Year 1 - Week 6: Winning Half the Battle

Pain and Frustration: these two words don’t adequately describe our Sunday. We were up at 3:45 to get the direct chapa back to Machanga. Armed with our bags of food, oven, and – for the first time in weeks – clean feet, we squeezed onto the chapa. We started with 24 people and it only got worse from there.

The first part of the ride was relatively smooth. We made it to Inchope, the main crossroads connected Beira to Maputo, with no problems – just a little discomfort. Then our hell day began. The front right tire blew out, not uncommon considering the road conditions. And it was a relatively quick fix. And then it blew again, this time with a significantly louder pop and longer delay to fix it.

Now, one time you can attribute to bad roads, and two times you can attribute to bad luck, but blowing the same tire three times in two hours can only be blamed on the driver. Our third delay, in Muxungue (Muh-shun-gweh) was hours long. Richie and I enjoyed our breakfast of a loaf of bread and a Coke – all a part of a very healthy diet.

Finally back on the road, and with another three people, we made our way down to Machanga. We made it to the crossroads, although considerably slower than we should have been going, and picked up another two people. That made 29. Twenty-nine people in one van.

Three hours, and too many stops to count later, we were back in Machanga. We got dropped pretty much at our door, which was the only good part of the trip, at 6:30 PM, 14 full hours after our trip began. The energy came on just about as we walked in the door. We cooked our dinner, watched some of “The Office” and gave out. Probably the best night of sleep we’ve had here.

As poorly as Sunday went, Monday went just as well. While Richie went to the market, I washed dishes and started arranging our new kitchen. By the time Richie returned – with all the food we usually enjoy – everything was set up: utensils hanging, oven sitting proudly and prominently on top of a small table, spice rack assembled. For the first time, this house started to feel like a home.

We walked around in the afternoon, trying to figure out what classes we were teaching and where we could get materials, but we were informed to wait until tomorrow – not a problem at all.

The afternoon was unproductive as always. We mostly just reveled in our new kitchen and waited for the energy to come on. In the last hour before energy came on, I started prepping frosting and cake batter, hoping that our oven wouldn’t blow out.

Richie finished cooking up French toast and the cake went in while we ate. We ate way to fast, as we had to wait a solid 40 minutes for the cake to cook. It wasn’t even that delicious, and at the same time it was so good. The frosting was too sugary and it gave both of us massive headaches, sugar highs, and then we burned out hard. Another nice night of sleep though. Richie and I both acknowledged that we had peaked. So for the next 23 months, it’s all downhill.

And the downhill slide started promptly Tuesday morning. We went to meet with the pedagogical directors of the school to receive our materials. Richie will be teaching 9th grade biology. I will be teaching 10th grade English. And 11th grade English. And 12th grade English. 35 class periods per week. Overwhelmed is the appropriate word. I am the only English teacher for 10th through 12th grades. At least I don’t need to plan my classes with anyone.

The downhill slide continued in the afternoon. I went to the market, and got nearly everything, but Machanga is once again out of tomatoes. I bought credit for my phone, hoping that I could connect to the internet with my new ridiculously expensive gadget. But I had no luck. None at all. If it doesn’t work, it is a lot of money gone to waste.

For the better part of the afternoon, I spent time reviewing the curricula for 11th and 12th grades. In spite of the obvious spelling and grammatical errors, I think I can make something out of it. We tried throwing the Frisbee around, but with unusually massive winds, it was near impossible. It was then that we received a text message from a friend saying that there was a cyclone brewing in the Channel of Mozambique. This is all very exciting.

Dinner was our regular spaghetti dinner, but for the first time, we were able to add some additional spices purchased in Beira. It was sweeter than usual, but still pretty good. And now that we have an oven, we were able to make garlic bread, which was delicious. Small victories.

Just as we finished dinner, a colleague told us that Barack Obama was on television. We were excited to watch him swear in and give what I’m sure was a fantastic speech. I mean, the speech we didn’t get to see, because just as he was about to walk out of the Capitol building, the cable went out. Just our luck tonight. And of course, after trying many times over, my internet connection failed to work. Point: Machanga.

After a rollercoaster couple of days, Wednesday was decent but not great. We didn’t do a whole lot in the morning, and each of us spent a good amount of time preparing for the upcoming school year. In spite of the curricula that I have to work with, I am starting to feel like I can make something out of this. The nice thing is since I am the only English teacher for all of 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, I don’t have to work with someone to develop lesson plans. I can plan on my time, on my own schedule, where I want.

The latter part of the afternoon ran rather smoothly. In need of calories (and something sweet) I whipped up a cake batter. While I did that, Richie made pancake better. We both acknowledged that our second attempts at these items were significantly better than the first tries. More small victories.

The small victories turned into significantly bigger victories Thursday morning. The market, although lacking tomatoes, had everything else. And we have talked with one of the store owners about securing some baskets that we will make into hanging food storage.

Upon return from the market, and with a full computer, I decided that it was worth trying to log onto the internet again. And success! We are officially running wirelessly in Machanga. Yes, that little modem was expensive, but I see it as a 30 cent per day investment on my sanity for the next two years. Richie and I both checked our email and basked in the glory of a now somewhat bearable living condition. Now if we could just get energy 24 hours a day…

The successes continued into lunch. We decided to mix things up and make potato pancakes instead of French fries. It doesn’t matter that it’s not Hanukkah; we wanted potato pancakes. And we wanted to use our new vegetable grater. It’s a small variation, but we used one less potato and it looked like twice as much food. Sometimes, just appearing to have more food is winning half the battle. And they were delicious and filling! That’s the other half of the battle that we won. We will definitely be working potato pancakes into the regular rotation.

The afternoon was a little slow. We threw around the Frisbee twice. And I took a cold bath that felt amazing in this heat. It’s nice to see the regular color of my feet, even if it is just for a couple of dirtless moments. Toward the end of the afternoon, we got bored to the point that we started exchanging riddles with another Volunteer.

And then something happened that hadn’t happened until now, and probably won’t happen again: energy at 5:30. What a gift. We started cooking early – spaghetti and a mushroom sauce that we bought in Beira. The sauce wasn’t great – definitely not as good as the homemade tomato sauce – so we just went with olive oil and spices instead. Not a major setback by any means. And oh yea, we had garlic bread again, because we could. The joys of having an oven.

Friday started out rough for Richie. He literally got kicked in the ass. By a bull. I cleaned up while Richie was at the market. The good news for Richie was that when you get your ass kicked by a bull at 8:30 in the morning, it can only get better from there.

And it did, for the most part. I’ve felt sick the last couple days, so I tried to get some rest in. I napped, for the first time, after lunch, which was glorious. But I still didn’t feel much better.

It was a typically slow afternoon. Slower than usual actually. We threw the Frisbee around three times instead our typical two. I know, very exciting. Well, one of the teachers did try to throw it around with us. She is a phys-ed teacher. She failed utterly at first, but seemed to come around toward the end. Everyone found her effort quite funny.

As we waited for our energy, we prepared our French toast. 6:00 passed. Then so did 6:30. And 7:00. By 7:00, we fired up the charcoal and prepared to cook our French toast over charcoal. Nothing like cooking American breakfast food for dinner on charcoal in Mozambique.

By 7:30, we still did not have power. By this time, I let out a not so quiet “Fuck you, Machanga.” And some people heard me. And some people understood me. Oops. My bad. This garnered the response “Machanga is nice place” from one teacher, and plenty of laughs from others.

Finally, at 7:40, our power came on. Sigh. We continued cooking the French toast over charcoal and at the same time, put some brownies in the oven. Because we could. And because we need the calories.

I had trouble falling asleep, and when I did fall asleep. I had terrible dreams. I killed someone. In the house. With my Swiss army knife. Thank you, Larium. I spent the remainder of the early morning paranoid that somebody would seek revenge.

Not a good way to start the day. My morning was surprisingly busy. And productive.
I went to the market and actually had some decent success. We planned to make brownies again, this time for our colleague’s birthday. Upon returning, I did laundry for the first time in weeks. It’s not even about getting clothes clean anymore; it’s just about not smelling and looking like an ass.

We reverted to our typical French fries for lunch, and we decided that we probably shouldn’t make them again. We use more potatoes, it looks like food, and that’s losing the entire battle. The eggs turned out well though.

The afternoon was slow. I tried to nap again, but it was a lost cause. It’s just too hot.
We prepped for dinner – I have mastered garlic bread – and our brownies. But our colleague wanted to cook a cake, so we let her. It took forever though. So we watched television while we waited.

All in all, it’s been a decent week. A lot of highs and lows, but not a bad week. It was productive. And we had brownies. I’d call that winning half the battle.