I ate pineapple recently and it was delicious. This really was not
my idea of a tantalizing blog subject,
but clearly it seems important to me now. Meceanhelas doesn’t have a lot of
fruit currently being sold in our market (bananas only). My sitemate and I went
to Cuamba on Friday to do banking and shopping (hence the pineapple) etc. She left from there to go to her conference
in Nampula and I managed to make my way back to Mecanhelas sozinha (alone) in a chapa (pronounced
SHAA-PAA). A note about chapas: not to alarm anyone, but they are pretty much
the worst thing ever. They are the main mode of transportation here in
Mozambique and for us northern volunteers, they are truly the only option. A
lot of volunteers in the south, or near cities like to boleia (hitch a ride)
because it’s cheaper or free and faster and usually more comfortable. These
tiny vans “normally” fit 12-15 people in them but here in Mozambique they do
some Jedi magic and usually a chapa wont leave a paragem (mini bus stop) until 25
people are crammed into it....asses
hanging out the windows and all (if the windows open, sometimes they don’t- YAY
for safety!) It’s hot. Claustrophobic. Smelly. It’s everything from our
nightmares. But it’s part of my life here in MOz and who knows, maybe one day I
will start to love it. (doubtful).
When
I got back to Mec at around 10AM (I had to wait for my chapa to fill up for
about 40 min..i was there at 6am) I immediately passed out on my bed for about
2 hours. The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. Some highlights from the
past few days:
1.
While trying to leave Mecanhelas for Cuamba, I managed
to convince my chapa driver to turn around since they left the stop without
Jamie (my sitemate)… picture me yelling: “falta uma pessoa, minha amiga!” falta
uma pessoa!…ela esta na paragem agora” ( missing one person! My friend! Blah blah…) over and
over while 20 Mozambicans stare at me like I’m.off.my.rocker. I’m counting this
as a highlight even though it was highly traumatizing. Also the fact that my
Portuguese tem problemas.
2.
Managed to council and mediate friendship drama
for the jovens I share a quintal with(in Portuguese, obviously…which is why
this and all things are highlights really)
3.
Completed my first community map with one of my
organizations. Some activistas left during it but generally a lot of people
participated and I think (wishful thinking???) they enjoyed the activity.
4.
Convinced Useni and Fernando to show me their
corral (their family makes most of their money by selling bois (cows). This was
an accomplishment bc normally they get lots of vergonha (embarrassment) when they are seen out with me…..but who
can blame them? Everyone stares. Hopefully when I can actually understand what
ppl say to me and respond back (in a way that is coherent) life here in Mec
will be less awkward for all people involved. Yay Optimism!
5.
I am probably jumping the gun here since it
hasn’t happened yet…but I am SUPPOSED to got my other bag and !!! a mini fridge
this Thursday. Vamos ver if this actually ends up being the case… It’s a huge
pain in the ass to drive out here from our Nampula PC office (8 + hours). But
since my bag got left…and the lovely PC staff offered to get a fridge for me,
(im paying them when they arrive) they
are coming to Mec on their way to do site development in northern Zambezia. Until
then, I will be dreaming about cold water, MILK, and generally all the various
luxuries that come with having a fridge. #posh corps MOZ
6.
I have successfully made the Cabechi family
laugh…on purpose…on several different occasions: first by making Useni feel
better when he was sad about being embarrassed about something…?? (I swear I
understood what he was saying!) by
telling him how nothing could be as bad as that time when the branca (me) tried to be cool and take a short cut
home and basically got lost and walked into some random quintal that wasn’t
hers while half of the town watched and laughed. Or the time I walked home
while it was dark and totally ate dirt bc I forgot my headlamp. Hello my name
is Alice and if you are sad or embarrassed about something, I will happily
share my embarrassing life moments here in Africa to make you feel
better/entertain you. I also made the
dad laugh by telling him I would happily help out with their new house (they
are building another house in our quintal) because Eu tenho forca (i’m strong). I’m aware that
he thought this was funny because he thought
 |
| Fernando and Useni with the bois |
 |
| The corral at night |
 |
| Community Maps! |
No comments:
Post a Comment