Last Saturday we went to Maputo! It was raining most of the
morning and traffic was pretty bad before we actually got to the capital.
Thankfully it cleared up after an hour or two but I regretted wearing a long dress.
The streets remind me of Quartz Hill when it rains. Flooded streets/sidewalks
everywhere. I’m really glad I invested in Chacos though. These shoes are
amazing! Comfortable sandals with traction so I don’t fall on my butt like I
did in Taiwan! I bought two capulanas (sarongs) that I think are very pretty. A
lot of people here get clothing made at a tailor and its really cheap! One of
the Peace Corps Trainers (a girl who has been here for 3 years) lent us a dress
to use as a model and we brought it to a seamstress yesterday so hopefully I’ll
get a new dress sometime soon!
Me in Maputo
Back to Maputo. Let’s see… we went to an Asian grocery store. Omg. I was
so happy!! Haha it was like being back in Taiwan/99 ranch. Many people had Beijing accents and they had lots of different kinds of Asian food! Like
noodles! So whenever I got to the capitol, I’m definitely stocking up. We waited
over an hour to eat lunch at this really fancy restaurant (Well, fancy for
Maputo at least. There was air conditioning! See photo of my class and I). Everyone else in my class
ordered pizza and I got a shrimp curry that was simple but good. The ride back
to Namaacha was much better than the ride there. I sat next to the window and
we had the window open. The fresh air was great, I felt like a dog with my head
sticking out the window. And the scenery. Wow. It was so pretty. Partly cloudy
sky with sun rays streaming down on green rolling hills. I didn’t realize how
green it would be here. There’s so much life. And it was really interesting to
see families washing their clothes in the river. I didn’t bring my camera with
me again :( but I will next time.
My language class eating lunch with our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator).
We had a language test on Monday to see how we are
progressing and I definitely did not do as well as I should have. I think I
need to start making flash cards for verb conjugations. We’ve also been
learning how to be a teacher. Our homework tonight is to make a lesson plan.
Tomorrow we will teach another peace corps volunteer for thirty minutes and
then we’ll get feedback. Fun, huh? I’m so use to being in a university setting
and just getting lectures all the time. It’s strange that I need to come up
with games/ice breakers and group activities to engage my students. Also most
students don’t have textbooks so the only information they get is what we tell
them to write down. Hopefully I can find a good medium between fun and information
in my classes.
Also I’m a little annoyed with myself. Apparently I can buy
a card for my iPhone. So I COULD use my iPhone for internet (Instagram!).
Someone told me I couldn’t and I believed them. Therefore, next time I go to
the city (I don’t know when that will be) I’ll try to buy a card so it would
hopefully be easier to keep in touch! We’ll see what I end up doing. I could
get a type of modem for my computer I think too. It also really just depends on
where I will be living the next two years and I don’t know that yet.
Here’s some more info about my host family. The father died
in 2009 so the mom is the head of the family. She has a well in front of her
house that peace corps checked and verified that it was clean enough to drink.
Because of this, she spends most days selling used bottled water next to the
Swaziland border. Last weekend there was a big pilgrimage to the first catholic
church here in Namaacha. There were a lot of people and she was up all night
selling water and other things I think. Next we have the older brother. His
name is Michel (like the way it’s pronounced in the movie Dodgeball. I can’t
help thinking of that every time I talk to him). He’s 22 and has a 3 year old
kid, which is very common here in Mozambique. I’ve tried teaching him Photoshop and English but it’s hard. He’s a good teacher
though. Everyone in my family is always trying to teach me. It’s a really nice
and friendly environment. After that there is another boy who goes to school in
Maputo. A past volunteer took him to the U.S. and his English is very good but
I haven’t seen him since the first weekend. After that is Atesia, who is 18.
She cooks a lot and is very nice. The second oldest girl is 17 and her name is
Dulcinia. She’s actually my mom’s niece and has a 4 month old baby named Sheyron.
She is the one who does most of the cooking in the house I think and is shy but
really nice. After that is Victor, who is 13. His English is the best in the
house as of right now and likes to help me with my Portuguese as well. He went
with me the other day when we helped clean up the Secondary School here in
Namaacha (Picking up trash. Yey!). The next boy, Assane, is my favorite. He’s
11 and just a sweet, sincere, and funny kid. When I go walking around he likes
to tag along and talk to me. He also does most of the cleaning/housework out of
all the kids. Last morning he was “mopping” (Their mop is an old shirt. They
bend to clean because there’s not stick attached to the shirt. So strange!) and
singing/dancing to Katy Perry’s new song Wide Awake. So cute and funny! Lastly,
there are two 7 year old twins. The girl’s name is Mae and the boy is Pai.
During the first week, Mae kept braiding my hair every night and Pai has a lisp
so it’s really hard for me to understand him most of the time. Unfortunately, both
of them suck their thumbs so I’ve been trying to think of ways to get them to
stop. As of now, the whole threat that they’re not allowed in my room if they
do is working so we’ll see what happens!
My new home!
From left to right: Atesia, Me, and Dulcinia
My brother Pai sitting on our back steps.
I forgot if I’ve already mentioned this already but I am
honestly so happy and thankful to be with such a great group of people here in
Mozambique. They are all nice, friendly, and here because they want to be here.
I know this is a vague definition, but everyone here really is a good person. It’s funny, we’re similar in some ways but
there is also such a big variety in everyone’s background and we’re from all
over the U.S. I’ve also spent most of my time with science people and it’s been
fun nerding it out with them.
Just because we do
almost everything with our language classes, I’ve gotten to know my four fellow
classmates pretty well. Amanda, my next door neighbor, was an RA before and is
an extreme extrovert. Tram is Vietnamese and speaks softly but is sarcastic and
hilarious at the same time. Our goal is to make Pho sometime in the near future
:) Casey is the only guy in our class. He’s from South Dakota and went to India
so I’m pretty jealous of him! Lastly, there’s Pam. She’s Portuguese and lives
across from me. She shares a host dad with another volunteer named Kim. And
another guy, Stephan, lives next to Kim and across from Amanda. It’s nice
having neighbors you know! And I’m getting use to greeting everyone I see on
the road. The people in the Midwest keep making fun of me haha Casey was
telling me that people wave to each other while they’re driving too!
Today, instead of language class, we made lunch with our
moms. They showed us how to make Mozambique-an food and we showed them how to
make pancakes with pieces of chocolate bars in them :) So let’s see. We learned
a lot of things! Casey killed a chicken, we learned how to cut a green veggie
(they let us use a wooden table as a cutting board, thank goodness. I honestly
still can’t understand how they cut things with their hands here!), pound peanuts,
open a coconut, make coconut shavings, light coal, make coconut milk, and other
things I can’t remember. Our lunch consisted of a salad (with a lot of oil. I
think I’m use to eating oily food though because of Taiwan because it really
doesn’t bother me as much as the other volunteers), a veggie called cove with
peanut and coconut milk, grilled chicken, xima, rice with green beans and
carrots, coco-cola, and Fanta. YUM! It was fun.
My language class standing in front of Amanda's house (her host mom is walking into the house). From left to right: Me, Amanda, Casey, Pam, and Tram.
My host mom teaching us how to light coal (carvao).
The meal we made/ate with our host moms.
Food updates: I’ve been eating this thing called bagia for
breakfast pretty often. It reminds me of felafel. Some kind of fried bean but
not as flavorful. It’s pretty good! I’ve never really liked french fries but
for some reason, now I eat them all the time. And I also like bread now too!
Our neighbor gets fresh bread for the rest of the neighborhood every morning
and boy do I feel spoiled. I am going to miss that when I leave training. My
family keeps feeding me this type of bologna that they fry and I had pasta for
the first time today.
Friday is the 26th anniversary of the death of
Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique. He died in a plane accident
in South Africa and we were suppose to go to the site to celebrate but I just
found out 10 minutes ago that it got canceled for some reason! Bummer. We were
all pretty excited to travel to South Africa. I’ll make it there eventually :) Miss
you all! And please send me specific questions if you have any.
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