the dog days of summer

     Since returning from Thanksgiving vacation I can’t get that mantra from Nemo out of my head- just keep swimming, just keep swimming…Yeah, year 2 is no joke. But to my credit this time of year is infamously hard for all PCVs in Mozambique. The kids are on vacation from school, colleagues are wrapping up work for the year and everyone is just counting down the days until 2013. All of this on top of the fact that for the 1^st time ever in Monapo, I’m alone. My two education sitemates left after Thanksgiving to travel south to Johannesburg before catching flights back to the states. Even my quasi sitemates in the next town over (12 k away) have flown the coop! One was a Moz 15er and finished her 27 month contract in November and the other is spending the holidays in New York. The majority of the children (neighborhood kids) are also MIA. Most are off visiting family in other parts of Nampula province. Eddie, my favorite little munchkin, is out in the middle of nowhere for his initiation rites. Basically a male-only, month long ceremony where he officially becomes a man. He is seven years old. His father invited me to his “initiation rites party” which will be held when he returns from the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, I will be gone on Christmas vacation. I promised to make cookies when I return to celebrate Eddie’s manhood.

     Work has been incredibly slow for me the past few weeks. Most of my time has been spent researching journal articles for my thesis and revising the curriculum for my secondary project, JUNTOS (the journalism youth group). As far as SCIP goes, I am just trying to collect monitoring and evaluation evidence on the stigma and discrimination program that I, along with the 3 other SCIP PCVs started in November of 2011. The 3 of us worked with the Behavior Change Manager of SCIP to create a 3-day long seminar in stigma, discrimination and gender-based violence. Fifteen community leaders from Monapo district participated in this seminar in February. Since then, I’ve been visiting these leaders in their respective communities to participate in community debates on these topics. It has been very rewarding to see the information being passed on from the leaders to other members of the community.  It is even more rewarding when you realize this information is valued by the community. Once, a community leader expressed his gratitude by explaining that his brother is chronically ill and he now understands the importance of not discriminating him or isolating him from the rest of the family. In another district, a community leader took a man to jail after beating on his wife. The words “stigma” and “discrimination” don’t exist in the local language of Makua, so these topics are really novel for most people. I have found that the community debates are often the first time people even think about these issues.

Unfortunately, unless a specific form is filled out to document participation at these debates, it is like they never occurred. And in order to get additional funding to hold more seminars, we need to provide evidence to Pathfinder International (and eventually USAID) that the community leaders who attended the initial seminar are actually doing something in their communities. So, earlier this week I got to ride around Monapo district visiting the leaders with the Behavior Change Manager from Nampula city. Luckily, I knew where 3 of the leaders lived. We were able to drive straight (or as close as we could get) to their houses. Unfortunately, I didn’t know where the other 3 lived, so we needed to stop and ask people for directions. I don’t think the driver and Nampula manager were as impressed with me as I was with myself. These leaders live in communities out in the middle of nowhere where the only landmarks for reference are a big cashew tree and maybe a 2 –room school. I was quite impressed with my memory and navigation skills. Oh the things you learn how to do as a PCV in Mozambique…

      Don’t let my lack of work and fellow Americans fool you. I’m actually enjoying these slow weeks of December. I’ve had the pleasure of finally beginning Janet Evanovich’s series (which my grandma, Mamie, is obsessed with), reading the first 4 books in a week. I also discovered the Phase 10 app on my phone and average about 25 games a day. I take 1-2 hour naps daily, long walks to the market and watch mini tv marathons of Law & Order, Sex & the City or The Big Bang Theory. It’s fabulous. I mean, when in my life will I ever have another job that allows me to live like this? Its strange because SCIP is my first job outside of a restaurant (if you don’t count the short stint I did as student liaison in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Temple).  I still don’t even really know how an office job works. Do I have to go into the office if I don’t have any work to do? Most Mozambicans equate sitting in the SCIP office with doing work. For example, the other day I stayed home to wait for my electrician to come over and fix my installation. While he was working I was also working. (I interviewed a community leader who mobilized his community in identifying barriers and facilitators in their surroundings that relate to stigma and gender-based violence. The community identified the lack of classrooms as a barrier for educating young girls. With the financial help of the government of Monapo district, the community constructed 3 additional classrooms at their primary school. I wrote the whole experience up as a success story for SCIP as another piece of evidence for the effectiveness of the stigma and gender-based violence seminars.) A friend stopped by and said “oh, hey, you aren’t working today?” I said “yes, I am actually working right now.” He responded with “how can you be working if you aren’t at the office?” You see, it’s very frustrating. Sometimes I know my colleagues don’t have work to do and are just sitting in the office to surf the internet. What’s the point? I’d rather just go home and play with my cat or wash dishes or bake something. Luckily, my position as a PCV allows me to do so. I probably won’t be able to do the same once I get a real office job in the states. Guess I better take advantage of this while it lasts.

I saw my turkey alive & breathing before eating it, did you?

              This year I realized how thankful I am for two very different things. One, that I was blessed to be spending the holiday with great friends in a truly remarkable country; and two,  that I would be at home with family for the next Turkey Day. It probably seems contradictory, but that’s the best way to explain where I’m at right now. I love Mozambique, love my life here and know its going to be painful leaving but I am also missing the people and comforts of “Americaland.” But I digress, and will now get to the tale of my Thanksgiving. I'm including a link to a map so you can follow the trip from Monapo to Chimoio and back! 

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=ko&client=firefox-a&hs=il3&sa=X&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1280&bih=638&tbm=isch&tbnid=QPTF94tLqMGniM:&imgrefurl=http://unimaps.com/mozambique/index.html&docid=cl4JnUZuMFQM-M&imgurl=http://unimaps.com/mozambique/mainmap.gif&w=650&h=805&ei=kdy0UL7OC-3Z4QSytoDgCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=747&vpy=274&dur=5381&hovh=250&hovw=202&tx=147&ty=99&sig=112821217055610342245&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=116&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0,i:127

                I met a friend in Nampula city and we caught a ride (from the SCIP car!) to Alto Molocue where another PCV lives. We spent the night at his house and the following morning the 3 of us head out together. We got incredibly lucky and caught a ride going the whole way to Chimoio, our destination. So after 9 hours in the bed of a pickup truck we were in Chimoio eating falafel and hummus at a Lebanese-owned restaurant. I had been to Chimoio twice before but had gotten in late and left super early the next morning so I was never able to explore the city. It’s a very unusual Mozambican provincial capital because it lies very close to the Zimbabwean border and has a lot of ex-pat and non-Mozambican residents (hence the delicious food at the Lebanese restaurant). We spent the next day planning out our Thanksgiving Day menu and other meals while at Gorongosa National Park. And then we got to do the shopping- which sounds like it would be stressful but was actually quite fun as Chimoio has South African-chain grocery stores that carry all kinds of exotic items not found in Nampula province where I live! All of the other PCVs got in to Chimoio later that evening and we went out for burgers (bacon and cheddar!!!) and beer.

                We traveled from Chimoio to Gorongosa National Park on Thursday and had a relaxing day cooking, playing games and just hanging out.  We all slept in tents which was the only “roughing it” part of the trip because our campsite had bathrooms complete with running, hot water. Who would have thought camping could be such a luxury! We had our actual Thanksgiving meal Friday afternoon. Fresh turkey (killed that morning), mixed fruit jam (meant to be cranberry sauce), green bean casserole, rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes and cheesy carrots (made by yours truly). It was super delicious! The only thing I really missed was Thanksgiving dessert, but we opted to leave them out to keep costs down since we were a pretty large group. We did, however, roast marshmallows! Early Saturday morning we piled into a van and went out into the park for a game drive. Gorongosa was once a world-renowned wildlife park but the 15 year civil war in Moz severely diminished the animal populations, especially the elephant population. Still, the park is doing a wonderful job working with the locals to reduce poaching and environmental pollution to help sustain the remaining animals and support those that are introduced into the park. On our drive we saw warthogs, elephants, and many different types of deer. It definitely felt like I was in the part of Africa that you always think of when you hear the word “Africa”- wild open Savannah-like plains and lush, uninhabited forest.

                We left Gorongosa National Park after the game drive and headed back to Chimoio for the night. The following morning we began the long journey back up North. After several hours of bad luck and being stranded on the road in the blazing hot sun, a friend and I finally caught a ride to Mocuba in Zambezia province. There is currently no PCV in Mocuba so we got in touch with an American missionary family who was nice enough to have us stay at their home. They surprised us with a delicious meal (we hadn’t eaten anything all day except for a handful of litchi fruit) of pepperoni and Hawaiian pizza, chickpea and vegetable salad, mint iced tea, mango and banana ice cream and fresh pineapple which we picked up as a thank-you gift on the side of the road.  We took hot showers and worried about staining their white bath towels and washcloths with our dirt-encrusted bodies. Again, such luxury! I was able to make it back to Monapo (after a dog threw up in the car I was riding in and the kids screamed bloody murder…long story) the following day and I must say I was so thankful to be home. Roo greeted me at the door with non-stop whining. I think that means she missed me. I was also thankful to come home to a clean house stocked with water. My friend takes care of the place for me when I leave and he was nice enough to cart water for me since I was completely out. Now, I’ve got about 3 weeks to wrap up the work year before Christmas vacation! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and recognized the things and people in your life which you are thankful for :) 

month 16, or something like that

                I’ve been out of commission for the past couple of days. Some sort of stomach bug- that’s my best guess. Being sick in Moz absolutely, 100% sucks. Even when it’s some minor ailment, the conditions here just amplify things, making the condition more debilitating than it needs to be.  I woke up in the middle of the night early Sunday feeling nauseous. I’ll spare you the details, lets just say I spent much of the night near my xi-xi bucket (normally used for after-hour peeing).  Normally, one would dump (or flush) the contents of their puke bucket immediately but since I, like most PCVs, keep my door locked from 8pm-6am for safety reasons, this simple task was impossible. Instead, I got to deal with it first thing after crawling out of bed at 6. Afterward, I immediately retreated to my locally-made bed (a wooden frame tied with rope made of dried palms) in an attempt to read.

A really special (read: annoying) thing about Monapo and most of the districts in Nampula province is losing electricity on Sundays. It usually disappears around 6 am and returns around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I should be grateful that I even have electricity as there are some PCVs here in Moz that don’t. But it’s especially hard to deal with going without when you are so accustomed to having it. It’s a pain in the ass. Everything in my mini-fridge gets all funky and I usually have no phone battery, unless I remember to charge it the night before. But this day was particularly annoying because I didn’t have my fan. Even though summer is not officially here yet, it sure feels like it. It is HOT. On a normal Sunday without electricity, I would have prepared food the day before or I’d run to the market for ready-to-eat items like bread, tuna, or hard-boiled eggs. But since I wasn’t going to be going anywhere that day (except for the latrine) I called my sitemates and asked that they pick me up some Sprite and bread. Thank goodness for sitemates! I was going to make toast but then remembered, oh yeah the energy is out…The electricity finally came back on around 8:30. I had gotten into bed around 6 and was reading with my head lamp since all of my candles had burned down to the quick and I didn’t have any replacements. I was so ecstatic to have my fan back!  

Monday morning I called my coordinator to let him know I wasn’t coming into work. His response didn’t surprise me, “My daughter, you have malaria.” When us American folk get sick, even if its for a day, we are accused of having malaria then lectured on how serious the situation is. I love that my co-workers care so much about me but no matter how many times I tell them “it’s NOT malaria,” they just don’t listen. So I did what I’ve done so many times since my arrival in Monapo. I took a malaria rapid test to prove them wrong. And even when I tell them that the result was negative, they still don’t believe me. “You should go to the health center; you can’t trust those rapid tests that Peace Corps gives you.” I try to placate them by adding that I’ll go to the health center if my condition gets any worse because in my mind I know it is not malaria. It’s so unfortunate that the symptoms are something PCVs have to deal with on a regular basis- vomiting, diarrhea, fever, muscle aches, fatigue. I would be worried more often if I didn’t take my prophylaxis medication weekly. Yet, to my colleagues, I am “playing badly with my health.”

This reminded me of a situation that happened earlier in the week. Where, after explaining my situation, I was told I was wrong and given a different list of instructions to follow. I went to EDM (the electric company of Mozambique) earlier in the week to request the help of a technician. My ‘warning’ light on my energy box was flashing red and every hour on the hour it would beep incredibly loudly for 1 minute. I think even a third grader would recognize this as a problem. Yet, when I explained all of this to an EDM employee he assured me that this is just how the box works. At first I thought he was joking. Loud beeping every hour in the middle of the night?! I don’t think so. After 5 minutes, he still wasn’t budging. But I was determined not to leave EDM without getting a technician to come over and check out the problem. Luckily, a technician who had been to my house 2 previous times arrived and agreed to come check things out. Upon inspection of the box he was clueless. He shrugged his shoulders, a sign telling me there was nothing he could do. I was about to rip my hair out in frustration when an idea hit me: maybe the credit is low. And sure enough, after I registered my newly-bought electricity credit, the beeping and red light stopped. If I wasn’t prohibited from augmenting my Peace Corps stipend, I’d apply for a job.

a new goal for year 2

I’m probably the worst blogger in the very short history of blogging. Most of the time I can’t think of anything interesting to write about. That probably seems absurd to many of you. I realize that. But after a while things start feeling normal. If you had a blog to describe the day-to-day activities of your life, what would you write about? A trip to the grocery store? A Friday night out-to-dinner with friends? Your sleeping patterns? Sometimes, what I want to write about is just too long and intense and I don’t have the patience or desire to sit and type. Let alone having to relive the experience. Finally, I have to admit the main excuse is just that I’m rather lazy when it comes to blogging.

Recently, I read a passage in Barbara Kingsolver’s book The Poisonwood Bible that does an excellent job at summarizing my excuses. The book is a story of a Baptist family who uproots their life in Georgia to move to the Belgian Congo in 1959. The following passage is told by one of the daughters, 15 year old Leah:

I wish the people back home reading magazine stories about dancing cannibals could see something as ordinary as Anatole’s clean white shirt and kind eyes, or Mama Mwanza with her children. If the word “Congo” makes people think of that big-lipped cannibal man in the cartoon, why, they’re just wrong about everything here from top to bottom. But how could you ever set them right? Since the day we arrived, Mother has nagged us to write letters home to our classmates at Bethlehem High, and not one of us has done it yet. We’re still wondering, Where do you start? “This morning I got up…” I’d begin, but no, “This morning I pulled back the mosquito netting that’s tucked in tight around our beds because mosquitoes here give you malaria, a disease that runs in your blood which nearly everyone has anyway but they don’t go to the doctor for it because there are worse things like sleeping sickness or the kakakaka (referring to cholera) or that someone has put a kibaazu (referring to a spell) on them, and anyway there’s really no doctor nor money to pay one, so people just hope for the good luck of getting old because then they’ll be treasured, and meanwhile they go on with their business because they have children they love and songs to sing while they work, and…” And you wouldn’t even get as far as breakfast before running out of paper. You’d have to explain the words, and then the words for the words.

With all that said, I am making it a goal during my second year of service to update my blog more regularly. Lets say a minimum of 1 blog per month. I think that’s reasonable. Unless of course the internet at my office stops working and my source for posting blogs is no longer available and when I walk to the telecommunications building in the hot sun they tell me a technician will be over sometime today and I go back to the office and sit there all day waiting for the technician and it’s 2pm and I really want to go home and eat lunch but I can’t leave the office because what if the technician shows up in the 30 minutes that I’m gone to lunch…You get the idea. But really, this exact thing happened to me a few weeks ago ;)

just for fun

To celebrate being in country for 1 year I thought I'd make a list of my top 20 favorite things about Moz. So here it is- compiled of memories, holidays, and just the normal day-to-day.

1.       Children screaming “excuuuuuse me”, “where do you go?” and “Obamaaaaaaa”

2.       Paying next to nothing for transport to travel the length of a country 2 ½ times as long as California

3.       Being able to take a nap during the “work week” and not feeling guilty for it

4.       Eating matapa with coconut rice

5.       Sitting on the side of the road in the blazing hot sun for hours waiting for a ride, then being picked up by some awesome people in an air-conditioned SUV with great music

6.       Walking into the SCIP Nampula office and spending over an hour just walking around greeting and catching up with co-workers

7.       Snorkeling at the islands of 2 archipelagos

8.       Treasuring a Saturday night spent with friends, frango, and cerveja

9.       Making the best of what you’ve got. Sure, we didn´t have turkey on Thanksgiving but we did have tons of other delicious foods!

10.   The things yelled at soccer games-“Boa!”, “Isso!” Everything is just so much funnier in Portuguese

11.   Calling up a fellow PCV to vent because they know exactly what you’re going through. And laughing by the end of the conversation

12.   Thinking you’ve died and gone to heaven when you enter a store that sells peanut butter, cheese, oats and chocolate

13.   Christmas Eve on a deserted island with no electricity- nothing but beach, friends, a campfire and unforgettable memories

14.   Singing all the wrong words to Portuguese/Makua/Xangana music. The Mozambicans really get a kick out of it, too

15.   Care packages!!!!!!!

16.   Mango season. And eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner because its just too hot to make anything

17.   Grown men in Hello Kitty t-shirts or a used cheerleader’s sweatshirt

18.   Going to bed at 8pm because it’s completely normal and there’s really nothing else to do

19.   Watching whole series of some great television shows-The Sopranos, The Wire, Friday Night Lights

20.   Mandar-ing people to do things for you- run to the market to buy bread, return empty beer bottles, carry your suitcase on the top of their head