November 2, 2012

Okay this is actually a real post, that I wrote today and after today my posts will be one at a time and I promise not to overwhelm you with pages of stories! I also apologize that there are so many typos!

I just finished week 5 of training and am leaving tomorrow morning for a site visit to Chongoene to visit a current Peace Corps volunteer for a few days. I actually think I’m going to get to go to Xai-Xai beach for the weekend and then do real PC stuff (shadow a teacher, have HIV/AIDS training stuff…etc) starting Monday so I am really excited! I also can’t wait to cook some American food, meet another current volunteer, paint my nails? and play with this volunteer’s dog, I know I am strange. PC uses these visits though so that we can learn about what our site could potentially be like, when I come back next week I will meet with someone to talk about what I liked/didn’t like about the site and it will hopefully help with my overall site placement. (I’m still holding my breathe I get sent to the mountains in the north but who knows!)

I had my first LPI (language placement exam) today and when I come back from Gaza I’ll be moved into a different group depending on how well/horribly I did. My Portuguese has actually come along way, I am NOT fluent but I am learning a lot! We have about 30 hours of class instruction every week and then outside of class, unless I’m with another American, I have to speak Portuguese, so I am pretty much forced to lean quickly.

Training has gotten very routine and kind of boring, so I can’t wait for this site visit. I am still very happy with my host family, and Namaacha is a great little town but it will be nice to get out for a weekend. For one thing the rainy season has started here, so it rains almost every single day…this makes things like doing your laundry impossible, even when there’s a break for sunshine there is never enough time for your clothes to day and they stay wet for DAYS. It’s also pretty chilly, on a good day I only wear one sweater…and at night, I sleep with leggings, pants and then a flannel shirt and sweater on. Arguably worse than the actual weather is the mud, or matope, which is so heavy its almost like clay and it sticks to everything! I know mud doesn’t sound to rough but when the entire village (beside one road) is dirt paths and rocky hills mud suddenly gets a lot more frustrating. Oh well, like I said, I’m going to the beach this weekend!! And chances are when I get to my real site, it will be hot and humid, so this cool weather and rain is okay for now.

Useful things I’ve learned so far in PS:
-EVERYONE here can dance, much better than every single person I know back at home, I have resorted to explaining that Americans just don’t dance to avoid disapointming my family here with my lack of skill in African dance : )
-Waka Waka and Waving Flag are still popular in Mozi and that is great.
-Draping a capulan over your mosquito net makes your bed look like it has a cool tribal print canopy and MORE IMPORTANTLY keeps the rain from dripping onto your face while you sleep
-it IS possible to take a bucket bath with just half a bucket of water and still somehow get miraculously clean
-No matter how hard you try to explain what Halloween is to people in Mozambique they will not understand but that should not stop you from wearing a costume and celebrating
-Instant coffee is not bad, or not horrible
-It is possible to cook an entire meal on charcoal (inside) with candlelight during a torrential downpour/storm as long as you have some other helping hands
-Cutting my hands from washing clothes for too long is normal…for Americans
-Although people in Mozambique prefer to play soccer they will also run alongside you when you jog by and try as hard as they can to keep up, especially if they are a child. If they don’t try to run with you they might just stand on the sidewalk waiting for you to run by and when you pass them they’ll give you a flower.
-If you close your eyes when you take off the lid to the latrine, wait a couple seconds, and then open them you won’t be able to see the huge cockroaches run back down the pit and it makes using the bano a lot less scary
-Dogs in Namaacha are afraid of people, although giving them scraps of food is nice they will still be terrified of you; I won’t have a little friend until I can buy my own at site
-Although there are a lot of things that I still don’t understand about Mozambique (gender roles, eating habits, the education system in general, and “public transit” just to name a few) I really have learned a lot, and most importantly feel like I am living in a community where people are not just accepting of me and my funny American quirks, they also want to learn from me and make me feel comfortable.

I’ll try and post again after site visits but until then , ata lago!

H

October 15, 2012
Do vegetarians eat duck?

So I promise not to make all my blog posts about food but if you know me at all you know that I love to cook and I love food. My two biggest stress-relievers back home were always running or cooking and that hasn’t really changed although I don’t cook much here (yet). Anyway, last Sunday I was sitting outside drinking a small glass of wine with my mae, trying to tell her about my weekend in Portuguese when a duck walked by. This isn’t uncommon, in fact sometimes I feel like I live on a strange African farm because aside from dogs and cats, there are also random pigs, chickens, roosters and the occasional goat that walks through your front yard. Well today a duck decided to walk right over to my chair and hangout. Graca said, “I want to eat duck” She looked right at me and I knew what question was coming next, “Do you like duck?” I told her no, but was really happy to be able to say (in Portuguese) that if she wanted duck, she should eat it and she shouldn’t feel bad eating it in front of me. She was surprised at this and asked me what I would eat if she made duck…I tried to explain that she always makes at least 4 things for dinner so I can just eat everything else. She then asked me if I would eat salad and rice (and then of course fruit) and I said yes. Without any other words spoken she got up and walked into the house. She came back with a knife, picked up the duck and carried him to an outdoor table close by…and then proceeded to chop of his head. She looked and asked if I wanted to help. I tried not to look at the blood that was quickly running off the table and into the dirt, politely said no, ‘I have to study’…finished my wine quickly, ran inside and grabbed my Portuguese books and then went to find a friend.

The end.

So I am glad that Graca finally cooked a meal that she really enjoys and I of course had plenty of food to eat at dinner even without eating meat. I shared this story because it was just a funny experience.

PST Update:

So I have finished two full weeks of training and I know just a little bit of Portuguese to show for it. The training is really long, classes are rough and I feel like I am taking back-to-back Physics and calculus classes all day so it is exhausting BUT I am learning even if it is a painfully slow process! Also, my host family is just great, really really great. I feel guilty because I don’t do much to help around the house and feel like a guest who is really over-staying their welcome. My family cooks all my meals for me, always heats my water for bathing (Carts all the water that we use for the week) and helps me when I attempt to do my laundry. They are so incredibly friendly and polite too. It rained pretty hard last night (I’ll get to that next) and in the morning my room had flooded a bit, I showed Yusarra because I wasn’t sure what to use to actually clean it and she just got a bucket and old shirt and starting cleaning all the water up. She didn’t even expect me to try and clean, I thanked her at least ten times and then told her I can do it next time because I watched her and know how but she said it was no problem. She also found a very large cockroach in the corner under my bed and got rid of that unwelcome visitor, as well, SHE IS THE BEST. After she got rid of the bug I told her she is the best sister in the entire world (sorry Morgan and Nikki) and she just smiled and said “no problem.” I don’t get it. It’s just really strange (but great) that people can be so genuinely helpful and polite and happy. I can not wait until my Portuguese is good enough so that I can actually have a real conversation with my family, and also tell them a bit more about myself-sometimes I tell them things in Portuguese, like that I have a Master’s Degree, and they are shocked. How can someone have a Master’s Degree when they don’t know how to speak Portuguese, or even more importantly mop a floor or don’t like ironing their clothes? My mae thinks I will be a terrible wife one day, It’s funny, really funny.

Also, today I went for a 13 mile run with another volunteer and it was just amazing. It is so beautiful out here, mountains surround Namaacha and while we were running I felt like I was in the English countryside or something like that…it was so green! I love it, its great, I really hope that when I get my permanent site posting it will be somewhere in the north where there are mountains.

Until the next time!

-H

October 9, 2012

A day in the life of Helen

Okay so since moving to Namaacha I have developed an alter ego and her name is Helen. Helen wakes up everyday at 5:20 to run with her friends. After her run she boils water in a teapot on the stove and then uses that water (mixed with cold water!) to take a bucket bath. After washing up and eating a breakfast of Pao (delicious bread!!) with PB and a banana, she goes to class from 7:30-5:30. After class she comes home and eats a snack with her family, speaks a little Portuguese, then studies for an hour, takes bucket bath number two, eats a huge dinner and then studies some more. She goes to bed every night at 9:30 and if she doesn’t have much Portuguese homework she will go to bed earlier.

Since arriving in Namaacha, I have learned that pronouncing the name “Haleigh” is impossible so after my host mae told me that my name must be Helen in Portuguese, I have adopted this name and that is what I tell everyone my name is. When I walk to class, the kids that live near me say “Ola Helen…bom dia hellen..!” and I have finally adjusted to actually responding to these hellos as if my real name is Helen. I do also live a pretty straight edge life here, I run, eat as healthy as possible, and study, a lot.

Portuguese is a tough language and what makes it even more difficult to learn is my 6 years of rusty Spanish. My Spanish is not good, but it is just enough to confuse me with pronunciations, spellings and verb conjugations. Also do not even get my started on prepositions and “el/la, de” vs. “o, a, oas, um/uma….”. It’s okay though the only thing I am supposed to be doing right now is learning Portuguese so I should probably try my best to do it! Living in a home where no English is spoken helps, it makes it tough because really after 10 hours of class the last thing I want to do is come home and try to play sign-language/Portuguese interrogation with my host family but its okay I am learning and can have small conversations with them!

I feel like I have been at site for months now instead of just 2 weeks and life is much slower here but I really like it. For the first time in years I do not depend on coffee to pick me up throughout my day and I also wake up naturally every morning at 5:20, I feel great!

Until the next time,

H