November 28, 2009~
So, we got our site placement last week right before Thanksgiving dinner. It was all very exciting because Peace Corps actually let us have a Thanksgiving “dinner”, with turkey and everything! I say “dinner” but since it was Peace Corps, it was actually the day before Thanksgiving and “dinner” was really at 2 PM. We didn’t care though. We were just so happy that it happened at all. I was very impressed by all the different dishes people were able to cook here, even though there are so little to work with. We had all kinds of mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, gravy, all kinds of cookies and cakes, fried pies, and even a key lime pie. For my part, I made chocolate cake from scratch, and it was edible. Yay me! We had classes in the morning, and since we all knew that they would announce our site placement sometime that day, I don’t think anybody’s mind was on the lesson. It was a good thing they announced it right before we ate.
They gave us all envelopes and told us we had to open it all at the same time, and it was like Christmas day when all the kids opened their presents at once. Some kids were ecstatic about what they got, others were disappointed. It was the same for us. Some people were crazy about where they got placed and others not so much. I was pretty happy with my placement, which is in the central region of Mozambique, in the Sofala province, in the district of Buzi. I had really wanted a northern region since I knew that’s where the mountains were, so I was disappointed at first that Buzi is just a flat plain, just like Texas, and just as hot, too, I heard. However, there is a river that runs through the town, and it’s fairly small, which is great because then I can integrate into the community better. It’s fairly interesting to see how our group divides after we’ve learned out site placement. Northern people hung out with each other more, central with central, and south with south. Another good thing about being located central is that all the central people are pretty cool people. Haha… look at me, already taking sides.
Well, so I wrote the first 2 paragraphs a couple of weeks ago, and it is now December 9, 2009. We just had our swearing in ceremony yesterday in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, and I´m still here waiting on a flight to a supervisor´s conference, where I meet the heads of the school where I´m going to work at, tomorrow, and then off to site we go. I don´t think it´s really hit me, yet, that I´m actually a volunteer now, no longer a trainee. I don´t feel any different. The swearing in ceremony was actually pretty nice since it was held at one of the ambassador’s house, and all types of important people came to give us speeches. Half were in Portuguese, which I didn´t quite appreciate as much since I was so sleepy and kept on zoning out due to lack of mastery of the language, but it was nice nonetheless. The entire ceremony only took about an hour and a half. People made speeches, 2 of our own made thank-you speeches, they called our names, and then we swore to serve the Peace Corps. It was difficult to think that we´d worked so hard for the past 2 months just to have the opportunity to say those words, yet those words only took a couple of seconds to say. I can´t quite put my finger on it, but I felt kind of robbed. Damn. My English is starting to falter now that the Portuguese is kicking in that I can´t even think of the right words to express how I felt. It´s probably not that important, anyway. It was pretty sad to have to say good-bye to everyone afterwards, though, because it felt like this was going to be the last time I see a lot of them for awhile. Like I said, the first 3 months at site, I´m restricted to my hometown except for Christmas or New Years, I have to pick one in order to go visit others. When I said good-bye to my host family, it wasn’t as sad, because I was very excited to be on my own. I did have a long talk with my host mom before leaving though, so I did feel good about that.
It´s strange how they grew on me so much, especially my host mom. Not everything is as meets the eyes as you may think with these Mozambicans. Since my Portuguese improved a lot more since I´ve been here, I´ve been able to have more meaningful conversations with her, and I´ve learned a lot about her family. I truly felt that they cared for me a lot, and it made me happy when I was able to do nice things for them. For instance, I made them cake, which they loved. It´s nice to think that this time next year, if I’m not headed for America, I might go back and visit them.
So, something cool happened to us. One of the U.S. ambassadors came to see us the other day before we swore in. Oh my gosh, I felt so privileged! I mean, this dude had a say in how much money the US put into Mozambique every year and has control of billions of dollars. He meets with the President of Mozambique on a regular basis, and he is basically the State´s main means of communications with this country. During our session, he got a call from the General Manager of some big company that invested billions of dollars into Mozambique, and he declined it for us! I couldn´t help but feel special. He talked about how the US pours billions of dollars into this country every year. Yes, this was exactly what I had been wondering for a long time now, too! I mean, with our huge national deficit, all of our economic problems, and the insufficiencies in states´ budgets, ahem California, I couldn´t understand why we invest about 5 billion (don´t quote me on this but I think that´s what he said) every year in another country. That includes economic investments, not just purely selfless giving away of money, but we do devote millions of dollars into PEPFAR, which is the emergency aids funds that backs tons of anti-AIDS campaigns here. Couldn´t we use this money to help stimulate our own economy and fix our own budget problems? Well, the way the ambassador put it, we are actually being proactive. Poor countries tended to become war-torn countries, which is a breeding ground for terrorism, and it would cost way more to send countermeasures in later than it costs to help the country build its infrastructure now. In addition, he also said that there are quite a few untapped resources in Mozambique and if we could help them develop economically, it would strengthen our economy, as well. Besides, Mozambique is the first African nation to have survived a civil war and is a prime example for other African nations that democracy does work, so it´s in our best interest to promote this nation, to encourage the principles of freedom and liberty to other African nations. Anyway, that´s probably pretty boring to read, so I won´t go on any more about that, but I only wanted to express my feelings at that time. As I was sitting there listening to him speak, I felt validated somehow, like I´m part of this movement to spread freedom and democracy throughout the world. What I´m doing is important, and I´m important enough for this man that works for the White House to come and speak to me about my work. He has tons of things to do all day long and important people to meet, yet he took out time from his work to speak to us, to me! Score! That was such a winning moment! Not to mention that guy was an awesome speaker and was so delightfully entertaining.
Now for pictures! I uploaded wrong and the more recent one is at the top and the one from long ago is at the bottom. sorry!
After hiking over 10 miles to the top of the Limpopo Mountain only to be turned back by 2 armed guards with AK´s 20 feet from the top. Grrh!
All the people teaching biology from our group at the Halloween party.
The only asians in this year´s group of 67.
My mae, host mom, and pai, host dad.
All of us fitting into the chapa!
People in my language group and our favorite professor, Candido Macaringue!
Me and my host mom. She´s so cute!
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