January 11, 2013

Happy New Years everyone! I have not had access to electricity since Christmas and boy is it an adjustment. I’ve actually been journaling a lot but didn’t bring my journal with me to Montepuez. I’m in Montepuez now by the way! Anna’s roommate has been a volunteer here for a year now and was on vacation the past few times we’ve visited. We are finally meeting more of the volunteers in our province too, which is pretty cool! They are all very nice and friendly. I feel so lucky. It’s been raining in Mariri these past few days so we haven’t been able to use the solar panel to charge my phone. 

Guess what happened to Elizabeth and I when we got back from Pemba… we found out that our house was broke into! We completely weren’t expecting it at all. Our director had called me the night before and tried telling me what had happened but I didn’t understand him. Finally, on the 27^th, we got back and our chief of the dorms got angry at us for not telling him that we were traveling for Christmas. He then proceeded to show us what happened to our kitchen window. Someone had knocked out the concrete around our metal bars and pulled back our metal bars and broke our window. Thankfully, we had locked the door of our kitchen before we left and the door to the cupboards so they only stole the things we had lying around our kitchen, not our rooms. Our two kitchen knives from the US were gone, along with my headlamp, leatherman, Liz’s face wash, and our gas stove. We were really grateful that it wasn’t worse. Apparently, another man got everything stolen from him (food, clothes) and someone else noticed three chickens missing. It was only after all this happened that they told us more thieves are around during the holidays. Thanks guys. They fixed the concrete on the window a couple hours later. 

A picture of our window after they re-cemented the grate back into place. 

The scarier thing happened to us a couple days later. I was sound asleep (I sleep like a rock!) when I woke up to Liz’s voice saying, “Jamie. I think someone is trying to break into our house.” Me: “!?!?!”. Liz said she heard someone banging on the grates. I grabbed my lamp but didn’t turn it on and the air horn. We both stood at the door to our kitchen for a couple minutes and then shone our light in the windows. Liz, then, through the lid of our metal water filter on the floor to scare them away and to let them know that there were people inside. After that, I went back to bed but just as I was tucking my net into the bed, Liz said she heard someone walking outside her windows. We both huddled on her bed (under the mosquito net. Hiding from those mosquitoes!) until midnight just to be safe. I stayed awake until 2 but then fell asleep. Nothing else happened that night, thank goodness, but we told Peace Corps what happened and, a day later, we got a personal guard. He sleeps on a mattress outside our door with a catana (a type of sword people use here). He’s paid to stay with us until school starts. We have a lot of students who live in the dorms so apparently people are less likely to try to steal from people when more people are around. Also, we might get a kid to stay in our hallway while we travel away from home from now on. Children are a cheap resource here and probably the most efficient type of alarm system we could get. We’ll see what happens I guess!

Liz and I are also trying to grow plants. We cut three soda cans and planted basil, cilantro, and oregano. We bought a spray bottle (that broke three days later) and have some plants that are growing! Not sure if they are weeds or not but we’re pretty excited to have living things in our house. Apparently the cat that Anna adopted is a girl and is pregnant! We hope we can get a cat soon to get rid of our bugs/rodents. 

Our soda cans sitting in our kitchen window. 

Our water is disgusting. It’s chalky and whenever we boil it, salt crashes out of it. It tastes absolutely disgusting, though, so we get super excited when it rains. We bring out all our buckets/containers to collect “sweet” tasting water. Do you know what tastes worst than our nasty water though? Water with rehydration salts. Liz and I got sick the other day (Yes, we got the same sickness at the same time. We are now the same person. It’s really funny. People only know us as Jamie or Elizabeth and we always hang out together. We’re basically married lol). When we were switching out our nasty well water with clean rain water, we only had enough to fill our nalgene water bottles. I didn’t want to drink gross water so I suggested we put tea in it. Worst idea I’ve had in a very long time. Tea was the only thing we drank that day and by the afternoon I was getting a headache. We watched “Midnight in Paris” that afternoon while giving ourselves a pedicure and by the end I think I had a migraine. Crazy, I never realized until now that I might have migraines! But the pain was unbearable. I took two cinnamon tortillas with me to bed, ate one, then woke up after two hours feeling nauseous and dehydrated, tried walking to the water filter only using the light on my watch because the light hurt my eyes, failed, and had to ask Liz for help. I am so glad she is my roommate. I would have been in much worse shape without her. She took my temperature (I had a fever), gave me a wet towel and sarong, and brought me bleach water to drink. By the next day, we both had painful headaches that hurt when we bent down and sensitivity to light. I was feeling better during the day but by night I was not in good shape again. Another fever and the cigarette smoke from the guard outside my room was making me more nauseous. I chugged the rehydration salts, finally fell asleep sitting up, and woke up much better the next morning! Liz was still out that day though. She had a high fever and our medical doctor made her take a malaria rapid test. We didn’t think we had malaria because we both got sick at the same time but it was definitely a relief to officially know that it wasn’t malaria. 

Collecting water outside! 

It was pretty funny to hear what the doctor told Liz to do, though, because she was sick. The first time she called, Liz was told to take a warm shower. First of all, we don’t have a shower. Second of all, it takes so much time and effort to heat water that we only take cold bucket baths. After that, the doctor told Liz to eat bread with butter. The closest place we can buy bread is 17km away from us. If only we could eat bread! It was just so interesting because the doctors that we call are Mozambican too but the live in Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. There is such a big difference between the lives people lead in the cities and out in the bush or “Mato.” I guess Liz and I are getting the “real” Peace Corps experience. 

The day after, we were both finally better! We no longer had an excuse not to go to “work” so we “helped” the rest of the week. We are no longer helping with the official grades for 10^th grade. Now, we are helping register students here at the school. There are two pedagogical directors. One is a man, Jeronimo, who is pretty crazy and blind but hilarious and nice. The other director’s name is Juliana. She is a tough woman who has a lot of respect from the people of our community. I helped Jeronimo write receipts for the students while Elizabeth helped Juliana. I think I learned a lot of Portuguese while I was helping but I also felt that most of what we did was a waste of time. It would have been much easier and faster if they had a better system down. But that’s not how it works here in Mozambique. Just another thing we need to get use to. But we were rewarded the other day for staying for so long! Our “snack” came at around 2 in the afternoon. It consisted of fresh bread (we hadn’t had bread in days!), eggs (we hadn’t had eggs since Christmas!), a cold soda (we no longer have a refrigerator so drinking anything cold on a hot day is delicious!), and a cold juice! Completely worth it. I also like Fanta drinks now. Oh how my standards have changed over the past few months.

The kids that live here in Mariri are adorable. They come by our house and try talking to us in the local language (Macua). Some of them speak Portuguese, which is great for us. They bring us mangos a lot. One day, because there were only a few of them, I brought out some chalk and we drew pictures outside our house. It was really cute and we learned how to say cat (pakha) and chicken (calakhu) in Macua. 

Liz drawing with the kids (criancas). 

Mariri is still beautiful though. We’ve had gorgeous sunsets these past couple days. I posted a few pictures for you to see: 

 The view outside our door of the gap between the abandoned church and girl dorm room. 

 The view outside our window. You can see the fence of our yard. 

 Pretty sunset.

Also, (finally!) here is my new address. Nampula is a lot closer to my new home so please use this instead!

Irma Jamie Simmons (PCV)

Rua Dar-Es_Salaam, nr. 14

Bairro Central, Caixa Postal 526

Nampula, Mozambique

I would love to have any kind of food and seasonings. Ramen, taco seasoning, mustard seeds, seseame oil, anything asian, anything that is instant (like powdered miso soup). Also, if/when you send a package, please put lots of religions stickers or drawings on it. People are less likely to steal from a religious package because people have respect/are scared of God. Also Irma means “sister.” I’m now pretending to be a nun :) Love you all. Stay well!

December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas everyone! It doesn’t feel like Christmas Eve here though. It’s just too hot! I’m so use to all the decorations in the stores and commercials on TV. It’s so strange to me that I don’t see it here. We left Montepuez today and traveled three hours by chapa to the beach. We met up with some volunteers who invited all the new Cabo Delgado volunteers over. When we walked inside the volunteer house, we saw cute stockings with our names on them on the wall and real stockings with something inside of them hanging from the window. The Christmas cookies were delicious, and after that we ate lunch at a place called Frango Assada (half a chicken and French fries. Yum!).  We were pretty full after our meal and headed to the beach. It was so pretty! Beautiful white beach with palm trees lining the beach and warm water. VERY different from the beaches in Long Beach. No trash! After walking down the beach, we stopped at a restaurant with really funny/tacky xmas decorations. Dinner was at the restaurant near a hostel (Russel’s). A few of us split a pizza, hamburger, and lasagna and we got to meet a lot of the volunteers here in Mozambique. 

While I was eating, the coolest/most random thing that happened to me! A girl walked up to me asking if I was from Palmdale and Lauren’s friend. I completely blanked out and didn’t understand what she was talking about until I realized that a couple days before I left the U.S., Lauren Pitts (from high school) told me her friend was also a PCV in Mozambique!! And this was her! She found me here in Pemba. It was so awesome because her site was all the way in the south near a place called Chokwe in the province of Gaza. I also found out that my mom’s friend’s friend’s daughter is another education volunteer here in Mozambique. Such a small world! 

After that, we went to a party. I was really tired because I am use to going to bed when the sun goes down (Which is early! Life without electricity). I also wasn’t really in the mood for socializing with people I had never met before and dancing to music while drinking beer and smoking. So, instead, I talked on the phone to Nick until his credit ran out. It made me realize what I value most about Christmas, which is The Christmas Spirit combined with family and friends. It was hard to be away from that and I don’t have any close friends here in Cabo Delgado but it was so nice to talk to someone at least on the phone. After I hung up with Nick, one of the girls we met earlier (Pam’s new roommate named Stephanie) sat next to me and I complained about the whole situation. Thank goodness she felt the same with me. We randomly found a chapa back home (half of us were standing) and when we got back, Stephanie mysteriously pulled me outside away from everyone else. I was extremely happy and surprised when she suggested listening to silent night on her ipod while lighting candles. It made me miss you guys so much. I wish I was in Texas with my family at Candlelight Service but that’s not exactly practical at the moment lol but lighting that candle made me feel like I was with you guys in spirit :) Finally got to bed around 2am and slept under a mosquito net with Anna. 

The next day, Christmas day, we woke up early and heated up the cinnamon rolls! Stephanie surprised us again by adding gifts to our stockings (bon bon chocolates, lotion, and soap!) and we listed to holiday music or watched “Elf” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” After that, we headed to the beach once more to hang out and made tacos that afternoon for dinner. They were so delicious! I miss real vegetables. It is “Tempo de Fome” (time of hunger) here in Mozambique right now so there are not many types/amounts of produce and all they have is expensive. 

 Opening our Christmas stockings! From left to right: Anna, Will, Vikram, me, Rafael. 

 View of the beach.

 Another pretty view of the beach in Pemba.

December 21, 2012

We are finally leaving our site! Liz and I packed 10 minutes before we left and headed back to Anna’s place in Montepuez. Even though we got there with a few minutes to spare, we still missed the 6am Chapa to Pemba. We were a bit annoyed but thankfully another chapa appeared around 7am. We then spent 50 meticais to travel 17km to the main road (so expensive!) once we got there, the pedagogical director of the agriculture school went with us to catch a chapa to Montepuez. We ended up getting on an open back chapa (or the back of a truck) along with some chickens, lambs, and goats. One lady was extremely nice to us and asked me not to squish her fried fish while telling us to “fica bem” so we don’t fall off. Another boy knew other Peace Corps volunteers in another town and was very kind/friendly to us. The ride was twice as long as it was before because we made so many stops and Liz got pretty sunburned. On the bright side though, the ride really was nothing compared to what I experienced during site visits. Our roads are wonderful and paved so we always travel very smoothly. Counting my blessings :)

After we finally made it to Anna’s, we relaxed and made delicious food! Anna adopted a cat, which makes Liz and I want a cat even more. He’s the cutest! We made gnocchi again with an alfredo sauce that turned into potato soup by dinner. That night we fried doughnuts and watched “Miracle on 34^th Street” to get in the Christmas spirit.

Liz and Anna making doughnuts! 

The next day, the boys from Balama showed up (Vikram and Rafael). We hung out at Anna’s house and made a delicious pasta with mango tomato sauce garlic bread for lunch. After spending all day with Anna, we then went to Will’s place the next day. It was about a thirty minute walk away but it was so nice and fancy! Tiled floors and running water. I was a little jealous but was appeased after we made pineapple fried rice. That night we made kettle corn and tea. 

These past couple days were really nice because I finally got the opportunity to talk to family and friends back home! Cell service. You never know how good you have something until it’s gone.

December 15, 2012

After Maputo, we finally left for our new homes! We were not going straight to our sites, however, because first we had Supervisor’s Conference. Our started out pretty funny. We went through security at the airport and Stephen had all of his change out in the plastic tube. The lady told him that she was going to use the change to buy herself a drink. Stephen, basically, had to bribe a security guard to let him bring batteries on the plane. Oops haha he was taking a while so I went over and helped him put everything together. Because of that, the lady thought I was his wife lol oh Mozambique. 

After that, we had supervisor’s conference in a really nice hotel called the Hotel Millennium. Liz and I had a room next to the pool and we ate delicious food for three days. Definitely couldn’t complain there. Unfortunately, we also met our new director. His name is Ramao and is one of the most unpleasant men I have ever met. He was mean to me from the very beginning. He kept saying that my Portuguese is bad and asked Marin, who has been speaking Portuguese for a year, why mine was so bad. When she tried explaining that I had only been learning for 10 weeks, he then asked if Marin could come to Mariri instead of me. Thanks director. Way to make me feel better about myself.

I know I shouldn’t let him get to me, but he really destroyed my self-confidence in my Portuguese speaking skills. During the past month, he’s basically been ignoring me and only speaking to Liz. When we first got to our new home, we had been in a chapa for a few hours driving from Nampula to Mariri and dealing with our rude director. We decided that we didn’t have enough supplies to last us at our new home because there is absolutely nothing there most of the time so we ended up going with Anna to her new home in Montepuez. We stayed with her a few days and once we got essential supplies, her director found someone to drive us to Mariri. Once we got to our new house, our director tried to force us to live in the 11^th/12^th grade dorm. If we had agreed to that, Liz and I would have had separate homes across the yard from one another and we would basically be like an RA in the dorms. We were not ok with that and asked to see the teacher housing that they showed Peace Corps. The director refused so we called Peace Corps. Our boss, Gelane, said he would come to our site in a few days. In the meantime, we stayed with our director in his house, which is one of the most awkward experiences I’ve ever had.  He called us liars when we told him that we only bathe once a day in the United States and brought a woman that stayed the night with him. Listening to giggling throughout the night is not something I want to hear ever again. 

Our site itself, however, is absolutely beautiful. Because it’s rainy season, everything is so green! There is a small bridge that separates a bairo with a lot of teachers in it from the main part of the school. There are three lakes (with catfish in them!) and the school use to be run by nuns and priest. They left before the civil war but there are a few old buildings you can walk around and see where they taught. Behind the last lake, there is a place called a cruzamento (crossroads) that is so serene and gorgeous. They keep it very clean and the tall trees give it an ethereal feel. I’ll have to take a picture of it next time I go by. We’ve seen goats and cows roaming around and there are water lilies on the lake. I feel so lucky to be here. There are two schools, a secondary school and an agricultural school, and a lot of dorms. I’ve seen a lot of shells around here. The geography confuses me a lot. We see sand and palm trees everywhere but we’re so far away from the ocean. One day, we went to a catholic church which was up a mountain! It took about thirty minutes and loved the view. When we got to the top, I felt like I was at the beach. White side and palm trees again. As I said, the geography and climate still really confuse me. 

One of the three lakes, and this isn’t even the prettiest!

Finally, on Liz’s birthday (and the day The Hobbit was released!), we moved into our new house! Gelane came to talk to our director, who was once again being extremely rude towards us, but we now have our own place! It’s apartment style. We have a hallway with three rooms. One is mine, the middle is our kitchen, and the other room is Liz’s. The first night was quite an adventure. Liz killed a scary looking scorpion and we had crazy fast camel spiders that ran across our floor. After a couple days, we captured a mouse and released it near one of our lakes and Liz locked another mouse inside her closet until it died. Eww. 

My room for the next two years! :)