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.

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.

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.

Year 1 – Week 4: Surviving Machanga from Meal to Meal, Minute to Minute

With a good New Years behind us, we had high hopes for getting out of Vilanculos. Richie and I woke up on the early side figuring we would give ourselves a good chance of getting out. Of course, as we walked down to the villa, it started raining. Hard. This was not good news for anyone. Once we got into town, we came across a rather large group of white people, including some Volunteers, all looking to head toward Beira. This was good news for us. The other Volunteers tried to negotiate a price, but it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.

Richie and I didn’t want to wait, so we headed out. We caught a ride to the crossroads – from a Namibian man now living in Vilanculos – where we ran into our friends from Peace Corps Zambia. They had been waiting all morning trying to get a ride north. Richie and I joined them, but there weren’t many cars passing and the ones that were didn’t stop. About 20 minutes after we got to the crossroads, a chapa stopped, and who is in it but the group of white people from earlier. We jumped in the chapa, and we were off and running.

No more than forty five minutes into the ride did we hit a massive pothole and blow a wheel bearing. We had hoped it was something less serious and reparable, but it didn’t look promising. Richie and I decided that we were going to get in the first car that stopped for us, regardless of direction: either we were heading north toward Machanga or back south to Vilanculos. It took a half an hour, but a car stopped and took us all the way back to the villa. We paid the man generously.

I walked back to the room where we had been staying, hoping that our friends were still there. The door was open and all of their stuff was there – minor victory? I knocked on the door, and our friend replied “What are you doing here?” I couldn’t even form a response. All I could do was laugh like a psychopath. And then she joined in on the laughing. We decided that we should try to catch the bus heading to Beira the next day and then go from there. The bus left at 4:30 AM, so we pretty much slept the rest of the day, until waking up at 2:30 AM to get to the villa.

Of course, it was raining as we walked down to the bus stop. The bus was empty – very good news. We got on the bus and found some decent seats. And after the thing was push started, we were told to get off the bus. Apparently, you needed a ticket to be on the bus. No one clued us in on this little detail. Defeated, but not totally hopeless, we got off the bus. We knew that a chapa left for Mambone – the city across the river from us – sometime during the morning. We waited for its arrival at around 7:30, but we figured we would be waiting – I mean, how many people want to go to Mambone?

We sat in that forsaken van for three hours as people eked their way into the car. Before leaving, a couple young girls walked up to the chapa trying to sell us onions. The only words they said in English – to Richie – were “Where do you touch me?” Strange sentence to know. Meanwhile, they were sure that we spoke English – until I told them that we were from Russia and couldn’t understand English. This put aside any efforts by them to speak English, plus it helped me work on my Portuguese.

Finally, at 10:31 on a miserably grey Saturday morning, we were off and running to Mambone. We didn’t want to say anything on ride up about having good luck or whatever because if we said anything, it would surely screw everything up. But all in all, we made it to Mambone pretty quickly. We crossed the river in a canoe with eight other people; I thought we were going to sink. Finally, we finished our trip with a walk through the bush to our school, complete with snake sighting. I never thought I’d write these words, but I can actually say I was happy to be back.

We spent our afternoon relaxing, mostly waiting for the electricity to come on. The high point of our afternoon was shaving – what sad lives we lead. And it was all down hill from there. As I was prepping for dinner, I sliced open my thumb. It bled enough for me to donate what I had lost to the Red Cross – almost. When the energy came on, we plugged in our newly-acquired stove into our newly-acquired power strip. It seemed to be working fine, until it started to smoke and then explode. Shit. Wisely, Richie tried to unplug the power strip, but exposed his hand to open wires, electrocuting himself. This was a bad day for hands. We ate our spaghetti dinner – that’s right, back to basics for us – watched some episodes of “The Office” and went to bed as the electricity went out.

I woke up at 7:30 – after nine solid hours of sleep – thinking I could get a good jump on the day. I had written out a list of five things I wanted to get done, and then I remembered that this was Africa, and accomplishing just one of those would make for a good day. But instead of starting on that list, I stayed in bed for another two hours. Now 9:30, I was ready to get on with my day. I went to the well to pump some water so I could do laundry. It has been so long since I have done laundry that I almost forgot how to do it. As I finished hanging my laundry, it started to rain. Why, god, do you torture me like this?

As I did laundry, Richie went to the market to buy our standard items – potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, and bread. But for some reason, many of the stores were closed, so Richie came back with potatoes and tomato paste. That meant lunch was French fries – very healthy lunch. After lunch, we went back to the well to pump water. I am convinced that one can get in a full arm workout just by pumping water. Of course, we probably didn’t need to pump water, as it started to rain again shortly after.

With a lot of potatoes and nothing but time on my hands, I thought I would be ambitious and try to make gnocchi. I found the recipe in our handy cookbook, but could not get the right consistency after mixing in the flour. I figured how bad could it be – it’s just flour and potatoes.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty standard. I accomplished one of the things on my list – creating a “closet,” which means a stick where I can put hangers – and starting drawing out a building plan for a kitchen. This, of course, requires materials, which we don’t have. One can dream, right?

As the electricity came on, we fired up the stove and put the “gnocchi” up. Remember how I said “how bad could it be – it’s just flour and potatoes”: it was bad enough that I had to put the word “gnocchi” in quotes because what we ate definitely did not qualify as gnocchi. I may have insulted all Italians with this disaster. It tasted like xima (SHE-mah), a Mozambican staple food made purely of corn flour and water. It was bad enough that neither Richie nor I could finish our food, and that never happens. This is what I get for being ambitious – epic failure. Maybe it’s better just to “aim medium,” as a family friend would say. We decided that we should stop trying and just stick to our standard food for a while.

With that nightmare and this long day behind us, we needed to laugh. We watched a couple episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” until the power went out. At least there was no bleeding and no electrocution today.

After last night, it could only get better. The gnocchi gave didn’t give us any stomach problems – in fact, it may have actually helped. I woke up late and headed to the market; it was my day to go. I can’t really call the market trip successful, but it wasn’t a gnocchi-sized failure – they were falta tomatoes and potatoes and some child followed me the entire way home. I yelled at him twice. And then somebody told me “Ele nao e bom na cabeza” – “He is not right in the head.” On the positive side, I got a cold – yes, cold! – Coca-Cola and we bought a small storage unit.

Vowing not to let the gnocchi failure deter me – and since there were no potatoes – I was forced to stray into a new food realm: rice. With some fried egg, garlic, onions, and soy sauce, Richie and I enjoyed what was possibly or best meal here.

We did almost nothing in the afternoon. We talked with some colleagues, did some Su Doku, stared blankly at walls, pondering “what are we doing with our lives?” Our energy came on late, as has been the norm recently. We don’t like this very much. With no potatoes, and not wanting pasta, we turned to Betty Crocker. We cracked one of the two boxes of instant potatoes my aunt sent me, cooked some eggs, and had a decent meal. We closed the night watching “Knocked Up,” a quality movie.

I had trouble sleeping, and it wasn’t helped by a 2 AM sports report text message from another Volunteer. We woke up to a monsoon-like downpour. And by “we,” I mean “I,” because Richie was bed-ridden for the entire day. He was supposed to go to the market today, but he couldn’t even make it to the front door. So I made my way over and – hello! – I fond delicious bread. This is good news. I also came across red onion for the first time and just for good measure, I got another cold Coca-Cola. To top it off, no one followed me home today.

I returned home and Richie was exactly where he was when I left – curled up in bed. Richie didn’t want to eat, so I made rice for one, and it was pretty good again. I killed off the afternoon playing Su Doku and learning a new game similar to checkers. I got slaughtered in every game, but it’s okay. It was a good opportunity to bond with co-workers and work on some Portuguese.

As the afternoon wound down, and it cooled off a bit, I started clearing out the land behind our house. Once the rain stops, I’ll be able to plant some crops. I’m sick of walking to that market, and it will be so much more convenient to walk to the backyard to get tomatoes. After a long afternoon’s work of throwing a hoe, I relaxed, made the standard spaghetti for dinner (which Richie actually ate), and called it a night.

I had trouble sleeping again, another night ruined by Larium. Richie went to the market early, early enough to return before I rolled out of bed. It looked like a decent day, so I finished up some laundry. Finally, all of my clothes were clean. Clothes washed, I went back into the yard to continue tilling the land. We made rice and eggs, again, lunch. It’s good, but it’s already getting old.

The afternoon started as usual – heat, Su Doku, doing nothing. Of course, I chose the hottest part of the day to continue working on the garden. I also started on the front of the house. It’s nothing but a layer of sand over dirt, and some flowers would add some decent color to this otherwise hideous yellowish-reddish house. Richie and I also spent part of the afternoon talking to colleagues about nothing in particular. Post-game, we vented about how much Portuguese we still don’t understand. In time, I hope, we will get it. I think once school starts and all of our colleagues are here, it will flourish.

With the power on earlier than the now usual 6:30, but still later than when it supposed to come on, we ate our spaghetti and watched “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In all, this was the fastest day I’ve had in Machanga. Keeping busy helps a lot. And with a lot of work to do behind the house, I should be able to keep busy up until school begins.

Thursday marked a second consecutive “fast day.” I had trouble sleeping again, this time from a combination of the heat and hearing bugs all around my bed. I slept until about 9:00 and headed to the market. All of our standard items were still missing, which is starting to become problematic, but they did have pineapple for the first time in a while. There was also some improvement with the mentally challenged boy following me. He asked me for money three times and I just ignored him. As I walked away from the market, he stopped, picked up a rock, and threw it at me. And the little bastard actually hit me. I turned around, and just laughed. There was no point in going back there to deal with him. He would just follow me around more.

By the time I got back from the market, it was just about time to start preparing for lunch. I lit up the charcoal while Richie prepped the food, and by noon we were cooking our now standard lunch: rice and eggs. This time, though, we grilled up some pineapple and threw it in the rice, and it actually made for a tasty meal.

The afternoon went by faster than the morning. Richie and I did a lot of work behind the house, flipping over another 150 or so square feet of land. It should be enough for a decent garden. It was strangely quiet around the school today, so the garden kept us busy. Also of note is that I made a small shelf (although the word “shelf” might be generous) using a piece of cardboard, duct tape and cardboard. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

As fast as the last couple days have been, things have really decelerated the last couple of days. We have been expecting more people to arrive, but it hasn’t been much more than a trickle. There are definitely more teachers here, but it’s still just a couple more than the usual.

With not a lot to do, we stuck to our same general routine these days. Richie went to the market while I did the dishes from the night before. Thankfully, today marked a return of the long-lost potato. I have never been so happy to take on oil burns. Then again, I wasn’t expecting the kind of oil burns that I took on. In between frying the potatoes and putting the eggs in the pan, the entire pan of oil set on fire. Oops – my bad. Apparently, vegetable oil does set on fire. Lesson learned.

We lazed around for the better part of the afternoon. We threw around the Frisbee for a while, which not only attracted children, but also some adults. The game came to an abrupt end when I threw the Frisbee on the roof of our house. Once again, oops, my bad. Toward the end of the afternoon, I made a spice rack using four soda cans and cardboard. It isn’t pretty, but it’s holding our spices, so I’m satisfied.

Having not learned the lesson of trying to make new foods, Richie was feeling ambitious and decided it would be a good night for pancakes. This was a good idea in theory, but as with the gnocchi, there was too much flour, and it just tasted like xima. It didn’t really matter. We were full by the end of the meal. Once again, we just need to stick with the basics. We capped the night by watching “Juno”

As this week came to a close, we had what might have been our best day here. I went to the market and they had two items that made me very happy: tomatoes, for the first time in a while; and olive oil, for the first time, period. This should help with the tomato sauce we make. Our scrambled eggs and French fries were particularly good today, maybe because they tasted like victory.

It seems like when something goes well in the morning, it inevitably goes wrong in the afternoon. So not wanting to ruin the great day, Richie and I did absolutely nothing for the rest of the afternoon. I got on a good roll of Su Doku, Richie finished off a book, and we both took hours-long naps. I would call that a successful afternoon.

The night was pretty standard. Spaghetti with amazing tomato sauce, a little bit of “The Office”, and an obnoxious amount of sweating. I spent a little time talking with colleagues after the power went out. Pretty good day for Machanaga.

All that really matters is that we survived. Another minute. Another meal. Another day. Another week.

Year 1 - Week 3: The Failed Escape

We had originally planned to leave Saturday morning, so I went to bed on the early side on Friday, thinking I had a long day ahead of me. When I woke up at 4:30 for some ungodly reason, I noticed that Richie still hadn’t returned to the room. This was not promising. At some point, he made it back to the room. He woke up around 7:30 and uttered the words “I feel like death.” My hopes for getting home shrunk considerably. As if that wasn’t clear enough, by 9:30 he said “I don’t think I’m going to make it.” That was the final dagger in our effort to get home.

So I went with it. There was no point in being angry; after all, if you are going to be stuck in a place, Vilanculos is a nice place to be stuck. And it proved to be a blessing in disguise: we got rain for the better part of the morning into the afternoon. It would not have been a pleasant ride back to Machanga.

I spent most of the morning with some new friends from Peace Corps South Africa. They have an interesting group and all of them are very kind. We spent most of the morning playing a game called Skip-Bo. It was a good time-killer and it got us to lunch.

Seeing as we had planned to go back to Machanga, I did not expect to have to spend a lot of money on food. I figured since we would leave now on Saturday, I would buy one meal in a restaurant and try to eat locally for one. So I went into town and bought some bread and vegetables to make veggie sandwiches. I was very pleased to be able to get some vitamins in me. We just don’t get that kind of variety in Machanga. Of course, as I got into the town, it started to downpour so I bought a much needed umbrella. I did not want to walk back to the hostel in the pouring rain.

The afternoon was spent the same way the morning was – playing cards. This time, we played Euchre. It was pretty nice to have some Midwesterners around because they already knew the game. We played three games for a couple hours on end – just enough to get us toward dinner.

As Richie was still in a state, I went to dinner with the South Africa crew. Thinking this was my last decent meal for a while, we went for pizza, where we also indulged in milkshakes. I came back, and Richie was semi-conscious, so we made a plan to get back to Machanga for Sunday – out by 9:00.

We woke up around 8:30, once again to rain. We packed our bags and made our way out. We stopped at the bank to stock up on money for the next couple of months – this is the closest bank to us – and we were on our way. Luckily, we got a chapa and not a truck because it started to downpour just as we got going. Things were looking good: Richie was awake, we had a chapa to the crossroads. The only thing we needed was a little luck getting a ride north.

And this is where the fortune ended. After 10 minutes of waiting, a car pulled up to stop near where we were. I asked if we could get a ride heading toward Beira. The man replied, in English, that there was no transport heading north because the bridge collapsed. Well, we didn’t have much choice but to turn around and head back into Vilanculos. We tried to contact Peace Corps of our plans, and thankfully – finally – our text message went through. Between the service being terrible and the spotty weather, it’s been a tough go using cell phones recently.

We came back to the house where we had stayed for the first couple nights. Most of Sunday was a lazy day. We stuck around the house. By the afternoon, the town was hot and dry so I did some much needed laundry. For dinner, we ate a fantastic and very summer camp-like meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

I woke up Monday on the early end. My index finger on my left hand was inflamed, destroyed by bites of some kind. My hand looked like a Braille book. Richie and I ate breakfast at the Volunteer’s house where we had stayed, then made our way back to the hostel where we had spent some of our time. The beach was a lot more accessible there and there were more people there too. It seemed to make sense to spend the day there. On the way over, I bought some vegetables for lunch.

The day, much like yesterday, was lazy. I spent some quality time in a hammock. The ocean was warm as always, but was shallow and had a strong undertow. My card-playing Peace Corps South Africa friends were on a little day trip to the islands, so I made some new friends with some Peace Corps Zambia people. Mozambique is clearly the place to be during the holidays.

We had something of a unique – and cheap – dinner: gazelle meat sandwiches. They were delicious! I could eat those everyday…oh, wait, we don’t get that in Machanga. I spent the rest of the night hanging with the Peace Corps Zambia crew until heading back to the Volunteer’s house to sleep.

Tuesday went pretty much like Monday. But that’s the way vacation is supposed to be, right – just doing a lot of nothing. I woke up at the Volunteer’s house, made my way over to the hostel, and just hung out for the day. I committed to buying only one meal at the hostel to keep my food costs down. I figured that I’m not paying for room and board so I can splurge a little on food everyday. So I have been taking advantage of foods that are just not available to me in Machanga – cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, pizza, etc.

Wednesday was probably the laziest day I’ve had here. I woke up late after sleeping amazingly. There was a storm that blew in right as I was falling asleep, so the weather stayed nice and cool. Richie came over, but strangely, he didn’t take a shower like he had been doing. His reasoning was that it was so frickin’ hot that the moment he stepped outside, he would just be sweating again – perfectly good logic. We made pancakes and some delicious syrup, and were on our way for the day.

I spent hours on end in a hammock under some coconut trees doing absolutely nothing. Not thinking, not eating, not drinking, not anything. Even if nothing was exactly what I’d be doing in Machanga right now – especially since all of the teachers are in Beira – this nothing is a lot better than that nothing.

Finally hungry, I got some food – gazelle skewers and enough bread to give me a good base for the upcoming night. The party started somewhat late for new years. The hostel had a decent live band going and the weather was decent for most of the night. The rain starting coming just after the clock hit midnight, but that didn’t stop the party. By the end of the night – and I mean the end of the night – we were on the beach, hoping to catch sunrise over the Indian Ocean. But the cloud cover was too heavy and we it just got progressively less dark. By 6 AM, I was done.

Rain brought in the New Year. Sure, this place needs it, but this could once again put a damper on travel plans. Hopefully the roads will be drivable and we will be able to get back to Machanga. We will be around Vilanculos today and will be out of here, hopefully, tomorrow. I don’t know if we can afford another failed escape.

Year 1 – Week 2: The Great Escape

For all of his ramblings about “diversity” being a wooden ship and bears being attracted to women’s periods, Ron Burgundy does some offer some wise words. At many times during the first week, I found myself saying “I immediately regret this decision.” But for Sunday, no words rang more true than “It’s so damn hot…milk was a bad choice.”

On Saturday night, Richie and I finished off the spaghetti and white sauce that we made on Friday. We had some doubts about it: as we don’t have a refrigerator and the white sauce has a milk base, we thought there could be a problem. I gave a sniff and it didn’t smell bad, but I still had the thought of “I immediately regret this decision” as we began to reheat and eat it.

The regret set it in even further early – very early – Sunday morning. By 3:30, I was awake, my stomach writhing in pain. I really didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom while it was still dark outside, so I fell asleep for a little while. Then the problems began.

Over the course of the day, Richie and I were constantly racing to the bathroom. Luckily, neither of us had to go at the same time – timing is everything, right? Regardless, we were housebound, in pain, and without food, so we didn’t eat in the morning.

By the afternoon, we were feeling well enough to walk into the villa to get groceries. Even though our stomachs were feeling better, we started feeling guilt-ridden as we walked to the market. There were a good couple-hundred people waiting in line, staring at us as we passed, at the World Food Programme tent. The stares were worse as we walked back, food in hand. How could we not feel guilty walking past them with all of that food?

Our lunch helped settle our stomachs completely and we wasted away the rest of the afternoon waiting for the energy to come on. We had our standard spaghetti dinner – without the white sauce – and went to sleep feeling decent.

Monday picked up with where Sunday left off – killing time, waiting for energy to come on. We had a Volunteer coming to visit us before we progressed on our Christmas vacation. We went to the market to stock up on food for the day and once again, people were in line at the World Food Programme tent. The guilt returned, but there was nothing we could do.

I spent the afternoon doing Sudoku – 15 of them on difficult level. There was not a lot else to do. Most of the teachers who were at the school have made their way out to Beira or Chimoio or Maputo for their own Christmas break. Our buddy arrived in the late afternoon. Richie gave him a tour of the place – if you could call it a tour – as I prepped for dinner. The energy came on a half-hour late, as has been the trend recently. We ate, watched another disc of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and called it a night.

It was a crystal clear night, and in the darkness of Machanga, every star came out. The bug quotient was relatively low, but with no clouds, rain, or breeze, it might have been the hottest night we had experienced in Machanga. It’s really difficult to sleep as you sweat. I want so badly to keep wiping the sweat off, but I have to keep in mind that as bothersome as it is, it is keeping me cool.

None of us slept particularly well. And we had a long day ahead of us. By 7:00, the three of us left Machanga by foot to get to the river. We made our first river crossing via canoe; there were no hippos in the river – bummer. From the neighboring town, we took a chapa to the main road. It is much easier to travel on the opposite side of the river because the road is paved, and it’s a shorter road. There are no chapas from the main road, so after failing three times,we managed to get a ride with a couple of Zimbabweans heading toward Maputo. We had hoped to ride for free, but as we stopped for gas, they asked for an exorbitant amount of money. We bargained, and ended up paying 500 Meticais for three of us – not to bad, but still probably too much. From the crossroads, we got in another chapa to Vilanculos.

We tried to reach the Volunteer in the area, but cell service had been spotty for the last few days. Finally, one of us got in touch with her, and we were good to go. Vilanculos was absolutely swarmed with other white people – mostly South Africans – here for the holiday, so we were kind of treated as tourists. I think that we fended for ourselves pretty well just by speaking Portuguese.

The house in Vilanculos is glorious. It was one of the stops that we made on the way up to Machanga, so we knew what we were getting into. This house is the anti-Machanga: constant electricity, hot running water, internet in the house, close to the beach – basically paradise.

By late afternoon, we were ready to experience some of this paradise. We headed down to the beach a little before sunset. The weather was perfect and the ocean was like a bath. We sat on the beach and enjoyed some beers that we brought with us.

Before heading out to dinner with some other Moz Volunteers, we finished off the crate of beer that we bought. We were in for a treat for dinner – pizza and milkshakes. At this point, price meant nothing: I was just ready for something other than eggs or spaghetti. This food was a slice of paradise. Lactose intolerance be damned!

We came home and it was scalding hot, maybe hotter than the night before in Machanga. With no fan and no breeze to speak of, we didn’t sleep particularly well.
With such a poor night of sleep behind us, most of Wednesday was lazy. I can’t really say that we woke up because none of us really slept. After eating breakfast, when we were conscious, we made our way into town to buy some food for the upcoming days. As much as I loved eating pizza and drinking milkshakes, it’s just not financial possible to eat a restaurant every night. Richie and I stopped in a hardware store to see if we could get some screws and hooks for our house, but they did not have any. On our way back into the house, we stopped in a supermarket where we were lucky to find an electric double-burner and some clothes hangers. Even though we didn’t get what we were looking for, we were pleased to find something we had not expected to find.

We returned to the house while two others continued shopping. The three of us didn’t have a lot to do, but there were three beers left in the fridge. How convenient. It didn’t really matter that it was 11:40 AM. Upon the others’ return, we ate our lunch and made our way down to the beach.

It was a hot day and the ocean was hot to match. The water was calm and cleansing. As we sat on the beach, four of us played Euchre. Richie and I decided that when we get back to site, we have to teach a couple people how to play. Sufficiently burnt and rather tired, we returned home. Richie and another Volunteer prepped dinner while I played Scrabble with another Volunteer. And once again, the drinking commenced. As dinner was prepared, we watched “Elf” – it was, after all, Christmas Eve.

Dinner was quite delicious – breaded chicken. It was really nice to get some protein in my system from a source other than eggs. We continued our Christmas celebration with a couple of drinking games.

It was a beautiful night out. The stars where glowing off a pitch black sky. The five of us made our way over to the bar. On the way, were joined by a couple of other MOZ 13 Volunteers. We spent the night talking with some Volunteers from Malawi and South Africa. This city is beautiful, accessible, and relatively cheap, so a lot of Volunteers from other neighboring countries come to Mozambique for their holidays. It was great to get different perspectives and stories, hear about similar and differing struggles, and see some new faces.

Christmas Day pretty much got out of hand. I woke up early to get to an internet café in an effort to upload pictures, but the internet was down. Disappointed, I made my way over to some other Volunteers’ house to commence the celebration. Drinking brandy and cokes at 11 in the morning probably wasn’t a great idea, but we had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

By the afternoon, we were ready to get moving again. We made our way to a bar that was hosting a barbeque. The put together a lot of good food for way to much money, but it was well worth it. We stuck around for the better part of the afternoon and evening, swapping stories with Volunteers from South Africa and Malawi.

The evening is where things got interesting. We went to a different bar with the sole intention of drinking and dancing in a completely straight all-male dance circle (no joke). I ended up learning a game that was similar to Mancala. I lost the first game, and then won the next three against the guy who taught me. The, some random dude angrily said “Welcome to the big leagues” and proceeded to lose three consecutive times to me. After walking around town for a while, in the rain, we managed to get to sleep around 5 AM.

For Friday, we plan on sticking around town and stocking up on money for the next couple of months. There is no bank close to us, so this is out last chance for a while to get money. The long trek back to Machanga will commence Saturday.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, and wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Year 1 - Week 1: Through Hell and High Water

Eight of us headed for the northern Inhambane area loaded up into a van around 6:00 AM to get on the road. We knew we were in for a long day: getting to Vilanculos in a day is not impossible but it is ambitious. I think all of us were tired, and most everyone in the car was feeling a little anxious. For Richie (my roommate) and me, the excitement was tempered because we wouldn’t be getting to site for another day. We have the longest driving distance of any site in Mozambique.

We were going along smoothly until we pulled off the road in Maputo. The driver wanted to go to a mechanic. An hour later, after getting something repaired, we were back in the road. We picked up a completely random person – the driver claimed he was his brother – and started cruising along.

The drop-offs began in Morrumbene, a small town near Maxixe. The house was decent – coniço (reeds), but comfortable. It was occupied by a Volunteer for the last couple of years and was left decently stocked. Back on the road, we got to the pothole section. For a solid hour, we were in and out or dodging potholes. The road was also filled with a lot of South Africans headed for vacation. The only thing I can compare it to is the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. The difference is this is real life: the boulder at the end is actually a truck and you might actually die in the end.

After avoiding countless accidents, we stopped in Vilanculos for three drop offs. The first house was spectacular. Running water, internet, and prime location made this place barely recognizably Mozambican. It was night and day compared to the first house. The second house wasn’t so bad either. It was a circular coniço house with running water and electricity that could be in the running with the prior house. The location is just beautiful: right on the water in a big city.

By the time we were done dropping off the first set of people, it was nearly pitch black. 14 hours into the adventure, it was time to call it a day. We made it to the hotel, where we were greeted by…hot water, cheeseburgers, and wireless internet. This is good news. I played on the internet until my computer died and ate more than my share of food. This is definitely a future vacation location. I went to bed, exhausted from the day, ecstatic from the accommodations, and excited for the arrival.

We were back on the road somewhat early. After leaving at 8, we made our first drop off – of two people – in the beautiful city of Inhassoro. Once again, beach front location is amazing. The schools looked beautiful and it looked like it had a cute town area. Considering its proximity to Vilanculos but quaintness, this is a nice balance. After dropping them off, it was just Richie and me for the rest of the trip to our destination -- Machanga.

The first part wasn’t so bad. The road was smooth and we were pretty much sailing smoothly as we crossed into Sofala. Then we turned and so did the trip. The rain started coming, harder by the minute. The road was back to the Indiana Jones ride except this time with water spraying up every couple of seconds. We definitely could have used a canoe to get down the road. It might have been more effective then the 4x4. As we made the trip, we were damning a list of people. For 60 kilometers, we saw almost nothing – just trees, mud, and water. We were waiting to come across civilization.

Finally, we saw some houses. We knew ours was concrete, so we weren’t incredibly disappointed as we passed the mud huts. Our hopes were high: after seeing the houses get progressively nicer over the course of the day yesterday, we thought we had a good chance of having a nice house. Not so much. The house was concrete but small – two small bedrooms, a bigger living area (?) and a tiny bathroom. The bathroom has a sink and a porcelain whole in the ground. After two years of squatting, I’m going to have great thighs.

We were greeted by a couple of teachers, one who taught history and one who taught biology. We wanted to head to the market to get some food, but first we needed some time to get settled. By three in the afternoon, we were ready to get out of the house. We made our way for a couple of kilometers through the rain and the mud. Getting to the market was like ice skating: we both almost fell many times over. We made some initial purchases, met the store owners, and put our Portuguese to use.

The rain came and went the rest of the afternoon. As we were told would happen, our power flipped on right around 6 PM. We had started preparing our food – spaghetti and homemade pasta sauce – before the power came on, so we were ready to go right at 6. We used a borrowed electric burner and were eating about an hour after we started. The lights flipped off at 9, and with that, it was bedtime.

The morning started where the night left off – raining and hot. With nothing to do, I refused to get up until 7:30. It was somewhat nice not to have a schedule, and at the same time, I was in dire need of structure. We went to the market around 9:30 and bought up some food – tomatoes, garlic, and a rather delicious pineapple – and some household necessities. We really wanted some bread, but there was none. Once again, we damned a list of a people. We killed off the rest of the morning hanging stuff – yes, you can put nails into concrete – until lunch, which was pinapple and a tomato-onion salad. On the way to the market, we saw a cart being pulled by two cows. Between the rain and the cows, I feel like we got sent to Peace Corps: Oregon Trail.

The afternoon was quiet. No one is here really, maybe 14 or 15 teachers at most. The most noise we heard was from the pounding rain. So far, after two days in Machanga, we have yet to see the sun. Our world is painted in a pallet of grey and brown. Both of us did some reading and napped in the afternoon while we waited for the power to come on.

Just as it did last night, the power came on right around 6:00. We prepped our food and got cooking…and then the power went out. Crap. Luckily, one of the teachers had brought a little grill and some charcoal for us earlier in the day. We tried to light it up, but with the wind and the rain fighting against us, it was a struggle. Finally, just as we got it lit, the power came on again. Sigh. We ate our dinner – scrambled eggs and French fries – around 8:30 and the power was out at 9.

Over the last couple days, we’ve been asking ourselves a series of questions: What are we doing here? What did we do to deserve this? Is it ever going to stop raining? Does this town really not have bread? We’ve also been wondering how many hours our parents could survive here. The fact that we have made it a couple days without starving, falling in the mud, or going completely crazy is somewhat miraculous.

It’s hard to stay positive, especially since we’re not really doing anything. School doesn’t start until February, so until then it will be slow and the rain is just depressing. The only good news is that with these first few days being so crappy, it can only get better. Right?

It got a little better on Thursday. It was a hot night with absolutely no breeze. And I think I was slightly paranoid about bugs getting into the bednet. I ended up cutting a good chunk of it out to make it fit over my bed when I set it up. While it was a good idea at the time, it has made me uncertain of how well it will work.

After we were sufficiently awake, we cooked up some French fries and scrambled eggs over charcoal. In the few days we have been here, we have realized a couple things regarding food: first, it is easier to eat two consecutive meals of the same food because there is usually leftover from the prior meal; and second, there is no longer any such thing as “breakfast food” or “lunch food” or “dinner food” – there is just food.

The rest of the morning was devoting to making this house feel like a home. We organized our rooms and cleaned up the rest of the house. As Richie cleaned the patio and did some reading, I made some curtains out of some purchased cloth and rope. At least this place finally has some color in it. As the morning came to a close, we started prepping for lunch – spaghetti and a garlic sauce which turned out to be not so good.

The afternoon was a little slow. I made my way through the front page of an LA Times from after the election. Thirty pages of election coverage were enough for me. It also drew the interest of some of our co-workers, who were eager to talk about Obama. It also led into a conversation about how the American people are represented in government. This is the second time I’ve had to explain the Electoral College in Portuguese, and it was definitely easier this time. I was able to use more vocabulary, more verbs and tenses, and they were able to draw comparisons to their own system.

As it was not raining – although still cloudy to the point that we had not seen the sun since arriving – we took a tour around the school. The school is pretty big: it covers first to twelfth grade and has about 1400 students. This is good for the teachers because it means the class sizes will be right around 40 kids, small by Mozambican standards.

Our power came on late which wasn’t a big deal. It’s just nice that it came on. We reheated the spaghetti and sauce, which was slightly better with the addition of some red pepper flakes. The rest of the night was spent watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – ironic considering to this point it has never been sunny in Machanga – and killing all sorts of bugs that managed to get into the house.

We woke up Friday to something amazing – the sun. By 9 AM, this was already a good day. It’s amazing how quickly this place dried out. While there were still some puddles, we didn’t have to worry about our feet sinking in the mud. What a glorious day. And as if that wasn’t enough, the market had bread! Absolutely mind-blowing. It’s like all everything that had happened the first few days was put on hold.

Richie and I returned home – after eating some of our bread, of course – and since it was a glorious day, we threw around a Frisbee. There is nothing like the feeling of having 15 pairs of little eyes stare out you as you throw around a plate. We finished a couple minutes before noon and starting preparing lunch.

Lunch was scrambled eggs and French fries – noticing a theme or a trend? If anything, we are perfecting the art of our meals. Each time we cook the two things we eat, they get better. We relaxed until 2 or 2:30, when we were met by our school director. As it was the first dry day we had, we went around town to meet some town officials. It was a good opportunity to meet the most important people here and practice some Portuguese.

After speaking with my parents about the situation here, we spent the rest of the afternoon talking with some colleagues. For dinner, we had spaghetti – surprise! – but we mixed it up and made the “white sauce” that has been talked about since day one in training. It was actually tolerable, but not as good as the tomato sauce. Still, a little variety was nice. We capped the night with some “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” All in all, the day was good – pretty, pretty good.

Saturday started off like Friday: sunny. We both slept in. It is really nice to not have a schedule. We enjoyed some bread and butter and coffee and wasted away the morning doing nothing, waiting for lunch time.

The best part of the day was right before lunch. A priceless picture sat in front of me: As I heated up lunch and water over charcoal, I watched my computer charge on a solar panel. Two polar opposites of technology working equally well. We had our standard scrambled eggs and French fries – the best French fries we’ve had to date.

The afternoon was a lot like the morning – a lot of sitting and doing nothing. I killed some time tuning my guitar, amazingly by ear. It’s probably not perfect, but it’s as damn close as it is going to get without a tuner. I have plenty of time, so I might as well learn something. The latter part of the afternoon, we went to “passear” around the other side of town. We walked with no end in sight, with no purpose, and o yes, it started to rain as we walked around. So to review, it was hot, it was sunny, it was rainy, and we were walking to nowhere. We returned and added that person to our list.

The night was pretty standard – reheating the spaghetti from last night, watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and dodging bugs left and right. As Richie eloquently stated as our night came to a close, “Today was such a worthless day.” Just another day in Machanga.

So Week One is over. We survived, although probably a few pounds lighter. The saying goes “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Well, I think it’s fair to say that this week – especially the first half – was hell. There is little to do, there are a ton of bugs, we have power for three hours a day, and it’s either hot and sunny or hot and rainy. The funny thing is: we signed up for this. But much like training, I suspect it will move faster and easier as the weeks go on. Right? We can only hope.