Thursday November 4rd, 2010
Listen up! Word to the wise: As of about a month ago, there’s a new kid in town... which means…. Yep! You guessed it!... We’re no longer the newbie punching bags around here. We’re actually (scary thought!) the experienced, all-powerful, all-knowing, wise sage-esk PCVs who have never and will never make any mistakes! I mean, as soon as December comes around and all the ole’ 13ers have packed their bags, tucked their tales, and run back to the States… we’re practically going to be running this program!
Okay, so I’ll admit it… all that is a little ridiculous... to say the least! Moz 13 has always been really nice to us (Moz 14) and my guess is that a lot of the new incoming Moz Health PCVs probably have more experience/knowledge than I do. So don’t worry too much about all those ramblings above regarding us running this joint. Ultimately, the take home point is this: there’s a new group of PCT’s (Moz 15) and I’m down in Namaacha this week to help out with their training :-)
And from my limited interactions with them thus far, they seem to be a pretty cool group! They are a lot more demographically diverse (ie age, gender, sexual orientation, race, etc) than our group and, sure enough, have more degrees and experience than Moz 14 to boot (a few people have MPHs and there’s even someone who has already served as a PCV in another country for 2 years and is back here for 2 more… Wow! Can’t imagine…)!
I said “limited interactions” above because, after paying for all us volunteers to come down to Namaacha from all over the country to help out with training, Peace Corps is actually demanding that we do work while we’re here. Imagine their nerve! ;-) This whole week, Yohko and I have stayed quite busy during the day helping out with meetings and even during our downtime in the evenings we find ourselves planning for other sessions.
Luckily, though, our visit to training coincides with Permagardening (the don’t call it Permaculture anymore because it isn’t a complete inclusion of all of Permaculture’s principles) so several sessions are being led by the awe-inspiring Peter Jensen… which means we get to chill in the background and just try to keep the group motivated. Peter, even fresh-off a flight from Dar-es-Salaam, has been his inspirational self as usual. The group has had several people who have really gotten into Permagardening during the training… hopefully they’ll do a better job than us keeping up the momentum once they get to their sites (our group had several people who jumped head first into Permaculture during training, but quickly lost steam once outside Namaacha… myself included!). During the hands-on sessions in the practice garden I had a chance to ask Peter about some of my lingering questions and now I feel reenergized to tackle the topic again in Nauela. Can’t wait to get back to site to try things out again!
So even though I just said I am always busy down here… somehow I’ve managed to visit my host family 3 times during the week, hanging out and talking with them over dinner. They are all doing well and the kids growing up so quickly! (I feel like a grandparent when I say that…) I even got to bring my computer over yesterday evening and showed them my photos from the past year at site. They loved ‘em, especially the one’s of the mountains and my garden. They aren’t hosting a volunteer this year because PC decided their house was too far away from the center of town… but that’s a shame because they are, as I relearned in the past few days, AWESOME!
In short, the week has been GREAT thus far… but issues with my visa are lurking ahead…
Turns out the Mozambican government skyrocketed the price of visas this year and Peace Corps Mozambique hasn’t gotten the new budget approved yet for those price increases. So what to do? Well if you are at site, you’re advised to stay put… but since I’m here in Namaacha already, we figure it’s best that I get a temporary 30 day visa at the Swaziland border to buy us some time. The catch is, however, that my current year-long visa expires on Tuesday and you can’t get a temporary visa when your current visa is still active. Right now, the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants idea is for me to stick around Maputo/Namaacha and fly back to Nampula once it gets resolved… whenever that is! Sooo… looks like a few extra days with the new trainees :-)
Sunday November 7th, 2010
Even though we’re no experts on child nutrition, our Friday afternoon sessions on the subject go pretty well. I feel really happy because the PCTs were interacting a lot with Yohko and I, suggesting that they were at least somewhat interested and engaged in our discussions and games. What makes it even more impressive is that it was almost the weekend and they are in the “hump” week of training... so what I’m saying is that we’re pretty much awesome at this whole training instructor thing ;-)
***
I glance down at my watch. Eh, what does that say? The sweat dripping down from my brow doesn’t make it any easier to read the time as I fly downhill running. My pace slows and I pause for a moment: 3:55pm. Almost late! I turn around the corner at the bottom of the hill as instructed and follow the length of the gigantic baize wall topped with terrifying spikes rising up on my left … I must almost be there … Finally, an entrance! Armed guards peer out and cautiously swing open the heavy gate while demanding to see my documents. Long after my breathing slows, they eventually accept my story and let me pass unscathed. Two steps forward and the metal gate slams shut behind me.
“Where am I?” Visiting a maximum security prison? Seeking out the ambassador at the U.S. embassy? Trying to gain the attention of His Excellence Armando Emilio Guebuza (President of Mozambique)?
No silly! All those hyped up security measures are solely for the USAID housing complex: an oasis of American livelihood tucked away in one of Maputo’s many nooks and crannies. Although located just a stone’s throw from the water’s edge, there is no ocean view from these mansions (relatively speaking). The 12-foot-tall fortification surrounding the complex prevents any chance of that. The houses (and their occupants) are cut off from the view of the outside world and are seemingly content to do without even a small peek into what is beyond their walls. And why not? Upon stepping foot inside the compound, one immediately feels the relief of having escaped all the poverty, crime, and problems that run rampant in the surrounding streets, as if one has stepped through some kind of magical transport to America’s pristine suburbia. A little creepy at first actually…
Just past the guarded entrance, I’m awestruck. A year ago I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought. “Ho hum. Nothing special...” But halfway through my Peace Corps service, a good ole’ American cul-de-sac has me near trembling as I slowly move about the houses. It’s a feeling difficult to describe to those of you back at home, but there is something eerie, yet exciting and nostalgic, about simply watching the neighborhood kids run around on grassy lawns, escape the summer heat by splashing one another in inflatable swimming pools, and contently dig around in a sandbox as the time passes by. While it reminds me so much of home, it all seems so out of place and unreal here in Mozambique!
The inside of my host’s house is no less surprising. Of course there are the basic amenities of a nice house in a big city (running water, electricity, television, air-conditioning, tiles/carpeting, etc), but there are also more startling, unique aspects of the house: the shelves are stalked with American goodies (apparently each family is granted a 2,500 pound non-perishable food shipment once a year) and the kitchen is outfitted with all the household appliances you could ever dream of (including a waffle press that we definitely made use of the following morning!). The bedrooms contain various workout machines, the playroom has a huge doll house, the extra bathroom is storing a recently used microbrew kit, and the living room boasts beer on tap… ridiculous! Exploring the house’s nuances, perhaps the only real reminders of the African locale are the various pieces of art hung throughout the living space: African masks, batiks, sculptures and the like. A nice house I was prepared for. I’ve been in plenty of them in Quelimane, Nampula, and even Maputo. Just none that so well imitated all the little intricacies of American life. It’s crazy!
Needless to say, I man up and adapt. ;-) Soon the shock wears off and my mindset melds comfortably with this secluded overseas American lifestyle. That night, I sleep in an air-conditioned room on an extra cushy, king-size bed and wake up feeling PRETTY DARN refreshed. On the slate for breakfast? Home-made waffles, of course! Sunday morning plans? Lending a hand constructing the neighborhood playground set bought and delivered from Home Depot!... Next up for lunch? Delivered pizza!... Seriously?! This is just ridiculous and TOO fun, but a nice escape from the past year of roughing it :-)
If my hosts are out there reading this back in Maputo… just want to say thank you all so much for your hospitality and generosity! You guys are awesome and inspire me give back to others around me in need :-)
***
I come back to PST in Namaacha telling the trainees about my weekend digs/activities and there’s definitely a hint of jealousy in their responses. Some say “That’s great!” or “Sweet!”… others are a little indignant replying “Is that what our tax dollars are paying for?!” and “Now THAT is exactly what’s wrong with international development!”
I immediately rebuke them (initially probably because of how well it has treated me in the past two days!), but taking a step back, Are they right in some way? Is all this luxury, associated exclusively with expat State and development workers, in the middle of so much poverty, a bad thing?
What do you all back home think?
Tuesday November 16th, 2010
Big pot, little pot – a comparison:
One thing I’ve noticed since arriving here in Nauela is that, when preparing meals, people usually have two pots: A big one for rice/xima and another, significantly smaller, one for whatever sauce (flavoring) they can scrounge up. Sometimes, in the drier months, the smaller pot disappears and all that’s served for dinner is a helping of xima or nothing at all.
I, on the other hand, also have the two pot system working for me, but it’s oftentimes the opposite: the big pot for sauce and the other smaller one for rice (never xima!).
The tale of the two pots illustrates many things. 1) Usually I am eating alone or with one other person so we don’t need a lot of base carbs 2) I have more money to buy whatever sauce I need at a moment’s notice 3) Maize and rice are easy to store for long periods of time and are, generally speaking, readily available in the area. 4) There’s a cultural preference of filling up the belly with carbs whether or not there is other food available.
***
Renewing the permagarden spirit:
Since arriving back at site from my week or so at PST (where I helped out with Permaculture lessons), I’ve become all jazzed-up again about teaching aspects of Permagardening in the community. Last year I was really worried about stepping on toes and trying to educate a farmer population about agricultural practices when I really had no clue as to what the heck I was talking about! I mean I had never even grown a vegetable before… How am I supposed to tell a life-long farmer what do differently?!
This year things are going to be a little different. Everyone saw me successfully grow a number of crops last year (in a place and during the time of year when most people said the plants couldn’t be grown) and are interested to see how I’m doing it. So far it’s been pretty easy to get an audience. I started up a new compost pile next to my house by gathering fallen leaves along the street and neighbors immediately starting asking me what the heck I was doing. I politely responded, telling them just enough to gain their attention and then left ‘em dangling wanting more. In the end, I agreed to teach composting at the houses of several neighbors over the next week or so and even talk to the local church about various agriculture problems people are having. First I’ll ask them to share their problems and then I’ll suggest some solutions and we’ll see how it goes from there. Maybe people will want to do some kind of training, maybe not. Either way, I’m definitely still trying to approach the Ag issue with a lot of humbleness.
***
Today was the day: my first loss at chess in Nauela to a young man named Vladimiro, a Mozambican from Quelimane who is in town to help proctor the end-of-the-year national exams. I find out after the loss that he’s won the Zambezia provincial chess championship several times in the past. So… I don’t feel too bad about losing to him :-) At the end of the match I also talked to him about me trying to start up a chess club here and he promised that before he left, he’d give me another chess board and chess strategy manual, in Portuguese, to help our chess club start off strong at the beginning of next school year.
Speaking of chess makes me think of my best and most fervent chess student: Rogerio, my rapaz. Sad thing is that as soon as I came back to Nauela from PST I discovered that he had failed ALL of his classes this year! Now it looks like he’s going to have to repeat (again) 10th grade. Not sure if he’ll be back in Nauela anytime soon to talk about it, but I’m REALLY bummed! He’s a smart kid, but people (other students/teachers) tell me now that’s he just hasn’t been working hard this whole year.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new thing. Students have been telling me that he’s been missing classes and not putting forth all his effort all year, but when I approached him about it in the past he said those people were lying and just trying to get him in trouble because they (or a friend of theirs) wanted to work for me in his place. I took his word for it, but never went to his classroom and actually talked with his teacher. My mistake… :-(
Worst thing is that I had these grand hopes of him passing 10th grade and then me helping sponsor his schooling next school year in Alto Moloque (we don’t have 11th and 12th grade here in Nauela). But now that it seems he hasn’t been trying academically all along, I feel that he has lost that opportunity. A downer for me and him both. I wanted it to work out SO bad! You can get so frustrated sometimes when things like this happen. Here’s a kid who so much going for him… and he just let it slip away.
***
Random thought. During my last blog post, I referred to how I was happy about how the Natural Medicine training here in Nauela had gone. In the same breath, I also briefly spoke out about how it definitely WASN’T a perfect training by any stretch of the imagination (we’ll see if any of the knowledge spreads throughout the community…) , but at least there purposefully hadn’t been huge amounts of excessive money and/or outside resources thrown into it. Below is a real life example of how heavy-funded trainings can go wrong:
Trainings can be such a waste! Just the other day I was visiting a fellow volunteer’s site when I ran across an expat NGO doctor who was discussing the highs and lows of this week-long training she had spent months setting up and how she is now neck-deep in frustrations.
In this international development age of “sustainability and capacity building” (definitely jargon words!), trainings aren’t supposed to be put on entirely by ex-pat staff members (NGO’s in Mozambique actually have a maximum percentage (10%?)of their in-country workforce that can be foreigners). No, instead trainings should be partnerships where host-country nationals are the main facilitators. This is good because they are obviously fluent in the language and cultural norms, but can be bad if they aren’t up to par on the information they are doling out.
This one particular doctor was going off, talking about how her overly zealous host-country national counterparts were simply fabricating answers to health questions they didn’t know, rather than admit to their ignorance and appeal to a higher authority (the medical doctor) for the answer (as one might expect, the imaginative answers were quite WRONG). Some of the information had been so erroneous that, when nearing the end of the training, the doctor was simply hoping that the people attending the training would FORGET all that they learned that week because it’d be better than spreading all the false information they had been fed.
Hear that?! That’s the sound of $8000 USD down the drain! Not to be too harsh, but seriously… what is there to show for the monetary investment? Wrong concepts being taught, transportation and a week’s worth of food and lodging for the participants and trainers… and best of all… the infamous per diem.
Even though the trainees were all getting fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the NGO was still providing every person with 1000 mets per diem (that’s 5000-6000 mets for the week… a small fortune for a lot of people here in Zambezia!). And what for exactly? Good question… As I saw the trainees loading into their privately rented chapa at the end of the week, packed in the back seat were newly purchased speakers, TVs, and DVD players to name a few… riddle solved.
Not too be too critical of Mozambican’s who take full advantage of the per diem thrown at them… We, PCVs, look forward to per diem handouts surrounding periodic meetings from our partnered organizations too. In my opinion, the problem isn’t those who are using what they are given… it’s at the people who are giving it! Seriously though, sometimes I feel that international NGOs are just trying to find semi-legit reason to spend all their money so they won’t get a budget cut down the road…
Thursday November 18th, 2010
Site placement :
Amanda is at PST this week and today was the long anticipated day of site placement for the new PCVs! Yay! They find out where they’ll be for the next 2 years and we take a look at who’ll be our new neighbors for our last leg of the Peace Corps journey. During my week at training, I met all of the Moz 15 health volunteers, but the closest new volunteers will all be from the education sector. So although the mystery has been revealed as to who’ll be replacing the exiting Moz 13ers around me, right now all I’ve got is a list of names without faces. Still… exciting stuff!
Up in flames:
Nauela is an area of pyromaniacs! Seriously! Sure you could argue that some/most of the burning is necessary or at least functional (ie the parents going to their fields and lighting last year’s crop refuse on fire to make way for this year’s), but I’d also argue that they enjoy it to some degree… maybe too much for their own good!
Thing is, all too often these flames come back to haunt the surrounding communities and yet somehow everyone is still amazed it happens again and again. Flash back: two months ago, a whole mountainside field of un-harvested beans is engulfed in flames and ruined by some drunk teenager playing with matches. Flash back: one month ago, an area church goes up in smoke when someone leaves their burning trash pile unattended and a rogue flame flies on top of the nearby grass roof. Today, more of the same: a little boy is flippantly lighting matches, trying to imitate his parents and, poof!, there goes a makeshift stick house with a grass roof (Thank God that at least no one was injured in all these fires…).
This most recent burning is the only one I got to witness up close and personal and thus it made a big impact on me. With the dried grass roof acting as fuel for the eager fire, it is incredible, but not surprising, how swiftly the entire house burst into flames and was reduced to embers… only in a matter of minutes really.
Quick add on: Although not the entire reason for the preference of tin roofs, being flame retardant is definitely a plus. I recently discovered that the primary reason for saving up to buy a tin roof (each sheet cost about 250 mets, or $8 dollars, and a house needs around 20… so about $160!) is actually so that you won’t have to keep taking off last year’s aged grass, going out into bush to cut and collect new grass, and then replacing/adding a new layer to the roof (all the while worrying about the excessive weight that builds up from layers of grass). A tin roof is a HUGE expense for the people here that are mostly living hand-to-mouth, but people recognize that it’s a great investment because it saves 2-4 WEEKS of labor a year by avoiding having to go out and redo the roof.
Actually, a little trick of the trade for you here in Mozambique… When approaching a rural community, one can (generally speaking) quickly tell the agricultural success of the area by simply seeing how many tin roofs are in place. If the general population has enough money to be doing some long-term investing (a tin roof mind you… we’re not talking about Wall Street here!), then things are going pretty well!
Friday November 19th, 2010
Going against my roots:
Gainesville, FL (where I was born and raised) is a pretty tree hugger place I feel. And I have welcomed and embraced that vibe my whole life (generally speaking)… until today!
Picture this: me in the middle of some scrubby bushes with a machete in my hand, whaling away with all the force I have at a big tree branch. Now picture this: me still in the bush… but with the machete now on the ground as I’ve given up on cutting through the rock-solid branch and have now resolved to try to use my weight to pull the branch off. It finally gives and I haul it off to my bicycle to strap on and transport (along with 5 other similar branches) back to my house to extend my shade hut for my growing number of compost piles.
In my mind, I can justify it all though. So listen before you judge me too much... You see, the thing is… I didn’t actually KILL the trees. I just cut off one lousy branch from each tree. I mean… you could look all around and see where people had cut off other limbs and new ones were already budding off. It’s an aggressive form of pruning really!
Now that I think about how great a wild undergrowth gardener I am, I might even go back in the next few days and do it again!… After all, I do need a fence for my garden to keep all those darn pigs out :-)
Saturday November 20th, 2010
Two scheduled compost lessons done… already THREE compost piles throughout Nauela (and that’s not even including the two at my house). Yep, that’s right! The first group (two area high school boys) I taught the other day came by this afternoon and informed me that they’d already gone over to a friend’s house and done another pile at their house. So exciting for me to see how energized they have gotten about it! Now I just hope that they maintain the piles and it helps their gardens. But I guess that’s my responsibility too with that whole Monitoring and Evaluation stuff we always talk about ;-)
Thursday November 25th, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back at home (or wherever you all might be now you world travels)! I just wanted to take this moment to let you all know that I’ve been thinking about you all today and I’m definitely thankful for having you all in my life in some shape or form. I hope your holidays are starting off on the right foot… with some Thanksgiving day-stuffed bellies! :-)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Amanda Adventure and Luke's Lobolo
***
While I was in Quelimane the other week I got the chance to catch up with Carmen for a bit (she used Google Voice and said it wasn’t that hard to set up, so no more excuses guys!) and she point-blank asked me if it was true that I was coming back to the States before medical school (turns out there’s been a rumor going around due to a certain sister’s facebookin’ postings :-P) …
Well, SURPRISE! I am!
Although the itinerary is still up in the air, this much we know for sure: the plane tickets are bought so Amanda and I are definitely coming to Florida and we’ll be splitting our time between places like Orlando/Gainesville/beach in late January-early February. A good chunk of the time will be spent with her family who is visiting from California and then another good chunk will surely be spent with my family, but we’ll try to swing by TUMC one Sunday and will probably have some time for dinner/lunch dates with close friends at places like Satchel’s :-)… Exciting, right?! I’ll keep you all updated!
***
Sunday October 10th, 2010
Amanda is visiting me this weekend and so far it’s been, mostly (I’ll explain a little later), great! It’s always nice and relaxing to spend down time in the company of someone you mesh so well with, even if you are just chilling around the house, trying to escape the sun’s intense rays… Just this weekend, in fact, Amanda and I were discussing a book which says that most (70%?) of a dating couple’s time together is spent doing activities (not true if you’re in the Peace Corps!), while a married couple generally spends that amount of their time together just chilling and talking. Maybe life as a PCV is just preparing us for the future :-)
As much as I love sitting back with Amanda and discussing a book, devotional, or passage in the Bible that one of us are reading, reflecting on today’s adventure, I believe that most of the time we choose to have a day inside simply because leaving the house can be soooo DIFFICULT! Although I sometimes feel a hint of laziness for slouching around the house the whole day, this afternoon it seemed that the powers that be just didn’t want Amanda and I to do anything… and while you can fight it at every turn (as we did!), it’ll probably just end up frustrating you all the more (once again, speaking from experience!)…
Regardless of what happens in the next day or so before Amanda goes back to Morrumbala, I confidently proclaim that today’s arduous (attempted) visit to Mehecane will forever stand out in my mind as the defining event of the long weekend.
Our afternoon bike ride started out pleasant and interesting while exploring the ruins of the old Catholic mission just outside Nauela. We poked our heads into the empty church (still in use, but in disrepair and missing much of its ceiling), then walked around an abandoned housing complex used by Portuguese missionaries back in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s crazy to imagine the house’s grandeur back in its heyday because there are still remnants of many things that aren’t readily available in the area even today (ie tiled bathrooms, running water, large glass windows, etc). Such is the norm in a country that is still recovering from 2 decades of war….
Leaving the ruins, things quickly took a turn for the wor... I mean… rough! And rather than just whirling around and calling it a good afternoon, my stubbornness kicked in and insisted we go on… even when my bike tire popped, even when we had to leave our bikes at a random drunk’s house and start walking, even when Amanda lost her belly button ring, and even when no locals knew the way to get to Mehecane via a (supposed) shortcut. Upon arriving at a lookout point 30 minutes later and realizing we had only made marginal progress as the sun dipped low in the sky, only THEN did I finally concede to turn around.
Oh Amanda … your patience with me!
***
FYI, in case you are ever in Mozambique and lose a belly button ring… and you don’t have anything else to keep the hole from closing up… you can make a temporary one out of stripped and sterilized electrical wire! You definitely should try it sometime… just ask Amanda :-)
***
Tuesday October 12th- Thursday October 14th, 2010
Joakim Pedro visited my house this morning arriving on the heels of Amanda leaving in order to make some last minute touches on the natural medicine training sessions before we kick them off tomorrow. Over the past few weeks, Joakim and I have written out the sessions’ bullet points on giant flipchart paper and discussed them to make sure we’re both on the same page. I have hopes that he will take over leading the sessions, speaking primarily in Lomwe, and I can play a minimal supportive role in the background… Setting up this supportive role from the beginning will be aided by the fact that I can’t attend the first day of the sessions due to scheduling conflicts. So let’s just hope for the best!
***
The first few days of Muretchele’s training have gone really well! Joakim has immediately taken the leadership role out from under me and I’m so excited to see how he’s just running with it! In my mind the training has been a HUGE success thus far. It’s a small, but committed!, group who aren’t coming because of handouts (per-diem and/or free food) and the training isn’t using many resources that don’t come directly from the community (the trainees bring all the pens, notebooks, pots, wood, spoons, and plants for the day’s session… only the markers and flip chart paper have been brought in by me...)
Check out some of the pictures below:
Saturday October 23rd, 2010
Lobolo: a traditional Mozambican ceremony where the bride-to-be is offered up to the groom and his family in exchange for various material goods. Maybe that definition oversimplifies the tradition and leaves out some of its cultural beauty, but essentially that is what it is: handing a woman over in return for various commodities.
Before judging it too harshly though, one must consider what is actually given: a ring for the bride-to-be, a new pair of clothes for her and her entire nuclear family, food and beverages for the reception afterwards, and a little bit of cash-money. And while I am no expert of marriage traditions in the West, I believe that we have similar (albeit not as strictly followed) traditions where the families’ are obliged to pay for some of these practical expenses surrounding a wedding (I found this website that talks about accepted wedding traditions in the UK for example). Once again, I’m not condoning the practice, but it’s not like the tradition is THAT different from some of our own!
And while someone might say that, “Well our society has outgrown those silly traditions…” I would reply that many Mozambicans have too, in fact. How do I know this? Because I was lucky enough to be invited by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Luke, and his future (Mozambican) wife, Dinha, to their lobolo this weekend.
Sure, the Lobolo ceremony is still a stable in most of Mozambican society, but it fills the role of a theatrical performance recalling their cultural roots more than anything else. Awarding presents to the bride’s family allows everyone involved to sing, clap, and dance to old hymns reserved for just such an event. The bride’s family makes light of the handing over of money by constantly jabbing at the groom’s family for doing some fictitious intricacy incorrectly and subsequently charges them a small additional “multa”, or fee. And the ceremony is light-heartedly capped off by the presentation of a live, loudly bah-ing goat which in turn solicits a huge roar from the crowd.
Interestingly enough, the ceremony happens largely without the presence of the prospective bride or groom. Although planned from start to finish, it is acted out as if the whole event is a little random and spur of the moment. The groom’s family (in our case, made up completely of fellow PCVs because Luke’s family couldn’t come over for the occasion) arrives at the bride’s family’s house and states the purpose of our visit: to seek the hand of the daughter. The bride’s family invites us all in to the house to sit and “discuss” the matter where they pull out a list with their lobolo requirements. After the list is read over, our family goes through the list, revealing each item one by one.
At that point, the elders of the bride’s family go and send for Dinha, but ask us to help pay for the transportation cost of bringing her here (keep in mind she is actually in the next room over… again, little jabs!). We offer up 20 metacais (75 cents), but they prod us for more stating that she is “very” far away and “What do we expect? That we send a bike taxi for her?!” When Dinha finally arrives, she does so, her body masked by a capulana, accompanied by another hidden figure. The family then challenges us: if you really KNOW our daughter, surely you can pick her out of the two-person lineup. The choice is obvious: Dinha, with her full-figured body type, is the one to the left. That doesn’t stop everyone, however, from crying out when Denys (another PCV) correctly picks and the capulana is pulled back to reveal Dinha’s smiling face.
Now that Dinha is present at the ceremony, her family asks if she indeed knows this family and she responds that indeed she does. At this point the lobolo presents are doled out, starting with Dinha then working their way down from the eldest family members to the youngest. Between every gift there is a lull that is filled with singing and dancing. Everyone is happy and smiling, but none so much so as Dinha (not always the case for traditional Mozambican ceremonies where people are oftentimes very stoic)
Only at this point does anyone bother to seek the presence of the groom. “Where’s Luke?!” people start asking worriedly. Someone calls him up and he pretends to have been busy doing other things. He’s slow to show up, not wanting to seem too eager (I guess?!), but once he arrives, he thanks both families and presents a message from his actual family back in the States talking about how much they wish they could be there for the ceremony. It’s a touching moment that lasts for a second, but quickly gives way to the after party as people flood out of the house into the courtyard.
Food that (conveniently, for a “spur of the moment event”) has been obviously prepared in large quantities, well in advance pours out from kitchen into the courtyard. The mob is hungry, but the food is more than enough. We eat, dance, and party late into the night and even celebrate a second time as the clock strikes midnight and we celebrate Dinha’s birthday that just so happened to fall on the following day.
Learning about new traditions, food, and a birthday to boot… definitely a good day here in Mozambique :-)
Thursday October 28th, 2010
I’ve been stuck inside feeling sick all week ever since coming back from the Lobolo…. but all the while I’ve been healing my body and spirit by relaxing, reading, and praying about various books Amanda lent me. I spent most of my time wrapped in one book in particular, “A Voice in the Wind” by Francine Rivers. It falls in the genre of Christian fiction because it makes illustrations about the Bible and one’s faith through fictional characters placed in various historical settings.
The particular book mentioned above follows the story of a young woman named Hadassah who is struggling with the expression of her Christian faith during the downfall of the Roman Empire. And as of late, the way I express my faith is something that I also am regularly thinking and praying about… I’ve had a lot of good reflections this week about the book though and I hope that it’ll make me firmer and stronger from here on out.
Friday October 29th, 2010
I’ve been sick this whole week (diarrhea accompanied with general weakness, an aching back, shoulders, and neck… to the point where I’m stuck in the house most of the day)– not really sure of its cause, but it seems to always be worse when I’m at site. I’ve started thinking about all the possibilities and my first thoughts are Rogerio’s (and my) sanitation with food preparation and dish washing, over chlorinating the water, accidentally letting some of the ant poison dust touch the chlorine dropper, and general stress. Some of those concerns I can easily address, others are a little bit harder… (ie the stress bc I don’t FEEL too overstressed usually, but I know I am).
Luckily, I’ve been getting steadily better and that’s really good because this Saturday (tomorrow!) I have to start my long journey from Nauela to Namaacha via Nampula City and Maputo. The trip could technically be done in one day, but, because of the time of the flight and the fact that I can’t travel after dark, it’ll probably involve a hotel stay in BOTH Nampula and Maputo. It’s nice to break up the trip, but I also just wish I could GET there and not lollygag around…
Sunday October 31st, 2010 – Happy Halloween!
So I just got great news from my friends and family back home… Gators beat the Bulldogs on a clutch, game-ending field goal in OT! Even though the Gators are having a rough season this year (having lost 3 in a row) they still have beaten their 2 biggest rivals thus far (UGA and UT) and definitely still have a chance to make it to SEC championship… I’m stoked!
Ok, ok… so many of you probably already knew all that, but I just had to give a shout out to my home team… especially when they have been struggling so much this season…
While I was in Quelimane the other week I got the chance to catch up with Carmen for a bit (she used Google Voice and said it wasn’t that hard to set up, so no more excuses guys!) and she point-blank asked me if it was true that I was coming back to the States before medical school (turns out there’s been a rumor going around due to a certain sister’s facebookin’ postings :-P) …
Well, SURPRISE! I am!
Although the itinerary is still up in the air, this much we know for sure: the plane tickets are bought so Amanda and I are definitely coming to Florida and we’ll be splitting our time between places like Orlando/Gainesville/beach in late January-early February. A good chunk of the time will be spent with her family who is visiting from California and then another good chunk will surely be spent with my family, but we’ll try to swing by TUMC one Sunday and will probably have some time for dinner/lunch dates with close friends at places like Satchel’s :-)… Exciting, right?! I’ll keep you all updated!
***
Sunday October 10th, 2010
Amanda is visiting me this weekend and so far it’s been, mostly (I’ll explain a little later), great! It’s always nice and relaxing to spend down time in the company of someone you mesh so well with, even if you are just chilling around the house, trying to escape the sun’s intense rays… Just this weekend, in fact, Amanda and I were discussing a book which says that most (70%?) of a dating couple’s time together is spent doing activities (not true if you’re in the Peace Corps!), while a married couple generally spends that amount of their time together just chilling and talking. Maybe life as a PCV is just preparing us for the future :-)
As much as I love sitting back with Amanda and discussing a book, devotional, or passage in the Bible that one of us are reading, reflecting on today’s adventure, I believe that most of the time we choose to have a day inside simply because leaving the house can be soooo DIFFICULT! Although I sometimes feel a hint of laziness for slouching around the house the whole day, this afternoon it seemed that the powers that be just didn’t want Amanda and I to do anything… and while you can fight it at every turn (as we did!), it’ll probably just end up frustrating you all the more (once again, speaking from experience!)…
Regardless of what happens in the next day or so before Amanda goes back to Morrumbala, I confidently proclaim that today’s arduous (attempted) visit to Mehecane will forever stand out in my mind as the defining event of the long weekend.
Our afternoon bike ride started out pleasant and interesting while exploring the ruins of the old Catholic mission just outside Nauela. We poked our heads into the empty church (still in use, but in disrepair and missing much of its ceiling), then walked around an abandoned housing complex used by Portuguese missionaries back in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s crazy to imagine the house’s grandeur back in its heyday because there are still remnants of many things that aren’t readily available in the area even today (ie tiled bathrooms, running water, large glass windows, etc). Such is the norm in a country that is still recovering from 2 decades of war….
Leaving the ruins, things quickly took a turn for the wor... I mean… rough! And rather than just whirling around and calling it a good afternoon, my stubbornness kicked in and insisted we go on… even when my bike tire popped, even when we had to leave our bikes at a random drunk’s house and start walking, even when Amanda lost her belly button ring, and even when no locals knew the way to get to Mehecane via a (supposed) shortcut. Upon arriving at a lookout point 30 minutes later and realizing we had only made marginal progress as the sun dipped low in the sky, only THEN did I finally concede to turn around.
Oh Amanda … your patience with me!
***
FYI, in case you are ever in Mozambique and lose a belly button ring… and you don’t have anything else to keep the hole from closing up… you can make a temporary one out of stripped and sterilized electrical wire! You definitely should try it sometime… just ask Amanda :-)
***
Tuesday October 12th- Thursday October 14th, 2010
Joakim Pedro visited my house this morning arriving on the heels of Amanda leaving in order to make some last minute touches on the natural medicine training sessions before we kick them off tomorrow. Over the past few weeks, Joakim and I have written out the sessions’ bullet points on giant flipchart paper and discussed them to make sure we’re both on the same page. I have hopes that he will take over leading the sessions, speaking primarily in Lomwe, and I can play a minimal supportive role in the background… Setting up this supportive role from the beginning will be aided by the fact that I can’t attend the first day of the sessions due to scheduling conflicts. So let’s just hope for the best!
***
The first few days of Muretchele’s training have gone really well! Joakim has immediately taken the leadership role out from under me and I’m so excited to see how he’s just running with it! In my mind the training has been a HUGE success thus far. It’s a small, but committed!, group who aren’t coming because of handouts (per-diem and/or free food) and the training isn’t using many resources that don’t come directly from the community (the trainees bring all the pens, notebooks, pots, wood, spoons, and plants for the day’s session… only the markers and flip chart paper have been brought in by me...)
Check out some of the pictures below:
Saturday October 23rd, 2010
Lobolo: a traditional Mozambican ceremony where the bride-to-be is offered up to the groom and his family in exchange for various material goods. Maybe that definition oversimplifies the tradition and leaves out some of its cultural beauty, but essentially that is what it is: handing a woman over in return for various commodities.
Before judging it too harshly though, one must consider what is actually given: a ring for the bride-to-be, a new pair of clothes for her and her entire nuclear family, food and beverages for the reception afterwards, and a little bit of cash-money. And while I am no expert of marriage traditions in the West, I believe that we have similar (albeit not as strictly followed) traditions where the families’ are obliged to pay for some of these practical expenses surrounding a wedding (I found this website that talks about accepted wedding traditions in the UK for example). Once again, I’m not condoning the practice, but it’s not like the tradition is THAT different from some of our own!
And while someone might say that, “Well our society has outgrown those silly traditions…” I would reply that many Mozambicans have too, in fact. How do I know this? Because I was lucky enough to be invited by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Luke, and his future (Mozambican) wife, Dinha, to their lobolo this weekend.
Sure, the Lobolo ceremony is still a stable in most of Mozambican society, but it fills the role of a theatrical performance recalling their cultural roots more than anything else. Awarding presents to the bride’s family allows everyone involved to sing, clap, and dance to old hymns reserved for just such an event. The bride’s family makes light of the handing over of money by constantly jabbing at the groom’s family for doing some fictitious intricacy incorrectly and subsequently charges them a small additional “multa”, or fee. And the ceremony is light-heartedly capped off by the presentation of a live, loudly bah-ing goat which in turn solicits a huge roar from the crowd.
Interestingly enough, the ceremony happens largely without the presence of the prospective bride or groom. Although planned from start to finish, it is acted out as if the whole event is a little random and spur of the moment. The groom’s family (in our case, made up completely of fellow PCVs because Luke’s family couldn’t come over for the occasion) arrives at the bride’s family’s house and states the purpose of our visit: to seek the hand of the daughter. The bride’s family invites us all in to the house to sit and “discuss” the matter where they pull out a list with their lobolo requirements. After the list is read over, our family goes through the list, revealing each item one by one.
At that point, the elders of the bride’s family go and send for Dinha, but ask us to help pay for the transportation cost of bringing her here (keep in mind she is actually in the next room over… again, little jabs!). We offer up 20 metacais (75 cents), but they prod us for more stating that she is “very” far away and “What do we expect? That we send a bike taxi for her?!” When Dinha finally arrives, she does so, her body masked by a capulana, accompanied by another hidden figure. The family then challenges us: if you really KNOW our daughter, surely you can pick her out of the two-person lineup. The choice is obvious: Dinha, with her full-figured body type, is the one to the left. That doesn’t stop everyone, however, from crying out when Denys (another PCV) correctly picks and the capulana is pulled back to reveal Dinha’s smiling face.
Now that Dinha is present at the ceremony, her family asks if she indeed knows this family and she responds that indeed she does. At this point the lobolo presents are doled out, starting with Dinha then working their way down from the eldest family members to the youngest. Between every gift there is a lull that is filled with singing and dancing. Everyone is happy and smiling, but none so much so as Dinha (not always the case for traditional Mozambican ceremonies where people are oftentimes very stoic)
Only at this point does anyone bother to seek the presence of the groom. “Where’s Luke?!” people start asking worriedly. Someone calls him up and he pretends to have been busy doing other things. He’s slow to show up, not wanting to seem too eager (I guess?!), but once he arrives, he thanks both families and presents a message from his actual family back in the States talking about how much they wish they could be there for the ceremony. It’s a touching moment that lasts for a second, but quickly gives way to the after party as people flood out of the house into the courtyard.
Food that (conveniently, for a “spur of the moment event”) has been obviously prepared in large quantities, well in advance pours out from kitchen into the courtyard. The mob is hungry, but the food is more than enough. We eat, dance, and party late into the night and even celebrate a second time as the clock strikes midnight and we celebrate Dinha’s birthday that just so happened to fall on the following day.
Learning about new traditions, food, and a birthday to boot… definitely a good day here in Mozambique :-)
Thursday October 28th, 2010
I’ve been stuck inside feeling sick all week ever since coming back from the Lobolo…. but all the while I’ve been healing my body and spirit by relaxing, reading, and praying about various books Amanda lent me. I spent most of my time wrapped in one book in particular, “A Voice in the Wind” by Francine Rivers. It falls in the genre of Christian fiction because it makes illustrations about the Bible and one’s faith through fictional characters placed in various historical settings.
The particular book mentioned above follows the story of a young woman named Hadassah who is struggling with the expression of her Christian faith during the downfall of the Roman Empire. And as of late, the way I express my faith is something that I also am regularly thinking and praying about… I’ve had a lot of good reflections this week about the book though and I hope that it’ll make me firmer and stronger from here on out.
Friday October 29th, 2010
I’ve been sick this whole week (diarrhea accompanied with general weakness, an aching back, shoulders, and neck… to the point where I’m stuck in the house most of the day)– not really sure of its cause, but it seems to always be worse when I’m at site. I’ve started thinking about all the possibilities and my first thoughts are Rogerio’s (and my) sanitation with food preparation and dish washing, over chlorinating the water, accidentally letting some of the ant poison dust touch the chlorine dropper, and general stress. Some of those concerns I can easily address, others are a little bit harder… (ie the stress bc I don’t FEEL too overstressed usually, but I know I am).
Luckily, I’ve been getting steadily better and that’s really good because this Saturday (tomorrow!) I have to start my long journey from Nauela to Namaacha via Nampula City and Maputo. The trip could technically be done in one day, but, because of the time of the flight and the fact that I can’t travel after dark, it’ll probably involve a hotel stay in BOTH Nampula and Maputo. It’s nice to break up the trip, but I also just wish I could GET there and not lollygag around…
Sunday October 31st, 2010 – Happy Halloween!
So I just got great news from my friends and family back home… Gators beat the Bulldogs on a clutch, game-ending field goal in OT! Even though the Gators are having a rough season this year (having lost 3 in a row) they still have beaten their 2 biggest rivals thus far (UGA and UT) and definitely still have a chance to make it to SEC championship… I’m stoked!
Ok, ok… so many of you probably already knew all that, but I just had to give a shout out to my home team… especially when they have been struggling so much this season…
Friday, October 15, 2010
Late Update: Tanzania Pictures
The captions will be coming later, as for now, just enjoy the sights :)
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