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!
