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! :)