A Gator in Mozambique: Americaland - Before and After My Trip

Last blog post - November 30th - Humm! Where to begin? Where to begin? Well let’s start with the fact that I just went to America and back! YAY!

Now you tell me… How CRAZY is that?

And while the trip by itself doesn’t excuse me from not having posted in so long, I figure the fact that I DID get to see so many of you just a few weeks ago while Amanda and I were in Gainesville/Orlando makes up for it a little, right?! :-)

Either way…. now, without further ado, a 3-month recap (albeit a few parts are being left out to not be TOO long… email me if you want the additional blog posts)!

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Friday November 26th, 2010 – My first wedding in Mozambique!
My foot is almost out the door to start my latest trip (heading to Mocuba for a belated Thanksgiving dinner with PCVs before eventually continuing on to Quelimane in order to renew my visa), when Pastor Vicente swings by and invites me to come to his son’s wedding in Mehecane.

I can’t resist :-)

To put you all at ease, the wedding came and went without a hitch. Daniel and his wife got married and, from what I witnessed, had a great time with all the arrangements (it’s hard to tell though because in most formal events in Mozambique the participant’s faces aren’t supposed to be very expressive). The ceremony was relatively Westernized (the bride wearing a white dress, rings exchanged, the typical vows said…) with a few note worthy exceptions: 1) The bride and groom both started the ceremony in their dressing chambers waiting to be called out in song by the crowd. First the groom came out, then, with some coaxing, the bride. At that point, everyone ran to their seats and, once in place, the bride and groom followed, walking down the aisle together followed by the bride’s family. 2) The ceremony doesn’t end with our famous phrase “You may kiss the bride!” In fact, the couple barely even holds hands during the event. Instead, the climax of the ceremony is when the whole congregation leaves their seats to come up and hug/kiss the newly married couple. 3) Since the area is traditionally matrilineal, the ritual centered around the bride’s family… i.e. - the parents stood behind the soon-to-be-married couple during the entire ceremony, the couple sat with the bride’s family during intervals, and the first people to sign as witnesses to the wedding were the bride’s parents…

After the ceremony was complete, everyone poured outside the church and accompanied the newlyweds to the reception at the bride’s family’s house (a few miles away!). Since there were no cars to be had though, everyone was forced to walk. Onlookers were actually assigned to hold umbrellas over the couple’s heads for the length of the journey due to the combination of the midday heat and stuffy clothes. To celebrate and keep spirits high despite the hardships, everyone sang and, since the walk would be a long one, people had even brought along tape players to blast music when the crowd tired of singing…

Crazy, huh!? Below are some pictures from the special day :-)

An usher waiting outside the groom’s dressing room before the ceremony begins

Women singing for the bride and groom to come out and wed already ;-)

The priest escorting the bride and groom down the aisle follow by the bride’s family

The bride and groom at the altar

The pastor reading from I Corinthians 13

The wedding band – it’s official!

The newly married couple with her parents getting ready to leave the church.

The newly married couple leaving the church through the makeshift archway under the cover of umbrellas.

Also, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving in Mocuba…

This is a random, yet priceless, chapa pic taken on the way to Mocuba. 3 goats and 1 chicken (all alive!) tied to the car’s roof… oh Mozambique!

Yohko cooking up some veggies

Noemi and Amanda stuffing the turkey

Amanda with the spread before her

Noemi, Jordan, Yohko, and Amanda posing for the camera before taking a seat

The whole Thanksgiving dinner crew sitting down and enjoying our meal

Noemi, Amanda, and I pigleting on some awesome chocolate cake

Thursday December 2nd – Thursday December 9th, 2010
“Why am I here again?” is the question I’m asking myself on the 8th day of FGH’s nutrition training here in Quelimane. I’ll admit that the training material is interesting, but it has been drawn out for WAAAY too long. Something that probably could have been summed up for me in a long afternoon or a 1 day lecture has for some reason been dragged out for 10 days. And I’m NOT lifting myself up on a pedestal here! Trust me, it’s not like I’m the only one who feels this way… looking around the room, literally NO ONE is paying attention. Almost all the other participants have their laptops open and are on the internet/email or are completely zonked out, gazing off into space. This is no rare moment either… it’s been like this for days now…

The kicker though, comes later that day as we are polled by the presenters, now that we’re almost at the end of the training, What could be improved for the next training session? Silence. Finally, the head presenter calls out someone from the audience and he thinks hard… after a long pause, what does he come up with? “I think the main problem with this training is that it is TOO SHORT!” Immediately the crowd wakes up and erupts with support. “Yes! For a training of trainers, it should have been AT LEAST 15 days!” being the general consensus.

Gah! Now we’re finally arriving at the crux of the problem, aren’t we? This whole training isn’t actually about teaching anyone anything (I personally doubt that we’ll ever even end up training anyone on the ground level about this stuff). Sadly, just like a lot of the other NGO stuff, this training is all about the money…

What do I mean? Well, in order to fully explain that question, I first have to tell you who is actually in the room, what they do, and what their motivations are… There are three general groups of people participating in this training. 1) PCVs 2) District-level NGO ground workers 3) Provincial-level NGO office management. The first two groups, the PCVs and district-level NGO ground workers are relatively similar. We work on the community level, but come to these meetings because we “have to” (you probably could get out of them if you have something else important going on back at site) and more importantly because we get a fat per diem check, sweet lodging, lots of free food, and an excuse not to do any “real” work for the duration of the trip (you can usually sit around in an air-conditioned room checking your email for days on end if you just keep your mouth shut)... oh, and I guess we come to these meetings to learn something too, right? ;-) The provincial-level NGO office management meanwhile are in these meetings… well I’m not exactly sure why… partly to provide some sort of supervision or insight (although they usually only impede the progress of the other lower ranked workers)… partly because of the free food I’m sure… possibly avoiding doing other work… possibly because there’s nothing better for them to do... or possibly because they are trying to inflate the training’s overall numbers.

That last point, although not necessarily valid (I don’t know if the management counts themselves in the final numbers or not, but I’d be willing to bet they do even though they’ll never be implementing the material), starts to touch on the overall, systematic problem we have here in Mozambique which is: These over-funded NGO’s in Mozambique (thanks to funds coming from USAID or PEPFAR), in general, have way more money than they know what to do with. After a year of working here, I honestly believe I’ve seen enough to assess that the capacity of the system is just too low to be efficient with all this funding and the targets are too high. Both of which lead to problems.

To me, it seems that many NGO’s struggle to even be able to doll out their money fast enough since they have to do it in a semi-legitimate fashion. In Zambezia, the general consensus (because it’s not done by just FGH!) must be that the most efficient/least corruptible way of spending money quickly and producing a numerical result is having all these trainings where employees are shipped in from all over the province to be given meals, expensive lodging, and handed per diem. In a way, it’s actually a perfect system: bringing together a lot of people that can’t wait to get their hands on money (I’ve said before that working for an NGO in Mozambique is one of the most sought after jobs) with a business that can’t wait to give it to them.

Results are demanded for all this money spent though, so they must bring in a lot of people or have a lot of trainings so that numbers can be high. And now, with the year quickly coming to its end, the pressure is high to perform to the max.

So here I am… learning my lesson the hard way.

***

As a side note, in other provinces, instead of doing all these trainings (or in addition to all of them) many NGOs have elected to subcontract out most of their work to Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)… Which basically amounts to seeking out an organized group of ground-level workers, who are actually from the community where they’ll be working, and then building up the local capacity… Sounds promising, right?! Well, unfortunately, the over-funded NGOs are oftentimes so busy frantically looking for new partners to give money to that they don’t generally have time to go back and really monitor/evaluate the work that these small CBOs are doing. Indeed, I know of several PCVs who have witnessed the leaders of these CBOs simply taking their organizations allotted sum of money and building themselves a new house and/or buying a new car.

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Other thoughts about NGO’s in Mozambique and possibly around the world

-Oftentimes international NGOs start at the top and work their way down. Their first hirings are for management staff and, even years later, there are few actual community workers. Even those NGOs that have ground workers, the practices that they employ are typically thought up in some executive board room somewhere without being ground tested and proven first. In fact, I’ve seen that a lot of NGO’s spend most of their time switching from one strategy to another because they can’t ever figure out something that really works and sticks in their communities.

-The best evidence of “work” being done by an NGO is the main office’s comings and going – phone calls, faxes, copies, cars, etc… very little is actually getting done in the communities even when the workers do get out there.

-Because of the bidding process of how to get funding (as it has been explained to me), NGO’s are pitted against each other and end up having to try to bite off more than they can chew. Ex. - one NGO might tell the donor that with the 5 million dollar grant they can train 5000 trainers and thus help 100,000 people. Another NGO then comes up and says with the same money they can train 6000 and help 200,000. Yet another NGO… (you get the picture)… I don’t know how they even come up with these numbers, but it just gets a little ridiculous in my opinion. NGOs end up committing to serving an entire province without having any infrastructure at the ground level. Furthermore, since projects normally only last a few years, by the time they’ve made their hires it seems the project is already almost complete and the process starts all over again.

***

Other random thoughts while sitting through the training

-So often we spend SO MUCH time talking about helping the absolute WORST case scenarios (one example we spent 2 hours discussing: a single mom with several kids who is HIV positive, sick and unable to work, non-compliant and possibly resistant to available HIV meds, a social outcast, and already used upher allotted food support from the government/NGO… now what do we do?!). Which begs the question, Should aid be FOCUSED on going to the MOST needy? I don’t know, but it reminds me of my time working for ASP when we actually had to turn families away because their house was too much work (not exactly the same situation, I know… but still). Like I said before, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this thought yet but maybe we should start spending more time trying to help those whose actions hint that they are up and coming and just need a tiny hand up, not just a handout. It’s a fine line though because I know you CAN win over these “lost causes”… but it requires the right set of people coming with a lot of sustained effort… and a lot of times something that isn’t typically involved in NGO help: God.

-At the beginning of the nutrition training we all went around and introduced ourselves. Randomly all the men, without prompting, openly bragged about how many children they had from the SAME woman (i.e.- that they hadn’t had many children from many different wives)… it caught me off guard, that’s all.

-Last comment, the new Moz 15 PCVs arrived in Quelimane this week. FGH only received 1 PCV, Angela, this year. Hope things will go better with her than they’ve been going with our group.

Friday December 24th, 2010 - Christmas Eve
Here I am in Quelimane all excited and getting ready for an expat Christmas party tomorrow, totally unaware of what tragedies are transpiring back in Nauela… (I’m informed when I get back to site a few days later)

Early in the morning, the 3 year-old granddaughter of Janeiro, the owner of my house, wakes up crying and sick with what everyone pegs as a simple high fever. The family takes the child to the medical agent’s house (no one was at the hospital at the time because of the holidays) but, regardless of the symptoms, all they have available to give her is aspirin. The family graciously accepts the medicine to administer back at home only to see the granddaughter’s health condition quickly worsen. In fact, within hours she begins vomiting mysterious black liquids. At that point, the family knows something is wrong, but, without any highly trained doctor or specialized medicine, there’s not much more that can be done besides pray that the illness passes. The child loses consciousness during the night and, consequently, the community moms come over and pray till morning. At this point though, the local medical staff comes over and pronounces the child dead :-(

This situation is a just a peek into the causes of Mozambique’s high under-5 child mortality rate, 163.7 (per 1,000 live births), compared the U.S.’s which is 7.8 (per 1,000 live births). Although NGO’s and governments will often ask for money to help solve these problems, oftentimes the solutions that I see to these problems on the ground aren’t always to throw more money at it. Indeed, I believe that, without importing foreign aid workers, it’s simply a matter of waiting it out, hoping that modest levels of foreign aid, political stability, and education can improve the capacity of the local workers and systems to deal with these crises.

Saturday December 25th, 2010 – Merry Christmas!
Amanda, Bern, and I walk into the house, take one whiff of the fresh-out-of-the-oven turkey, and immediately feel at home: Americans popping out of the seams, presents under a decorated Christmas tree, and food galore… sure does sound like a good ole’ fashion Christmas back in the States. Odd thing is though that this party is actually going on right here in Quelimane courtesy of the Hiltons, an American/Australian missionary family that have lived in Mozambique for more than a decade (Brian, the dad, works as a provincial supervisor for World Vision’s agriculture projects).

The party goes late in to the night with all kinds of festivities: devotional time, group Christmas carols, a white elephant gift exchange (Have I been in Mozambique for too long when even the gag gifts are looking pretty sweet to me?!), a huge potluck dinner, and a few rounds of cards with the Hiltons to finish up the night; hands down a better Christmas experience than last year’s (i.e. – when I was stuck inside the house by myself in Nauela while it poured down rain outside).

Amanda showing off the Christmas decorations that we made in Morrumbala

Ethan, a PCV in Quelimane, on Christmas morning all excited because our ghetto Xmas stockings are full!

Amanda and I about to empty our stockings on Christmas morning

A group of expats singing Christmas carols at the Hilton’s house

Amanda, Sally, and I with our presents after the gift exchange

Amanda and I so happy to see a decorated Christmas tree!

Despite all the fun though, I still miss you all back home like crazy! Merry Christmas to you all! Hopefully I’ll be seeing you soon when I come to Florida in January/February :-)

Tuesday December 28th, 2010
Back at site again and, Guess what?! … I’ve officially called Nauela “home” for 1 year now. Crazy!

No better way to celebrate than me restarting my garden today by planting the seedling flats. Hopefully the seeds will germinate in time for me to transplant them before I head to America! Let’s keep our fingers crossed…

Thursday December 30th, 2010 – Monday January 3rd, 2011 – Happy New Years!
Standing on the side of the road on the outskirts of Nampula City being harassed by two wandering policemen, I can’t help but think about how the smallest action can have such a profound impact on everything following it. If we had just arrived a few minutes earlier or later… caught a slower/faster ride here or sat down to have a bite to eat there…. things could be totally different. Ironically, as the police pester me, I am lamenting the fact that things weren’t different, when, if I could see into the future, I would be counting my blessings.

Gritting my teeth while re-explaining to the underpaid police officer that everything IS, in fact, fine with my passport/visa when he keeps insisting otherwise, it becomes blatantly obvious that all he wants is a bribe… and anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m far too stubborn to give into THAT! Meanwhile, Amanda has given up on the discussion, deciding it best to just continue flagging down rides. One car stops and talks to Amanda. Another car passes, turns around and pulls up. Assessing the situation (white people being harassed by corrupt police), both drivers quickly step out to see what’s up.

“Don’t say anything. Let me handle this!” says the middle eastern-looking man in his broken English. And handle it do they. Before Amanda and I even know what’s going on the first driver has paid off the cops (200 mets ~ $6USD – what a deal!) and we’re being escorted into a minivan by the English-speaking Pakistani-looking man. His 6 person family is already squished in, but there’s always room for 1 or 2 more, right?

The whole series of events has Amanda and I unnerved and a little frazzled. Where are we heading? And possibly more importantly, Who are these people we’re with?! Our worries are calmed a bit though as we’re offered sodas and crackers by the children before even having time to catch any names, including that of our day’s savior… turns out he’s Hanane (Huh-na-nee).

We promptly learn that Hanane and his family are on their way to Chocas to celebrate New Years and, before they even know where we’re heading/what we’re doing/who we are, they offer to take us with them. Caught off guard by the hospitality, we politely refuse their generous offer, insisting that we already have plans to go to Ilha de Mozambique to meet up with some fellow PCVs. En route, however,I receive a text informing me that all of our Zambezia friends are tired of traveling, so they’re dipping out on us last minute… “but have a great time!” they say… thanks guys ;-) We vocalize our letdown and immediately Hanane renews his offer to take us to Chocas... “there’s even an extra room for you!”

We’re sold.

***

Chocas was everything it had been billed to be… and more (!) since we got to spend our time here with an awesome family and because we didn’t have to pay for a thing!

Me and Hanane’s son chilling at the beach house

Amanda and I in front of Chocas’s beach

Hanane and I getting ready to hit the water for an evening swim

Me and the girls posing on New Year’s Eve

Despite the fact that Amanda and I were staying at a beach front condo, one of the highlights of the trip actually had nothing to do with the water or sand. No… in one word it was: Lemurs! Ever since we had arrived in Chocas, a constant crowd of locals had been huddled outside the condo trying unsuccessfully to sell the family random things like mangos, fish, necklaces, etc. This time, however, someone caught the young girls’ attention when offering up 2 lemurs for sale (only 60 mets each ~ $2USD). Although I morally objected to the purchase, I didn’t feel I was in a position to argue with our host… that and they REALLY were the cutest, most docile, adorable little creatures ever!

To be honest though, Amanda nor I are really 100% sure they were Lemurs (if so, they were a particularly small variety), but Chocas/Ilha is very close to Madagascar so maybe. Whatever they were (Hanane’s family kept calling them “squirrels” in Portuguese), they were really fun to play with and the best part is that they escaped from their makeshift cage in the night, so everyone came out a winner :-)

Amanda loving the lemur on her shoulder

Another pleasant, unexpected surprise during the trip was that our fellow beachgoers in Chocas went all out and put on a very impressive, personal fireworks show to bring in the New Year. Although one in America might think that fireworks on New Years is nothing special, I definitely wasn’t holding my breath expecting to see anything more than a sparkler.

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Interestingly, my Lonely Planet guidebook says this about Chocas: “an agreeable day trip or excursion, except during holiday weekends when it’s completely overrun”. Sure enough, arriving in Chocas for New Year’s weekend, the small beach town is packed. One thing the guidebook failed to mention though is the nuance that literally ALL the visitors are business owners in Nampula City of Indian/Pakistani heritage. I’m not hating. On the contrary, it made for a surprising and intriguing cultural experience while interacting within this small social niche.

First thing to know about Chocas when overrun by the Nampulanites… there are 3 streets in the town and if you want to go anywhere fast, don’t go down the middle one. Seriously, it becomes a parking lot with everyone in their tricked out rides (Landrovers, H2s, ATVs, etc) honking their horns pretending like they’ve got somewhere to be when the town’s so small no one really needs to be in their cars anyways.

Watching this madness unfold while sitting by and chatting with some of our host’s friends, I pondered out loud “How in the world local business owners can afford these cars here in Mozambique?”… I mean, I know there is profit to be made here, but THAT much, really?! Without really expecting an answer, someone chimed in and informed me that almost all the cars and ATVs here in Chocas have actually been allegedly “stolen” from their original South African owners who really smuggled them into Mozambique and sold them on black market then claimed the insurance on them.

“That’s just the way things are done around here. If you try to do things legally, the government will be the one’s robbing you” says the family friend trying to assuage me… huh, apparently so…

***

On New Years Day Amanda and I wake up early and leave Chocas so we can finally make it to our trip’s original destination: Ilha de Moçambique (Mozambique Island). Although only one of our PCV friends will be there, we don’t know if/when we’ll be back to these parts and we really want to make the visit not because of its beaches, but rather because of its significance in Mozambique’s history.

Amanda and I crossing the bridge to Ilha in the back of a pickup truck

To all you back at home who probably don’t know this, Ilha de Moçambique was actually the first capital city used by the Portuguese to govern and trade with the area during colonial times. The country of Mozambique lends its name from this tiny island which, although no one is certain, is possibly derived from the the name and title of an area leader at the time “Musa bin Mbiki”. Ilha had been relatively uninhabited up until the Portuguese founded Stone Town on the island because of its lack of fresh drinking water (they relied heavily on collecting rainwater in large cisterns back then… water is pumped in today from the mainland, however). In spite of this obstacle, the Portuguese choose the island for the advantages it offered in trading and navigation.

In its heyday, Ilha was a huge navy base, missionary center, and trading point where ships would load up on goods from all over the mainland (ie - beads, ivory, wood, etc), but was especially infamous for its thriving slave market. Slaves were brought from all over the east coast of Africa and sent off on packed ships to the East.

During our two day stay in Ilha, Amanda and I met up with some other PCVs, toured the historical sites of the island, and even snuck in some time at the “swimming beach” (I’ll explain later…). The island is basically divided into two parts: the historical Stone Town and the relatively newer Makuti Town.

Stone town is located on the high-sitting part of the island where the Arab and Portuguese traders long ago oversaw the construction of the large stone buildings that still exist today. The fort is the largest and most impressive building still intact on the island today, but other buildings, such as the former Governor’s house, have been rehabilitated and are in use or open to the public.

Amanda and I in front of some old port entrance

The historic governor’s house, where Mozambique was originally governed from by the Portuguese

The island’s old catholic church

Me getting ready to eat a snail… chewy… but not too bad with some lemon and spice :-)

Amanda, Megan, and I in front of Ilha’s fort

Me looking out of the Governor’s window inside the fort

Amanda, Alyssa and I manning the fort’s canons

Our tour guide showing us where/how the Portuguese would execute people. Turns out, they’d have them stand where he is and simultaneously shoot at the prisoner from positions all around.

The historic slave market, now memorial garden, where slaves were once brought in and sold to the highest bidder

Happy New Years! I’m making the face I am, BTW, because the sign also says “Boas Festas” which translates to “Happy Holidays”, but usually a phrase someone says to you when they’re really just asking of money.

On the other hand, Makuti town is located on the low-setting part of the island where the majority of today’s native islanders live. The height differential from one side of the island to the other is especially so because the Portuguese ordered slaves to dig out and lug over all the stones to construct Stone Town from the other side of the island, largely uninhabited at the time. Makuti town is now very much over populated with almost no space in between any of the shacks. Thus, there is little room for amenities such as bathrooms. Instead the locals must resort to using the largest toilet in the world - the ocean. In fact, it is very common to see someone openly popping a squat alongside one of the islands coastal areas leaving little doubt as to what he is doing. Therefore, many of the island’s beaches are recommendable for swimming.

This is a view from street level. Notice how low the houses and close together are?! And they aren’t in the best of shape either…

That said, in Stone town, where most of the tourists stay and visit, amenities are plentiful. During our visit we heard from numerous sources that there’s already serious talk of tearing down parts of Makuti town to build more tourism accommodations. They say they’ll relocate the people to who knows where with promises of them receiving better lodging too… but we’ll see about all that!

As you can see, although Ilha is a tourist destination there is still significant poverty and struggles in the area. Thus, there’s actually a Moz 14 PCV who lives and teaches at the secondary school on the island. Tough job, but great location :-)

Wednesday January 5th, 2011
On my way to Mehecane today I was pushing my bike up a large hill when I came across a disabled woman whose crippled legs hung below her in “Indian-style” as she moved down the mountain, swinging on her arms in a monkey-like pattern. While I was panting and exhausted, she passed me on the treacherous mountainous path in relatively good spirits, not even breaking a sweat (with a baby tied to her back nonetheless… the baby was also crippled so I figure it’s a genetic disorder). Man!, here I am grouchy about biking all this way and she’s pulling herself up and down mountains on her hands without any complaint whatsoever.

If I hadn’t figured it out already, it’s confirmed later that day that she’s actually quite a capable woman. Not only is she able to get around, but she also works in her field planting and harvesting crops as well as pounding and cooking her own food. Turns out she used to be quite social, but then withdrew from community institutions (like the church) because she had developed a harsh attitude that turned a lot of people off.

Unfortunately, I’m told that the young woman is all-too-frequently located at one of the area bars and can become very aggressive if she has drunk too much. At one point, she even reportedly attacked and tried to strangle a passing truck driver who demanded she (drunk at the time) get out of the middle of the road to let his car pass. Although she has settled down and gotten married recently, most of her children are from other men she’s slept around with.

It’s incredibly depressing to me that she has worked as one of the local prostitutes for a long time likely because she saw it as her best and only option to be able survive during hard times….

I mean, Who can really judge or blame her? It’s not like there are any social services or infrastructure out here that can support someone in her condition (i.e. - even if they gave her a wheelchair bike, she wouldn’t be able to use it too much because of the steep hills and rough terrain). As the son of Special Ed teacher and a brother of an autistic teen, if I wasn’t before, I’m especially aware and grateful now for all the opportunities, services, and support that America offers those with disabilities… it truly is one of the great aspects of our country. I hope we keep on improving those efforts and that our future advances will not be limited to just within our country’s borders.

***

As a side note, (now several weeks later) just yesterday I came across a man in Eleve who uses a wheelchair bike. Ever since birth, his legs have been deformed and only permitted him to limp around his house with the help of a cane. Before getting the bike, if he ever wanted to travel some distance (even within the village), he had to rely on the force of his family members and neighbors. Now, although he still requires help to go from village to village, he is largely able to commute from one side of town to another without help due to the area’s flat ground. A definite success!

Monday January 10th, 2011
As I type this, there’s a Vodacom cell phone tower that’s officially under construction in Nauela. They are working really hard and are a real professional group of workers who seems to know exactly what they are doing. I actually talked at length with the supervisor and he informed me that their company builds these all the time, having already constructed 300+ cell towers in Mozambique.

My head is swimming!

I can’t even imagine how nice it’ll be to just be able chill in my house and talk to people via my cell phone. Courtesy of Bluetooth, I might even be able to surf the internet on my computer here in Nauela (I’ll just have to invest in a nice, fancy phone once the cell tower is up and running…)

Not having to go up the road to make a call would be awaesome 1) just for convenience, 2) for safety reasons at night, and 3) because, now that it’s the rainy season, it seems like there is a downpour almost every evening/night!

A panoramic of the tower’s cement foundation

Wiado and his son Salimo proudly standing in front of Nauela’s hottest new project

All the tower’s pieces being painted and organized so construction can go smoothly.

***

BTW, the government decided to do another routine personnel switch up (we changed district administrators a few months back) so we now have a new “Chefe do Posto” and, low and behold, now Nauela’s generator is working again! Looks like this new guy has decided to not sell off the gasoline! YAY! :-)

Monday January 26th – Tuesday February 15th, 2011 – Americaland!
What more can I say than:

It … was … AWESOME!

Seriously though: returning home while traveling around the world with the love of my life, meeting her mom, stepdad, and good friend from college, staying at REALLY NICE hotels, clothes shopping it up wherever we could, strolling along the Atlantic Ocean at Cocoa Beach, hitting up NASA and the Kennedy Space Center, seeing all that Orlando has to offer (including MANY views of the Amway arena! Haha... inside joke), experiencing old Florida cuisine while chewing on fried frog legs and gator tail with Ed and Rosa Lee, partying it up Tudeen-style at Aunt Sue’s house, having dreams come true at Walt Disney World for three straight days (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studies, and Animal Kingdom), FINALLY meeting and hanging out with Tricia (my brother’s not-so-newly-found love), introducing Amanda to SO MANY of my family and friends (including two who flew in from opposite corners of the country… thank you SO MUCH Ricky and Chris!), proudly showing off Gainesville and the University of Florida to Amanda, visiting the oldest city in America (St. Augustine, FL) and having lunch with my mom’s new boyfriend Mike, being welcomed home by Trinity UMC, eating awesome food over and over again, dropping in to wish my good friend Lauren well, and topping it all off by having a very special Valentine’s Day with Amanda.

Simply AWESOME! I know I said that word already, but it just needed to be said again :-)

A big thank you goes out to all those of you who welcomed me and Amanda back home with open arms. I’m now more excited than ever to come back to start med school and I know that Amanda came away from the visit (impressed by both the area and people) with a good feeling about the idea of moving to Gainesville/Orlando/Florida when she’s done with the Peace Corps. I’m sure that everyone who saw how beautiful, fun, smart, and communicative she is was impressed… but I promise you that you’ll grow to love her even more as you get to know her better :-)

BTW it was definitely an eye-opener when I kept hearing from people “Come on Michael! Your last blog post was on Thanksgiving… Pick it up!”. I had no idea I had such a following! It made me smile and definitely was a big motivator for writing this gargantuan post…

Besides all that, I’ll let the pictures and their captions say the rest:

Maputo

Amanda and I playing dress up at the Hazel's house in Maputo

Orlando - Hotel, Citywalk, and International Drive

Hotel nights: Adam, Mariah, me, Amanda, and Katie all hanging out in our awesome suite

Katie, Patrizia, Amanda, and I at City Walk's entrance

Amanda and Patrizia infront of Universal Studios' globe

Al and me rocking out at the Cafe.

Lounging around Margaritaville

Wishing we were as cool as Harry and his friends

Amazed by the Wonderworks architecture

The mini golf crew: Patrizia, Mariah, Al, Me, Amanda, and Katie

Patrizia really getting into charades

Like mother, like daughter...

Cocoa Beach

Patrizia chasing the seagulls at Cocoa Beach

Just plain fun bonding time :-)

Afternoon at Bok tower

Last day at the new Grand Hilton Suites...

Family meeting day at Bok tower

Mariah and Amanda feeding the evil swans

Bok Tower!

Me and Amanda having a moment as the sun goes down on our day at Bok Tower

The ladies posing for a picture!

NASA

NASA! So much cooler than I remember it in 6th grade!

The Apollo rocket

Disney/Orlando

A last trip with Patrizia to Downtown Disney

Goofin' around trying to be scary

Cutest couple... for sure!

Disney Day 1: Magic Kingdom

Cinderella castle... gets the memories flowin every time!

Thundermountain Railroad

Don't mess with these pirates

Amanda, Mariah, and Adam taking a spin on the carosel.

Disney Day 2: Hollywood Studios

Getting pumped for the Toy Story Mania ride (with Bryan and Tricia!)

Amanda beat me at Toy Story :-(

Enjoying a last moment together over ice cream before BT and Tricia split for Edgewater.

A real-life disney pricess and her magician!

The girls making one last pose in front of Mickey's hat before calling it a night.

Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Reminiscing on our time in Africa so long ago ;-)

Orange tiger! GERR!

Rafiki and the crew

Amanda and Mariah going barbarian on us.

I was SO pumped about getting wet apparently

Watch out for yettis!

Mom trying to size up the male gorilla

One last group shot at the Circle of Life baobob tree

Back in Gainesville

Amanda at the Swamp... one step closer to her becoming a diehard Gator fan :-)

St. Augustine day trip

Any explanation needed?

Mom and Amanda taking a side step off the famous St. George Street.

It's THE OLDEST...

Me and my ladies checking out the waterfront from nearby the fort

Last weekend in Gainesville with Visitors

Ricky, Chris and I chilling with the Gators at Paynes Prarie

Awesome brunch with friends and family

Getting ready for a postponed Christmas with the family by looking through old photo albums

Mariah, me, Amanda, and Billy next to the Christmas tree patiently waiting to open presents

Mom, Tricia, and Bryan opening some of their gifts.

Dad and Daniel sporting their new Gator-ish batiks

Amanda being squirely at Build-A-Bear getting ready for Valentines Day

Thursday February 17th – Tuesday February 22nd, 2011
Amanda and I arrive back into Maputo, Mozambique totally frazzled having spent the past two nights on 10+ hour long flights (Orlando-Frankfort, Frankfort-Johannesburg). So as soon as we can, without being rude, we pass out in the comfort of our friend’s, the Hazels, house in the USAID compound and don’t wait up till noon the next day.

The reason we’ve temporarily stopped in Maputo is to complete our mid-service dental exams, but we’ll be continuing our journeys back to site soon enough when we fly up Nampula in a few days to do our medical exams. Although these days are pretty chill (the only scheduled thing we HAVE to do is our one dental/medical appointments), the sudden adjustment to the time difference and culture shock is brutal… definitely more so than the dental exam!

***

BTW, I’m banking on the fact that the Vodacom cell tower in Nauela is done by now… so I go ahead and invest in a new, internet-capable, cell phone with a Vodacom SIM card in Maputo, where electronics are cheaper, rather than waiting to see if the tower really IS up and running… Keep your fingers crossed!

Thursday February 24th, 2011
Sad news… we HAVE a cell phone tower in Nauela now (it’s all new and pretty too!), it’s just not running yet :-( They still have to hook up the actual antenna parts, run all the wires, and build a solar panel grid to give it all power… so I’m guessing another month :-/

A vertical look at the completed tower

A quick peak up the tower’s center with the noon sun bearing down overhead

***

Reflections on our trip to America
I remember saying this while visiting Florida, but especially now that I’m back in Mozambique, it’s like… “Did that actually just happen?” I mean… I didn’t just imagine it, did I?

*Hard pinch on the forearm*

Nope, definitely not dreaming… unless it’s one of those crazy Inception ones – I don’t see Leo anywhere though, so I think I’m good [Yeah, that’s right! I definitely caught up on this year’s past hit movies while I was in America :-)]

Seriously though, so much has happened to me (in the past 16 months in Mozambique and in the past 4 weeks in America) and yet the people I know and my surroundings are so familiar! Some people are still the same good ol’ folks I’ve grown to know and love (and that’s great!), but with others I’m constantly like… Why haven’t you undergone some profound change by now?… Look at me… can’t you tell that I have?! ;-)

Judgmental and superficial?… Yes. True?… Well not entirely, but I’ll get to that later.

Regardless, the feeling that I’ve gone around the world and not much has changed, in America and/or Mozambique, since the time I’ve left is quite unsettling. Sure, a few buildings went up or came down in that time and sure the iPad came out and wowed everyone, but deep down I had almost assumed that the world would have turned itself inside out by now.

Strikingly it hasn’t though.

It would seem that the world has continued moving along relatively unaware and uninterested in my inner revelations. In fact, if my brief trip back to the States is any indication of things to come, many people outside my family and close circle of friends seemed rather indifferent about what I’ve experienced while in Mozambique. Sure the obligatory “What did you do there?” question is asked by everyone… but the answer is complicated and I guess people don’t often have that long of an attention span (if you are still reading this blog post now, I applaud you!). Sometimes I would even be in the middle of responding to that very question and we’d get sidetracked for a second and the conversation would move along to something else… them being completely unaware of what other sage-like wisdom they were missing out on! ;-)

Or at least that’s how my bruised ego felt for the first bit while in America. But then I started to question myself… Would I even be that interested in this story if I wasn’t living it in the first person? Is my experience really that unique or worth sharing? Have I actually changed that much? I mean, there are SO many Peace Corps/missionary/travel stories out there, many people listening to me ramble on must be like: been there, read that… let’s move on already pal!

On the other hand, my best friend Ricky’s might have summed it up well when sending me off to the Peace Corps 16 months ago: *Rough quotation* “I’m sure you’ll get a lot done while you’re there, but I don’t see you changing that much… not in a bad way, but, I mean, you’ve pretty much been the same guy ever since I’ve known you…” So who knows, there’s a possibility that everyone that sees me in America thinks “Well, it couldn’t have been THAT remarkable of an experience… he seems to be pretty much the same… if not worse off now (all pessimistic about NGOs and such)!”

That last part is probably the most noticeable way that I’ve changed (you could argue that I’ve also become a better cook, learned to garden, and other things along the way, but those things haven’t really changed ME that much)… I’ve become more… *GASP*… conservative! Practically a cuss word back in Gainesville depending on what social circles you’re running in… ;-) Someone once told me that people generally become more and more conservative as they grow older. My coming to Peace Corps might have just time-warped-forward the process. But, to clarify, I’m still not really THAT conservative. I still have quite a liberal lean to me, especially on certain social beliefs. I now just strongly believe that throwing more and more money at the world’s problems isn’t going to solve them. In fact, in some cases it might make it a lot worse.

Instead, I’m now appreciating and seeking to one day serve others through more successful small programs. One example of this that always comes to my mind is the Streetlight program at Shands hospital that I used to volunteer with. It’s a great program because in so many ways it’s everything that so many international NGOs aren’t - 1) There’s minimal overhead management and meeting times. 2) It’s all about bringing in people that can and want to relate with the target population, not just people who have lots of accolades 3) There’s a big emphasis in giving the team plenty of time “on the ground” with the target group. 4) The program is committed to serving limited amounts of individuals in specific areas in order to really try and make a difference and they aren’t looking for any and every opportunity to expand. 5) It’s not all about the numbers. - Just thinking about the positive differences between the typical NGO over here and Streetlight makes me smile and say… “Now THAT’S what we need more of!

Maybe I’ll find a medically-related national or international NGO one day that meets those expectations… maybe in relief work versus development work, who knows… I don’t! But I’ll keep you all updated!

***

Observations about Commercialism in America:
I’ve been friends with several foreigners all throughout high school and college and many have commented to me about how much of a consumer-nation we are. I didn’t get it though. Even when I went abroad at length for trips or school, I never really saw and appreciated what they were talking about… until now!

After being in rural Mozambique for over a year (largely without TV, internet, radio, and cell service), I guess I forgot how it feels to be constantly bombarded with advertisements as we are in the Western world. Then all of a sudden transported back to home, it’s absolutely mindboggling to see how much American culture is all about trying to sell you things. Stores, commercials, billboards, even people wearing signs on the street corners advertising their products/sales… and, from the looks of it, most people have been tricked into thinking they should be buying all these things too! Walking into a CVS/Walmart/Target it’s scary to see how many people seem to be wandering around lost, not looking for something they need to buy, just hoping to find something that catches their eye… like they have nothing better to do! It’s creepy! I hope that’s never me… or you!

It’s also NO FUN!

In Mozambique just finding some place that sells certain items (i.e.- peanut butter, candy, apples, cheese, etc) is something to celebrate. It’s like a treasure hunt of sorts! In America though, it’s almost TOO easy. You’re smacked in the face by not just one type of the thing you’re looking for, but several different brands and sizes. It really makes it all so boring to me! When shopping for clothes you find a store like Express where their jeans are all similar, yet slightly different… and upon seeing their outrageously high prices I’m almost determined to bargain with the cashier. “There’s NO WAY this pair of jeans cost $150 to make.” I mean, come on, let’s just settle on a price somewhere in the middle so that I can leave here wearin’ em and you can walk away with my money in your register.

I’m sure I’ll readjust… but I’m just saying…

Thursday February 24th, 2011
Perhaps against my better judgment, today I decided to give Rogerio a second shot at being my rapaz this year… Even though he failed his courses last year (he’ll have to repeat 10th grade for the second time this year) and I had told him I wanted to have a rapaz who’d be committed to studying, I figure I shouldn’t just give up on him in possibly his greatest moment of need… that, and I could definitely use someone to help around the house who I won’t have to train again. Hopefully it’ll go better the second time around…

Saturday February 26th, 2011
Partly in honor of my brother’s birthday and partly just to do some exploring of the area again, today I went on an epic bike ride halfway to the city of Gurue (I actually discovered that I had passed the district boundary long before my final destination).

I’ll write more about the people I spoke with during the journey on another post (I’m actually going to try and start updating the “Working Hard in Mozambique” page on my blog), but for now here are the photos and some captions:

Leaves of feijão manteiga (literally butter beans… but I think we call them pinto beans in the States) – the area’s famous cash crop… almost in season now!

A field of feijão manteiga – apparently the rich, mountainous terrain and mild climate makes it the ideal place for growing beans.

A small caterpillar trekking across the rural “highway”

Crossing the mountain pass gives me just what I wanted: a new view!

Two rural farmers bringing their pig into to town to sell

Tiring and opting to use a bike for the rest of the way, the farmers have to work hard to retie the upset pig

Not a happy camper… and a whole new understanding of the phrase “hog-tied”

A local farmer taking in his surroundings on the way out to his field

Fertile soil

Towering forests of eucalyptus trees: some of the few intact remains of Portuguese colonialism in the area.

A new found friend: farmer Manuel Maconde recently moved to area after buying a large farm plot formerly owned by a Portuguese named Romão (most locals still call the area Romão to this day even though he’s been gone for 30 years or so)

Originally from Inhambane province, Maconde can’t speak the local language of Lomwe and is also considered a foreigner of sorts...

My bike parked amongst the tall trees lining Maconde’s driveway

Despite having a new owner, Maconde’s house (a former Portuguese farm house) still lays in ruins… he’s too busy trying to get the farm going again to worry too much about the house now

It’ll be a lot of work and money whenever he does start rehabilitating the house. Old, broken bricks within and an invisible roof overhead

Maybe he should start with the entrance… not very inviting…

A glance back at where I’ve come from today. If you look closely, you can see Nauela’s Vodacom cell phone tower in the distance towards the right

Cassava root laid out to dry on the rocks

A rushing stream leading to a…..

Waterfall! – A recommended add-on to my trip by Maconde. The locals who ultimately led me to this spot excitedly informed me that there hadn’t been a white person in these parts since before the war with the Portuguese…

Mountains beyond mountains… so many more adventures yet to be had!

So beautiful, right?! I LOVE MY SITE! :-)

Sunday February 27th, 2011
Ever have that feeling that you’ve been cheated and you know who did it? And maybe up until that point the person was someone you knew and trusted?

Crushing.

That’s how I feel right now. Sort of how Wily-Coyote must have felt after crashing to the bottom of the Grand Canyon only to be further squished by the ubiquitous boulder falling behind him… and to make matters worse there’s always that stupid Road Runner just waiting to taunt your torn up carcass with its monotone “beep, beep.”

Whoa, Michael! Calm down.

I just got back from talking on the phone with Amanda and my dad, having left Rogerio in the house to wash dishes, and upon entering the house I discover that the screws on my door have been unscrewed then redone (I made note of their orientation before I left). Investigating, I find that my big kitchen knife is covered with red paint and finger prints all over the blade (my door and consequently the screws are painted red). Although I can’t tell if anything is missing right away (he probably wouldn’t steal anything too big as it would attract a lot of attention), it’s pretty cut and dry in my mind… and my conscious is right there telling me “I told you so!”

It’s bed time now, but I’ll have to address this first thing in the morning. God I hate this.

Monday February 28th, 2011
He denied it.

I can’t believe it! He lied straight to my face and told me that he didn’t know what I was talking about… that he didn’t open the door with the knife. What a bunch of BS! There have been several instances before where I’ve asked him similar questions and he’s denied having taken something… Has he been lying to me this whole time? How much has he stolen from me?!

I forgive him for everything and all, but he’s outta here. I just don’t want to have to be this worried about being robbed in my own house. Even though there’s a parental part of me that doesn’t want to give up on him no matter what, it’s time that I tell Rogerio his help is no longer wanted in this house.

And that’s exactly what I just did this morning.

Sunday March 6th, 2011 – Happy birthday to ME! 25 years old
This weekend fellow PCVs Amanda, Yohko, Kat, Julia, Camille, Allison and Annie all embraced Peace Corps hardship and crammed into my packed house to help bring in my quarter-of-a-century (!) birthday. 8 people, 1 bed, and 1 bathroom without running water… yet surprisingly no problems! In fact, thanks to their positive spirits and understanding, only lots of praises to report!

As usual, the party centered on two main things: food and activities. Over the course of my guests’ stay, we made/ate some seriously delicious food (banana bread, ratatouille, pancakes, guacamole and tortillas, Camille’s “better-than-sex cake, and burritos with rice, beans, guac, and salsa) and Yohko, Amanda, and I even got to go climb/explore a nearby mountain, called Tatu, located just South of Nauela.
Below are some pictures of the festivities: