Newbie in Town

I am definitely the newbie, or rather the new malugo (white person), in town. Here’s some of the highlights from my first few days at site. After I swore in as a PCV, I had a supervisor’s conference at VIP Hotel in Maputo where I met my supervisors, Sam and Louis. Sam is the director of Criancas Artistas Contra HIV e SIDA (CACHES) and Louis is my supervisor through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). I had met Sam when I came on my site visit to Chicumbane, but it was my first time meeting Louis. The conference was a great way for us to start to get to know each other and the organizations I will be working with.

After the conference, Sam and I got on a Peace Corps sponsored chapa with my friend Dan and his counterparts early Sunday morning headed to Gaza. Dan was headed to Fidel Castro, just on the other side of Xai-Xai, the district capital of Gaza. I was the first stop. By 9:00 a.m., I was in Chicumbane. Sam and one of the other activistas at CACHES, Nelio, helped me unload my trunk, box, suitcase, backpack and day pack. And off they went. Unlike most PCVs who were alone navigating the basics of their new site placement, I was lucky to have been here just a few weeks ago for my site visit. I already knew what my living situation would be like and at least a few people in the community. And in addition, I was extremely lucky to have Vivienne, the PCV I am replacing, to help me navigate settling in. She dove right into helping me unpack my things and setting up my house. She was also extremely generous offering me her Baygon (insecticide), electric stove, and a mattress pad to sleep on. I am currently living in the other house on her quintal (yard). Usually Nelio, an activista at CACHES and also her landlady’s grandson usually lives in this house. For the next two months, he moved back in with his family. When Vivienne goes back to America the first week in October, I will move into her house just 20 ft. away and Nelio will move back into his house.

My house for now is just two rooms made of and reeds and cement with a metal roof. My kitchen is one shelf holding my water filter and an electric stove I have yet to try. Next to the shelf are two basins (my dishwasher). I made a shelf with a large cardboard box and two chairs that holds all the books I received from the Peace Corps. Two metal chairs make up my living room. In the corner is a large tambor of water. One wall is covered in papel gigante with the Portuguese verb charts and vocab list I made. I add all the new vocab words I learn each day to the list. Nerdy, I know, but I got to learn somehow. In my bedroom, I have my mattress encased by my mosquito net, my trunk, my suitcase, and a metal chair that functions as a shelf. Vivienne helped me string a rope across one corner to function as a closet. I was able to hang up a few pictures and posters. It’s all very bare; simple, rather, but it’s just temporary.

On Monday, Vivienne and I took a 10-minute chapa ride into Xai-Xai to get groceries and a few things for my house. When we couldn’t carry any more, we made our way to a chapa back to Chicumbane. When I returned to my house, I was in the middle of organizing a few things, when I noticed there were a number of uninvited visitors in my house. I started to follow them and noticed there was an entire formiga (ant) colony along one of my walls. We’re talking thousands… well, at least, hundreds. That part of the wall looked like it was moving. I took out my can of Baygon (recently bought on my shopping spree) and started to spray. I initiated my first formiga massacre. It wasn’t pretty, but it was necessary. I thought to myself that I was pretty lucky if this was one of the toughest things I had to deal with on my first days at site. I had gotten text messages from some of my friends who hadn’t even moved into their houses yet because they were still doing repairs or the people living there hadn’t moved out yet. Eeek. I was pretty lucky.

That afternoon I went to Criancas Artistas Contra HIV e SIDA (CACHES) with my Portuguese-English dictionary and notebook in my bag. When I arrived, some of the kids were doing an art project with Sam. The kids had to draw a house with two trees. I jumped in and started drawing my own. Sam introduced me to the kids at the table and then I started asking them questions. One of the kids asked how old I was. I asked him what he thought. His response was 42. Close. I just laughed.

I have learned in Mozambique that the apresentacao (formal introduction) is really important. When most of the kids had arrived, Sam gathered them all and we went to the meeting area outside. All the kids sat down and Sam introduced me. He said a few words and then put me on the spot to say something. Unprepared, I fumbled along explaining that I was volunteer from America with Corpo do Paz like Mana Vivienne and how I hoped they would be patient with me as I work on improving my Portuguese and eventually learn Changana, the local language. After, each kid came down and introduced him or herself to me shaking my hand. We then formed a circle to play a game to help us conhecer (get to know each other). Ideally, this was a great idea, but unfortunately CACHES didn’t have any energy that day and it was getting dark, which made it hard for me to see their faces and put a name with a face. The game was very similar to games I have played at camp in the states. One person is in the middle and says, “Chefe cadei” and everyone around the circle says, “Cadou chefe.” This then repeats three times before they are supposed to call on someone else to take their spot. For example, “Chefe chama Colleen. Colleen chama Sam.” Then Sam would take over, but if for some reason Sam was not there or I messed up, then I would basically be shunned out of the circle. As you can imagine, this happened to me almost immediately. Welcome to CACHES.  No, but seriously, it was a lot of fun. And next time we play that game I will be ready. At 18:00h, all the kids go home for the night, but before they leave they finish with a prayer. Two little girls each said a prayer in Portuguese. In their prayer, they said thank you for Mana Vivienna and wished her safe travels back home (after we reassured them she wasn’t leaving for another two months) and a thank you for their new volunteer, Mana Colleen.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45h to go for a run. While all the roads in Chicumbane are sand, I headed to the main road which is a little more compact. I ran 15 minutes out and then turned around. I was about halfway back when I passed a little old man in shorts, flip flops and a fleece vest. We exchanged “Bom dia” and then as I passed him, I realized that he had picked his pace up to a jog. He was then at my side explaining how he could run in flip flops. We talked briefly while running and before I knew it I had a running buddy. I thought that maybe I would have some school children follow me, but I was not expecting this older gentleman. We made small talk while we ran talking about how hard it is to run in flip flops, he asked if I was cold because I was just in a t-shirt, what was I doing in Chicumbane and he told me how he was on his way to the Catholic church. Just before the central market area, we slowed down to a walk. I then went to Senor Chova (the bread guy I meant when I was here for my site visit) to buy some bread. This was the first time I saw him since I moved to Chicumbane, but he remembered me from before. Not too many blonde haired blue-eyed women pass through these parts. I told him how I would be living here and he seemed pretty excited about it. My running buddy stood off to the side still catching his breath. I said good-bye to Senor Chova and to my running buddy as he walked off to church and I headed home. The next morning I saw my friend outside his house (he lives along the main road), but he must have been tired from the other day because he just gave a big wave and a hearty, “Bom dia.”

At 9:00h, Sam, Nelio and another activista, Joaune, picked me up at my house so we could go meet the chefe of the neighborhood and the local authority for a formal apresentacao. Turns out they were both not there, but we left the letter I had from the Peace Corps and will stop by again some other time. They took the liberty to have a little fun with the apresentacao introducing me to various landmarks along the way. I was introduced to the cemetery, primary school, secondary school, corn fields, soccer fields, and so on. I was much obliged to meet them all. On Wednesday, we continued our attempt at apresentacao and went to the police station and the chefe of Chicumbane, but again, no one was there.

Thursday was my first day working with my second organization, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) at the Rural Hospital of Chicumbane. I showed up at the hospital at 8:00h to meet Louis. I just waited outside by the flagpole observing all the comings and goings of the hospital until he arrived. The hospital is made up of a few large cement buildings and then several small circular cement pods called portas. When Louis arrived, he said we would go around to do a formal  “Apresentacao,” but he wanted to wait until Vivienne was with us to introduce me as her substitute. When Vivienne arrived just after 9:00h we started making the rounds. We went to the director of the hospital, all of the nurses, the three doctors and other staff. Throughout our travels, we interrupted several patient visits. Patient privacy doesn’t exactly exist in Mozambique and apparently my apresentacao was priority, which made me feel really uncomfortable. After about two hours of Louis saying the same spiel and me introducing myself over 30 times, my apresentacao at the hospital was complete. I tried to scribble down names in my notebook along with their titles, but I know it will take me a while to remember everyone’s names. One of the student nurses I meant along the way said she liked my name so much someday she would name her daughter Colleen, or “Ca-leen” as most Mozambicans pronounce it. I am excited to start at the hospital, but I know there is SOOO much I have to learn. Not only do I have to learn people’s names and all their titles, but how patient care and the whole health care system works in Mozambique. In addition, there are the countless Portuguese vocabulary words I have yet to learn, as well as what exactly my role will be working there.

As I walked down the sandy road to the hospital that morning, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. When I was little, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with health care. Absolutely nothing. My mom is a physical therapist and my dad is an orthotist prothetist, my grandmother was a nurse, my aunt is a nurse, my uncle is an orthopedic surgeon, my sister wants to be a doctor and about a dozen of my cousins have either been to medical school, are in medical school or are working in health care. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to be a journalist. But over the years this has all changed. I am now studying social work and a Peace Corps HEALTH volunteer. And here I was walking up to a hospital to work. Not just any hospital, but a hospital in AFRICA. 

Funny how sometimes life takes you where you least expect it to.