Year 1 – Week 5: The Poop Hole Ate My Soap

(Note: I posted Week 4 and Week 5 at the same time, so if you haven't read the prior post, you will be missing a week. -LDG)

It would appear that things actually seem to be improving in Machanga for this week. The rain has pretty much come to a halt, although that just means we have to haul water more often. We seem to be finding our groove here, but at the same time, we are also scheming on how to get out again, if only for a little bit of time, before school starts. Our days here before school starts are pretty repetitive, so getting out for a few days could help break the monotony.

The week started well for us. Sunday morning moved typically slowly. I got Richie into Su Doku, so now when it looks like we’re reading, we’re really just doing nothing but keeping our minds active. Just before making lunch, and before it got too hot, we threw the Frisbee around for a bit. The challenge is to stay in the limited amount of shade that some trees provide because once out in the open, it is way too hot.

Our standard egg and potato lunch was followed by something complete non-standard. We spent the afternoon playing cards with colleagues. Richie and I tried to teach Euchre to a couple of people. I wouldn’t call it a complete success – it’s really hard to explain in Portuguese, as I found out – but it was a good opportunity to interact with colleagues. Following Euchre, we asked them to teach us a game. And we ended up playing until the energy came on. Not a bad way to kill the afternoon.

The evening only got better. With our hands on tomatoes and tomato paste, we were able to make an absolutely delicious tomato sauce. We cooked a ton of spaghetti and by the end of the meal, we were both muito satisfeito! Once the power went out, I went outside to talk with colleagues. It is much cooler outside than it is inside, and it was just another opportunity to work on Portuguese. I get the feeling that once school starts, I will be speaking mostly English, so this is my prime opportunity to work on my language skills.

Monday picked up where Sunday left off – with some actual successes. Per the usual, most of the morning was spent playing Su Doku. While Richie ran to market, I put a call into our school office in Beira. We get free accommodation when we go to the school office, which is very convenient for us poor Peace Corps Volunteers. We’ll have the opportunity to set up mail boxes with the office, buy some things that we couldn’t get in Vilanculos, and charge up our batteries before we start planning for school.

The afternoon was pretty regular. Regular lunch, regular Frisbee playing. It always seems to attract a couple pairs of eyes. Why are these two crazy white people throwing a plate back and forth to each other? The monotony of the afternoon was broken up with two small things: firstly, I shaved for the first time in a month. I know, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but wow, I almost forgot what my face looked like. Secondly, Richie and I filled out some Safety and Security forms for Peace Corps. We’ll be able to fax them off from the office in Beira, which is just one more reason to go.

Just as it was last night, dinner killed. We broke away from the regular spaghetti dinner and made French Toast. With a reliable source of good bread, and all the other materials on hand, we figured a change would do us good. It wasn’t just good – it was nothing short of great. Cinnamon-sugary deliciousness! Thoroughly satisfied with dinner, we watched “Borat” – after all, dinner was a “great success!” Once the power went out, I went back outside to try to talk to colleagues, but they were way over my head. I wasn’t able to contribute a single word, and most of what they were saying was way too fast for me. Minor failure, but better than lying in bed sweating.

Tuesday is barely worth writing about. The big item of note is that I got away from Su Doku and started doing cryptograms (I know, stop the press!). I can’t handle numbers anymore, so it was a good change. We had our regular lunch and our regular Frisbee throwing session in the afternoon.

The evening was when things got interesting. We prepped dinner in anticipation of our energy coming on. And it did come on. And then it went off. And then it came on. And then back off again. Finally, after thirty minutes, the people stopped trying to make it work and we were left in the dark for the night. Richie and I had a very romantic candle-lit spaghetti dinner.

The lack of energy did have its upside though. One of the nice parts about having no electricity is that on a clear night, we can see every star in the sky. And tonight was especially cool because the near-full moon rose right in front of us. It was pretty awesome to go from being able to see every star to being able to see almost none, just because of the moonlight.

Wednesday seemed to be going like the early part of Tuesday – not a lot to do. And to make it worse, Richie and I were both up early, which meant we had more hours to wait until lunch. I went to the market to buy food for the rest of the week and to find out when and from where the chapa leaves for Beira. Unfortunately, I was back by 9:00. We can’t even begin thinking about prepping for lunch until 11:30. So we sat.

Around 10:30, one of our colleagues asked us if we wanted to see the house where the previous Volunteers were. We figured what the heck, but after being here for a month, we were pretty sure that we would be staying put. The house was definitely bigger than ours, but it was disgusting. It looked like it was straight out of Hurricane Katrina – flooded, moldy, and full of spiders. Fortunately, the Volunteers had left a bunch of books and some shelving units, which we took for ourselves.

By the time we were through with the house, it was already noon. Success: lunch time! Lunch was particularly good today. It’s difficult when cooking over charcoal because we have absolutely no control of the heat. But today, the eggs were fluffy and not a single potato burned.

The afternoon wasn’t too bad. Due for a shower, I took a bucket of water and let it sit in the sun. After a couple hours of sitting in the sun, the water was warm enough for a shower. Now that is solar power! The shower felt pretty good, but I had one major problem – the poop hole ate my soap.

Allow me to paint the picture. Our bathroom is a 4 by 6 foot closet. On the right side, there is a sink that has no faucets (why would there be? There is no running water). On the left side is a 9 by 18 inch porcelain inlay (a “squatty potty”) where a toilet would normally be. This is where Richie and I poop, pee, shower, and vomit if necessary. We have become fairly comfortable using it; unfortunately, it is not very forgiving when dropping items. It is a black hole. That soap is gone forever, but maybe our bathroom will smell decently now.

Our energy struggled to come on, but we eventually got it. We had our spaghetti dinner and made a return to the delicious tomato sauce from earlier in the week. After dinner, we watched “40 Year Old Virgin” and watched the moonrise again. Pretty cool.

Thursday seemed to be no different than the rest of the week. A long morning, with colleagues occupied with work they should have done last month, left us sitting alone on the porch. We got a bit of rain last night, and the lingering clouds are actually keeping this place somewhat tolerable.

Throughout the afternoon, our energy kept going on an off. Maybe they are making up the lost time from a couple nights ago. We barely knew what to do with ourselves. Of course, it’s not like we have internet access or a television, so we stuck with to the normal routine (albeit we were able to charge phones, laptops, batteries, etc.). Richie and I each spent the afternoon reading. I picked up a book called “Dear Exile,” a series of letters between Kate Montgomery, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya in 1999, and her friend Hilary Liftin. I don’t think I have ever read a book that I could relate to so much. There were parts where as I read, all I could think is “This is my life,” especially this particular section:

“Oh, January 10th, you think, Kate and Dave (her husband) have probably started their teaching! And oh how we’ve started. Oh, how. I am currently sitting in a virtually empty staff room in a virtually empty school. Wind is blowing through the palm trees (…) Dave and I have been sitting in this staff room now for a total of twenty-seven hours over the last three days. Waiting for school to start (…) We are sitting, looking at walls. Sweating. Basically melting away.”

This is my life.

As I continued to read in the breeze, I looked up every once in a while to a sky that was like nothing I had seen before: to the east and west was a typically blue sky with white puffy clouds, the kind of sky one could expect to see on just about any spring day; to the south was a slate grey-blue with patches of lighter grey clouds; to the north, a light aquamarine, the kind of color expecting parents would paint a room if they didn’t know if they had a boy or a girl on the way. It was stunning. And with the palm trees and thatched-roof houses sitting around the school, my thought of “This is my life” was amended slightly to “this is my life in Africa.”

I spent the afternoon finishing off the book. A quick 200 pages that I highly recommend. It will show that I’m not entirely crazy when I describe some of these things. While Machanga certainly is a difficult site, it is not the most difficult by any stretch, and can certainly be compared to other experiences. As I finished reading, we encountered what was probably the most beautiful sunset I have seen. It was picture-worthy, and yet I know the pictures I took wouldn’t capture it well enough. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pallet of colors – pinks, oranges, purples, and reds – in one sunset. The clouds added some extra effects that were just spectacular. We couldn’t help but stand and watch it.

Richie and I were due for a 3:30 AM wake up to get the 5:00 AM chapa to Beira to take care of some business, but that planned when a massive thunderstorm struck at 3:00. There was no sleeping through it, so we threw our hands up and just gave up. We waited for the rain to stop and then made our way over to the chapa stop. On the way, I almost lost both my sandals, so I shed them and walked barefoot (Mozambican style) to the stop. What made the morning even better was Richie almost bailing into the mud, then claiming he was about to E.T. (early terminate) and then eating it less than 5 steps later. Pretty much made my morning.

The ride to Beira is long and boring, but beautiful. Once we got off the dirt road that connects the main drag to Machanga, it was smooth sailing. I had a pretty comfortable seat; Richie had one butt cheek each on two different seats – not so comfortable. We left around 5:30 and were at the school offices by 2:00. A long journey for sure.

When we arrived, we had one thing of our mind: meat, of the chicken or cow variety. We walked into town, and split up 6 delicious pieces of fried chicken. Oh meat, how I miss thee! We later bought a stove and a ridiculous amount of materials, both edible and non, for what will be our fantastic new kitchen.

We will be in Beira until Sunday. I’m hoping to buy a wireless internet USB drive this weekend, which will at least bring some sense of connectedness from the outside world to Machanga.