The End of the Party

Saturday October 17th, 2009
I found out yesterday that, because of a series of events, my language group of 5 doesn’t have class today… so this weekend we actually have 2 days free! Well, actually, I know that I’ll be staying busy doing things around the house and such, but it should give me at least some extra time to reflect on my experience thus far and what I have to look forward to.



My language group mid-session outside under a mango tree

Here in Mozambique, today is first day of consistent rain (last weekend in Maputo was more off and on), which signals that the summer (rainy season) has started to overtake the cool, dry days of winter. Even though I’m surrounded by my host family members who are running around the house washing dishes, cleaning clothes and sweeping the concrete patio, the scene is sort of eerie. With the coming of the rainclouds, the mountain town of Namaacha has been encompassed by a thick mist that barely lets you see the outline of the neighbor’s house. People walking by on their way into the city center come and go, disappearing in to the fog as they pass our house. Adding to the effect created by the mist is the presence of the water/clay mixture streaming through the eroded dirt streets. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Blood Diamond” with Leonardo DiCaprio you might remember the part where the characters are transfixed in the dark red color of the clay that omnipresent across most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Well, the clay really is everywhere and with the coming of the rain, it is all quickly turning to mud. The clay is only able to absorb so much water, however. The rest of the water, meanwhile, is sent streaming down the mountain side, picking up clay residue along the way, making it appear like a steady rushing stream of blood coming from a recent puncture wound that Mother Nature dealt to the mountains high above... overly dramatic? I know… but eerie nonetheless!

So with 2 ½ weeks in Mozambique under my belt, I believe that the country is more westernized than I thought it would be. From my limited interactions with Mozambicans so far, I’ve taken note that most people like to watch TV (from Mozambique, Portugal, and Brazil), listen to music (from Mozambique, Europe, and America), cell phones are prevalent, and even computers with internet access are available in most small cities. Even though the country is very poor (I read somewhere that it is considered to be the 5th poorest country in the world), you can tell that there has been a significant influx of western thoughts and values, especially through advertisements. I’m not entirely sold, however, on the fact that the advertisements depict the mindset of the country. For example, one concept that still hasn’t changed much despite the influence of western cultural ideals is beauty. Even though skinny and midsized women are frequently idolized on TV commercials, all the Mozambican women that I’ve met keep telling me how much fatter they want to get. In fact, full-figured women are held in such high regard that if you are an overweight American who comes to this country, don’t be surprised when a Mozambican women loudly declares how much she wishes she could be fat… like you!

Looking ahead, the Peace Corps trainees who are health educators (like myself) will be completing a practical experience in the next few weeks where we interact with our host families and community members to outline community resource maps (highlighting the strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities in the community), design daily and seasonal calendars (to see what events are regularly affecting our target populations), conduct needs assessments (to see what needs the community has) and finally planning/executing a series of health education sessions. Basically, we will be acting like the next several weeks are our first weeks at our actual permanent site placement and trying to navigate through all the hoops and see how it goes. We are supposed to get a sense of the important places and people in the community, attend a few community meetings, and ultimately hold a series of polestras (informal lessons) in the community on our subject of choice. I’m a little nervous about the presentation, but excited. Now that I’m actually looking the experience in the face, it makes me wonder how big, if any, of an impact I’ll be making on my future community. Hopefully, things will go well over the next few weeks and I’ll feel energized going into my service!

Sunday October 18, 2009
Mozambican lesson 1: ALWAYS check your room for rodents, bugs, and other critters!

I had been told by family to clean my bedroom floor every weekend, but last weekend I was busy going to Maputo, washing my clothes, helping prepare dinner, etc and never got around to it. This morning when I started taking things off the floor to wipe it down finally, all was going well until I moved my camera backpack from the corner of the room and found, literally, thousands of ants piled on top of each other reaching more than a foot off the ground. I let out a small shriek and then mumbled something about “homigas” and my host mom came running. Only a few moments later, with a few calculated moves with our kitchen knife, she scooped most of them into a bowl and quickly took them out of the house without any more incidents. We later discovered that the ants had made their way into our house from a small crack in the house foundation and proceeded to fill it in with cement. I’m optimistic that they won’t come back, but I might be sleeping with one eye open for the next week or so!

*Note to self: the lone kitchen knife that my family has is a very useful, multipurpose tool! So far, I have seen it used for cutting various foods, decapitating a chicken, removing ants from my room, and (most recently) used to shovel wet cement into a hole in the floor. Don’t worry though, we wash it between uses ;-)

Tuesday October 20,2009
WARNING: Some parts of this blog describe the killing of a chicken in semi-vivid details. Please do not read the text below if this might disturb or offend you…

This past Sunday afternoon Donna, a PC friend from SoCal, threw a small party at her host family’s house to have an excuse to cook up some authentic Mexican cuisine to share with her fellow PC trainees and host family. Donna had already started preparing the food by the time I got there and I knew right away from the smell that it was going to be an awesome meal. Even though I think the party was supposed to be small and low-key, the group of Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) kept on pouring in as the food got closer and closer to being ready. In fact, by the time the food was actually served we were worried whether we’d even have enough food for everyone. It was a close call, but when ended up having just enough.

After everyone had been served and people were getting ready to head back home, all of a sudden Donna’s host sister pulled out a live chicken that they were going to eat for dinner that night and pandemonium broke out when we found out that Donna was being asked to kill it at that very moment. Although several PCTs had already killed a chicken, or at least heard gossip about the killing of a chicken, everyone quickly gathered around to watch the spectacle. Looking back on it now, the killing of an animal that I eat on a regular basis was sobering to say the least.

I believe that we, in the US, often forget the fact that meat that we regularly buy neatly and cleanly packaged in the grocery store down the street is actually from an animal. My generation, especially, has grown up daily eating hamburgers, fried chicken, bacon, etc and yet I doubt that even 5% of people my age have killed any one of those animals with their own hands. The death of the chicken was gruesome and yet slightly quicker, easier, and less climatic that I thought it might have been. The chicken didn’t fight that much, not that its efforts would have likely been very fruitful, and once its throat was slit it quickly lost consciousness and went limp. Donna cut the chicken’s neck until she reached the spinal cord, but at that point the bird’s twitching reflexes kicked in and scared Donna. She dropped the knife and sank back, but without missing a beat Donna’s host sister stepped in and finished the job by completely decapitating the chicken. Even then, we had to continue to hold down the chicken by its legs for a minute or so as the body continued to twitch and convulse on the ground as blood poured out from its freshly cut neck. As the recently decapitated bird’s movements lessened and the plucking began, somber PCTs began to file out of Donna’s yard and back home. It wasn’t until the next day that I discovered that, for many of us, this deflating event was the capstone to the end of a tough weekend for many PCTs who realized that the party (our honeymoon experience where everything seems new and good) in Mozambique was now over.

Speaking about the passing of the honeymoon phase, I arrived to the Health Tech classes on Monday and Tuesday hearing several stories about PCTs crying, having second thoughts about committing the next 2 years to PC, and just generally not enjoying themselves. I think that we are all trying to stay positive, but it’s tough! The PC staff is doing a good job at helping us with the transition process, but there is so much going on in training and a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed. I think most people are getting to the point where they know they are committed to PC, but just want a few minutes/hours back with their friends so things can just be “normal” again, even if for only a moment.

While all the PCTs here are great, we are all still feeling each other out and trying to find a group of close PC friends that we really can connect with. This is especially difficult though, because all the while we know that our permanent site placement will limit a lot of interaction between groups of friends formed during training.

Obviously, Peace Corps is not all about making friends with other Peace Corps volunteers though! I think that we are all feeling a little vulnerable right now and thus we are reaching out to each other. In this effort, however, I think that some people (myself included) aren’t doing a great job of balancing the friendship aspect of PC with professional aspect. Of course there are a lot of job benefits to having connections with other PCVs in other parts of the country who we can call up and talk to as colleagues to pick their brains, but we need to be diligent in reminding ourselves about why we are here.

If you are reading this blog and thinking of me, please pray for me to remain determined, have patience, and continue to keep focused on the reasons why I am here.

One Love,
Michael