November 10, 2012

We watched an interesting movie this morning. It’s called “Yesterday” and I think it’s set in South Africa. It’s about AIDS/HIV in African communities here and I was pretty depressed after watching it. Beautiful cinematography though and it was very enlightening. It made me realize that most of what I know about AIDS is about the impact AIDS has in the U.S., not Africa. I also kept thinking about “Rent” Mindy. No day but Today :) I have that movie now. And “Love Actually” too! So happy! But yeah, I would recommend the movie for sure. It made us realize the importance of our roles as educators in our community. I need to learn Portuguese! I also learned that a lot of people who supported Apartheid in South Africa moved to Mozambique after it was abolished so if we do look “white,” a lot of Mozambiquans will assume we’re racist. I’m still not 100% sure what people think I look like here but it’s good to keep in mind. 

Assane came in as I was writing this. I’m borrowing a book from my family called “A visual English Portuguese dictionary.” He was just sitting down, reading it, when came to the flower section. Assane then started telling me that we have some flowers in the yard! He recognized daisy (margarida) and clover (trevo) then brought in four different flowers. He is adorable. 

 Assane giving me flowers :)

This afternoon, a group of us (Me, Stephen, Amanda, Casey, Ella, Pam, Nick, Jenea) walked around the neighborhood. We planned on going to Nick’s house to watch a movie but his family was blasting music and really loud. Eventually we decided to try the science office. The security guy let us in and we watched” Lord of the Rings” outside on the floor until it got dark. When the sun set, one of the Peace Corps drivers came back and invited us inside. He was extremely nice and we were much warmer! Plus Amanda brought a projector so it was quite a nice setup. The guy even gave us a ride back home too when we finished. Did I mention how much I love that so many of us nerds? :)

The next day (November 10th) was also super hot! My host sister helped me wash clothes (they are convinced that I am hopeless and help me do everything). My host mom also freaked out when I was washing clothes. She thought I would get really sunburned like Casey haha thank goodness I’m half asian! 

My oldest host sister visited that day for the first time. She lives in Maputo and just had a baby! He’s 30 days old (it’s tradition here in Mozambique for babies to not leave the house until they are 30 days old or older). All the neighbors came over to see him, there’s such a sense of community here. 

After that, we ate lunch on our porch on a mat on the floor. My adopted mom gossiped about the other Peace Corps volunteers while we watched the neighbors and ate papaya for desert. So funny. I also saw my other brother for the first time since the first week. He goes to a technical high school in Maputo and “majors” in accounting. He has an interview with Save the Children on Monday and I hope he gets it!

November 9, 2012

We just got back from site visits yesterday. I feel so bad for everyone on the East Coast. The families of my friends here seem to be doing fine, thank goodness, and I’m glad to hear that Sandy is doing well. Sorry again that my writing is not very formal and so bad (My excuse still remains that I’m a bio major! ;) ). Hope you guys are enjoying the information though :) I got my first and only letter in the mail last week, thank you Lauren! I absolutely loved reading it! 

I have so much to tell you about my trip! Peace Corps drove us to Maputo at around noon last Friday. We got our rooms in our hotel and then headed a couple buildings down to a restaurant where I ordered macaroni and cheese. I was so happy :) I love cheese. After that we walked to a gelato shop and a grocery store. We also ate some lychee. It wasn’t as sweet as the lychee in Taiwan but I’m excited I get to eat it here! 

Eating lychee.

The group of us (13 people) woke up early the next morning (Saturday) to catch our plane. We flew into Nampula, the capitol of the province Nampula. The landscape was breathtaking. Flat land with these huge rocks/mountains. I was told that there are only two other places like it in the world. It was pretty hot once we landed and Peace Corps picked us up and took us to the office in the city. A few volunteers met us in the office and walked us around the city. We ended up eating lunch at a fancy hotel near the office called Millennium. I ate some of the best Indian food I have ever eaten there. So good! After that, I left the group and met up with another second group who flew into Nampula at a later time. Their plane was late, though, so we weren’t able to catch a chapa (Public transportation. They are a type of mini bus) and make it to our site before dark. Because of that, the five of us (me, Lisa, Brendan, Victor, and Jennea) stayed in the city in a really nice hostel. We met some ex-volunteers there and I had the first hot shower I’ve had in weeks! It was so nice and relaxing! I had dinner again at the Millennium hotel with the second group. The food is so delicious! Then we went to bed. 

Next day (Sunday) we got an early start. A taxi picked us up from the airport and on our way to the airport we saw the most violent fight I have ever seen in my life. Two men were beating/kicking a woman in the street. It was really brutal and we were all a bit shaken up. We then made it to the paragiam and found a chapa to Alto Molokwe. We waited in that chapa for about three hours. The bus driver had lost his keys and we were waiting for it to fill up. We were bored so Jenea and I read her Portuguese copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix out loud for a while. Everyone kept telling us to read louder and corrected our pronunciation, pretty funny! Another bad thing happened though. Brendan got his iPod stolen from his jean pocket, I felt so bad for him! We were paranoid about taking out our electronics after that so I’m sorry I don’t have many pictures. Finally, we left at around 8am. There are so many giant termite mounds everywhere here and our chapa got stopped a few times. The policemen wanted to check our IDs and hopefully get a bribe out of us. We all had our passports though so it was all good. We finally made it to Alto Molokwe around noon and were met by two volunteers. We got free ice cream and walked up a steep hill to get to the volunteer’s house. After that, we left Victor and Jennea and traveled with Stephanie to her site. This site is very rural. She doesn’t have electricity and carries water to her house on her head! It was pretty late by the time we got to her place so we stayed the night there. We cooked tuna, tomatoes, and garlic together and ate it with rice. We sat on a mat outside and looked at the stars after we finished eating. It was breathtaking and so much fun. Brendan is a funny guy and I’m glad he didn’t let the stolen iPod get to him. He was a volunteer in Cape Verde so he’s had other electronics stolen as well. It’s pretty common here in Africa, unfortunately. 

The view from Stephanie's house.

Next morning (Monday) we woke up at 4 and had the most intense chapa ride I have ever experienced. Lisa and I got into the chapa and sat in the back for some crazy reason. We obviously had no idea what we were doing. The road was extremely bumpy (it is a dirt road and windy) and the driver was driving pretty fast. I sat on a bag of coal and my poor jeans are now ripping. So many people piled into the chapa too, I couldn’t believe we were able to fit more people inside it! People were hanging off the sides and I still have some colorful bruises. I was shaking so much from exhaustion and nerves when I got off the chapa that I needed help getting off, so embarrassing! But I’m honestly fine. Please don’t worry about me. It was quite an experience and the gorgeous scenery made the ride worth it. 

I am never taking comfortable seats/transportation for granted ever again. The only thing I can compare that ride to is the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland. Luckily, the volunteer (Annie) waiting for us was super nice. She had cinnamon rolls with icing and fresh coffee waiting for us! I was so happy to bathe and eat delicious American food. I ate so well while I was there and got a lot of questions/concerns answered, it was great! I also realized that this training period is definitely a transition to what our real service will be. I didn’t feel I was really in Africa until this trip (probably because I am always speaking English and surrounded by Americans. Plus it still feels like Peace Corps is holding our hand. I appreciate the help though! :) ). We saw the school Annie teaches at and the clinic she volunteers at as well. That afternoon we traveled 15 minutes away to a large city called Gurue. Boy was it hot there! It was absolutely stunning though. We passed by fields of tea (Tea Tani!! Omg!!! Haha I thought of you!) and when we were hiking up a hill we saw a lake and fancy houses the "Padres” live in. The only other time I remember being so impressed with scenery was when I was in Yosemite. It really looked like a painting. The mountains are so pretty!

 African sunset.

 The teacher housing at Annie's site.

 Lissa and I with trash in the background and no sunset lol

Food during site visit: We ate so well! The first day we made tuna melts on homemade bagels for lunch and for dinner we had mac and cheese with salad. The next day we didn’t do much but cook. It was so hot! We ate a local Zambezian dish (with Saracha/rooster sauce!) for lunch and at dinner we made bean patties to make into a burger with salad. So happy! I attached a picture of the local dish (muca pata) to the email. Lentils with coconut milk and onions I think. 

 Tuna melts.

 Muca Pata.

The last (Tuesday) night with Annie we were anxiously trying to get internet to learn what was going on back home about the election! For some reason we thought the polls closed at 4am our time and woke up early to find out who won! We were wrong, though, and had to wait a bit. The two memory card/cell phone providers the Peace Corps gave Annie and I don’t work in Invinha so we were huddled around Annie’s phone. CNN didn’t work on her phone so we were getting our updates through facebook lol and we finally found out about the elections while sitting on the side of a road in Mozambique waiting for a ride. Fun times! Lisa and I were a bit anxious about the trip back to Nampula. Our flight was around 8pm that day (Wednesday) but it took us 3 days to actually get to Annie’s site in the first place! After waiting 2 hours, we finally got on a chapa that took us back to Alto Molokwe. We were much smarter about how/where we sat on the chapa this time around and it was much more comfortable! Plus I think this driver was a lot more cautious/slower. When we got to Alto Molokwe, we found a large bus and got on it instead of a small chapa. It was the same price and we had a lot more room so we were happy! That night we flew back to Maputo with our big group of 13 and stayed the night in the same hotel. The next morning we got breakfast in the hotel and made our way to the Peace Corps office. After that, we walked to a craft market and ate lunch at a restaurant owned by previous volunteers. Chocolate milkshake plus a veggie Panini. Yum! It started raining by the time we got on a chapa back to Namaacha. It’s nice being back “home” but I am now pretty excited to get my own place. I am so glad I got to hang out with Lisa! She is such a great person and we both wish we could be roommates. We have a lot in common and similar personalities. 

We find out where our future sites will be this Wednesday! I wonder what I’ll get. I didn’t mind not having electricity until I saw Annie’s site. She already has so much stuff (including a refrigerator!) with beautiful scenery and cooler temperatures. There are a lot of pretty places around Mozambique, especially the beach sites, but it would be hot and humid there! I think I want to ask for a more rural site. I would feel safer there and it would be easier to integrate myself into the community. We’ll see where I end up but I honestly think I can be happy wherever they put me. I’ll keep you updated!

Today we found out our level of language proficiency. I am advanced medium! It was much better than I expected! Everyone who is advanced medium and below still have language classes every day, which I’m grateful for. I need all the help I can get before I’m on my own! Our language classes changed though. I still have class with Amanda but there are four other people now. Jade (who went to UC Davis!), Stephen (my neighbor), Will (who is a math teacher), and Ryan (who is also a math teacher. He’s an aerospace engineer so he knows where Edwards Air force Base is!). Wish me luck.

November 2, 2012

Let’s see. I wanted to talk about our class the other day. We had a practicum. Our adopted moms made sure we know how to iron, wash clothes by hand, pound peanuts, light charcoal, shave coconut, and peel pumpkin leaves. Then weather started going crazy. It was sunny all morning but the clouds moved in really fast (I ran home and grabbed my rain jacket thank goodness) and it looked pretty spooky. While we were cooking, it started to pour! I could not believe it, it was even hailing! We were at my friend, Tram’s, house and there are no windows in her living room. As expected, there was no electricity so we were shouting at each other in the dark over the loud roof and avoiding the leaks throughout the house. The steaming hot pumpkin leaves with coconut milk and onions on top of rice was delicious though! Peace Corps picked us up in a car and we got a ride home, which was great! They take care of us. 

 Language class.

 Looking into Tram's kitchen before the rain.

Yesterday we went to a family planning clinic. I was so impressed with everything they did there and pretty happy that I could understand a lot of what was going on! They have a group of teenagers that learn about HIV/AIDS and teach other students their same age about teen pregnancy and safe sex. One girl was 16 years old and so mature! I didn’t know places like that existed here. It makes me happy to see Mozambicans work towards a better future. Peace Corps is just here to help out. 

We just had a language speaking test and wow I did terrible! I really need to practice more. Learning another language is hard lol but let’s see. We’re going on site visits this week! We just found out on Wednesday but I completely lucked out and I’m going to one of the northern provinces of Mozambique! Because the U.S. government doesn’t given Peace Corps that much money, not that many people were able to travel up north so I’m pretty happy I have this opportunity. I’m leaving noon today to Maputo where we’re going to spend the night in a hotel. Saturday morning we’re flying up to Nampula (2 hour flight. Mozambique is twice the length of California!) and then me and another volunteer (Lisa. I’ve never really talked to her so it’ll be nice to get to know other people!) will then go to the province of Zambezia. I’m visiting a current volunteer named Annie in Invinhia. We’re not returning to Namaacha until next Thursday so I hope I have internet access while I’m visiting the volunteer. I want to know how the election turns out! Have fun voting everyone :)

October 28, 2012

Next day I woke up late (around 7am!) and one of the guys, Kevin, told my friend Andrea that he would take us to the “Cascades” or waterfalls that are near Namaacha. It was misty/rainy this morning but humid! We met up with another guy, Nick, and Kevin’s dog. A lot of people here are afraid of dogs because of rabies and kids throw rocks at them. It’s really sad. But, because people are afraid of dogs, our security advisor told us that it would be a good idea to adopt a dog. If I do, I might ask you guys to send me flea medicine :) But yeah, Kevin’s dog is about 7 months old and almost got hit by a car as we were walking down the main road. So scary! But it really was the dog’s fault. Hopefully he’ll learn to avoid cars before anything worse happens. After that, we hiked to the cascades and the scenery was awesome. Saw some goats and took some pictures. The hike itself took a few hours but the cool weather made the trip completely worth it. 

The beautiful flowers I saw everywhere.

 

The waterfalls (cascadas).

From left to right: Me, Nick, Andrea, and Kevin (Max is hiding behind us).

 

These past few days we learned how to make a perma-garden! First, we made a compost pile (I remember you teaching me why steam comes off compost piles Dad, thanks! It helped me with a question on our test!). Then we dug trenches to make a veggie garden. The ground is so rich and fertile here! The second day we went back and planted seedlings and seeds. Tomatoes, cove (a type of collard green I think), sweet potatoes, corn, banana tree, and also a medicinal tree that I only know in Portuguese. Apparently you use it to make tea though! Yum! One of my brothers, Assane, helped us hoe and wow those kids are good workers! Assane is still my favorite. I think the reason why he is so helpful around the house is because he is not actually my adopted mom’s son. Kinda like Dulcinia (she’s my host mom’s niece). I’m not sure how he is actually related to the family yet but I’ll figure it out eventually. The other night he was in my room with all the other kids. They were helping me bring hot water into the bathroom when I noticed that my shampoo and soap was already there. I was confused because I couldn’t remember putting it there and I didn’t know how/what to ask him in Portuguese when he said, “Who put that in here?”. I said “Yes.” And he answered “Me!” I could not stop smiling for a full five minutes. I also made a complete mess in the bathroom the other day. I was wearing my sandals outside and got dirt on them and there was water on the floor of bathroom. I’m not allowed to walk barefoot around the house so I, therefore, made a lot of mud. I went to change in my room and after I was done, I walked back into the bathroom and saw that it was clean. Assane was outside in the hall and told me he had cleaned for me. Thanks Assane! The kids like to show me how they do on tests. Assane does pretty well and I tutored him a bit in fractions and percentages. My youngest sister, Mae, however failed her tests. She got a 1 out of 20 on her math and 4 out of 20 on Portuguese. I was helping her figure out how to add by using some crayons I brought. I then realized that she doesn’t even know the alphabet and can’t read or write. She’s a smart girl though so hopefully I can teach her some things before I leave (update: I just found out Mae is moving onto the next grade! I’m pretty annoyed. This is a clear example of corruption in the schools and I’m worried about her future education. Schools are required by the government to pass a certain amount of students each year and it is common for teachers to change grades at the end of the year to meet this quota. What a joke. But Mozambique won't get funding from other countries like the U.S. if they don't pass a certain amount of students. Schools also get more money if they pass more students. It's a never ending cycle).  

Tutoring Mae. She's a cutie :)

Let’s see. The weather. So we’ve had freak thunderstorms pretty often these past few weeks. The rain is so loud that it actually wakes me up (and I’m a heavy sleeper!) at night. Whenever it rains, I lose reception and internet on my phone. The electricity also goes out. Yey. Haha I’ve bathed by lightening twice now and that was quite an experience. I left my head lamp in my other bag so I’ve been using the flashlight on my iphone. Fun times. But I’ve really liked it. We never had crazy weather back home.