We have arrived in Xai-Xai!
We were dropped off on Saturday after a long ride from Namaacha. After a handshake from the PC director responsible for delivering us to site we were on our own. The campus we will be working at is very nice and our house is great. We are living in a 1 story apartment block with other professors. Our apartment is very nice, we have running water and lots of potential. Emily and I are looking forward to decorating it and making it feel like home. We are especially excited because we have a second room that we can turn into a guest bedroom. Right now the net effect of Emily and my efforts on the spare bedroom has been a negative as all we have accomplished so far is to get a bed frame jammed into the door so that it is stuck and will not enter or exit the doorway without us removing the door! Once we get the bedframe into the room and the door put back onto the frame we will be in business though. So pack your bags and purchase your tickets! We have room for guests. As if visiting Emily and Jesse in Mozambique is not a big enough draw, there is a beautiful beach that is a 20 minute drive from where we are living.
Emily and I plan on exploring the beach this coming weekend and many other weekends to come. The volunteers we are replacing happened to be around on Saturday when we were dropped off. Justin and Mike have just finished up their two years of service at the teacher training institute. You can tell that they impacted this community in a great way just by meeting their friends and colleagues that we were introduced to on Saturday evening. We hope to continue the good work that Mike and Justin have done for the past two years. We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to Justin and Mike about what to expect and develop a better idea about our job and what is required of us. Mike and Justin went out of their way to welcome us to our new home and make us feel at ease and comfortable. We are appreciative and must remember to reciprocate the hospitality in two years with the volunteers that replace us. That is a long way off though and right now we have our work cut out for us. Some how we have to furnish our house and improve drastically in Portuguese in less than one month. Our responsibilities at school start shortly after the new year and it appears that we are going to be extremely busy! It is tough to imagine the hard work ahead because our days so far in Xai Xai have been pretty relaxed. We will be ready and excited to start work in January though. So far our days have been spent exploring town and buying major things for the house. Two major purchases have been an electric stove and a standing fan. One thing about PC salary - we can't live as we may have been accustomed in the US, but it is very livable. We are able to purchase everything we need and if we budget well enough we may be able to afford some paint for the walls. The adventure in purchasing household items here in Xai-Xai is getting them home in the crowded mini-buses which are the public transport here. I wish we had a picture of Emily and I smashed into a seat with two standing fans between our legs and surrounded by people. Words canºt really describe it except that it is pretty funny. Emily and I like to cook and we have been cooking at our house every night with another volunteer named Lindsay who is working for a nearby organization and living very close to us. Lindsay also goes on the adventures into town with us. The next big project for Emily and I is getting a queen size mattress home with us. Wish us luck.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Namaacha
Things I have enjoyed so far in Mozambique:
- Playing soccer with other volunteers and Namaacha children. Every Sunday we meet at 10:00 at the local soccer field and play some soccer. It started out as just a couple of Peace Corp volunteers and their host brothers and sisters but now we have enough to play full field games. It is so much fun to do something I enjoy and while doing so make a connection with so many others. I am looking forward to continuing the tradition at our site.
- Cooking with our host moms. Every once in a while our host father will request that we cook dinner. Emily and I give our host father a list of ingredients and the next day we try to prepare something on the charcoal stove. It is possible to make anything on the stove; it just takes a lot longer. Since we are working with only two burners there is high pressure to figure out a way to get everything done at the same time. And one time a baby peed on my foot while I was frying chicken. Anything can happening in this kitchen, including having to chase chickens and other livestock out of the kitchen. So far we have made chicken soup, fried chicken with mashed potatoes, fajitas with beef and re fried beans. We have also baked cookies at the local bakery and contributed deviled eggs and peanut butter cookies to our Peace Corps thanksgiving potluck. Everything has come out well so far. The fajitas were a bit of a stretch without all of the proper spices, but I was very happy with the refried beans. I assume our host family has enjoyed the meals because they keep asking us to cook more. (Photo below of Emily, Host mother Lydia, and Fina in the kitchen, proudly holding the deviled eggs)
- My site visit to Nampula. I was lucky enough to be one of the PC trainees to travel up North for site visits. All of the trainees were assigned a site to visit where current volunteers give us an idea of what life at site will be like. Emily stayed down south, but I took a plane to Nampula region which is way up north. I stayed with two volunteers in a small town called Murrapula. It was a good opportunity for me to see a different part of Mozambique. Heath and Enrique, the volunteers I visited do not have electricity in their house, but their house is very livable. They have put a lot of work into fixing up their house and are proof that whatever you end up with, you can make the most of it. The school I visited that Heath and Enrique work at was brand new and fairly large. It was a good experience for me to see an example of what I will be dealing with in terms of resources, classroom size and administration. Class sizes were forty +. I was there during national exams so I was able to help give exams and grade them. One of the challenges I will have to deal with in the classroom is the amount of cheating that occurs. After 2 days in Murrapula we took a long bus ride to the coast where we spent an amazing two nights on an island called Ilha de Mozambique. Ilha is beautiful (google it! - ilha de mozambique). It is a former capital of Mozambique when it was under Portuguese rule. The colonial buildings and architecture is amazing. The views on the beach are beautiful. It was a very surreal two days because everything was so perfect, including the weather. (Photo of Jesse on Ilha de Mozambique below)
-Teaching model school. For two weeks our group had practice teaching in what PC calls "model school". Model school is basically the rounding up of students who are on their spring break and herding them into school. I was impressed with the amount of children that were eager to take part. My lessons went well. My first lesson was a fun one about animal vocab. I had drawn and colored pictures the night before in preparation. While they are very simple and funny looking, I'm still proud of them, at least the students could tell what animals they were! The students were very responsive to my lesson and it made me excited to be teaching. My second lesson I was sure I bombed because the students were not as enthusiastic and I felt my lesson was not going over well and the students were not getting the meaning of what I was teaching. After the class however during our peer review session, my fellow trainees convinced me that my lesson was actually a good one and they thought it had gone well. This made me feel a lot better and more confident. Model school so far has made me excited for teaching. It is fun coming up with ideas for lesson plans, Emily and I brainstorm a lot. It is also fun to think up creative ways to develop resources. For example: in the states I would probably just cut out pictures in magazines or find some other type of media for examples. Here I am drawing everything. My former art teachers should be proud - or embarrassed depending on what level art they had me as a student. Emily makes posters on rice sacks instead of chart paper. Overall, model school has made teaching a little less daunting. It will still probably be one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but now I know that I am up to it.
- Sharing stories with other trainees. Some days after class our group will get together, have a beer or soda and share some stories. It is really neat to listen to all of the different accounts of of things that have happened and different impressions people have. We are sharing an experience but inside this experience there are lots of differences. It is such a great feeling to be able to talk so openly about our time here and have people understand exactly what you mean or are going through. It is a great feeling of support and community. I imagine that when we are all at our sites, gatherings of volunteers (once or twice a year) will be a very much looked forward to event.
- Walking everywhere. Most days to get to language class, model school or other events, Emily and I have to walk up to the main road and then to wherever we are meeting. Usually it is approximately a half hour walk. Obviously we walk everywhere (no driving for 2 years!) so we are getting a lot of walking in everyday. Some days, since we go home for lunch and then have another session at the school in the afternoon we will make 2 round trips - a solid 2 hours of walking. Luckily, Namaacha is very pretty and fun to walk through and plus now we have almost a regular route with folks we greet every day! I am enjoying our walks more and more as the people we pass become familiar.
Random things:
- It is fun to watch kittens scamper around and get into battles with the chickens and ducks in our yard. Also fun to watch is the crazy baby goat who runs around and bumps into things at full speed - who needs TV?
- The baby twins get so dirty during the day while they are outside. It is comical. It is almost as if when they touch you you are instantly hit with a couple pounds of dirt. After their baths they are a lot of fun to hold and play with.
-There is a fellow Ole' PC volunteer in Mozambique! Jill Johnson who graduated the same year as Emily and I has been in Mozambique for 1 year. At Olaf she was a political science major. It was neat coming up with mutual acquaintances with her.
Also on my trip up North I met Carolyn Kouri who graduated from Carleton College which is the college that shares the town of Northfield with Olaf. Lauren Fox, a trainee in the same group as Emily and I is from Oley Valley PA, very close to where I grew up. Lauren knows several of my friends from high school. Her site mate will be Rachel Silverstein, who is also from Berks County and went to Exeter High school. Rachel knows a few of the people I played soccer with in high school. It is a small world.
- The weather. Some days it is hot, some days it is cool in Namaacha. It is really hit or miss planning on what to wear. I usually guess wrong and am either over dressed or cold.
- Every bump or pimple that Emily and I develop we carefully scrutinize because of all of the readings we have done recently about burrowing parasites that we can get. While it may not be healthy to continually speculate about what disease/parasite we may have, it does help to pass the time.
- Emily and I brought the goats home from pasture one day.
- A baby duck pooped on my shoe. I think it was malicious because the duck had to go out of its way to get to my shoes.
(Photo below: Jesse and Emily and a chicken on the straw mat that they made. It took hours to make.)
- Playing soccer with other volunteers and Namaacha children. Every Sunday we meet at 10:00 at the local soccer field and play some soccer. It started out as just a couple of Peace Corp volunteers and their host brothers and sisters but now we have enough to play full field games. It is so much fun to do something I enjoy and while doing so make a connection with so many others. I am looking forward to continuing the tradition at our site.
- Cooking with our host moms. Every once in a while our host father will request that we cook dinner. Emily and I give our host father a list of ingredients and the next day we try to prepare something on the charcoal stove. It is possible to make anything on the stove; it just takes a lot longer. Since we are working with only two burners there is high pressure to figure out a way to get everything done at the same time. And one time a baby peed on my foot while I was frying chicken. Anything can happening in this kitchen, including having to chase chickens and other livestock out of the kitchen. So far we have made chicken soup, fried chicken with mashed potatoes, fajitas with beef and re fried beans. We have also baked cookies at the local bakery and contributed deviled eggs and peanut butter cookies to our Peace Corps thanksgiving potluck. Everything has come out well so far. The fajitas were a bit of a stretch without all of the proper spices, but I was very happy with the refried beans. I assume our host family has enjoyed the meals because they keep asking us to cook more. (Photo below of Emily, Host mother Lydia, and Fina in the kitchen, proudly holding the deviled eggs)
- My site visit to Nampula. I was lucky enough to be one of the PC trainees to travel up North for site visits. All of the trainees were assigned a site to visit where current volunteers give us an idea of what life at site will be like. Emily stayed down south, but I took a plane to Nampula region which is way up north. I stayed with two volunteers in a small town called Murrapula. It was a good opportunity for me to see a different part of Mozambique. Heath and Enrique, the volunteers I visited do not have electricity in their house, but their house is very livable. They have put a lot of work into fixing up their house and are proof that whatever you end up with, you can make the most of it. The school I visited that Heath and Enrique work at was brand new and fairly large. It was a good experience for me to see an example of what I will be dealing with in terms of resources, classroom size and administration. Class sizes were forty +. I was there during national exams so I was able to help give exams and grade them. One of the challenges I will have to deal with in the classroom is the amount of cheating that occurs. After 2 days in Murrapula we took a long bus ride to the coast where we spent an amazing two nights on an island called Ilha de Mozambique. Ilha is beautiful (google it! - ilha de mozambique). It is a former capital of Mozambique when it was under Portuguese rule. The colonial buildings and architecture is amazing. The views on the beach are beautiful. It was a very surreal two days because everything was so perfect, including the weather. (Photo of Jesse on Ilha de Mozambique below)
-Teaching model school. For two weeks our group had practice teaching in what PC calls "model school". Model school is basically the rounding up of students who are on their spring break and herding them into school. I was impressed with the amount of children that were eager to take part. My lessons went well. My first lesson was a fun one about animal vocab. I had drawn and colored pictures the night before in preparation. While they are very simple and funny looking, I'm still proud of them, at least the students could tell what animals they were! The students were very responsive to my lesson and it made me excited to be teaching. My second lesson I was sure I bombed because the students were not as enthusiastic and I felt my lesson was not going over well and the students were not getting the meaning of what I was teaching. After the class however during our peer review session, my fellow trainees convinced me that my lesson was actually a good one and they thought it had gone well. This made me feel a lot better and more confident. Model school so far has made me excited for teaching. It is fun coming up with ideas for lesson plans, Emily and I brainstorm a lot. It is also fun to think up creative ways to develop resources. For example: in the states I would probably just cut out pictures in magazines or find some other type of media for examples. Here I am drawing everything. My former art teachers should be proud - or embarrassed depending on what level art they had me as a student. Emily makes posters on rice sacks instead of chart paper. Overall, model school has made teaching a little less daunting. It will still probably be one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but now I know that I am up to it.- Sharing stories with other trainees. Some days after class our group will get together, have a beer or soda and share some stories. It is really neat to listen to all of the different accounts of of things that have happened and different impressions people have. We are sharing an experience but inside this experience there are lots of differences. It is such a great feeling to be able to talk so openly about our time here and have people understand exactly what you mean or are going through. It is a great feeling of support and community. I imagine that when we are all at our sites, gatherings of volunteers (once or twice a year) will be a very much looked forward to event.
- Walking everywhere. Most days to get to language class, model school or other events, Emily and I have to walk up to the main road and then to wherever we are meeting. Usually it is approximately a half hour walk. Obviously we walk everywhere (no driving for 2 years!) so we are getting a lot of walking in everyday. Some days, since we go home for lunch and then have another session at the school in the afternoon we will make 2 round trips - a solid 2 hours of walking. Luckily, Namaacha is very pretty and fun to walk through and plus now we have almost a regular route with folks we greet every day! I am enjoying our walks more and more as the people we pass become familiar.
Random things:
- It is fun to watch kittens scamper around and get into battles with the chickens and ducks in our yard. Also fun to watch is the crazy baby goat who runs around and bumps into things at full speed - who needs TV?
- The baby twins get so dirty during the day while they are outside. It is comical. It is almost as if when they touch you you are instantly hit with a couple pounds of dirt. After their baths they are a lot of fun to hold and play with.
-There is a fellow Ole' PC volunteer in Mozambique! Jill Johnson who graduated the same year as Emily and I has been in Mozambique for 1 year. At Olaf she was a political science major. It was neat coming up with mutual acquaintances with her.
Also on my trip up North I met Carolyn Kouri who graduated from Carleton College which is the college that shares the town of Northfield with Olaf. Lauren Fox, a trainee in the same group as Emily and I is from Oley Valley PA, very close to where I grew up. Lauren knows several of my friends from high school. Her site mate will be Rachel Silverstein, who is also from Berks County and went to Exeter High school. Rachel knows a few of the people I played soccer with in high school. It is a small world.
- The weather. Some days it is hot, some days it is cool in Namaacha. It is really hit or miss planning on what to wear. I usually guess wrong and am either over dressed or cold.
- Every bump or pimple that Emily and I develop we carefully scrutinize because of all of the readings we have done recently about burrowing parasites that we can get. While it may not be healthy to continually speculate about what disease/parasite we may have, it does help to pass the time.
- Emily and I brought the goats home from pasture one day.
- A baby duck pooped on my shoe. I think it was malicious because the duck had to go out of its way to get to my shoes.
(Photo below: Jesse and Emily and a chicken on the straw mat that they made. It took hours to make.)
Swearing in
"Moz"-hawks with the Peace Corps Mozambique country director and the former director of Peace Corps worldwide at our swearing-in ceremony.Jesse and I are now officially Peace Corps volunteers! We had our "swearing-in" ceremony this morning at the US ambassador´s house. We're excited to move tomorrow to the site where we'll be living for the next two years.
Jesse and I will both be serving as professors of English at the teacher training college in the city of Xai-Xai. Xai-Xai is on the coast a few hours north of Maputo, the capital city. We'll be spending December fixing up our house and getting to know the community. We'll be living on campus along with the other professors and students. Work should begin in January.
Today is bittersweet because along with the excitement of beginning our term of service, we have to say goodbye to Namaacha and our host family. They have taken great care of us. Some memories:
* Our host family set out a snack for us to carry to class each morning, usually cookies and a juice box.
* When we stopped back at noon, lunch was always sitting on the table.
Jesse and I will both be serving as professors of English at the teacher training college in the city of Xai-Xai. Xai-Xai is on the coast a few hours north of Maputo, the capital city. We'll be spending December fixing up our house and getting to know the community. We'll be living on campus along with the other professors and students. Work should begin in January.
Today is bittersweet because along with the excitement of beginning our term of service, we have to say goodbye to Namaacha and our host family. They have taken great care of us. Some memories:
* Our host family set out a snack for us to carry to class each morning, usually cookies and a juice box.
* When we stopped back at noon, lunch was always sitting on the table.
* Great dinners. One favorite is a sauce of mixed greens and coconut and peanut water over xima (pronounced "she-mah"), which is corn flour and water mixed to a consistency like thick mashed potatoes. It's comfort food ... I think it's the Mozambican equivalent of American macaroni and cheese. 
* Namaacha is beautiful. We really loved hiking through the "bush." We could always look back and see the town so we could explore without worrying about getting lost.
* It was very fun to have babies and kids always around. They were always ready to play. In the photo above, Fina and Vina are pushing a toy car that Gito made out of wire and soda cans.
* The patience and encouragement of our host family was amazing. They helped so much as Jesse and I are learning Portuguese. It'll be fun to get to talk to them more when Jesse and I master more Portuguese - and hopefully eventually Changana, the local language, as well.
* Music and dancing. Dino and Mito turn up the volume of music in the house really high so that everyone in the yard dances as they work.
We hope to return to visit.
Thank you for your comments, thoughts, and support. We appreciate it! Hope that everything is going well for you too. Come visit us!
* The patience and encouragement of our host family was amazing. They helped so much as Jesse and I are learning Portuguese. It'll be fun to get to talk to them more when Jesse and I master more Portuguese - and hopefully eventually Changana, the local language, as well.
* Music and dancing. Dino and Mito turn up the volume of music in the house really high so that everyone in the yard dances as they work.
We hope to return to visit.
Thank you for your comments, thoughts, and support. We appreciate it! Hope that everything is going well for you too. Come visit us!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Naamacha
Thank you so much everyone for your interest and support, emails and comments! It´s awesome to feel so connected! Thanks!
Jesse and I are still happy and learning a lot.
Namaacha is a relatively large town and we´ve explored its corners now. Jesse had sprained his ankle with a basketball foul but now it´s good enough to walk on again. Last weekend we went on a beautiful hike. Here´s a photo of our first hike in Africa!
Jesse and I eat dinner and chat with our host father each evening. After dinner we like to watch TV with the family – the news in Portuguese, a Brazilian game show, or rap music videos. My host mother has taught me to crochet. It´s pretty surreal to be crocheting in Africa to SnoopDog.
We´ve been learning Portuguese as fast as we can ... which doesn´t seem that fast in the moment. The first five weeks of training are focused on Portuguese. After next week, we´ll start more technical training about how to teach. Week 7 we´ll visit a site of a current volunteer, and then we´ll practice teaching during a couple weeks of model school. Peace Corps bribes kids in the community with cookies to attend our classes during their school break so that we can practice teaching to classes of 60 or more high school students.
Our brother, Mito, had a baby last week. Our host father asked me and Jesse to make a long list of possible names. Barack Obama is up there. More ideas? Here´s a photo of the baby that I took when I visited his mom at the hospital - one day old!
Rainy season is starting, so the yard is sticky mud now. Who knew that we would get chilly in Africa! Our little sisters, Fina and Vina, love playing in the yard.
Our host mother and Deanora fixed up Jesse´s dreadlocks. The finishing touch was pouring a bottle of CocaCola over his head!
One fun cross-cultural family activity is exchanging recipes. Here´s a photo of Jesse´s language group trying to make grilled cheese and onion rings for their mothers. My group shared recipies for breakfast burritos, applesauce, brushetta, and banana pancakes. What a treat! We´re enjoying Mozambican food as well. Usually for dinner we have a dish of cooked greens served over rice or xima (corn flour with water).
Hope all of you are doing well! Thanks again for reading!Saturday, October 6, 2007
Our first week
Our Peace Corps experience is starting out well! We met the other 67 Mozambique Peace Corps volunteers on Sunday the 23rd ãt an orientation in Philadelphia and were impressed with the talent and enthusiasm of everyone we met. The 17+ hour flight went smoothly and we stayed the night in a fancy hotel in Johannesburg. Then we had 4 days of pre-service training in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. Maputo had perfect weather while we were there and we enjoyed gathering poolside for meetings at the hotel there.
Last Sunday we took a bus to the city of Namaacha, which is on the border with Swaziland. We´re living in Namaacha for our 10 weeks of pre-service training. Our host father, Jorge, met the bus and took us to our first home away from home.
Namaacha is gorgeous. The beauty of the colorful sunset over the hills will stick in my memory. We´ve been enjoying spending so much time outside. Jesse and I hike to our Portuguese language classes early each morning. Each professor has 5 students - the groups meet outside in the yards of host families. We are immersed in Portuguese and are trying to learn as much as we can. The professors integrate lessons with "walk around" trips - to the market to practice the new phrases, to the ceremony celebrating the end of the civil war, etc.
Outside of class, we learn from and love spending time with our host family. Our dad, Jorge, makes time and effort to talk with us. We have 2 moms, Lydia and Elisa, who teach us everything we need to know around the house. The host families can´t assume that we know even the most basic things about living in a village. We´ve learned to cook on a charcoal stove, wash clothes on a rock, swaddle a baby on my back, make flour by pounding and sifting, and bathe by splashing water from a basin with our cupped hands. I´m even starting to learn how to carry water on my head, cut open a coconut with a rock, and dance with the energy and awesomeness of Mozambique. (In addition, I´ve had to prove that I already know how to sweep, slice bread, etc.)
We have 2-year old twin sisters, Fina and Vina, who love being bounced and tilted upside down. Our 9-year old sister, Fina, works hard on chores all day. 10-year old Jorge likes to quiz us on the Portuguese names of things in our room. We also have 18 and 21 year old brothers, Mito and Dino, who attend the secondary school where we´ll be presenting lessons during the last couple weeks of our pre-service training.
The family´s land has 4 small buildings - a free-standing kitchen, a building with the dining/family room and 2 bedrooms, a separate bathroom, and a 1-room building where Jesse and I sleep. Roosters, chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings roam the yard and wake us up each morning.
Jesse and I are doing well. We´ve learned so much already and are looking forward to learning so much more! We´ve experienced so much, it´s hard to believe that we´ve been in Namaacha for less than a week!
Last Sunday we took a bus to the city of Namaacha, which is on the border with Swaziland. We´re living in Namaacha for our 10 weeks of pre-service training. Our host father, Jorge, met the bus and took us to our first home away from home.
Namaacha is gorgeous. The beauty of the colorful sunset over the hills will stick in my memory. We´ve been enjoying spending so much time outside. Jesse and I hike to our Portuguese language classes early each morning. Each professor has 5 students - the groups meet outside in the yards of host families. We are immersed in Portuguese and are trying to learn as much as we can. The professors integrate lessons with "walk around" trips - to the market to practice the new phrases, to the ceremony celebrating the end of the civil war, etc.
Outside of class, we learn from and love spending time with our host family. Our dad, Jorge, makes time and effort to talk with us. We have 2 moms, Lydia and Elisa, who teach us everything we need to know around the house. The host families can´t assume that we know even the most basic things about living in a village. We´ve learned to cook on a charcoal stove, wash clothes on a rock, swaddle a baby on my back, make flour by pounding and sifting, and bathe by splashing water from a basin with our cupped hands. I´m even starting to learn how to carry water on my head, cut open a coconut with a rock, and dance with the energy and awesomeness of Mozambique. (In addition, I´ve had to prove that I already know how to sweep, slice bread, etc.)
We have 2-year old twin sisters, Fina and Vina, who love being bounced and tilted upside down. Our 9-year old sister, Fina, works hard on chores all day. 10-year old Jorge likes to quiz us on the Portuguese names of things in our room. We also have 18 and 21 year old brothers, Mito and Dino, who attend the secondary school where we´ll be presenting lessons during the last couple weeks of our pre-service training.
The family´s land has 4 small buildings - a free-standing kitchen, a building with the dining/family room and 2 bedrooms, a separate bathroom, and a 1-room building where Jesse and I sleep. Roosters, chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings roam the yard and wake us up each morning.
Jesse and I are doing well. We´ve learned so much already and are looking forward to learning so much more! We´ve experienced so much, it´s hard to believe that we´ve been in Namaacha for less than a week!
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