Até Sempre Moçambique: I am bad at blogging from Africa

June 8^th

It’s officially been a week since I’ve arrived in Mozambique and it feels like I’ve been here for months. Orientation in Philadelphia was a blur, same with the flight from NYC to Johannesburg (despite being about 14 hours long). After a quick layover in Joburg and a 50 minute connection, we landed in Maputo and were greeted by the PCD (Peace Corps Director) Carl Swartz and the APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director) Rachel Horta who is in charge of our health program. No one lost their luggage and after about an hour or so we were on our way to a hotel right near the Peace Corps Mozambique headquarters. The two days at the hotel were mainly for vaccines and brief security overview trainings, primarily on the Maputo area, which doesn’t really pertain to us. On Sunday we left for Namaacha, the place I’ll be calling home fore the next ten weeks. Things have been good but really intense since arriving last Sunday. I was greeted by my Irmana Vonda, who was visiting but actually lives in Maputo. We walked back to our house where I met my Mae (Laurdes) Pai (who works in Maputo all week and comes home only on weekends) Irmana Zumira (Zu Zu, who is 9 months pregnant, due this month and currently in a hospital in Maputo because of complications with her heart- all I can distinguish at this point with my extremely limited Portuguese) and finally Yula the youngest of the family. She is technically my prima but is essentially the adopted daughter of my Mae. Yula is nine years old and sometimes helps me with my Portuguese homework. Speaking of Portuguese, it seems like that is the topic of discussion for most of the 26 volunteers who are here (myself included). Only a few of us have taken actual Portuguese classes prior to training so most are in the same WTF boat of not being able to really speak the language and not believing any of the PC staff who keep telling us that in 3 weeks we will see the improvements. I still feel like everything I;ve said to my host family is a bastardized version of some Spanish word. My host family is incredibly patient with me and impressively adept at interpreting my awkward mumbles and hand gestures. They’ve had one volunteer prior to me and I don’t think she knew much Portuguese either…so I don’t have to worry about that comparison. So far I’ve learned how to crack a coconut with a huge wrench and shave the inside of it to make Caril da Covi which is essentially a type of non spicy coconut curry with kale and peanuts. I also briefly helped my Mae Pilar the peanuts for the same dish, which she made look incredibly easy but of course is totally impossible for a branca like me (excellent work out by the way). I feel myself getting used to the routine of daily life with the family (bucket baths and outdoor latrines included) but the language part is a real struggle. My instructor, Nercio is very sweet and patient but extremely soft spoken so half the time I can’t hear OR understand what he is saying. This is a problem. However, I think our language groups are being reorganized again on Monday so they reflect the capacity of each volunteer more accurately. My brain is a bit fried right now…it’s incredibly how much goes on each day, either language training, hanging out with my host family or PC technical introductions to security, heath, development etc…. I hope I retain everything! Updates soon… Ate logo.!

July 17^th-

It’s been over a month since I last wrote. I am impressed by others in my group who are so good at keeping their blogs updated. Now I need to attempt to explain what I’ve done for the last 7 weeks. First I’ll start with language since that is one concern that has not changed since my first entry. I know my Portuguese is better than it was before I arrived here but after my first LPI or language proficiency interview at the end of week 5 I still could not test out of the novice level (I am currently novice high) My language group has been reorganized and I am trying to make an effort to get extra help each night with my new instructor. Most of our training group is considered intermediate or better so it’s been a bit of a confidence blow to know I’m in the minority with my language skills or lack-there-of. All I can think about is when I get to a point where this issue no longer concerns me because I can actual converse and understand people. It helps speaking with the other volunteers who come and participate in training because they share their struggles and all of them speak Portuguese now….but I digress. The following things happened in the last month:

1.Zu Zu had her baby- it took her about 2 weeks to name it, but now he is known as Melven.

2. I met my host brother for the first time at the end of week 3, he is nice. His name is Miguel

3. I impressed my host mom when she left the first weekend while Zu Zu was giving birth by making lunch for Yula and myself. I hope this makes up for not speaking their language yet.

4 . I did not kill a chicken, but watched while my friend Terja helped kill it. I did pluck it however….and ate it.

5. I went to Maputo one Saturday with all the volunteers and bought a cheap phone and had ice cream and pizza. I think that was week 3. The trip would have been more fun if we had the opportunity to explore more areas but that wasn’t the case.

6. Week 6 was great because it was the first time we all got to leave Namaacha and visit another volunteer at their site. I visited Heather in Chicumbane and it was wonderful. She was so accommodating and gave great advice. We went to the beach and also met other volunteers. It was essentially my first real experience exploring a different part of Mocambique.

We only have 3 weeks left and the last week is not really training. It’s crazy to think about. Tomorrow is probably the most exciting day of all because we find out where we are going to live for the next two years-(SITE ANNOUNCEMENT!) A lot of people in my group are really anxious and have very clear ideas about what they want. Mine was informed by a lot of what I saw and experienced during the shadow visit. I hope I am within 3 hours of a beach but far from a big city and many other volunteers. I think it will be hard to be isolated but I think I need it in order to integrate.

September 4^th

So if you haven’t noticed I’m pretty awful at this blog thing. The last time I wrote was during training and I didn’t even know my site placement. I am currently at my site now and have been here for almost a month (I arrived August 10^th). My new home is Mecanhelas, (technically Insaca but everyone calls it Mechanelas) Mec is one of the southernmost districts in Niassa province. I am about 10K from Malawi and it’s second largest Lake, Lago Chirua. Niassa is Mozambique’s largest province but has the smallest population and is arguably, the least developed. My town is the district capitol which means it has one or two government offices, a CDS (central de saude) and a secondary school. We also have a nice market although right now it’s hungry season and there’s not much variety (how many ways can I prepare potatos, tomatos, onions and eggs?) I have a nice house and I share a quintal (yard)with the Cabichi family: Dona & Dono Cabichi, Useni (17) Fernando (15), Feliz (10), Domingo (8) Nene (5) and 1 month old Passivo. Nene is the only girl and as her brothers say she “brinca mal” She steals Useni’s stuff and now mine since she typically follows them into my house. The boys have perfected the art of catching her in the act….if she weren’t so cute it might be a problem.

So why am I here right? It’s still pretty hard to believe. I have a double placement which means I work for two organizations here in Mecanhelas: Associação Mistura Religiosa Para Educacao Moral (AMIREMO) and Associação Junto Avançámos Para O Desenvolvimento Comunitário (AJADC). They are both very small health organizations. AMIREMO has a bit more money and better diversity of funding sources including FHI but AJADC is currently only funded by FHI right now (Family Health International). Both of my orgs work very closely with theMecanhelas community, typically by going out to the campo and visiting “doenças.” They do what they can to advise people to get tested for HIV or to continue with their TARV treatment if they’ve decided to abandon it for whatever reason (stigma, or general misinformation about HIV and the meds they need to take etc.) I have only been on a few home visits myself since I don’t have a bike yet and most people who have the most trouble live far away from our SDS. The visits are pretty serious and so far I usually feel quite out of place, which is saying a lot since I am already very out of place here in Mec...(I have a site mate, Jamie, who is an education volunteer but our town is still not at all accustomed to seeing white people). Another difficulty I’ve been encountering is the use of local language. A lot of my colleagues speak almost exclusivly Macua or Nyanja..which doesn’t do much to help my portuguese...but luckily everyone knows that’s what I need to learn and generally people are pretty patient with me. I also found a very driven joven to practice talking with me twice a week since PC pays for further language instruction. The boys that share my quintal are helpful too, for the most part, but they speak Nyanja a lot and have the attention span of a fly, and they speak too fast anyways. I think I’m getting better though, I feel as if I understand so much more than I ever did during training, I just need to be patient with myself. One particular highlight with language occured the second week I was here when my AMIREMO colleages spent 2 hours asking me about the US. Topics included: do you have black people? Do you have xima? (a staple food here in Moz made of corn meal) what other types of foods do you have? and...Can you tell us about 9/11? The highlight being I answered all these questions in Portuguese. I still need some help though. Ok breakdown of the other activities from the last 3 weeks:

1. Met all the VIPs of Mecanhelas during my first week including local government officials, chefe do bairros, immigration officers, education folks, police, main medical director, and church officials (since both my orgs are basically FBOs).

2. Created a tentitive schedule on how I will divide my time between both Orgs

3. Taught Snr. Alves (my supervisor for AJADC) the basics of SKYPE

4. Taught one of my AMIREMO colleages how to make a organizational diagram/chart on Word and Power point

5. Made friends with some Jovens (teens)

6. Learned from said jovens that our SDS does not give out preservativos (condoms) to Jovens but only adults. Right b/c that makes buckets of SENSE... whaa??)

7. Completed my FOFA/SWOT anelação (Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats- or Forças, Oportunidades, Fraquezas, Ameaças) with both organizations- and mentioned the SDS/Joven/Preservativo problem as such, but also an opportuinity since they both work closely with SDS regarding HIV, TB etc. Yay for potential solutions/projects.
8. Went to Cuamba a week ago and met other volunteers, went to the bank (Mec has no bank & Cuamba is 2+ hours away by chapa and depending on the season) and bought chocolate

9. Learned that when you’re hungry and there’s few options, anything you make tastes good... sweet and sour cabbage anyone?
10. Celebrated two bdays in one day.
11. Realized I am lucky and have a kick ass site-mate
12. Didn't want to steal Jamie's catchphrase "Até nunca" so I've got Até sempre, which is catching on! too bad it only makes sense with the family I share the quintal with :P