One year in Mozambique!

Hello there blog buddies!

The date is September 25^th 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 1^st 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 25^th 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!