Precioso Sangue

When one thinks of Peace Corps or a mission type trip, there is often the stereotypical image that comes to mind of a white person surrounded by African children. We got just a taste of this experience when we went to visit our organization for the practicum part of training. 

My language group: Sabrina, Anna and I, were assigned to an orphanage, Precioso Sangue, here in Namaacha run by the Austrian nuns. When we went for our first visit just a mere four weeks into training, we could just barely catch the gist of what was going on in. We met with two women, Rosa and Isilina, and they explained to us that the orphanage was only open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 15:30 p.m. My first thought was, “What about the weekends?” I thought by the term “orphanage” it meant that the kids lived there. Nope. The orphanage is just open for them to go during the day when they are not in school. Rosa and Isilina explained that they try to teach the kids what they don’t learn in school and what they do not learn at home. Precioso Sangue is a place they can go to take a bath, eat, do their homework and hang out in a safe place. There are currently 80 kids at the center. When Precioso Sangue opened in 2006, there were just 40 kids going. The kids who go to Precioso Sangue have difficult family situations. They may not have a mom or dad at home, they may be living with extended family or on the streets. Rosa said that sometimes on the weekends, she has kids at her door looking for food and a safe place. This was beyond hard to swallow at first. As we met in the office, we could hear the kids running around the grounds. It was just before lunch time. They continued to tell us about all that they are able to offer the kids and then gave us a tour of the grounds. We saw the two classrooms, the cabinet full of cups and toothbrushes, the kitchen, the bathrooms in back and the pigs in the stables behind. The pigs were slightly emaciated. They then showed us the building that “Super Adam”, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, helped to build when he extended for a third year here in Namaacha. Rosa and Isilina loved him telling us how he not only helped build a building, but also got lots of books and materials sent to the orphanage. Anna is actually staying with Adam’s old homestay family so she has heard a lot about Adam.

When we returned to Precioso Sangue a few weeks later we met with the director, Irma Marista. While she told us that she could speak English, the meeting was in Portuguese. On this trip we were supposed to take a look at all of the organization’s documents like their mission and vision statements. We quickly learned that these documents were unavailable, but she assured us that the first mission of the orphanage is to protect the criancas, the kids.  She then started to give us a long laundry list of what they really needed. She said they need more school supplies-cadernas, lapices, livros, papel, bolaches, comida, roupa, e sabon—notebooks, pencils, books, paper, cookies, food, clothes and soap. She said that food and hygiene are two of their most important priorities for all the kids.

A few weeks later we returned for our third and final visit. During this visit we were able to really interact with the kids. At first, Sabrina, Anna and I split up to observe each of the classrooms.  I went with Rosa in with some of the older kids. One girl was working on her English TPC (homework aka tarea para casa). Rosa quickly brought me over to her and told the girl that I could help her. Rosa also knows some English and is so happy every time she is able to say something to us in English. Rosa actually lives across the street from one of my friends so I have seen her a lot in between our visits to the orphanage. Every time I see her, she smiles excitedly, waves and yells, “Ca-lleeen.”  She then gives me this high-five thumb-snap handshake. The young girl was learning different types of weather and the appropriate clothing. On her homework she had finished the following sentence, “My favorite weather is sunny. When it is sunny, I like to wear rainy.” I explained to her that rainy is also a type of weather. I then explained to her different types of clothing and she decided that “a dress” would be most appropriate for her response. When we finished her homework, it was time for all the kids to take a bath.  I was a little nervous as Rosa grabbed my hand and said “vamos” and we ran off following all the kids going to take a bath. I thought maybe we were supposed to help them, but fortunately, instead she dragged me on her mission to find sabon (soap) for the kids. She then led me into the room with the younger kids where they were learning letters of the alphabet and the appropriate pronunciation. I joined in after they all stared at me for a while. Then they sang some songs in Portuguese and I tried to jump in and sing along.  After about 15 minutes, Rosa came back and dragged m  into the kitchen where the cook was making a large vat of xima. She had me stir it for a while. As I struggled with this task, they all stood and laughed commenting how it was serious exercise to mix xima. I agreed. I passed the large wooden spoon back to the cook and she continued with ease. Then we went out on the veranda and sang some more songs with the kids while they waited for lunch to be served. They were all just so happy. After about ten minutes with them, Rosa grabbed my hand and dragged me to the kitchen to serve lunch. Lunch was couvre and xima, a classic in my house. She made my professor take a picture of me as I sat behind the vat of couvre and served it to the kids. After all the older kids were served before they had to go to school, Sabrina, Anna and I tried to teach some of the younger kids some of our own Portuguese songs. “Cabeca, tronco, membros, pes sao partes basicas do corpo humano. Pega a cabeca. TA Pega a bacia. TA Mesca as maos. TA  Pega os joelhos. TA  Pega os pes. TA” And then we taught them a song about washing your hands “Lavar bem a mao direito. Lavar bem a mao esquerda. Com sabon e agua limpa. Seca com o ar.” We then tried to teach them “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” and “Simon says” in Portuguese. The kids didn’t really grasp the whole concept of “Simon says,” but I think they still had fun. Rosa and some of the other teachers led us all in some more Portuguese songs and then it was time for us to leave. Our sneak peek into life at Precioso Sangue was already over. For the final part of our practicum, we are now drafting a letter they can use to help get donations from local businesses in Namaacha and doing a SWOT analysis of their organization.

Although we have no idea what the family situations of the kids are like back home, we do know that they are definitely treated with love at the center. I saw Rosa after our visit and she was so grateful for the brief time we spent at the orphanage. Whenever I see her, she always has kids with her from the orphanage. She definitely has a passion the kids and for what she does. I hope to take even just a little bit of her passion with me to my future work in Chicumbane. 

CHICUMBANE

We spent most of Week 6 on site visits. When we started training, Week 6 seemed so far away, but it has already come and gone. We have just three weeks of training left. Wow. For my site visit, I went to Chicumbane in Gaza Province to stay with Vivienne Chao, a second-year volunteer who is leaving in October. She has already started a 100-day countdown to when she is done with Peace Corps. Considering I am a mere 40ish days into training, we are in two very different places. However, it was really interesting to experience a few days in her shoes.

We left Namaacha at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning in a mini bus just for Peace Corps trainees and a few language facilitators so they could help us get on the right chapas in Maputo. We arrived at the chapa station in Maputo and were shuffled to a chapa headed to Gaza Province. We then waited an hour and a half for our chapa to fill up before it could leave. While we waited, several vendors came up to the open door and windows trying to sell everything from pao (bread), CDs, alcohol, toothbrushes, you name it. When the chapa was at capacity—that being four rows of four and a row of three, we were off. With my backpack crammed on my lap and absolutely no room left on the seat, we knew it would be a long couple of hours. About three hours later, one of the women in the back row told the driver that she had to “chi-chi” (go to the bathroom) and so the chapa pulled over on the side of the road and she along with about five other passengers all found a place to go. When nature calls, no better place to go then in nature along the side of the road, right?  Then everyone filed back in and we continued on.

Around 10:30 a.m. we made it to Chicumbane. Vivienne met Alexus and I at the stop and we walked to her house. After devouring her peanut butter and bread (it was the first time I had mantega de amendoim in Moz) , we went to Xai-Xai, which is a district capital just a 10-minute chapa ride away from her. Again, the chapa was packed to capacity. In the supermarket, we were able to buy her more mantega de amendoim and even get CHEESE. It was so exciting because cheese definitely doesn’t exist in Namaacha and the only dairy product I have had here in Moz has been ice cream from the barraca once. We were a little overwhelmed by the supermarket to say the least. We then went to the outdoor market and I got my first capalana and then we went to her fruit lady to stock up on tangerinos for the next few days. It was another chapa ride back to Chicumbane. That night we went to a pig roast festa at one of her friend’s house. The party was supposed to start at 12 pm, we didn’t get there until 5 pm and they still hadn’t eaten. Mozambican parties are known for being a long wait to eat. Before we ate, one of the family members gave introductions. Then just before we ate, they brought out a sheet cake. I had never seen a cake like that in Mozambiue. After they sang “Happy Birthday”, they did a Mozambican tradition where five people serve cake to the person whose birthday it is at the same time. It is kind of like what Americans do at weddings, just add 3 more people into the mix. Then we ate a lot of arroz, frango and pork. After dinner, it was time to give gifts. With every gift that was presented, the person presenting the gift would usually do a little dance with it. I look forward to attending more Mozambican parties, but know now to at least eat beforehand because it could be hours between the time they say the party starts and when the food is served.

On Sunday, we spent the morning hanging out on Vivienne’s porch with her puppies. She has three dogs and one of them had eight puppies, but by the time we got there only four were left. I was ready to take one home with me so that I could have it at site, but then realized how difficult it would be to hide for the next few weeks and it would make for an interesting chapa ride home. However, my parents back home in the states, recently got a puppy named Mozi.

Around noon, we headed to Xai-Xai beach, which was gorgeous. Apparently Mozambicans don’t really go to the beach in the winter so it was as if we had a private beach to ourselves. The water was crystal clear and perfect for swimming. It was such a relaxing day compared to the hustle and bustle of training. After the beach, we went to an Indian Italian restaurant. Considering I haven’t really had much Indian food in the states, I thought my first time shouldn’t be in Africa. I went for the pizza instead. Covered in cheese and vegetables, it was delicious. When we got back to Vivienne’s house that night, she taught us all the cool crafts she makes with capalanas. She taught us how to make earrings using a capalana square and bottle caps and headbands with just a strip of capalana and a hair elastic. I definitely know what I will be making a lot of in the next two years.

On Monday morning, I went for a run just down the main road in Chicumbane. On my way back, I stopped at her bread guy in the market to pick up some pao for breakfast and I thought to myself, “I could get used to this.” After breakfast, we went to the Chicumbane hospital, one of Vivienne’s organizations. She currently works with three and then has two secondary projects so she definitely has a pretty busy schedule. At the hospital we sat with her counterpart who works in community prevention as he wrote a report to the Ministry of Health. We met her other counterpart who works with GAAC, a program that shares the responsibility of picking up ARVs between a group of HIV-positive individuals. Instead of all five people going every month to pick up their medicines, only one goes each month to pick up the medicine for the group. And then the nurse director of the hospital gave us a tour. We quickly saw the statistics we had been learning about in class. In Mozambique, there are only about 1,000 doctors in the entire country. That means that there was one doctor at this hospital, a few nurses and the rest are medical technicians. There were people waiting everywhere to be seen. But, that didn’t seem to stop our tour guide from bringing us into just about every room and introducing us to the staff and then asking if we had any questions. There was no sense of urgency to see the patient who was patiently waiting in the room as well. Also, no sense of privacy. And absolutely no HIPAA. I started to feel very uncomfortable and surprisingly was running out of questions. I just wanted all the patients who were waiting to be seen instead of just sitting there watching the three Americans on parade through the rooms where they were seeking care. Our tour guide proceeded until finally we told her we were getting hungry and it was time for lunch.

After lunch, we went to CACHES, Criancas Artistas Contra HIV e SIDA, Vivienne’s second organization. CACHES is an after school program for kids in Chicumbane. Before we arrived, Vivienne had asked if we had any new games to play with the kids. I told her I knew a lot and would be happy to give it a shot, but may need some help translating it into Portuguese. She said the jovens (teenagers) would be happy to help. She works with the jovens doing a Juntos group, one of her secondary projects. That afternoon we played Produce Masters (shout out to FYSOP), Jedi mind tricks and draw/write telephone. We played Produce Masters first and it was a great way to practice all of my Portuguese fruits and vegetables. It took the kids a little while to get the idea that they all needed different fruits and vegetables, but eventually they got the hang of it. They then played Jedi mindtricks for about an hour. One of the jovens that night asked if I could write out the games so they could have to use in the future. That night I wrote out two sheets of paper front and back with games for them to have—in English. One day I will be able to do that in Portuguese, I hope… The next day at CACHES, we taught them Red Light, Green Light, Limbo and Pictionary. During Red Light, Green Light, I was in charge of making sure all the kids were lined up behind the line we drew in the sand and then I had to tell whoever moved that they were out. I started by saying, “saia” when I wanted someone to leave the game. It was not until a little girl started mimicking me “saia”, “saia”, “saia”, that I realized I was saying the wrong verb form. “Sai” is what I should have been saying. Thanks menina (little girl). I am sure that is just the first time of many that I will be corrected by a little crianca.

On Tuesday we went to Xai-Xai again to do some errands with Vivienne because she is the financial director of REDES, a countrywide Peace Corps secondary project working with secondary school girls. She was getting ready for their big conference. Amidst printing certificates, sending emails at the Internet café and picking up manuals, we stopped at KFC, yes, what used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken, because they have soft-serve. I haven’t seen any McDonald’s yet in Mozambique, but I have seen a couple KFCs. Mozambicans do love their chicken. I got a small chocolate sundae and it was such a treat. Vivienne said she treats herself to something special like KFC soft-serve, at least once a week. I might have to start that rule when I get to site. 

We left our site visit very early Wednesday morning. We took another chapa ride down to Maputo. We then took two chapa rides across town to the Peace Corps office to help Vivienne sort shirts for the conference. Then we met up with some other trainees to go to Café Sol, a restaurant just off campus from Edward Mondlane University and just a 15-minute walk from the Peace Corps office. We had heard they had really good bagels and burritos. Hands down, it was my favorite meal in Mozambique. It was definitely the most expensive meal I have had, but totally worth it. As we were finishing up, the Peace Corps Country Director was coming in for lunch so it is definitely a popular spot among Peace Corps.

After a relaxing and inspiring five days on site visit, we headed back to Namaacha for our last four weeks of training. It was so nice to have a taste of the independence and freedom that awaits us at site.

And then yesterday we FINALLY got our site announcements! And….drumroll please…CHICUMBANE!! So really the site visit was a glimpse into what my life will be like for the next two years. Woot! Woot!

Sunrise at Shop-Rite and a Special Visitor

I have always been in love with the risings and settings of the sun. Florida. Ireland. Cape Cod. Santorini. You name it and I will usually make people climb to the highest point just to catch a glimpse of a good sunrise or sunset. So Mozambique would prove to be no different. I am generally up before the sun rises because I run every morning. I run with three other volunteers and one of their host brothers. We usually meet outside my house at 5:30 a.m. and run for about 40 minutes on the main road. While we would usually see how the sky was brightening up with the sunrise we never really stopped to watch the sunrise. I proposed to the group that one morning we should go down to Shoprite, Namaacha’s open market, and watch it. Shoprite overlooks the mountains to the east and on a clear day you can even see Maputo. We decided to announce it to our whole training class that we would be going on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, just Sabrina and I showed up at 5:15 a.m. at our designated meeting place to go. A couple people said later that they set alarms and wanted to go, but it was just too early. We walked down the main road to Shoprite and chose the best viewing spot for our sunrise. We definitely overestimated how long it would take us to get down to Shoprite, but we got to see all of the maes carrying their goods on their heads to set up what they would sell for the day. They carried everything on their heads: sacks of rice, capalanas, bread, water jugs, you name it. There was a layer of haze across the horizon so it took a while for the sun to break through. Leading up to it, reds, pinks and oranges painted across the sky. I felt as if we were watching the previews before a movie was about to start. Finally, the great African sun broke through the haze and the feature presentation started to run. Despite the wait for the sun to initially rise, it was on a fast track across the sky. It was gorgeous. (Pictures to come at a later date.) We seemed to be the only ones taking it in as the hustle and bustle of Shoprite moved around us. After our brief interlude we decided to move along with the day’s course as well. But, we had one more stop. We had heard about a German bakery in town, but because of our tight training schedule, we had not yet had an opportunity to check it out. This was our chance. We followed the directions we got and made our way to the bakery. They had a selection of breads and cookies in the window. We decided to split the raisin bread which was just 20 meticais, which is less than a dollar. $1 = 27 meticais. It was delicious. It had a light glaze icing and then was chocked full of raisins and doughy goodness. What a treat! We devoured it on our way home.

We got home with just a few minutes to spare before we had to leave for training. For training we were going to visit the medico tradicional. It was really interesting to visit the medico tradicional because his house was “la” (which in Portuguese means “far”. Mozambicans love this phrase when they are either giving directions or trying to describe to you where something is.) It was also kind of down this rocky slope, so we were trying to figure out how if someone is really sick they are going to get to the medico tradicional in the first place. He showed us how he communicates with the spirits through a conch shell and his supply of medicines and lion fat that he uses to heal people. It was interesting to hear how often he does send people to the hospital, especially if they come to him with HIV or tuberculosis. When I got home from the visit, my mae was horrified that I had not taken my bucket bath that morning. I didn’t have time. Eek. She made me take one before I could eat lunch.

A couple weeks ago now, we had a very special visitor. The U.S. Ambassador Leslie Rowe came to speak with us. I found out a couple days before that because I lived so close to the HUB, where all of our trainings are, the ambassador would be visiting my house after lunch. That morning when I returned from my run, my mae asked to come into my room to see if it was clean for the ambassador’s visit. I said it was clean, but then soon realized my standard of clean and her standard were two very different things. She first picked up all my shoes and threw them in a pile outside my room, then she moved the chair and started to move the bed. I jumped in to help her. She then grabbed the broom and started furiously sweeping my floor. I tried to help, but she was on a mission. Then, she grabbed a bacia of water and a rag and started scrubbing my floor. I told her I could help and finally she gave me the rag and showed me how it was done. I followed her lead and thought I was doing it just as she showed me. I should have known better. She told me I was doing it wrong and demonstrated again. Then it was my turn to try. She seemed to be pleased with my work. Then, she realized that it was getting late so I had to take my bath before training. While I scurried off to the casa de banho, my mae stayed cleaning in my room. When I returned, she was still cleaning. As I finished getting ready, she was in and out making sure everything was just right. I left with seconds to spare before I had to be at training.

When Ambassador Rowe arrived at training, we had a great discussion about her role in Mozambique, her experience in the U.S. Foreign Service and the current state of Mozambique. Her post in Mozambique ends this month and she will return to D.C. After our discussion, she ate lunch with us. Somehow I got to sit right across from her and she asked all of us around her to tell her what we were doing before we signed up for the Peace Corps. Her husband is an RPCV so she is really interested in the  Peace Corps. After lunch, Sabrina and I walked with her and Peace Corps staff to visit our houses. When we got to my house, I introduced her to my mae and then she thanked her for taking me in as her daughter during training. They spoke for a little while and then the ambassador gave my mae a pin with an American and Mozambican flag. My mae was truly touched. We took a picture together and then went on to Sabrina’s house next door to meet her family. When I got home from training that day, my mae told me how nervous she was beforehand because she wasn’t sure if the ambassador would like her or her house. In my broken Portuguese, I assured her the ambassador liked her and was just happy to be a guest in her home. She smiled and seemed to take comfort in that. The pin she received was set in a place of honor on the table for a while. 

The Namaacha Diet

One of the most popular questions I have gotten so far…what do you eat in Mozambique? Well, generally I do not eat breakfast. No one in my house does, but I do know a lot of my fellow volunteers do having everything from corn flakes and milk to cheese with bread or just a bowl of batatas fritas, French fries. Then around 9:30 a.m. its lanche time. Lanche is a little snack. Minha mae usually gives me a roll of Maria or Agua e Sal crackers, a mango juice box and a banana.  Maria crackers are sweet kind of like a graham cracker and Agua e Sal are pretty much saltines, but even drier. Then we usually eat almocar around noon. I usually come home from training to eat with minha mae. Usually lunch is a potato, carrot, egg, fish and oil salad or chicken and rice with salad or beans and rice, or leftovers from dinner the night before. Sometimes I get an orange in there too. Then we usually eat dinner around 7:30-8 p.m. Dinner is usually a lot of carbohydrates, some form of protein and then salad. The carbohydrates rotate between rice, pasta, batatas fritas, mandioca or xima, which is a traditional Mozambican meal. Minha mae absolutely loves it. It is pretty comparable to grits back home, but here they eat it as a huge ball and then usually have some sort of sauce or meat with it. Minha mae said I couldn’t have it for the first couple weeks because my stomach couldn’t handle it. She would make me my own batch of batatas fritas while the rest of the family would eat xima. We also eat a lot of soup. Usually everyone will eat a bowl of soup, similar to a chicken noodle vegetable, before dinner. The protein rotates between galinha (chicken), carne de vaca (beef), fish (usually with the head still on it) or beans. And then the salad is usually lettuce, tomato and onion, generally soaking in oil and vinegar.  After minha mae served me a heaping bowl of batatas fritas the other night, I tried to explain to her that I rarely eat batatas fritas in the United States. I told her that usually I would just eat the chicken and salad. She just looked at me and said, “Voce esta en Africa, come.” Meaning...."In Africa, you eat!" And as for drinks, I generally just have my filtered water. The very first day I moved in minha mae asked what I liked to drink. After she was shocked that I didn’t drink tea or coffee, she asked me if I drink soda. In the states I would rarely if ever drink soda, but I told her that while I didn’t drink Coca-cola, yes, I would drink the Fanta she was already pouring for me. She then gave me Fanta pretty much every day with my lanche for the first week. I had to tell her I can’t drink Fanta every day so now it is just once in a while.

Minha mae and my sister Suzete do most of the cooking. Occasionally they will let me help with washing the vegetables for the salad by soaking them in Javel (bleach). Recently, they let me peel potatoes, but only after my irma made sure that I knew exactly how to do it. 

But last Tuesday our language class spent the morning cooking with our maes. My two classmates and I spent at least five hours preparing lunch. We started at 7:30 a.m. when we usually start class. We first learned how to wash and cut couvre (cabbage). Almost instantly my friend Anna’s mae started yelling, “Tomar um photo.” She wanted us to take a picture of everything and not just one picture, but a picture of each of us doing every step along the way. She said it was so we could show our mothers back home. We then learned how to pilhar (mash) peanuts and then sift out the shells, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. Then we had to crack coconuts and shave out the inside to then collect the coconut milk, which was quite the labor intensive process. After that, it was time to kill the chicken. What’s that you say? Yes, Agora vamos a mater um galinha. Minha mae had wanted me to kill a chicken about a week ago, but I told her I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I was able to put it off for a week. Then, the night before our cooking session, she said, “Amanha voce va a mater um galinha.” I swallowed hard and said, “Okay, I think I can do that.” Inside I was freaking out. Then, when I saw the little chicken running around our yard the next morning, I knew his fate before he did. First, Anna grabbed the chicken but its wings. She was then responsible for holding onto the feet, while Sabrina held onto the wings and I was handed the knife. I started a distressed laughter slash crying as Paola, one of our trainers, stretched out its neck and directed my hand with the knife. If she hadn’t given me the extra push and direction, this episode would have lasted a lot longer. This was definitely a first, my inner pseudo-vegetarian was screaming and I was trying to recall what else I had killed in my life and aside from a few mice and cockroaches I couldn’t come up with much. Sabrina said a nice little prayer before the act and that was it. Donezo. But, it was just the beginning because Paola then showed us how we had to pour hot water on the chicken in order to pluck out all its feathers. She then degutted it removing internal organs. And before we knew it, she had it sitting in a mixture of oil, salt, lemon and chicken stock broth seasoning. And then it was on the grill. Phew. It took me a little while to gain composure, honestly, I think I might have blacked out those few brief moments of the actual killing. Ahhh. Anyways, we then continued our lunch preparations with a few American traditions. We made banana bread and guacamole for our maes to try. The measurements weren’t exact on the bread and we had to cook it in this pressure cooker forno type thing, but it turned out delicious. And the guacamole was a hit. By the time 12:30 p.m. rolled around, we had prepared so much food. We set a table outside and dug in. It was quite the feast. Minha mae even got Fanta, Coco-Cola and Lemon Twist for everyone so it was definitely a special occasion. After five hours of preparation, we spent about an hour indulging and it was delicious. Well worth the work. Even the chicken was delicious. Sabrina’s irmao especially enjoyed the chicken feet. Eek!