Spring Forward

I started this blog with the best intentions of actually posting on it. That hasn't really happened all that much. I chose to blame it on the fact that back in November my computer decided to start acting like Marvin the manic-depressive robot (meaning, it's doesn't really work properly, except when it decides it wants to, sometimes, for about twenty to thirty minutes), because typing on a computer where you can't see what you are writing isn't much fun. Didn't seem like much of an issue when I first got to site (settling in is not that thrilling of an affair), but things have been picking up in the past couple months, so I'm going to try to post a bit more frequently.

For starters, what have I been up to the past several weeks?

April started off with final exams and a LOT of grading – two weeks that were the definition of hectic. To balance out the absurdity of finals in Mozambique, we luckily had a few distractions. First off, we had our first visitor from out of province in 4 months – my friend Andrea from training, who made it all the way up from Manica province – and April 7^th is Mozambican Woman's Days, so off we all went in our capulanas to party with the professoras from our school, Kankhomba.

After finals and grading (which is the absolutely the worst), off I went to Nampula for a week and a half of Peace Corps conferences. Two days of travel (first by chapa and then by train – which is the best drive through ever), landed six Mozambican women, my fellow PCV Jamie, and me in Monapo for a REDES training of trainers conference (REDES is a Peace Corps project that focuses on empowering young girls through a small-group environment). We spent the weekend in Monapo talking about how to effectively communicate with the young girls, practicing the sort of sessions we will be giving in our groups, and fafoca-ing (gossiping) with our Mozambican counterparts. After three days of girl time, my fellow Moz 19-ers and I headed back to Nampula City for our Reconnect conference – a week of running water, fancy food, and endless sessions about our successes, challenges, teaching and integration methods. It was great to see other PCVs for the first time in months, exchange horror stories and amusing anecdotes, and speak nothing but English for a few days. Also, there was a pool. We're pretty easy to please after four months at site. During the conference, all of us had limited patience for the sessions, but between all the sharing, there were a few good ideas that came out.

So, off I went back to Lichinga, ready for the new trimester and trying all sorts of new things in the classroom. But, we're in Mozambique. I didn't actually get to teach until two weeks after the trimester started – after being informed that I have four student teachers for the first half of the trimester. After a bit of confusion about what exactly we were all supposed to do, they started teaching this past week and will continue teaching until the end of their semester in mid-June. Leaving me with an absurd amount of free time.

This weirded me out at first – I was just ready to really give teaching another go when I suddenly learned that I won't be teaching until the end of the trimester. Uff da! What's a PCV to do without a primary project? Focus on secondary projects!

I'm finally starting to get my REDES group started – we had our first official meeting yesterday. Only four girls attended, but they all seem interested and want to do something involving theater. Since acting isn't my strong suit, I'm going to try to get my hands on some Portuguese-language movies – as inspiration.

I've also started talking with a couple ORGs based in Niassa who do conservation work – the Niassa Carnivore Project, which works on improving human/carnivore interactions in the game reserve in northern Niassa, and World Wildlife Fund, who are working up at Lake Malawi establishing a reserve. I'm still unsure of what I might do with WWF, but it's looking like I'll work with the NCP teaching income-generating activities to groups in the reserve – specifically how to make peanut butter to women! Yummy!

Jade and I are also starting up a sort of 'science study hall' for the students at our school where we'll talk about different topics in science, help kids study for their classes, watch documentaries (mostly because I want to), and do experiments!

And I'm in the planning stages of an English club for the Professors at our school. It's typical for volunteers to have English clubs – either with students or in the community – but enough of the PCV English teachers have mentioned how few of their colleagues speak English all that well, so I thought having a club for the professors to practice their English and be better equipped to teach their students would be a bit farther reaching. Also, they speak English already, which makes my job a lot easier!

So these are my focuses for the next few months, weaving teaching back in there once I don't have student teachers to do my work for me.

All of that gets to wait for a couple more weeks, though, as this coming weekend I'm off to Cape Town to meet up with my family! A whole week of family, food, wine, cheese, showers, and adventures in an English-speaking country! Sounds like heaven. The roads might even be paved!

Ate a minha volta!

Mato vs Rural

After being in Mozambique for a while, I’ve noticed a big difference between non-urban areas here and non-urban areas in the states.  Mostly in that, when we say ‘rural’ in the states, we mean there is absolutely nothing.  No people, no buildings, maybe a railroad, cow, or oil well, but really not much else.  Mozambique is a bit different.  When you’re in ‘rural’ Mozambique (aka, the mato), there are people, maybe a lower density than in urban areas, but definitely people and the obligatory mud/cement/grass huts and machambas (farms) scattered across the countryside.  But that’s it.  No stores, no running water, no electricity, maybe cell service or something that could be considered a road.

Rural areas in the two countries have opposite characteristics: in the states, rural means no people, but there’s still infrastructure (roads, electricity, phone lines) while in Mozambique there’s people without the infrastructure.

Not sure what this says about the route and rate of development of the two countries, though it probably says something, I just found it to be interesting. 

It also means that when you try to go hiking into the mato, you get a lot of confused looks from locals who then shout after you in ciyao (one of the local languages), the only word you can usual understand being ‘mazungo’ (meaning ‘white person!’).

Menagerie

A few weeks ago, Jade and I adopted two kittens (brothers, offspring of sitemate Laura's cat Coiso) and a puppy that our friend Dias found for us. Our house is now a menagerie. Which has its pluses and minuses.
One of the biggest perks of having three cute baby animals running around is that there are three cute baby animals running around who are always available for cuddles and entertainment (watching the kittens trying to jump/climb onto various objects can occupy an hour easily). One of the downsides is that, every morning between six and seven I get woken up by a chorus of hungry baby animals who are all much more wide-awake than I am...and pretty good at confusing me. This morning, for instance.
I tossed all the animals outside when I woke up because we were out of xima and I didn't want to deal with their screaming while I made more. Making breakfast took about ten minutes, when it was ready I let the babies back inside. However, only two of the three ran inside. I just figured the other one had wandered off to adventure, so I dutifully fed the other two. Once that was done I went looking for the third, because I could definitely hear him meowing, even if I couldn't see him. Pre-caffeine me was pretty confused. Then I realized that the meowing was coming from above my head. One of the kittens hand managed to climb up the grate over our back door and ended up in the gutter...but he couldn't figure out how to get down. After a few minutes of fussing, he was back on the ground, safe, and eating breakfast. Epah. Kittens.

The puppy we named Matope, which means 'mud' since he's about the same color. The kittens are Meningue and Gil.

The 'branco' connection

Today, we made a new friend. His name is Charles and he works up in the Niassa Reserve - the really interesting, really hard to get to place. He also is very friendly and very generous and is offering to bring us up for a week or two sometime. You know, just to chill, see some animals, and maybe go on a raft trip with him.
There was a lot of excitement and shouting with joy in our house after he left.

Oh, and he also knows the people working on he Niassa Carnivore Project...and said he'd introduce me.

Today was a good day.
Now hopefully I'll go to bed early and maybe get rid of this cold that's been bothering me for the past several days.

LAchinga

This past week was a bit difficult. Not really sure why, but I figured out part of it was that I really am living in LAchinga, meaning, really, really far away from everything not Niassa. It takes two days to get out of the province and the better part of a day to get to most places in the province. Starting to feel a bit isolated.
BUT, a perk of Lichinga (since it's the provincial capital) is that I have pretty excellent cell service and fairly reliable internet. So instead of moping about how difficult it is to visit other volunteers, I'm going to take advantage of those perks and try to just talk to other PCVs more. Also, post on this blog more, so I feel like less of an abstract off here in Mozambique to everyone back in the states.
My goal? One (small) post each day this week, to get me in the habit of writing on here a bit more. Might also try to figure out the whole 'comments' thing that people have mentioned to me.

And on a different note, epah! It's almost March! I've been in Mozambique for about five months already!

Oh, and the kittens and puppy say 'hi'
Discovered last night that xima with pumpkin mixed in is apparently passing pet food, so with half our quintal covered in abóbora plants, I don't think we have to worry too much about feeding the animals!

Starting the day with a cup of tea, some Internet time, and a lap full of kittens! Two to be exact.

Short-cutting our way to the market to buy fresh-made yogurt!