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 3^rd 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.  

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 7^th 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 4^th 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

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.  :-)

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 17^th’s afternoon.    It was by far the busiest week I have had, and by far the most productive!

                On Friday the 17^th 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 24^th 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.

               

                

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:

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

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

January 19^th 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 9^th 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 12^th 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.

Lena and Alden you will be missed.

 On December 22^nd I was informed that two volunteers from my training group Lena Jenison and Alden Landis were killed tragically in a car accident here in Mozambique.  Along with their deaths, three other volunteers were injured but are doing well.  The accident occurred in the Gaza province in the southern part of Mozambique, and not many details about the direct accident have been given.   For the past 10 weeks I had been getting to know these girls all throughout training and when we left to go to our sites I was certain that I would have the next two years to get to know them better.   Lena and Alden were both amazing people, full of the enthusiasm, energy and life.

  My favorite memory of Lena was when I took a bus ride back from Maputo with her on our way to Namaacha and the only thing we did the whole time was joke around and laugh about a whole slew of random jokes that we were making, we were laughing and poking fun at each other the whole hour and a half ride.  I will miss the funny faces she always used to make, and the way she used to make sarcastic remarks about everything to get a few laughs from the people around her.  We always used to talk about going to Peru together after our service, because she had already been and loved it and it has been a place I have always wanted to visit.  When I finally get to Peru some day, I will have fond memories of the times I had with her.

Alden was a beautiful woman who was quick to laugh and smile at any joke.  My favorite memory of her was when I surprised tickled her one day while we were all at the bar for a few drinks and she promptly jumped out of her chair, shrieked and then promptly turned around and ran into a pole. We were both laughed at that for a good 15 minutes.   Alden and I shared a love of running.  I always enjoyed the times that her and I spent chatting about the Marathons we’ve run or the random exercises we used to do.  The world was a better place with her in it, and I am sad that her time came so early.

Overall, the holiday season has passed well for the rest of the volunteers and I, we gave each other presents, shared a whole bunch of meals together, had quite a few laughs and rang in the New Year.  However through we all have kept a positive attitude over the past few weeks there has been a distinctive shadow that has been hanging over our heads.   These two girls were very special, and my heart goes out to their families and friends who are having such a rough time with this loss.  

Lena and Alden you will be missed.