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!
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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!
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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 :-)
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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!
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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…
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