Chokwe! My new home!!

So I finally found out where I will be living for the next two years! Chokwe, Moz!!   It is the district capital of Gaza Province so it is a mid sized city.  I got everything and more that I asked for.  I am going to be replacing a volunteer so I will be staying with her in her house for the first three months and then living in the same house for the next 2 years.  She has the internet, a bathroom inside with a shower and a toilet, there is running water, a sink in the kitchen, a gated yard that is big enough for a dog and a garden, a refrigerator, a gas stove and a pantry!!!  I feel so extremely lucky to have all of these amenities in Africa.  I really wanted a bathroom inside my house but I never imagined it would flush too lol    A lot of times even when a building has toilets they do not flush because there is no running water so you have to pour flush lol  so every bathroom has a big barrel of water and a bucket that you pour down the toilet to flush... the pour flush lol   But not me :)  And the current volunteer already set up the internet inside her house so I will just have to pay the bill... I think it is the equivalent of dial up.  I know so much about my house because two of my group members visited my house for their site visit and they said that the internet is fast enough to skype!  I am so excited and happy about my house it is unbelievable!!


For my job I will be working with two organizations, the first is ICAP which is an international non government org that works in the local hospitals throughout Moz.  I will be working with the peer educators who work for ICAP in the HIV/AIDS testing and counseling center helping train and provide support.  I will also be working with a preschool that is run by a South African woman who speaks english!  All of the job descriptions that were provided by peace corps and the orgs are very general so it is hard to say what my day to day responsibilities will really be until I get there.


I could not be happier with my site!  I also have two education volunteers and many other volunteers near by.  One of my group members is right across the bride from me in the next town and she has 2 edu site mates as well.  I live near a river which has crocodiles and hippos in it and I am so excited to get some pics!  I already received a text from a guy in a previous group, welcoming me to the area, who lives in a town near by.  I am in the south, closest to Maputo out of the whole group, so I can become part of the leadership of REDES like I wanted!   I am so very happy... I will add more info about my new site and home soon!


Elysea

Homestay

I am constantly trying to balance my home stay situation and Peace Corps group dynamic! I want to become integrated and create a tight knit relationship with my home stay family but I also want some time to relax and bond with my Peace Corps peers. I have a really hard time feeling guilty about not spending enough time at home with my family. Its not that I don’t like them because they are great! I guess its just kind of awkward when I go home and really don’t have much to do. My sister is at school, my brothers out playing somewhere, my dads at work and my mom is cooking. I could go and awkwardly stand and watch my mom cook or ask if I can help. But I feel like when I ask to help she stands there and has nothing to do herself because there is a limited amount of cooking utensils.

Tonight I asked if I could help cook and my mom looked at my dad, as if she was looking for approval? Or some kind of look, I couldn’t figure it out, or maybe it was nothing? So I was kind of waiting for her to give me a job because I don’t know how they want their food cooked and im a guest in her kitchen. And then my dad said “Elysea go cook” so I got up and they had me toss the chicken pieces with a lemon, salt, garlic marinade. Then he had me put the pieces on a pan and into the oven. My mom had me start making a tomato, cucumber and onion salad. After a while my dad asked me if the chicken was burning! I had no idea it was my job to watch the chicken lol but it was fine so far. I asked him a few times after that if it was ready and he said no. So I let it cook for a while longer, assuming he was going to tell me when he thought it was ready. You know what you get for ass-uming cause they kinda burned and it was definitely implied that it was my fault lol a few times I heard them say throughout the dinner preparation that Elysea is cooking dinner tonight. So I guess if I offer to help cook dinner then im in charge of the whole thing. Its just really weird to be a guest in someone’s house for 10 weeks and be treated as if you have no ability to take care of yourself. I think because I don’t know how to do things the Mozambican way, I am thought of as a child who knows nothing. My family isn’t bad but its obvious that the community collectively believes that PCVs are helpless. And to be honest, some of them are and im not quite sure how they were surviving in the states lol but I guess college students can survive off of pb&j and top romin lol I really like my family but I will be happy when I can stop being a guest, feeling like a child and have my own space!

lavaring ropa

7-17-11

So here in Namacha the weekends are for lavaring ropa (washing clothes) and I didn’t do any last weekend so I had a lot to do today!   This is the real deal people, washing your clothes in cold, semi dirty water, in a bacia (small plastic tub) with dry detergent.   You use three bacias, the first has soap and the last two are for rinsing.   The whites go first, in case the color bleed, and all the clothes are turned inside out so if the wind blows them off the line when they are drying only the outside will get dirty.     You wash the clothes with the outside of your fists, on your knuckles, and because I did a load yesterday and today my fingers were bleeding a little bit lol.   After the washing process you ring out each item and hang it on the line.  If the clothes are not dry by night time, I put them in my bacia and hang them back up in the morning.  I use the same bacia for bathing and washing clothes. 

Yesterday we didn’t have enough water so me and my little sister, who is my keeper when my mom isn’t home, went down the hill to the water hole and waited our turn to fill up our water pails.   While we were waiting a woman took my bucket from me and filled it up for me.  I had never met her before and Im not sure why she did that, probably because Im obviously a foreigner and she was being polite and partially because she thought I didn’t know how to fill up the bucket myself.    After both of our buckets were filled my sister used a rag, which we clean the floors with, as padding to carry her bucket on her head back up the hill.  The girl who helped me asked if I was going to carry the 5 gallon bucket on my head too!  I laughed, said no and carried it back up the hill, switching hands every now and then.     I really feel like I got my workout for the day after lavaring ropa lol

Elysea

Site Placement

7-15-11

I had my second interview with the director of health for my site placement today.   They had us fill out a form about what experience, education or background we wanted to be considered as well as whether we want a site mate, a roommate (only one of us will get a roommate), joint placement with 2 or more organizations, urban vs rural site, overlap with another volunteer (first 3 months), if we prefer a community, faith or nongovernment based organization, if we are interested in working with people living with HIV (PLWH), holding small classes (aka palestras) on HIV / malaria / nutrition or other health related issues, and if there was one wish they could grant us about our site… what would it be.    I emphasized my background and education in youth and child development as well as my desire to be involved in urban development rather than rural.   I also mentioned that I want to be active in the REDES group, a girls group focused on women empowerment, and that I heard if you are placed in the south of Moz then it is more likely that you could hold a leadership position within REDES, which is really important to me.  Some of the possible positions are program coordinator, financial director, regional and national director.  Any of these positions would be amazing to put on my resume but I am really striving for national director of REDES!

 I went on a site visit to Inharrime, which is in the southern region, and visited Ann Davis.  She has two edu site mates, Scooter and Erin.  I believe Ann is the program coordinator and Scooter is the financial director or REDES.  I asked a lot of questions about how one goes about becoming a part of leadership for REDES and they said a lot of it is situational.  People in leadership need to be accessible to Maputo for meetings and conferences so sometimes there could be a more qualified person in the North but it is just too inconvenient for them to be in a leadership position because of location.   Entao (and so) I asked to be placed in the south to ensure that I can be more involved in REDES.  I also talked about my experience with gardening and my interest in having a garden, or two, at my site.  For my one wish for site I asked to be placed in an urban area where there are opportunities for development.  So even if the organization that peace corps places me with doesn’t have a lot of work for me to do, I can go out and find other organizations at my site that I could work with as well.   I just think I wouldn’t be happy at a site where there is only one organization for me to work with because if they don’t have a lot of work I will feel unproductive.  I understand that Moz has a completely different definition of productive than the average American but I just want there to be various options for development and growth.   I kinda wish I had emphasized that I wanted a site mate but I think that if I am in an urban area I will most likely have a site mate or someone not too far away.   I felt like it was more important for me to ask for more work than a site mate if it came down to either or.  

We find out on wed where we will be placed for the next two years and I think we are all nervous and anxious to find out!  But I think it will all work out and I am trying to focus and attain the mindset that no matter where I am placed I will have to go out there and find work for myself.  Peace corps is not handing us development work, this program is really set up for a self starter who will have to go out into a community and find work for themselves.  It is now clear to me that the peace corps experience is more focused on cultural exchange than development but I can adjust and still appreciate the opportunity.   And in the real world nobodies gana give you anything, you have to get it for yourself!  So im more or less thinking about it as if I moved to Moz for two years…  see what I can do to help and the peace corps just happens to be paying for my expenses lol  in hopes to avoid frustrations of lack of  structure.   I know overall this will be a great experience for personal and professional growth!  

Daily life in Moz

6-30-11

So training is only 10 weeks which isn’t really that long and for some reason I had it in my mind that training was 3 months.   So I am half way done with training at the end of this week!    My typical day in training starts at 630am, I cook myself breakfast.. usually an egg and cheese sandwich on pao (bread pronounced pow) and then language class at 730am.  Language class ends at 930 and then I go to health technical session at 10am till 12 when I go home for lunch.  My mom always has lunch waiting for me and then I work on some homework before I go back for more tech sessions at 130pm.  We end sessions around 430 and then I have language tutoring till 5pm.   Sometimes I go out with the group to have a beer, maybe go use the internet, do group yoga or go home and do homework.  Dinner is around 630 and my family usually eats together but that really varies family to family here in Namacha.  Some people eat alone, some peoples families eat at all different times and some people eat later around 8 or 9pm.   On the weekends sometimes we will have schedules group activities or plan a group trip to the city or to certain attractions in Namacha like the 3 point boarder of South Africa, Moz and Swaziland, the local waterfall or shoprite which is like a local flea market.   Sundays is usually everyones cleaning day when we do laundry, clean our rooms and water filters.     Its nice to have a routine but we are usually pretty busy which can get wearing after a while.  This week we have a community map due and we start a practicum with a community organization.  We interview a local organization, kind of a test run of what we will be doing at site, and come up with a training session on improvements for the organization.   I think this will be extremely useful in working out the kinks with our strategies!   Overall Im looking forward to going to site but its definitely hard to think of the next two years so im just taking it day by day J   

 Elysea

My first month in Moz

6-29-11

Eu gusto Mozambique!  I like Moz!   I am definitely enjoying my stay and training in Peace Corps thus far.  The family that I am staying with is perfect for me.  I thought before coming that I wanted a family that talked a lot but now I realize that along with a lot of talking would come with a lot of demands lol.  The typical Mozambican mother who talks a lot also has a lot of opinions on how to do things, and when you are living with a family and have a 7pm curfew, an opinionated mother can be stressful.   We were warned as volunteers that we might be told by our mothers to change our clothes because they were too dirty or not ironed, that we would have to bathe twice a day, sweep and mop our room every morning and help with domestic chores before 7am class… fortunately my mother demands none of these things! If you know me than you know that these demands would be hard for me to comply with lol.  My mai (mom in Portuguese, pronounced my) is young and very laid back, so to speak.   I have gotten it down to one bucket bath a day, I sweep and mop my room 1x a week, she allows me to choose to iron my clothes (which I don’t of course lol) and she doesn’t ask me to do hardly anything around the house.   If I ask if I can help cook or clean she kinda laughs at me, I think because there isn’t that much to do and if I help she just watches me cause then she doesn’t have anything to do.

  They do not use cutting boards here and I know my mother in the states would die if she saw me peeling a potato or cutting a tomato, while holding it my hand, with a huge knife… but don’t worry its pretty dull.   They only have one knife per family and just enough dishes to cook and eat one meal at a time.   They do not have cupboards so the dishes sit out in the kitchen.   My family actually has electricity, outlets, tv, a fridge and a stove.  The fridge stays unplugged most the day I think and we don’t use the inside of the stove… not sure why?    

My family is very modern, we watch tv during dinner and my pai (father pronounced pie) has more American music and movies than I do lol.  My parents are both young and my pai is a math teacher and volleyball coach.   I have a little brother and sister, Kito (keetoo) and Leticia, who are so freakin cute!   It is a Moz tradition that the male of the household always eats the head of the fish (like the big piece of chicken) but in my family mai gets to eat the head of the fish too.. very progressive lol.  Its interesting though that my younger sister is still kind of treated like a maid who gets things for her dad and it seems that she is always being called to do something.  She does go to school though which is still not common throughout all of Moz.  Some women don’t get to go to school cause it is thought that they should stay home and learn how to do domestic work. 

 There are still a lot of differences here in Moz like…. Men can have multiple wives and the more wives you have the higher social status you have because you can pay for all of them, domestic violence is a part of life or discipline for wives who do something wrong, infidelity is accepted and even expected to the point where wives could put condoms in their husbands pockets hoping they will use it instead of not using one at all… on a lighter note lol pepper is not common, salt only comes in rock salt form, peanut butter and cheese are a luxury,  no mustard to be found, there are banana, mango and papaya trees everywhere, they’re avocados are HUGE!! And more lol

Luckily I have a great family and I have yet to experience the more difficult differences but it will come and I know im going to struggle with my role as a volunteer and overcoming gender bias’ and inequalities.   Im learning the language slowly but surely and I have my test in about 2 weeks that I have to pass to be able to go to site… but im sure ill be fine J  I also get to go on a site visit to another current volunteers site to see what its all about and I find out where I will be placed in week 7!   Im still pretty nervous for site but homestay was much easier than I expected so im sure site will be too.  Nite all!

Elysea