Year 1 - Week 7: 'Long walks' are relative

Richie and I awoke Sunday with the promise of reaching the promised land: Mambone. Mambone has everything that Machanga should have but, for some reason I can’t even make up, doesn’t: cold drinks (i.e. beer), full time electricity, and vegetables. And probably a lot more general happiness too. I don’t really understand how two cities, merely separated by a currently walkable river, can be so different.

We made our way to the river, forked over the 10 Meticais each for the canoe ride, and walked another couple of kilometers into Mambone’s vila. Already sweating bullets, we split a bottle of water. Then Richie came to his senses: “Shouldn’t we be drinking beers?” Of course we should be. Who cares that it’s 10:15?! There are glorious, cold beers just sitting there, waiting for us.

By the time we finished our first beers, four other Volunteers showed up in the vila. Apparently, they were on the same drinking cycle as us, so we got our second. And our third. Within two hours, we had consumed more beer in Mambone than we had in six weeks in Machanga. This was especially noted by two of the market mamas who were doing their shopping in Mambone. What wise women they are. They also informed us that had cold beer, but I’m sure it won’t taste as good – or be as cold – on our side of the river.

While we finished our beers, one of the Volunteers went on the hunt for chicken, but chicken was difficult to acquire, and what was available looked sorry and was too expensive. Chickenless, the six of us boarded a chapa and headed to our colleague’s house.

Our neighbor across the river was celebrating his birthday, which as the reason for our presence. He was very excited at the prospect of eating goat for dinner. We were not so excited when we were greeted by the two decapitated heads of said goats. But at this point, with no reliable source of meat in Machanga available to us, we are not above eating anything.

That includes goat liver. It looked kind of like dog food. And it was delicious. Seriously, it was. In fact, I would argue that the liver was better than the goat meat we ate for dinner that night. And after sobering up during the afternoon, all of us came to our senses and started drinking again by the late afternoon.

With the canoes halted for the night, and lacking a plan or the capability to go anywhere else, Richie and I ended up staying at our colleague’s house. I “slept” in tent: the rocks at my hips and my back prevented me from getting more than three hours of sleep, but I did get to witness a beautiful sunrise.

By 7:15, with pounding headaches and little sleep, we started to make our back to Machanga. We hoped to catch a car heading to the vila, seven kilometers away. We decided to start walking, mostly because we had nothing better to do. We didn’t think that we would end up covering five of the seven kilometers. At one point, Richie said “Are you feeling African yet?” At least we didn’t have to carry water on our heads. And thankfully, we had a good amount of cloud cover to keep us warm instead of the regular hot. A chapa took us in the remaining two kilometers – timing is everything, right? – where we found some glorious food items: carrots and green bell peppers. How nice to be able to eat something green! After walking another couple of kilometers to the river, we made our way across.

It was a windy morning, and with the clouds above, it threatened to rain. But the wind also allowed for some African innovation on the part of the canoe paddlers. A couple of the boats – hollowed out tree trunks – now had sails. And although the sail wasn’t employed on the trip heading north into Machanga, we did see one of the paddlers enjoying a nice, easy, wind-powered ride heading back toward Mambone.

The ride was more eventful than usual. Our ears perked up when heard the word “energia.” The talk centered on the possibility of getting fulltime energy in Machanga by the end of the year. Considering that it is an election year, I wouldn’t be surprised. In America, we get promises of universal healthcare; here, we get promises of electricity. At this point, Richie and I could probably use both.

With the Mambone-Machanga 10K completed, Richie and I both passed out. How nice it is to be laying on a bed in a pool of sweat again. We both slept until lunch, and immediately after eating, slept until about 5:00 – just enough time to prepare for dinner.

With green bell pepper and carrots in hand, we were able to add two more ingredients to our already delicious tomato sauce. What we made with these extra ingredients was nothing short of restaurant quality. We fought through the pain of a second plate of spaghetti and made sure that no sauce went to waste. Exhausted from a long day, we fell asleep after watching a few episodes of “The Office.”

I slept heavily, but Richie and I were both up at 5:00, clearly an acceptable hour for people to be talking outside of our open windows. I closed the shutters, though it was still far from soundproof, and slept until 8:30. By the time I actually rolled out of bed, Richie was returning from the market.

The morning was productive, and uplifting. We both received our teaching schedules. Richie teaches eight classes spread over two mornings. I teach eight classes on Tuesday alone. And another 17 class periods over the course of the rest of the week. I was slated to teach one class on a Monday morning, and I decided to take a stand. If I am going to be teaching this many hours per week, the least they could do for me was give me a four day work week. And it was granted. I also felt a little better knowing that there were only two classes of 11th grade instead of the four I had expected.

After lunch, I spent a good part of the afternoon reorganizing my 12th grade class. We are scheduled to meet three days a week instead of the four I was originally told, which is good news. As we inched closer to energy coming on, we started to prepare for dinner. It felt more like breakfast: pancakes, which were good; and muffins, which have room for improvement.
The night was ridiculously hot. We are really getting tired of not being able to sleep through a night. The terrible night of sleep was worsened when people started talking outside of our window, again, at 5:00. My eyes were dumbbells, heavy with frustration and tiredness.

I made my way to the market, although we didn’t need a whole lot. We still have most of the supplies from Mambone. We had hoped that there would be some sort of meat in the market today, but there was no luck. On my way back from the market, an 11th grade student stopped me to ask if he could live with us. In exchange, he would do our housework. We declined. I spent the rest of the morning typing up some class lists for a colleague. It’s something I can do many times faster, so I figure I should help out a bit.

Lunch was standard and delicious. We were both exhausted. Two bad nights of sleep in a row will do that I guess. I tried to nap in the afternoon, both inside and outside, but it was just too hot. So we did what we normally do: throw around the Frisbee, do a little class planning, stare into the sky and wonder what we are doing. We also spent a little time talking with colleagues. One of them said that Richie looks like Justin Timberlake. I see no such resemblance.

As we sat, students started walking through the gates. It was definitely more students than a chapa could hold. I asked how they arrived, and the director said by foot. For 50 to 60 kilometers. Richie and I felt like assholes complaining about our 8 to 10 kilometer walk.

Our power came on early again and once again, my IT “skills” were requested. One of the computers wasn’t able to start up. It required a disc which of course was lost. Such are the problems here. I continued helping type lists. Other than helping out, it also helps put us into the good graces of the administration and other colleagues. While I worked, Richie cooked up dinner.

We also ran into a little bit of fortune. There is an organization car here from Mangunde, one of our sister schools. We are going to take the opportunity this weekend to head north to stock up on school supplies and money before the school year starts.