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:
Email : mskvarch@gmail.com
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
No comments:
Post a Comment