Monday, November 12, 2012

Last month of the school year!


Highlights for the last month and a half in Mozambique
-Oct 4th – Oct 6th:  Machanga for an inter-group exchange with my REDES group!
-My maid and her husband
-Halloween in Rio Savane!!! – October 26th -29th
-One full year of teaching
-Canoe Ride on the Buzi River

Hello everyone,
After a month and a half of being busy with wrapping up the school year I’m finally ready to write another blog!
Troca in Machanga!!!!             
In early October I brought my REDES group, a group of 10 very excited girls, on a trip to perform a theater and dance piece to a neighboring Mission school in the district of Machanga.  Machanga is a small town/ district on the boarder of Sofala and Vilankulos, and is about a 5 hour car ride south from my site of Mangunde.  
The first thing I would like to say about the troca is that it was AWESOME, 4 different schools from surrounding schools were invited and it was a wonderful experience to see all of the girls from the different schools show off their dancing, singing, and acting skills.  In a country where the majority of women you meet are extremely passive, shy, and generally subservient.  Seeing this group of girls being lively, laughing, and talking about important issues was a fantastic thing to see.
After all of the fantastic performances (Side note: some other volunteers and myself also got in there and broke it down Mozambican style…SO MUCH FUN) the night wrapped up with a dance party followed by some Xima(Corn flour cooked in a way to give it the texture of firm mashed potatoes) and beans, then off to bed.  The next day all the girls went to church in the morning (Us Peace Corps volunteers did not get up and go to church, and boy-oh-boy did our girls make us feel guilty, apparently they had a big announcement at church that morning and wanted to thank us for the work we were doing….we didn’t get the Memo :-/ ).  After church Mac (The PCV who lives in Machanga and who organized the whole event (Good work btw Macky boy!)) had all of the girls get together for one last event.  He got three nurses from the hospital to come in and talk to our group of about 70 girls about pregnancy, contraception, and general female health (Mac and I as the men stepped out for this part, nothing makes Mozambican women more uncomfortable than talking about Menstruation and female condoms in front of two white American men).   All and all the workshop was a stunning success, most of the girls had no idea about the options available to them at their local hospitals and for some of them it was their first experience with anything related to formal sexual education.   With an HIV rate as high as 33%  (1 out of every 3 people you see could have HIV)  and with families that have 8 children and barely the ability to feed 2,  Sexual Education is VERY necessary.
Another wonderful experience
One slightly comical revelation I had on how different life in Mozambique is to that of the states was when my REDES girls and I were getting into our vehicle to head to Machanga.  We excitedly packed 10 girls, my counterpart, myself, and the driver (13 people) into a small blue pick-up truck for a 5 hour journey and were extremely grateful for having a private ride.  Can you imagine in the States a school allowing 10 girls to pile into the back of an open pick-up truck to travel for 5 hours on a highway to get to a school related event.  In the states: LAWSUIT, in Mozambique: RIDING IN STYLE. 

My maid and her husband

A few months ago I wrote a blog about my maid and her son Jacinto, however to put the next story in context I will repeat myself a bit.  
Gracinda is a woman that was selected by the Priest who runs the mission to help out and assist the Peace Corps volunteers that work in Mangunde.  Here in Mozambique it is very common for teachers, foreigners, nurses, doctors, and just about any job that requires a college degree to have a maid.  When I arrived here in Mangunde Gracinda was contracted to fetch water, cook lunch and dinner, wash clothes, and keep the general house and yard clean.
Gracinda has been the maid here for about 6 years, she is 25 and has a 2 and a half year old son named Jacinto (who I adore).    Gracinda’s niece Inoria and nephew Jose live with her and Jacinto in small wood house just a step or two off of my back porch.    
Gracinda, Jose, Inoria, and Jacinto basically have full run of the kitchen and the back yard of my house and because of this I have had a hard time in the past year dealing with personal space issues.  I mean seriously I live in a house with 1 American roommate and an entire Mozambican family.  There are parts of this which are wonderful, but there are also parts that I thoroughly dislike and want to change.  A few things that aggravate the situation are that she gets paid far more than the work she does is worth, she doesn’t do a very good job, and no matter what I offer her she makes me feel as though I’m not doing enough.    It doesn’t help that I have never actually wanted a maid, and the only reason that I’m giving her a job is because I have the ability to single handedly help her and her child make a living for themselves with a job that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.  
It’s hard for me because I do like her and I love Jacinto but she effectively makes me feel like a stingy rich person who just isn’t willing to help her out, when in fact she receives so much help from the Peace Volunteers and from me personally that she lives very respectably compared to others in the community. 
Anyways, as of October 10th I had decided to reduce her pay, reduce significantly the amount of work she would be doing, and if she still wanted to stay in Mangunde she could, if it wasn’t enough she could choose to move on. (Did I mention that she gets 100% free housing out of this whole deal).  I had decided on this because 1. I could hire some students who were struggling to pay for school from the surrounding community to help me out around the house, and 2. Gracinda has a husband who lives about an hour away and has a decent job as a primary school teacher which would mean her and Jacinto would be supported.   This seemed like the best option for me, I get to help out a few students who are truly struggling to go to school and who will appreciate what I would give and I would regain control over my house.
HOWEVER, things never quite turn out the way you expect.  Everything changed the weekend Gracinda’s husband came to visit.  Her husband Lino is someone I have never liked, from the first moment I met him he walked into my house like he owned it and made me feel like I owed him my full hospitality. 
The night he arrived I went to bed without any thought of the events of the following day.  When I woke up the first thing my roommate Ian said was “did you hear them fighting last night!?”  I sleep like a brick but  was surprised to hear Ian recount being kept up late into the light with Lino and Gracinda’s fighting.     
Gracinda looked really upset the next day so I asked her about it and she proceeded to tell me how Lino has repeatedly been hitting her when they get upset with each other and how she was tired of their situation.    She then showed me her mouth which was swollen due to almost having a tooth knocked out.  To sum up, her husband beats her.  This immediately put me on full alert and made me very angry.  I told Lino off and then spent most of my morning facilitating a “marriage counseling session” between Lino’s Godfather, Gracinda, and Lino.   This entire situation was very awkward because I just wanted Lino to leave and Gracinda to never talk to him again; however things are different in Mozambique and being punched in the face by your husband, does not mean a divorce it means a long conversation where a bunch of promises are made and only half will actually be kept .
The story ends here, I don’t like Gracinda’s husband, they are still together, and I CAN NOT take away her only way to support herself while she has a husband that beaters her.   Therefore she has got a full job for next year, though many things are going to be changed (I’ve already talked to her about these things) and I think over all next year will be for the best.    It might not seem like the situation has been resolved for me, however there are a lot of little of little things that changed for me after I found out about Gracinda’s husband.  I’m now in a comfortable position with Gracinda and my living situation and get to see Jacinto grow up for another year.

Halloween 2012  - Rio Savane

Rio Savane is a beautiful Beach/ River located just outside of Beira (the second largest city in Mozambique).   A bunch of Peace Corps friends and I all met up at a small island resort to say good bye the volunteers who have finished their two year service and are heading to the USA during the following weeks.  
The place we stayed at was on an Island just off of the mainland where the Savane River lets out into the Indian Ocean.  This place was amazing on one side of the island was a long stretch of white sand and a stunning view of the ocean that was accompanied by the constant crash of waves coming in.  On the other side was a winding river with tons of vegetation, crabs, and a wicked current.   The whole place had an untouched feel to it which made it a wonderful refuge after a busy trimester.
The weekend was filled with costumes (I was a flamboyant Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), beer, and goodbyes.   It was nice to see everyone (about 15 of the people who came were set to leave) one last time in the Peace Corps setting, before they embark on their post Peace Corps life.  It made me realize that I have in fact been in Peace Corps for over a year (definitely an odd revelation).   A shout out to all of the Moz 15ers, Mozambique will certainly miss you!!!
                                                                                                                                                                            
One full year of teaching!!!
So as of October 26th 2012 I officially finished one full year of teaching in the Mozambican school system.  The whole experience had its ups and downs but overall I would say that teaching in the context that I was put in has been an invaluable experience that I’m never likely to forget.  On top of the craziness that is ones first year of teaching, I managed to deal with learning and teaching in a foreign language, and to handle all of the idiosyncrasies of the Mozambican school system.
The end of the year brought a few goodbyes, a few “see you next year”’s, and that general “wrapping it up” feeling you get right before summer break.   I thought that these last few weeks would be smooth sailing, and that I wouldn’t have very many responsibilities.  I was wrong.  The past few weeks have been crazy due to the National exams that all of the students in 10th and 12th grade must take.  My last two weeks have been filled with helping kids prepare for the exams, than monitoring them while they take the exams, then grading the exams, absolute craziness.
Some comments on the National exams here in Mozambique: 1. passing is a 35% on the exam and average passing right per discipline is about 60%.    In my opinion there is just something wrong here.  It could be the teachers, it could be the students, or it could be the test.  But, I have a sneaking suspicion it’s all three.  The nuances of the education system here boggle my mind, but how the ministry rationalizes only having 60% of its students pass an exam when the passing rate is about 35%  is beyond my understanding.   Grading these exams is rough, towards the end I found myself getting excited when a student managed to get 40 or 45% of the material.  L
Anyways, at the time I am writing this blog, my responsibilities as far as the school is concerned have dropped to zero and I am excited to use the next few days to catch up on non school related work.  Which includes REDES, CLEANING MY HOUSE (an undertaking worthy of respect and admiration), and preparing for an awesome month long traveling extravaganza that I will be embarking on in early December.  South Africa here I come!!!
Canoe Ride on the Buzi River
I’m going to end my blog on a relaxing note, just yesterday November 11th my roommate (who will be leaving in just two days, L) and I took a wonderful canoe ride down the Buzi River.  The Buzi River is only about a 10 minute walk from my front door and holds a quit and humble atmosphere.  When you get to the river there are usually around 20-30 women washing their clothes, children playing in the water and people generally just going about their day to day life.  
Ian and I arrived with our good friend Alberto to search out the Canoe man.  We crossed the river and ended up at a house were the Canoe Man (a very friendly elderly man ) was helping his friends build a house.   Around these parts people are very poor, and no one has any more for paying people to build a house.  So what they do is that make a special drink called Ndoro (basically fermented corn flour)  and invite anyone who wants to help build the house come over and take part in the festivities.  Everyone then chips in and helps build the structure and as their reward they get to get nice and tipsy on this highly alcoholic Mozambican beverage.   Back to the story, Ian and I arrived and we warmly welcomed, we ended up waiting there for about an hour for the canoe man’s son to arrive and we also got to drink a little Ndoro and watch the construction.   The Canoe Man’s sun came and we agreed to pay him 100 meticais (3 dollars) to take us on a 2 hour canoe ride so that Ian could get some fishing in.
Alberto, Ian, Canoe Man’s Son (henceforth CMS) all piled into the hand carved canoe and started making our way down the river.  Ian tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get the fish to bit, but they just weren’t having it. Eventually he gave up and we enjoyed the rest of the trip seeing the wilds of Chibabava (the district I live in) and looking over our shoulders for crocodiles.
Though we didn’t catch any fish, it was a wonderful trip and honestly one of the last Mozambican adventures I will have with Ian.   We had a good year living together and I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate.  I wish him the best as he leaves and starts his life Stateside. Now I get to wait both excitedly and apprehensively to meet the next person who will have to put up with me for the next year.   J
Thanks again for reading up on my Mozambican adventures!  The next blog probably won’t be for awhile (I’m thinking mid to late January) unless I score some internet in South Africa.   I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, a very Merry Christmas and/or Hanukkah and a Fantastic New year!!!  <3
Sent with love,
Mikey

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

One year in Mozambique!


Hello there blog buddies!

The date is September 25th 2012.
Some highlights for those who are just skimming through:
-Visiting Inhassoro and Vilankulos
-Flying down to Maputo (capital of Mozambique)  for the REDES hand over meeting
-Vilankulos and Laurie’s B-day party
-Removing four (that’s right FOUR) worms from my foot.
-English Theater competition in Chimoio
-O dia 25 de Setembro 2012

Inhassoro -> Vilankulos->Maputo->Vilankulos->Mangunde
Not too long after my last blog post I started out on a wonderful journey south with a few friends to attend the REDES (That girl’s empowerment group I’m always talking about) hand over meeting.  A hand-over meeting (as the name implies) is where the current leaders of REDES hand over their jobs and responsibilities to the newer PCVs in Country.   I was selected as the Central Financial Coordinator for the Central region in Mozambique (Tete, Manica, and Sofala).  Which means I’m going to be a busy man next year organizing two conferences and facilitating inter-group exchanges (when two schools meet up to get to know each other, and present theater pieces, music, or crafts that they are working on).  Yay for responsibility!
                Back to the journey, I started out leaving Mangunde on the back of an open back chapa ( a pick-up truck)  absolutely filled with people, the truck was so weighted down by the 30 something people on board it had trouble moving up the hills between Mangunde and the main road.  Needless to say 30+ people on the back of a pick-up is highly uncomfortable and as soon as we got to the main road I jumped off and waited for another ride.  I got lucky on my way down to Inhassoro and caught a ride with in a private car with a few South Africans, exponentially safer and more comfortable than the public bus, I was riding in style!   After about a 3 hour journey they dropped me off at the intersection that leads into Inhassoro and I headed in. 
                Inhassoro is a beautiful little beach down/ tourist town on the coast of Mozambique.  Upon arrival I was wonderfully surprised by seeing the ocean stretch out for miles in front of me as I got off the bus I was riding and started to search for my friend Zac’s house.  I gave him a call and we went out and got lunch with a few other PCVs who were in town and the rest of my weekend there was spent eating delicious food (Zac’s a really good cook!)  Relaxing on the beach and decompressing after a busy few months. 
                I left inhassoro the next day and made my way to Vilankulos with my friend Emily.  We had to catch a plane on Tuesday morning so we thought we would get to Vilankulos a little early to enjoy the spectacular beach that Vilankulos has to offer.   Once we got in we hung around for a bit and ended up going to the market to buy some seafood (something I rarely get at sight).  We hit the jackpot and bought 5 or 6 pounds of fresh clams for the equivalent of a dollar, SCORE! After that Emily and I made our way to Drew’s (another PCV who lives about 20km outside of the city) and enjoyed the next day relaxing before we boarded our flight and headed off to Maputo (Mac (my good friend from Machanga) joined us at this point).
                We left Inhassoro made our way to Maputo and enjoyed the 2 days eating as much food as possible during the evenings and talking REDES during the day.
                The Hand-over went really well and I’m starting to have a clear picture of how REDES works and how I can improve it for the next year.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone who works with REDES and I look forward to organizing a bunch of fun activities for my REDES girls next year!
                After the hand-over meeting I flew back into Vilankulos to attend a celebration of my friend Laurie turning 30!    Laurie and her husband Chris are two of the most wonderful people I have ever met and enjoy chit-chatting.  This party was a blast; we stayed in some beautiful dooms that overlook a pleasant beach and filled our time with eating pizza (an extremely rare delicacy in Mozambique), being silly, and talking about all of the little things that effect our lives here in Mozambique.
                The next day I said my good-byes, gave everyone a hug and headed back to Mangunde, I arrived safe and sound on Sunday evening ready to give classes that following Monday.  My weeklong vacation had finally come to an end I started buckling down to get back in the swing of things.

Mataqenha
                What is a Mataqenha you’re asking?  I will tell you. A Mataqenha is a little worm that hangs out in the sandy areas underneath mango trees and crawls into your foot to lay its eggs.  
                During my trip to Vilankulos I at some point walked barefoot under a Mango tree and managed to get four of these little buggers in my left foot!  At first I just thought it was a small blister, but on second inspection I noticed a tiny black dot in the center of the circular abnormality and realized it was a bug! 
                Now most people upon finding a bug in their foot might freak out, and if this had happened a few months ago that would have probably been me.  However, once I realized what they were and said “eww” I decided to perform some minor surgery and remove the egg sac and worm from my foot myself.
                I attacked the four invaders with some needles, anti-septic, and tweezers with great success.  I managed to get them all out after about an hour and a half of struggle and went to bed satisfied and feeling like a bad ass.
                What I’ve learned from this is to avoid walking behind Drew’s house barefoot, and that if you pierce a Mataqenha sac this disgusting black liquid comes out so be careful with that darn needle.
English Theater in Chimoio
                After getting back to Mangunde I was put into a frenzy of lesson planning, preparing my REDES group for a performance at the hospital, and getting all of the little things in my life organized.  
                On a side note I had my REDES group perform a Musical number at the local hospital on Malaria which was a stunning success.  The girls in my REDES girls danced up a storm and close to a hundred people from the hospital and the surrounding area came out to watch them. J
                Not to long after that musical performance did I start making preparations to attend the English Theater competition in Chimoio.  My roommate Ian had been working with the English club at our school for the last few months creating and perfecting a theater piece to be presented at this competition.  In this competition 10 schools from the Sofala province all converged on Chimoio to participate in a weekend of English, theater, and excitement.   Since Ian left a bit early to organize the event, it was up to me to organize the transport to Chimoio and get all of us there safely.  
                As I was sitting on the back of a pick-up truck with 15 students it dawned on me how ridiculous the transport in Mozambique is compared to America.  We were on a SCHOOL FUNCTION with authorization from the director of our mission and our transport was 2 pick-up trucks for about 35 people, and the only thought I had was thank god it’s not a chapa.  In America piling 17 students on the back of a pick-up truck for a 5 hour long journey would seem absolutely impossible and an insane liability.  Here in Mozambique, totally normal.
                The competition was a stunning success without any serious hic-ups(which always tends to occur with events here) and with all of the schools performing wonderfully.  This competition was especially exciting for us here in Mangunde because we took home 1st PRIZE!!!!  Mangunde won best overall performance and Ian and I couldn’t be more proud of how much work our students put in to their theater piece.  Special props for Ian who made the whole competition happen.

O dia 25 de setembro
                Today is Tuesday September 25th a national holiday here in Mozambique where they celebrate the first day of the “luta armada” that is to say “armed struggle”.  Today commemorates the day that Mozambican nationals took up arms to oust their Portuguese oppressors (Mozambique was a Portuguese colony from the early 1500’s until the 1970s).   So as I am writing to you I am enjoying the day lying on my estera (bamboo matt) catching up on little tidbits of work that I have been putting off.    J
                Two days from now will mark one full year on a continent and in a country which never ceases to amaze me.   I’m going to be celebrating my one year anniversary in Mozambique by sleeping in (no class on Friday), eating a snickers bar (thanks mom), and translating a 3 page document into Portuguese for a project I’m starting (more fun that it sounds?).  J   Big hugs to everyone in the states!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Trimester 3 - Hit the ground running!


August 25, 2012

Can you believe it’s already the end of August.  I can’t.   Every time I write one of these blogs I’m surprised.

The last few weeks have been crazy; let me first tell you about a wedding I went to.    The wedding I went to was in a little village (or group of huts all within an hour or two walking distance to the nearest water source)  called Mawhenee.  I was invited by my friend Alberto and was excited to take him up on the offer.  The village was about an hour and half away on my bike so he told me that we would be spending the night, I said “no problem, sounds like fun”.  

The trip turned out to be a blast though exhausting, by “spending the night” what Alberto really meant was: get to a friend’s house at 4pm, leave for the wedding at 9pm and START the wedding at 2:30 in the morning.  That’s right we STARTED the wedding at 2:30 in the morning and then proceeded to dance until 10am.  I didn’t take part in the dancing right way, it seemed to be something that only the women were doing for the first 4 hours or so, then around day break some of the guys, Alberto included, started to jump into the dancing circle, at which point I decided to dance as well.   

The dancing was quite unique, one person would play the batuque(drum), someone else would start singing a certain phrase (this was all in the local language Chindau so I was lost as to what was actually being sung) and that one phrase would be repeated in rhythm with the drum for about 5-10 minutes per song.  Everyone would circle around the fire and do a repeated dance movement copying the leader of the group as they circled around the fire.  I wouldn’t call the dancing particularly beautiful by the American context  of dancing, but it had the effect of putting you into a trance.  The music was so rhythmic and everything was in tune to the beat of the drum that 6 hours and sunrise passed before I knew it.  

At about 8am after a few hours of dancing the wedding actually started at which point the wedding party slowly made their way out of the hut that they had been in the whole night ( the wedding party was not present for the majority of the dancing)  when I say slowly I mean SLOWLY they inched forward bit by bit so that they probably walked a total of 20 yards in 10 minutes .  They had over them a sheet that stayed on them covering all of their faces until the end of the ceremony.  At some point during the ceremony the bride started nervously convulsing, I interpreted it as nervous anxiety at the prospect of starting married life and leaving her family, however Alberto informed me that it was a demon.  They then disappeared for about a half an hour in which time I believe they exorcised the demon.  Some call it a demon some call it nervous anxiousness either way I seemed like the same types of emotions that typically occur at weddings.
After the wedding we ate breakfast and then headed back to Mangunde which of course took 5 hours longer than I expected because time here in Mozambique is viewed very differently than in America and if someone says will be back around 10am what they actually mean is “we’ll get back eventually if not today than definitely maybe tomorrow”.

The other exciting thing that happened on the following week was a visit from Ian (my roommate) ‘s parents.     That was particularly exciting not only to be able to show of Mangunde to some non-Peace Corps volunteers but it also left me with a sense of excited anticipation for when my family comes to visit around Christmas time.  I had to work most of the time so I didn’t see Ian’s parents much during the day however I got to know them a bit in the evenings and I enjoyed their and Hannah’s company (Ian’s girlfriend a fellow PCV who lives in Tete, Mozambique).   The most exciting part of their visit was a dinner that we had at my good friend Alberto’s house wherein some of the local school groups that Ian runs gave performances this was followed by a wonderful goat dinner with pineapple for desert cooked by Alberto’s wife.

The following weekend, the first weekend in August, I had whirlwind trip to Chimoio where I participated in my first professional skype meeting with some other Peace Corps Volunteers from different parts of the country and our Country Director.  The meeting went well and I ended up spending a few days with a PCV from my training group Hoang who lives in Chimoio.  Another exciting note about this trip was that I finished the book I was reading “Pillars of the Earth” on my way up to Chimoio.  SUCH A GOOD BOOK it’s a serious page turner and I recommend it to everyone(It’s got everything, sex, intrigue, political scandal, and the whole good triumphs over evil theme that we Americans seem to eat up so readily).

The following weekend(the second weekend in August)  Ian and I invited any and all volunteers willing to make the trek to Mangunde to our house for a pig roast in celebration of Ian’s and Mac’s birthdays (Ian turned 25 on August 3rd and Mac turned 24 on August 16).  The party was a blast we had 8 volunteers come down from different parts of Manica and Sofala, we showed off our site and we ate well!!  Just thinking about all of the delicious things we ate makes me salivate.  We started the weekend out with Mac and Cheese.  Mac and Cheese is an extreme delicacy here amongst PCVs in Mozambique and the fact that we had Mac and Cheese made from Velveeta (courtesy of our recent visit by Ian’s Parents) was a huge hit.  This was followed by a huge egg scramble in the morning, Eggplant peanut curry for lunch (How to make a peanut curry will be something I have with me for the rest of my life, thank you Ian), and then roast pig served with roasted apples and pineapples (covered in cinnamon and sugar) and topped off with a chocolate cake for desert.    It was a darn good weekend!!

Than the following weekend (the third weekend in August) we had the provincial science fair.  I worked the majority of last trimester on preparing the students in Mangunde for the local science fair, and I spent the majority of the beginning of this third trimester helping our finalists prepare for the provincial science fair.   The Provincial fair was held in the city of Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique, and was both a proud and memorable moment for me.  Mangunde ended up taking home 3 awards which means half of the students who went to the fair from Mangunde won prizes and beat out a lot of other student who come from much bigger schools.  The fair was an all day event that started at about 6 in the morning for me and didn’t end till almost 7 o’clock at night.   I and all of the other volunteers were super busy helping David( Science Fair coordinator) out in any way we could.  I was really impressed with some of projects that found their way to the fair and I’m looking forward to doing science fair again next year.

On a side note, this was my first time in Beira and it was an interesting place to visit, though the visit was brief.  Upon arrival to Beira I was struck by a sudden and strong sense of nostalgia, after living very far from the developed world for so many months driving into Beira sent my mind back to times when I was in Tampa, Florida something about being in a tropical city makes me remember my youth.  Beira has a definite “city” feel to it with cars, hustle and bustle, movement and activity and all of it made me miss all of those little convinces I had while I lived in the states.   I was able to go for a run during my time in Beira as well which allowed me to check out the beach and some of surrounding area.   In a big city like Beira the contrast between the rich and poor of Mozambique is extremely apparent.  I found myself running by mansions with beautiful gardens in their courtyards and hummers in their driveways and then less than a minute later I would pass by run down shacks by the beach where the local fishermen live.  95% of Mozambique lives in the worst poverty the world has to offer and the other 5% live like kings and queens by comparison.  It just doesn’t seem right.

After returning to Mangunde from the Science fair I found myself overwhelmed with work for the first 2 days of the week and only upon finishing up one of the many highly unnecessary tasks that my school likes to assign to me did I start to feel relaxed, for the first time in months I might add.   After the last few weeks of going, going, and going, I finally have enough time to sit down relax get ahead on my lesson planning and write a blog. 

My emotions for the past few weeks of been in a serious slump there were a few weeks where I honestly thought I was depressed.  My emotions here in Mozambique are always oscillating between the extremes I’m either really happy and excited, or extremely annoyed and agitated.  Only after having a few days to relax do I realize how much of these negative emotions were due to the stress of being too busy(overworked and underpaid has a whole new meaning as a PCV).  Here in Africa more than any other time in my life do I realize how much a few hours of quite time a week mean to me.   In Mozambican culture, quite alone time, is not valued and even looked down upon as anti-social behavior, this simple fact can be exhausting at times but between running and reading (and most recently season 5 of Dexter) my stress levels have plummeted and I find myself enjoying once again my teaching routine.

I also recently finished the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”  this is a MUST read for anyone interested in getting a broader view of how America has handled international affairs in the past.  A very well written book that makes me want to learn more about how America interacts with the world outside of its borders.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

June and July in Mozambique!


After 2 months of being MIA, I am finally writing a blogpost!  
                My crazy short semester
                                So this semester was filled with many interesting things all of which I will get to in this post.   The first thing I must tell you thought is that this semester has been a crazy one when it comes to teaching.  The ministry of education in Mozambique moved the scheduled two week break that is at the end of the trimester up by 2 weeks midway through the trimester.   This effectively turned a 12 week trimester into a 10 week trimester and if that doesn’t seem short enough for you they scheduled exams on the third to last week of school effectively reducing the amount of time that I was able to spend inside a class room teaching to about 7 weeks.   Way to go Mozambican education system.  This had a sort of ripple effect on my life here in Mangunde.  For the entire trimester I was operating on a condensed amount of time so the 10 weeks of the trimester seemed to fly by with one event after another.
                The first event that I had the trimester was something called a “troca de experiencia’  which is na ‘exchange of experience’ between REDES groups from different schools.  So, on June 23 a school about 3.5 hours away came with 15 REDES girls and a couple of awesome Peace Core friends of mine and we had a party here in Mangunde!   The group from Machanga performed a dance for the girls in Mangunde and the girls in Mangunde put on a theater performance and a musical performance for the girls in Machanga.  All the performances had a HIV/AIDS related theme and the weekend was filled with dancing, laughing and making friends.   It was also very exciting because a friend of mine traveled for 2 days to see me and my friend Mac in Mangunde and we were all joined by the fanstic Williams duo from Mapinhane ( a married couple who live about 3 hours south of me).  This of course added a whole other dynamic to the weekend.   Spending the weekend with good friends, hanging out with the girls in my REDES group and watching them meet new people, and spending time running around trying to make sure everything works out made for an eventful but wonderful weekend.  I can honestly say that June 23 and 24 was probably my most memorable days in Peace Core today and I would trade them for the world.
                Since the beginning of the second trimester I have been having meetings on Sunday afternoons trying to get people interested (and get those interested working on) science fair projects.  The Peace Core about 5 or 6 years ago started having provincial science fairs to try to get kids more interested in the sciences and technology and in Mangunde at least it has turned into a big deal!  On June 30 Mangunde held its annual science fair (coordinated by yours truly with some wonderful advice and help from my roommate Ian) and it was a huge success!   We had 18 students participate in the fair and present their projects. Each student was required to stand up and give a 5-6 minute presentation about their experiment and I am happy to say they all did a great job.  However words can’t tell you how wonderful it was to finish up the local science fair and put it behind me.   There were 6 winners for the science fair (1 and 2nd in different age groups and 2 different schools) and we are all looking forward to the provincial science fair which will be happening next semester in Beira(the capital of the province I live in).
                After the trimester ended a bunch of my friends and I decided that it would be awesome if we walked from my site (Mangunde, Sofala) to our friends site in Dombe Manica for a quick 4th of July party before the majority of us went up to some conferences that we had in Chimoio.   The journey was every bit of 100km (62 miles more or less) and was a grand adventure that I will never do again.   We walked into some of the most rural parts of Mozambique and by the end of the first day I had the two biggest blisters I have ever had on my two feet. (and I run marathons!!!)  They appeared right on the balls on my feet and turned me into a grumpy, injured old man for the last 2 hours of our walk to rich Alberto’s sister’s house.   (Alberto a colleague of mine from Mangunde who works with both Ian and I on many different projects, he is a wonderful person and diamond in the rough so to speak here in Mozambique).  When we finally arrived at our destination just after dusk on Friday night all 8 of us were pooped but excited to be able to chill for a few day in Dombe! (Except for my 9th grade student who decided to tag along and did the whole journey barefoot!  That kid showed us all up.)
                After spending a day or two in Dombe, Mac and I went up had a brief visit with a another Peace Core friend of ours, Jamie, at her beautiful site in Sussendenga , after spending only a single night there Alberto, Mac, and I grabbed a chapa  up to Chimoio to start our Project Management and Design (PDM)training.   Alberto was my counterpart for this training and we spent the next 3 days planning out a project that we would like to do in Mangunde. These three days included LOTS of eating, running water, and a hot shower, and me getting really excited about our project.   The project is in its infancy but if all goes according to plan Alberto and I will build a community center that has a focus on HIV/AIDS and has a supply of books to act as a library.   There is a lot of planning left to do with it but at this point it seems very possible! (more to come!)
                So after the PDM conference I stayed right in Chimoio to help my friend Emily (the volunteer who lives in Chimoio) plan a huge REDES workshop here in Chimoio.   The workshop was a 3 day course were a bunch of girls from the surrounding provinces get together and are given classes on self-esteem, communication, HIV/AIDS, Male and female Biology, Sex education, and setting goals for the future.   I thought the conference went very well and I enjoyed working with Emily and the other Peace Core volunteers to make it happen.
                So now I am here again after talking about the last two months trying to come up with some way to describe how I feel after almost 10 months here in Mozambique.   The last few months have been hectic and these next 3 months are sure to be even busier.   I find myself missing a lot of things about home these days while at the same time finding myself adjusting to a whole new level to the way of life here in Mozambique.     Anyways I hope you enjoyed my blog and I promise to be a little more on top of writing blogs this trimester so that I don’t fall behind so much on my experiences.  (It’s hard to to a summary of the past 2 months in a single afternoon here at my laptop)  I hope all is going well, Lot’s of love from AFRICA!!!  <3

Sunday, May 20, 2012

April and May, Fall in Mangunde




Visiting Lisa and Dan in Tete

The first of my many adventures since my last blog post was a trip I took to the western most province of Mozambique known as Tete.  Two of my good Peace Corps friends live in a town called Zobue right on the boarder of Malawi and Mozambique.  Lisa and Dan the couple who lives there scored big when It comes to beautiful Peace Corps sites.  The town of Zobue is located in the mountains and is overlooked by a gorgeous tri-peaked mountain known as Mt. Zobue.  The overall visit was wonderful. Lisa and Dan were great hosts and I got to spend a few days with some Peace Corps friends that I hadn’t seen in quite awhile.  
The few days I spent up there involved a lot of eating, a lot of just hanging, and one of the coolest day hikes I have ever been on.   When we first started to climb the mountain my first thoughts were; ”it’s hot, the grass is really tall, and why o why did we just have an hour long conversation about the poisonous snakes that live in Africa.”  But after about an hour into the hike my thoughts shifted a bit and I started noticing that the higher we got the more diverse the vegetation was becoming.  I am used to climbing a mountain where the higher you get the less verity of plants you see.    Here however  it was the exact opposite.  The higher you get on Mt. Zobue the denser, and lusher the vegetation becomes.   At some point I was looking around and for the first time since I arrived in Mozambique I felt like I was in the African jungle you hear in story books where at any point in time a gorilla was going to cross your path or Monkeys were going to start swinging in the vines above you.  
We didn’t end up making it to the top of Mt. Zobue that day but we did make it into the valley between what seemed to be the 3 separate peaks of Mt. Zobue.  From there we were able to see the landscape for miles and miles.  I am sometimes struck by the landscape of Mozambique.  The mountains have a tendency to just jut out of what would be considered a very flat region.  For this reason once you climb Mt. Zobue all that you see for miles and miles is flat land with a few other mountains jutting out of the earth at sporadic intervals.   It’s quite striking.  We were also able to see well into Malawi and probably crossed the border at some point during our hike.  The borders here are not very well defined so there is quite a large region of the Malawi, Mozambique border where, on a hike, every other person you pass may tell you you’re in a different country.
Over all the trip was a ton of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Lisa, Dan and the crew.   J  Since I know Lisa reads my blog I am going to take this time to thank her and Dan for their hospitality!  :-D  I hope I get the chance to go back for another visit at some point!



Reconnect and REDES

After my trip to Zobue Dan, Mac, Dylan and I (all PC buddies) traveled into Tete city, ate some amazing falafel, and then stayed the night at the owner of the falafel places’ slightly sketchy water storage house. As odd as it sounds that’s exactly what happened.  We then woke up bright and early to catch the express bus from Tete city to Chimoio. We got into Chimoio around 11am and from then on it was a huge reunion.  After spending 3 and half months at sight all of the central and southern volunteers came together to have our in-service training.  
I thought the training was a blast mainly because I got to catch up with a bunch of people and hear all about their sites, and the adventures that they have had, and because I had a flushing toilet and a hot shower for about 5 days.  What more could I ask for?   The overall training was very useful (even though it had its slow parts) and I feel like I got a lot out of hearing how other people were dealing with similar teaching problems.  We all stayed at a little hotel just outside the city of Chimoio called Millipark.  The overall landscape was beautiful and a memorable part of my stay there was a slightly out of place white horse that would stand outside of my bedroom in the morning and greet me as I would head to breakfast.   I wish the hotel had had internet but as a consolation prize it did have a very fancy cement putt-putt golf course. 
IST lasted about 4 days and afterwards myself, Joanna(one of the volunteers who lives in Catandica, where I spent Christmas), Mac(my biggest ‘bro’ in Mozambique, both literally and metaphorically) all said our goodbyes and went straight over a training of coordinators for the REDES group that I am involved in.   That ended up being a lot of fun, and a big learning experience.   It was a conference of all women minus Mac and I and we definitely stood out.  We ended up giving a talk about the position of REDES on teaching sex education (an enlightening experience to say the least), and helping out with little things where we could. 
While there I met two Mozambicans that I thought were absolutely fantastic Ofelia, and Sheila.  These two are shining stars of what Mozambican women can be with a good education and motivation.  They were excited to be there and contributed a ton to the overall conference.   I am hoping to stay in contact with them to plan a few events in the next year or so.  After all of the conference festivities Mac his counterpart Katarina (another fabulous person) my counterpart Rosa(someone who I am coming to respect more and more, the more I get to know her) and I all hopped on a Chapa and headed out to our respective homes.    The Chapa ride was smooth sailing and I got back to site with plenty of time to plan my lessons for the following day of classes.

Off to Vilankulos for some not so formal PC Activities!

I arrived back to site on April 23 with so much to do that I found myself in a complete tizzy.  Luckily for me I tend to get a lot of stuff done in my tizzies and was able to get everything planned for my classes that I was going to be giving that week.  My return to Mangunde was very busy and short lived because after spending only 4 days at site trying to get as much done as possible I headed out that Friday April 27 to go to Vilankulos for a huge PCV gathering. 
 I got to Vilankulos on Friday night, tired from traveling but excited to see a bunch of my friends who live in the northern provinces of Mozambique and who had a different in-service training in their respective part of the country.   The reunion was filled with lots of laughs, and stories about our sites and just with the general excitement that ensues when you are around people you haven’t seen in awhile.  I spent the next 3 days in a state of rest and relaxation.  Vilankulos has some beautiful beaches and the place where we stayed was more or less on the beach.  I could get from my tent to the beach in about 2 minutes.   
There was a bunch of drinking related competitions and my region (the volunteers from the central part of Mozambique) took first place!   The highlight of the drinking festivities for me was playing a game called dizzy bat.  It’s a race where you drink about a quarter of a beer then sprint to a bat that is lying on the ground, pick it up, spin around it 10 times, and then run back and tag the next member of your team. Overall, I thought it was a blast.

Getting back into the swing of things

After the weekend in Vilankulos I returned home to Mangunde on Monday April 30 ready to stay put for awhile.  I took the first week I was there to get everything in order for the new trimester and to make sure that everything was turned in from the last trimester.    Getting back into the swing of things took a little time, but after about two weeks at site I am satisfied with how things are working out this trimester.   I wasn’t completely content with the way I was teaching last trimester and I made it a point to be more organized about everything this time around.  I now feel like I am teaching twice as much material twice as effectively then I did last trimester and I hope by the 3rd trimester I will work out the rest of the kinks.
During my readjustment period here in Mangunde I had a wonderful day trip with Alberto(a wonderful guy who volunteers a ton for his community), Jose(a nurse at the Hospital) and Jose’s wife (whom I do not know).    The four of us walked to a little settlement about 45 minutes outside of Mangunde called Dongonda.  To get to Dongonda I had to wade through the brown murky water of the river that runs next to Mangunde.  The water came up just past my knee and all four of us were on edge about seeing a crocodile.  But we made it across the river without being eaten and arrived in Dongonda ready to talk to the people of the region.  
When we arrived to the town center (a tree) we were warmly welcomed and given the only 4 chairs in site.  Jose and Alberto gave their speeches on their organization and I nervously gave a random speech about the PC (something I did not think I would have to do) no one there spoke Portuguese so one of my students (who as it turns with his ninth grade education is one of the most prosperous young men of the town) had to translate for me.   After the town meeting which took about 2 hours we were invited to eat lunch in the town, which we accepted.   Being one of only a handful of white people to have ever been to Dongonda, and coming along with Jose a very respected member of the community I felt like we were being given the royal treatment.  The food which was Xima and chicken, followed by a cup of Maheywa (a heavy fermented corn flour drink that is delicious), and was accompanied by some great conversation.  
My experience in Dongonda was my first truly eye opening experience on African culture.  Every single thing about the social interactions, the people around me, the houses, the plants, and the sounds was distinctively different from what I am accustomed to not only in the states, but also what I had grown accustomed to living in Mangunde, a very active mission.  I felt like I was experiencing something truly special, and my hope now is to visit more of the towns in the surrounding area to try and get to know the local culture better.

JUNTOS exchange

So now I have finally caught up to just last weekend when Mangunde hosted a JUNTOS exchange.  JUNTOS is a club that my roommate Ian is involved in which is used as a theater/music/general education club where they give teenagers a creative outlet as well as educating them on all things from how to put on a condom, to the ways one can protect oneself from Malaria.   Ian was the main one to organize the event, and I was just there as someone to help out and have a good time.    The event involved having two schools who also have JUNTOS groups come to Mangunde show their theater pieces and to get to know each other.  Along with the groups came Mona, Micah, and Mac all three good friends of mine, so needless to say the entire weekend ended up being a blast.  Not only was it great to see all of the fantastic performances by the kids in our groups, but just being able to show some other volunteers  our site was exciting.
The only hic-up that the weekend had to offer was that there was a nasty bus driver who was around 5 hours late picking up one of groups of kids to take them back to their school.  After being 5 hours late he then proceeded to argue with Ian for at least a half an hour trying to double how much we had agreed to pay for the Chapa.   But in the end everyone made it home safely even if they were about 8 hours late.


Being here in Africa for me has seemed like a mini college experience .  I feel like I was a freshmen while I was in my training in Namachaa, a sophomore for my first 3 months at site and now that the second trimester is underway I feel as though I just entered my Junior year.  That is, I have an idea what’s going on, the novelty of being in a place so different from what I am used to have worn off, and the pieces of the puzzle, that is this foreign culture I live in, are starting to work themselves together into a picture that although I can see the outline, the full image has not yet shown itself.    For the time being I feel as though I am in a mild equilibrium. I have my classes, and my projects to keep me busy, my friends to keep me company, other volunteers to keep me grounded, and the overall feeling that I’m where I should be.  

Thursday, April 12, 2012

O Dia das Mulheres Mozambicana - Mangunde sytle!!!

It’s hard to believe that I can honestly say I have been away from home and here in Mozambique for more than 6 months now.  I’m amazed at how different my life is here in comparison to the states and how much I’m acclimated to it.  Just the other day my ride to Chimoio (a 5 hour trip) was delayed by 2 hours and  half way through the trip we got a flat tire which took us another 30 minutes to resolve, this put me entering Inchope (a Hopp’n Mozambican truck stop) after dark.  When I first got here something like that would have made me very uneasy, and even just a month ago I would have been a little stressed, but this time around I barely noticed, it was just another day traveling in Mozambique.

O Dia das Mulheres Mozambicanas

                About 30 years ago here in Mozambique named Samora Machel.  He was one of the people held principally responsible for the liberation of Mozambique from Portugual.  He died tragically in a plane crash around 25 years ago and is a hero here in Mozambique.  He was a very important man, but he wasn’t the only member of his family who had great influence, his wife Josina Machel  is also a very important woman in Mozambican culture.  She was a sergeant in the military and died in the war against colonialism.  She was and is an important reminder to Mozambican woman that they too are strong and able to do anything that a man can do.  It is very important that women in Mozambique have role models like this, because it is all too often the case that women here suffer serious oppression due to cultural norms and the expectations of men.  Once a year there is a day set aside for the Mulher Mozambicana (Mozambican woman), this year it feel on Saturday April 7th and was one of my favorite days  thus far in Mangunde.    Ian ( my house mate and “bro”) and I planned an all girls soccer tournament, which included an opening song from my REDES group which was wonderful.  It was a fantastic moment to see the girls in this club a started put on such a great performance.   There was also a mid tournament theater performance by the REDES group which was aimed at fighting discrimination against women being victimized for not producing children.  The girls in my REDES group told me that it was a serious problem for the communities surround Mangunde, that if a woman did not produce children she could be abused by her husband and eventually left (even though it could well be the man’s fault).  The theater performance went very well and the whole school seemed to enjoy the show.  Lastly there was a presentation from Ian’s JUNTOS (Jovens Unidos no Trabalho para Oportunidades e Suceso, Youths united in working for Opportunities and success) which was a wonderful finally to the tournament.   With then gave out prizes; notebooks, coca-cola, pens, gum,  and cookies and then we called it a day.    It was a wonderful experience and all of the kids at the school, both boys and girls enjoyed the festivities.
                REDES this trimester has been a wonderful surprise.  I was nervous about starting a new club and I was filled with worries and doubts as to whether any or all of my work with the club would come to fruition.  The girls in my REDES group have been wonderful and highly motivated in their own right, I think the only thing these girls really needed was an outlet.   I have high hopes that next semester will be even more successful than the first.

My Mangunde Family

                My living situation is a unique one amongst Peace Core Volunteers.  I have a housemate (Ian) another Peace Core volunteer who has been wonderful to live with.  Usually after dinner we usually get roped into some sort of conversation or the other.  The conversations topics have ranged from deep conversations about the level of poverty here in Mangunde, to talks on theoretical physics, and as to the critical question of which is more important in the Salsa and chip combo, the Salsa or the chip? 
                When I say my living situation is unique I am talking about the fact that not only do I live with Ian but our empregada (maid), her son Jacinto, her niece Enoria, and her nephew also live with us.  They don’t live directly in the house but there is a hut outside of the main structure which they claim as their own.  Since Gracinda normally cooks for us we basically share all of our food, our kitchen, and our water with them.   What this translates to is we go through food 2 or 3 times as fast as we would if we were cooking for ourselves, we go through a liter of oil a week, and there is not a lot of personal space.   When I first got to site the whole situation bothered me a bit, but I went in with the mindset that adaptation was key.  After a few weeks I found out that Ian wasn’t completely satisfied with the situation and since then there have been talks of changes to the living arrangement(did I mention she gets paid twice as much as any other PC volunteer empregada, when you make 300$ a month every bit counts).   I like Gracinda, Jacinto, Enoria, and Jose a lot but It has definitely been a person struggle acclimating to an entire household.
                Ian and I have decided that starting the new trimester we are going to start cooking for ourselves, and we are going to be separating the food, i.e not sharing.   Now from a capitalist stand point we have greatly reduced her work load, she now doesn’t have to cook lunch and dinner for us anymore and therefore her pay would decrease.  However because we are going to be separating food, she wanted and wants a raise to offset the cost of food.   Now since she already makes quite a bit more compared to the maids of other PC volunteers we are reluctant to give her a rise after decreasing her work load.    This is a much more difficult situation that it may seem , Ian and I have the ability to make life easier for Gracinda and her family by giving her more money than her job actually requires.  However we would have to sacrifice some of our standard of living.  Now compared to America Ian and I would be considered to be living an impoverished life.  We have no running water, we eat basic food that can be stored for long periods of time, it takes at least 3 to 4 hours to get anywhere, and all of the  little comforts of America, having internet, being able to go out to eat, having reliable energy, and  just being able to regularly communicate with friends and family are basically none existent.   But compared to Mozambican standards we live like kings, we have enough money to buy all of the food we want no matter how simple it is, we can travel when we want to or when is necessary, we have electricity, we can afford new things when old things break, and we have adequate health care.   So from an American stand point I’m poor, and from the Mozambican stand point I’m wealthy.  This of course leads to the confusing emotions of feeling guilty because I have so much here, and frustration for what I don’t have here.   We’re between a rock and a hard place as it would seem.

Teaching English and Computers

I have just recently graded all of my 250 final trimester exams and I am happy to say that my first trimester teaching has been a success.  I have a lot of improvements to make for the upcoming year but over all I am happy.   Everyday teaching English gets a little more enjoyable, I would still like to be teaching physics or math instead of English but I’m acclimating.   Check out my facebook for pictures!
I also had a successful trimester teaching computers; it is nice to see immediate results.  When I first started my class most people didn’t even know how to hold a mouse properly now they are writing simple documents and able to access the games when I am not looking.

Showing movies in the Internato

                A fun an interesting thing that has been a tradition in Mangunde for the past few years, is the showing of a movie on Friday and/or Saturday nights for the boys who live in the Internato (basically the dormitories).  As their only source of entertainment on a Friday or Saturday night they are normally super psyched to watch a film.  We have won major brownie points by showing them movies, and it’s fun to watch them get so excited.   However there is a catch, now I enjoy a good action movie with some nice fight scenes, but the guys in the internato LOVE them.  They love them so much that they simple are not appreciative of any other type of movie that get’s put on the screen, The collective moan from 100 Mozambican teenagers when I put on “Wall-E”  the other day was astounding.  They were so aggressive about having to watch an animated film (which I thought was a nice change to the blood and Violence that their used to seeing) that Ian and I are now reluctant to show any violent films.    It was an annoying moment because it was just a few selected students who were complaining and ruining the movie for the rest of the kids.  We eventually resolved the issue by talking to the guys about giving every movie a chance, and a lot of kids came up to me afterwards and said that they really enjoyed the film.

Random thoughts

                So after 6 months in Mozambique the weather is starting to change and it is cooling off bit by bit!   I hear it gets to the insanely cold temperature of about 50 degrees here in the winter time, and I couldn’t be more excited!!! 
 For the past few weeks my distractions here in Mangunde outside of the busy work schedule that I have has consisted of watching the 4th season of “Dexter” a FANTASTIC show that I recommend to everyone.  I have also been reading “The long walk to Freedom” the autobiography of Nelson Mandela.  My friends Mary and Landon back in the states recommended this book to me ages ago and I have finally found a copy and the time to read it.  It is a fantastic book!  Nelson Mandela was simply an amazing person.  I now am furthering on the recommendation to this book to anyone who would be so interested.  
Lastly I would just like to through some shout outs to people and things I miss from the states.   Shout out to my family, Jeremey, Dad, and Mom <3, Maria and Jackie I hope everythings going well in Buffalo!  A shout out to  Akeeme and Lauren, I miss you girls!   Shout out to Landon, Caroyln, Keelan and Mary.  Shout out to my former Urge group, Bobby, Matt and Devanshu especially!  Shout out UB Physics department! Shout out to subway subs, Hershey bars, Snickers, Thai food, Cheddar Cheese, and all of the other wonderful foods I miss so much from the states.   And lastly shout out to everyone who in my haste I have forgotten to mention. J

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Bom dia America e Outras!

Hello!
Just wanted to update everyone on what's going on over here in Mozambique.  My life over here in Mangunde has been fairly low key as of late with a few fun trips to see some friends.  Two weeks ago in late February I took a trip down to Vilankulos with a bunch of other Peace Corps Volunteers which ended up being a lot fun.  Vilankulos is a beautiful little place in the Inhambane province of Mozambique while there I was able to experience my first African Sunrise over the beach, I ate guacamole (it was a magical experience), got to know a bunch of the volunteers from the south (all amazing people), and received a fantastic package from the states from two of my good friends Maria and Jackie.   The name of the event was called "bro summit"  and it involved getting a bunch of the "bros" from the central and south regions together.  I have yet to clearly define what a "bro" is or whether or not it is a good or bad thing to be considered one, however it was a wonderful excuse to get together with friends and have a few beers.

Outside of that event which happened two weeks ago, my life in Mangunde keeps me pretty busy.   I normally get up between 5 and 6  and go for a run (on the days I feel the motivation)  I then get back take a bucket bath, and head off to classes everyday monday-thursday from 7am-12pm.  I come back to the house at noon where normally lunch has already been made for Ian and I by Gracinda, I eat do a little work, and then either head back to class in the afternoons, plan my lessons or club meetings and end up just chatting with students or doing random tasks throughout the day.  I usually eat dinner by 7:30 or 8, chat with Ian for awhile and then pass out by around 10pm.        At think at this point in my service I have reached the point where my day to day life is pretty mundane lol.   I enjoy getting up and going to work in the mornings, though after teaching for 5 hours (or 9 hours on Monday’s)  I am usually too wiped out to do anything more than eat, and chat with students and my roommate before I go to bed.   

Mangunde is starting to really grow on me as a site.  The people are friendly and I feel that slowly but surely I'm adjusting to my new job, new people, and the culture of Mozambique.    A funny little side note about Mozambican culture:  Here in Mozambique big a little "chunky”, “fat", or "gordo" as they like to say in Mozambique is considered a sign of wealth and prosperity.   So the kids at my school, teachers, and the general public always surprise me when I hear them call Ian, myself or each other fat.   Imagine having someone walk up to you pat your stomach and say "wow, you’re looking really fat today"  and for this to be a complete compliment, no sarcasm, no negative connotation just a simple good natured greeting among friends.   This happens quite often here, and it always catches me off guard.  :-)

Friday, February 24, 2012

Started My Secondary Projects!!

2/24/2012

                The past week or so since my last blog has been the busiest I have been since coming to Mozambique.   I gave a test last week to all of my English classes and since I have 5 different sections of English each with around 50 students I ended up with almost 250 tests to grade!  250 TESTS!   On top of having to grade these tests I started one of my secondary projects (projects that I do for my community outside of my duties as a teacher..more on this in a bit), my pedagogical director gave me these planning sheets I had to do for my classes, and I had to plan for the following week’s lessons along with laying down the frame work for a club I was going to start up on this week.  You can add to this list taking a trip to Muxungue to buy more supplies for the house, and then redoing my entire kitchen which took up all of my February 17th’s afternoon.    It was by far the busiest week I have had, and by far the most productive!
                On Friday the 17th I left on a bus to Muxungue and hung out there until about 2pm in the afternoon, I managed to buy a ton of food for the house and some shelving units for the kitchen.  (I also scored Ian and I a new “double boca fugao”  i.e.  a charcoal grill two places to burn coal, a serious upgrade from the little ground grill we were using before to cook our rice and beans.)   Once I got back from my trip to Muxungue I tore apart my kitchen cleaning and rearranging things until around 7 or 8 at night.  The following day I woke up and preceded to grade tests all day (except for the 2 hours in the morning I found out, very last minute, that I had to watch over one of my classes as the swept and weeded the school grounds, there is nothing like being told last minute on a Saturday morning you need to be at work:-P ).    I finished all of my grading, and inputting of the grades into my computer by around 11pm (There was a random break for a few rounds of UNO with some of my students around dinner time).   The next day (Sunday now)  I woke up and the rest of the work was smooth sailing, I planned my classes for the following week and talked to some people to get the ball rolling on the REDES group that I will be starting here in Mangunde.
                At this point I have mentioned two secondary projects and have yet to tell you anything about them, here goes nothing.    Right now I have two secondary projects that I am working on, the first is a simple project where every week I am giving computer classes to the local nurses and hospital volunteers in an effort to make some of the inner workings of the hospital more efficient.  I’m excited about this project because I feel like I am teaching something to the nurses that they are immediately putting into use in their day to day lives at the hospital.   I am also so amazed at the lack of knowledge here in Mozambique surrounding computers, but when you take a minute to think about the situation for an average Mozambican it shouldn’t be surprising at all.   The vast majority of Mozambicans may have seen a computer from afar but have probably never used or even touched one.  The students in my computer classes along with the nurses I am teaching are starting out with how to use a mouse, and how to operate a keyboard.    Given that some of them had never touched a computer before my class, I have to say that I have been amazed at how quickly they are picking it up, they are always so excited to be learning about computers.  Most of my students are enchanted with all of the little things a computer has to offer (the fact that you can change your font of the letters on the page at will always seems to invoke a little gasp and a giggle form my students). 
                My other secondary project that I am starting is called REDES (Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educacao e saude)  This translates to “Teenage girls for Development, Education and Health).   The club is a woman’s empowerment group for girls between the ages of 12 or 14 up to their mid 20’s.   I talked to a few other volunteers about things that I could do at my school and a few of them mentioned about how lacking the resources for women at Mangunde have been, so I took that along with the fact that I really wanted to start something here that I could call my own and decided to open a chapter of REDES.  I’m very excited about the group because the first meeting which I had last Tuesday went very well.  The girls seemed very interested, and enthusiastic about the group.   The club is still in its preliminary stages and I still have a lot of work to do with it but I have high hopes for it.  The main goals of a REDES group are to empower women and give them experiences that they wouldn’t have had elsewhere.   There are conferences, workshops, and group get together where girls in other REDES groups across Mozambique come together meet each other and talk about issues that they face in their day to day lives.    I honestly have no idea where the girls in my REDES group are going to take the club, but I’m excited to see where it goes.
                On a completely unrelated note, yesterday was my 24th birthday and as with all birthdays it was a day filled with reflection and that funny newness that you sometimes feel on your birthday.   It’s hard to believe that I just turned 24 and that I am going to be here in Mangunde for just a little under two more years.  Time is such a perplexing entity it seems to have the ability to make you feel as though you are going a million miles a second and crawling at a snail’s pace all at once.    I feel like just the other day I was receiving my invitation to serve here (that was 9 months ago), and Mangunde, though I like it, still doesn’t quite feel like home to me yet.   However with a few more months I think things are going to pick up.
               
                

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!  Yet again it has been quite a bit of time since my last blog post so I will do my best to summarize the events of the last few weeks.
The last time I posted I was on my way to Maputo for a Volunteers Advisory Council meeting (VAC for short)  I was elected to represent the volunteers in my training class from the central part of Mozambique.  VAC is something like how a student council (idealistically) functions in a high school, we are basically there to bring up the concerns, or grievances of the volunteers in our region to our superiors.  All and all, this gave me a weekend trip to the capital city to meet a bunch of cool people and to see Ariel and Laurie (the two other VAC members from my training group… and some pretty amazing people!)  On my way to Maputo I ended up staying the night in Chimoio and ran into Adrienne and Dylan (two volunteers located in Sofala), Adrienne had just gotten over a weird sickness that brought her down to Maputo for a checkup, and Dylan had been temporarily evacuated from his site due to a Cyclone (Hurricane) that seemed a little too threatening for Peace Corps.   It was a big treat to run into these two and I was excited to stay with them at Hoang’s (another member of my training class who has a very nice house in Chimoio where he does his work).  Hoang, Adrienne, Dylan, Shane (yet again another volunteer , this one however was in the group before me and does his work in the health sector) and I spent a wonderful evening eating tacos and boozing it up before Shane and I left for Maputo the following afternoon.     Once in Maputo I had a great time catching up with Laurie and Ariel, eating some amazing Indian food (though I was really pushing for Thai) and buying some art work for my room here in Mangunde.   Over all it was a great weekend trip to Maputo.
After I returned from Maputo, I got right into the swing of things with school and I have been going pretty steadily ever since.   School is starting to pick up pace as the little kinks are starting to get worked out.  Students and teachers are both starting to attend class more (sometimes teachers here will just take off for a few days and there classes are just left unattended) and I’ starting to feel some forward moment.  I gave my first test today and the 200+ tests are now sitting ominously on my desk waiting to be graded.  I made the test fairly easy so I am hoping for some good results! 
Some random adventures I’ve had recently were a day trip to Muxungue (that is my big market where I can buy more than Mangoes and Cucumbers) with my roommate Ian, and a weekend trip to Mapanhane and Vilankulo.  Ian and I’s trip to Muxungue was basically just a big shopping spree where we splurged on ourselves.  We managed to buy onions, garlic, mangoes, bananas, eggs, cabbage, green beans, and pineapples.  I also managed to purchase a shelving unit for my room which was a great success.  The chapa ride back from Muxungue was pretty tough though.  Ian and I were crammed in the back of a pickup truck with all of our groceries and the sun baked us to a crisp.  I was hurting pretty badly the following few days, but it was so worth it considering how well we ate that week. 
The following weekend I took a trip to the Inhambane province to visit with some friends I have who live in Mapinhane.  I left on Friday afternoon ( I wanted to leave Friday morning early, but apparently the chapa decided to not show up so I was stuck in Mangunde, putting me 6-7 hours behind schedule)    I don’t have classes on Friday so making the trip down to see Chris, Laurie (yep, the same one from VAC, her and Chris are a married and are the volunteers stationed in Mapinhane), Mac (the really tall, goofy, blond dude you will always catch me hanging around in PC photos) and TJ (a wonderful PCV stationed in Inhassoro, Inhambane) was a very doable trip even though they are about 5 hours away.   We spent Friday evening (when I finally arrived) and all of Saturday just hanging out and catching each other up.  I had a few great conversations with both Chris and Mac that has put me on a much more positive path when it comes to teaching English, and made me feel much better about my experience thus far.  Switching the subject to food, we had pineapple fried rice, banana chocolate chip pancakes, and Matapa(a wonderful Mozambican dish), SO GOOD!   I even managed to go running with Chris (a fellow marathoner) to cap of a wonderful (though very hot) Saturday afternoon.   Traveling back to my site on Sunday was a bit of an adventure.   Mac and I got up around 5:30 in the hopes of getting out of Mapinhane and on our way to Vilankulo (a huge travel destination for tourists visiting Mozambique and also where there’s a big market and a bank).  Are plans got delayed because of the pesky weather and we ended up leaving about an hour later than expected.  Once we got out to the street we were quite a sight.  Mac is 6’5ish and was wearing a bright orange shirt and getting soaked.  I am 5’6ish and was wearing two huge book bags one on the front of me and one on the back of me and was covered in a poncho, it took us a few minutes but we eventually waved down a ride and then off to Vilankulo we went.   Once we got to Vil we made our rounds to the bank and the market and then headed off to another volunteer’s house for breakfast.  The volunteer’s name was Camilla and she lives in a fantastic house in Vil and cooked us some wonderful breakfast burritos.  After that Mac and I left and parted ways as he was going back to his site in Machanga, and I to Mangunde.    It took me a few hours to get home but I managed to catch a very quick moving chapa up the intersection that heads down to Mangunde and was at home eating dinner by 8pm.    A lot of traveling for one day, but I got back in time to get a full night’s sleep before my jammed packed Monday.
For the next few weeks I plan on just hanging around here in Mangunde.  Things in my life seem to be settling down a bit, which is a welcomed change from the constant movement of long term travel, and starting a new job.    I hope all is going well in the states!
If you’re interested in getting in contact with me in any way here is how:
Cell phone:  82-354-8433   Mcell     84-901-0289 Vodacom            you can use skype or google voice to get cheap rates.
Normal Mail :  Michael Skvarch (Peace Corps Volunteer)
Corpo da Paz/Peace Corps
C.P. 331
Chimoio,
Mozambique

Thursday, January 26, 2012

My house, my toliet, and getting lost in Mangunde.

January 19th 2012
                It has been a slightly comical point in my life lately how much I change between subsequent blog posts.   I only post once every two or three weeks and since these last few months have been such a roller coaster, every time I  finally sit down and write something I feel like a new person.     I think over the next few weeks however things are going to quite down. 
                To catch you all up on my life for the past few weeks I left Maputo on January 8th or 9th to head back home to Mangunde.  Upon arrival I felt a great since of relief.  For the three weeks before I finally returned I home I had been traveling all over for the holidays, and for Lena and Alden’s services.  There has been a lot of movement and a lot of being around large groups of people, so to finally be in my own house felt great.   Once I got here I did a bunch of cleaning and for the following few days just hung around and tried to chat with as many people as I could around my village.  A few days later my roommate Ian came home from his trip to America (Ian is a Peace corps volunteer who started in December of last year)  and then after another day or two my empregada  (maid) came back with her almost 2 year old and the house was complete.  We have all now been living together for about a week now and I feel as though everything is going splendidly.
                Now to update everyone on my school life, at the time I am writing this blog post I have just completed my second full day of teaching and although I have a long way to go, I feel as though my presence here in Mangunde will be a positive one.   When I had originally received my invitation to come to Mozambique as a Peace Corps Volunteer they told me I would be teaching Math.  Upon arrival I found out that there was a good chance I could end up teaching physics.  This got me really excited to see where I would be placed.  In the end however (Although I was given ample warning that this could happen) my school has me teaching English, Computers, and at this point one class of Physical Education (I’m a PE teacher!!!).  At this point I am going to diverge for a second to describe the meeting in which I was assigned the following disciplines to teach.   The meeting I went to involved having a majority of the teachers meet outside of my pedagogical directors ( kind of like an Asst. Principal) office 3 days before classes were supposed to start  and then having the director name a discipline and all those who have the ability to teach it (or who needed to obtain a certain number of hours a week) put their name in to be picked (This is a much longer process then it should be ).  The first discipline they called of interest to me was Physics and I proceeded to tell them I would love to teach physics.  This is where I learned that all of the Mozambican teachers had to have 24 hours of class time a piece and that only after all of those hours were filled would they tell me what I was going to get.  This more or less meant that I was going to get English, and Leftovers.   And as it turns out leftovers means Computer class and Phys. Ed.   At first I was a little disappointed given that I spent my entire undergraduate degree studying physics and math, and that I’m far more comfortable teaching those two classes even if it is in Portuguese.  However after letting myself think about the situation for a bit (and some pep talks from my roommate) I’ve come to accept the fact I’m teaching something not necessarily in my field of interest, but incredibly valuable to the students here.  On the subject of English, the majority of the surrounding countries of Mozambique have large populations of English speakers, add that to the fact that English is used as the go to language for the rest of the world makes teaching English a very important part of a Mozambican education.  As for computers, most of the students in my class have had little to no experience with computers in their lives.  I recently gave my first lesson to a bunch of 12th graders (whose ages range from 17- 40) and only one or two of them could do anything at all on a computer without direct help.  However everyone has an extreme interest in computers here and they pick up the little things quickly.  Keeping all this in mind, being the person to expose my students to computers, is going to be a very rewarding experience.  Little side note:  I have never in my life thought myself an expert on computers.  Most of the time I would consider myself a novice with the occasional spurt into the intermediate level, however here in Mozambique I am considered an all knowing force about computers, and anti-viruses. 
                So moving on to some of the more day to day idiosyncrasies of my life I first want to talk about my house and specifically my toilet.  When I moved into my house a little over a month ago my first thoughts were this is nice and spacious, my room is a decent size, but there is some serious untapped potential here.  There was this table sitting in the corner of my living/dining room area that was taking up about a third of the space, and under it were years of random stuff that had piled up,  the kitchen was a bit dirty and didn’t have a lot of free counter space (though still more counter space than my apartment had back in America!), and the bathroom…well we will get to that later.    Now Ian and I with a united front to change the face of our Mangunde house for the better have made some serious improvements.  We trashed the ugly cluttered table in the corner, revamped the kitchen, cleaned all of the cob webs, and dust, which has a way of taking over everything, and even moved our bookshelf (which has a boast-able collection of fantastic books) to be the highlight of dining/living room.  Now I can honestly say that I have a kick-ass African house.  (And now there is talk about buying a couch, and a floor lamp for our reading area!).  Then there is the bathroom…our dirty indoor toilet that clogs and takes about 3 gallons of water (if you have the patience to poor that much water into it) to flush down a poo. Just a reminder there are very few places with running water in Mozambique, so pouring water from a bucket into the toilet to flush it is the norm.    I’m not lying when I say that I would give anything to have a hole in the ground in the back yard (i.e. a latrine) instead of this toilet!  Pheww, it felt good to get that one off of my chest!
                Another fun little side adventure I would like to share was about a run I took about a week ago.  I went out on my morning run like I usually do around 5:30 in the morning and I decided to be adventurous and take a new path.  Instead of going straight down the main road leading into Mangunde, I took a left about a mile up the road from my house heading down this small dirt road towards the district capital of Chibabava, Chibabava.  The run was going well and I was feeling great, it was a nice temperature and Mangunde is a beautiful place to get lost in nature.  And as it turns out that’s exactly what happened.   When I turned around to run back to my house, at some point I crossed over the main road and found myself in a completely unfamiliar place, after about 20 more minutes of running I was certain I had taken a wrong path somewhere and tried my hand asking some villagers for directions.  The national language of Mozambique is Portuguese, but only about 50% of the population actually speaks the language, the native language where I live is Shindau.  So needless to say asking for directions back to Mangunde was not the easiest thing to do.   After asking a few people which direction Mangunde was I only felt like I was getting more and more lost because they all kept pointing in the same direction of which I was starting to get convinced wasn’t the right way.  Finally I came upon a small settlement of villagers, one of which spoke Portuguese and will be my student this year, and I asked how I could get back to Mangunde.  Than the man said (his name was Mateus)  ‘you are in Mangunde’.  At this point the lightbulb went off over my head as I realized that Mangunde was a broad term used for the entire area in which I live and that to ask someone ‘How to get to mangunde’ they are going to send you to this little village I stumbled upon where the village elder/Chief (a wonderful man named Aaron who speaks decent English and has invited me to his church this Sunday) lives.  Mateus laughed when he figured out my plight and put on the right path back to the Mission of Mangunde (keyword mission!).    Mateus spoke to a woman who was heading to the mission of Mangunde to sell some wood that she had cut up and was carrying on her head, who only spoke Shindau, and she ended up being my guide back to town.   On top of the bundle of sticks on her head she also had a large bag of mangoes that she was planning to sell at the market; after asking her a few times she finally let me help her carry them.  So for the hour walk back to Mangunde I carried a bag of mangoes on my head.  I have to say even though I went out for an hour long run and it ended up being 3 hours of being lost and maybe a little worried, while walking back to my house with a bag of mangoes on my head next to a very friendly woman who didn’t speak any language I was familiar with I was completely content that I was in Africa!  And to top it off she gave me four mangoes, 3 of which didn’t make it more than a few steps (I was a little hungry after 3 hours of running/hiking) and the last one I gave to a little kid who beat me on a race back to my house.    All in an average Monday morning before 9am here in Mozambique, I guess.