Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Today is my last full day in Namaacha. Tomorrow we leave at 8am for the Peace Corps Office in Maputo. Then we’re walking to the Ambassador’s House for the swear-in ceremony where we will officially become Peace Corps Volunteers! So amazing how the time in Namaacha flew by.
The Sunday after my birthday Castro came home with birthday gifts for me, including a black kitten! I named her Peanut Butter after gato preto, of course. He also gave me a wooden bracelet and wooden candle holder. Both are so beautiful! Week 9 was pretty uneventful, although very busy. We had a lot of free time to prepare our Practicum activity. However, most of this free time was used to go to the modista (seamstress/tailor) and practice our song for the Homestay celebration and swear-in. I got a skirt and dress made at the modista. The dress is made from a capulana that all the PCTs have to wear at swear-in. It’s a tradition to have everyone in the same training group wear an article of clothing made out of the same capulana print. Most of the guys got shirts or ties made, and the girls got skirts or dresses. The skirt I had made was from a capulana I bought on site visit in Xai-Xai. Going to the modista is so much fun. You get to design the article of clothing and it is custom made for your body. And all for about $5! Such a deal and so much better than scanning the racks at the mall. Although, I do miss Forever 21!
Week 9 was also the week of festas (parties). On Friday, we had a party to thank the organizations who worked with us on our Practicum activities. Each language group made a food item (we made butter cookies with icing) and we just ate and talked for a couple of hours. Then on Saturday was our Homestay Celebration. What a good time! There was SO much food. The host moms started cooking at 4am! We ate pasta salad, potato salad, regular salad, beet salad, olives & feta (bought specially in Maputo), coleslaw, chicken, pork, beef, sausage, french fries, and of course, rice and xima. Tons of sodas and beer and champagne and cake for dessert. The party started with a lot of speeches by important government officials and administrators in Namaacha. Then, we performed the Mozambican National Anthem, US National Anthem, and “Home.” Peace Corps called each PCT and their host family to recognize the families and also for them to receive a certificate for completion of homestay. After eating, we had special music and dance performances by local groups. It soon turned into a giant dance party. I went home to change and visit with my family since not all of them could come to the party (Peace Corps limited it to 4 family members per PCT, so my Dad, Castro, sister Atalia and Pedro came). Then I returned to the health hub for an extended dance party with some of my favorite PCTs and their host moms and dads. We had such a great night.
Sunday was a bit of a disappointment, thanks to the weather. It was so rainy and cold outside I was unable to lavar roupa (wash clothes). So I set my computer up on the dining table and watched the movie “Up” with my brothers and sisters. They didn’t understand all of it, and I did my best to translate the important stuff, but overall they loved it. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and packing my huge plastic trunk and a cardboard box to go to site. We have accumulated a lot of educational materials, including tons of books, which have to be sent to our sites separate from our other luggage.
Monday morning we had our second LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and Round Robbins. I achieved my goal of getting Advanced-Low on the LPI! Afterwards, my language group had to do our Practicum activity at our organization, Congregação de Precioso Sangue. We taught the kids a bunch of games and talked to them about basic hygiene (hand washing, teeth brushing, etc). We had a great time playing with them and I’m pretty sure they did, too! On Tuesday we spent all day at the Peace Corps Office in Maputo. What a beautiful place! I had never been to that side of Maputo before and it looks like a completely different city. The office is located amongst tons of other international government offices and embassies. Apparently, the US Ambassador’s House is within walking distance of the PC Office…I’ll soon find out for myself when we go tomorrow! Like Tuesday, Wednesday was another full day of sessions, only we were back in Namaacha instead of in Maputo. Abby and Caitlin (two of the third year PCVs in Namaacha) invited us all over Wednesday night for burritos. And that was our final MOZ 16 festa in Namaacha.
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
Surprisingly, I wasn’t as sad as I thought I would be when I left my family on Friday morning. I know I’m going to miss them like crazy, but they are really only a cell phone call away (when the phone lines are working correctly!). Also, I didn’t have to say goodbye to all of them in Namaacha because my host dad was invited to attend the swear-in ceremony.
We walked to the ambassador’s house from the PC office in Maputo on Friday afternoon. The ceremony was held in the backyard, around a beautiful pool, and with the Indian Ocean in the background. It was absolutely beautiful. There were a lot of PC staff members in attendance, along with our language teachers, some Mozambican government and health officials, and tons of people in high positions in international government agencies (like USAID) and international non-government agencies (Family Health International, Pathfinder International, etc). The PC Country Director (Carl Swartz) and The US Ambassador gave speeches before we were officially sworn in as volunteers. Then a fellow MOZ 16er, Maddy, gave a speech for our group. Finally, the director of Mozambique’s National AIDS Council gave a speech. We sang the “Home” song we performed at the Homestay celebration and there were Mozambican dancers and musicians. For the rest of the afternoon, we were able to mingle and speak with the many important people there and eat some delicious appetizers! Such a lovely afternoon, we all felt like royalty by the time we left.
Things only got better the rest of the day as we checked in to the gorgeous hotel Girassol. I’ve stayed in some pretty nice hotels, and this place was right up there with the best of them. I only had one roommate and our room was huge! It looked more like an apartment than a hotel room, and the view was incredible. Since the ceremony at the ambassador’s house ended in the early afternoon, we had a lot of free time to enjoy Maputo. So a group of us found a gelato shop and some fancy grocery stores to get the essentials before heading up north. Then, we ordered in Thai food for dinner and enjoyed our last night together (at least until our Reconnect Conference in 3 months!).
The lucky Northerners got to wake up super early to leave the hotel by 5:30am. PC cars took us directly to the airport for our 8:00am flight to Nampula. Upon arrival, we were sent straight to our hotel, Hotel Milenio. It’s a very nice hotel, but we were all a little bummed after being spoiled in Hotel Girassol in Maputo. By the time we checked-in and settled into our rooms everyone was starving. So Kristie (the Assistant PC Director for Health) led us to a nearby restaurant where we ate a lot of pizza, burgers, and lasagna. We wandered around Nampula and got to see the PC regional office, but everyone was exhausted from our long day of travel so we returned to the hotel to take naps before dinner. Hotel Milenio has a wonderful restaurant with Portuguese, Chinese, and Indian food. We are definitely very spoiled at mealtime!
Sunday morning we all met in the hotel’s restaurant for a delicious buffet-style breakfast. Then, a large group of us headed to Nampula’s craft market. I was a little disappointed with the selection of crafts. There wasn’t as much variety as in Maputo, but I probably should have expected that. I was, however, very pleased with a black and white wrap dress I found for $2!! Later, we walked around trying to find a decent grocery store since the Shoprite (a South African chain of fancy grocery stores) burned down a few weeks ago. We weren’t very successful as nearly every store was closed. Again, I should have expected that, since most stores in Namaacha are closed on Sundays. We ended our afternoon with a cold beer in the shade of a restaurant’s deck. We really needed to cool off because Nampula is HOT. I wore a light skirt and tank top and was sweating all afternoon. And it’s winter! I am so not looking forward to the summer heat!
In the evening we had a meeting to introduce the “peer support network,” which is basically just a resource for PCVs to use when they need someone to talk to about cultural differences, isolation, feeling homesick, relationship problems, etc. Afterwards we were supposed to meet our counterparts/supervisors, but mine had not yet arrived. So I will just have extra catching up to do with them tomorrow!
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