February 12th
marks six months at site. While at times the days seem long, looking back, the
past six months have flown by. I have no groundbreaking news or projects
underway just yet, but certainly a lot has happened. The first six months are
the integral period of integration. And throughout this time, to be honest, I have
probably seen the biggest changes in myself. During this period, I have given
several baptisms (Baptisms are what my organization CACHES likes to do on
peoples’ birthdays. They just douse the birthday boy/girl with a bucket of
water), attended three funerals, learned how to properly tie my capalana, built
a reed wall, watched my latrine sink in—thank God, I was not using it at the
time, learned how to “tomar cha” without actually drinking tea, learned how to
fill the holes in my floor to keep out the rats, tried canhum (traditional
Mozambican beer made from fruit) and developed the best response to marriage
proposals and the like. There have been great days, not-so-great days and
everything in between. I have turned 25 (AHHH), traveled within three provinces
of Mozambique and two neighboring countries, become competent in one language
and am learning a third, learned to actually cook meals for myself, perfected
the bucket bath, become comfortable with the Mozambican schedule and learned a
dance move or two along the way. Every day is full of surprises. And along with
that I have surprised myself with my ability to just sit and wait for sometimes
hours on end. I have developed a new tolerance for the lizards, rats and
creature features that inhabit my house with me. The lack of personal space in
this country no longer comes as such a surprise, but rather, just the norm. I
would like to think I have become more resourceful and self-sufficient, along
with that more independent and maybe even a ‘lil bit sassy—you have to be here
in order to stick up for yourself. There continue to be challenges and new
things I struggle to understand every day. But, this is to be expected. Things like
why do Mozambicans spend so much time raking the sand in their yards and why
chefes (bosses) have such a macho man mentality and why its okay for married
couples to have other boyfriends and girlfriends? But, this is still just the beginning of my
service, and over the next year and a half, I will continue to try to
understand. For now, here’s just a few take-away’s from the past six months:
·
In the kitchen
o
In the states, when I
was in grad school, there were many a nights that I would come home starving,
pop a veggie burger into the microwave, heat up some brown rice with frozen
veggies and call it a meal just five minutes later. Instant gratification. Such
instant gratification doesn’t exactly exist in Mozambique. But, I have learned
to adapt. Now my diet includes cinnamon lentils, feijoada, cucumber curry and
sweet potato curry. I never did this much cooking in the states.
When groups of
volunteers get together, we always joke, “Hey, let’s just order pizza.” Well, that’s
not exactly an option. But, again we’ve adapted. And a large part of hanging
out is usually spent cooking together. My palate has definitely changed as a
result of that. I used to have no tolerance for spice. Mild all the way.
Seriously. But, since being in Moz, I have started to experiment a bit with
peri peri (hot sauce) and even branch
out to eating spicier foods, really just new foods in general. The first time I
had Indian food was here in Moz and I recently tried bunny chow in Durban.
Bunny chow is basically a quarter of a loaf of white bread that they then dig
out the center and fill it with curries. While it definitely had quite the
kick, I actually enjoyed it.
·
Resourcefulness
o
Two weeks ago when I was
in Maputo, the air conditioner in our room didn’t have a knob to adjust the
level of coolness. I used my tweezers to grab the part that stuck out and was
able to then adjust the levels. We kept my tweezers there for the duration of
our stay. I felt like a Peace Corps Volunteer. Many Peace Corps Volunteers
pride themselves on such resourcefulness. I feel like I am perfecting that
skill as well. I have rigged a hand
washing station in my kitchen using an old water filter. I recently took a broken cabinet door and made
it into a bulletin board. I no longer
write anything off as trash. There could always potentially be another use for
it; it is just a matter of finding what that may be. And this resourcefulness
is not only with objects, but with people and connections as well. There is
quite of system of support available here; it just takes tapping into the right
resources and knowing who to call and when.
·
Language
o
Kotsungo-kutsongo. Pouco a pouco. “Little by little” in Changana is my go-to
phrase when my neighbors, patients at the hospital and other community members
test me on my knowledge of the local dialect. I have never been good at
learning languages. My seventh grade Spanish teacher would attest to that. And
to think, that now I can live in Mozambique speaking Portuguese and am working
on learning the local language. While my Portuguese is far from perfect, I can
communicate with my neighbors, counterparts and community members. I am now
giving talks about nutrition in Portuguese at the hospital that a volunteer
then translates into Changana. I do not think I will ever be able to fluent in
Changana, but I am trying and everyone in Chicumbane gets a kick out of the few
phrases I know. In training six months ago when I was struggling with memorization
of correct verb conjugations and even just basic Portuguese pronunciation, I never
thought I would be as competent as I am now. Despite the progress I have made,
there are still days I get frustrated, but kutsongo-kutsongo, I am getting
there.
·
Patience
o
Horario Mozambicano.
Professor Mario, the Coordinator of Programs at CACHES constantly reminds me of
the Mozambican schedule. A meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., hardly anyone is
there before 7:30 p.m. Be patient with us, he then says. What he doesn’t
realize is how I was a pretty patient person before I came to Mozambique and I
have only gotten more patient being here. Somehow, I can just sit for hours not
really doing much waiting for people to show up or meetings to start. While I
can’t say that I totally understand why there is such a lag time, but I have
definitely adapted to it. Whether I spend the time reading, making lists, or
just thinking things over, I have learned to just to sit and be. And along with
that, I have noticed myself slipping into a Mozambican schedule. I used to get
nervous in the states when I would be more than five minutes late, but here I
have found myself running late or just losing track of time. But, you know
what, I am okay with that.
·
Dance moves
o
I didn’t know what else to
use as a subtitle to classify the cultural experiences I have every day. The
main goal of Peace Corps is cultural exchange and I can definitely say this is
a regular part of my day. Not only have I introduced the kids at CACHES to
Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I have also had thought-provoking conversations
about the meaning of marriage in the United States and why people don’t use the
N word. And then there are the days when your neighbor picks up a bird that fell
off your roof and asks you if you are going to eat it, then puts it in his
pocket calling it “carne” and you are pretty sure he has the intention of
eating it later. Some things just don’t translate. But, then other days you
have really good exchanges. At the hospital, because some of my colleagues want
to practice their English, we have developed a schedule: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
we speak English; Tuesday and Thursday we speak Portuguese.
Every day is a learning experience for all of
us. I am sure that when seven of my fellow PCVs were at my house for the
weekend and we decided to have a dance party out in the pouring rain, my
neighbors first just called us crazy malugos (white people). But, then slowly,
one by one, we got them to dance with us and we all had a good time. Two hours
later…we were soaked. But we had fun. And we taught each other a move or two
along the way. Just as the saying goes,
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance
in the rain.” –Vivian Greene
