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.