7/25/2014: Goodbye July, Hello 10 Months of Service

July has been a hectic month in Xinavane. Some highs and lows for sure.
But let's not talk about the lows, those are no fun.
Last weekend we held our Gaza/Maputo Province REDES workshop. It was a long weekend for us, but the girls sure enjoyed themselves! We spent the weekend with Forum Mulher and groups from all over Gaza/Maputo working with the girls on empowerment, HIV/AIDS, goal setting, and other important topics for young girls around the world. We even had Ivette, a Mozambican rapper, and a congresswoman come talk to the girls about empowerment and making smart choices for their own futures.
As incoming provincial coordinator, I learned a lot about my goals for next year. But more importantly the girls were very excited and learned a lot. On our way home, the 2 girls from my school started asking more questions from their workshops and have started planning activities to present to our school to share what they learned during their weekend. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but seeing the girls' excitement to learn more and share their experiences made all the stress and lack of sleep worth it.

Bem vindo REDES!

Ivette talking to the girls

Gaby and I and our Xinavane girls!

A session about HIV

So we've been in country for 10 months now...time is FLYING. I can't even believe it's already been almost a year.
I'm going to copy the idea of some of my fellow 21ers and make a list of 10s.

10 Things I've Learned to Live Without

1. Pre-made food (It seems silly, but in college I rarely had much time to cook and so I often lived off of take-out and yogurt. I know how to cook, I just never had the need or patience before)
2. Easy transportation (Living in a city, I always had access to a bus, train, or car to get anywhere...half the time I could walk to where I wanted to be. But here...transportation is a whole different story)
3. Personal space (I'm big on the whole "stay out of my personal space bubble" but that is just not in existence here...it doesn't make me so happy, but I'm adapting)
4. New clothes (Sorry, I had to put the typical American comment out there, I mean, I worked decent jobs and one of them was at a clothing store so I was used to having new clothes way too often)
5. Cheese (It sucks but even when you can find cheese in this country it is out of the regular budget of a Peace Corps Volunteer, however it makes us appreciate it when we do get a hold of some yummy cheddar or or a container of Laughing Cow)
6. A variety in my vegetables (Going to a school surrounded by farms and living at home with a large vegetable garden, I was always so used to having easy, affordable access to whatever vegetable I wanted, it's not so easy here...)
7. A schedule (Yea...that's all I can say about that...schedules are just not really a thing)
8. Manicures/Pedicures (Again, just about as American as I can get with this comment, but it's true. I was that girl at the salon every 2 weeks...well when I wasn't on a trail crew anyways)
9. Being busy (Seems ridiculous, but I promise you I hadn't had free time since I was in elementary school, even in the summers I was busy with summer homework or working. It honestly was quite an adjustment to suddenly having copious amounts of spare time and learning how to use my service productively without every minute being pre-planned for me)
10. Always understanding what is going on (Communication is sometimes not the greatest and often days even I get the idea of what is happening I am left confused about what is going on)

10 Things I've Learned I Can't Live Without

1. Contact with my family (I love traveling, but I am also a homebody so when my phone was stolen the hardest part was not having a way to communicate with my family)
2. A support system (From friends in Peace Corps to friends near me in the village to WhatsApping with friends at home, I have never truly valued the importance of support from the people in my life)
3. Pets (My dogs were so important to me at home, and here I have Katniss, everyday I'm learning more about how much joy pets bring and the calming effect they can have on us after a stressful day, and just how much fun a little baby animal can be!)
4. Alone time (Spending 30-60 minutes alone locked in my room working out or reading or watching a movie has become pivotal in my day...no matter how integrated I feel or how many projects I have that I love, it's exhausting sometimes and you just got to get alone)
5. Coffee (Well...okay...I kind of already knew that...but living somewhere where truly amazing coffee is hard to find/expensive, I've learned even more how much I love coffee)
6. A variety in my diet (Including vegetables...sure I'm used to it now and I am getting creative with the vegetables we have, but I have learned that I really do love having a variety in my diet and a large selection of vegetables)
7. A schedule (Sure I've learned to live without it for now, but I couldn't stay this way forever, I value my scheduling!)
8. An occasional vacation (Sometimes you really do just have to get away, even if I'm already away from home it's important to get away from work too)
9. An English break (I love talking to the other teachers and the people in my village but sometimes I just want to speak my own language)
10. Chocolate (That little chocolate break is like a little piece of heaven here)

Off to book my vacation for our August break!

6/22/2014: The Winds of Change Are Blowing

It's been a very hectic few weeks for me.
I'm going to say up front, some of my update news is not great. Some of these winds of change are blowing in some mighty storms and we are batting down the hatches for what's about to come. I won't talk too much about it as it's all still in the beginning process and we don't have many answers and ideas...or unfortunately even knowledge about what's going on.
I'll start with the storm so I can end with the light, fun, sailing winds of change.
Unfortunately for the past few weeks my roommate and I have been having increasing struggles with the people we live with. There have been some cultural clashes with expectations, lifestyles, habits, etc. We had thought we rose above the struggles and were finally finding some common ground and starting to find our place in our housing complex and at school. Sometime last week, we got the news that while on the surface we have found common ground, there is deep negative feelings towards us and we're not really sure what our future is like here right now. That's all I'll say about that because we are seriously lacking in information. But we are meeting with some people from Peace Corps to help us find the best course of action that will work for us as well as our school and our school director. Meanwhile, if you can keep us in your thoughts and prayers. This place has become HOME for both of us, our surrogate families are here, our lives are here, and we love our school. When I came here I said "Yea, I don't know what I'm doing in 2 years"...it was ok to not have a plan for post Peace Corps, I never thought to have a plan for during my time. So that's what we're getting to face right now. When I have news that we are ready to share, I will.
Onto some bigger and better changes.
I was elected the Maputo/Gaza Provinces Coordinator for REDES. I'm very excited about this opportunity, it's at the root of my real personal reasons for being here. REDES is an organization that works with girls in our villages to teach empowerment, income generation, HIV/SIDA, and independence. To me, yes I am here to teach, but really I wanted to come here to work with these girls and see changes happen even with just one or two girls because they'll be role models for their daughters and so on. I am very excited to be the coordinator and work to increase volunteer involvement, Mozambican counter part involvement, and numbers of REDES groups in our provinces.
I also was SO LUCKY to get to see my best friend in the Peace Corps. Jules lives in the North and because of security travel bans, we can't travel by land between North and South and with school and living on a volunteer income, it is almost impossible to fly without going on official Peace Corps business. BUT. She was brought down to Maputo and I got to spend a long weekend with her! I didn't think I would get to see her until January so it was very exciting!! I was so lucky to get to spend time with her. While we were together we noticed the new trainees (yes, that's a whole different change, hey??) were in Maputo, meaning the training village was empty! (We're not allowed there when trainees are there) and we said hi to our host families. When I left, my host mae and I were still struggling with our conversations, there was still a lot of acting and miscommunication. But when I saw her now we sat and talked for hours catching up about life! She and I were both so proud and excited.
So...that's life here in the village, nice and hectic as usual!
Life is always about the adventure, that's for sure.

Me and Jules, reunited :)

My host mae, irma, and irmao. We were all so happy to see each other

Me and some of my girls from school! They make me so happy, even when they frustrate me

6/2/2014: I have not fallen off of the face of the off

Wow! It has been a LONG time since I have written anything.
I can't say not much has happened, I have been very busy, but nothing super out of my ordinary has occurred.
Let me see. Where can I start?
Since the last blog we had a vacation from school, so I decided to finally make the full day trek up to Tofo Beach in the Inhambane province. During the break we had a volunteer reunion there for a few days. It was FANTASTIC. I not only got to see many Moz21ers but also spend time with 18ers (health volunteers getting ready to leave the country soon), 19ers (other education volunteers like my roommate), and 20ers ("new" health volunteers). It was amazing to be back on a beach, I've missed being so close to the ocean! We just hung out and laughed a lot...that's about all I can say. Except that I NEEDED a vacation. It was reenergizing for sure.

Tofo Beach Sunset

What happened next?
Hm. I went straight down to my regular stomping ground, Maputo, for an inservice training called reconnect. After 3 (ok...4-5) months at site, we 21ers were reunited for a 4 day conference. We talked about security, site, adjustment, teaching, lots of things. But I was mostly extremely excited to see some of my friends that are so far away I probably won't see again until our Midservice training in January. It was important for us to see each other, spend some time catching up, and swap stories about life at site and our schools. It was overall a great 2 weeks of vacation for sure and I came back to site reenergized and very excited for the next few months of school!

In service training 

One of my closest friends (also from the DMV!!) Matt

It's been pretty normal here at school though. Very busy with teaching and spending time with my students, trying to find some time to relax and run again.
Today (Monday the 2nd) was our School's Day so we had a big day long school party--music, food, clubs doing showcases...it was great fun and a nice time to be around my students and the other teachers without the pressures of the classroom. I however will be in a food coma until further notice as EVERY class wanted me to eat lunch in their room so I ate little bits with everyone and it was still far too much food for comfort.

Secondary school modeling club

Primary school modeling club and dancing

Last but not least on the story front, a couple of weeks ago I went on a drive with one of my friends and we found the graves of the children of the first mill owners. It was sad, the whole family died of malaria about a hundred years ago, but to find a piece of history fairly well preserved is cool!

Que mais? Not much. The factory is in full swing so we are constantly having to clean sugar cane ash off of our clothes and our veranda and the whole town now permanently smells of molasses. But since I previously lived next to Perdue Chicken Factory, I'll take the sickly sweet molasses smell, thank you.

There really isn't much going on as of yet. Like I said, I've been busy and enjoying life, but there's not really anything of note to be honest. Just enjoying the Africa Life.

Until next time, at least for now I'm still around, still kicking it in my village, and still throughly enjoying my adventures no matter how small or large they may be on a daily basis.

4/28/2014: The Case of the Homesickness

Everything about life in Xinavane has just become normal. Running to Maputo for errands, random power and water outages, explaining chemistry in Portuguese...its all just normal life now, which is great. But it gives me more time for a realization of homesickness, most particularly today.
Just little things made homesickness rush over me. And for the most part I see homesickness as a good thing, it means I love my family and I want to share my experience with them, it means things here remind me of home as this place becomes more and more like home.
Today was typical Eastern Shore weather. Had to break out my fleece and a scarf to walk to school but still needed sunglasses...it was perfect. But as I was walking to school a part of me just wanted to be walking from my Loblolly Lane casa to Henson Hall with my coffee cup for class, for a moment I closed my eyes and when I first opened them I was almost confused about why it didn't look like campus!
As if that wasn't crazy enough, watching The Fixer (known as Scandal in the states) brought tears to my eyes! Even St Elmo's Fire made me twinge. Images of Georgetown, the monuments, Pennsylvania Avenue...images of home...places I instantly wanted to see again! Don't worry, I promptly remembered that by this weekend I'll be at one of the most beautiful beaches ever and remembered those monuments and Pennsylvania Avenue will still exist, unless the world ends while I'm gone they're not going anywhere.
This evening (I'm telling you, its been random bouts of homesick all day!!) I was listening to Heart Like Mine and I was instantly transported back to the first time I listened to the song and I wanted to be there so bad; sitting in the back of my parents car next to my big brother curled up staring out my window as we cross my favorite Bay Bridge on our way to Fishermen's Crab Deck. Such a simple memory, just a regular activity that isn't a regular activity anymore and such a random song to spark that feeling. And then suddenly my heart traveled elsewhere. Sitting at the kitchen island writing a paper, my little brother energetically telling me all the details of his newest movie plan about penguins taking over Mozambique (this movie was planned shortly after I announced my news that I was moving here). I can just see his face and hear his voice and picture him dancing around the kitchen telling me everything on his mind at a hundred words a second. Oh I just want to hug my little guy, my selfless loving little brother who is to this day researching everything he can about Mozambique, Maputo, Xinavane, Africa and who just had to make a Katniss Care Package to go inside my care package so she wouldn't feel left out. What a kiddo.

Kind of a roller coaster of a day. But the benefit...only while being homesick in Africa can I be on my way to Crab Deck in Maryland AND simultaneously dancing in the kitchen in Chicago with my little brother. And somehow to me, these emotions just make me realize that this is becoming home to me, my life is becoming normal, I'm enjoying what I'm doing...and in no way can that be a bad thing!

So Maryland, California, Chicago, Family...just know you were all very much present in my day today, all of you showed up in my heart no matter what I did or where I went, and that's important.

4/13/2014: Not a City Mouse

I am very much a country mouse, the city (particularly a crowded city like Maputo) really stresses me out and although I live close, I always put off coming to this city. However, I recently decided to start a REDES group in my village…
REDES: Rapariga em Desenvolvimento Educação e Saúde. Ok... so I know for many of you, that means nothing. So really REDES is about developing confidence, health knowledge, and education. We work with girls in our villages to help them develop skills, confidence, independence, and income generation activities. So anyone who knows me could guess I latched on to this idea.
So here I am after venturing into the city for our REDES Training of Trainers. It is technically for our local counterparts—the women we run our groups with—but as this is a new idea in my life and I don’t have one of those, here I am getting information to take back to my village.
I spent the entire day Thursday trying to talk myself out of coming. Why? I don’t know. But I wanted nothing to do with leaving my village. Thankfully my roommate and my friend Jules both talked me into sticking to my commitment to come. What an education! Spending the weekend here has made me even more excited to start my REDES group, seeing the women empowerment in this room and knowing how important it is to take this back to my girls and be a mentor to them, be available to them to talk about things their mothers won’t talk about—HIV, college, jobs, periods, relationships—I can just feel we’re embarking on a very exciting and important mission.
That’s part of my weekend. But wait—there’s more. In true American fashion, we made important “political” leadership decisions while skipping a training session to take a moment for some coffee outside and taking a breather. And that was when I became the “assistant” Southern Coordinator for REDES. It’s not really a position in REDES leadership, but this way the Southern Coordinator isn’t working alone and I can be trained in the job before she leaves Mozambique. I thought…“well hey…we need a coordinator when she leaves and we definitely need more volunteer involvement, so why the heck not.” At least for the beginning I won’t be by myself.
So off we go on this journey. And that’s the only update I have about that.

In other news, I have a friend from middle/high school who lives in Maputo (some of you may remember that but just in case that was your reminder). So whenever I have time in Maputo I try to see him and catch up. This time was extremely special. He had gotten crabs from a local fisher and called me saying “we should make Maryland crabs, are you free?” …Am I free for steamed crabs with Old Bay instead of uber boiled with a bunch a sauce (why everyone outside Maryland insists on things like tomato sauce or something is beyond me) … DUH I’M FREE! So I got to catch up with my friend, have a Maryland style feast of beer and crabs with Old Bay, AND introduce my friend Lauren Maryland style crabs, thankfully she loved them! Guess our friendship can continue.
On our way to my friend’s apartment, I had the strangest conversation…I mean I have these conversations more often that I wish.
Me: “Onde esta Woolworths?”
Stranger: “Eu nao entendo Ingles”
Me: “<<Onde esta>> e Portugues, nao Ingles”
Stranger: “Oh. Tchau”
…So not only was my question not answered, they just assumed I don’t speak Portuguese. In this village, this conclusion makes sense, but there are an awful lot of non-Mozambicans in the city who speak Portuguese, it’s never really a safe assumption that the person you are speaking to doesn’t speak Portuguese and I was a bit insulted.
But whatever, we found Woolworths and thus found a place to get ice cream and a drink and also my friend’s apartment and we got some delicious dinner.

Side note. Everyone should experience the joy of explaining to young teenagers in Portuguese what laxatives are. We were talking about different important bases and what they are used for and one of the examples from my textbook was “laxatives” and I got the strangest looks…”Professora?? Que e isso??” and off I go trying to explain what a laxative is and who would use it and why…I think the majority of my students fell out of their chairs laughing so hard at me, laxatives, the situation, my explanation…I’m not sure what it was but it probably one of the funniest, most amazing experiences of my teaching here so far.

Now I’m ready to return to my simple village life and my kitten.

4/7/2014: Dia de Mulheres

Today was Mozambican Women’s Day, so we had off of school and lots of celebrations!

Women’s Day here is to honor Josina Machel, who was one of the first women dedicated to promoting women’s rights politically. It’s also to pay tribute to women throughout the country campaigning for human rights and fair treatment between men and women.

It’s a very important day here for all and as a female volunteer who is personally very interested in equality for women, it was a very exciting day!

It all started quite randomly (as most of my days here do) and I have to tell you from the start my life lesson—always always ALWAYS carry a capulana and a bottle of water with you, wherever you go, even you’re just going to the bank.

I went out this morning to passear (wander around) and buy credit for some internet binging since I haven’t been able to get a hold of the school’s internet lately.

On my way back to my house, this woman named Julia comes running up to me with an extra capulana and some flowers and pulls me over to the Heros’ Plaza where women are dancing and placing flowers, so she makes me do the same. Next thing I know we’re dancing and singing down the main road past the factory to the hospital to see the baby that was born at midnight today and bless the baby and give it clothes and other gifts.

After blessing the baby, we went back towards the village for a children’s group to do a presentation, they did a bunch of dances and songs about women’s equality and women’s right and decreasing violence against women in this country.

Next thing I know, I’m eating lunch with the chefe de postal and other women in the government here! It was so great to get to know them better and chat about women in the community, in the process I was able to find a counter part who will help me start a REDES group at my school—a group focused on giving a girls a voice and talking about health issues, school, being independent, etc.

It was all around a very random, and yet very exciting Dia de Mulheres and very cool to be apart of the celebrations with the other women!!

Feliz Dia de Mulheres!!

My friend Maryann was also dragged into the celebration!

The lucky baby

The women in charge of the day

3/27/2014: Don't Blink, no really, don't

Just past my 6 monthiversary and I can’t help but think of the Kenny Chesney song “Don’t Blink.”
“Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think, so don’t blink”

Ok, so it hasn’t been a hundred years, but time does go faster than you think!

I posted some numbers on my Facebook, I’ll share them here for those of you who are not my friends on Facebook:
8,346 miles, 2 new villages, 150 new students, 30 books, multiple new languages, countless pounds of xima, 50 marriage proposals, who knows how many new friends, and 1 new kitten.
No worries, I said no to all the proposals because they all went more or less like this: “if you buy me a beer you can marry me.” I’m not the biggest romantic, but I do require a little more than that…like knowing my name, my favorite color, my family, and a ring would be a nice touch.
I was talking to my roommate the other day about changes that occur, as I’m in my first 6 months and she’s in her last 6 months here. We realized we sit a lot more. We were making hard boiled eggs and just sat and watched the cold water run out of the faucet. I was watching a snail crawl across our veranda window one afternoon. I sit in the schoolyard and watch the classrooms full of learning. There’s a lot of watching. I never really observed my world before, not unless forced to for my Nature Writing class. Even while studying biology I never really just observed the whole world, I would just observe the fish or plant in the lab. I don’t sit and watch because I’m bored, I do it because I can here, time moves differently here. No one thinks it’s weird if you aren’t always doing something.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster of 6 months as most of you know. There have been days where I just wanted to get on the next plane back home and get back to my life before all of this. There have been times I hated my job and felt helpless and scared. There have been thunderstorms that have made me think I was going to die in Africa thousands of miles away from my family. But what is life without the lows? Without those moments, I wouldn’t appreciate the fact that all of the mamas in the market call me amiga, my students get upset when I miss school or I’m sick, my roommate and I pile so much activity into a weekend in Maputo that when we get home we are exhausted but laughing, or I get to take an adventure through this beautiful country and visit a beach. I can’t even begin to imagine/comprehend/explain everything I’ve learned and grown to appreciate in just the past 6 months. It’s one of those things that literally renders me speechless.
I’m positive the next 2 years…no 21 months…will continue to be a rollercoaster and all I can do is try to not blink and take it all in.