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
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