My Government-Issued Friends

Moz 18. In Peace Corps Mozambique world, my colleagues and I who arrived in country June 1, 2012 are known as Moz 18. While we like to joke that we are really only government-issued friends, these government-issued friends have become my Peace Corps family. We started out as 31 coming from all different states, backgrounds and walks of life. Unfortunately three went home in the first week of training. So then 28 of us made it through training together. We learned Portuguese together. We endured the countless hours of training together. And we survived all the up’s and down’s of living with a host family. We swore in as volunteers together. 

Moz 18 at the end of training: July 2012

Then we parted ways going off to our individual sites, knowing we wouldn’t see some volunteers until our Reconnect conference three months later. We stayed in touch supporting each other and helping one another throughout this adventure that is Peace Corps.  And of course, getting together with volunteers close by as often as our schedules would permit. Within the first few months at site, another four had to go home for various reasons.

Since training when we were together all the time, there are only a handful of scheduled times, Peace Corps sponsored events, to have Moz 18 altogether. Last week was our one-year mid-service conference in Maputo. We are now just 24. But, 24 going strong. The main objective of mid-service is to see the doctor and dentist for a one-year check-up. Since this requires all volunteers getting together in the capital city, Peace Corps uses this opportunity to host a variety of sessions allowing time and space for volunteers to share and collaborate on ideas, projects and experiences. Aside from the conference, we spent the week hitting up our favorite watering holes, the Chinese restaurant, the Indian restaurant, the karaoke bar and we even treated ourselves to a ridiculously expensive drink at Hotel Cardoso, the 5-star hotel overlooking the city.

It was great to have the whole government-issued family together. Just like those annoying all-too-popular family Christmas letters, here is a little update on the fam. Two of my colleagues, Alden and Olivia can be heard on the radio in Chibuto broadcasting malaria awareness spots. Mike recently signed up over 50 GAAC groups, which are groups of six HIV+ individuals who then rotate to going to the hospital each month to pick up the groups’ medication, and is now working toward 100. His wife, Marisa recently received a grant from Peace Corps to start a jam-making project to open three preschools in Macia. Queshia was recently announced the JUNTOS National Chair. JUNTOS is a Peace Corps secondary project that works with teenagers through art, music, dance, theatre and journalism to promote healthy messages of HIV prevention.  Dan recently hosted his whole family here in Mozambique. Linda is starting to make peanut butter with a group in Manjacaze to start an income-generating project. Her sitemate, Evan, is speaking the local language Changana and will soon be helping me share his love for agriculture with an agriculture/nutrition project we are doing here in Chicumbane. (More details on the project to come in future blog posts.) Taylor just hosted a Peace Corps booth overseeing volunteers talk about secondary projects, moringa and malaria at the Sovala Timbili Festival in her town this past weekend. Adela is anxiously awaiting the response of a U.S. Embassy grant to do a moringa project with a local organization. Emily is busy training for a marathon at the end of September in Capetown. Lisa is starting up a REDES group with girls in her new site, Maxixe. REDES is a Peace Corps secondary project that works with teenage girls promoting health and education. Redeana just had a slew of visitors and is excited that things are finally getting going with her organizations at site. Lauren is working with a group of teenagers to compete in the English Theatre competition, another Peace Corps secondary project, next month. Wendy was recently announced the new REDES National Coordinator. Jess is busily working to submit a grant proposal to start an agriculture project at her site. Sabrina is in the process of opening a soy-based bakery with women in her community. Alexis just got back from a week in Vilanculos riding horses, a week at Victoria Falls and is currently in Kruger National Park. Anna just wrote an entire lab technician curriculum. Mary-Kate recently helped legalize the community-based organization she works with. David has been working hard to devise a new performance-based incentive system to be used with volunteers at his health center. Colin has been working with co-op savings groups and going around his community starting permagardens. And Lee just submitted a proposal to start a soccer program that includes malaria trainings for the kids in her neighborhood. That’s just a snapshot of the broad spectrum of what Moz 18 is up to these days.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t talk to at least one of my government-issued friends. As with all families, there is definitely a fair share of bickering and snickering, fofocaring (gossiping) and bashing, but at the end of the day, we are always there for each other no matter what the situation is.  It is always one of these government-issued friends I call when I want to rejoice, curse, laugh or lament. Or just to get a reality check. There is an underlying understanding, almost like an unwritten code that speaks to the comradery of knowing what its like to be a PCV here in Mozambique: to lose all personal space in a 20+ person-packed chapa, become all too comfortable with using a xi-xi bucket, be completely humiliated in front of an entire village and be totally played just because you are the token foreigner around. Experiences run the gamete here from the heart-wrenching, to the sweat-dripping, the anxiety-ridden, to the adrenaline-rushing, the eye-brow raising, to the stomach-churning kind of incidences that only another PCV has experienced.  And of course, I have  friends in other groups, Moz  15, 16, 17, 19 and 20. And Moz 21 is set to arrive in September. But, there is something special about your own group, in my case, Moz 18. 

The next time we will all be together is May 2014 at our Closure of Service conference. Crazy. Only by coincidence were we all given the same country, same assignment, same timeline, the criteria for our government-issued friendship. But, through this experience we have become a family: Moz 18. 

Moz 18 at Midservice: August 2013

And by popular request, here are some photos of the most recent addition to my family. TEN PUPPIES!! That makes for 17 dogs I have cared for Mozambique...

Post Vacation Blues

Coming back from vacation is never easy. After almost an entire month away from site (including vacation and then training in Namaacha), it has been a bit of an adjustment back. I was fine coming back to my latrine, my bucket bath and cooking for myself again. I might have even missed all that a little bit. I was greeted by neighbors and co-workers who said I had disappeared and they missed me. And all three of my site-mates, Heather and the two German volunteers, have gone. The Germans finished their one-year contract, but will be replaced by two new volunteers at the end of the month. And Heather finished her two years in the Peace Corps (she was in Chicumbane just five months). It has definitely been a little tough getting back to the swing work-wise. Upon my return, I found that much of what had been planned for when I was gone, had not come to be.

My supervisor at the hospital had hoped to unroll a new process for organizing files that we had been working on for a while. I had a feeling it wouldn't happen while I was gone. Unfortunately I was right. We are still trying to get it into motion.

My first couple days back at CACHES, it was just myself with a handful of kids. Granted it was school vacation and was a community-wide campaign to have boys over 10 years of age circumcised so a lot of boys were preoccupied with that. But still, I was slightly annoyed to find out that while I was gone, there hadn't been any regular meetings, no one had filled out time-sheets, no progress was made on two projects and our regular schedule of activities was hardly upheld. Womp.  One of the CACHES volunteers told me that nothing happens while I am gone. Frustrating to say the least. And not sustainable at all. And if that is the case, I started to ask myself, what have I been working on here in Chicumbane for the past year?!

Over the past week, we have talked about having a meeting at CACHES to get things back on track, but we have yet to do so. After spending some time trying to rally the troops, we could still not come to a consensus on a good time to meet one night. Nelio and I started to walk home and I think he could tell I was pretty frustrated because he asked me, "Mana Colleen, qual e seu papel como voluntaria?" "What is your role as a volunteer?"

The kid was right.

What is my role as a volunteer?

A year in, I needed a reminder.

I tell myself over and over NOT to invest more time and energy into something than my counterparts. To NOT let myself want it more. But, am I actually heeding my own advice? Or am I just setting myself up for frustration? I am a volunteer. I am here to help with the organization. To support their mission. To promote health education and awareness. I cannot do the work of other people. The motivation has to work come from within themselves. It has be intrinsic. Without such motivation, it is difficult to accomplish anything.

The hardest part for me is that I can see the potential. The opportunity. The benefits to the work we set out to do at CACHES. The struggle is getting it to come to fruition. The lack of motivation. People not showing up on time. Not showing up at all. Not coming prepared. Not being dedicated. Finding other things to do. Having other commitments. Our motto at CACHES is "Onde a crianca e prioridade." "Where the child is priority." While it may be our motto, I am having a hard time seeing that at the moment. But, that is just part of the toughest job you will ever love. Peace Corps. Every day is a lesson in managing expectations and understanding your role. My role from here on out? I will heed my advice, manage my expectations and remain patient. And maybe it is just the eternal optimist in me, but I know that with a little bit of forca (strength), we can get things going again. And plus, we do have some potential projects on the horizon (more details to come in later posts). It just may take some time. But, I guess that's why I am here for two years.