and four Americanos, we played Mozambicanos vs. Americanos (plus 1 Mozambican). We played miserably. We couldn’t pass and certainly couldn’t dribble. The Mozambicans passed well. They dribbled with ease. They made fools of us Americans time and time again. They played the beautiful game beautifully in a 10-5 loss to the Americans. They just seemed to forget that you need to score in order to win. Victorious, I returned home, showered and ate dinner.

Seven weeks are in the books. Next week is probably going to be the most exciting we have until we officially become Volunteers. We begin Model School on Monday. I can’t wait to be back in a classroom. On Wednesday, we celebrate Thanksgiving and we find out to where we will be moving. It should be a fast week. And the weeks that come should pass quickly also.

Week 6: Site Visits

It’s early. I can’t even say it’s “bright and early” because at 2:30 in the morning, nothing is bright. Even the stars that should be shining are covered by clouds that are showering a cool and gentle rain as we walk to our buses. We departed from Namaacha, not exactly wide-eyed, at 4:00 AM, and made our way through the dark toward Maputo. We arrived at the junta – the place where the chapas convene in Maputo – around 5:30, hoping for a 6:00 departure. That, however, was not meant to be: the driver tried to rip off our Volunteer and our Volunteer was not having it. It’s not the 50 Meticais difference that is the problem; it is the principle of the matter. We finally started really moving around 6:45.

The drive to Maxixe (pronounced ma-SHEESH) is long, bumpy, and slow. And the rain that is moving through the South of the country is not moving us along any faster. I closed my eyes for a fair portion of the trip that lasted until beyond 1:30. A group of about 10 of us – Volunteers, a friend visiting one of the Volunteers, and Trainees stopped for lunch before splitting off to different cities.

We walked through Maxixe, buying fresh cashews outside of a gas station and stocking up on food at the market. From Maxixe, five of us took a short chapa ride to a small city called Inhamussua (In-ya-MOO-swa, I think) where we arrived at the house where another Trainee and I were to stay from the next couple days. We arrived around 4:00, with food waiting for us. The black-eyed peas that my Volunteer’s empregada (maid) made were delicious. With little to do for the remainder of the night, we relaxed, talked about Peace Corps life, and did some reading.

The house is awesome. It is a coniço (ka-NEE-soo) house: it is a house made of reeds, with a tin roof. It has fairly constant electricity and a water tap outside the house, which provides such clean water that it needs no filtering. The bathroom, also made of reeds, is set aside about 20 yards from the house. There is no real toilet, but there is a small chimney, which goes down some distance, with a seat on top of it. It’s not uncomfortable, but it certainly doesn’t smell refreshing. All said, this is the kind of house I expected when I joined the Peace Corps. It is not glamorous, although it is nicer than most of the similar houses in the area.

After a rough night of sleep, I woke up Sunday morning feeling sick. I don’t know if it was dinner or the long day’s travel the day before, but I knew that it was going to be a long day. With my stomach aching and a headache to match, I figured it would be best to relax and drink water, but with the multiple runs to the bathroom, relaxing was not easy. Thankfully, I brought Pepto-Bismol – the best drug ever – with me, which, along with a nap and some water, helped settle my stomach. We made our way down to a barraca, where we played a couple games of pool and enjoyed each other’s company.

Walking back toward the house, we stopped in a market where we picked up some ingredients for dinner and dessert. We all helped out in making some pasta, fresh tomato sauce, and garlic bread. For dessert, we made monkey bread – a cinnamon sugar cake – with a banana frosting. It was delicious, but I probably ate too much of it.

That was confirmed when I woke up Monday again feeling sick. Somewhat frustrated,
I started drinking a lot of water and felt better. After eating breakfast, which also helped, we took a walk around the school. The school is a large, beautiful school agrarian school, so there are all sorts of plant life around. The students grow fruits and vegetables and raise chickens and cattle with varying rates of success.

We returned to the house and learned a bit about the grading system that our Volunteer used. He built a large and complicated spreadsheet that does almost all of the work for him, but he rewards attendance: students on the edge of passing a class get the bump up if they come to class.

The afternoon was a lot of sitting and waiting to head to Tofo for a little bit of beachside rest and relaxation. We got going mid afternoon, taking an open-back chapa from Inhamussua to Maxixe. An open-back chapa is a truck, with a rebar-supported canopy over the back. Peace Corps has told us not to ride these, but this the only type of chapa that runs between these two cities. 3d tetris

From Maxixe, we walked a couple blocks to the pier, where we took a 25 minute boat-ride across the bay to Inhambane City. We walked through a bit of this beautiful and more Westernized city to get a chapa to Tofo. But, being somewhat late in the afternoon, chapas were no longer running to Tofo. Excellent. So, we took a crammed in chapa in the general direction of Tofo and got off three-quarters of the way down. By this time, it was already dark, and we were lucky to hitch a ride in the back of truck to Tofo for the last seven kilometers. Fairly exhausted, we checked in and headed to Dino’s, a restaurant that sits on the beach. We ordered pizza, which was a little overhyped, but still not bad. Returning to our dorm-style room after a late-night drink, we set up bednets and fell asleep.

All of us woke up early, but with a full night’s sleep before, and a full day at the beach ahead. We were all on the beach by 8:30. The beach at Tofo is spectacular: it stretches in a crescent for a couple miles with a crystal clear ocean accompanying it. The water of the Indian Ocean is warm and wavy. I was excited to be swimming in my third ocean and getting a tan. Over the course of the day, more and more trainees showed up at Tofo, and it became quite a little party. I learned how to play Euchre, which is a pretty cool card game, and did a little bit of reading in between trips into the ocean.

We returned again to Dino’s to dinner. Not wanting pizza for a second night in a row, I ordered a shwarma, one of my favorite foods from my trip to Egypt. While it didn’t even come close to being as good as Egyptian street-vender shwarma, it was still satisfying. After dinner, I returned back to the hotel, played a game of Euchre, taught some people how to play Spar – the card game I learned in Ghana – and played some catchphrase. I would have liked to have gone to bed earlier, with a long day ahead, but such is life.

Once again, it is too early to be bright. We’re on the road again at 4:00, on a fairly comfortable bus to Maputo. I kept falling asleep – and leaning into another Trainee. Oops. Half way through the ride, at Xai Xai (pronounced Shy-Shy) I switched seats so I could play Scrabble with a couple of Trainees. We arrived in Maputo around 11 and we made a valiant return to Maputo Shopping Center.

We sat down at a shwarma place. Many of the stores in the shopping center are run by Middle Easterners, so I figured it would be pretty good…and it was. Good enough to have two. As if the afternoon couldn’t have got better, I found razor blades and shaving cream. I have become sick of using an electric razor; I never feel like I get a good shave. So I am very excited, even if they are two-blade crappy throw-aways.

I arrived back in Namaacha with a group of 10 other Trainees around 3:15. Exhausted from another long day of travel, I was greeted by minha mae with a bucket of hot water for a shower and a cup of coffee. I rested a bit before dinner and called it an early night.

I woke up refreshed and looking forward to Hub Day. Most of the morning was spent discussing our different experiences at different Volunteer sites, the first half in Portuguese, the second half in English. This was followed by a medical discussion on the light topic of Avian Flu. Not concerned by getting this, I worked on my homework as the medic spoke. I had anticipated getting mail – especially the package(s) that my parents sent weeks ago, but we were told that mail would arrive on Monday. Just after lunch, we received our results from our most recent oral language test. I was told that I was at Intermediate High level, which is where Peace Corps wants us at the end of training. So I am pretty happy.

Realizing that most of us would be tired from our travels, Peace Corps gave us the better part of the afternoon off. A few of us went down to the barraca to have a drink and play cards. I have continued my domination of Euchre, winning five straight games. I plan on never losing at this game. Playing cards for hours resulted in a late return home; we had tea around 6:00 and dinner around 8:15. I talked to family today – my parents in the afternoon, my grandparents in the evening. It was good to catch up with everyone and get some news from the other side of the world. Feeling tired, I once again called it an early night.

I woke up to the pitter-patter of a light rain, the tail end of a massive storm that blew through Namaacha last night. Minha mae was very happy this morning – it was like Christmas for her. Just about everyone was excited for the rain, but one house where a Trainee is staying flooded. As I walked out the door, my sister called and we talked as I made my way to class. Our language class learned how to write formal letters today. It will be a good skill to have, as we will need to make formal requests to our school directors.

Our late morning session, across town, was on loss and grieving. Scheduled for two hours, the entire session lasted about ten minutes. The only good thing about this was it left plenty of time for mail to be distributed. And there was plenty to go around. I received both packages – loaded with shoes, spices, and magazines – that my parents sent me. I got lucky in that my packages were unopened. Apparently, Christmas has come early to Namaacha, first with the rain and now with the packages.

I returned home, dropped off my packages at home, and headed to the house that was flooded. It happened that the house that flooded was the house of my best friend here. I offered to help out her host mae, but by the time I arrived the house was already clean. It was somewhat unbelievable.

After lunch, all of the English teachers reconvened for a session on classroom management and grade-keeping. Keeping grades is quite the process here. You don’t really appreciate the wonder of computer networks until you work within this grading system. Everything is handwritten multiple times in multiple places. Some Peace Corps Volunteers have developed a spreadsheet to help simplify and digitize some of it, but in the end, we all have to handwrite the grades that we turn in.

With the rest of the afternoon free, a group of us made our way to a barraca to play cards. I have finally been humbled at Euchre: I lost 3 out of 4 games. It is a team game, but I have to take most of the blame for the losses. The hardest part of being new at a team game is not being a liability to the team, and today I misplayed a lot of hands. As it is with Portuguese, I’m trying to remember that I’m new to Euchre, and I’m going to make my fair share of mistakes.

As the downpour continued, I made my home in damp darkness, occasionally illuminated by lightning. It’s cold enough that I could see my breath as I walked in the dark. Without streetlights, other senses take over. It was easy to hear where the water was flowing, so I knew to avoid certain areas. I managed to get home without stepping in any massive puddles. I ate dinner with minha mae and minha irma, read up on the current hockey season in a magazine and went to bed.

Saturday did not feel like Saturday; then again, Thursday didn’t feel like Thursday, and the same was true for Friday. Our internal calendars have been thrown off by all the travel this week. I went to language class, where we played a vocabulary game. I think our teacher has realized that at this point, there is not a lot more grammatical structure that she can teach, so the focus has shifted to using vocabulary and becoming comfortable with speaking.

After language class, we continued learning, although in a much more interested manner. My language group returned to my house, where minha mae was set to teach us how to make spring rolls. Eight Trainees, our teacher, and minha mae diced up onions, parsley, and cilantro; shredded cabbage, chicken, and carrots; and contributed to the cooking. After letting everything cool, we learned how to roll the spring rolls. Our work completed, I broke out the soy sauce which just arrived yesterday, and we enjoyed fruits of the labor.

Sufficiently fed after eating a small lunch with minha mae, I started washing clothes. We have a break from the rain, so today was a perfect day to have everything air-dry. I was prepared to wash clothes by myself, but one shirt in, the empregada stepped in and I was relegated to rinsing and hanging. I can’t say I was angered by this: it is much easier when a second person helps, regardless of who is washing and who is rinsing.

Exhausted, I was keen on relaxing for the remainder of the afternoon. But minha mae informed me as I was washing clothes that we were going to a wedding party. I wanted no piece of this. I went to my room, fell asleep, expecting her to wake me up. Her efforts to get me out of bed failed. She left, leaving me a text message saying that minha irma would take me to the party when I awakened. I thought I had dodged the situation. So I lied my way out of it. I told minha mae via text that I had a headache and I was going to stay home. I should feel bad about it, but I think I might have passed out at the party had I gone. As I relaxed, I received calls from my grandmother and my father.

The rest of the night was passed writing emails for sending later, cleaning up my room, and eating dinner. The day passed by in blur. And so did this week. Getting away from Namaacha certainly helped make the week pass by quickly. Six weeks in the books, the remainder of our time here should go by quickly. Just as the beginning of this experience was marked by a lot of “firsts” – and continues to be marked by such events – there will be some things reaching their conclusion. Next week is our last week of language, and the week after, we will lose the anxiety of worrying where we will be for the next two years. We also begin planning curriculum and teaching next week, so things are becoming a little more real, a little more job-relevant. Put that together with our site visits, it’s starting to feel a little more like we’re Volunteers and not Trainees.

Homestay Week 5: Half Way Through Training

By this week, our fifth week at our homestays, I think most of us are starting to find our rhythm here. We have figured out how to pass the slow Sundays, how to most efficiently get from one place to another, and how to sleep through the roosters in the morning. This Sunday was definitely easier than last Sunday, mostly because I managed to keep myself busy.

After catching up on news at the internet café while everyone was at church, I returned home to start cleaning my room. Minha mae and my sisters returned from church around 11:00 and we started cooking up brunch. Sunday food is almost always better than the rest of the week. There is usually a lot more diversity in what we eat. This week, we had mostly leftovers from last night, but we also had some freshly-cooked garlic fries, samoosas, and spring rolls.

Replenished and refreshed, I spent some time ironing some clothes before heading off to play some soccer around 3:00. All of us were happy to be moving around, and building up a sweat we want to have, even if it was 100 degrees outside. We had a really good mix of locals and Peace Corps Trainees, which made for some really fun games.

As always, I had tea with minha mae in the late afternoon. As we drank our tea, she told me that I would be cooking dinner. This caught me slightly off guard, but I was definitely up for it.

Cooking is one of the things from the United States that I’ve really come to miss. For the last couple of years, I have cooked for myself. I know what foods I like and how I like them cooked. But it’s not just about the food; cooking is one of those activities that help me relax. So I looked forward to cooking this meal – some beef with sautéed onions and bell peppers. I enjoyed it, and minha mae said it was good, but she wasn’t too quick to reach for seconds.

Knowing that it was Sunday, I expected to talk to my parents. When the phone rang, though, I was surprised that I had another set of grandparents on the line. It was good to catch up with them. And, I did get a call from my parents just before heading to bed, but we had a bad connection.

Of all the nights we have had here, I think this was the hottest one. I opened up my window and slept with without blankets, but I still woke up in a sweat. Some of the other Trainees agreed that it was by far the hottest night. And, the morning was warm, so we knew it was going to be a hot day.

Before heading to class in oppressive humidity, I spoke with my parents, who gave me all the football scores from this past weekend and some election news. As exciting as this election has been, I’m ready for it to be over. I feel like this election season has gone on forever. At the same time, though, it is very weird to not be in the United States for this election. And what is even weirder is because of the time difference, we won’t get news of a winner until at least Wednesday morning.

After a class where we had a test – it wasn’t too hard, in my opinion – we headed off to our morning session, which was about the stigma of HIV/AIDS. One of the challenges of living in a country with such a high rate of HIV/AIDS is getting out good information. Oftentimes, people will not know the facts about HIV contraction, so they live with some fears that we might consider irrational. The afternoon was nothing special – we filled out bank forms and had some light conversation before getting a cold soda on a hot afternoon.

My evening was nothing special too. I returned home after talking with our Volunteer of the week, who seems to really enjoy his job. He lives in a thatched-roof hut that has electricity and a water tap outside his house. I think I would take that. I had tea, then dinner with minha mae and one of my sisters – the other sister is with her parents for a couple days.

As hot and clear as it was during the day, the evening was that cold and cloudy. A system blew in quickly and it threatened to rain, but all it produced very little. We were told that Namaacha would get muddy very quickly, but I have yet to see any mud here. The storm did keep the evening pretty cool though. Just before going to bed, one of my best friends called me. He caught me up on all sorts of pop culture, which I really needed for my own sanity.

I woke up tired, both from staying up late to talk and not sleeping particularly well. Today was a day I had been looking forward to; it is America Day. Not only is it Election Day in the States (although we won’t receive any results until today), but all of the language groups cooked American food for the maes. I know we looked forward to this, but I think the maes had some trepidation. Luckily for them, they only have to deal with our food for one meal. Our group cooked up French toast and garlic mashed potatoes – quite the combination – but I think the maes actually enjoyed some of it, so that was good news.

Science and English teachers came together for the afternoon session on classroom management. We received a lot of really good information from our Volunteer about how classrooms work in Mozambique. A lot of discussion revolved around the idea of cheating on tests and how to deal with that particular problem. As we get further into training, our sessions are becoming more specific and more job-relevant.

Prior to dinner, I spoke with my aunt for the first time in a while. All of these phone calls coming in are very encouraging. They definitely lift my spirits, especially when I have not had the greatest of days. Today wasn’t so bad, but it definitely could have been better. I feel like I’m having another down week when it comes to language, but not so bad to throw everything else off kilter.

Right after dinner, there was actually an American election special on one of the local television stations. Of course it was all in Portuguese, so I didn’t understand everything. Regardless, it was quite clear which way the anchor and analyst were leaning. I really wanted to stay up and watch it, hoping I could get some state-by-state results, but with a ten hour time difference to the West Coast, I wouldn’t expect to learn anything at reasonable. With that in mind, I went to bed and awaited text messages with election results.

Early morning Wednesday, I started receiving text messages. And when I say early, I mean before the roosters got to me. My first one came at 3:17 and they continued coming in every half hour after that. I tried to get some sleep in between messages, but just couldn’t manage to get any rest. When I got a call from my very excited brother at just after 6:00, I finally gave up. I wasn’t particular shocked with the result, but I was surprised by the margin of victory.

Surprises continued to come in when one of the local television stations actually played the concession and acceptance speeches of the nominees. As they spoke in English, somebody translated the speeches into Portuguese. It was very cool because both minha mae and I could see and hear the same speech without either one of us dealing with the language barrier.

I went to class dead tired; everyone was tired because everyone got text messages or calls throughout the night. Most of the conversation in the morning revolved around the election: what states we are from and who received that state’s votes, how the Electoral College works, and how we felt about the result. The second part of the class was a practice for our second language proficiency exam. But for the most part, we were very distracted. Not only were we all getting text messages, but there are a bunch of little animals running around us. As we are in the middle of spring here (remember, it’s the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed), there are packs of puppies, ducklings, chicks, and goats running around the bairros.

During the latter part of the morning, a couple of us took some time to study for our language test. Our tests weren’t until the afternoon, so we had plenty of time, both to worry and to waste. In the end, we were only semi-productive, but we at least felt a little bit better knowing some new verb conjugations.

Everyone in our language group met up at the test location on time, but we ended up starting a little bit late. I think we were all a little nervous about what was going to happen, not because we had any fear of repercussion, but because we just didn’t really know what to expect. In addition to language testing, we were also grilled on health, safety, and classroom management. It was a little tedious, but I guess all of the key players want to see how we are doing half way through training.

Not until this evening did we really have reason for a little celebration. With the election over and our language testing done, a group of us headed to a barraca to relax, talk about the election with some locals and each other, and discuss our language tests. Even though I feel like I have regressed a little this week, the test still went pretty well. But it was a long and exhausting day. Right after dinner, I told minha mae that I had to sleep because I was just too tired; she understood.

Thursday morning classes started a bit later than usual. Our teacher gave us an extra half hour to sleep because it was quite clear after yesterday that we needed it. And on top of that, we started late because one of the members in our language group showed up late. We didn’t have a lot to do as it was. We have already covered the verb tenses that we really need to know – and probably some that we don’t – so now it is just a matter of putting them into practice. We also received our tests back from this past Monday. I was satisfied with my result and our teacher was so pleased that she brought us some cake. After a small break, we played “Catch Phrase,” but in Portuguese. It was actually really helpful because I had to really pay attention to what was being said.

Having finished class early, I returned home to start doing some laundry. I won’t have time to do laundry this weekend because all of us are heading to Volunteers’ sites for the weekend and into the week. With the light rain that is passing through Namaacha right now, my clothes will need a little more time to dry than usual. After I finished laundry, I had lunch with minha mae and then headed out to our afternoon session. It’s been a slow day, only because language testing continued into today, so there was not a lot on the schedule. After the session, which was on again on lesson planning and teaching tips, I returned home for tea, a bit of rest, and dinner.

On Friday, all of us convened for Hub Day, with great anticipation for our site visits. We had a lecture on common diseases, which, as always, was very fun to hear. There is a part of me that believes that these lectures are meant to put a ton of fear into us, but at the same time, I realize that they have to tell us about all these different scenarios. I also got my last vaccination for a while. The rest of the afternoon was free for us, so I relaxed, ironed some clothing, and played some soccer.

Perhaps it is because many of us just got out of college where we lived alone. Or it may be because on the whole, we are fairly independent people. But I think a lot of us are excited to get out of town for a little while. Undoubtedly, I am enjoying my time here in Namaacha, in spite of the fact that I don’t have a lot of independence. But I think this site visit will be a good opportunity to recharge, see what life is really like as a Volunteer, and come back with a new energy.

Everybody will be back midweek. I suspect it will be an interesting experience and there will be a lot of good stories to go around.