December 1, 2012

Today is Grandpa Tom’s birthday. I miss him. Wish he was still here with us. 

Some of us woke up early today and headed to the AIDS memorial here in Namaacha to celebrate World AIDS Day. AIDS has a completely different stigma here in Africa than in the United States and the percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS is much greater than in the US. Helping with World AIDS Day here in Africa was a much different experience than helping out back home in Long Beach and I’m glad I got to help out with both. We carried signs and marched (in the rain!) down the main road of Namaacha until we got to the large market at the end of the road. There, they had a small AIDS fair and concert. Unfortunately, we had another Peace Corps obligation and couldn’t stay very long but I’m glad we showed our support. 

Marching down the street of Namaacha. 

Peace Corps Volunteers supporting the march by making posters. 

After the AIDS event, we walked over to a large club area and had our Homestead/stay Celebration. Our host families were presented with certificates and then we ate tons of food! A lot of our host moms woke up early to cook the food (my host mom made the French fries :) ) and there was a lot of it! The American dish that we chose was macaroni and cheese. Yum! We were only allowed to have a maximum of four people (including the volunteer) from each family so two of my brother and my mom came. All of the guys got shirts/tunics made out of sarongs (capulanas) and the girls wore them as a skirt. We also sang a song for our host families. Marin, a previous volunteer in Cape Verde, coordinated the music and it sounded really great. I’ll try to post the video my brother filmed on here when I get a chance.

Me and my brother Victor.

Friends! From left to right: Casey, Ella, me, Nick. 

Our delicious meal (can you see the mac and cheese? :D ). 

Dealing with the way everyone acted when it came to getting food, however, was a bit stressful. My host mom made me cut in line (which I felt really bad about) and also cut in front of everyone else to get cake at the end. I guess everyone here knows that if you don’t push your way forward, you might not get anything left. And it was true, I waited at the end of the line for cake and hardly received any. There are ridiculously long lines people wait in to use the ATMs as well. There just aren’t enough resources for everyone here in Mozambique. In Taiwan, I remembered everyone would patiently wait in line to get onto the metro train. You would never see that here in Africa. It’s interesting to see why there are differences in cultures.