A lot has happened in the last few weeks! We had our homestay celebration with our families in Namaacha and it went really well. It is basically a ceremony for our families, thanking them for hosting the volunteers for the past 10 weeks in their homes. Each volunteer walked up with the chefe (head) of their house while they received a certificate. There was lots of food, drinks, cake and dancing! The women came early to cook the food around 6am! They cooked all day and only came out to hear our song but a lot of them missed most of the ceremony because they were cooking. We had tons of meat, rice, xima (a denser form of cream of wheat or grits that is every Mozambicans favorite food) salads and a special treat of feta cheese reserved for only the volunteers. And by Moz traditions for any party, lots of local beer! I swear that one of the dads was hiding beer for himself to enjoy later lol
Our group sang the Moz national anthem in Portuguese (wwaatt) the US national anthem and a song called Home. We did the Home song with a guitar, a water jug as a drum and a water bottle filled with rice… pretty sweet! The chorus says “home is whenever im with you” which was perfect for this whole experience. There was some tension during the two weeks of practicing for the performance but everything worked out and I think it sounded good.
My whole family attended and my dad made a speech as a thank you to the Peace Corps from all of the host families. My little brother was the main attraction at the party because he is the cutest thing in Namaacha and everyone was a little jealous lol My dad and little brother started the dance party and soon the floor was full! Even the homestay coordinator, language teachers and my mom got out on the dance floor. When everybody left some of the parents and a few volunteers had a little after party, with more beer and more dancing! My family stayed and my little sister finally danced a little bit and my brother fell asleep in a chair. I gave my families there gifts that night and they gave me a tiger print capulana. A capulana is a piece of fabric that is used for everything! Women use it to wrap around them as a skirt or a shawl, they use it to sit on the ground or to filter water. You can also take it to a modista (tailor/seamstress) and make any article of clothing or a bag, curtains, table cloth… anything! The host families bought all of the volunteers matching capulanas for the homestay party too. We stayed for another week with our families and then had to say goodbye.
My family helped me carry my bags and walked me to meet our ride to Maputo for the swearing in ceremony. One of my friends said they saw my little brother crying on the walk home. My family didn’t really explain this whole situation very well to my 5 year old little brother because he thought I was never leaving and he just got a new big sister! When I left I think my mom cried and I did too. It’s interesting how close you can feel to people in just 10 weeks. My family was great and I will miss them but luckily I live close enough where I can visit them during my service.
The group headed to Maputo for our swear in ceremony at the ambassadors house. We were all wearing matching capulana clothes again and some of the guys made bow ties which was really cute. Some of the people who attended the ceremony were Peace Corps staff, former volunteers, our country director, the mayor of Namaacha, and multiple representatives from national health organizations that Peace Corps works with. Most of the ceremony was in Portuguese and one of the volunteers gave a speech in Portuguese that was amazing. We all raise our right hand and repeat after the ambassador an oath of service for the next two years. So we are all now officially PCVs! It felt good and is a reminder of why we came here in the first place. We were put up in an nice hotel with a hot shower for the first time in 2 months.
Half of us left the next day to the north while the other half stayed for another 4 days to have our supervisors conference. I was extremely upset because I slept through my alarm and didn’t get to say goodbye to my friends that were going to the north. But I know we will stay in contact and I will get to see them in November for our reconnect conference. Over all im so glad to end this part of my PC experience and move on to the next step!
