I’m frustrated. And part of my frustration stems from the fact that I thought today was going to be a good day. It’s Sunday, which meant I got to sleep while my family was at church. I never thought that I would treasure the occasional day when I got to wake up at 8:00, especially since waking up at 8:00 had been the standard over the past year. I felt amazingly refreshed, albeit a bit sore from doing laundry and Ultimate Frisbee. It should have been a good day.
Minha mae got home from church around 11:00 or 11:30. Minha Mae, Anastasia and I had what I think was brunch. I learned how to make a basic salad dressing – oil (of course), lime juice, and salt. It’s not all the bad, but I could really go for a good Caesar or Italian dressing right about now. I thought that the cravings were supposed to go away as we became more removed from the comforts we used to enjoy, but on a day like today, they just seem to occupy my mind.
Right after we had brunch, we started working on lunch. I learned how to make tomato sauce, a new variation of rice, and carne asada – which I hope will be a staple of my diet. I don’t know why, but I was the only one eating lunch. I found this really strange.
And yet, I was glad to be sitting at a table alone, not having to listen to Portuguese I don’t understand. This is the root of my frustration and today was the day it just boiled over. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration or over-generalization to say that Americans like things fast – fast food, fast cars, fast internet. But one thing that just doesn’t come fast is language – especially when your teachers and your family talk way beyond your level. You can’t talk to a first grader at the university level. And that’s pretty much how I feel right now – a person with first grade language capability being spoken to at a university level. Not fully understanding what is happening only compounds other problems; everything becomes more frustrating when you are not in the know.
I think the worst part is there really isn’t much of an escape. I can’t just get in my car and drive to La Jolla Shores and ignore the rest of the world. So for today, I’ve wrapped myself in music and old magazines, because as I write this, I just can’t fully handle life as it is.
I should note, in fairness to myself and minha mae, that after a small personal break, I had a great conversation with her about – ironically – how frustrated I was with not understanding everything and not being able to get my point across. Of course, in that conversation, I understood exactly what she said and didn’t have much problem conveying my points.
The only good thing about having a bad day is that it can’t get much worse the next day. And although Monday was rough, albeit for different reasons, it was still significantly better. After having the good conversation with minha mae, I was able to sleep comfortably, so I woke up refreshed. This Monday didn’t have the typical Monday feel. Class moved by quickly. And on the way to our late morning session, I had a great conversation – both comprehending and speaking – with my teacher. He spoke at just the right speed: not so fast that I couldn’t understand, not so slow that I felt like a four year old. I guess that makes two really good conversations in a row.
The late morning session went by quickly. We got our first practice in lesson planning, which was nothing new for me as I had done this for the better part of last year. But for the majority of the English teacher group, this was a good introduction. I ate lunch during the tail end of the session so I could maximize my time catching up on the news at the one internet café here in Namaacha. And by maximize my time, I mean, giving myself the most possible time at the café – not necessarily working – considering I’m probably going to have to wait for one of the two computers. For the 90 minutes I spent at the café, I got to use a computer for 15 minutes – enough time, but definitely rushed. I gave myself enough time to get to the afternoon session. And that’s when the mayhem began.
I returned to where the previous session was, but no one was there. I ran into a Peace Corps car to ask where my group was; I was told that they were by the mercado, so I walked in that direction. On the way, I ran into another stranded Trainee who didn’t know where her group was. Finally, something she said triggered where I was supposed to meet. I moved as quickly as I could down the hill to get to the place where we met in the morning, but no one was there. I made my way through the bairro, asking people if they new where the other “brancos” went. I finally figured out that they headed to minha casa. 45 minutes late, I got to my house, with the other Trainees in my language group. I explained what happened, and we got to working. I tried to apologize but they wouldn’t let me; I guess when you end up at minha casa, there’s no need to apologize.
After running the Namaacha 10k around town, and correcting homework in the afternoon session, I got a chance to settle down and shower. People here typically take at least two showers a day – one before breakfast and one before dinner. Usually, I don’t need two showers a day, although I have yet to tell my family that I only need one. But today, a second shower was not only wanted – it was absolutely necessary.
Just before dinner I did my nightly Su Doku with my sisters. They seem to be figuring it out a lot faster now, and they can see how pieces start to come together. By the end of the ten weeks, they will be masters.
Tuesday started out rough. No one in our language class was clicking, and on top of it, we got our tests back. He was not too thrilled with our results, although I was personally satisfied with how I did. There is a lot of pressure to learn the language, and most of that pressure comes from us, the Trainees. We all want – and need – to learn the language as quickly as possible, but learning a language in a couple weeks is not easy. After language class, we caught a ride to our late morning session, regarding gender roles in Mozambique. It was well-noted that gender roles here are a lot more defined than they are in the United States, especially away from the cities.
The afternoon was disorganized; we headed to a house with good shade for our language application session, although it was mostly just a question and answer session on what we wanted to know. It was probably for the better. None of us were really in the mood.
As I walked back, I passed the house of another Trainee, who was outside sitting with her “sister.” I dropped by, cooled down, and had a great conversation with the two of them. Going between Portuguese and English was both fun and rewarding. It was nice to be able to get that conversation in for the day. I ran home after to try to keep the language mojo going, and was able to put it together pretty well with minha mae. I know at any moment though that it can go back to square one very quickly.
Since it was Tuesday, that meant family night for me. I got to talk extensively with my dad and my brother, which really carried me through the night. Being able to talk to family only once or twice a week is tough, especially when there is so much to say on both ends. But talking rarely is a lot better than not talking at all. And my tomorrow will be better because of those conversations.
Wednesday was inefficient for the better part of the day. Our language group seems to have hit a brick wall. There’s a lot of material being thrown at us in a very disorganized way, so we’re probably not learning as quickly as we should be. Regardless, we got through language class and made the trek to our late morning session, which was about English grammar. As with the language class, this session could have been done in a streamlined manner, but instead, we may have ended up more confused than where we started.
After lunch, the language group made its way toward the fronteira – the border of Mozambique and Swaziland – where the chapas (the main mode of transportation here) stops. We walked down the road in 105 degree heat, stood at the station and talked for about 15 minutes, turned around, and left. They could have just told us that the station was at the end of the road, but that would have been way too easy. With our afternoon effectively wasted, and all of us melting in the heat, our language group headed to a barraca for a cold drink.
I returned to my house around 4:00 in the afternoon and, over tea, had an hour-long conversation with minha mae like Portuguese was my first language. I kept laughing to myself, thinking it shouldn’t be this easy, but it was. I think I finally broke through that first barrier of comprehension.
One of the advantages of having taught a second language is that I have some understanding of the progress that a student goes through when learning a new language. At the first, it is very easy to learn new words, because everything is new. But as one learns more, the learning curve decelerates, and it actually becomes a little harder to learn; in other words, students hit plateaus, accelerate, and then plateau again. I think I broke through that first plateau because the conversations – both on the speaking side and comprehension side – are coming more easily.
As dusk turned to night, the rains looked as if they were going to come. The wind picked up, and thunder could be heard in the distance. Right before dinner, a slight shower fell, but nothing substantial. Hopefully it will rain overnight.
After dinner, I spoke with my mom for a little while. Talking to family two nights in a row is a treat. It has definitely helped this week move a little faster than usual. I turned in early, exhausted from a day of a lot of walking in the heat on little sleep, courtesy of crazy Larium dreams last night.
The clouds that rolled in last night stuck around throughout the day today, bringing about a sensation we haven’t felt in weeks – coldness. I’ve never been so happy to put on a jacket. The break from the incessant heat was welcomed by just about everybody. It was really nice to have a day where I wasn’t constantly dripping in sweat.
Our language group struggled through yet another tedious and ambiguous grammar lesson. We have spent so much time on the tedium of this language that we are still missing a lot of the more important parts of speech, verb tenses, and vocabulary that we really need to know. The late morning session was just as bad – a fairly unproductive lesson on teaching with few resources. The frustration with the lack of learning has built up within a lot of people over the last couple of days. It is difficult because most of us are recent college graduates who are used to a fast learning curve and clarity; over the last couple of days, we have received neither.
The afternoon went by much better. After being divided all week – which drives us all a little crazy – we were reunited with the biology and chemistry teachers for a talk about the role of teachers in Mozambican communities. This was actually a productive session for us. There was a clear purpose and it was run well. Our language group stuck around after for our language application for the day – talking for a couple minutes on the topic of our choice. This was, I think, the first productive language application session we’ve had in weeks. And with the all of the Trainees being together tomorrow, it seems this week might yet improve.
Just before dinner, I talked with my sister, marking three days in a row of talking to family. It’s nice to hear voices from home, as it lets us know that the world we left hasn’t completely stopped. I ate in utter silence, as minha mae was out of town, and the only people at the dinner table were my two sisters and me. It is amazing, though, how much can be said in stares and smiles.
I was excited for Hub Day because I got to see a lot of people I don’t regularly don’t see. The health group has a lot of cool people that us teachers only get to see once a week. After our final language class with our current teacher, all of the trainees assembled for a couple lectures on how to deal – and not deal – with the stress that comes with being a Volunteer in the Peace Corps. A lot of stuff was right out of college orientation – be sure to talk to people, don’t drink excessively, etc. Still, it’s good to know that the Medical Office has our backs.
We opted to shorten lunch so we could get to our afternoon session on technology. We had been waiting all week for this session because this was the session where we would learn to use our future internet phones with our laptops. This only built up the anticipation for our trip to Maputo tomorrow to get our phones.
A light rain blew in right around dinner time – not enough to make a huge difference, but enough that I needed to put on sweat pants. And the clouds stuck around through the morning, meaning it would be a cool day. We were very excited to head into Maputo, knowing that cell phones and pizza were in our immediate future. We left Namaacha for Maputo around 7:15 – 45 minutes later than when we wanted to leave – via chapa, an over-packed van. I had flashbacks to Ghana, which has a nearly identical transportation system; it brought a smile to my face, in spite of the fact that I had less room than a sardine in a can.
I won’t get into all the details, but the day didn’t go as well as we would have liked. I got my cell phone, although not one with internet – there were few in stock and prices were too high for me – but two out of four people who wanted phones weren’t able to get them, leading to some very sad faces and frustration. And yes, we had pizza, which was surprisingly good. But although we had nearly six hours in the city, very little got done. This also reminded me of Ghana, where one could spend all day trying to get one thing done and take two steps backward. I tried to keep things in perspective, but for the two who didn’t get a cell phone at all, this was hard to do. Needless to say, it was not a fun chapa ride back to Namaacha.
This was a tough week in general, and I think a lot of people share the sentiment. A bit of anxiety is starting to build within us, and at the forefront of that is language and knowledge regarding our jobs. And when the going is rough, everything goes wrong. In spite of the struggles, though, progress is being made. I can feel it when I have conversations because the conversations keep getting easier. Let’s just hope that the weeks get easier also.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Homestay Week 2: The Garlic Fry Revolution
I woke up bright and early on Sunday, hoping to be the early bird to get the Internet worm. While my family ran off to church, I told them that I was going to try to get online. I walked down to the internet café, but it was closed. I walked down to the secondary school that sometimes has internet, but it too was closed. Not a lot I could do about that. I returned to the house and went back to sleep for a little bit.
As this week began, I vowed that I was going to be more helpful around the house. I told minha mae that I wanted to help out a little bit every night with cooking or cleaning or something. It’s very strange to be catered to when you have lived fairly independently for the last couple years. I just feel horrible watching the bulk of the work drop onto the shoulders of a couple of teenage girls.
I received my first cooking lesson, but it was more than just cooking. First we had to light the carvao – the charcoal. That was a lesson in itself. Once the carvao was hot enough, we starting cooking batatas fritas – French fries – which apparently are a pretty popular food item around here. I told minha mae that the only thing that can make French fries better than they already are is garlic. She raised her eyebrows a little bit, but didn’t doubt me, so we added garlic. It tasted like home, and minha mae enjoyed. I told some of the other Trainees about this, and they thought it was a good idea. I’m hoping this will spread around Mozambique.
I ran over to a friend’s casa in the afternoon, hoping to learn how to make a grass mat. But the person who was going to teach us didn’t have the material. We stuck around for a while and chatted. And of course, we were given food. After chilling for about an hour, I returned to minha casa with two other Trainees to give one a haircut. They were blown away by the house. One of them said “Are we still in Namaacha?” Apparently, we looked hungry, so minha mae put food on the table for us.
Some family members of minha mae had come over and all of them spoke English. What a sigh of relief. I finally got some things straightened out. As a suspected, my “sisters” are not minha mae’s daughters. They are girls that she has taken in so they can attend school. I also got a full tour of the massive property I’m living on, as well as a good chunk of history of how this place came to be.
After some time to rest and relax and read, it was time to prepare dinner. I helped prepare some rice with tomato, garlic and onion. It turned out pretty well. More important than dinner, I finally cracked into my sisters. I broke out the Sudoku book and taught them how to do Sudoku. It was a good experience because it got them talking and thinking, and I also picked up a couple more vocabulary words: coluna (column), fileira (row) and caixa (box), all important words for Sudoku. I have a feeling we’ll be doing more Sudoku in the days and weeks to come.
I knew Monday was going to be a hot day when I didn’t need to wear sweats to bed the night before, and was I right. I think Monday was the hottest day we’ve had so far. I started with my new language group and had no problem getting into it. After language, we got a lesson on the structure of secondary schools. It was very important information for all of us, as we’ll be directly dealing with the school hierarchy.
We also got a new Volunteer to help us out this week and he seems pretty cool. He teaches English at a Catholic school and seems to be enjoying his time here. It’s great that Peace Corps brings in current Volunteer because it gives us Trainees and opportunity to pick their brains and get some stories instead of just theories and concepts.
During the afternoon, we went to the market to do our language application. We had to get the prices of some food items, so when we go to the market next time, we know how much to pay. I found a pair of jeans that I wanted to buy, but the salesperson wanted an obnoxious amount of money for them. I tried to bargain them down, but she wouldn’t lower her price much. Not a great loss – there’s supposed to be a good clothes market on Wednesday, so I’m going to try to get a pair of jeans and some new shoes.
I returned home to have tea with minha mae and start cooking a bit. We started “cabbage with diced meat.” As with everything, cooking is a great opportunity to learn vocabulary. The food turned out pretty good (I think). As the food cooked, I tried to teach my sisters how to shuffle cards. They were blown away by what I was doing, and they somewhat struggled with it. We’ll continue to practice, if for no other reason that I really have the itch to teach something to someone.
After dinner, I helped out a bit with the dishes. The girls thought this was particularly funny, but then again, they think everything I do is funny. I still can’t get them to talk a whole lot, but that’s not going to keep me from talking to them. I need all the practice I can get, even if I don’t get anything more than a smile as a reply.
I woke up half way through the night from a Larium-induced dream. I’ve decided that I’m going to stop worrying what time it is when I wake up or when the roosters crow. I’ll just get up for good when my alarm goes off. Like Sunday night, it was really hot on Monday night. But we woke up on Tuesday to clouds, which kept the temperature cool for a little bit of the morning.
Our language class started a couple minutes late, and it was a pretty slow morning all the way around. I think all of us were in a bit of a rut today. But we managed through it and finished early, so a couple of us darted over to the internet café for some much needed news on sports and politics, emails, and more. As the morning progressed, the line to get on the computer (there are two of them in the café) got longer. I was pretty happy to get in my time early.
I had a picnic lunch under a tree – when its 95 degrees outside, you take any shade you can get – with a couple of other trainees. I’m getting a lot of different lunches, which is good for my sanity. I think some of the volunteers are getting tired of getting the same foods everyday. After lunch, we headed over to our afternoon lecture – on myths and misconceptions of HIV/AIDS. Even though we are the education bloc of volunteers, there is still a huge focus on HIV/AIDS, because as teachers, it will be our responsibility to include this knowledge into our curricula.
I returned home for my standard tea and bread with minha mae, and then my domestic education continued. I learned how to “pilar” – use a giant mortar and pestle to crush peanuts, and how to shave a coconut.
Dinner was fantastic, not only because of the food, but because it was bookended by a pair of phone calls – one from my parents and one from my brother. It was great to hear their voices and catch up a bit. I won’t lie: it has been somewhat difficult to be cut off from the Western world and all the great things that come with it: family and friends, crazy elections, football season, and another year of heightened expectations for my beloved hockey team. Although I won’t be able to get my day to day doses, the news that I get every once in a while will be just all the sweeter.
On Wednesday, dll of the Trainees in the group met at the same location for what will be the only time this week. The consensus thinking is that the days where we are all together tend to move faster than the other days, if for no other reason than it is a change from the norm. I think most of us also agree that this week is moving much faster than last week. It is probably just a sign that we are starting to fall into a better rhythm here in Namaacha. Language class was okay – a lesson on colors on clothing, material covered fairly early in Rosetta Stone. After language class, we had a lecture on factors that fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The lecture began with a small activity to show how easily HIV/AIDS can spread in a group when 18% of the people – the percentage of people with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique – are HIV positive.
Over an extended lunch hour, I got my first real dose of a street market here in Mozambique. It was very similar, albeit significantly smaller, than what was in Ghana – cooked food and fresh vegetables, cloth shops, and used clothing and shoes. I was hoping to buy a pair of jeans, but the vendor wouldn’t bargain. Without the proper language skills, this is a tough task.
In the afternoon, we had two lectures: one on dealing with unwanted attention, which we get a lot of – for example, early in the week, a boy approached me and pet my arm totally out of the blue – and one safety and security. We were scheduled for a third on homesickness, but time didn’t permit.
After a quick soda in celebration of a Trainee’s birthday, I headed home for tea with minha mae. I had a confidence-building conversation with her. It was probably the easiest time I’ve had talking with anyone in Portuguese over the last couple of weeks. The timing of it could not have been better, because early in the morning, I was frustrated by my low comprehension level. I realized that I wasn’t able to translate every word that was being said. But as this conversation went on, I realized I didn’t have to translate every word because I pretty much just understood it without having to think about the words. That’s where I need to be – where I don’t have to think about what’s being said.
I did my homework, helped cook dinner, dined, and went to bed, feeling completely drained, both from the day’s activities and the mental strain of speaking, listening and thinking in Portuguese.
I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night, as my alarm on my watch decided to go off on the hour, ever hour. Today, all of the maes in the group are joining our language group to teach us how to cook. We learned how to make a couple of traditional Mozambican dishes – food we may not make by ourselves once we go to site, but still good to know how to make them. I also witnessed the first killing and gutting of a chicken. I would have preferred it to be the rooster that decides that sunrise happens at 4:30, but this chicken worked just fine. I didn’t take part in the killing – I just watched it – but it seemed like a pretty simple task. It’s just weird to put a face to the food that is about to be consumed. It was still pretty delicious though.
The afternoon session was filled with techniques on how to be effective within our new communities. Some of the tools are absolutely invaluable to figuring out what a community needs, when they specifically need it, and what we as Volunteers can do to help great a sustainable impact.
We have a test tomorrow, so most of my time home was devoted to learning new vocabulary and reviewing the verb tenses we have learned. I was not of much help in the kitchen and my brain just wasn’t functioning well. I screwed up three Su Dokus in a row after dinner; I knew then that I needed to sleep.
I certainly made up for the lack of sleep from the night before with an easy and full night of sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed and confident that I would do well on the test for today. That confidence was shattered when we received a test which not only had a minimal amount of actually studied content, but a ridiculous amount of verb tenses that we have yet to even touch. For when question, I couldn’t even begin to form an answer; I just wrote “Que?” – “What?”
It was cloudy and cool for a good part of the morning. Then when it was time to leave for our morning sessions, the clouds blew off and got close to 95 or 100 degrees. The walk to the house was not enjoyable, and thankfully, we ran into a Peace Corps car which took us the rest of the way.
Our sessions today were fairly productive. Our morning sessions were about communication and homesickness. Our afternoon session was on developing lesson plans for our classes. For me, I haven’t had problems with homesickness, and a lot of the lesson planning used for Peace Corps parallels what I had been doing over the last year. After our afternoon session, we had our second Ngoma Time. Of course, as soon as the events began, it started to rain – how convenient.
After an end-of-the-week cerveja, I returned home in the rain and darkness that was only occasionally illuminated by lightning. I had tea, took a shower, and then had dinner. I had another conversation with minha mae after dinner where I didn’t have to think about what was being said; it just came. I’ve found that when I can dictate the direction of the conversation, I can understand a lot more of what she says. And I have a feeling that as I become more comfortable with the language, these conversations will be the norm and not the exception.
I slept through the night and was grateful for the extra 30 or45 minutes of sleep I’m able to get on Saturdays. The difference between starting at 7:30 and starting at 8:00 is huge. That extra sleeping time makes my day better right from the beginning. Our language group had what I thought to be a pretty productive meeting. We really picked up the pace today and learned how to conjugate verbs in two new forms –imperfeito and imperatitivo. I feel like this is what I need. The more tenses I know, the more I can pick up in conversations.
In between class and lunch, one of the current Volunteers, two other Trainees and I went for a small hike around Namaacha. We went up this small hill where we could overlook the valley. It’s a pretty brown place right now with the lack of rain, but it was still beautiful to be able to see for miles in between the rows of hills. The Volunteer, who was minha mae’s “godson” came to my house for lunch so they could catch up. Our meal was really good – fried chicken, cooked spinach and tomatoes, garlic fries and salad.
Right after lunch, I started on my laundry with minha mae. I must have been doing something right because she only stopped me twice. I did the washing and she did the rinsing, and I was thankful for that because even with the help, it took about two hours to wash, rinse and hang. She thanked me, which was kind of weird, and I thanked her in return, which made a lot more sense.
I ran down to the barraca to catch up with some other trainees to learn a game played by Volunteers. My partner and I were defeated in the game, badly. Some people stuck around, but some others and I left to try to play some Ultimate Frisbee. The soccer field was occupied and the field in front of the church was being used, so we ended up playing 5 on 5 on a nicely paved basketball court. It was really nice to be active and doing something that didn’t involve sitting or eating.
I returned for a lukewarm shower – as I was muito transpirado, a cool shower really hit the spot – tea, and dinner.
This week went by really fast. It doesn’t even compare to last week, which felt like a month. I think a lot of it has to do with becoming more comfortable with the day to day challenges – the pace and rhythm of life in Namaacha, the rapidly closing language gap, and other more personal challenges like the occasional bouts of loneliness and homesickness. With each new week, I suspect we will face new and more and bigger challenges. But with what we have gained thus far, getting over those bigger hurdles will be a lot easier than getting over the smaller hurdles of these past two weeks. And because of that, the weeks to come will go by faster and faster.
As this week began, I vowed that I was going to be more helpful around the house. I told minha mae that I wanted to help out a little bit every night with cooking or cleaning or something. It’s very strange to be catered to when you have lived fairly independently for the last couple years. I just feel horrible watching the bulk of the work drop onto the shoulders of a couple of teenage girls.
I received my first cooking lesson, but it was more than just cooking. First we had to light the carvao – the charcoal. That was a lesson in itself. Once the carvao was hot enough, we starting cooking batatas fritas – French fries – which apparently are a pretty popular food item around here. I told minha mae that the only thing that can make French fries better than they already are is garlic. She raised her eyebrows a little bit, but didn’t doubt me, so we added garlic. It tasted like home, and minha mae enjoyed. I told some of the other Trainees about this, and they thought it was a good idea. I’m hoping this will spread around Mozambique.
I ran over to a friend’s casa in the afternoon, hoping to learn how to make a grass mat. But the person who was going to teach us didn’t have the material. We stuck around for a while and chatted. And of course, we were given food. After chilling for about an hour, I returned to minha casa with two other Trainees to give one a haircut. They were blown away by the house. One of them said “Are we still in Namaacha?” Apparently, we looked hungry, so minha mae put food on the table for us.
Some family members of minha mae had come over and all of them spoke English. What a sigh of relief. I finally got some things straightened out. As a suspected, my “sisters” are not minha mae’s daughters. They are girls that she has taken in so they can attend school. I also got a full tour of the massive property I’m living on, as well as a good chunk of history of how this place came to be.
After some time to rest and relax and read, it was time to prepare dinner. I helped prepare some rice with tomato, garlic and onion. It turned out pretty well. More important than dinner, I finally cracked into my sisters. I broke out the Sudoku book and taught them how to do Sudoku. It was a good experience because it got them talking and thinking, and I also picked up a couple more vocabulary words: coluna (column), fileira (row) and caixa (box), all important words for Sudoku. I have a feeling we’ll be doing more Sudoku in the days and weeks to come.
I knew Monday was going to be a hot day when I didn’t need to wear sweats to bed the night before, and was I right. I think Monday was the hottest day we’ve had so far. I started with my new language group and had no problem getting into it. After language, we got a lesson on the structure of secondary schools. It was very important information for all of us, as we’ll be directly dealing with the school hierarchy.
We also got a new Volunteer to help us out this week and he seems pretty cool. He teaches English at a Catholic school and seems to be enjoying his time here. It’s great that Peace Corps brings in current Volunteer because it gives us Trainees and opportunity to pick their brains and get some stories instead of just theories and concepts.
During the afternoon, we went to the market to do our language application. We had to get the prices of some food items, so when we go to the market next time, we know how much to pay. I found a pair of jeans that I wanted to buy, but the salesperson wanted an obnoxious amount of money for them. I tried to bargain them down, but she wouldn’t lower her price much. Not a great loss – there’s supposed to be a good clothes market on Wednesday, so I’m going to try to get a pair of jeans and some new shoes.
I returned home to have tea with minha mae and start cooking a bit. We started “cabbage with diced meat.” As with everything, cooking is a great opportunity to learn vocabulary. The food turned out pretty good (I think). As the food cooked, I tried to teach my sisters how to shuffle cards. They were blown away by what I was doing, and they somewhat struggled with it. We’ll continue to practice, if for no other reason that I really have the itch to teach something to someone.
After dinner, I helped out a bit with the dishes. The girls thought this was particularly funny, but then again, they think everything I do is funny. I still can’t get them to talk a whole lot, but that’s not going to keep me from talking to them. I need all the practice I can get, even if I don’t get anything more than a smile as a reply.
I woke up half way through the night from a Larium-induced dream. I’ve decided that I’m going to stop worrying what time it is when I wake up or when the roosters crow. I’ll just get up for good when my alarm goes off. Like Sunday night, it was really hot on Monday night. But we woke up on Tuesday to clouds, which kept the temperature cool for a little bit of the morning.
Our language class started a couple minutes late, and it was a pretty slow morning all the way around. I think all of us were in a bit of a rut today. But we managed through it and finished early, so a couple of us darted over to the internet café for some much needed news on sports and politics, emails, and more. As the morning progressed, the line to get on the computer (there are two of them in the café) got longer. I was pretty happy to get in my time early.
I had a picnic lunch under a tree – when its 95 degrees outside, you take any shade you can get – with a couple of other trainees. I’m getting a lot of different lunches, which is good for my sanity. I think some of the volunteers are getting tired of getting the same foods everyday. After lunch, we headed over to our afternoon lecture – on myths and misconceptions of HIV/AIDS. Even though we are the education bloc of volunteers, there is still a huge focus on HIV/AIDS, because as teachers, it will be our responsibility to include this knowledge into our curricula.
I returned home for my standard tea and bread with minha mae, and then my domestic education continued. I learned how to “pilar” – use a giant mortar and pestle to crush peanuts, and how to shave a coconut.
Dinner was fantastic, not only because of the food, but because it was bookended by a pair of phone calls – one from my parents and one from my brother. It was great to hear their voices and catch up a bit. I won’t lie: it has been somewhat difficult to be cut off from the Western world and all the great things that come with it: family and friends, crazy elections, football season, and another year of heightened expectations for my beloved hockey team. Although I won’t be able to get my day to day doses, the news that I get every once in a while will be just all the sweeter.
On Wednesday, dll of the Trainees in the group met at the same location for what will be the only time this week. The consensus thinking is that the days where we are all together tend to move faster than the other days, if for no other reason than it is a change from the norm. I think most of us also agree that this week is moving much faster than last week. It is probably just a sign that we are starting to fall into a better rhythm here in Namaacha. Language class was okay – a lesson on colors on clothing, material covered fairly early in Rosetta Stone. After language class, we had a lecture on factors that fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The lecture began with a small activity to show how easily HIV/AIDS can spread in a group when 18% of the people – the percentage of people with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique – are HIV positive.
Over an extended lunch hour, I got my first real dose of a street market here in Mozambique. It was very similar, albeit significantly smaller, than what was in Ghana – cooked food and fresh vegetables, cloth shops, and used clothing and shoes. I was hoping to buy a pair of jeans, but the vendor wouldn’t bargain. Without the proper language skills, this is a tough task.
In the afternoon, we had two lectures: one on dealing with unwanted attention, which we get a lot of – for example, early in the week, a boy approached me and pet my arm totally out of the blue – and one safety and security. We were scheduled for a third on homesickness, but time didn’t permit.
After a quick soda in celebration of a Trainee’s birthday, I headed home for tea with minha mae. I had a confidence-building conversation with her. It was probably the easiest time I’ve had talking with anyone in Portuguese over the last couple of weeks. The timing of it could not have been better, because early in the morning, I was frustrated by my low comprehension level. I realized that I wasn’t able to translate every word that was being said. But as this conversation went on, I realized I didn’t have to translate every word because I pretty much just understood it without having to think about the words. That’s where I need to be – where I don’t have to think about what’s being said.
I did my homework, helped cook dinner, dined, and went to bed, feeling completely drained, both from the day’s activities and the mental strain of speaking, listening and thinking in Portuguese.
I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night, as my alarm on my watch decided to go off on the hour, ever hour. Today, all of the maes in the group are joining our language group to teach us how to cook. We learned how to make a couple of traditional Mozambican dishes – food we may not make by ourselves once we go to site, but still good to know how to make them. I also witnessed the first killing and gutting of a chicken. I would have preferred it to be the rooster that decides that sunrise happens at 4:30, but this chicken worked just fine. I didn’t take part in the killing – I just watched it – but it seemed like a pretty simple task. It’s just weird to put a face to the food that is about to be consumed. It was still pretty delicious though.
The afternoon session was filled with techniques on how to be effective within our new communities. Some of the tools are absolutely invaluable to figuring out what a community needs, when they specifically need it, and what we as Volunteers can do to help great a sustainable impact.
We have a test tomorrow, so most of my time home was devoted to learning new vocabulary and reviewing the verb tenses we have learned. I was not of much help in the kitchen and my brain just wasn’t functioning well. I screwed up three Su Dokus in a row after dinner; I knew then that I needed to sleep.
I certainly made up for the lack of sleep from the night before with an easy and full night of sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed and confident that I would do well on the test for today. That confidence was shattered when we received a test which not only had a minimal amount of actually studied content, but a ridiculous amount of verb tenses that we have yet to even touch. For when question, I couldn’t even begin to form an answer; I just wrote “Que?” – “What?”
It was cloudy and cool for a good part of the morning. Then when it was time to leave for our morning sessions, the clouds blew off and got close to 95 or 100 degrees. The walk to the house was not enjoyable, and thankfully, we ran into a Peace Corps car which took us the rest of the way.
Our sessions today were fairly productive. Our morning sessions were about communication and homesickness. Our afternoon session was on developing lesson plans for our classes. For me, I haven’t had problems with homesickness, and a lot of the lesson planning used for Peace Corps parallels what I had been doing over the last year. After our afternoon session, we had our second Ngoma Time. Of course, as soon as the events began, it started to rain – how convenient.
After an end-of-the-week cerveja, I returned home in the rain and darkness that was only occasionally illuminated by lightning. I had tea, took a shower, and then had dinner. I had another conversation with minha mae after dinner where I didn’t have to think about what was being said; it just came. I’ve found that when I can dictate the direction of the conversation, I can understand a lot more of what she says. And I have a feeling that as I become more comfortable with the language, these conversations will be the norm and not the exception.
I slept through the night and was grateful for the extra 30 or45 minutes of sleep I’m able to get on Saturdays. The difference between starting at 7:30 and starting at 8:00 is huge. That extra sleeping time makes my day better right from the beginning. Our language group had what I thought to be a pretty productive meeting. We really picked up the pace today and learned how to conjugate verbs in two new forms –imperfeito and imperatitivo. I feel like this is what I need. The more tenses I know, the more I can pick up in conversations.
In between class and lunch, one of the current Volunteers, two other Trainees and I went for a small hike around Namaacha. We went up this small hill where we could overlook the valley. It’s a pretty brown place right now with the lack of rain, but it was still beautiful to be able to see for miles in between the rows of hills. The Volunteer, who was minha mae’s “godson” came to my house for lunch so they could catch up. Our meal was really good – fried chicken, cooked spinach and tomatoes, garlic fries and salad.
Right after lunch, I started on my laundry with minha mae. I must have been doing something right because she only stopped me twice. I did the washing and she did the rinsing, and I was thankful for that because even with the help, it took about two hours to wash, rinse and hang. She thanked me, which was kind of weird, and I thanked her in return, which made a lot more sense.
I ran down to the barraca to catch up with some other trainees to learn a game played by Volunteers. My partner and I were defeated in the game, badly. Some people stuck around, but some others and I left to try to play some Ultimate Frisbee. The soccer field was occupied and the field in front of the church was being used, so we ended up playing 5 on 5 on a nicely paved basketball court. It was really nice to be active and doing something that didn’t involve sitting or eating.
I returned for a lukewarm shower – as I was muito transpirado, a cool shower really hit the spot – tea, and dinner.
This week went by really fast. It doesn’t even compare to last week, which felt like a month. I think a lot of it has to do with becoming more comfortable with the day to day challenges – the pace and rhythm of life in Namaacha, the rapidly closing language gap, and other more personal challenges like the occasional bouts of loneliness and homesickness. With each new week, I suspect we will face new and more and bigger challenges. But with what we have gained thus far, getting over those bigger hurdles will be a lot easier than getting over the smaller hurdles of these past two weeks. And because of that, the weeks to come will go by faster and faster.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Homestay Week 1: How To Be A Laundry Liability Without Really Trying
After a late departure from Maputo, we arrived in the countryside town of Namaacha early in the afternoon. We were greeted by song from our “maes” and “pais” – our host mothers and fathers. The plan was to call us out to meet our families one by one, but that quickly came to an end when all the maes and pais got up to meet us. I found “minha mae” – my mother – and we headed off to her house.
With all the lessons we got on how to bucket shower and how to use a “squatty potty,” I lowered my expectations of my living situation. After a fifteen or twenty minute walk, we arrived at the house…and yes, I mean a house. I couldn’t believe how big it was. With a massive garden with papaya and mango trees and flowers, it is more of an estate than a house. As we walked in, I met minha mae’s daughters – Betty, 12, e Anastasia, 15.
The room I was given is a good size. The bathroom is indoors, and although there is no running water, the bathroom does have a bath tub, a sink and a toilet. I’m pretty sure I lucked out on the housing lottery.
I settled into my new room, unpacked my suitcase, put together my water filter, set up my bed net with minha mae and we were off and running. Lunch was put on the table – beef noodle soup, chicken and rice. Being inland, there is not a lot of fish, which is very good news for me. I’ve tried to get accustomed to eating fish and it doesn’t really bother me anymore. But given the choice between chicken and beef or fish, I’ll take the frango e carne de vaca. Minha mae and I were actually able to communicate for the most part, although she tends to talk really fast. I’m picking up every couple of words, so I have a pretty good idea of what was said. Even over the course of the day, I could feel that I understood more and more. By the end of the day, though, I was so tired – both physically and mentally – that I pretty much shut down. I was asleep by 10:00.
Even though I wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and was buried in two blankets, I still woke up shivering. Being in the mountains, it doesn’t get too hot here. It’s quite beautiful during the day but the early mornings and evenings get cold. Up at 6:00, I took my shower. Luckily, minha mae wakes up at some ungodly hour and boils water for me so I can have hot showers. A cold shower on a day like today would not just be wrong – it would be borderline torturous.
Around 7:30, I left the house with one of my two irmas – sisters. Both girls are really shy around me. I’m tried to pry anything out of Anastasia, but can’t seem to get more than a “sim” out of her. I’m sure it is strange for them to have someone new, let alone a male, walk into their house for 10 weeks.
The first full day of homestay training started off a little slowly. We started with “processing,” where we were able to talk about the good things and bad things about our nights. Some people had some minor issues, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. My only problem was the rooster that woke me up at 5:45; I’ll be doing my best to make that thing into dinner very quickly. After an hour of processing, we were greeted by some of the officials from Namaacha. They seem pretty excited to have us, but like everyone in the Peace Corps, their chief concern is our safety.
We received a brief lecture on HIV/AIDS in the country. It is amazing how AIDS has destroyed a fair amount of the population. It’s eerie thinking about the fact that 1 in 6 people in this country has AIDS. The problem is more widespread in the south than it is in the north. We learned a lot about how organizations like Center for Disease Control are helping people with AIDS.
After lunch – which minha mae had prepared for me – we a discussion about safety. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details, but we basically learned about what to do in a disaster situation. Though most of it is basic common sense, it is rather extensive and will require some time to memorize. With a language class in the middle of the afternoon, our work day came to an end.
But the real work is at home. I have to switch my brain into full Portuguese mode – quickly deciphering what is being said, and try to respond without sounding like a three year old. I had tea with minha mae, but it’s not about having tea – it’s about conversation. We talked for a good hour with only a couple extensive awkward breaks. We discussed food, which was perfect because it allowed me to express what I like and don’t like, and learn some new vocabulary. Like me, minha mae doesn’t like fish. I was very happy to hear this.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon studying my Portuguese notecards and listening to music. After hearing Portuguese all day, I needed to get some English into my head. A quick shower, dinner and more conversation concluded my day.
I slept well Monday night and actually felt pretty good going into language at 7:30. Maybe it was the sleep or maybe it was the omelet that minha tia made. Even though I already know a lot of what is being taught, the language class gives me something of a safe place to get my mind thinking in Portuguese instead of translating in my head. It’s also nice because I am able to help others pick it up and when it comes down to it, teaching is what I like to do. After language class, we went to a session on social relationships in Mozambique. I was somewhat surprised to see that there were so many similarities in this realm between Ghana and Mozambique, so I hope that knowing what I learned in Ghana will help ease that transition.
After lunch and brief discussion, we reconvened in our language groups. We were told that we needed to introduce ourselves to three people in the area – in Portuguese, of course. I won’t say that it was easy, but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Clearly, the practice with minha mae is paying off.
As usual, I got back to minha casa pretty exhausted. I had tea with minha mae, spent some time on homework and got in a quick nap before dinner. There was nothing out of the norm, other than the first bad bout with my stomach. I’m a little surprised it took this long to have stomach issues, but I’m sure it will go away quickly. I just feel somewhat bad about using the bathroom because to flush the toilet, I need to pour water down the back of the toilet. This wouldn’t bother me normally, but there is a major water shortage in Namaacha, so I’m trying to limit my water use, and as such, my bathroom use.
I woke up Wednesday feeling just as miserable as the night before. I popped a Pepto-Bismol (best drug ever) and felt pretty good for the better part of the day. We spent a good amount of time in our language groups getting comfortable developing questions and answers. After a long lunch break – and a quick email check – we took a field trip to an escola secundaria – a high school – so we could get an idea of what to expect. This school was definitely an above average school by Mozambican standards, but compared to an American school, it was definitely bare bones. The school is big, both in terms of size and population. The student to teacher ratio is ridiculous. The library is muito pequeno, and the computer lab has 8 computers.
I returned to minha casa around 5 PM for tea. I tried to explain to minha mae how presidential elections work in the United States. It’s hard enough to try to explain the electoral system in English; in Portuguese, it was a near impossibility. But I think she understood my point after a while. I keep my dictionary and my notecards at my side when I talk to her so I can continue building my vocabulary. Even day to day, the conversation seems to get easier, I can understand more of what she is saying, and the content of our discussion becomes a little deeper with each day. At this rate, I should do just fine on the language side of things.
Thursday and Friday were both pretty uneventful. We are starting to get into a rhythm in terms of scheduling. The day-to-day stuff tends to move by a little faster because we have a general expectation of what is going to happen: things will start late, end early, and then we wait for the next portion to begin. I’ve starting carrying my Frisbee everywhere with me because we almost always have time and space to throw to kill off some time.
On Friday, we received a very general lecture on how to stay healthy in Mozambique. Most of the stuff is common sense but nonetheless important to hear. We also had our Country Director come in to talk to us about her expectations of us and what we should expect of the Peace Corps staff here in Mozambique. After what was a somewhat slow day, all of us gathered some entertainment. Each language group performed a little skit or song in Portuguese, I’m assuming to show how much we had learned over the course of the week. My group performed “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” shamelessly.
With the conclusion of our first full week in Mozambique, a vast majority of the 57 of us and one current Volunteer headed to a barraca for celebratory cerveja. I was incredibly pleased when I found a Castle Milk Stout – my beer of choice in Ghana – waiting for me. Some of the other trainees thought it was a little strange that I wasn’t drinking a Mozambican beer; then I let them try it. By the end of the day, I had converted five or six people into believers. I was very happy to pay the extra ten Metacais (1 dollar is about 23 Metacais) for a quality import.
Just because it was the weekend didn’t mean we got to relax. I was up at 6:30 to meet with our language group again. We spent the two hour session teaching each other what we had learned over the course of the week. After the session, our teacher Ludovina, told two others and I that she was going to move us into a different, faster-paced language group. I was very happy to hear this. The hours using Rosetta Stone certainly paid off, as most of the vocabulary from this week was review.
I returned from class to lunch and a nap, with every intention of doing laundry in the afternoon. Doing laundry here isn’t as easy as throwing everything into a machine, waiting 30 minutes, then throwing it in the drier. As it was in Ghana, laundry is hand-washed, which is just fine by me. I stood in front of my laundry, waiting to receive a lesson on how to wash clothing from minha mae and minha tia. The two girls watched me like I was dropped here from another planet, and couldn’t help but laugh.
I watched as minha tia washed the first piece of clothing for me, and then she gave me the soap to wash the next piece. The girls continued laughing. Without even finishing one piece of clothing, minha mae told me to stop. She pointed to the cut that was on my knuckle, but she probably just wanted to spare me from further embarrassment. I stood and watched uselessly for the next hour as minha mae and minha tia slaved over a week’s worth of laundry. If you thought Jewish guilt was bad, try African guilt on for size. In oppressive heat, I couldn’t help out at all. To make things worse, my black socks had shed onto what was my pristine white shirt. Words of advice: if you plan on coming to Africa, white is a bad choice of color for clothing.
The entire clothes-washing fiasco was just a reminder of what I should expect over the next couple of years. The going is not always going to be easy. In fact, the going is rarely going to be easy. There are always going to be challenges. They may be as minor as being awakened by a rooster 30 minutes before my alarm is set; they may be as large as having no idea what is being said because the language barrier still looms like an ocean in front of me. In the end, though, we will all get used to the changes and challenges that are in front of us.
And if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to clean my own clothes next week.
With all the lessons we got on how to bucket shower and how to use a “squatty potty,” I lowered my expectations of my living situation. After a fifteen or twenty minute walk, we arrived at the house…and yes, I mean a house. I couldn’t believe how big it was. With a massive garden with papaya and mango trees and flowers, it is more of an estate than a house. As we walked in, I met minha mae’s daughters – Betty, 12, e Anastasia, 15.
The room I was given is a good size. The bathroom is indoors, and although there is no running water, the bathroom does have a bath tub, a sink and a toilet. I’m pretty sure I lucked out on the housing lottery.
I settled into my new room, unpacked my suitcase, put together my water filter, set up my bed net with minha mae and we were off and running. Lunch was put on the table – beef noodle soup, chicken and rice. Being inland, there is not a lot of fish, which is very good news for me. I’ve tried to get accustomed to eating fish and it doesn’t really bother me anymore. But given the choice between chicken and beef or fish, I’ll take the frango e carne de vaca. Minha mae and I were actually able to communicate for the most part, although she tends to talk really fast. I’m picking up every couple of words, so I have a pretty good idea of what was said. Even over the course of the day, I could feel that I understood more and more. By the end of the day, though, I was so tired – both physically and mentally – that I pretty much shut down. I was asleep by 10:00.
Even though I wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and was buried in two blankets, I still woke up shivering. Being in the mountains, it doesn’t get too hot here. It’s quite beautiful during the day but the early mornings and evenings get cold. Up at 6:00, I took my shower. Luckily, minha mae wakes up at some ungodly hour and boils water for me so I can have hot showers. A cold shower on a day like today would not just be wrong – it would be borderline torturous.
Around 7:30, I left the house with one of my two irmas – sisters. Both girls are really shy around me. I’m tried to pry anything out of Anastasia, but can’t seem to get more than a “sim” out of her. I’m sure it is strange for them to have someone new, let alone a male, walk into their house for 10 weeks.
The first full day of homestay training started off a little slowly. We started with “processing,” where we were able to talk about the good things and bad things about our nights. Some people had some minor issues, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. My only problem was the rooster that woke me up at 5:45; I’ll be doing my best to make that thing into dinner very quickly. After an hour of processing, we were greeted by some of the officials from Namaacha. They seem pretty excited to have us, but like everyone in the Peace Corps, their chief concern is our safety.
We received a brief lecture on HIV/AIDS in the country. It is amazing how AIDS has destroyed a fair amount of the population. It’s eerie thinking about the fact that 1 in 6 people in this country has AIDS. The problem is more widespread in the south than it is in the north. We learned a lot about how organizations like Center for Disease Control are helping people with AIDS.
After lunch – which minha mae had prepared for me – we a discussion about safety. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details, but we basically learned about what to do in a disaster situation. Though most of it is basic common sense, it is rather extensive and will require some time to memorize. With a language class in the middle of the afternoon, our work day came to an end.
But the real work is at home. I have to switch my brain into full Portuguese mode – quickly deciphering what is being said, and try to respond without sounding like a three year old. I had tea with minha mae, but it’s not about having tea – it’s about conversation. We talked for a good hour with only a couple extensive awkward breaks. We discussed food, which was perfect because it allowed me to express what I like and don’t like, and learn some new vocabulary. Like me, minha mae doesn’t like fish. I was very happy to hear this.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon studying my Portuguese notecards and listening to music. After hearing Portuguese all day, I needed to get some English into my head. A quick shower, dinner and more conversation concluded my day.
I slept well Monday night and actually felt pretty good going into language at 7:30. Maybe it was the sleep or maybe it was the omelet that minha tia made. Even though I already know a lot of what is being taught, the language class gives me something of a safe place to get my mind thinking in Portuguese instead of translating in my head. It’s also nice because I am able to help others pick it up and when it comes down to it, teaching is what I like to do. After language class, we went to a session on social relationships in Mozambique. I was somewhat surprised to see that there were so many similarities in this realm between Ghana and Mozambique, so I hope that knowing what I learned in Ghana will help ease that transition.
After lunch and brief discussion, we reconvened in our language groups. We were told that we needed to introduce ourselves to three people in the area – in Portuguese, of course. I won’t say that it was easy, but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Clearly, the practice with minha mae is paying off.
As usual, I got back to minha casa pretty exhausted. I had tea with minha mae, spent some time on homework and got in a quick nap before dinner. There was nothing out of the norm, other than the first bad bout with my stomach. I’m a little surprised it took this long to have stomach issues, but I’m sure it will go away quickly. I just feel somewhat bad about using the bathroom because to flush the toilet, I need to pour water down the back of the toilet. This wouldn’t bother me normally, but there is a major water shortage in Namaacha, so I’m trying to limit my water use, and as such, my bathroom use.
I woke up Wednesday feeling just as miserable as the night before. I popped a Pepto-Bismol (best drug ever) and felt pretty good for the better part of the day. We spent a good amount of time in our language groups getting comfortable developing questions and answers. After a long lunch break – and a quick email check – we took a field trip to an escola secundaria – a high school – so we could get an idea of what to expect. This school was definitely an above average school by Mozambican standards, but compared to an American school, it was definitely bare bones. The school is big, both in terms of size and population. The student to teacher ratio is ridiculous. The library is muito pequeno, and the computer lab has 8 computers.
I returned to minha casa around 5 PM for tea. I tried to explain to minha mae how presidential elections work in the United States. It’s hard enough to try to explain the electoral system in English; in Portuguese, it was a near impossibility. But I think she understood my point after a while. I keep my dictionary and my notecards at my side when I talk to her so I can continue building my vocabulary. Even day to day, the conversation seems to get easier, I can understand more of what she is saying, and the content of our discussion becomes a little deeper with each day. At this rate, I should do just fine on the language side of things.
Thursday and Friday were both pretty uneventful. We are starting to get into a rhythm in terms of scheduling. The day-to-day stuff tends to move by a little faster because we have a general expectation of what is going to happen: things will start late, end early, and then we wait for the next portion to begin. I’ve starting carrying my Frisbee everywhere with me because we almost always have time and space to throw to kill off some time.
On Friday, we received a very general lecture on how to stay healthy in Mozambique. Most of the stuff is common sense but nonetheless important to hear. We also had our Country Director come in to talk to us about her expectations of us and what we should expect of the Peace Corps staff here in Mozambique. After what was a somewhat slow day, all of us gathered some entertainment. Each language group performed a little skit or song in Portuguese, I’m assuming to show how much we had learned over the course of the week. My group performed “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” shamelessly.
With the conclusion of our first full week in Mozambique, a vast majority of the 57 of us and one current Volunteer headed to a barraca for celebratory cerveja. I was incredibly pleased when I found a Castle Milk Stout – my beer of choice in Ghana – waiting for me. Some of the other trainees thought it was a little strange that I wasn’t drinking a Mozambican beer; then I let them try it. By the end of the day, I had converted five or six people into believers. I was very happy to pay the extra ten Metacais (1 dollar is about 23 Metacais) for a quality import.
Just because it was the weekend didn’t mean we got to relax. I was up at 6:30 to meet with our language group again. We spent the two hour session teaching each other what we had learned over the course of the week. After the session, our teacher Ludovina, told two others and I that she was going to move us into a different, faster-paced language group. I was very happy to hear this. The hours using Rosetta Stone certainly paid off, as most of the vocabulary from this week was review.
I returned from class to lunch and a nap, with every intention of doing laundry in the afternoon. Doing laundry here isn’t as easy as throwing everything into a machine, waiting 30 minutes, then throwing it in the drier. As it was in Ghana, laundry is hand-washed, which is just fine by me. I stood in front of my laundry, waiting to receive a lesson on how to wash clothing from minha mae and minha tia. The two girls watched me like I was dropped here from another planet, and couldn’t help but laugh.
I watched as minha tia washed the first piece of clothing for me, and then she gave me the soap to wash the next piece. The girls continued laughing. Without even finishing one piece of clothing, minha mae told me to stop. She pointed to the cut that was on my knuckle, but she probably just wanted to spare me from further embarrassment. I stood and watched uselessly for the next hour as minha mae and minha tia slaved over a week’s worth of laundry. If you thought Jewish guilt was bad, try African guilt on for size. In oppressive heat, I couldn’t help out at all. To make things worse, my black socks had shed onto what was my pristine white shirt. Words of advice: if you plan on coming to Africa, white is a bad choice of color for clothing.
The entire clothes-washing fiasco was just a reminder of what I should expect over the next couple of years. The going is not always going to be easy. In fact, the going is rarely going to be easy. There are always going to be challenges. They may be as minor as being awakened by a rooster 30 minutes before my alarm is set; they may be as large as having no idea what is being said because the language barrier still looms like an ocean in front of me. In the end, though, we will all get used to the changes and challenges that are in front of us.
And if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to clean my own clothes next week.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Flying Days and Hotel Stays
Even though our flight wasn’t until mid-afternoon, all of us were up bright and early. With so many people with so much luggage on an international flight, and a three hour drive from Philadelphia to New York, I’m sure Peace Corps didn’t want to run any risk of us missing our flight.
We arrived in New York around 11 AM. I made a few final phone calls to family members to say goodbye one last time. And then the waiting began. With our flight leaving at 5:20, check-in doesn’t start for another two and a half hours. The group of us put down our luggage and found ways to kill time until check-in began. Some people went to change some money from US Dollars to South African Rand. Others went to buy food. Lots of decks of cards are broken out and, with the airport being absolutely dead, a Frisbee is thrown around for a couple minutes. While we were waiting, a group heading to Madagascar joined as at the check-in line. They, too, were on our flight to Johannesburg.
Check-in went surprisingly smoothly. There didn’t appear to be many issues when it came to weight limits of luggage. My one bag weighed exactly 50 pounds, the weight limit for a single bag. The line moved fairly efficiently, which meant we would just have to weight more at the gate. But the waiting at the gate seemed to move much more quickly than at the check-in line. I’m sure everyone started to get a lot more excited as the time of our flight got closer and closer.
The flight was long. Really long. From New York to Dakar, most of us sat for some seven and half hours. Some of us wanted to sleep, but the timing just wasn’t right. Landing in Dakar was spectacular, as the sun as just starting to peak over the horizon. There was so much humidity sitting in the air in Dakar that we could barely see the end of the wing on the plane. After being up for some 20 consecutive hours on a mere four hours of sleep, the flight from Dakar to Johannesburg was a lot easier. I was a asleep for most of the eight hours of the flight. It wasn’t great sleep – it was just enough to keep me going through the night in Johannesburg – but if felt pretty good.
We landed in Johannesburg two days after taking off from New York and were greeted by some higher-ups from Peace Corps Mozambique. We gathered our luggage and tried to catch vans to our hotel, but people kept jumping in front of us. I guess that, like in Ghana, one has to be a little aggressive to catch a van.
The hotel we stayed at in Johannesburg was rather swanky. We were greeted by complimentary glasses of wine, of which many of us took advantage. We showered, relaxed, and ate some dinner. One of the people at my table ordered ostrich. I asked for a bite, and it was actually pretty good. With the texture of chicken and the taste of beef, it might just be the perfect animal for eating. One more glass of wine right before bed and I was out like a light.
The next day, October 2, started early as well. With a 9:40 AM flight, we had to be at the airport around 7:45. Even with the early wake-up time, I still had a great nights sleep. We bussed over to the airport, eased our way through security, and waited for our flight from Johannesburg to Maputo.
While we waited, I met a woman who was in Peace Corps in Togo in 1977. After Peace Corps, she went to grad school and then worked for U.S.A.I.D. for 27 years. Currently, she is working independently, doing the same kind of health work she did while with U.S.A.I.D. She has traveled everywhere from Haiti to Ethiopia, and currently, she was finishing up a trip that started in Mongolia, took her to China, Washington DC, South Africa and Mozambique. She’ll be here for five weeks, setting up HIV/AIDS and women’s health programs. I got her card, figuring that there may be a Volunteer who would be interested in working for one of her programs – and having a contact who worked with U.S.A.I.D never hurt anyone.
Arrival in Maputo was very smooth. We picked up our luggage (everyone’s arrived without problem) and boarded a pair of busses which took us to a hotel just a couple of minutes away from the airport. We were greeted by a couple of current Volunteers and our Training Manager, who set us up with our room keys. After a quick lunch, we were introduced to some of the medical staff, where we got our first round of shots. Even with all the shots I got for Ghana, I still had to get a couple. We also had some interviews in Portuguese to determine in which level we should be. Despite the hours I put in prior to leaving, I still got butchered during the interview.
With the mornings starting early, our evenings have been pretty open. Most of the time has been spent getting to know each other. A couple of us played “Theme Scrabble.” Whatever word we played had to fit into a theme; our theme was “myths.” It presented a pretty good challenge because a lot of the words that I’m used to playing couldn’t be played.
Friday started bright and early at 8:30 AM. Our morning started with an introduction to our Country Director and the Charge D’Affairs from the U.S. Embassy. Most of the day was committed to our safety. We learned about some of the risks in Mozambique, and what we can do to prevent poor things from happening. Part of keeping us away from risk was learning how to purify our water. We also, for the first time, broke up into our job groups to discuss some of the challenges and solutions of our jobs. Many people also took another round of shots, but I was let off the hook for the day.
During the evening, there was a wedding at the hotel where we are staying. Lots of kids were running around, and came toward where many of us were sitting and talking. Some of the trainees started talking with the kids in a combination of bad English and worse Portuguese, but conversations like those are always fun. Meanwhile, some of the kids were somewhat blown away by the Frisbee I had been throwing around with another trainee. They wanted to get involved and were eager to learn how to throw it. Pretty good way to spend a night.
Saturday was committed to what our next ten weeks would be like. We got our first Portuguese lesson. Much of it for me was a review, but it was a good opportunity to pick up some new words, and learn the accent, which is much different from the Brazilian Portuguese I had been learning. We also got a lesson on how to take shower baths and use “squatty potties” – nothing I haven’t done before but new to most. Most importantly, though, the last couple days have been a good opportunity to pick the brains of current volunteers. We received a lot of good advice from the people who are in the know.
Our Saturday ended with a small party, and with that, we are off to our home stays. I don’t know what internet will be like in Namaacha, but I will try to post again soon.
Hope all is well with everyone.
We arrived in New York around 11 AM. I made a few final phone calls to family members to say goodbye one last time. And then the waiting began. With our flight leaving at 5:20, check-in doesn’t start for another two and a half hours. The group of us put down our luggage and found ways to kill time until check-in began. Some people went to change some money from US Dollars to South African Rand. Others went to buy food. Lots of decks of cards are broken out and, with the airport being absolutely dead, a Frisbee is thrown around for a couple minutes. While we were waiting, a group heading to Madagascar joined as at the check-in line. They, too, were on our flight to Johannesburg.
Check-in went surprisingly smoothly. There didn’t appear to be many issues when it came to weight limits of luggage. My one bag weighed exactly 50 pounds, the weight limit for a single bag. The line moved fairly efficiently, which meant we would just have to weight more at the gate. But the waiting at the gate seemed to move much more quickly than at the check-in line. I’m sure everyone started to get a lot more excited as the time of our flight got closer and closer.
The flight was long. Really long. From New York to Dakar, most of us sat for some seven and half hours. Some of us wanted to sleep, but the timing just wasn’t right. Landing in Dakar was spectacular, as the sun as just starting to peak over the horizon. There was so much humidity sitting in the air in Dakar that we could barely see the end of the wing on the plane. After being up for some 20 consecutive hours on a mere four hours of sleep, the flight from Dakar to Johannesburg was a lot easier. I was a asleep for most of the eight hours of the flight. It wasn’t great sleep – it was just enough to keep me going through the night in Johannesburg – but if felt pretty good.
We landed in Johannesburg two days after taking off from New York and were greeted by some higher-ups from Peace Corps Mozambique. We gathered our luggage and tried to catch vans to our hotel, but people kept jumping in front of us. I guess that, like in Ghana, one has to be a little aggressive to catch a van.
The hotel we stayed at in Johannesburg was rather swanky. We were greeted by complimentary glasses of wine, of which many of us took advantage. We showered, relaxed, and ate some dinner. One of the people at my table ordered ostrich. I asked for a bite, and it was actually pretty good. With the texture of chicken and the taste of beef, it might just be the perfect animal for eating. One more glass of wine right before bed and I was out like a light.
The next day, October 2, started early as well. With a 9:40 AM flight, we had to be at the airport around 7:45. Even with the early wake-up time, I still had a great nights sleep. We bussed over to the airport, eased our way through security, and waited for our flight from Johannesburg to Maputo.
While we waited, I met a woman who was in Peace Corps in Togo in 1977. After Peace Corps, she went to grad school and then worked for U.S.A.I.D. for 27 years. Currently, she is working independently, doing the same kind of health work she did while with U.S.A.I.D. She has traveled everywhere from Haiti to Ethiopia, and currently, she was finishing up a trip that started in Mongolia, took her to China, Washington DC, South Africa and Mozambique. She’ll be here for five weeks, setting up HIV/AIDS and women’s health programs. I got her card, figuring that there may be a Volunteer who would be interested in working for one of her programs – and having a contact who worked with U.S.A.I.D never hurt anyone.
Arrival in Maputo was very smooth. We picked up our luggage (everyone’s arrived without problem) and boarded a pair of busses which took us to a hotel just a couple of minutes away from the airport. We were greeted by a couple of current Volunteers and our Training Manager, who set us up with our room keys. After a quick lunch, we were introduced to some of the medical staff, where we got our first round of shots. Even with all the shots I got for Ghana, I still had to get a couple. We also had some interviews in Portuguese to determine in which level we should be. Despite the hours I put in prior to leaving, I still got butchered during the interview.
With the mornings starting early, our evenings have been pretty open. Most of the time has been spent getting to know each other. A couple of us played “Theme Scrabble.” Whatever word we played had to fit into a theme; our theme was “myths.” It presented a pretty good challenge because a lot of the words that I’m used to playing couldn’t be played.
Friday started bright and early at 8:30 AM. Our morning started with an introduction to our Country Director and the Charge D’Affairs from the U.S. Embassy. Most of the day was committed to our safety. We learned about some of the risks in Mozambique, and what we can do to prevent poor things from happening. Part of keeping us away from risk was learning how to purify our water. We also, for the first time, broke up into our job groups to discuss some of the challenges and solutions of our jobs. Many people also took another round of shots, but I was let off the hook for the day.
During the evening, there was a wedding at the hotel where we are staying. Lots of kids were running around, and came toward where many of us were sitting and talking. Some of the trainees started talking with the kids in a combination of bad English and worse Portuguese, but conversations like those are always fun. Meanwhile, some of the kids were somewhat blown away by the Frisbee I had been throwing around with another trainee. They wanted to get involved and were eager to learn how to throw it. Pretty good way to spend a night.
Saturday was committed to what our next ten weeks would be like. We got our first Portuguese lesson. Much of it for me was a review, but it was a good opportunity to pick up some new words, and learn the accent, which is much different from the Brazilian Portuguese I had been learning. We also got a lesson on how to take shower baths and use “squatty potties” – nothing I haven’t done before but new to most. Most importantly, though, the last couple days have been a good opportunity to pick the brains of current volunteers. We received a lot of good advice from the people who are in the know.
Our Saturday ended with a small party, and with that, we are off to our home stays. I don’t know what internet will be like in Namaacha, but I will try to post again soon.
Hope all is well with everyone.
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