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.
